Accounting & Investing Info for San Antonio A & M
Thursday October 18, 2012
One of our students is active in the San Antonio Ragtime Society. Check out a video of their activities.
Interestingly this group has the only annual Ragtime Festival in Texas. Their next event is this Saturday.
ext Open Mic October 20, 2012 2:00 pm at Steinway Piano Gallery 202 N.E. Loop 410, just inside loop 410 by the airport! Come play your latest rag for one of the most encouraging audiences you’ll ever find!
Thursday October 18, 2012
Google GOOG made over $9 a share, but they were expected to do better than that-$10.65 in fact. The restult was an immediate drop of $70 in the share price and the trading was halted!
This is why the topic of earnings per share and how it is computed are a serious issue in accounting.
Thursday Oct 18 2012
While the presidential candidates compete for votes, there's another heated rivalry occurring between online and offline retailers. E-retailers and brick-and-mortar stores are campaigning for consumer dollars by one-upping each other in offers, promotions and overall value. Read on for seven trends poised to dominate the headlines and the holiday season.
1. Showrooming
Showrooming may not be recognizable to consumers by name, but both online and offline retailers are intimately familiar with the term. It refers to the practice of shopping for an item in-store, only to return home and purchase the item online for a lower price. Consumers are increasingly turning to their mobile devices to shop online for a product while viewing it in-store. Best Buy is the most recognized victim of this trend as online electronics providers continue to eat away at their revenues.
2. Same-Day Shipping
Amazon and eBay revealed their plans earlier this year to experiment with same-day shipping offers, hoping to take even bigger bites out of brick-and-mortar revenues. Wal-Mart recently announced similar plans as they endeavor to bite back at online retailers' growing popularity. Though appealing, experts agree the high cost of this service coupled with it's limited availability will hinder the promotion's ability to compete with everyone's favorite deal: free shipping.
3. Free Shipping
Though free shipping is not a new trend, it continues to be a big factor in e-retail sales and strategies. In 2011, over 50 percent of online orders were cancelled due to lack of free shipping. In fact, the lowest shopping cart abandonment rate in 2011 occurred on Free Shipping Day, the popular online shopping holiday offering free shipping with delivery by Christmas Eve from thousands of retailers. This year's event is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 17.
4. Online Price Matching
To combat the showrooming phenomenon, Target plans to match prices with online competitors, including Amazon and Walmart.com, between Nov 1. and Dec. 16. This campaign is a bold move for the popular retailer, as most brick-and-mortar stores avoid price-matching with low-cost, big-volume online retailers. Best Buy announced similar price-matching plans for the holiday season, an aggressive move for the struggling retailer.
5. Layaway Fee Waiving
Over Labor Day this year — before anyone wanted to think about holiday shopping — Toys 'R Us announced its plan to waive layaway fees during the holiday season. Shortly thereafter, Kmart and Sears decided to waive their layaway fees, and Walmart returned to it's original $5 fee after customers complained about the company's plan to increase the fee to $15. Ultimately, layaway has seen a comeback in recent years as the recession forces consumers to seek alternative ways to afford holiday expenses.
6. Brand Collaborations
Designer collaborations with department stores have exploded over the past few years, as budget fashionistas clamour for low-price alternatives to their favorite threads. In addition to the much-anticipated partnership between Target and Neiman Marcus, Costco and Sam's Club are also welcoming new designers to their clothing departments in time for the holiday season. According to Business Insider, strong sales of clothing helped Costco increase third-quarter earnings by 21 percent this year.
7. Digital Gift Cards
Gift cards have topped holiday wish lists for five years in a row, according to the National Retail Federation. The purchase of plastic gift cards peaks in early December since they usually take up to five days to deliver. Dec. 12 was the magic day in 2011, but digital gift cards allow procrastinating shoppers a last-minute option. According to Internet Retailer, 26.7 percent of all digital gift card sales in December last year occurred between Dec. 21 and Dec. 24.
Feel free to share "Target Matches Online Prices & Other Holiday Shopping Trends" with your audience, giving proper attribution to the source.
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Andrea Woroch is a nationally-recognized consumer and money-saving expert who helps consumers live on less without radically changing their lifestyles. From smart spending tips to personal finance advice, Andrea transforms everyday consumers into savvy shoppers. She has been featured among top news outlets such as Good Morning America, NBC's Today, MSNBC, New York Times, Kiplinger Personal Finance, CNNMoney and many more. You can follow her on Twitter for daily savings advice and tips.
Thursday October 18 2012
October 21- Parktoberfest, Koehler Pavilion, 3:00 – 6:00 PM. Second annual Parktoberfest celebrates life in San Antonio at the turn of the last century. Free to the public, who will enjoy local microbrews, information about brewing beer, and entertainment reflecting German heritage and Ragtime era. Free!
