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June 22, 2004  Hi everyone!  SLOW DOWN SUMMER!!!  please.  Time is going way too fast!

FinanceProfessorBlog take 2.  I have been told so many times that a blog would make keeping the site up to date easier, I have decided to try again.   SO far so good! I hope it works!  If so it will be fun, a great way to stay in touch, and cut down on time.  

Congratulations to all of the recent graduates!  Good luck in your job search!  Remember my tips!

Ok, back to finance! :)  I finished a draft of the Endorsement paper finally!  It literally took 10 times longer than expected.  Oh well.  It is done.  Also I have started (off line) updating FinanceProfessor.com.  I hope to have it ready for action in the coming months.  The first thing online will like be a table of research papers with links and super short summaries.  I thought of it during class this year.  I think it will help teachers and students both.  Stay tuned.  Oh and I really will  get a a new newsletter out one of these days.  Want to see what a newsletter looks like?  Here it is a recent one.  

jim

*Who has been reading/ristening to many books of late.  Almost all of them have been really good!  I finished Of Mice and Men, which was short and well written but depressing.  I am about 50% done with the Teller of Tales: the Life of Arthur Conan Doyle.  Surprisingly good!  I Really liked Bleachers by John Grisham.  In fact I liked it so much I ristened to it twice!  Different but almost as good is Naked in Baghdad which gives the view of Baghdad before and during the war began through the eyes of NPR's Anne Garrells.  I also liked Trojan Odyssey Clive Cussler which was a nice break. And of course I am ristening to Lance Armstrong's Every Second Counts.  But the top book so far this year remains An Imperfect God.  It is GREAT.  It is about George Washington and slavery.   A trillion "if onlys" and "wow I did not know that".  Best book since "April 1865."  (yes with the exception of April 1865, all of those have been read or ristened to in the past two months!)

*The internet is so big that I am constantly being send great sites.  Here is a site that I am embarrassed to have missed before. http://www.riskcenter.com/   It has news and articles on risk and risk management.  VERY good!  

Speaking of Weblogs, check this one out from SynergyFest. It is pretty cool. 

June 4, 2004  Hi everyone! 

First let me congratulate the graduates of all the schools.  Good luck in your job search!  Remember my tips!

Secondly, I would be terribly remiss if I did not take a second to congratulate the SBU baseball team for making the NCAAs for the first time ever!  Way to go!  You can listen to the games at GoBonnnies.com 

And finally, many of you have asked what I have been doing of late.  Well in part I have been biking much more than normal.  I am doing several charity rides in the next month.  The longest is 169 miles as part of the MS-150 series. 

Here are some links to find out more about the series, the ride, and to donate to the MS Society.  (go ahead it is a good cause. :)

Ok, back to finance! :)  I finished the tables of the Endorsement paper finally!  It literally took 10 times longer than expected.  Oh well.  It is done.  Also I have started (off line) updating FinanceProfessor.com.  I hope to have it ready for action in the coming months.  The first thing online will like be a table of research papers with links and super short summaries.  I thought of it during class this year.  I think it will help teachers and students both.  Stay tuned.  Oh and I really will  get a a new newsletter out soon.  Here it is most recent  

jim

*Who has been reading/ristening to many books of late.  Almost all of them have been really good!  I Really liked Bleachers by John Grisham.  In fact I liked it so much I ristened to it twice!  Naked in Baghdad gives the view of Baghdad before and during the war began through the eyes of NPR's Anne Garrells.  Very GOOD!  I also liked Trojan Odyssey Clive Cussler which was a nice break. And of course I am ristening to Lance Armstrong's Every Second Counts.  But the top book so far this year remains An Imperfect God.  It is GREAT.  It is about George Washington and slavery.   A trillion "if onlys" and "wow I did not know that".  Best book since "April 1865." 

*The internet is so big that I am constantly being send great sites.  Here is a site that I am embarrassed to have missed before. http://www.riskcenter.com/   It has news and articles on risk and risk management.  VERY good!  

