“This is a nightmare, which will pass away with the morning. For the resources of nature and man’s devices are just as fertile and productive as they ever were. The rate of our progress toward solving the material problems of life is not less rapid. We are as capable as…
The NY Times recently published an interview with Bob Seiwert, a senior vice president for the Center for Commercial Lending and Business Banking at the American Bankers Association, a trade group in Washington. Transparency. Full Disclosure. Risk Management. These are a few of the items on his checklist of key…
You should read the transcript From Ken Lewis testimony before the Financial Services Committee of the US House of Representatives. It is a reasoned discussion of Bank of America's performance and highlights several key points that we rarely read about: The US taxpayers will receive $2.8 billion in dividends this…
Fortune magazine recently interviewed Jim Collins, whose popular book, Good to Great, took the business community by storm a few years ago. He talks about the current turbulence and some of the variables uncovered in his research about companies that prevail during difficult times.Being securely moored in powerful values and…
Charles Dickens' famous opening sentence continues ... "it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity." More than 150 years later, our business world is possessed of similar contradictions. Sometimes the light you see at…
It’s truly stunning that the Senate today failed to pass an assistance program for the auto industry.
I’ve tried not to be too vociferous about all of this, and I’ve written before about being in favor of a bridge loan to the automakers despite the railing of my capitalist friends, but this decision is truly mind-boggling!
It’s unarguable that our economy is extremely fragile. I think it’s equally clear . . . crystal . . . that it cannot withstand the catastrophic results of a failure within our largest manufacturing sector, which arguably supports 2.5 – 3 million jobs, without great harm to the economy in all of its incarnations . . . unemployment, consumer spending, etc.
The Senate has shown again how out of touch they are . . . (more…)
It won't surprise anyone that CEOs are finding risk management at the top of their agendas these days as they move to survival mode. The Conference Board's recent survey finds that neither "global economic risk" nor "financial risk" were on the list of top ten concerns last month. Gone from…
The New York Times recently wrote an investigative piece about the ratings agencies, particularly Moody's, and their role in the financial debacle that has befallen Wall St. Lucifer smiled and opened his gates, I suspect, when Moody's started selling their services to the same parties they are rating, and did…
Business Week recently published a summary of some of the challenges facing companies seeking venture capital. Most of the advice is pretty common, and I think, applies to obtaining capital of any kind. In short, demonstrate a realistic value proposition, plan for positive cash flow and show a sustainable, lean…