Professor Elam

You Are What you Wear

I took photos at the COBA Speaker Series the other night, I can only post the guests though one of was particularly photogenic (well Donna and Maria and Cynthia are ALWAYS photogenic but) anyway

I was reading another blog by a professional photographer. He was assigned to cover a seminar featuring numerous VIPs from the company. Most of the comments were about he mechanics of shooting the event, the cameras, the lenses, the ISO factor and such but then he made this comment about the three day affair, understand most of these sites are in vigorous debate about whether a nikon, a canon, an olympus or some such is the best choice, his comment on best gear below, 'nuff said. This can also apply every day right here at school, you never know who you will run into . Admittedly I am not clothes horse but at least presentable. You never know who you will run into...

Most important gear? According to the client, who expected that the images would be good, the three nice suits were the standout accessory. She mentioned that in the early days of these conferences they often wound up with photographers who showed up dress in battered khakies and a "ratty fishing vest". According to her they stood out like a pig at a horse race.

Derivatives Again, Read about Mark Pittman

I was going to start with Mark Pittman the financial journalist who called the sub prime mortgage crisis what it was, American Casino. Please read about Mark and then the next article caught me eye with this comment.

This is still a derivatively challenged system, oversexed, overlevered, and unfortunately over here.

If it turns out that AIG is a counterparty on the wrong side of the banks again, it really would be a bit much, and Timmy should be fired the following day if he dares to utter the "B word."

Darned but Jesse's Cafe does have a way with words. What he means is, do the holders of the Dubai Debt believe they are secure with AIG Credit Default Swaps, see I told you learning this derivative stuff would be important! If they debt holders believe that, well, is AIG good for $60 Billion in CDS?  I doubt it, and so will Timmy Geithner rush to bail out AIG, again, to really bail out the banks that made the bad loans?

Read Well of Emptiness

Re Shaping Capitalism

John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, has a vision. Sounds a lot like Deming mixed with Balanced Scorecard to me. We will be discussing this in our three cost classes this week. 

This will take you to the latest articles from Fast Company Magazine, a publication worth reading. 

try the article on social media and how Katzenberg changed animation in Hollywood. Shrek 4 will require 75 terrabytes....

fastcompany.com/magazine/141

OIl and Japan, both Down Hard

A few weeks back I commented that oil might 'poke above 75 and 80 along with stocks to new highs. '

It did just that. now a major test is under way. The important 200 week moving average is in red. 

ON the one hand, the oil market completed an A B C correction to the upside from it s $35 low. It is now

just pennies from breaking below the weekly MA, and the weekly parabolic issued a sell signal at 82. Along with the breakdown in Japan, this bears watching. Clearly markets are wondering if the Mid East will begin producing like crazy to generate funds for debt ridden Dubai World. We wonder the same thing. Support should extend down to the low 60s. 

WHile talking heads on tv worry about the higher price of gasoline lately, this actually shows the economic ability to pay for that gasoline. Lower oil prices are actually counter economic in that they represent over production or worse, the inability to pay for the oil due to depressed economic conditions. HIgh oil good economy, low oil, bad economy. That won't get me a Nobel Prize in economics as it lacks a fancy econometric model but it is about that simple. 

 

Prof Elam In USA Today

Okay it's not the Cover of the Rolling Stone but my comments on socionomics quoted in a USA Today article. 

The Correction Begins

Japan is still the second largest economy in the world, and it is down 15% in the last few weeks. At bottom the weekly MACD has just begun its descent. Shanghai in purple and oil in black appear to have been topping since this summer.  Now let's look at the US

 

That large red bar is the Dow drop this Friday. It is paired with the Wilshire that represents 5,000 stocks. At bottom the VXX has jumped today.   The VXX is a measure of volatility, a bet on puts that the market is going down. It was up today.  The MACD is about to roll over to the downside. 

 

 

CPS CEO Resigns over $4 B Brouha

To me the big story here is not that the interim CEO resigned but this

THe board dsicussed the situation until almost 1 AM Wednesday finishing off an 11 hour day without making any decisions. That followed a five hour meeting Monday that concluded with Geis issuing a public apology. Two execs had already been suspended. 

CPS Bartley resigns in crisis. 

Hmm, this reminds me to include a couple of new assignments in Ethics for the spring

One will be crisis management, clearly CPS is not handling this well, they cannot even reach a conclusion in 11 hours, there should have been some sort of crisis plan to begin with or better yet an adherence to ethical standards to prevent this from occurring. 

A second will be not related to this incident an examination of the new issues brought on by social networking. 

To Catch A Thief

Alfred HItchcock often filmed his movies in famous locations and settings using The US Open Tennis match for Two Men on a Train and Mt Rushmore for North by Northwest. To Catch a Thief is set in Monaco when most Americans knew little about such spots. This is where Grace Kelly met Prince Ranier which led to the real world marriage. 

 If you are looking for interesting fare that the family could actually watch, this is one to see. And certainly Cary Grant and Grace Kelly define the term Movie Star! in these roles. Robert Wagner based his successful tv series on this movie. Filmed on location this is an interesting look at Europe in 1955. 
A true classic, Amazon shows multiple re issues of this movie in DVD form. 

CAtch it tonite on TCM. 

December 6 Deadlin

Al recent  quizzes and homework on line have deadlines set to December 6 at an indicated 11 PM EST which is 10 PM our Central Standard Time. Having re set ALL the recent assignments there will be no more resets or extensions. If your computer is planning to crash at 9:59 PM Dec 6, I suggest you prepare for that eventuality now. Finish assignments before the deadline, that is the point of deadlines. I repeat 

There will be no more extensions for any reason whatsoever. 

Ambac CFO Resigns

Ambac is a company that used to insure various mortgages and other financial instruments. This promise proved to be as illusory as the FDIC insurance for bank deposits, both groups are now bust. 

The Ambac CFO has resigned as the stock sinks below one dollar. The idea of financial 'insurance' is dying a hard death, no one seems to believe that all the possible disasters, if in fact they just begin to occur, cannot be insured, they can't. Insurance assumes that some but not all disasters happen.