Accounting & Investing Info for San Antonio A & M
Tuesday Sept 27 2016
If you plan to attend the SA CPA Career Night Activties at Norris Conference Center this Friday, 5 30 – 9 00
Be sure to let Amanda Talaat know, they need a head count.
Tuesday Sept 27, 2016
Looks lke Malpaso is headed for antother big payday.
Brett Stephens reflects on why the movie is doing so well.
Yep, Clint Eastwood has another winner. The estimated budget is $60 M and the gross is already closing in on $100 M in just the short release time. 
We have been discussing the ethics of WFC management or perhaps the lack thereof. Eastwood celebrates a genuine hero who does the right thing.
After landing in the water he was last off the plane and last off the ferry who picked all up when it docked.
Tuesday Sept 27, 2016
Jennifer Dirks comments on her experience as a new student member of San Antonio Institute of Internal Auditors
I wanted to take a minute out of my schedule to briefly write about my experience at the Institute of Internal Auditors’ San Antonio Chapter meeting last week.
I was not sure what to expect when I registered for the Linguistic Lie Detection seminar, but it was definitely worth attending. The speaker, Nejolla Korris, was knowledgeable and engaging. The real-life examples she used from politics, business, and crime investigations were very relevant to the topics being discussed. I have 4 years internal audit experience, and can truly say that many of the things discussed would be very useful in the profession and wish I had known about them sooner.
In addition, I was truly impressed with the professionalism of the group as a whole. Everyone was incredibly helpful and more than willing to answer any questions I had about the profession. I had a misconception from my years in internal auditing (which ended up being more of an external auditing and project management job) that all auditors had to travel a lot and work long hours, and had subsequently stayed away from pursuing jobs in this area. After visiting with many members of the San Antonio Chapter, I found that there are many avenues to pursue in internal auditing that do not require excessive travel and that a work-life balance is attainable. I am thankful that Professor Elam took the time to encourage us attend the event. I think it is a good way to see what we are learning in class being put into practice as well as a great opportunity to network with professionals in the San Antonio area.
Tuesday March 24, 2015
Jeff Cooper served in the Marine Corps in WW II and Korea. He founded the Gunsite Training Academy which is still doing a lively business today.
Of interest to us in becoming better students is Jeff's creation of a Color Code Awareness System. See the first link for a detailed explanation.
Jeff makes the point that most people wander around in what he calls Condition White, unaware of what is going on around them and not taking the interest to observe it.
He escalates the level of awareness from White to Yellow Orange Red. He is addressing the concept of personal danger, and by the way we see a lot of that reported in the news every day.
Here is a practical application of what Jeff means about your personal safety. How often do you see someone wandering across the parking lot talking on a cell phone, oblivious to what is around them. This is how car jackings take place. You are at your most vulnerable when you have the key and open the door of the car, that is the moment a thief is most liable to attack taking the car and perhaps yourself in the process. Staying off the phone, examining the area, walking with a friend, looking inside the car before opening the door, all these simple things could prevent a disaster.
We can however use the same idea in analyzing just how ready and engaged you are as a student, particularly all of you who tell me you intend to take the CPA exam.
I posted a letter from a Baylor student about her preparation for the CPA exam. Clearly she is in condition red, alert and aware and prepared.
What condition are you operating in? Just this past weekend I got multiple e mails from students who just could not imagine why they got kicked out of an on line exam. An examination revealed they simply started too late and the deadline kicked in.
Jeff made these comments on the confusion the government added to the situation by issuing colors based on the situation rather than the mindset.
Considering the principles of personal defense, we have long since come up with the color code. This has met with surprising success in debriefings throughout the world. The color code, as we preach it, runs white, yellow, orange, and red, and is a means of setting one’s mind into the proper condition when exercising lethal violence, and is not as easy as I had thought at first.
There is a problem in that some students insist upon confusing the appropriate color with the amount of danger evident in the situation. As I have long taught, you are not in any color state because of the specific amount of danger you may be in, but rather in a mental state which enables you to take a difficult psychological step. Now, however, the government has gone into this and is handing out color codes nationwide based upon the apparent nature of a peril. It has always been difficult to teach the Gunsite color code, and now it is more so.
We cannot say that the government’s ideas about colors are wrong, but that they are different from what we have long taught here. The problem is this: your combat mind-set is not dictated by the amount of danger to which you are exposed at the time. Your combat mind-set is properly dictated by the state of mind you think appropriate to the situation. You may be in deadly danger at all times, regardless of what the Defense Department tells you. The color code which influences you does depend upon the willingness you have to jump a psychological barrier against taking irrevocable action. That decision is less hard to make since the jihadis have already made it.
I added the bold id for emphasis. Frankly most students are in condition white in class, they have
not read the book
failed to work the problems
and therefore cannot possibly follow the discussion in class
As Jeff says your mind set is dictated by the state of mind you think appropriate to the situation, which is to say paying maximum attention in class brings maximum results
Preparation, Participation, Practice = Results
Hmm, I like that.
And that is what Jeff means by Condition White. Plan to upgrade your level of awareness.
Weekend Sept 25, 2016
Monday August 29, 2011
Note this is a repeat of a post from a year ago, just as relevant now.
