Category: news

Fresh Air on Corporate Accounting Scandals

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Terry Gross interviewed Alex Berenson on Fresh Air yesterday:

Alex Berenson is a financial investigative reporter for the New York Times. In his new book The Number: How the Drive for Quarterly Earnings Corrupted Wall Street and Corporate America, Berenson examines the corporate scandals at Worldcom, Halliburton, Computer Associates, Tyco, and others, looking at practices that were common to all.

I usually enjoy Fresh Air, and I especially enjoyed yesterday’s show. The interview is about 20 mins, but it really goes into some of the nuts and bolts of “creative accounting” methods — but in terms that regular people can understand.

Wal-Mart Atop Fortune 500

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

For the second year in a row, Wal-Mart is #1 on the Fortune 500 (GM, ExxonMobil, Ford and GE round out the top 5).

None of that was particularly surprising to me, but I wasn’t aware of the lead that Wal-Mart held over the runners-up. Fortune offers these hypothetical cases that could occur to oust Wal-Mart from the top spot.

By this time next year, it plans to be another $26 billion higher, bringing its revenues to $272 billion. Assuming it hits that goal, is there any scenario in which Wal-Mart is not No. 1 next year? Improbable but not impossible is that oil prices rise—yet not so far that SUV drivers stop filling up—pushing Exxon Mobil into the lead for a year. Barring that scenario, here’s the best we could do:

  • All the defense companies on the list (Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and four others) merge to form Military Industrial Complex Inc. Total revenues: $162 billion. Not even close.
  • Antitrust regulators bless the creation of ExxonMobilChevronTexaco: $182 billion + $92 billion = $274 billion. The winner by a nose.
  • General Motors and Ford join hands: $187 billion + $163 billion = $350 billion. A new No. 1! Unless ...
  • Average coffee consumption spikes from 1.6 cups per day to 284 cups. Starbucks leaps straight to the top.

Wow, capitalism at work.

Silly Dow, Tricks are for Kids!

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

Tossing away its earlier gains, the Dow dropped 238 points yesterday (yikes!).

On the week, the Dow lost 5.3 percent, or around 455 points, its worst weekly point loss in six months. The decline set it back to levels not seen since mid-October.

The Nasdaq gave back 2.5 percent, or 40 points, on the week, while the S&P lost 4.5 percent, or 40 points, for the week.

The Nasdaq on Friday joined the Dow and the S&P 500 in erasing all of its gains for 2003. […]

I’m reminded a bit of this article - Wall Street Suffers Worst Setback Since Yesterday:

Stocks took another beating yesterday in what analysts are now calling the worst day on Wall Street since the day before yesterday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell to a record low, while the Nasdaq plunged even further. The last time either average visited these levels, George W. Bush was president, Alan Greenspan was chairman of the Federal Reserve, and “Malcolm in the Middle” was still on television. […]

As a barometer for our economy, I have an interest in the Dow. So, I might just include the Dow activity at the bottom at the bottom of regular posts (especially if the Dow activity isn’t newsworthy enough for its own post).

Oh, and the ‘Russians’ re-record is from me ;).

Fattest Cities

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Men’s Fitness Magazine has released its yearly Fattest Cities list. Though the city was 5th last year, Dallas has dropped to 9th-fattest this year (which is a good thing, I suppose). Houston retains its most-fat status from last year.

Men’s Fitness evaluated the nation's 50 largest cities between July and September 2002, looking at 16 criteria that the magazine considers “indicators, risk factors or relevant environmental factors affecting fitness, obesity and health.”

The criteria included fruit and vegetable consumption, sports participation, smoking, drinking, air and water quality, length of commute, availability of parks and open spaces and percentage of overweight and sedentary residents. […]

I’m a little surprised that Pittsburgh isn’t among the top 25 fattest cities (the list cuts off at 25). Don’t get me wrong — the city can be quaint in a rustic/industrial kind of way — but its citizens are not known for their great shape :-/.

Bigfoot May Have Been Fake, After All

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

Via ObscureStore, an obituary article of Ray Wallace mentions that he faked some occurances of Bigfoot.

“He’d been a kid all his life. He did it just for the joke and then he was afraid to tell anybody because they’d be so mad at him,” said nephew Dale Lee Wallace, who said he has the alder-wood carvings of the giant humanoid feet that gave life to a worldwide phenomenon. […]

Apparently, even the Patterson film may have been faked:

Chorvinsky believes the Wallace family’s admission creates profound doubts about leading evidence of Bigfoot's existence: the so-called Patterson film, the grainy celluloid images of an erect apelike creature striding away from the movie camera of rodeo rider Roger Patterson in 1967. Mr. Wallace said he told Patterson where to go — near Bluff Creek, Calif. — to spot a Bigfoot, Chorvinsky said.

“Ray told me that the Patterson film was a hoax, and he knew who was in the suit,” Chorvinsky said. […]

Well, I’m not sure whether I ever believed in Bigfoot in the first place, but I find this interesting nonetheless.