Check this out at the Brackenridge Park Conservancy.
Thursday October 18 2012
Decades ago my high school friends and I went 'away' to college. I suppose that idea springs from the notion that eternal truth, knowledge, and the wisdom of the ages must reside somewhere else. How could it be right here under our noses? At that point in time there was, and is, a great deal more information at UT Austin than in Odessa or Andrews, TX. And it was a rich experience complete with all the trappings of movie script like creation of what one might imagine that college, far far away as Shrek might say, would be.
But here we all are, a few minutes from home rather than many miles. While the majority of our students are juggling work and family responsibility, I think we could offer a richer University Experience. While Austin gets the limelight, San Antonio offers multiple rich museum experiences with teh Witte, McNay, and SA Museum of Art.
While Toledo, OH was the brunt of a satirical John Denver song, it features an impressive Monet exhibit this week. This French painter captured life in France of the 1880s in a series of portraits. Examining the works in this series, one is transformed back to that age, perhaps not really so different from our own.
My point is that the University Experience should be more than homework and class. San Antonio is rich with art, music, and lively theater groups. Just yesterday a student shared his well done web creation with me that features the San Antonio Ragtime Society.
Wed October 17 2012 Now Foxconn is having trouble assembling and supplying Apple with the iPhone 5. The result is that Apple stock is dropping as the expected 50 Million Sales in this quarter are not happening.
This is the same company that had to put bars on the windows to slow the number of suicides. One would think that would be a tip off of trouble ahead. At anyrate I suspect this is a wake upcall to spread the supply chain out to other places.
Wed Oct 11 2012
An electric car battery maker, the recipient of some $249 M in Federal Cash, filed for bankruptcy.
Along with Solyndra (price tag $500 M) this follows a similar pattern from the 1970s. Alternate energy requires lots of subsidies and has never lived up to its promise. Wind energy is in fact a 2,000 year old idea. The Romans switched from slave power on their ships to wind power but did so slowly. All the windmills that have been bulilt to generate power have required subsidies.
Tuesday October 16 2012 I am teaching two classes exclusively for accounting majors and two for non accounting majors.
Actually a course evaluation form at the end of the class really is not much help to the student. At that point the class is over. My thinking is that the student and instructor would both benefit much more from a mid semester roundtable discussion about what the students would prefer, or find more beneficial.
I have looked at suggested course evaluatkion forms and frankly they are lacking in specifics. I see questions like
the objectives of the class were met
the instructor responded quickly
the text was helpful or not.
I am thinking of much more specific information. Given that most students are often reluctant to speak up in class, what about this? We stop class about ten minutes early. Those that would like to participate in a round table discussion are welcome and encouraged to stay and do just that. I am sincerely interested in any and all constructive suggestions.
Topics might included the following.
Textbook – helpful or not, if you would like to examine competing books I cancertainly do that.
Are there other areas that you woould like included in the class that are in the book – questions and answers, multiple choice, case problems, etc
Electronic Homework – should all answers be provided? Do you prefer Wiley plus to Aplia to My ACcounting Lab, one or the other, why or why not?
Should all the answers be provided? To do this Ihve toremove all remaining homework and re assign it with new metrics but I am willing todo that?
Would you like an online quiz each week, graded but shows you how you are doing?
In class – what would you like to see added or dropped?
More class participation?
I will be posting this on BB under announcements as well.
Tuesday Oct 16 2012
Do you know Jim Rogers author of Investment Biker and Adventure Capitalist? Here he takes on Bernanke and the FED.
Go to Amazon.com and put in Jim Rogers to see the books he has written. He is of cousrse right that the money printing will end badly,We will eventually get hyper inflation from all this, in the meantime lots of real estate speculation around the world fueld by cheap money.
Tuesday Oct 16 2012
Easy Rider was made on a shoe stringt and brought Peter Fonda millions of bucks. He blew the money trying to make another one.
I have been reading Fat Drunk and Stupid,the story of making Animal House. That budget was $2.8 million, it wast shot in 32 days and it brought in $140 million. Donald Sutherland passed on the opportunity to take points, a percentage of gross, thereby passing up a $6 million payday.
Just wondering, today's downsized HD video and remote mikes with digital editing make this a lot easier than it used to be. Has anyone considered even a short movie onsome topic.
The best short video I have seen the last couple of years is The Confession with Kiefer Sutherland. If youcan find it on Hulu,efinitely worth a look for as Kiefer says its high production values, and a great story. Serious stuff not for your eight year old.
Professor Elam 
