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Shower curtains, Executive vouchers, Greenspan Knighted, and Accounting
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Jim Mahar
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Aug 18, 2002 23:55 PDT
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Shower curtains, Executive vouchers, Greenspan Knighted, Contagion, and
accounting for Options
FinanceProfessor News August 19, 2002
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FinanceProfessor.com
Bringing the Real World to the Classroom and vice versa!
Sign up for the free Newsletter at www.FinanceProfessor.com
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Top Stories
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1. $6000 shower curtain? No problem!
2. Execs vouch for their “numbers”
3. Corporate governance scandals continue
4. Airlines hit turbulence.
5. Sir Alan Greenspan
6. Globalization debate
7. South American Contagion
8. Analysts under fire for lack of independence
9. Is Greed good? Bad? Necessary?
10. Accounting for options and intangibles--not as easy as you think!
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Well I thought I was done a few days ago, but alas I was not…so as I
have meetings (a retreat for school) all day Monday and half day Tues, I
figured I better to get something to you. So this is quite a bit
shorter than normal. Sorry!
jim
JimM-@FinanceProfessor.com
and now the news:
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Top Story: Corporate Governance
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While the debate raged about the effectiveness of the new requirement,
most of the firms that the SEC told to have their CEO/CFOs personally
vouch for the accuracy of their financial statements did meet the August
14th deadline. Not surprisingly, Adelphia, Dynegy, and Worldcom were
among those that did not meet the deadline.
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20020814/RMATH/Headlines/headdex/headdexBusiness_temp/50/50/73/
http://money.cnn.com/2002/08/14/news/sec_deadline/index.htm
http://www.fortune.com/sitelets/SEC/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2194394.stm
http://www.cfo.com/article/1,5309,7562||C|1,00.html
Wow, Dennis Kozlowski the ex-CEO of Tyco has pulled the wool over
investors’ eyes more than anyone knew. It is reported that he received
approximately $135 million from the firm that was above and beyond any
reported pay. How? $18 million for a plush NYC apartment plus over 2
million to furnish it (where would one find a $6000 shower curtain?!?),
forgiven loans, the payment of the taxes on the forgiven loans, foreign
trips, and even birthday party for his wife that featured a concert by
Jimmy “don’t call me Warren” Buffett. (It seems he was a real world
version of Brewster from Brewster’s Millions!)
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/business/1526355
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57473-2002Aug7.html
http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/atc/20020807.atc.15.ram
New testimony suggests that Enron entered into sham transactions
designed to boost reported profits in order to achieve levels where
bonuses and option grants would kick in. Last month it was reported
that Enron had sold a barge to Merrill, now according to the Houston
Chronicle (who remains the preeminent source on the whole Enron story),
sham power trades were also entered on the premise they would be
canceled as soon as Enron could “book” the profit. Merrill denies any
wrong doings. Unfortunately we may never know the whole truth as it is
reported that the person who may have originated the deal was the late
Clifford Baxter.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/business/1526497
In an effort to prevent future such occurrences (sham transactions and
hiding debt)both JPMorganChase and Citigroup have agreed to no longer
make loans unless the borrowing firm agrees to publicly disclose the
loan.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57473-2002Aug7.html
Many people are beginning to ask why executives at Adelphia and Worldcom
been arrested, but no one yet from Enron. The best explanation appears
to be the complexity of the Enron deals has made prosecution difficult.
(a counter argument, which is held by some conspiracy theory advocates,
suggests that the reason is that Enron Officials contributed more money
to politicians.)
