Accounting & Investing Info for San Antonio A & M
Tuesday August 14, 2012
Goodwill represents money paid over and above the fair value of assets purchased. But recently some compnanies seem to have more goodwill than just plain ordinary assets.
This article examines goodwill accumulated by various companies and suggests where the next big write offs might occur. Companies are required to perform an impairment test to see if goodwill is really still there. We study this process in intermediate accounting.
Monday Aug 13 2012
Here is an interesting list of classics you can download for free.
Monday August 13,2012
CA lawmakers now remark that the state budget has lost credibility due to recently uncovered
errors. I frankly cannot imagine why any thing about the state of CA would have any credibility to anyone but the fantasy continues on the West Coast. The Parks Dept. has apparently been hiding some funds in a cookie jar sort of account.
But this points up the importance of good internal auditing. We recommend students investigate certifications in IIA.
Weekend August 12, 2012
This student comment was important enough that I decided to do another post rather than a comment. See two posts back about the Permian Basin. Here is the student comment.
At left is the skyline of Midland, a bit different from the Mentone storefront in the first picture.
Virtually every picture in the article in my opinion was chosen to impart a negative image of the area, no wonder no one will consider it even for a trip. thanks for the insighful comment from our student!
Weekend August 12 2012
There is a trend towards allowing students to answer questions as a group. The idea is to allow students to answer without the stigma of being the only one to participate particularly if the answer is wrong.
I spent a couple of hours with the folks at
Their system allows a student to log on to the internet with a phone, iPad, laptop, and answer pre loaded questions.. At this point regrettably, they do not have agreements with textbook companies. So the teacher cannot readily download test bank questions, a real bummer from my standpoint. But once loaded the questions can be used the next semester.
Now my question and I hope that I will get some response, what would you pay to participate in such a system? Here is how it works.
You come to class. Various questions with multiple choice answers appear on the screen in class. You use your phone, iPad, laptop to answer. Then both you and I know how we are respectively doing. And it keeps the entire class engaged.
At this point viaresponse wants $19.95 for one class to do this. I responded that was too high, they claim it is the cost of one delivered deluxe pizza. Well maybe, if they threw in a deluxe pizza coupon with it. My guess is that $9.95 for one class for one semester is about right.
Your take? Check out the website above before you answer.
Weekend August 12 2012
TAMUSA has iniatited a series of trips to foreign countries. So to get in the spirit of things, way back in February, 2011 I proposed a trip to the Permian Basin. This would be a foreign country by definition in that
no one from San Antonio has been there
the notion of the Flat Earth Society soliders on, anyone venturing past Abilene or San Angelo is not likely to come back
but seriously the main idea was to acquaint students with the idea that the oil field economy has legs
Well the lead article in the San Antonio Express News today is
You Heard if Here First, ahem……
Friday August 10, 2012
Gary Shilling makes the case that too many college students emerge without any marketable skills. He notes taht a soft degree might have had some value ten or twenty years ago but most of those jobs are being replaced by computers or, he does not say but, simply outsourcing that job by the hour to otherwise unemployed grads. Law firms now routinely outsource legal work by the hour, there are more lawyers and law positions.
this certainly reflects my view and any student in my classes will tell you about my emphasis on obtaining a certification.
Henry Blodgett asks good question, where do we get to the point that employers ask hard questions.
Shilling answers that more employers will be using qualification exams. Bingo, just what I have been telling students, this is the role that a certification delivered by an organization outside the university is the new norm.
Thursday August 9, 2012
The Rush to Chapter Nine
The Rush to file Chapter Nine Bankruptcy has begun. This is surely David Axlerod’s worst nightmare. The failed policies of poorly run (by Democrats) cities will be on display for all to see. Let’s take a look at how today is an echo of the trend begun in the Northeast in the 1970s.
Younger readers may not recall former New York City Mayor John Lindsay. Lindsay won two successive three way races to continue as Mayor. He famously termed it ‘the second toughest job in America’ in reference to the Presidency of the USA being the toughest. At the time New York was beset by strikes called by various municipal unions. It began with subway workers and continued with sanitation workers as the garbage piled up. As Margaret Thatcher observed, the trouble with socialism is that one eventually runs out of other people’s money, which is exactly what happened. Subsequent Mayor Abe Beame inherited a worsening situation in 1973. But the money did run out. At first then President Gerald Ford refused calls for a Federal Bailout. But the relented, money was sent to the City, and despite missing some bond payments, bankruptcy was avoided. In response to the crisis, the existing Chapter Nine Statute for Municipalities was amended bringing the same protection for municipalities as other bankruptcy provisions.
