November 30, 2005
Caps Off to the Auditors
The Wall Street Journal reported that Sun Microsystems has disclosed a very intriguing "auditing liability cap" arrangement with Ernst & Young. Effectively this means that if Sun reports gross mistatements in its financials, it can't turn around and sue the heck out of its auditors when investors dump the stock upon discovery of the errors. Jack Ciesielski makes a great point in his blog that this may shift the onus back to the corporation to provide better results in the first place instead of depending on the auditors to sniff out problems. Watching investors' reactions to this kind of arrangement in the future should give an idea of whether it will turn out to be better for the financial community.
Posted by Michelle Smith at 08:40 PM | Comments (1)
September 18, 2005
Homemade Irrational Exuberance
Home prices have risen over 50% in America in the last 8 years. These days even old Grandmas in line at Safeway can be heard chatting about a real estate bubble. So why won’t those stubborn prices stop jumping?
Posted by Michelle Smith at 06:37 AM | Comments (0)
August 06, 2005
South Korea's Big Little Thorn
S. Korea just got a major thorn out of its side. For the benefit of those who are visual learners, the thorn, in life size, looks like this:
"-"
Posted by Michelle Smith at 06:23 PM | Comments (0)
July 28, 2005
Hey, what was that S&L thing again?
You’re out of your mind!!!!
This is the reaction that many corporations are having to yesterday’s Senate Finance Committee’s monumental decision to approve the forcing of firms to fully fund their defined benefit pension plans.
After years of shorting the coffer on these plans, which guarantee employees regular monthly checks when they retire, corporations and their lobbyists are now sweating in their power suits, pounding down the door at 219 Dirksen to convince the Senate Committee that the idea is insane.
Insane, eh? Try imperative.
Posted by Michelle Smith at 12:15 AM | Comments (0)
July 11, 2005
U.S. Real Estate: The Mysterious Bag Holder
U.S. mortgage financing practices are out of whack. The problem is, nobody quite knows who is bearing the risks.
Posted by Michelle Smith at 08:02 AM | Comments (0)