Ok, I have given up on the "blog" idea for my site.  I started it but between almost no hits and no time, I gave it up.  I will still  archive these comments there.  Too bad as I think it would have been fun.  Maybe I will make a random musing page that will only be updated occasionally:  "other things."  Speaking of Weblogs, check this one out from SynergyFest. It is pretty cool.

May 13, 2004  Hi everyone! 

First let me start by saying congratulations to all of the graduates!  Good luck in your future endeavors.  

I absolutely love teaching, but have to admit that by the end o the semester I am ready for a break.  So now that grades are turned in maybe I can get the website back to some level of respectability.  I am embarrassed that some things have not been updated in months.   I also have some new ideas for putting more papers on line.

What else is planned this summer? I am working on about 4 papers currently and hope to get them submitted somewhere.  And a few running races and at least a few Century Bike rides.  So stay tuned.  I have started working on a new newsletter, but it will be a while. Maybe next week?   Here it is most recent  

The Adelphia-Rigas trial continues even though I have been negligent on keeping my Adelphia News page updated.   As many of you know Carol Fischer and I have published an accounting case based on the troubles at Adelphia and now have had a finance case accepted at Bquest. The names have been changed in the finance case at the advice of a lawyer.  But since everything in it is based on publicly available information, I will also provide a  previous version of it that includes the real names and cites to all of the quotes. 

The internet is so big that I am constantly being send great sites.  Here is a site that I am embarrassed to have missed before. 

http://www.riskcenter.com/   It has news and articles on risk and risk management.  VERY good!  

Ok, I have given up on the "blog" idea for my site.  I started it but between almost no hits and no time, I gave it up.  I will still  archive these comments there.  Too bad as I think it would have been fun.  Maybe I will make a random musing page that willonly be updated occasionally:  "other things."  Speaking of Weblogs, check this one out from SynergyFest. It is pretty cool. 

jim

*Who absolutely loves the excitement of the NFL draft.  While I would love to see a QB picked, I bet defensive lineman for the Bills, probably Will Smith.  

 * Where it now seems like spring! :) BTW I had a request to put weather information back online, and it did make it easier for me too, so here you go, weather information from a few of my favorite places. (yeah I know the pictures need updating)

* who finished An Imperfect God.  It is GREAT.  It is about George Washington and slavery.   A trillion "if onlys" and "wow I did not know that".  Best book since April 1865 which I also loved! I am still reading Testament but have had no time in over a week.  .  It is the story of a soldier in the US civil war.  (yes a Northerner).  VERY interesting! I have to admit I have never read anything by Bobrick before, but what a great writer!  His intro chapters that lead up to the war include some of the best explanations as to what it was like in the US at the time that I have seen.  Am about 75% into Clive Cussler's Trojan Odyssey.  It is of course good.  All of his books are.  Oh and about 30% into MoneyBall by Michael Lewis and Just started One Day of the Civil War. 

March 24, 2004  Hi everyone!  I spoke too soon on the computer being fixed.  I can do most things but for some reason FTP software is not working.  Hence I  can only update things from home.  Which is ok since my home computer is faster, but very inconvenient as I am at school more than home.   

The Adelphia-Rigas trial is really picking up steam! I just updated my Adelphia News page.  As many of you know Carol Fischer and I have published an accounting case based on the troubles at Adelphia and now have had a finance case accepted at Bquest. The names have been changed in the finance case at the advice of a lawyer.  But since everything in it is based on publicly available information, I will also provide a  previous version of it that includes the real names and cites to all of the quotes. 

Ok, maybe I will not give up on the two "blogs" that I had started. I think instead, I will make this section my "update page" and then keep an archive as more of the blog.  Which may make the work load less burdensome.   BTW I still do have the blog/journal "other things."  Speaking of Weblogs, check this one out from SynergyFest. It is pretty cool.  Its main focus is on finance and accounting, but also "Decision Science, Risk Management and Occasional Random Musings!"  I have told them that I will be an occasional contributor. I think it sounds fun.  (they even have something about me there!)

