Professor Elam

Shell Games

Sunday Feb 28 2010

Shell Games is written by a female forensic accountant. Read Prof Albrecht's review at the link. 

How to Ace an Accounting Class

Sunday Feb 28 2010

Prof David Albrecht has some ideas on how to succeed in an accounting class.

His ideas are pretty much spot on but I would add this as an overall thought. 

Start early in any class. This past week it was evident that students had not begun reading a book for a book report. 

Start early, the book report was assigned the first week of class. Reading ten pages a day would easily have consumed a three hundred pager in a month. 

And, I would disagree with the study hard and long for the exam suggestion. The better idea is to study every day. Too many students believe they can cram for an exam that requires analytic solutions, this is not the case.  These are learned slowly and by repetition. One can memorize say the Maslow heirarchy the night before the exam but not the soution to an eps problem. 

McGraw Hill will be ramping up their online product with Connect. In the meantime I am going to start posting much more frequent requirements in terms of answering questions and staying focused on the subject. This is not something that can be put off until Sunday night every week. 

Facebook

Sunday Feb 28 2010

Wave of the Future

Her: Facebook is the Wave of the Future

Prof Elam: Are you sure it’s not the Wave of the Present?

Her: Absolutely!

I usually ascribe considerable doubt to certainty, especially the more widespread it becomes. We teachers are told that students get everything (learn?) from social media now. Considering that most social media spots area aout 140 clicks long, that is not hard to believe. What are we looking for in a report after all?  Oh, knowledge perhaps, the proposition of a new idea, insight maybe?

 

Facebook is Fast Company’s Number One Innovative Company. It strikes me as the ultimate embrace of the ‘me’ generation as it is indeed all about  that person.   But there is little to no real information value in that, and it is hardly a platform that supports intellectual rigor. And so I ponder, as many have, the Fall of Rome in writing this column. The  Pay Pal founder Peter Thiel is wondering the same thing.  The internet will not save us from the Dark Ages, he muses to Wired magazine.

My point here is that bull markets are inclusionary, we are interested in others, Bear markets are exclusionary, we worry about ourselves. And so the portable IPod iPhone has brought us the ultimate self indulgence. Yep, Facebook and Twitter are all about us. I get invitations from people I hardly knew back when I knew them, much less now. But the economy has everyone more worried than they want to admit about their own personal future. Their focus has turned into themselves. 

All this twittering and facebooking of course, like Las Vegas, produces nothing. No wonder we are in a period of economic stagnation. The relatively good economy has thus far allowed such self indulgence. I doubt that will continue to be the case. When will it stop?  It will stop when the economy is hard enough that everyone has to go back to work instead of indulging their own minute to minute fantasies. 

Book Reviews

Sunday Feb 28 2010

Never hesitate to fall back on the classic journalistic theme of who where what why

Who wrote the book and why did he she write it

Did they accomplish their goals

Did you learn something from it

Would you recommend it

How does this tie to any theme we study in class

Contemporary, historic forward or backward looking?

Take a look at the book review section in the SA Paper or the NY Times book review section at a local library or online at the link I provided

Read book reviews at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or in Business Week

As I continually say, get engaged, if you can get on line to down load music, you can also find a world of information about book reviews

The New Civil War Continues

Wed Feb 24 2010

I call it the New Civil War. It is the battle for business that creates wealth and jobs. This time the South is winning. Right to Work states are those with laws that state a worker cannot be forced to join a union as a condition of employment. This article traces that three more companies have moved from Ohio to Georgia. 

The result of course is less money for already beleaguered Ohio. Yet of course the business model for Ohio is not changing, it will remain a union shop state. 

The migration south, and the term Rust Belt originated with the collapse of New York City in 1976 and the creation of the DFW airport. Now companies could locate in the central time zone and fly anywhere in the world, direct. Bingo, J C Penny left NYC for DFW. No doubt the Atlanta airport figures in moves to the southeast. 