http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=110&xlc=787776
uh, oh. The other shoe may be getting ready to drop. Even if some of
these high ranking corporate officials get off for their fraud charges,
guess who will be waiting for them? The IRS! Some of those perks and
forgiven loans are taxable!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57061-2002Aug7.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57198-2002Aug7.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020807/bs_nm/tech_adelphia_report_dc_2
I would not want to trade places with Martha Stewart did not have a good
week. First she was sued (shock), then there were rumors that she was
going to lead a buyback of the shares (which was actually her best news
as it drove up the price of the stock even though it ended up falling
back when no bid was forthcoming), but then the big news: that her
broker’s trading assistant may be getting immunity in order to testify
that Martha Stewart had in fact received inside information prior to her
sale of 4000 Imclone shares. Not surprisingly, the bad publicity and
multiple government probes are hurting the company’s business.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/791502
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2172034.stm
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/020814/media_marthastewart_1.html
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Corporate Finance
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While GM, Citigroup, and others joined followed Coke and GE’s lead by
agreeing to expense options, some, such as Intel have stated they will
not do so. While there is some disagreement as to whether the options
should be expensed, I agree with Warren Buffett as it being a good move
since it allows the investor to see the real cost better.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/791357.asp
http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/020812/accounting_options_1.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/020812/tech_peoplesoft_1.html
USAIR declared bankruptcy, American announces cutbacks, and United said
they were in trouble and may face bankruptcy. These three traditional
airlines are having trouble facing the newer, more nimble carriers with
lower cost structures. One interesting case is United. The airline is
55% employee-owned through what is called an ESOP (Employee Stock
Ownership Plan). ESOPs are interesting on many fronts. For instance,
do employees who are owners work harder? While the jury is definitely
out, it seems that what is called the 1/n problem (basic idea is that as
the number of owners goes up, the incentives to work decline, is
dominating at United as employees remain unwilling to take pay cuts.
Another interesting aspect of ESOPS is that due to tax law, the former
owner is allowed to sell shares to the ESOP and as long as certain
conditions are met, not recognize capital gains.
http://slate.msn.com/?id=2069362
Well it no longer surprises me, but the NY Times reported that IPO
shares were often allocated to CEOs of firms with whom the start-up does
(or hopes to do) business. And this is not a bribe why? In a related
article Salomon Smith Barney is now under investigation as to whether
they allocated shares to the executives of firms who did their
investment banking with Salomon Smith Barney. (see two articles on Jack
Grubman in the financial Services section)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/04/business/yourmoney/04WATC.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/18/business/yourmoney/18WATC.html
The NYSE and Nasdaq are trying to implement new rules that require their
firms to be independently controlled. However, this is angering some
large institutional “buy-out” funds that exert large influence over
incumbent management who would not qualify as independent.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/020818/markets_stocks_ipo_1.html
In an attempt to both bring in more outsiders and stress their new
ethical view, Adelphia added Anthony Kronman a Yale law professor and
Rod Cornelius a private investor to their board of directors.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=580&e=4&cid=580&u=/nm/20020806/bs_nm/media_adelphia_dc_1
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Investments
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Newly appointed SEC member Harvey Goldschmid, owned stock in Enron,
Worldcom, and Global Crossing! Well at least we can not doubt that he
will want to catch the bad guys!
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/business/1522692
Big news from the Nasdaq and AMEX. The Amex began, and was then ordered
to halt, trading in Nasdaq stocks. The reason to halt was a court order
to determine if the thin volume was leading to improper price moves (an
argument which is weakened by the ability to trade simultaneously in
each market).
http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/020815/200208151950000768_1.html
Need a refresher in introductory bond pricing? The Houston Chronicle
provides it for you. (a good one for class “packets!”)
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/business/1537952
Real (that is inflation adjusted) after-tax returns are what investors
are after. For fixed income securities in a taxable account (we will
ignore capital gains) this is calculated as ((Raw return)(1-Tax
Rate))/(1 + inflation rate). As the Houston Chronicle pointed out, with
yields low, getting this ratio to be above 1.00 using only fixed income
securities is not as easy as it once thought.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/business/1522557
It is generally seen to be good news when corporate insiders are buying.
Thus the recent buying binge which has led insider buys to surpass
insider sells may signal we are nearing the end of the bear market.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-insiders6aug06.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dbusiness
The DallasNews' Pamela Pipp has a good article on the SIPC -the Security
Investors Protection Corp. It is the organization that insures
investors in the event that their brokerage firm goes out of business.
However, as the article stresses, the SPIC does not protect you from
market price declines of the assets.
