Accounting & Investing Info for San Antonio A & M
Thursday March 7 2013
As one student observed you would think Mike Dell would have counted the votes before trying to take the company public, apparently not.
Southeastern Asset the largest shareholder says the price is too low
that firm might try to buy Dell
and there are rumors HP is looking at the deal
What were you thinking Mike?
Tuesday March 5 2013
Paula Gold-Williams, CPA, CGMA
EVP, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer, CPS Energy
Please share this information, and the attached flyer, with the women students in your courses.
The meeting will be Monday, March 11 at the Doubletree Hotel San Antonio Airport, Loop 410 and MCCullough, 6-8PM and includes dinner and networking. We have created a special student price for this meeting of $21.00
Reservations can be made with Cheryl Peery at peery0745@sbcglobal.net by Friday, March 8.
Tuesday March 5 2013
HJere is a good site to learn more about the bond market, we are studying bonds in ACCT 3312
Tuesday March 5 2013
Martha Stewart had a deal selling MSO products at Macy's. Then she signed a deal to have JC Penny sell MSO stuff in its store within a store concept. Macy's CEO is not pleased. Martha takes the witness stand this afternoon. Itis an even bigger deal for MSO than as the article suggests, what is left of JCP.
Martha has a reputation from the get go of being an unreliable partner, that may be her downfall.
Tuesday March 5 2013
Ernst and Young agreed to pay $123 Million to settle charges of peddling abusive tax shelters. This comes several years after a similar plea deal with KPMG which paid $450 Millon , the largest fine ever.
EY does not know right from wrong? How do these guys retain credibility? Did anyone lose their license, did anyone get personally fined, did anyone go to jail? No, like Goldman Sachs and the TBTF banks, they just pay some money and go right back to work.
I wonder how Bernie Madoff and Jeff Skilling, both in jail, feel about this.
Monday March 3 2013
It looks like our prediction of stock market tops is gathering steam. After a Sixty Minutes Report on the Chinese Real Estate Bubble, the Shanghai dropped 3.7% with the Property Index down 10%. Stories of entire ghost cities, built to keep employment up while hoping for a recovery are apparently now front and center.
Gold is up six bucks on the news.
Weekend March 2 2013
Socionomics is the predictive social science which holds that internally generated mood determines social action. Environmental Uncertainty is a Branch of management strategy that deals with attempting to discern the future. Social mood at this time is increasingly negative, while positive mood has propelled business start ups and a higher stock market.
Andrew Weissman's two year delayed restaurant, The Luxury opens today. The Luxury is built from shipping containers. It is located next to the San Antonio Museum of Art. Two years ago would have
caught an increasing wave of positive social mood. As it is, Andrews i opening much closer to what is liable to be a top in mood, and financially positive markets. Our other blog, The Market Perspective lists technical reasons supporting the idea of a forth coming top. Here are some socionomic reasons derived from how people are spending their evenings-popular television shows.
The Following details in flashback the efforts of a weary detective played by Kevin Bacon, to stop a prisoner form carrying out murders and mayhem on an innocent public. Each week one or more people are murdered for no particular reason. Often the bad guys are assisted by The followers who have infiltrated the police or other forces which should be protecting the innocent. This move to random violence for no particular reason raises the stakes at least one level above the Sopranos who at least had a reason to kill.
Nashville is perhaps the most upbeat offering. Yep this one has it all, a successful female country singer
dukes it out with rivals on stage but cannot keep the home front together. Her plitician husband wants a divorce and the career is always on hit away from crisis.
Scandal is an American political thriller, translation, night time soap opera. The Republican President has a thing for thing for his political adviser, oh did I mention the President is a white guy and the adviser is a black gal. After recovering from an assassination attempt, the President decides to divorce his nine month pregnant wife and take up housekeeping with the girl friend. His Chief of Staff of course is horrified. There are of course plenty of other corrupt politicians in various subplots.
Here is the official description of The Walking Dead the most watched drama in basic cable history, returns for an exhilarating new season on Sun., Oct. 14 at 9/8c. In this uncertain world, Rick Grimes
(Andrew Lincoln) and his band of survivors must not only fight the dead, but also face a whole new fear: the living. A 16 episode season, the series Entertainment Weekly called the "greatest thriller ever produced for television' will air in two parts, with the first eight hours kicking off October 14 and returning February 2013 with the final eight episodes. – Walking Dead is in its third season.
HBO's SundayNight offering, folloiwng the successful Soprano series, the Godfather next door in New Jersey, is True Blood, the Sookie Stackhouse Series when Vampires go public.
And tonight we have Red Widow ! Okay so her Dad is in the Russian Mafia and her husband exports Mrijuana or whatever, she has kept her distance. At least until the mob kills her husband in front of her child. Now she must do the bidding of the mob to save the lives of her children. This is another Sunday night offering.
And then there is Breaking Bad the heartwarming story of a high school teacher who starts meth lab. The show has been acclaimed and has millions of ollowers.
Now, here is the socionomic take on this. Sunday night is the one night most folks are home and watch television. In the bull market of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the lead off show was The Wonderful World of Disney. Ed Sullivan followed with the variety show that featured the first American exposure to the Beatles no less. When GE wanted to promote its new color television sets, it produced the lavish Bonanaza, at 8 PM Sunday evening. In that day it was a social thing to be invited to someone's home that had one of the expensive $500 in that day, to watch the show.
Today we have The Walking Dead, True Blood,and Red Widow. People spend their time engaged in activities that reflect their social mood. This says a lot about the dark side of the mood which has gripped the public since the current era of stagnation began in March, 2000. From Tinkerbelle to True Blood, to understand the enviroment, one has to get, In the Mood
Sat March 1 2013
I noticed that many ofyou enjoyed the films of Cantinflas. I just noticed that his biggest epic film ever, Around the World in 80 Days is on TCM tonight. Back then the movie industry wa still fearful that television would put them out of business. As a result ne wtechniques involving larger negatives and color process
were introduced to improve the viewing experience. Michael Todd, kone of Liz Taylor's many husbands, did this movie in what he called Todd AO, nothing modest about that eh. This was a big budget movie starring many of leads of that day. I see IMDB viewers only give it a 6.38, but for historic perspective on what audiences enjoyed in 1956, I would say a 9.0.
Friday March 1 2013
Last October 2012 we started a list of Who's the Worst. It was a list of various fraudsters that I came across in the news. One was Judge Abel Limas. Limas had been sentenced for dispensing favors for money in his court. Apparently the lawyers paying for favors were getting sentenced as well.
The list included 56 year old Ray Marchan. who up to then was a prominent Rio Grand Valley attorney. He took a cab from his home to the 100 foot high queen Isabella Causeway, and jumped to his death. He had received a 42 month sentence. he would have served it in a Federal Prison in Fort Worth, TX. I am no
expert on prisons but I suspect that would have been relatively safe and secure.
But apparently the revelation of who he had become was more than he could handle. We all have a self image. A fall from grace like this forces a hard look in the mirror. He might have re-invented himself in prison, ala Charles Colson who went on to found a prison ministry. But apparently this was not to be.
We are studying ethics in ACCT 5308. This is another sad story of choosing the Dark Side of the Force.
Friday March 1 2013
What a disaster. Since taking over Ron Johnson has tried to re make giant retailer JC Penny all at once rather than trying new experiments in a few stores. it has not worked. The stock has lost over $3 Billion in market cap and sales have fallen. This is a good example from managerial accounting that one nees to proceed Toyota like in small steps, try new ideas in a test market.
Professor Elam 