Professor Elam

The Myth of Club Fed

Dec 31 2013

Here is a look at what a minimum security Federal Prison is realy like.

Rocky Mountain High

Dec 31 2013

Legal marijuana goes on sale tomorrow in CO. In 1968 my required business communication class at UT Austin had as a topic, Will Marijuana Be Legalized Soon Enough to Consider Cultivation?  This one professor did not get his contract renewed and so felt able to shall we say stray from the topic the rest of the classes had, which was about some regular drug being adopted in the marketplace. This allowed us to discuss marijuana and its various uses for the remainder of the semester. Guest speakers included Madam Hipple, a local psychic as well as a Doctor from the Student Health Center. 

All the other classes had odious strict rules on the paper presentation. Dr. Beard simply told us to write it so he could read it. He rode a three wheeled Harley ex police bike he bought at a city acution. I was as bit stunned to discover I was one of the few in my circle or on campus that was NOT already familiar with  the product and its uses. 

Turns out it only took 46 years to happen. But I wonder just what the demand will be at an indicated $225 an ounce. 

Law School Grad Selling Cologne

Friday Dec 27 2013

Here is yet another story of a disappointed law school grad. There is  link to his and another law school disappointed grad's blog. I also suspect part of the problem is the reluctance of grads to move, they are disappointed they did not get a dream position rather than a plain ole starting job.

In Texas there are as best aI can tell about 60,000 CPAs and about 68,000 lawyers. I am guessing in the northeastern states where this grad is likely located there are more lawyers than CPAs. 

Television, movies, and novelists like Grisham glamorize the law profession. This never happens to the CPA profession. In reviewing movies for the ethics class I have only found one that even featured someone playing an accountant. That was Jack GIlford in 1975's Save the Tiger. But I digress...

Law schools  have expanded their enrollment in great numbers. It is a cash cow, easy to find instructors, not expensive labs, even the libraries are cheaper now that they are all digital. And hey what's a humanities major to do, no job, hey go to law school!  And so they do. 

In Texs the recent pass rates for the Law Bar Exam range from Baylor at 95% to St Mary's at  82% to Texas Southern at 68%. You can check out CPA pass rates here.  AS you will see, the highest pass rates are about 60-65% an then only at UT Austin and A & M College Station. All A & M grads get a paid for Becker class the last semester by the way. From there the passrates drop quickly below 50%. 

So the bar exam is a relatively easy pass compared to the CPA exam. I suspect the lawyers are wishing they had taken the harder road.  Now law schools are having to cut back on enrollments. 

The CPA exam will be the hardest  rite of passage you ever undertake. Did anyone check out the Gleim books over the holidays to study for the exam, just wondering. 

Emerson's Eulogy for Thoreau

Monday Dec 23, 20313

Emerso nand Thoreau were transcendentalists believing there were certain truths whcih could not be proved. Here is an excerpt from Emerson's eulogy for Thoreau published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1862.

We will be examining the writing of these great thinkers in Ethics Class this spring. I highlighted what I consider the most important phrase here. 

 

[4]      A natural skill for mensuration, growing out of his mathematical knowledge, and his habit of ascertaining the measures and distances of objects which interested him, the size of trees, the depth and extent of ponds and rivers, the height of mountains, and the air-line distance of his favorite summits, — this, and his intimate knowledge of the territory about Concord, made him drift into the profession of land-surveyor. It had the advantage for him that it led him continually into new and secluded grounds, and helped his studies of Nature. His accuracy and skill in this work were readily appreciated, and he found all the employment he wanted.

[5]      He could easily solve the problems of the surveyor, but he was daily beset with graver questions, which he manfully confronted. He interrogated every custom, and wished to settle his practice on an ideal foundation. He was a protestant a outrance,(9) and few lives contain so many renunciations. He was bred to no profession; he never married;(10) he lived alone; he never went to church; he never voted; he refused to pay a tax to the State; he ate no flesh, he drank no wine, he never knew the use of tobacco; and, though a naturalist, he used neither trap nor gun. He chose, wisely, no doubt, for himself, to be bachelor of thought and Nature. He had no talent for wealth, and knew how to be poor without the least hint of squalor or inelegance. Perhaps he fell into his way of living without forecasting it much, but approved it with later wisdom. "I am often reminded," he wrote in his journal, "that, if I had bestowed on me the wealth of Croesus, my aims must be still the same, and my means essentially the same." He had no temptations to fight against, — no appetites, no passions,(11*) no taste for elegant trifles. A fine house, dress, the manners and talk of highly cultivated people were all thrown away on him. He much preferred a good Indian, (12) and considered these refinements as impediments to conversation, wishing to meet his companion on the simplest terms. He declined invitations to dinner-parties, because there each was in every one's way, and he could not meet the individuals to any purpose. "They make their pride," he said, "in making their dinner cost much; I make my pride in making my dinner cost little." When asked at table what dish he preferred, he answered, "The nearest." He did not like the taste of wine, and never had a vice in his life. He said, — "I have a faint recollection of pleasure derived from smoking dried lily-stems, before I was a man. I had commonly a supply of these. I have never smoked anything more noxious."

