Accounting & Investing Info for San Antonio A & M
Thursday Sept 4 2014
Tesla will apparently pick Nevada for its battery factory.
This is logical as the article states, the close location to Fremont, the potential for solar energy of which there is plenty in NV, and the business friendly climate of NV versus CA.
I am still a bit skeptical that such a technical advance can happen in such a short time bu twe shall see.
Tuesday Sept 2 2014
Reviewing the WSJ today
Can the Big Board Be Saved – changes at the NYSE
China is no longer hands off on Hong Kong, will it lose its capitalist status
NO one in class knew who Mari Draghi is or why he was at Jackson Hole, WY, see page A6,dly it did not seem to bother anyone that no one knows who Mario is…..
Hong Kong again on page A 8
ON line learning at Stanford page A11
Tuesday Sept 2 2014
With zero investment experience, Eric Cantor lands $3.4 M salary for two years. He will be a Managing Director, Board Member, and big Time Hot Shot even though he has zero experience in the field.
Another firm buying potential influence and a high profile guy to talk to clients.
Swpt 1, 2014
I am going to write a couple fo book reviews for publication this fall. In preparing I located this handy guide on How to Write a Book Review.
Recall my admonition that you are building your library. I was not able to print this out but one could also start a collection as I did of
Helpful Websites with the URLs displayed.
By the way have you bought a Kindle Paperwhite yet, it is my favorite gizmo, perhaps the best ever single purpose computer evern invented.
Labor Day Weekend 2014
MOre AMericans than ever are renouncing their US citizenship.
And so the government is raising the exit taxes charged to leave the country.
Meanwhile we have a rush if Central American Immigrants with no money and no job prospects. So the ones with money and jobs are leaving and those wthout same are arriving. This is not a sound buisness plan.
The US should make the US a tax haven to attract business, not chase it off. Instead we have the highest corporate tax rate in the worldat 35%.
I would lower the corporate rate to zero,on the basis that corporations do not pay taxes, their customers adn shareholders do. Put that money in the pockets of the owners and customers.
Of course Congress is not taht smart, okay, how about granting a one time tax holiday on any foreign profits brought bck in the next six months? The US woudl experience a two trillion dollar inflow or something like that which would be invested in the economy. That would get things going,But I don't think the President or Congress is that smart either.
oh well
Labor Day Weekend
August 31, 2014
I want to use this as an example of one of the uses of managerial accounting. Accountants are in demand as advisors. This business model described below solves many of the problems of a traditional restaurant. Here in San Antonio the San Francisco Steakhouse has gone to a meeting only format. That like Miss Bobo's solves many of the traditional restaurant problems. We will discuss this in class this week.
Lunch at Miss Mary Bobo’s
Lynchburg, TN and Fredericksburg, TX are destination cities. They are the envy of every small town Chamber of Commerce in America. With less than ten thousand population, many tens of thousands of tourists flock to each city each year. Indeed the small towns of Central Texas are one of the top five tourist destinations in the State. Lynchburg is the home of iconic Jack Daniels Distillery.
Our front burner example is Miss Mary Bobo’s Boarding House in Lynchburg, TN. One can google the name to view a plethora of positive comments and images.
There really was a Miss Mary Bobo. The former Salmon Hotel became her Boarding House in 1908. She died in 1983 but remained involved in the Boarding House until her death just shy of age 102 in 1983. The House itself is classic southern style, two storied with a front porch and central hallway.
The History of the Mary Bobo Boarding House.
Today the house is divided into ‘dining rooms’ with a round table and chairs featuring a large Lazy Susan in the center of the table. Each table seats nine to ten with the House accommodating 65 maximum for each meal.
Dining is by reservation only. Each meal has a hostess whose job is to describe the history of the Boarding House and, yes, turn the lazy Susan so each diner can partake of the various offerings. Each hostess answers questions, maintains decorum, and without anyone noticing, moves things along so that the room is cleared in time for the next group.
As a college accounting professor I started adding up the advantages of this venue as the ideal restaurant set-up. Here goes.
My point is that this business plan conquers many of the problems that plague the typical start-up restaurant. The menu is simple and once the right ambiance is established, things, well, get cookin’.
Now I grant that last step is vital. But find the right older home, construct a story about town pioneers gathering in similar establishments in the 1920s, recruit a few friendly Hostesses, and you should be on your way.
Destination locations are built by visionary entrepreneurs. Here is the vision, any applicants?
Labor Day Weekend
Charles Hugh Smith poses an interesting question. As fewer people can afford to attend pro games, does it make sense to advertise on tv to those that have little disposable income, ie who are not at the game.
This is a question San Antonio should be asking as teh City flirts with the Oakland Raiders.
Sunday August 31 2014
Mack Brown the former UT football coach peaked several seasons ago. He had even taken to blaming the team for its failures which brought on several subsequent routs, the oppostition reads the paper apparently.
Here is Granted they played perenial under dog North Texas State but the socre was 38 – 7 Click to read the story. The only reason UNT scored seven was that that UT dropped the ball, literally, in its own end zone. UNT nonly gained 90 yards in 60 plays.