Vallejo, CA took bankruptcy in 2008 and has been watched as a bell weather for other troubled municipalities. The trouble is that excessive spending and promises of truly golden retirement plans to usually unionized employees have proven impossible to finance. Now the rush to file has accelerated.
In what is surely a ‘gimme a break ironic record’ Harrisburg, PA (capitol of the state) had its bankruptcy filing dismissed by Judge Mary France. A disastrous incinerator project pushed Harrisburg to the brink, all the while expecting a State bailout.
Montgomery County Alabama filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in history in November, 2011. It is some $4 billion in debt due to a disastrous sewer system expansion to meet Federal Clean Water Standards.
Until this past month, no city with over 200,000 population has taken bankruptcy. That barrier of fiscal embarrassment has now been lifted. Stockton, CA (population 300,000) filed June 28. Mammoth Lakes, CA filed July 3. Now the southern city of San Bernardino, CA (210,000 population) has joined the March to Broke.
The vote in Wisconsin where Governor Robb Walker asked municipal unions to pay more for their benefits was crucial. The unions overplayed their hand, attempting an expensive recall election for the Governor. President Barrack Obama was a now show during the recall election, and Walker won 55-45 percent.
This has given more Municipal officials confidence to take on otherwise non-negotiable union demands. In Chicago, former Obama advisor Rahm Emanuel now calls Washington, DC ‘dysfunctional.’ At the same time he ‘can’t wait for Washington to fix things in Chicago.’
Brett Stephens at the Wall Street Journal reports that some 48% of American households now receive some kind of support from Washington, DC. That is also about the percent of Americans that pay no Federal Income Tax. There is a linkage there. If Obama and Party can nudge that percent of entitlements to a majority voting block of 51%, they will have a permanent electoral lock on any office promising to continue the Entitlement Bandwagon.
So the question is, will the minority pulling this Entitlement Wagon go along with a Majority of American riding in the Wagon? That was not the case in Wisconsin. And the failure of such schemes will likely be on display between now and the November elections as more cities join the Bankruptcy Party.
The common denominator here is that most of those in trouble have been Democrat run. The question remains whether the Romney Campaign can frame that as an issue. Governor Rick Perry’s message along the same lines, Texas Works, got lost along the way. Will Romney emerge as a Reagan pointing out Expansive Government is the problem Or as many Republicans fear, will he run as another Ford, Dole, Bush, McCain? All were Democrat Lights in the eyes of the Tea Party. This suspicion gave fuel to the succession of Cain, Perry, and Santorum during the Primary.
What’s the message Mitt, Reagan or Dole, the moment is yours to seize.
Weekend August 4, 2012
How about 1,000 franchises in 18 months? Read how Five Guys uses a basic platform to allow customers to create their own burger. All burgers are prepared to go, regardless. The real draw is the real french fries cooked in peanut oil rather than the sort of artificial creation one gets at MCD. 
As we learn in managerial accounting, one wants to build multiple models from the same basic framework whether we are selling cars or burgers. I used the example of The Permian Basin Hamburger Company in class this summer, the five guys refined the idea a bit further.
Wed August 1, 2012
Art Liknkletter used to have a highly popular tv show. Part of the show was interviewing young school kids and having them say, well the darndest thinks. In memory of those moments. ….
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STUDENT: Class started before I got here. ——————————————————–
(Now, this child suits me to a "T".)_____________________________________ |
Professor Elam 
I believe TAMUSA courses that view the economic situations in the Permian Basin and Eagle Shale Ford would be excellent initiatives. Not only would students experience a sense of the traditional oilfield services and the mechanisms that allow these businesses to make money, but it could also display available entreprenuerial opportunities. For instance, the article claims there is only one store for groceries and gas in the Permian Basin. Could there be a demand for food trucks with a different variety of food in this area? Could TAMUSA students be inspired to calculate break-even point or understand ROI for a new business in this area?
This is understandable. The article creates a completely unrealilstic picture of the Permian Basin. Rather rthan featuring the tall buildings of the downtown Midland skyline or Claydesta Plaza or the new $30 M airport served by SW Airlines, it focuses on the beat down and out communities like surrounding Odessa Midland.
The reporter must have been determined to put the worst possible face on it as they trekked to Mentone, Texas, the County Seat of Loving County, over one hundred miles west of Odessa, and as it says 130 miles west of Midland. Loving County is the
least populated county in the entire USA. The reason is that there is literally no pottable which means water you can drink, water in the county. So there is one store which is pictured in Mentone, TX. Midland Odessa finally got Metropolitan Statistical Area MSA status in the 1990s. A city has to have 100,000 population to be an MSA. Neither Midland nor Odessa had that. But together the area had 250,000. The result was a huge influx of chain stores that had previously ignored the area.
To the right is the relatively new airport terminal, with four gates, served by SW Air and other major carriers.