Earthquakes and the Mind-Bending Laws of Markets - Bloomberg


To summarize: markets (and earthquakes) are not "normal".

Earthquakes and the Mind-Bending Laws of Markets - Bloomberg:


"Unfortunately, centuries of science and mathematics tradition, focusing on the normal statistics of things like weights, heights, and test scores, has taught us to see the world incorrectly. It was a telling moment on April 27, 2010, when Goldman Sachs Chief Financial

Spreadsheet for calculating interest payments



My MBA 604 class was asking about this, so I figured I would share it with everyone.  It is simple but shows how early payments go primarily to paying off interest. 

California Schools Finance Upgrades by Making the Next Generation Pay - NYTimes.com


California Schools Finance Upgrades by Making the Next Generation Pay - NYTimes.com:

This past week I was at a conference where one of the presentations was on these Capital Appreciation Bonds.  Essentially while these look like zero coupon bonds to investors, they take advantage of accounting loopholes that allow the price appreciation to be catergorized at deferred interest. And hence only

How Pervasive is Corporate Fraud? by I.J. Dyck, Adair Morse, Luigi Zingales :: SSRN

How Pervasive is Corporate Fraud? by I.J. Dyck, Adair Morse, Luigi Zingales :: SSRN:

Abstract:
"We estimate what percentage of firms engage in fraud and the economic cost of fraud. Our estimates are based on detected frauds, and frauds that we infer are started but are not caught. To identify the ‘iceberg’ of undetected fraud we take advantage of an exogenous shock to the incentives for fraud

Swiss vote for tough curbs on executive pay - Europe - Al Jazeera English


Swiss vote for tough curbs on executive pay - Europe - Al Jazeera English:

Shareholder voting on pay that matters?  This will be interesting to watch.  


"Swiss citizens voted to impose some of the world's strictest controls on executive pay, forcing public companies to give shareholders a binding vote on compensation, initial result projections showed.

Claude Longchamp, of pollsters Gfs

SEC Speech: Harnessing Tomorrow’s Technology for Today’s Investors and Markets, by Chairman Elisse Walter, on February 19, 2013


High Frequency trading has been in the news (and in class) quite a bit lately.  While high frequency trading seems to have peaked, it is still in the news (For example Warren Buffett sort of talked about it, regulators in the US and Germany are looking into it).   So a short "lesson"

So from Wikipedia:

"High-frequency trading (HFT) is the use of sophisticated technological tools and computer

China's real estate bubble - 60 Minutes - CBS News

China's real estate bubble - 60 Minutes - CBS News

Heinz CEO Johnson Would Get $200 Million in Post-Berkshire Exit - Yahoo! Finance


Heinz CEO Johnson Would Get $200 Million in Post-Berkshire Exit - Yahoo! Finance:


"H.J. Heinz Co. (HNZ) Chief Executive Officer Bill Johnson could receive more than $200 million should he exit after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) and Jorge Paulo Lemann's 3G Capital Inc. buy the ketchup maker.

Johnson, 64, would get "Golden Parachute Compensation" including $56 million in

To Limit Corporate Tax Avoidance, Tax Investors - Bloomberg




Income Tax rates by Country based on OECD 2005 data. "OECD Tax Database". Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development . . Retrieved 2007-01-30 . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To Limit Corporate Tax Avoidance, Tax Investors - Bloomberg:

Thoughts?  

"International companies have so much discretion in allocating costs and revenues across their dispersed units that the corporate tax

SEC sues over Heinz option trading before buyout - Yahoo! Finance


SEC sues over Heinz option trading before buyout - Yahoo! Finance:

"The suit, in federal court in Manhattan, cites "highly suspicious trading" in Heinz call options just prior to the February 14 announcement of the deal. The regulator has frequently in past filed suit against unnamed individuals where it has evidence of wrongdoing, but is still trying to uncover the identities of those involved

Warren Buffett and Heinz: Why He Made the Investment | TIME.com

Warren Buffett and Heinz: Why He Made the Investment | TIME.com:

"As market watchers know, he’s considered a value investor—someone who buys companies when they’re cheap—which is a strategy he learned from his Columbia Business School professor Benjamin Graham, author of the geeky classic The Intelligent Investor. He’s also partial to the market’s plain vanilla: low-risk companies with

Analysis: Accounting risk clouds big U.S. business bets in China - Yahoo! Finance

Analysis: Accounting risk clouds big U.S. business bets in China - Yahoo! Finance:

"Concern is growing about risks to U.S.-based multinationals in a country where American audit regulators are locked out by the Chinese government and bribery and fraud are routine.....On January 18, Caterpillar disclosed "deliberate, multi-year, coordinated accounting misconduct" at the Siwei unit of ERA Mining