One might wonder just how so many people can look at, the oil spill in the Gulf, unemployment in Michigan, health care, etc, and reach such different conclusions. The answer is in this hundreds year old fable of the six blind men and the elephant. Notably it appears in multiple religions and languages.
now, couple this point of view story with Dale Carnegie's observation that every person thinks he or she is the very center of the universe. Indeed, for thousands of years everyone assumed the sun revolved around the earth. Even when it was proved otherwise, the Catholic Church waited about four centuries to admit Copernicus was right. So, don't expect those that are convinced of their views that they should change them, even within your lifetime!
Behold the Elephant
It was six men of Hindustan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant (Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
John Godfrey Saxe, 1816-1887
We re in a period of prolonged economic stagnation. This is the inevitable result of the 1982-2000 period of boom. This bear market will root out failed strategies and require new perspective if one is to survive it intact. Another feature of such a period is the idea of exclusion. Other ideas and indeed peoples will be excluded rather than included. Already there are calls to nationalize British Petroleum (a third world idea of expropriating assets of foreign company) and Israel is under fire even more than usual. To appreciate and endure what is happening, we return to the parable of the six blind men of India who attempt to describe an elephant.
Saxe’s poem quoted above is the most famous Western version but there are Jain, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim versions as well. Here is the Jain (an Indian religion of the ninth century) version.
The blind man who feels a leg says the elephant is like a pillar; the one who feels the tail says the elephant is like a rope; the one who feels the trunk says the elephant is like a tree branch; the one who feels the ear says the elephant is like a hand fan; the one who feels the belly says the elephant is like a wall; and the one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a solid pipe.
The point of the story of course is that everyone has a totally different perspective of the same facts. Working in groups of faculty, administration, and students has brought this home to me the last few years. Indeed, there are many elephants on the same campus.
Now, to complete one’s understanding of what is happening, appreciate that the power of Point of View prevents each blind person (or the one sitting next to you in a meeting) from seeing the perspective of anyone else in the group. Dale Carnegie put his finger on this one, each person believes that he or she is the center of their own universe. And so each argues that the ‘elephant’ is a tusk or a pillar but certainly not a rope.
This difficulty takes many forms. Peace in the Middle East to Syria means an absence of Israel. A ‘clean environment’ may mean some fantasy escape from the necessity of carbon based fuels. Access to health care may actually mean considerable re distribution of wealth. Just his week Oliver Stone was extolling the virtue of Hugo Chavez to Larry King; a Congressman expressed amazement at this view.
Saxe sums all this up as follows, and remember this observation has floated around for hundreds of years, nothing is going to change human nature.
Moral:
So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!
Weekend Sept 25, 2016
The Governor was directing a Buffalo Billion Plan to re-vitalize Buffalo, NY. Those indicted are charged with demanding payments to obtain valuable contracts
to build projects in the area.
But then there is plenty of corruption to go around in NY State. Former NY Senate Speaker Sheldon Silver sentenced to 12 yeas in prison.
Another dozen state lawmakers have plead guilty.
Mr. Silver was convicted on Nov. 30 of charges that included honest services fraud, money laundering and extortion. Upon his conviction, he forfeited his Assembly seat. Two weeks later, Dean G. Skelos, who as majority leader had been Mr. Silver’s Republican counterpart in the State Senate, was also convicted of corruption.
In the WSJ, columnist Holman Jenkins asks, If Not Trump Who Will Cure the Rot?
Jenkins notes the rise in shooting and murder in both Chicago and New York. He notes the indictments and convictions in New York cited above.
Not every problem can be solved with a modest policy tweak. Sometimes a wrecking ball is needed. Pollsters, in a moment of insight, have lately taken to describing the Trump voter as a compos mentis risktaker open to a high-risk, high-reward gamble.
This seems to get it about right. What kind of president would Mr. Trump make? We have no idea and there may be only one way to find out. But, whatever the case, America has deep problems of bureaucratic corruption, sterility and incompetence that increasingly argue for a wrecking ball.
What do you think?
3,000 shooting so far in 2016….
Weekend Sept 24, 2016
.Odessa is so boring it celebrates a garbage truck.
but for good reason, here is an example of
globalization – more manufacturing in Mexico
importing a new business to Texas
A New Supply Chain for manufactured goods
A Cost Managerial lower priced solution to a problem
Weekend Sept 24, 2016
Robert Mundheim will advise WFC on clawback provisions.
He was an adviser to J P Morgan Chase during the London whale trading loss scandal.
CEO Stumpf says any clawbacks are the responsibility of the Board Human Resource Committee.
The plot thickens….
Weekend Sept 24, 2016
Some Democrats are asking about Jack Lew's involvement at Citigroup.
Citi required a bailout and Jack Lew worked there during the 2008 blowout.WFC did not require a bail out.But now the CEO of WFC is being told to resign over
unrequested accounts while Citi lost billions. So if you are a high ranking Democrat picked to be Secy of Treasury, no problem. But if not, well, the rules apply to you.
Weekend Sept 24, 2016
We study impairment charges in Chapter 11 of the Spiceland text. A firm takes an impairment charge when the future undiscounted cash flow is less than the carrying value of the asset.
But it is unusual when a movie studio does this for an unreleased movie!
After spending $125 M to make the movie, Paramount writes off near all of it.
Whoops…..
Professor Elam 