As mentioned yesterday I had a request to put weather information back online, and it did make it easier for me too, so here you go, weather information from a few of my favorite places. 

BTW I started a newsletters for March but it is not done yet.  So it is not too late to suggest articles for inclusion.  Here is the one for February. 

jim

* who finished ristening to the Last Stand of the Tin Can Soldiers.  VERY good! HIGHLY recommended.  It surprised and inspired me. Talk about fighting against long odds!  

* who is about 100 pages into Testament.  It is the story of a soldier in the US civil war.  (yes a Northerner).  VERY interesting! I have to admit I have never read anything by Bobrick before, but what a great writer!  His intro chapters that lead up to the war include some of the best explanations as to what it was like in the US at the time that I have seen.  

* who will probably start An Imperfect God today.  It is about George Washington and slavery.  Given all that has been written about TJ and slavery, this should be interesting.  I am looking forward to it!

* who is not doing too well in the NCAA basketball pools.  Oh well.  What great games this past weekend!

 Hi everyone!

March 23, 2004  Hi everyone!  Finally, computer problems seem to be behind me :)  I think. ;) 

had a request to put weather information back online, and it did make it easier for me too, so here you go, weather information from a few of my favorite places. 

The Adelphia-Rigas trial is well underway.  Carol Fischer and I have a case that we have submitted to a journal.  Here is a previous version of it. Also an update of the news on the Adelphia News page. 

I started a newsletters for March but it is not done yet.  Here is the one for February. 

HELP WANTED: It is always amazing at how busy things can get.  Better busy than not busy.  That said, if you are nearby and would like to work (it looks great on a resume!) and are available Mondays and Fridays, why not drop me off a resume?  And who knows you may even learn some finance :)

I think I am going to give up on the two "blogs" that I had started.  One for just finance and one for "other things."  But they are not getting many hits and they take more time than they seem worth it.   Speaking of Weblogs, check this one out from SynergyFest. It is pretty cool.  Its main focus is on finance and accounting, but also "Decision Science, Risk Management and Occasional Random Musings!"  I have told them that I will be an occasional contributor. I think it sounds fun.  (they even have something about me there!)

jim

who is almost done with the Last Stand of the Tin Can Soldiers.  VERY good! 

I have started Testament.  It is the story of a soldier in the US civil war.  (yes a Northerner).  VERY interesting!

who is not doing too well in the NCAA basketball pools.  Oh well.  What great games this weekend!

March 2, 2004

A couple of stories in the news today that deserve mentioning:
 Why outsourcing may lead to a safer world: from the NY Times, The case against the Rigases began.

February 28, 2004

New Newsletter is available

February 23, 2004

Well got another paper out...I will let you know how it goes.  FIngers are crossed.

LOTS of news on the scandal fronts.  The case vs the Rigases (ADELPHIA) starts jury selection today.

Hopefully newsletter will be done today!

February 13, 2004

Have you tried the CFO.com weekly newsletters?  I think they are great and they are free.  Give them a try!  I get the weekly finance news and the Careers one.  And no I am not getting anythog to advertise them!

I am a big football fan.  No not what we call soccer, but American Football.  In fact I have never gotten into what the rest of the world calls football.  Not sure why--possibly because my sister used to play soccer and the gameswere just too long and boring or possibly because in the US the season runs opposite of (and competes for the same athletes) as Cross country or possibly becasue I just have no interest.  That said, it is sort of interesting to see a US football team owner (Malcom GLazer who owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers--who incidently were in the sports news as well for looking at Mark Brunell as a possible replacement for the steady, but unspectacular Brad Johnson) up his ownership stake of Manchester, United a British "Football" team.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3485393.stm

I am still trying to decide how to do this talk/journal thing.  I have been told to use blog software, but can not figure out any good reason except maybe for time stamp and archiving.  But I like the fact that I can use HTML  already.  If you have any experience with one method over the other, please let me know.

