Professor Elam

Accounting & Investing Info for San Antonio A & M

recent posts

about

  • Professor Elam

    Friday Oct 4 2013 SA CPA Career Night

    Posted Tuesday Sept 24 2013

    TAMUSA students, please contact Amanda to let her know if you are coming, see information below!

    Also, just a quick reminder to your students who are interested in the first-year-free membership, we are only offering that on the evening of Friday, October 4, at our Accounting Careers Workshop.  I hope we will have some students from TAMU-SA  

    Thanks again, and let me know how many speakers and which night.

     

    Amanda Talaat

    Assistant Executive Director

    San Antonio CPA Society

    (210)828-2722

    amanda@sacpasociety.com

  • Professor Elam

    Five Years Out

    Monday Sept 23 2013

    Ruben Medrano submits this great idea for the blog.  Hmm, is there a way to make this a seminar topic for campus?

     

    The September 16-22 Bloomberg Businessweek offers a great article on the 2008 financial crisis that takes an exceptional view by providing a documentary movie which started streaming on Netflix just last week. It is called (as is the article) Hank: Five Years From the Brink. The story and movie are based on the happenings of former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.

    At first I thought it would be just another of the many movies portraying the 2008 financial crisis, just as the movie Too Big To Fail (2011) viewed at one of our Saturday movies. This however is not only based on Mr. Paulson but he himself is the focal point answering questions and providing most of the narration. The movie can be found by searching Netflix by its title.

    http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-09/hank-five-years-from-the-brink/

    Ruben Medrano, Sr.

     

     

     

  • Professor Elam

    Luxury Items on the Rise

    Monday Sept 23 2013

    CPA partner income back to $386,000 This article details how cpa firms had their best year since the financial meltdown. But notice a lot of 'growth' is coming from mergers.  Hm is 'hunger for rapid growth the same thing as Gordon Gecko greed?  Notice this is among firms that gross over several million dollars. 

    By the way to gross $5 M, a firm has to bill

    $416,666 per month

    or about $100,000 per week

    which is $20,000 per day. 

    On page B1  of today's WSJ, Horse Prices jump to Pre Recession Levels. One fellow in the horse trading business notes that his business is everyone elses's hobby. In teh Keeneland Aucton a staggering 3,908 yearlings were sold over 12 days. 18 horses fetched more than $1 million. This is of corse in line with recent sales of collectible autos. We reported on the $30 M Mercedes race car.

    On page B8 a super bowl seat for the next game may sell for $2600. A 30 seat luxury suite may go for $500,000. We noted the rise in Consumer Discretionary ETF this weekend. Here is considerably more evidence of discretionary items marching to new peak highs. 

    This supports our view of a coming top in November for stock prices. 

  • Professor Elam

    Righting the Ship at Nustar

    Monday Sept 23 2013

    Last week we ran an article describing how Sears, Radio Shack, and JC Penny had lost their way. 

    Today we spotlight Nustar Eenergy.  Nustar got off into asphalt nd crude oil refining. The asphalt market plunged on the financial crisis and the small refinery, just down the street from TAMUSA, has been sold. 

    Now Nustar gets back to the pipeline and storage business. This article notes that CEO Anastasio will be cutting lots of General and Administrative Expenses. 

    NS is paying a $438 dividend but only earned $.09 per share. How long can that last?  An 11.5% dividend when the 30 year Treasury is paying 3.8% is rather out of line. Such high payouts are a sign of potential dividend cuts. 

    Screen Shot 2013-09-23 at 6.09.25 AM

    Managerial accounting needs to be forward looking. All these companies are good examples of that. 

  • Professor Elam

    Internal Audit Uncovers Whale of an Error, Morgan pays $920 M Fine

    Friday Sept 20 2013

    Yesterday Paul Petrucci of Petco discussed how internal audits aim to reduce firm risk. 

    Here is a great case in point but a bit late for J P Morgan. Morgan is paying a $920 Million fine to the SEC. You will recall that Morgan had a London trader engaging in transactions so large and one sided he was dubbed The Whale. Turns out only one person was monitoring the Whale's trades. And that person often did not independently check the value of the account. Rather he took the trader's word for it.An internal audit revealed the truth about what was going on, but a bit late to keep a $ 6 Billion loss from occurring. 

    Amazingly Morgan made their predicted earnings per share despite the huge loss. Gee that's amazing don't you think!

    Recall that Paul said it was important to be getting out in front of risk rather than looking over your shoulder at what had happened. Here is a great example of the need to do just that. 

  • Professor Elam

    Paul Petrucci Addresses TAMUSA Students on Internal Audit

    Thursday Sept 19, 2013

    Paul Petrucci, internal auditor for Petco, addressed TAMUSA Students this afternoon. Paul had a clever way of introducing his topic. He distributed scraps of paper with a number from  1-17 and a phrase on each
    IMG_0423 scrap. He then asked number one to comment on the phrase. Taken together all the phrases described what is required of an internal auditor. And it got the audience into participation mode. We had a nice turnout for the talk, see photo at right of one half of the room.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    IMG_0427The talk was well received and some of the students joined us on the patio afterward. Paul got specific questions on his experiences, certifications, and did he like internal audit better than managing a store or the district. Paul's answer by the way was that he affected 10-15 stores as a District Manager, but as an internal auditor he affects 1,000!

     

    At left is a good shot of Paul on the patio answering questions. 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Finally the students kept on with the interchange. and hey, isn't that what college is all about?
    IMG_0429

    Paul is a Vice President of San Antonio Institute of Internal Auditors, thanks for coming to our campus Paul!

  • Professor Elam

    Reminder Paul Petrucci at 4 45 Today

    thursday Sept 19 2013

    Paul Petrucci with Petco will speak in internal auditing at 4 45 PM in Room 139 Brooks City Base today. 

    This should be an informative talk on internal audit as a career field. Plan on joining us. 

     

     

  • Professor Elam

    Soar Like an Eagle – Amazing Point of View

     

    A trainer tied a go pro video cam to a bald eagle, things look a lot better from up there!

  • Professor Elam

    Toastmasters Tuesday and Wednesday Brooks City Base

    Monday Sept 16 2013

    Screen Shot 2013-09-16 at 9.11.38 PM

  • Professor Elam

    Duck Commander CEO Willie Robertson Addresses Odessa Crowd

    Monday Sept 16  2013

    Duck Commander CEO WIllie Robertson addressed some 5,000 at Odessa's mega Crossroads Church. Duck Dynasty is the most watched cable television show ever. And the family's  good natured sense of humor
    Screen Shot 2013-09-16 at 9.52.18 AM coupled with a family focus and faith has struck a chord with millions of Americans. The duckmen and women are  in demand all across America. 

    While many people talk about thinking outside the box, here is a rare example of someone at A & E network really doing just that. With rappers spouting all sorts of four letter expletives, there was apparently a ready market for shall we say a Return to Mayberry, the sort of values on espoused on the original Andy Griffith show. Note that show continued to run even after Andy left.