Negotiation is a a delicate art. Whether you are buying something, or trying to strike some sort of deal.Trouble is most people are not that good at it, according to a Duke University and university...

How much do hedge fund managers make? A lot more than ordinary folk.According to a new study, the top 20 private equity and hedge fund managers pocketed an average $657.5 million, or 22,255 times the...

As a breed, politicians never cease to amaze me. Short-sighted, self-serving and sometimes, just totally clueless.A very good example is Senator Chuck Schumer's attempt to lean on the Big Four...

With climate change and shifting weather patterns, water shortages are now popping up everywhere around the world. Whether it's in the US, Australia, Ireland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and other parts of...

What is it with insider trading? Why is there a spate of cases involving dirty trades and pillow talk?The Securities and Exchange Commission has so far filed seven insider trading cases against...

Over the last few months, I have done a few entries on Sarbanes-Oxley co-author Michael Oxley's life after leaving Congress. I've talked about him here, here, here , here and here.Check this...

The analysis over the long-awaited and long-overdue resignation of Alberto Gonzales will continue for some time. A good summing up of the commentary is in Slate. For a decent analysis of his less...

The fallout from the subprime debacle continues to spread. Now it's hitting realtors and internet companies are also bracing themselves for problems with a projected drop-off in advertising.No...

Earlier this year, I talked about how the money sloshing into London has created a new class of bankers and traders: the haves and the have-yachts.But US bankers and traders haven't exactly been...

It's finally happened. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has been conducting inspections of audit work for a few years now. At last, we have good analysis of the kind of audit...

Interesting response in the blogosphere over the last few weeks to the report in The Times that Pope Benedict XVI plans to issue a doctrinal pronouncement condemning tax evasion as "socially...

Why do we keep making bad investments? Maybe it's because of the way our brains are wired up, says Jason Zweig, author of Your Money and Your Brain.Zweig gives eight tips CNN Money, just warnings...

I have long maintained that Sarbanes-Oxley has been a licence to print money for accountants.If you needed any further evidence, these findings from the Corporate Library reported here are further...

Keeping the customer happy has been a management mantra for years. So why is it that companies keep gouging them? Why do phone companies lock customers into complex contracts with charges hidden in...

Retention of electronic records is a hot issue for business and it has proven itself to be a big compliance headache. I have blogged on that issue here, here and here.AXS-One is a global records...

No secret that compliance spending has been heading north since Sarbanes-Oxley and Basel II. But is it doing any good?Not according to a survey published in Steve Brown's Network Observations...

Earlier this month, I talked about Refco's delinquent community, and about how many people were colluding. Everyone seemed to have a slice of the action that sent the company to the dogs. At the...

The volatility in the markets now reflects a whole new set of financial risks, says Harvard Business School business administration lecturer Mohamed El-Erian.He argues that the markets have become so...

Now that the Justice Department got its first backdating scalp in Brocade Communications System's former CEO Gregory Reyes, the Securities and Exchange Commission has now targeted company's...