Meanwhile UTSA gave University of Houston nothing to cheer about in UH's new stadium. The Roadrunners won 27-7.
UT's Coach Charlie Strong earns $5 Million. UTSA's Coach Larry Coker earns $450,000. And the victory over UH was a lot harder in my opinion that beating forver hapless UNT.
Strong kicked ten players off the UT Team since he took over this spring. Infractions include failing to go to class, failing class, or violence against women, two were suspended after being arrested. The rest of the team took notice.
Well here we have the same story. Winning coaches enforce discipline. The formula for success is totally known.
All three of my degrees are from UT Austin. Believe me it is a different culture. Thousands of students come from all over the world. Competitive pressure among the winners is high. But UT understands what it takes to win.
Meanwhile, with tens of thousands of students, UNT and UH wonder why it can't be that way for them. They slipped into Division 1A Conferences. But alas, they just don't have the winning formula. But then the did not have the formula in Division I B either.
Tx State won the Division II National Championship in 1984. They moved to Division 1 B and were never heard of again for twenty years.
My point is that it is necessary to understand the formula for success. Simply having money or a new stadium, won't get one to the winner's circle.
Notice that UTSA has apparently realized what it takes to have a successful program from the start. But then UTSA is part of the UT system.
Much is written about sports. The reason is that on paper the teams in whatever endeavor are well matched. But whether it be basketball, think University of Kentucky, football, think Alabama, or whatever, some teams are always contenders while others struggle.
San Antonio may be courting the Oakland Raiders to move here. Here is a report on arest records for NFL teams. NOw contrast that with our own SA Spurs, a model of deportment and
often in the winner's circle. They know the formula for success.
Sunday August 31, 2014
The formula for success is totally known
Training School run by Ross Perot for duPont Glore Forgan, 1972, I was there
I spent six months in the most expensive, extensive training school ever attempted in the brokerage industry. Ross Perot had taken control of an also ran national wire house, duPont Glore Forgan. He intended to show Wall Street how it should be done. One of the recurring comments was the quote above.
And indeed it is true. We will focus on that in our discussions this week. Let me briefly recount my own experiences and then move to some current examples of good to great. Yesterday I mentioned a competitive swimmer and a concert pianist, two different fields but each requires the same dedication for success.
I never played team or competitive sports. But in high school I had drifted into compettitive debate. Back then various high schools staged large speech tournaments with contests in debate, persuasive, extemperanous speaking. My first school, Kermit Tx, was too cheap to fund a program that would put us up over night at a motel. So we only made two trounaments a year, and had to shuttle back and forth at night an the next morning to one of them. That of course was totally inaedequate to attain any real porficiency. As a result I never did any better than 50% win two lose two in the prelims.
Then our family moved to Andrews, Tx. It was perhaps the best financed school district in the tstate. It paid the highest teacher salaries. The new high school had carpet in the classroom and an indoor swim pool. The debate team the year before had won the state championship in AAA.
The program featured separate classes for debate and the other speech categories, ie there wer two classes a day, I enrolled in both. It was clear in short order what it took to be a winner-dedication. OUt side the two classes I observed that everyone was spending a couple of hours a day reading up on the topic, that year a national right to work law. Excellence and nothing less was expected in our scrimmages in class against one another. I caught on fast, I will say that. And paired with a freshman, yes a ninth grader but a great one, he and I were the only team to win all four rounds at the first tourney of the season. I had moved from good to great. As seniors I don't think any team ever failed to mover from the four prelim rounds to the elimination rounds which sometimes ran to another four rounds. Either Andrews or Midland Lee won every debate tournament that season.
Okay so you are no doubt bored with my high school reminisces. Such is the curse of growing older. All one generation can do is provide examples to the next.
My point is that in six short weeks the Andrews coaach completely re made me as a contestant. Now I understood what it took to win.YOu can have the same experience. In my next post I examine the experience of UT Austin and UTSA football this weekend. I realize most females are turned off by athletic examples but this is a perfect example of what I am talking about.
Weekend Aug 30, 2014
What can we learn about the studyof accounting from Olympians? Quite a bit actually.
Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time with 22 total medals to his credit. In the 2012 
games he won four gold and two silver, making hims the most successful athlete for the third Olympics in a row.
In this highly competitive sport there are only about three swimmers in any one race who are genuinely in the game, The key to success was revealed in a Sixty Minutes interview with his coach.
The fellow from 60 Minutes asked about his time off, the coach replied he did not take time off. Well surely he did not swim say on his birthday.
Yes he did.
Well what about Christmas Day?
Yes he did.
Well what about New Year's and watching football with his buddies?
He swam that day too.
The coach sighed and said look if you want to do this
Get in the Water.
IN other words practice practice practice.
The concert pianist Vladimir Horowitz remarked
If I do not practice for a day I can tell the difference.
If two days go by the critics can tell the differnece.
After three days, the audience can tell.
Folks, if individuals at the literal top of their game have to rpactice every day, just how much do you think you need to practice accounting
Every Day?
Are you reviewing the power points and end of chapter questions and answers?
Get in the Water, metaphorically speaking.
Professor Elam 