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/columnists/pyip/stories/080502dnbusmoneytalk.4afbe.html
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Financial Institutions and Markets
(also Money and Banking)
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Amid growing speculation that Greenspan, who is at 76 years old the
oldest Fed Chairman the US has had, may be getting ready to retire, the
British made Greenspan an honorary knight. However, Sire Greenspan has
not publicly expressed a desire to step down and speculation that he
will soon step aside remains just speculation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52470-2002Aug6.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2177814.stm
There are essentially two basic types of true pension plans: defined
benefit plans and defined contribution plans. As the names suggest, a
defined contribution plan, the amount that gets invested is set (often
said to be guaranteed), in a defined benefit plan, the amount the that
the pensioner gets is set and the amount that is invested fluctuates
depending on how much is needed (based on assumptions and past
investment performance) to have enough to pay off the benefits. Through
the late 1990s after years of double digit stock market rises, many
companies revamped their expectations upward. Now that the market has
fallen, the former surplus has becomes a deficit at many firms. One US
firm that is particularly hard hit has been Tyco who is facing nearly $2
billion (1.7b) in liability.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/020815/manufacturing_tyco_pensions_1.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2173562.stm
Harvey Pitt has been at the helm of the SEC for over a year now so he
need no longer recuse himself on cases involving his former clients.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wrap6.2aug06.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dbusiness
As we saw in the corporate governance section, markets set their own
listing requirements. For example the NYSE and Nasdaq have price
minimums, require firms to file audited financial statements, and now
are contemplating requiring more independent board control (see above).
Well, here is a new one. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange is considering
requiring firms to disclose the number of HIV+ employees they have and
the costs of dealing with the problem.
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1028185766370&p=1012571727172
NasdaqJapan is no more. The attempt by the Nasdaq to build a global
market place has ended at least for now as the US market has voted to
end its Japan venture.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2196879.stm
At least in the US, very few companies sell flood insurance and you
usually have to get it through a government program. (is this true
internationally?) Why? Because floods strike vast regions and carry
enormous economic repercussions. Thus insurance companies would have to
charge a very high price to make the insurance profitable. Hence
governments usually enter the picture. This week’s example is the
flooding in Europe. Already the EU and Russia have agreed to pay for
some of the estimated $20 billion in damage. (ironically, the
Bonaventure Women’s basketball team is traveling through the flooded
region)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2200690.stm
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International Finance
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Globalization. No other topic in international finance is as
controversial. Does free-trade make people better off or worse off?
The answer is yes. Fortunately, the New York Times’ Magazine looked
into it a bit more deeply than that. And their answer? Free trade
works when it is fair.(warning, it is long but very much worth it!)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/18/magazine/18GLOBAL.html
But wait. Are the claims of a greater pay inequality overblown?
Probably. While there is no doubt that many people are poor and live on
only a few dollars a day, a new working paper by Xavier Sala-i-Martin
from Columbia University finds that much of the pay inequality may be
overstated by using statistics incorrectly. Specifically different
costs of living have not been correctly accounted for and many of the
early studies used equally-weight measures so that large and small
countries carried equal weight. When adjusted by population, it appears
that the majority of the world is more prosperous than some would lead
us to believe. (A must for international finance classes!!!)
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/business/1538429
Much of the world’s attention turned to the spreading contagion in South
America. Argentina’s woes have not been hurting their neighbors.
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/stories/080902dnbuslatam.4a21b.html
US made a 1.5 billion bridge loan to Uruguay which allowed the
economically troubled nations to reopen banks. As expected long lines
formed at most banks as investors wanted their money out before the
banks were to close again or further constrain withdrawals.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2171565.stm
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-uruguay6aug06.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dbusiness
The IMF was busy this week. They let the next installment of their loan
out to Turkey and they made a larger than expected $30 billion loan to
Brazil on top of the previously announced $15 billion loan, and they
faced by more requests for money from Argentina and Uruguay.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2179713.stm
http://www.msnbc.com/news/791365
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57222-2002Aug7.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2198872.stm
While in Brazil the Real remains on life support as leftists lead in the
polls. It is feared that a victory by the leftist parties would be bad
for the economy and hence the real.
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2182572.stm
Turkey’s Dervis resigns as Economic minister amid a lack of consensus.
