I heard Roger Staubach speak at a securities meeting. It was clear that he would have been successful even if he had never picked up a football.  Here is Roger’s Story   Yes there are lots of athletes but most fail to transfer their sports success to a practical side of business.  There are I think two things to learn from this story.

As Roger says in the article, he took the time to learn the real estate business.  I am sure he passed up speaking engagements and golf tournaments.  And he is absolutely right, I have never seen anyone succeed for very long unless they knew their business cold.  Roger learned that. Most athletes and everyone else want to skate on the details, that won’t work. 

Next Roger did the thing that everyone talks about but few actually accomplish.  He did think outside the box. Instead of working for the developer who wanted to rent the property, he started a business that worked for the buyer who would lease the property. Now that is original thinking. Decades later realtors now have to declare which side they are on.  Roger did that before everyone else.  I am sure it was easier for Roger to get someone from say Xerox to answer his phone call than it would be for you or me. But if Roger did not have something to offer after the initial pleasantry, it would never have worked. Check out his Dallas website  or his main site and Roger’s comments.

So learn your business.  Then do what everyone else is not doing.  Sounds simple but it is the road less traveled.

I have suggested that the plot of my forthcoming international thriller will involve a plot to
dethrone the US through  currency manipulation. Well the reality of that is being reported in Forbes.   This may be a non fiction novel before I can get a publisher on the phone.

Oil transactions have been settled in dollars.   One claim for our invasion of Iraq was to stop Sadam H. from using Euros instead of dollars, thereby cutting the demand and therefore value of US dollars.  This is no small thing.  Since we are now a debtor nation, if the holders of all that debt perceive that we intend to pay it off in diminished or devalued dollars, they too would dump the dollar.  This could lead to dumping all sorts of financial assets denominated in dollars.  That would include stocks and bonds. The run up in real estate values round the world is not so much that as a reflection of increased real estate prices in devalued dollars.

Meanwhile the Dollar Index flirts with breaking 80, down from 120 just a few years back.

Check out this George Will article  on one Senator’s attempt to reform taxes. Amid all the talk about Live Earth, carbon offsets, ethanol, and fences, does this have a chance?  Probably not, too realistic. As I have remarked the field is wide open for someone to embrace the issue, so far only the Governor of Ark Mike Huckabee  has embraced the idea of real tax reform. But you are no doubt mouthing the words, Mike Who, ah such is the bad luck of those in the second tier.

As usual Will has a great article, check it out.

Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2007 12:49 PM
Subject: Yoga Berras reassurance for frightend speakers

I sat down to write a speech and got this E mail from a friend.how reassuring can a message get!!

May 19, 2007: St. Louis native Yogi Berra addresses the crowd on hand for
the Saint Louis University graduation. (David Carson/P-D)

Deadlines being what they are for this Sunday column, this essayist
missed a momentous occasion recently. Yogi Berra accepted an honorary degree
from St. Louis University and delivered the commencement speech for 1,900
graduates and 10,000 in attendance at Scottrade Center.
It’s hard to imagine a more promising lingual event. Berra is to vocal
communication what Don Cherry is to the fashion industry. Yogi doesn’t so
much command the English language as he corkscrews it. It is part of what
makes the baseball Hall of Famer and pride of the Hill one of America’s
endearing figures.

While the oratory went unrecognized in this space last week, I was
fortunate enough to secure – wink, wink – a copy of the discourse and felt
compelled to share it with those who did not attend. So here is, in its
entirety, Yogi’s dissertation:

“Thank you all for being here tonight. I know this is a busy time of
year, and if you weren’t here, you could probably be somewhere else. I
especially want to thank the administration at St. Louis University for
making this day necessary. It is an honor to receive this honorary degree.
It is wonderful to be here in St. Louis and to visit the old
neighborhood. I haven’t been back since the last time I was here. Everything
looks the same, only different. Of course, things in the past are never as
they used to be.

Before I speak, I have something I’d like to say. As you may know, I
never went to college, or high school for that matter. To be honest, I’m not
much of a public speaker, so I will try to keep this short as long as I can.

As I look out upon all of the young people here tonight, there are a
number of words of wisdom I might depart. But I think the most irrelevant
piece of advice I can pass along is this: “The most important things in life
are the things that are least important.”

I could have gone a number of directions in my life. Growing up on the
Hill, I could have opened a restaurant or a bakery. But the more time I
spent in places like that, the less time I wanted to spend there. I knew
that if I wanted to play baseball, I was going to have to play baseball. My
childhood friend, Joe Garagiola, also became a big-league ballpayer, as did
my son, Dale. I think you’ll find the similarities in our careers are quite
different.

You’re probably wondering, how does a kid from the Hill become a New
York Yankee and get in the Hall of Fame? Well, let me tell you something, if
it was easy nobody would do it. Nothing is impossible until you make it
possible.

Of course, times were different. To be honest, I was born at an early
age. Things are much more confiscated now. It seems like a nickel ain’t
worth a dime anymore. But let me tell you, if the world was perfect, it
wouldn’t be. Even Napoleon had his Watergate.

You’ll make some wrong mistakes along the way, but only the wrong
survive. Never put off until tomorrow what you can’t do today. Denial isn’t
just a river in Europe.

Strive for success and remember you won’t get what you want unless you
want what you get. Some will choose a different path. If they don’t want to
come along, you can’t stop them. Remember, none are so kind as those who
will not see.

Keep the faith and follow the Commandments: Do not covet thy neighbor’s
wife, unless she has nothing else to wear. Treat others before you treat
yourself. As Franklin Eleanor Roosevelt once said, ‘The only thing you have
to fear is beer itself.’

