Professor Elam

Accounting & Investing Info for San Antonio A & M

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  • Professor Elam

    NIck Cage Owes the IRS

    How did Nick Cage end up with a $6 M IRS Bill?  He is suing his manager. 

    But, even stranger to me, why does he have to borrow the money from Johnny Depp?

    The Star of National Treasure cannot borrow  a mere $6 M against future earnings?

    A few years back Willie Nelson made headlines owing about $1.6 M which he did pay back. Seems there is a long history of stars with bad management. 

    I suspect the large CPA firms all have a personal management section, why not hire them?

    Were I in Nick's position, I would not have one person but a reliable CPA firm receiving all my tax correspondence, and filing the returns. 

    In fact I was just thinking about that so I looked up an example, click here for Alexander Grant Wealth Service. When you get there click on the service matrix. Now that is about what I would have in mind were in the the league Nick Cage is in. It also makes the point that today's CPA firms are involved in a a very broad range of service activities. 

  • Professor Elam

    A & M San Antonio Library Grand Opening

    P1010008
    Say cheese as everyone on hand poses for our official photographer Brandon. 

    A & M San Antonio officially opened its library this past Wednesday. 

    The Texas A&M University-San Antonio Library, located in Room 102 of the Administration Building, is currently open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.  Additional hours will be added in the future.

    The Library has 10 computers with USB drives, a copier/printer, and a collection of 600 books available for checkout.  The Library Director, Stefanie Wittenbach, is available to assist students and faculty with the use of library resources.

    That's Stefanie in the mauve outfit in the middle between Crescenio, Student Govt. President and Carolyn Green in gray our provost. As always Maria Ferrier at right leads the way…

  • Professor Elam

    GM Wrestles with, yes, Accounting

    Fritz Henderson will report on GM monday, the first reports since emerging from bankruptcy. It seems accounting for in bankruptcy and out of bankruptcy made for some overtime for the acct and legal staff. 

    GM is losing less money, welcome to the new normal….

  • Professor Elam

    Texas Dominates Best Business CIties

    The Milken Institute has generated its list of the top US cities to create jobs, guess what, four Texas cities are in the top ten.  Frankly I think all these surveys are biased to Austin and Silicon Valley simply because so many well heeled tech types and venture capital types inhabit those watering holes. I was not able to access the rest of the list but would assume San Antonio is there, after all we are between the Valley at Number 4 and Austin at Number 1. I have heard two presentations from Rack Space here in in SA and were I starting something, I would much prefer San Antonio with its far lower costs than Austin and its traffic friendly two loops. Throw in the balance of tourism, medical, and the I 35 NAFTA thruway along with lower real estate costs and this is a winner. 

    By the way, does anyone remember who Mike Milken is or was, gee this is a great country for re inventing one's self…

    1. Austin-Round Rock, TX
    2. Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX 
    3. Salt Lake City, UT 
    4. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX 
    5. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX 
    6. Durham, NC 
    7. Olympia, WA 
    8. Huntsville, AL 
    9. Lafayette, LA 
    10. Raleigh-Cary, NC

  • Professor Elam

    Retailers Gear Up, More Black Fridays? Accountants Gauge Results…

    Retailers are hoping to avoid the lower sales of last season.

    So called Black Fridays, sparked by the traditional big sales day after Thanksgiving, are planned for multiple Fridays.

    As you read, notice another thing about this article, notice that is is accounting frims, DeLoitte and BDO that are tracking sales, establishing retail sales index, and such. Interesting, accounting is an ever larger domain, and more in the business community will look to accounting firms for business advice.

  • Professor Elam

    Chrysler?

    Like Elizabeth Taylor, Kenny Rogers, and Diana Ross, chrysler is gearing up for a makeover.

    Here is my reaction to what is surely the last hurrah for Walter Chrysler's brand, or what is left of it.  

    Europeans tend to buy and feel nationalistic. Hence tariffs keep cars not made locally at higher expense in Europe to those that are made there. French cars sell in France, Italian makes of Fiat and Alfa sell in Italy, but where is the French or Italian car in the US, where is the Toyota in France?  VW is the emerging competitor to Toyota with its innovative diesel tech. As Jerry Flint observed in Forbes, American are big people, the FIAT 500 original got its name from the original engine displacement, 500 ccs or 30 cubic inches. Today's 500 is larger than that but it like the dealer says, two years could be a long long time. Chrysler GM are on govt life support and long lead times don't dove tail with two year election cycles, better have the ducks lined up by November 2012.