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1028185772429&p=1012571727269
YES! Texas Governor Perry (who presumably has the ear of the president)
is at least publicly asking for the end of the protective steel tariffs!
It happened at a speech to steel manufacturers in Harlingen Texas. It
is not often that I can cite Harlingen Texas in the newsletter, let
alone on a cause that makes so much sense,
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=382&e=1&cid=382&u=/keye/20020807/lo_keye/governor_perry_calls_on_the_president_to_rescind_steel_tariffs
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Economics
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The US economy has been showing further signs that the recovery will not
be as strong as had been hope. In fact some economists are now talking
about the famous 'double dip' where the economy slows into a second
recession (Ok, an show of hands, how many of you were thinking ice cream
cones?) In response to these weaker than expected numbers, Goldman
Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and others have now forecasted a Fed Interest
rate cut from the current 1.75% to 1% by the end of 2002. As the NY
Times points out, how the recovery plays out will either lift Greenspan
still higher on a mantle of great economic thinks or put a chink in his
armor.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/16/business/16NORR.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/020802/markets_fed_goldman_3.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/020802/markets_global_3.html
Do you remember a few weeks ago when we discussed whether Greed is good
or not? The view then was that greed in moderation and with much
disclosure was what was needed to make markets work. This week Canada’s
National Post tackled the same “is Greed good?” question and came to
largely the same answer, only more eloquently: “The great sociologist
Max Weber hit the mark when he noted that "Unbridled avarice is not in
the least the equivalent of capitalism, still less of its 'spirit.'
Capitalism may actually amount to the restraint, or at least the
rational tempering, of this irrational impulse." Indeed, if greed were
the defining and essential characteristic of capitalism, then the former
Soviet Union and the African kleptocracies would be well on the way to
overtaking the West.” Bravo!
http://www.nationalpost.com/financialpost/story.html?id={B1C7704C-490F-423E-9C3A-12A13D006882}
The Whitehouse was out campaigning to raise consumer confidence and
hence the economy. Even John Cheney (who did bring out protestors) hit
the road.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/791117.asp
In a move I do not understand, the FCC has mandated that firms sell TVs
that are digital ready. Uh, what happened to markets working?
Shouldn’t firms be allowed to decide what to produce?
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/stories/080902dnbusdigitv.48b36.html
The IMF echoed the obvious by saying the US economy was not doing too
well and at least hinted that the US government was intentionally being
overly optimistic in its forecasts.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2174961.stm
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Energy Markets
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OPEC members are cheating. OPEC (the Organization of Petroleum
Producing Countries) is a group of 11 countries that have agreed to work
together to influence oil prices. The problem is that this influencing
means cutting production. So at OPEC meetings officials decide on how
much oil each member nation is allowed to produce. The problem? This
number is obviously less than the profit maximizing point (in
economic-speak where marginal cost= marginal benefit), so OPEC members
cheat and produce more than they had agreed upon. Due to a number of
reasons (including political unrest, deficits, and a slow economy, this
“cheating” is up.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2176114.stm
British Petroleum is betting that the Gulf of Mexico is one of the top
spots for future oil production (after the Middle East and Alaska).
Interesting angle: how little we really know as to how much oil is left.
Estimates vary widely.
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/stories/080602dnbusbp.51876.html
Oil prices rose this week as continued threats of a US invasion of Iraq
continued.
http://www.nationalpost.com/financialpost/story.html?id={53626F41-4451-4C8C-A202-01DA29519C0B}
Energy is weird in a way as sometimes economics do not win out. For
example, China is building an expensive pipeline across the nation.
This is in part to build ties between the different regions of the large
country and in part for strategic reasons to cut their dependence on
foreign oil.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/business/1538301
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Derivatives
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With increased volatility, the volume on the CBOT set a record for the
month of July with most of the gain being in financial derivatives.
Agricultural and other commodity derivatives were essentially flat.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/020802/financial_cbot_volume_1.html
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Financial Service Industry
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Do you keep your emails? In a surprise decision, 6 brokerages were
fined $10 m by the SEC (total) for not keeping their emails. The six are
Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Salomon Smith Barney, Morgan Stanley,
Deutsche Bank, and Piper Jaffray. (There is no truth to the rumor that
the reason they were fined was that the SEC suspected that some
individuals at the firm were behaving irresponsibly by NOT reading their
FinanceProfessor.com newsletter.)
