Professor Elam

Accounting & Investing Info for San Antonio A & M

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  • Professor Elam

    Toyota to Cut Employees

    Here is a blog post noting events in Japan. 

    As he says in perspective a cut back in employees here will be minor for Toyota. But stop and think,
    if one had predicted disaster for the toyota plant here just two years ago, one would have been hooted out of town. But that is what happened, in its first major strategy mistake, Toyota bet on big pickups and gasoline prices soared and the economy collapsed, they should have stuck to their knitting and left that market to GM and Ford and Ddoge, after all they have most of the formerly small pickup now a large pickup itself market.  

    Predicting social outcomes is not physics, trends can change radically as the author of The Black Swan points out. 

  • Professor Elam

    It’s All About Skill Sets

    John Stossel cuts thru a lot of clutter on 20/20. In this article he skewers the idea that any college degree is worth a lot of money to the graduate, clearly this is simply not true. When I was teaching at UNT Dallas we interviewed multiple counselors with masters degree who were only making $30,000 a year, about what a shift supervisor with a high school degree  would expect at a retail outlet. 

    You have made the right decision to pursue an accounting degree and a certification, if indeed you do just that. But this is not a matter of passively thinking 

    college admission plus attendance equals degree equals success

    You must be able to demonstrate real understanding on the job, not to mention on an examination should you take on. I am not here to rag on other majors, everyone can major in whatever they want but the outcomes are clearly known. There is a huge demand for promising accountants. There is not and never will be a huge demand for also rans ( in plumbing, accounting, art history or anything else)  except in market bubbles of excess demand that rarely last. 

    Again I urge you to commit and arrange your life now gearing it to a successful outcome in your studies. 

    What does that mean?

    Get up earlier in the morning. Review the learning objectives or the outline in Gleim or Schaum's for your class. Write down those objectives in your own handwriting. Work the example prolbems  in each chapter until you can work the entire problem successfully on  a blank sheet of paper. google for articles on what we are studying like tax stimulation or mark to market, what are movers and shakers saying. 

    Start getting ready for the day. Turn on CNBC, listen to what they say, forgo fluff like Good Morning America or ESPN. 

    Subscribe to Business Week and CFO, read the magazines on the weekend with a yellow underliner in hand. 

    AT work get the budget for your organization, read it, study it, where is more money being spent, why?

    Log on to cpa firm websites here in san antonio, what are they doing, what are they looking for in terms of talent. 

    Look at major corporate sites here like Holt CAT or Valero. What are their goals, what skill sets are they seeking in graduates?

    Take your outlines to work, let everyone there see you reading them on your breaks, make a statement by your actions.

    Work the homework problems before you get to class, copying off the board without having read or attempted the problem is worse than useless, it is a waste of your time, you are taking a shower in a raincoat,  understanding is not taking place. 

    We are here to help, I am here on campus a great deal of time, come see me, schedule a meting. let's make this happen. 

    Mere familiarity with the topic will not lead to success, content mastery however will lead to success.

  • Professor Elam

    CNBC at Davos

    It is 7:18 AM and I just heard an excellent discussion on mark to market accounting rules between Becky QUick  and Steve Forbes on CNBC.  I mentioned arranging your life for success a couple of posts back, and this is what I am describing.  You are not going to LEARN accounting but just putting your toe in the water a couple of times a week listening to me in class and avoiding reading the book. You must jump in the ocean that is finance and accounting.  

    Picture 1
    Forbes advocated eliminating mark to market which would eliminate a lot of the problems. He also advocated eliminating payroll taxes, that would be SS witholding. He also advocated having FNM buy mortgages form banks.  We are studying all these terms and issues in various accounting classes now. It is nec

    My point is that you must link the text, the outline in Gleim, my description in class and on WEB CT of derivatives with all this news to form a synthesis in your mind of how all this fits together. 

    Watch Squawk Box in the morning on CNBC as you get ready for your day. Every day I see students watching basketball games  on the tv in the activity room. This will not advance your business knowledge…….As Mike Phelps swim coach says,

    Get in the water….

  • Professor Elam

    Remittances to Mexico Down

    REmittances sent to Mexico have been much larger than the Mexican government anticipated.

    Indeed there are more stories of fewer coming to America. As the construction industry evaporates in Nevada AZ, CA, and folks decide to mow their own lawns such traditional migrant jobs are disappearing. It could well be that we are seeing a seismic shift in immigration patterns.  Take a read on this articlle, interesting.

  • Professor Elam

    Layoffs on the Increase

    First the market tanks, then the reality of its predictions hit. Layoffs are on the increase suggesting that real estate and autos are going to permanent new lower levels. Let us hope that is the case. 

    The Statler Brothers song The Class of 1957 noted that one grad sold insurance and part time real estate. that is the way real estate was back then.  the inflation of the 1870s and 1990s convinced millions, mostly folks well dressed without the benefit of a college degree, that they could make a full time living selling commission real estate, at a fat 6% commission.  I suspect that for millions that is over.  And frankly the 80/20 rule held, as best I could tell most of them were not really making a living at it but simply hung out an an office occasionally listing a property in the hope that someone else would sell it and they wold make some money. 

