Tuesday July 31 2012
Now credit default swaps are rising for a host of tech stocks from HPQ to Dell to , well read this.
We will be studying derivatives and their implications this fall.
Professor Elam
Accounting & Investing Info for San Antonio A & M
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Professor Elam
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Professor Elam
Monday July 30, 2012
Tom Frost, CEO Emeritus of Frost Bank writes on Too Big to Fail TBTF banks.
Tom's Uncle Joe was right, take care of the deposits and the returns come.
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Professor Elam
Monday July 30 2012
Fed Governor Raskin spoke out demanding a definition of the Volcker Rule. The problem is that now banks are taking outsized bets, as they were in 2007, pocketing the gains when they win but expecting a bailout when they lose. And they are doing it with your and my FDIC deposits.
Maria Bartiromo gets completely exasperated with Barney Frank's inability to explain the volcker rule or why the rules are still not in place.
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Professor Elam
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Professor Elam
Friday July 27 2012
Learn Bonds is a site that will help accounting students understand the ins and outs of the bond market.
As the author says buying a bond is not like buying a stock. The site lists differen t kinds of bonds and explains the duration and risk. Take A look.
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Professor Elam
Wednesday July 25, 2012
Radio Shack was the worst performing stock today. RSH tumbled to 2.60. This would be a good company to look at, along with Kodak EK, about a thirty year decline.
RSH used to sell stereo gear, a staple of college life. I grant that music has moved to the digital format but I don't think there is a single amp or est of speakers in their store now. Making a phone store out of a Shack was a mistake, ATT, Verizone already have those.
As the analyst says there is no unique go to feature and Best Buy has more and better gear.
Circuit City and many other electronic retailers have folded, and with amazon on line and gas at 3.50, the competition gets fierce.
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Professor Elam
Wednesday July 25, 2012
The University of Illinois College of Law has been censured adn fined for intentionally publishing false invomrtaino to amke its student body look more academically accomplished than it was.
We have consistently reported the incidents reflecting that the wheels are literally coming off the Law School Bandwagon. This is really the same sort of thing as 'earnings management' at corporations, nudging numbers to make the number analysts expect. We recently noted that even as the Whale loss at JP Morgan ballooned from $2 B to $5B, JPM still made their quarterly earnings expectation, imagine that.
Law schools are just now having to report whether grads actually get lawyer jobs or just some job.
This is another puzzle piece to the coming College Debt Meltdown. U of I Administrators were willing to do whatever it took to keep the illusion of success going to continue to attract enough applicants to cover their ever escalating costs. When money trumps ethics we have a problem.
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Professor Elam
Tuesday July 24 2012
The US now collects 15% of GDP as Federal Receipts. But the USA Federal Govt spends 23% of the GDP.
So nothing less than a 50% tax increase would solve the problem. That is not going to happen.
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Professor Elam
Monday July 23 2012
Here is a link to a recent academic study in which 169 CFOs admitted to manipulating earnings.
And so America's accountants become America's fiction writers.
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Professor Elam
Monday July 23, 2012
We study Return on Investment in accounting. Apple gets paid for its products faster than it has to pay to make them. So Apple has lots of income and an increasing Return on Assets.
This is a good explanation of managing a balance sheet.
Professor Elam 