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/020802/financial_brokerages_2.html
Is he the fall guy for a bigger problem? Probably, but as the most
famous of the players, Jack Grubman, the former “star analyst” who is
accused of allocated hot IPOs to the executives of firms who did
investment banking with his firm. This week Grubman resigned from
Salomon Smith Barney.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/18/business/yourmoney/18WATC.html
Business Week has a very interesting interview with Jacob Zamanksy the
attorney who has been involved in the conflict of interest suits against
“star” analysts. In the interview, he discusses the resignation of Jack
Grubman (see above) and predicts (with inside knowledge?) that Mary
Meeker will be next. The basic point of all of these cases is that the
analysts were compromised by their ties to the investment banking side
of their firm.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/aug2002/nf20020816_2712.htm
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Real Estate
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Bubble? The UK real estate market continues to climb in spite of a
slowing economy and a falling stock market. Amazingly, prices were up
over 13% last year!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2172964.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2178793.stm
Hakeem Olajuwon, the former center for the Houston Rockets and now for
the Toronto Raptors has become quite a real estate investor. He is
currently buying an old moving van facility and plans on redeveloping it
as a shopping center on one of the prime streets in Houston. Experts
call it a “slam dunk.” (interesting trivia: Chick Hearn the long-time
Los Angeles Laker announcer who died recently, was the person who
reportedly coined the term “slam dunk”.)
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/business/1526524n
Wow, Can this be true? Overall the home real estate market has not
fallen once in the past 30 odd years?! Wow. If true that is
surprising.
http://www.fortune.com/sitelets/retirement2002/realestate_sleep.html
Mortgage rates in the US have fallen to a 32 year low.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/020808/economy_mortgages_2.html
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Accounting News
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So much for time to get your feet wet on the new job! Last month Robert
Herz took over as head of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. And
in case you have been asleep for the past year, accounting is under fire
on all fronts fro its role in the recent corporate governance and
accounting scandals. So the solution? There is probably no silver
bullet, but Herz “personally favors “‘principles based’ accounting” with
fewer rules but easier to follow guidelines. (he also speaks on the
next topic: accounting for stock options)
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/aug2002/nf20020819_0920.htm
How to account for intangible assets remains one of the important topics
in accounting. Unlike physical assets whose historical cost may make a
decent approximation, intangible assets are exceedingly open to
judgments into their valuation
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/aug2002/nf20020819_9681.htm
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/aug2002/nf20020819_0920.htm
While this story is also included in the corporate finance section
above, it is really an accounting topic: how to account for stock
options? Should they be expensed? If so how to should they be valued?
It is a tough call, and while no solution is perfect, I agree with Coke,
GM, and the others that are now expensing the options. Thus, I was
happy to find that the FASB and IASB agree that firms should expense the
options.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52278-2002Aug6.html
http://www.msnbc.com/news/791357.asp
http://www.msnbc.com/news/791543
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/aug2002/nf20020819_0920.htm
http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=208808
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57198-2002Aug7.html
Andersen is no longer allowed to do business in Texas.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2198621.stm
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Finance Humor
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I am not making this up! Qwest, who has been under scrutiny for
accounting irregularities and the like, has an advertisement that runs:
“One company…total accountability.” Uh, ok.
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Of interest to students
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The Wall Street has a good free site that provides career advice
including articles on interviews, resumes, and even MBA programs.
http://www.collegejournal.com/
Looking for a job in NYC? Bryan Lehner, who is one of my former
students from Penn State and a really nice guy, has created a site that
lists financial firms in the city.
http://www.bryanlehner.com/finance_database/firms.asp
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FinanceProfessor.com Lesson of the week
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Slate provides this week’s lesson. In a response to a reader’s question,
the Microsoft- owned news magazine explains what a reverse stock split
is (BTW it is when you give up multiple shares for a single new share
that, in theory at least, has the same overall value. Why do a reverse
split? Firms reverse split to get their stock price up over some number
(either to allow institutional ownership or to remain listed on a
market.
http://slate.msn.com/?id=2069189
http://www.nasdaq.com/about/nasdaq_listing_req_fees.pdf
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Teaching Ideas
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Use name placards (even in small classes) until the student’s names
become second nature to you. (Remember even when you think you know the
names, in the heat of class, the names may not come directly to you, so
have the students keep using name cards for longer than would otherwise
be expected.
