May 11, 2012
I just read an article in the NY Times about young authors who have written books on personal finances. Then it struck me -- what a great idea for a gift for a new graduate? So let me share a few titles for you to look at.
First, there’s How to be Richer, Smarter and Better Looking than your Parents by Zac Bissonnette. He’s 23 and has really strong opinions. So, if your grad enjoys a no holds barred approach, this is the book. He was also on NPR Talk of the Nation on May 3. It’s a fun interview.
You can listen here
I like the book’s cover too.
Another choice would be Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You to Be Rich. Ramit’s point is that he grew up in an Indian family where bargaining and negotiating was a cultural norm. He learned how to do it from his parents. He portrays the skill as learning how to ask for what you want.
Check out his website and blog
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May 3, 2012
I recently stumbled upon a blog that doesn’t hold back in its observations and criticisms of the public accounting profession. Written by two accounting professors (Penn State and Villanova), the blog is not hesitant to take on important issues in the profession. Although they write on many topics, I always visit their section on the Profession to start. They never hold back their criticisms. Recent topics in this section include one on COSO and whether they are really providing any value; wondering why someone in the Big 4 doesn’t pick up on the recent NY Times article “Why I am leaving Goldman Sachs” and write something similar. You’ll never be bored by their commentary and they will force you to think. A great blog. I recommend it.
View blog
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April 19, 2012
Apparently NASDAQ, where Groupon is listed, allows the “financial expert” required on the audit committee to be “CEOs who have supervised accounting or finance staff.” They don’t have to experts themselves. This is interesting because one of the goals of SOX was to make audit committees stronger and more effective. Doesn’t it seem obvious that having someone with REAL accounting/auditing experience would be the way to go? Like a CPA?
Read more
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April 17, 2012
I’m working on my presentation for the Minnesota Council of Accounting Educators conference, held each year in April. I just updated one of my slides. Take a look --
This is data from the U.S. Dept. of Labor. It looks like we’ve turned a corner.
I was curious about which recent year was the high point for Minnesota. Here’s what I found:
| Year |
Number Employed |
| 1999 |
21,300 |
| 2000 |
21,960 |
| 2001 |
20,840 |
| 2002 |
21,620 |
| 2003 |
21,530 |
| 2004 |
22,270 |
| 2005 |
23,550 |
| 2006 |
24,060 |
Minnesota reached its peak in the employment of accountants and auditors in 2006, just when the housing market bubble peaked and then started to decline.
By the way, back in 1999 the annual mean wage in the profession was $42,540. A&A has had about a 33% increase in mean wages. However, the inflation rate from 1999 to 2011 was about 35%. Hmmmmmmm.
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April 10, 2012
Although this article is from Canada, it captures the role of the CFO so well.
There is so much more than accounting to the role. In fact, accounting may be a smaller part of the job than most imagine. (However, note the current Groupon mess – not a good idea to pay too little attention.)
The role includes project management, strategic planning, marketing, risk management, finance, plus HR and IT in many cases. Plus the CFO is responsible for keeping the business out of trouble via managing compliance with no mistakes.
My experience meeting and getting to know our members who choose to go into Business & Industry is that they’re a different kind of CPA. What do you think?
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April 6, 2012
OK, now it’s official. Accounting will make you happy. CareerBliss.com, an online job site, compiled a list based on employee reviews and accountants scored high on “the company you work for” and “the people you work with.” Accountants came in 8th out of ten. (#1 was Software Quality Assurance Engineer….hmmmm, not sure what that means.)
Read full article
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April 3, 2012
“Financial Advisors” steer customers to the products that benefit the advisor rather than the client. Well, duh. It seems kind of obvious, don’t you think? If you’re paid by commission, then selling products will be your focus, not necessarily doing the right thing for the client. Isn’t the more important question “How do we educate people so they can differentiate between different types of financial advisors?”
This study looked at advisors who work for banks, brokerages and investment advisory firms and focused on those with $500,000 or less to invest.
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March 28, 2012
There seems to be quite a lot of controversy about the “JOBS Act”, also known as the “IPO bill” or the “Startup bill” in Congress. The bill is supposed to loosen regulatory scrutiny on growing companies by exempting them from an array of accounting and corporate-governance requirements and make it easier for them to go public. Although the bill has bipartisan support, a rarity, not everyone is convinced this is a good idea.
Read full article
The big concern is that investment activity could “grind to a halt”. For the first five years after an IPO companies with up to $1 billion in revenues would be exempt from Section 404(b) of SOX. That might be a good thing. However, these firms would also be able to “wriggle past” the SEC’s disclosure rules. Now, if the company has 500 shareholders and up to $10 million in assets, they must register with the SEC. This new bill means that they could have 2,000 shareholders before having to register. This might keep would-be investors on the sidelines. There is also a provision that enables banks to circumvent the pre-IPO quiet period before the company goes public, allowing possible market manipulation.
Bottom line, investors need to be able to trust the IPO market in order to make investments.
Harvard law professor John Coates says there will be bad behavior. “It’s not just a possibility; I guarantee that someone will in fact do worse than Enron as a result of this bill….There will just be outright fraud.”
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March 9, 2012
The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA), Certified Management Accountants of Canada (CMA Canada), and the Certified General Accountants of Canada (CGA-Canada) have presented to their members a proposed framework for uniting the accounting profession in Canada. The cool thing from our perspective is that it calls for the creation of a new designation, Chartered Professional Accountant, or CPA! Thinking really long term, can you imagine one designation for all of North America --- CPA? I’m just thinkin……
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March 7, 2012
Well, here’s an interesting study from the National Academy of Sciences. – “Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior”
What’s really fascinating here is that their unethical tendencies “are accounted for, in part, by their more favorable attitudes toward greed.”
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