Wed Nov 4, 2015
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Professor Elam
Accounting & Investing Info for San Antonio A & M
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Professor Elam
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Professor Elam
Wed Nov 4, 2015
Or as one of my friends used to say, it's blackest just before things go
Pitch Black.
The carmaker said Tuesday after the European market close that it found "unexplained inconsistencies" in carbon dioxide emissions in some vehicles. The company found the additional problem as it investigated revelations that up to 11 million of its vehicles had software that allowed them to reduce the amount of nitrogen oxide they emitted during tests.
The company has so far been unable halt the flow of negative surprises since the scandal first became known Sept. 18, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Volkswagen had installed software on 482,000 cars that enabled them to cheat on tests for nitrogen oxide. The software would reduce emissions when the car was placed on a test stand, and then allow higher emissions during normal driving.
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Professor Elam
Tuesday Nov 3, 2015
We study leasing in ACCT 3304. The downturn in farm commodity prices has farmers leasing rather than buying. One farmer notes that he cannot afford to buy, the used tractor prices are falling faster than he can pay off the note.
The further difficulty is that after paying half what they would in a purchase, the farmer can walk away from the deal. This puts more used tractors on the market further depressing the used prices and leading to a soft new tractor market.
Too much leasing means too many used tractors.
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Professor Elam
Monday Nov 2, 2015
A third of 18-34 year olds are living at home after graduating from college. Most find jobs but the first debt re payment is due in six months. So instead of renting an apartment, the money goes for the student loan.
This is not a sustainable trend….
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Professor Elam
Tuesday Oct 27, 2015
I have urged students to pick an accounting certification and begin working toward it ASAP. I notice that most fail to take the first step, which is registering to take an exam. Doing that and sending some money, is the difference between intent and commitment! So I am passing along Texas CPA Letter of Intent Day.
I received this from Bryan Morgan, Grad Student at UTSA.Good evening Professors,For those of you who may not know me, my name is Bryan Morgan and I am a graduate accounting student at The University of Texas at San Antonio. I am also the current chair of the San Antonio CPA Society's Student Auxiliary.
I wanted to reach out to all of you to share a wonderful opportunity for all of your students who are on the path to becoming CPAs.
The San Antonio CPA Society is host a Letter of Intent workshop on Friday, November 13th from 3-5pm at the CPA society Offices at 901 NE Loop 410, Ste. 420 San Antonio, TX 78209. The purpose of this workshop is to help students fill out and submit their letter of intent for the CPA exam as well as network with other future CPA candidates. We will have representatives from the TSBPA, Becker CPA Review and current CPA candidates on hand to help answer questions and clear up misconceptions about the application process.
And of course, submission of the Letter of Intent will make students eligible for a 5th year scholarship from the TSBPA worth $1,500 a semester towards completing the educational requirements for the CPA Exam.
The workshop is open to any to any student and students do not need ot be CPA society members to attend. While not a requirement to attend, we do ask that students RSVP to Amanda Talaat at amanda@sacpasociety.com with the subject "Letter of Intent Workshop"
Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Sincere regards,
Bryan Morgan Jr
Chair – Student Auxiliary
San Antonio CPA Society -
Professor Elam
Monday Oct 26, 2015
OIL-COMPANY SPENDING ON PROJECTS, SHARES OUTSTRIPS CASH FLOW
Cash flow is struggling to keep up with spending at oil companies even after all the cuts they have made, Sarah Kent and Justin Scheck report. Analysts expect the companies to show continuing shortfalls when they report earnings this week and, with the oil-price slump now 16 months old and continuing, the companies likely will take years to bring their spending under control unless prices rebound sharply.
Spending on new projects, share buybacks and dividends at four of the biggest oil companies–Royal Dutch Shell PLC, BP PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp.–outstripped cash flow by more than a combined $20 billion in the first half of this year.
“After the initial shock, denial, panic and capitulation, oil producers, service providers, and energy investors must view the future differently based on the lower-for-longer oil price scenario, or risk their own,” Oppenheimer & Co. said.
Energy production is only one of the U.S. industries that say they are facing a long-term slowdown in output, sales and jobs, Theo Francis and Kate Linebaugh report. The oil-price drop has gutted demand for drilling equipment and supplies, and energy sales are expected to drop by more than a third from a year earlier and profits are likely to plummet 65%, Thomson Reuters says, based on analysts’ estimates. Quarterly profits and revenue at big American companies are set to fall for the first time since the recession.
Amid the spending cuts, U.S. oil imports are rising again after a long decline, Nicole Friedman reports. Total crude imports rose for three straight months between April and July.
CHINESE PROPERTY DEVELOPER SNAPS UP TEXAS OIL FIELDS
The struggling crude market has made the price of North American oil assets attractive enough to entice Chinese companies, including some previously unrelated to the oil-and-gas industry, Brian Spegele reports. Over the weekend, a Chinese real-estate developer said it will buy oil properties in West Texas as part of an 8.3 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) deal to buy an investment company. The oil properties were being acquired from two U.S. companies, Plymouth Petroleum LLC and Tall City Exploration LLC. Plymouth Petroleum is owned by Boston-based ArcLight Capital Partners LLC, a private-equity firm, and Tall City is backed by another, Denham Capital Management LP.
Meanwhile, the Alberta Energy Regulator rescinded a suspension targeting 24 pipelines at Cnooc Ltd. subsidiary Nexen Energy ULC’s Long Lake oil-sands facility, imposed after a pipeline spill, Chester Dawson reports.
Separately, Volkswagen AG has suspended a larger number of engineers than previously acknowledged after a recommendation from the law firm conducting an internal investigation into the auto maker’s diesel-emissions cheating scandal, William Boston reports.
Diesel prices have taken a hit relative to gasoline since the second quarter due to inventory builds, Reuters writes.
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Professor Elam
Monday Oct 26, 2015
Learn more about COSO's 17 levels of control. We study internal control in accounting.The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations has issued its first update since 1992. Click the link to learn about it!
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Professor Elam
Weekend Oct 24, 2015
Perhaps the most successful prank of the 1900s was a Orson Welles broadcast of War of the Worlds.
The original ran for 58 minutes. The link here is a short version only 12 minutes long.
Radio is perhaps a much more imaginative medium than television which actually shows a picture. Instead radio is a theater of the mind in which the listener composes his or her own image of what is happening.
Read more about the broadcast here.
The broadcast reports an alleged Martian Invasion. The monsters easily dispatch army equipped with rifles, machine guns, artillery, and air power. Panic ensues and the public was not happy.
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Professor Elam
Thursday Oct 21, 2015
Four of our student attended the October meeting of San Antonio Institute of Internal Auditors.
Price Waterhouse is re opening their office in San Antonio. So PwC was the sponsor and a big data analyst from their Dallas office offered up the program. We saw lots of friends there from USAA, Aventine Hill, PwC, Resource Global, and others. Photos to follow. That's Melody, Jason, Amanda, and Daisy left to right.
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Professor Elam
Professor Elam 