    The Motor Mile south of Austin or the SA dealerships spread along the freeways speak to overcapacity in autos.  My guess is that GM's problems will give the Dem congress an auto company to play with as they pay to keep the UAW from going out of business. From that standpoint GM is depending on the UAW I guess to keep money coming from Congress. 

  • Professor Elam

    $1.2 M Office, Why Would Anyone Trust Merrill Again?

    As I have said so many times here, Tom Sowell explains that this is all about those that believe in government using the crisis to expand it even more. 

    Let's see who was it that threw that party in Sardinia and flew in Jimmy Buffet? Now it seems that Merrill CEO John Thain spent $1.2 M redecorating his office. It was just not usable the way it was.  that office did belong to Stan O Neal who was paid over $160 M and pretty well put Merrill on the road to ruin.  Now Thain says he will repay the firm for the office, and oh did I mention the $4 Billion bonus pool?  All this for a company that had to be sold and rescued by Bank of America.  Thain says he told B of A all they needed to know. Gee haven't we seen all this before at Lincoln Savings, ZZZZ Best, Enron etc?

  • Professor Elam

    Fiat Acquires 35% of Chrysler

    I am not kidding the official release adtually says

    Chrysler will get needed distribution channels in Europe

    to which I can only ask, to distribute what, V 10 Ram Pickups?

    GM paid Fiat to split their relationship, now FIAT is back wanting to sell its new 500 small car in the US and build it here as well. Chrysler dealers selling FIATS?  What next, return of the Yugo?  I loved the Fiat 1600 two seat sports car of the 1970s but the brand never caught on and was never known as, well, durable, come to think of it, that describes Chrysler as well….
    I will grant Chrysler needs a small car to sell but given the weakness of the Chrysler dealer network, I am not sure this will work. 

  • Professor Elam

    Real Estate Problems are Rather Defined

    California, Arizona, Nevada, and of course Florida account for half of all foreclosures and those states hold half the mortgages in the US. It is any coincidence that the State of California is also broke, see previous post? It has been suggested that we put the troubled bank assets in a special fund, perhaps we could do that with these states….Speculation ran rampant in all four, now wonder. 

    Now wait a minute, why are all the states having to pay for these four when they account for half the problem, just wondering…

  • Professor Elam

    Blago Hits the View

    Embattled Il Gov Blago will appear on Barbara Walters The View on Monday. Noting he has been elected twice and has no appeal from impeachment, Blago strikes back. Indeed he will not appear at his own impeachment. While this may or may not impress the Il legislature it certainly makes for great theater and our continuing Ethics On Parade Monitor. 

    Will he prevail in the court of public opinion, he is making the rounds as I write Fox announces Blago will be on Geraldo….developing as Drudge says…..

  • Professor Elam

    Manage Your Own Career

    Clint EastwoodIn the late 1960s Clint Eastwood, Lee van Cleef, and Burt Reynolds all had careers in ascent. But only one shot to the top. As Eastwood observed he came back from Spain and the spaghetti Westerns. He quickly managed to direct and star in a genuinely good movie, Play Misty for Me. 

    Lee van cleef Van Cleef had been a co star for years as far back as High Noon mid 502 and Liberty Valance 1962.  But he found his niche as the flinty eyed co star with Eastwood in the second two spaghetti westerns.  But Eastwood came back to Hollywood and started directing. For whatever reason, van Cleef was not so calculating or simply lacked the star power. He continued to make mostly B movies and television series. 

    Burt Reynolds Before you accuse me of picking B actors for the example, about the same time Burt Reynolds landed a role in Deliverance and a star was born.  Great looks and an aw shucks personality so appealing that even Dinah Shore, a huge star from the 50s in her own right, fell for him.  A famous photo spread in Cosmo, dating Sally Field, he seemed to have it all. And then, well, you tell me. he continues to work but I have not seen him at the Oscars. Eastwood has gone from box office success to genuine Academy Award honors, now everyone wants to be in his movies, even Shawn Penn. 

    My point here is that you must seize the moment. Your two years here at A & M are important, make the most of them. I just earned my ten year pin as a full time college professor. And here are some observations.

    You must manage your college time to maximize your learning. More than one student is amazed at how quickly two years goes by.

    This is not time to hurry up. Accounting is a ladder, one course builds on another, no you cannot take combinations and intermed II at the same time. Remember a degree is not a movie ticket, you will be judged on your accomplishment and knowledge on the job. 

    Are you budgeting your time to be successful?  Do you have your own place to study at home? do you plan quiet time?  Believe it or not some students get up early when it is quiet at home, teenagers are never awake at 5 AM…

    Do you have a study buddy or study group, do all of you look out for one another if someone has to miss class?  Do you have the current text?  Have you purchased an outline from Schaum's or Gleim?

    Are you reading the business news, have you read the websites of San Antonio cpa firms?

    We will be discussing more ideas for your success, but you and only you can make it happen.