• Professor Elam

    Weekend Jan 24, 216

    There are interviews with me  posted on the socionomics website  

    regarding application of socionomics.

    Each weekend I have a longer post on themarketperspective.com site on social mood. Here is the one from this week.

    Amid falling world markets, check out the Terror Expo in San Antonio

    Here is a practical application of socionomics, someone saw the interest in horror and organized a large event in celebration of frightful fun. This occurs as the rest of the world suffers real fright from lynchings in Mexico to beheadings in Libya.

    Even Duck Dynasty is split with Phil for Cruz and Willie for Trump

    An armed group is occupying a wildlife refuge in Oregon, grazing contract torn up-the revolution in the USA gets underway, more evidence of the New Civil War we have written about

    Carol is a film nominated for six Academy Awards is based on 1952's The Price of Salt about two women hiding their affair – Hollywood loves and glorifies the gay life style

    in a male dominated 1950s  world, Kate Blanchette touring with the film in Japan

    Smithsonian criticized for displaying Cosby Art Collection, hey it's about the art not Bill!

    More lynchings in Mexico last year than any other time in the last quarter century, 98% of murders in Mexico are unsolved

    Debt talks in Puerto Rico fail, default fears rise, $163 M in payments already defaulted, so it's official a US Territory defaults

    Pop Trends Price Culture

  • Professor Elam

  • Professor Elam

    Friday January 22, 2016

    I am speaking at the Social Mood Conference in April in Atlanta.

    I will be hosting a breakfast seminar on Getting the Wod Out on Socionomics.

    And here is an article featured on the Socionomist Site.   

    In the article I examine one day's Wall Street Journal and explain what is happening from a socionomic view point.

     

  • Professor Elam

    Thursday Jan 21 2016

     

    Just too cool

     

  • Professor Elam

    Monday Jan 18, 2016

    The new Showtime Series Billions   

    features a battle of wills between a billionaire Hedge Fund Manager and the US Atty General for the Southern district of New York.

    Click the link for the factual background and you can watch the premier episode. I did and wondered if all the sophisticated talk about trading would

    put off the average viewer. But I believe our students can learn form this program particularly if they follow up and investigate what the characters are discussing. For example,

    what is a block trade?

    In the first show an attorney from the SEC wants the Atty General to prosecute and insider trading case. But the Atty General has had like 81 straight successful prosecutions. He gets to pick and choose the cases he pursues. So unless it is just a slam dunk can't miss, he will not prosecute. I saw this as a Bankruptcy Trustee. One might get the impression watching most tv and movies that

    all these Federal employees are ready to jump into action at the slightest suggestion of trouble. It is just the opposite, it is CYA time all the time and unless they are assured of success nothing happens. Recall Coleen Rowley's comments about no one at the FBI connecting the dots of student at flight schools only wanting to learn to take off in a plane….

    Sunday Nights on showtime at 9 PM CST

  • Professor Elam

    Weekend Jan 17 2016

    I loved the first one , this looks like fun as well, coming in March

     

  • Professor Elam

    Weekend January 17, 2016

    From a social mood perspective, a tv show or movie needs to match the mood of the public, that is why the public pays to see the show.

    House of Lies 

    begins its fifth season, Here is  description direct from the official site.

    In the board rooms, barrooms and bedrooms of the power elite, corruption is business as usual and everyone's out for themselves first. Nothing is sacred in this scathing, irreverent satire of corporate America today. Outrageous, subversive and wildly funny,

    The show began a year after the bull market resumed following the Financial Collapse of 2008-09. And so corruption and an anything goes attitude mirrored the corruption in stunts like Jon Corzine's MF Global which collapsed in 2011.  MF Global was the first ever brokerage collapse in which investors could not obtain their money. Corzine never was charged.

    Now Houses of Lies will be filming in Cuba a first for  a tv series. Indeed that is appropriate as the House of Castro benefits from a reversal of US Policy.