[6]      He chose to be rich by making his wants few, and supplying them himself. In his travels, he used the railroad only to get over so much country as was unimportant to the present purpose, walking hundreds of miles, avoiding taverns, buying a lodging in farmers and fishermen's houses, as cheaper, and more agreeable to him, and because there he could better find the men and the information he wanted.

 

Thursday Dec 19 2013

Luckenbach, TX

Wed Dec 18 2013

 

Unlike Margaritaville, Luckenb ach is a real place, sort of. Located just est of Fredricksburg it is a destination ride for many motorcycle clubs in Central Texas. But the point of LUchenbach is to think of it as an ideal, at the end of the day it is not how many things we have accumulated but how many people we have reached and related with. Being a college professor allows me to do just that. 

Luckenbach, Texas / Back to the Basics of Love)

The only two things in life that make it worth livin'
Is guitars that tune good and firm feelin' women
I don't need my name in the marquee lights
I got my song and I got you with me tonight
Maybe it's time we got back to the basics of love

Let's go to Luckenbach, Texas
With Waylon and Willie and the boys
This successful life we're livin'
Got us feuding like the Hatfields and McCoys
Between Hank Williams' pain songs and
Newberry's train songs and Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain
Out in Luckenbach, Texas ain't nobody feelin' no pain

So baby, let's sell your diamond ring
Buy some boots and faded jeans and go away
This coat and tie is choking me
In your high society you cry all day
We've been so busy keepin' up with the Jones
Four car garage and we're still building on
Maybe it's time we got back to the basics of love

Let's go to Luckenbach, Texas
With Waylon and Willie and the boys
This successful life we're livin' got us feudin'
Like the Hatfield and McCoys
Between Hank Williams' pain songs and
Newberry's train songs and Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain
Out in Luckenbach, Texas ain't nobody feelin' no pain

Let's go to Luckenbach, Texas
With Willie and Waylon and the boys
This successful life we're livin's got us feudin'
Like the Hatfield and McCoys
Between Hank Williams' pain songs
And Jerry Jeff's train songs and Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain
Out in Luckenbach, Texas there ain't nobody feelin' no pain

Save Me an Aisle Seat - Wall Street Movies

Wednesday Dec 18 2013

Spring 2014 is right around the corner which means I am mapping out the Accounting Ethics Class. In the past I have had a movie assigment in the syllabus. I provided a suggested list of movies with ethical themes. Students were asked to view a movie, write and present their review emphasizing ethical themes we study in class. This was less than successful in that

student tended to focus on plot rather thantheme

frankly most students were not in the category of Joe Morgenstern at the WSJ or Siskel and Ebert who used to do this on television and did it really well, these reviewers are pros, abe to sum things up so you decide whether you really want to see the movie yourself or not.

if the rest of the class had not seen the movie the menaing was lost

So two years back on the first day I give the class a choice of Casablanca or On the Waterfront, both classics and showed each in a seperate room. So half the class saw one or the other and shared a commonh experience. At this point I am reviewing movies with specific Wall Street Themes and deciding how to proceed.

The Wolf of Wall Street debuts Chirstmas Day.  Martin Scorcese directs and he is one of the very best so I suspect this will be on my list of must sees.  In the meantime Business Insider presents their favorite picks.

Here is another list of 30 movies for the Business Student.

What is your favorite business movie?

Mary Barra becomes CEO at GM

Wed Dec 11, 2013

Mary Barra has been named the first female CEO of GM. She has  along history with the company and is an admitted 'car gal.'  Bravo, at least she is not from Proctor and Gamble. Hiring those types resulted in carwith all the appeal of tooth paste. 

Becker Scholarship

Tuesday Dec 10, 2013

Wall Street Journal for Spring

Please see the important REVISED information below regarding Wall Street Journal and Barron’s subscription offers for the Spring 2014 term:

 

WSJ and Barron’s Student Offers

Students may purchase WSJ and/or Barron’s subscriptions at the bookstore or online at www.wsj.com/studentoffer (for The Journal) or www.barrons.com/studentoffer (for Barron’s).  Reminder: The old forms passed around in class and faxed in are no longer available.

 

Each subscription includes home delivery (6-days/week for WSJ and 1-day/week for Barron’s), full access to wsj.com or barrons.com, and free apps for mobile phones and tablets. 

 

1.      WSJ 15-week offer: $24.95 $15.00

2.      WSJ 1-year offer: $99.95

3.      WSJ 2-year offer: $199.00 (only available online)

4.      Barron’s 15-week offer: $16.00

5.      Barron’s 1-year offer: $52.00