February 12, 2004

Well I guess we want to talk about finance.  So, what do you think the top story should be?  Comcast's hostile bid for Disney?,  Greenspan's testimony?, or Martha Stewart?  or something else all together?

Here are a few articles I plan on using in the next newsletter:

Research papers

Finance puzzles--cross words puzzle and Equity Risk Premium puzzle

While it is not a new article, I never saw it before so maybe you have not either.  It is my Mehra (of Mehra and Prescott fame, see above) and it is a look back at the research that has been done on the equity risk premium puzzle.  One interesting factoid: the equity risk premium was low in the 1800s which sort of messes up the explanation used by some that transaction costs make up some of the premium. 
http://ms.cc.sunysb.edu/~ecarcelespov/otherfiles/mehra93.pdf

In a forthcoming JF article, Ait-Sahalia, Parker, and Yogo may have taken much of the mystery out of the puzzle.  Acknowledging that the puzzle can not be explained by looking at co-movements with overall consumption, the authors, break consumption down into basic and luxury components.  Predictably the luxury component of consumption is more volatile AND “covaries significantly more with stock returns than does aggregate consumption.”  Then when the equity premium is examined relative to the consumption of the luxury consumption, the size of the premium can be explained by a much lower risk aversion.  VERY cool paper!!! !!!!  I was so excited by this one I ran down and interrupted a colleague.  Be sure to read it!
http://www.afajof.org/Pdf/forthcoming/AitSahalia-Parker-Yogo.pdf 

Managers do care about bond ratings

Kisgen reports that managers manage capital structure in a way to prevent downgrades and to get upgrades.  For instance firms that "are near a change in credit rating" make moves to improve their rating by issuing less debt and retiring more debt.  Importantly, he finds that this balance sheet management takes place before firms are in what we would generally call financial distress. (I always love it when a paper catches me by surprise with something that should have been obvious.)
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=355680

No more SEO underperformance?

The existence of virtually any anomaly suggests multiple explanations that are possibly correct.  For example, it could be that the unexpected returns really do exist (thus drawing market efficiency into question), or that the model is incorrect.  Another explanation that should never be overlooked is that the poor controls were used and thus the anomaly is only due to researcher error.  As Fama pointed out in his behavioral finance article (my favorite Fama article!), this is especially problematic in longer term studies.  For instance previous work has found there to be a long-run underperformance for firms that issue seasoned equity.   Li and Zhao use a more complete matching control (the so-called propensity score matching method) and find that SEO issuers do NOT under perform in the long run!
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=451740

CEO power Bonus and returns for takeover announcements

Ex-post settlement.  That is the fancy name for it.  The idea that after the fact, if you do a good job, the contract is renegotiated and you get more money.  One form of this renegotiation is in the form of a bonus.  One occasion that is often the trigger for such a bonus is a successful (defined as completed, not one where the shareholders necessarily win!).  In a forthcoming JFE article, Grinstein and Hribar find that 39% of their sample paid such a bonus and that this bonus was highly tied to managerial power.  As an aside they also report that the two day event window return for firms where the CEO has the most power is a negative and significant –3.8%.
http://jfe.rochester.edu/03284.pdf

 well I do have more, but that is all I have time to upload for now...newsletter will be out next week. 

 Links to related Weblogs 

• Institutional Economics --As the name suggest it is mainly about Economics, but much of it is useful for finance and in particular international finance

• SynergyFest -technically Synergy Partners.  Interesting look at  finance, accounting, and a lot more. In part why I started this one. 
• KnowledgeProblem is a great place to see economics in action, particular focus of late has been on energy, but topics seem to vary.  Warning--like @ FinanceProfessor, be careful or you may inadvertantly learn something!
• Brad Delong's weblog He is an economics professor at Berkley, writes for Fortune, is a journal editor, and has an awesome site.  He must be BUSY!  That said, he is quite a bit left of where I am on many things, but that is OK, we can disagree on things :)