The 17% unemployment number is particularly acute in union shop states. Those states are 'borrowing' money to continue to pay unemployment 'benefits.'  How long will taxpayers in non union states support such a fiasco, inquiring minds want to know. 

Congress is currently conducting a Soviet Style Show trial for Toyota over the gas pedal recall. Of course Toyota is not in union shop states. The DEM victory in Congress is now in payback mode for union support. But Hyundai, VW, Nissan, Toyota, are not moving to Michigan....note that Toyota Tacoma production just moved from California to San Antonio. 

Charlie Munger, It's Over!

Wed Feb 24 2010

Wall Street lore has it that no one rings a bell at the bottom. Well Warren Buffet's investing buddy, Charlie Munger, has rung one at DOW 10,300. Writing in Slate, Munger titles his article, It's Over. 

He compares America to a giant gambling casino in which 'investment firms' have assumed the role that gambling casinos once did. In the end everyone is betting on stocks and derivatives, who is working?

I wrote a column rather like this several years back, really I did. There are over thirty states with lotteries, including Arizona.  But State Parks are closing anyway, Mish today reports that spending is out of control in Phoenix. Only a few years back, Las Vegas was the fastest growing city in the US. It was also the city that produced little or nothing in terms of tangible output, a true 'swap dollar' economy. Now the thirty story condo developments are empty, and the Mayor of Las Vegas is angry at the President for remarks disparaging the city. Gee how times have changed. The values of the publicly owned casinos have collapsed, big time. 

In a way, the public unions were gambling that the governments could pay astronomic salaries and retirements. That bet is not paying off either. But the Administration continues to reward his union base with items like purchasing a Illinois State Prison for over $200M to house GITMO detainees. California no doubt looks to Washington DC as its final salvation. 

A PEW Study backs me up on this but I do not agree with the Director that this can be solved now with some small steps. The real world use of the word NO is never easy. 

3:11 to Yuma Not Leaving the Station!

Wed Feb 24 2010

3:11 to Yuma was a movie first release in the late 1950s and re done two years ago. It is on my list of movies with ethical themes for students to review in Ethics class. But cancel that train! The State Parks Board in Arizona has closed 13 State Parks and will leave nine open, to save money. 

Neal Cavuto had a guest discuss possible privatization of the parks, that apparently was not discussed. Better to close the parks than consider alternatives. This kind of thinking will only slow the economy and any real world solution. 

AZ is one of the states along with CA NV and FL hardest hit with a real estate collapse which has lowered property tax revenue. 

By the way did you know that the Fort Worth Zoo is privately operated?

Greece Goes on Strike

Wed Feb 24 2010

I made the comment in class on Monday that we could expect to see strikes and probably riots as a result of failed promises on the liability side of world city state balance sheets. Well, we did not have to wait long for that. Greek unions are calling for nation wide strikes, and half of Greece, 5 Million, are in unions.

As the article says, such groups believe they are immune to market forces. We have the same thought patterns in many states and cities here. This will not end well.

New Research and Communication Requirements

Tuesday Feb 23 2010

As of January 2009 your Texas State Board of Accounting has issued additional higher education requirements regarding research and communications.Please read the hyperlink, this should answer your questions regarding proper citations and preparation of papers in our classes.l

Having said that, OWL is a good source for all your writing needs, including citations.

Site License Renewed

Tuesday Feb 23 2010

We renewed our site license here for Texas A & M San Antonio this week for

www.gleim.com

Gleim is the leader, my opinion, in accounting certification review materials. Becker delivers an in person course, gleim is a study on your own course. I recommend buying the review book that matches the course you are in. This is true across CMA CIA CPA, for example, if you are taking intermediate, you should spend the $35 for the FARS CPA book. If you are taking audit, I would buy one of the audit books. I am not remunerated by gleim in any fashion. I did use their materials in studying for the cpa exam.

The entire set of CPA review books for 2009 and 2010 is available here on a three hour reserve basis.