Hold on to your integrity, ladies and gentlemen. It’s the one thing you
really need to have; if you don’t have it, that’s why you need it. Work hard
to reach your goals, and if you can’t reach them, use a ladder. There may
come a day when you get hurt and have to miss work. Don’t worry, it won’t
hurt to miss work.

Over the years, I have realized that baseball is really just a menopause
for life. We all have limitations, but we also know limitation is the
greatest form of flattery. Beauty is in the eyes of Jim Holder.

Half the lies you hear won’t be true, and half the things you say, you
won’t ever say.

As parents you’ll want to give your children all the things you didn’t
have. But don’t buy them an encyclopedia, make them walk to school like you
did. Teach them to have respect for others, especially the police. They are
not here to create disorder, they are here to preserve it.

Throughout my career, I found good things always came in pairs of three.
There will be times when you are an overwhelming underdog. Give 100 percent
to everything you do, and when that’s not enough, give everything you have
left. ‘Winning isn’t everything, but it’s better than rheumatism.’ I think
Guy Lombardo said that.

Finally, dear graduates and friends, cherish this moment; it is a memory
you will never forget. You have your entire future ahead of you.

“Good luck and Bob’s speed.”

Several of you were rolling your eyes as I patiently attempted to explain a few basic option and futures (derivatives) strategies in Intermed II last semester.  Well check out the Front Page of the Friday July 6 2007 WSJ.  Commodity exchanges world wide are racing to invent new ways to gamble, er invest, er hedge risk, er, well you pick it.  The Chicago Mercantile  surpassed the NYSE in value  back in 2003.  Now the value of exchange traded derivatives is about $87 TRILLION.  And that does not count off exchange deals.  I will have my primer on derivatives finished this summer, more to come on that this fall.  And we will be posing the question in the audit class, how does one value a derivative on a balance sheet when the price changes every five seconds on the exchange?

A Sherlock Holmes novel graces this post for out theme of Professional Skepticism. This is the mindset of the successful auditor, and investor.  And so the DMN Page 1D details how the SEC has frozen Amerifirst assets.    Click and read the article.  This appears to be another Ponzi Scheme.    Succintly a ponzi scheme uses the money from later investors to pay off the first investors. Once a few are paid, everyone is urge to  ‘let it ride’
rather than withdraw funds.  This is imperative for the success of the scheme as of course, there is usually no legitimate invesment of any kind involved.  What is amazing is how often this happens, there has certainly been one in the news every year I have taught since 1999.  This is why the current term fro auditing is ASSURANCE, the investors are assured that things are as they should be.

Elsewhere owners are turning to rental schemes.   We have detailed the real estate bubble collapse at length.  Now You can rent that nifty $895 K home for just $5,300 a month, such a deal.  Real estate woes have forced the carmakers back to zero percent financing schemes to move cars off the lot.  The thing to remember about debt and speculation is this, all debts must eventually be re paid even if by foreclosure and write off of the loss. Now real estate is avoiding that by not foreclosing or leasing instead of selling, how long can the hot potato be tossed around avoiding the inevitable? Again this is why we study accounting., to make sense of the financial landscape.

Impressionists or impersonators used to be a staple of tv variety shows, well, back when we had big time tv variety shows. Rich Little  and Frank Gorshin were two of the best  Rich is still around but I have not seen him in on tv in some time.  But wait, now we have The Next Best Thing!   On ABC Wed at 7:00 PM CST this revives the whole impersonator genre.  Interesting cause lots of these folks have been doing their thing for years and just got the chance at tv.  The two male hosts are terribly intrusive overbearing and frankly make cheap jokes off the sincere performers.  But such is the nature of a summer replacement show, makes me wish for Randy and Paula.  But I frankly find this much more entertaining than Idol.  When you get someone who is really right on like the gal that did Rosanne Barr last night it is most enjoyable.

Amid reports that parts were getting to Iran,  the Pentagon has simply decided to shred all remaining F 14s. what we have here isa  failure of internal control.  Apparenlty the Pentagon cannot control who is working as a contractor or spare parts junkie, so to speak, so parts were getting to Iran. Yep we sold the Shah some f 14s back in 1979.  And they are still there.  So of course Iran would like to keep them flying.  We can’t seem to control  who gets what, so, shred em.  Gee this is getting expensive.

Frank Abagnale gained fame in the movie Catch Me if you Can. Now he has written a book on identity theft. Frank now runs a consulting firm advising banks on security systems, the rare example of thief turned crime fighter.

Our topic for the Fall CcATS is Forensic Accounting . Click on Frank’s name for a summary of the book or here at amazon to order or read more reviews.

We have a first class line up of speakers and will be publishing the agenda shortly. Mark your calendar for Friday Sept 28.

Click on the graph at left to see the latest on The Donald.  A couple of seasons back on The Apprentice, he featured these New Jersey casions on the show.  Then they went into bankruptcy. This is the bankruptcy Rosie was referring to that angered the Donald so much, it was his casinos, not him, OK point of order. 

Perhaps Rosie will have the last laugh here.  Click The Donald   to learn that Merrill Lynch was not able to find any interest in purchasing the three casinos that make up TRMP. And so the result was another drop in the stock price, see graph, to about half what it was  a few months ago.  What is the problem here?

Other casinos in Vegas are fetching high prices and being bought or taken private. But, they make money!  Again this is why we study accounting, making money results in positive earnings per share which supports a price earnings ratio which gets big higer as investor confidence grows.  TRMP is losing money even after emerging from bankruptcy .  Three of the two casions are in New Jersey. That location has had difficulty getting past the weekend gambler syndrome. 

I doubt this will make it as a centerpiece of a future Apprentice…..