Professor Elam

San Antonio Ragtime

Monday Oct 31 2011

sunday November 13, 2011 at 3 PM (Hooray a daytime event!)

An Afternoon of Ragtime Piano

featuring BryanWright on the piano from Pittsburgh, PA

 

Radius Center

106 Auditorium Circle

SA Ragtime Society

210 541 0760

Suggeted Donation $10

One of our Texas A & M Students is an active member, this should be fun, I will be there taking photos.

More updates to come.

A survey that shows a difference

Sunday Oct 30, 2011

A student post requests a survey of the Occupy Wall Street group that does not depend on their own autobiography. 

Well here goes, how about the, yes, cooks for the OWS movement?  The cooks complain that too many exconvicts and homeless are showing up, claiming to be OWS protestors,  for the free range organic chicken. 

 

So, let them eat brown rice, that's ll show 'em. 

The Importance of Design

Sat Oct 29, 2011

I have been promoting the incorporation of Design as a fundamental construct in our curriculum. I continue to see more and more examples of just that in business literature. And today brings a couple of articles in the weekend WSJ that blend design with business success. 

If you have not subscribed to the WSJ, you should, it is better than ever and the Friday and Weekend Editons rival Vanity Fair and its number one Target, the NY Times. 

Page D 7 has an interview with Ira Neimark, former CEO and author of  The Rise of Fashion and Lesson learned at Bergdorf Goodman

Five points

1. First impressions

2. Customers look for things to make their lives more exciting (think iPhone)

3. Wear the proper clothes and make the appropriate greeting to make a lasting impression 

4. Always take the opportunity to visit every business that relates to your own

5. It is imperative to know as much as possible about your present and potential customers

 

ON the next page Celia Birtwell holds forth on great hotels, what's wrong with Michelle Obamas' wardrobe, and the design horror of a single electric light bulb.

Read, learn.

French Revolution

Sat Oct 29, 2011

An alert student made a lengthy post about the French Revolution. Indeed it was quite different from the American Revolution. The object of American scorn, King George, was safely tucked away across the Atlantic Ocean. The French Royalty on the other hand were uncomfortably close to their citizens. Yet the class differences were even greater in France. It seems doubtful Americans would have severed the heads of British Royalty, indeed I know of no instance of use of the guillotine in America. 

And as he notes, the French wanted equality, Americans wanted Liberty-big difference.

Now we have an Administration which has granted 47% freedom from income taxes.Which is to say, if you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can bet on Paul's support. The question the 53% are posing is this

is it fair for 47% to pay nothing?

The strategy should be clear. If one party can get a majority of voters paying nothing, there will be nothing to prevent them from infinitely robbing the rest of the taxpayers until there is nothing left. Welcome to the Planned Economy.  

Actually the question should not be how our taxes are structured. It should be an attempt to reign in Congressional spending which is merely vote buying. If as Tom Sowell has suggested, Congress was limited to spending 10% of the Gross Domestic Product, we would have a much simpler tax code. Letting Congress spend all it wants for various election schemes is the problem.  

53%

Friday Oct 28, 2011

http://the53.tumblr.com/

 

The last time I checked Texas A & M Students were

mostly holding down jobs

often raising familiies

finishing college

assuming responsibility for their lives

And so the 

Occupy Wall Street Crowd has a counterparty

the 53% that do pay taxes

Your take?

Know Thyself

Friday Oct 28, 2011

We began the semester reading Emerson's Essay on Self Reliance. Here is link to Kirk Tuck's blog

 

http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/

 

THe post on 10/26/2011 is what I specifically want you to read. Now what does a blog on photography have to do with an Emerson Essay on Self Reliance, and particularly in an accounting class?  Glad you asked. College is all about finding your self, expanding your horizons, and getting a life focus. Or as Kirk says

It's important to travel outside your usual visual space. Outside your cultural comfort zone.  Outside your social network/safety net.  It's important to learn to be comfortable my yourself.  Many psychological studies point to the power that groups have to subtly and even unconsciously push you into conforming.  Into synchronizing into the pattern of the group.  If you want to express an individual vision you have to become individual.  There's no other way to do it.

So get up and get out, mentally that is. Trust and know thyself, you might discover someone one want to get to know. 

Another Day, Another drop for NFLX

Tuesday Oct 25, 2011

Our observations earlier this summer that Netflix was a high flier and due for a pullback have some spectacularly true.

That dot at 78.10 is the latest quote. It seem NFLX is going to lose money for a  while. The market has reacted accordinlgy. In three months the stock haas lost more than 2/3 of its value at 300. This explains the difficulty of making money in high tech, things change fast. NFLX changed its pricing structure causing a bolt in customers. The Qwicster plan was scrapped in three weeks, the idea of splitting movie rentals form direct streaming. This also points up the importance of predictable earnings, another reason to study accounting on how earnings are calculated.

Well the damage is done now. Be careful changing your current business model, the customers can, as Sam Walton observed, fire all of you. Hello New Coke.....

Rhode Island, America's Greece

Monday Oct 24, 2011

Meredith Whitney has predicted trouble in the municipal bond market. It may well start in 

Rhode Island. Substitute Greece for RI in the article and it reads the same. 

This will be the end of the defined benefit pension plan in America. Notice that the problem is the inability to determine just how great the total liability is or might be!

These are off balance sheet liabilities. The balance sheets for municipalities typically do not estimate pension liability - big mistake. 

Olympus Shares Head to Book Value

Monday Oct 24, 2011

Olympus Imaging , the camera and endoscope company, paid a fee equal to one third of the acquisition price for a British company. Olympus then switched auditors from KPMG to Ernst. Now an ousted CEO has revealed the extent of the blunder. The stock price has collapsed and the FBI is investigating. 

This is a lack of good governance. Continued revenue determines the success of a company. But a low stock price can attract take over parties. I am wondering if Olympus will end up selling the camera division to Canon or Panasonic. 

Groupon Falls to Earth

Sat Oct 22, 2011

Groupon was expecting to raise $25 B in its IPO, well make it half that.

Imitators, like the SA Express News, are cropping up all over. This article courtesy of an alert TAMUSA student.

The difficulty of picking successful start up stocks is separating the plausible, Groupon, from the probable, like E Bay or Amazon.

Applicances.com was plausible, but not probable.