Who’s In Charge?   A criticism of tax policy, among many, is that it is ever changing. This means that investors never really know the rules. And the result is often a lack of investment.    The same thing is happening in Congress right now. Vice President Joe Biden declared that the pendulum had swung…

Many smaller regional banks, like Frost for example,  have said no to receiving money from the Federal Government.  As one banker says in the article, he is not interested in the Federal Government telling him who should get a loan. No kidding, we saw what happened when FNM decided everyone needed a house.  Notably the…

Markets 101   Following financial markets may or may not have been your hobby when oil was $145. Now that oil is $40 and stocks are down 50%, perhaps this has past time has gained in appeal. So what does one need to know in the big picture of things. Perhaps the most important concept…

An alert student sen me this link on credit default swaps. Interestingly the proposed legislation may come from an Agriculture committee.  Your author ofthe  intermediate text notes that these are popular in the markets.  We will proceed on our derivative education at a measured pace this semester.  Please read this article.

Duncanville Tx has isued ten times as many red light tickets as it has population. Swell, more govt harassment in the name of revenue.  Remind me to avoid Duncanville the next time I am in town.

 Now that he's not going to be the HHS Secretary, does he get his $140,000 back? How must Daschle feel? He paid those back taxes for nothing! The Ethics Class agreed that he would not have paid and perhaps not discovered if he had not been up for nomination, just wondering…..where is Joe Biden to…

Every few days I catch up on Jerry Flint's thinking about the auto industry. http://www.forbes.com/flint will take you to his archive Jerry Flint has covered the industry since the 1950s and I always enjoy his historic perspective. For my money the auto industry is extremely important because of the marginal contribution to the economy.  Click…

Another dose of common sense from John Stossel! Stossel points out that everyone does not believe that massive government spending is the answer. I see that our City is trying to get money from the Feds for some River Project, have they no shame?

Pat Buchanan does not hesitate to rail against both parties. Tom Sowell in his column today takes a dim view of the bailout package.  It is impossible to post an article about this that does not express political opinion. But even the Congressional Budget Office is pointing out that the spending will take years to happen.…

The Deloitte Management Report can be accessed by clicking on this hyperlink. I believe all accounting majors should read this report. We are discussing this in ethics class but it is applicable to all classes including audit and intermed II. External audits result in a management report designed to improve internal procedure. Notably this report is…