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markets
by leon on August 29, 2008
Earlier this week, I did a blog entry looking at whether the US was in a recession. As I said at the time, it depends how you define it but the signs are not looking good and things are likely to get...
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strategy
by leon on August 29, 2008
Why are there more male leaders, both corporate and political, than female? A new study has confirmed something we have all long suspected - a fair bit of gender bias.The study from the Pew Research ...
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boards of directors
by leon on August 28, 2008
We have talked many times about how Sarbanes-Oxley has turned into a goldmine for accountants.The other lot that's made big gains are the lawyers. Sarbanes-Oxley means we're now seeing more l...
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Accounting
by leon on August 28, 2008
Finally, the US has moved another step closer to joining the rest of the world with the Securities and Exchange Commission releasing a road map that would have US companies using International Financ...
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risk
by leon on August 28, 2008
The number of personal information leaks reported in the US this year have already eclipsed the total amount in all of 2007, according to the latest figures from the Identity Theft Resource Center (I...
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markets
by leon on August 27, 2008
The banking sector is in serious trouble and it's likely to get worse with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp revealing that the number of banks on its "problem list" has jumped 30 per ...
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executive pay
by leon on August 26, 2008
US taxpayers are subsidizing CEO salaries by more than $20 billion a year through tax and accounting loopholes, according to a report by the Institute of Policy Studies. That is more than double what...
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markets
by leon on August 26, 2008
Is the US in recession or not?That really depends on how you would define it. Sure, US unemployment has risen sharply, and there are lots of other signs confirming that the US economy is going down t...
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SOX
by leon on August 25, 2008
Was it ever going to be any different? The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld the constitutionality of Sarbanes-Oxley, and in particular the Public Company Accounting...
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corporate crime
by leon on August 25, 2008
So Conrad Black's latest appeal against his six and a half year sentence has been rejected. No surprises there. But it's not surprising either to read that the Lord Black of Crossharbour has ...
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executive pay
by leon on August 22, 2008
It has not been a great year for Merrill Lynch with New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo moving to sue the firm for allegedly misleading investors over auction rate securities. Things are so ...
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regulators
by leon on August 22, 2008
Last month, I did a blog entry on Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan's battle with tax authorities. Basically, he was challenging the tax man to come and get him.Looks like the authorities are doin...
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corporate crime
by leon on August 21, 2008
Looks like Siemens is close to doing a deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission with Der Spiegel reporting that the company is about to secure a settlement with the regulator.This is the comp...
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markets
by leon on August 21, 2008
The News Corp share price has not been doing that well but that hasn't stopped Rupert Murdoch getting a $30.1 million payout, up 24 per cent from a year before. That's despite the company'...
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markets
by leon on August 20, 2008
What impact will the climate crisis have on business organizations?It will reshape them, bringing in new lines of reporting and accountability. And it will usher in new careers and jobs. I explain th...
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markets
by leon on August 19, 2008
The Germans are coming!! With economies slowing down, German discount chains such as Lidl and Aldi, another are taking market share, charging some 30-50% less for groceries than ordinary supermarkets...
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corporate crime
by leon on August 19, 2008
No surprises here with reports that Siemens had basically set up systems that had its managers aiding and abetting in the corruption.Based on the disclosures, here, it seems that Siemens' widespr...
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corporate crime
by leon on August 18, 2008
More signs that Britain will have a hard time internationally with Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development member-states slamming London's failure to deal with corporate bribery.Th...
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markets
by leon on August 18, 2008
Last Friday's announcement that the Mrs Fields Famous Brands chain of cookie shops has gone broke is another sign of the deep problems now confronting the US economy. It has has filed for Chapter...
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markets
by leon on August 15, 2008
Is this the canary in the coal mine?In another sign that the effects of the US subprime crisis have spread globally, Bloomberg reports that global business air traffic fell 0.4 percent in June, the b...
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Accounting
by leon on August 15, 2008
Big question marks hang over the latest proposals from the Financial Accounting Standards Board, reported here, requiring companies to account for the potential cost of ongoing litigation. As The Wal...
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markets
by leon on August 14, 2008
More evidence of the US housing crisis with a new study, reported here, showing that one in three US home owners who bought in the last five years now owe more than what the property is worth.The stu...
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markets
by leon on August 14, 2008
It's often claimed that some firms delisted from the US market because of Sarbanes-Oxley. But a new study says that's not true.The Fisher College of Business study, Why do foreign firms leave...