    And exactly when did Chrysler stand for quality, Chrysler stood for great big engines and bullet proof transmissions in the sixties. Consumer Reports was right in the 1970s about the Dart and its slant six, read the wiki articles on the slant six, that's the ticket, the slant six in a Dodge Dart sized car with rear drive and an update on the real torqueflite tranny, not the sorry excuse in the minivan that fails again and again, 

    make the suppliers partners, not whipping boys for ever lower prices and the resulting who cares appearance that garners

    Mix

    an all aluminum 225 cid (3.7 L) slant six with perhaps DOHC, hmm enlist Maerati, they aren't selling anything now anyway and in the FIAT family for engineering  if you have to,

    a great five speed manual with a Hurst shifter

    A Dodge Dart size, read BMW 3 series affordable imitation, sedan

    Or bring back the great 2.2 turbo four, Consumer Reports found it even more reliable than the non turbo

    Chrysler needs to go retro, at least there is some foundation of success there..

    Gee where is Don Garlits and Linda Vaughn when you need them?

    Note to younger readers, Don 'Big Daddy'  Garlits was known the Swamp Rat (Florida roots) in a very successful drag race career using chrysler engines. Linda Vaughn was Miss Hurst Golden Shifter, a pop  culture icon that promoted the Hurst brand

  • Professor Elam

    Nat Gas Making Another Low?

    Picture 3

    Despite overbought conditions in nearly
    everything, one sector does seem to march to a different drummer. After what
    should have been the low, prices bounced in short covering and should now make
    a higher low. MACD is falling and money flow has lessened at the bottom. I
    would not expect money flow to go as negative this time as bottom fishers are
    now alert to the nat gas play. But this bears watching. Where should buying
    begin for the longer haul? One would think a ladder of prices below 5.00 and
    lower would be a good start. 

    Learning objective to students.  ONe must buy at lows and avoid jumping in with the crowd at highs. Nat gas is making a series of lows, look for a higher low to confirm a bottom. Nat gas is the environmentally friendly energy, Boone Pickens has pointed this out endlessly on tv.  But tv is now full of stocks and gold making new highs, you hear nothing about nat gas making a new low, AS the saying goes, no one rings a bell at the bottom. 

  • Professor Elam

    Breadth in the Rally Deteriorates

    Picture 2

    The purple line is the SPX stock index. At the July low, the breadth shown by the % of stocks above their 50 day MA bottomed at the same time as the actual index. Then the breadth dramatically expanded, lots of stocks moving up in the black line, which pulled up the overall index. In Oct the opposite thing happened The breadth dropped to 35%, but the overall index stayed up, no doubt due to institutions buying the heavier weighted stocks in the index. A lack of overall participation in the market, fewer and fewer stocks up, is a sign of distribution and potential topping action. 

  • Professor Elam

    Gore’s Green Ethics

    Al Gore is pushing green energy, and his companies are receiving massive subsidies as a result.

    A fellow Tennessean questioned him about that.

    The CEO of GE is a big Obama supporter, guess what, GE is supporting Cash for Clothes Washers!

    Your tax dollars at work for a beleagured trying to get off the ground small outfit like GE….

    Read the article and sound off!

  • Professor Elam

    Shades of 1933

    The Crash of 1929 and the resulting bank collapses brought the Investment Company Acts of 1933 and 1934. Investment companies were in such disrepute they had to be renamed and so they became

    mutual funds. 

    Now Chris Dodd wants to change banking regulation in light of the bank meltdowns. Of course the Senate had passed an act repealing Glass Steagall. That was another depression era reg that prohibited banks from dealing in the investment markets. In the 1920s loaning money on securities on 10% margin brought the banks down. That act was repealed in 1999 by none other than our own Senator Gramm, the result was Lehman, CITI, Bear Stearns, WFC all getting into the mortgage business and we know how that turned out. 

    Look for lots of lobbying to make sure this does not pass…