Use FinanceProfessor newsletter as a means for students to learn how
what they are learning in class is applied in the real world (and they
have the added benefit of keeping up on current events which can help
come interview time.
BTW if you missed the interview with Robert Bruner, by all means check
it out. It is excellent!
http://www.financeprofessor.com/interviews/robertbrunerAugust2002.htm
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What I am reading
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Schindler’s List. Well it is everything I expected and then some, yes I
know it is a novel, but it is based on truth so if you haven’t read it,
go do so. Even if you have seen the movie. With every holocaust book I
read I always get to the same conclusion: how did it ever happen? How
can people be so stupid/mean/heartless? I feel bad when I kill an
insect and there people killed 5 million people. Unreal. The other
thing I will take away from this that while one person cannot do it all
(over 5 million died), that does not mean we should not do something
(Indeed a seemingly average man saved 1100-1500 people and maybe more by
his example). I am so wrapped up in the book, I watched much of the
History Channel’s (6?) hours of Holocaust coverage that was on TV this
afternoon!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671880314/finpapers/104-9378365-5272442
Rough Riders by Theodore Roosevelt. I really like this one. I was
surprised as I only bought it because it was about TR and that was a New
Year’s resolution. But I really was impressed with his insights (in
human nature as well as into the times themselves).
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0736624406/finpapers/104-9378365-5272442
Isaac’s Storm. I guess I won’t complain when it rains! Can you imagine
living before satellite-based weather forecasts? It is surprising fewer
such tragedies did not occur.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375708278/finpapers/104-9378365-5272442
I just ordered this and I have not read it yet, but it sounds so good I
had to let you know about it. It is a collection of WSJ's front page
'middle articles.' You know the one, it is everyone's favorite! The
article you always wish you had time to read.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743226631/finpapers/104-9378365-5272442
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Quotes of the week:
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Don't wait for your 'ship to come in' and feel angry and cheated when it
doesn't. Get going with something small.-- Irene Kassorla
It is never too late to be what you might have been--George Elliot
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication—Leonardo Da Vinci
People, by and large, will relate to the image you project--Chyatee
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That is all the time I have today. If you have any ideas for the site
or the newsletter please let me know. I apologize this week for not
having the very interesting stuff on United and on Microsoft that people
sent. I simply ran out of time. Maybe next time. But thank you for
sending them, they were very interesting!
Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it and learned something (or even
many things) from it!
Jim
JimM-@FinanceProfessor.com
P.S. Why not send this to your class? They will find it a great way to
stay up on the field!
Who had an embarrassingly slow race last week. All I can say is that it
was pretty warm and I ran somewhat defensively as a result. And as a
team we did well, so :-) On the plus side I had my VO2 max estimated
and it suggests I should be running much faster...I think I need to
remember how to run through pain or get more sleep. Or both.
Whose allergies have been very bad of late. (I wonder if that is
related to the previous point!)
Who lost his pocket PC only to find it after it had reset due to lack of
battery power. :-(
Who has been picking some tomatoes but mainly patio and cherry
varieties, most, including Romas (my favorite by far) are not yet ready.
As an aside, our apples are horrible this year. The snow during May
killed most of the blossoms.
Who laughed out loud when he heard Met fans chanting “go-on strike!” I
honestly feel sorry for Bobby Valentine. I do not know how much of
their trouble is his fault, but the team just seems unfocused and out of
whack.
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Oh and a final favor-pass this on to someone you think would like it--a
fellow student, a past teacher, your current teacher, your parents,
anyone who it might help. Thanks!
Thanks for forwarding this so much. That is the only way I know this
newsletter is growing so fast. :-)
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copyright 2002 FinanceProfessor.com
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