    The next financial meltdown has already begun. It will be interesting to see of the show can survive what is sure to another backlash against a second Wall Street meltdown.

    As the Dow approached new highs last year, it must have seemed perfectly logical to build on the success of House of Lies with yes, Billions

    Here is the official plot outline

    Emmy and Golden Globe winners Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis star in a complex drama about power politics in the world of New York high finance.

    Well who will need Showtime when such a drama will be playing out every day on CNBC and Fox Business?

    I am not kidding, check out this worry list from Peak Prosperity

    Oil in the $20’s (!!)
    Copper under $2
    Baltic Dry Shipping Index at the lowest ever at 383 and down ~50% in the past year.
    Wal-Mart closing 269 stores, 154 in the US.
    Business inventories to sales at new cycle highs
    U.S. freight volume falls for first time in almost three years
    US retail sales fall 0.1% in December
    Empire State index weakens to recession lows.
    South African rand hits new all-time lows in 2016
    Brazil’s Real Falls Sharply Against Dollar
    Brazil Unemployment Rate Rises to 9%
    Canadian Dollar Hits 13 Year Low Against US Dollar
    U.S. Energy Junk Bond Spreads At Record Width
    Nigeria’s Currency Plummets On Open Market
    Mexico’s Peso Hits New All-Time Low
    Chinese Stocks Enter Bear Market (again)
    European Stocks Enter Bear Market

    Again it will be interesting to see if this series can endure while the real thing is playing out on Wall Street and in everyone's 401K.

     

     

  • Professor Elam

    Wed Jan 13 2016

     Check out the record setting drone display by Intel

    this is amazing, it would be interesting to see another you tube on all the prep necessary to make this happen. 

  • Professor Elam

    Monday January 11, 2016

    I am excited to announce the launch of Internal Auditor magazine’s scholarship program. Six US$1,000, essay-based scholarships are available throughout 2016 for undergraduate and graduate students around the world. The most informative and thought-provoking essay for each scholarship, as judged by The IIA's Publications Advisory Committee, will be published on InternalAuditor.org, along with reference and backlinks to the university the winning student currently attends.

    I ask you share this opportunity with your students by posting these scholarships on your university website and scholarship board. Please reference the scholarship rules and eligibility requirements for specific eligibility information for the scholarship opportunities.

    Please email me at scholarship@theiia.org with any questions you may have regarding the program.

    I look forward to reading your students’ responses and highlighting their achievements!

    Regards,

    Anne Millage
    Editorial Director and Editor in Chief, Internal Auditor Magazine
    The Institute of Internal Auditors

    https://iaonline.theiia.org/scholarships?spMailingID=12574869&spUserID=NjI1NDk4ODQ1NjES1&spJobID=663310795&spReportId=NjYzMzEwNzk1S0

    IIa Schgol

  • Professor Elam

    Weekend Dec 13, 2015

    The Blue Santa Luncheon is a joint project of the SA CPA Society and the SA Police Dept to distribute toys to kids that would otherwise go without for Christmas. The event is a huge success held at the Oak Hill CC each December. CPA firms buy tables for the event.  Students participate in the effort to gather toys. 

    I was a guest of Susan Hough, Marketing Manager for Price Waterhouse. Pec is re opening an office in San Antonio after an absence. The location is 200 Concord Plaza Suite 920.  Just to remind that is also the location of the Whataburger offices right off 281 and Jones   Maltsberger. 

    We spotted several friends of TAMUSA Accounting Dept like a member of our Advisory Committee, Josh Wagner. 

    Josh is a senior auditor with Padgett Stratemann.  

     

    DSCF8420Here is a shot of the entire Pwc group with Blue Santa himself.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Susan Hough was the SA Manager of Resource Global Professionals. Her success in marketing financial services to large firms  in SA brought her to the attention of Pwc. 

    Here is an up close and personal shot of Susan. Learn more about Susan in our Sept 2013 interview with her. 

    I hope to update that interview with news of what she has planned to market Pwc. We should be posting that when school resumes in January, 2016.