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Compliance
by leon on August 14, 2008
The rich are different. Unlike the rest of the population, big US corporations and foreign owned corporations are getting out of paying tax, according to the latest Government Accountability Office r...
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markets
by leon on August 13, 2008
Heard management guru Gary Hamel talk about the US banks today. And he was savage.Forget all this talk about commodity prices and the US dollar. The name of the game is the US housing crisis and the ...
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Ethics
by leon on August 12, 2008
Forget the ongoing probe by the U.S. Department of Justice into allegations that Saudi officials took bribes from BAE, as part of the $82.5 billion Al-Yamanah military aircraft deal.BAE is back at it...
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risk
by leon on August 12, 2008
Investors need to pay careful attention to the non-verbal vocal cues of chief financial officers - stuff like voice pitch, tone, intensity, speed, volume, inflection, and the amount of time they take...
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shareholder activism
by leon on August 11, 2008
More investors are putting pressure on companies over climate change, and the trend is likely to escalate.The latest analysis from the RiskMetrics Group which shows more shareholder resolutions are b...
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risk
by leon on August 11, 2008
With the banks imploding, it's refreshing to read the confession of a risk manager in this Week's Economist.It's anonymous and we don't know which bank. But the insights are worth rea...
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markets
by leon on August 10, 2008
Are women better fund managers than men? And is Warren Buffett actually a woman trapped inside a man's body?That seems to be be The message in this fascinating interview with Pomegranate Capital&...
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corporate crime
by leon on August 10, 2008
As a piece of bizarre, self-serving crap, the piece from Conrad Black's grieving wide Barbara Amiel in The Times is hard to beat.Like her husband, she shows absolutely no remorse about the fraud ...
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litigation
by leon on August 10, 2008
General Motors Corp. and its auditor, Deloitte have reluctantly agreed to pay $303 million to settle claims that the automaker lied to investors about its finances.The settlement seeks closure on a t...
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Ethics
by leon on August 8, 2008
There's been plenty of research on why organizations go bad and turn corrupt. but how do you rebuild them after the legal and ethical breaches?In this paper out of the Academy of Management Revie...
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strategy
by leon on August 8, 2008
All around the world, newspaper circulation figures are heading south. There are various explanations for that, mostly related to the Internet.Slate's Jack Schafer provides an interesting explana...
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corporate governance
by leon on August 7, 2008
Corporate governance is increasingly like a zoo! That's one insight that has come out of the 2008 International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) conference recently held in Seoul, Korea.AMP Ca...
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risk
by leon on August 7, 2008
Some of the world's biggest companies are at serious risk of cost blowouts, regulatory burdens and reputational damage, according to a new report from the London-based Ethical Investment Research...
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markets
by leon on August 6, 2008
Rising dairy and beef prices are forcing McDonalds to do the unthinkable and removing the cheese from its infamous cheeseburgers, reports The Wall Street Journal. It's a significant move because ...
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Accounting
by leon on August 6, 2008
Earlier this year, I asked the question: are accountants recession-proof?As I pointed out at the time, accounting firms tend to run very lean and the fees just keep coming and heading north. No surpr...
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Ethics
by leon on August 5, 2008
Pax World Funds, which calls itself a socially and environmentally responsible mutual fund, has come to grief after it agreed to pay $500,000 to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that...
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Ethics
by leon on August 5, 2008
Only a few weeks ago, I did a blog entry on how the BAE-Saudi bribery scandal was getting worse.Just how much worse? Well, now we have the Financial Times reporting linking the armaments maker to a c...
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litigation
by leon on August 4, 2008
Ratings agencies are now getting sued. That was always inevitable.Just one month after the Securities and Exchange Commission brought down a report slating the agencies for conflicts of interest that...
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Accounting
by leon on August 4, 2008
You really have to question which side these accounting rule-makers are on. Certainly not on the side of investors.The Financial Accounting Standards Board has decided to delay proposed changes that ...
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Ethics
by leon on August 2, 2008
The office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction has put out a damning report on the $900 million construction project awarded to Parsons corporation for work done, or more to the ...
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markets
by leon on August 2, 2008
The woes of what was once America's once-greatest icon, General Motors, go from bad to worse with the company announcing a $15.5 billion second quarter loss.It creates a vicious circle for the au...
