The Dow changes its makeup,
IPOs, the Importance of Governance, Fama and French on the CAPM, Free Trade is
good, OPEC, and MUCH more!
FinanceProfessor News
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FinanceProfessor.com
Bringing the Real World to the Classroom and
vice versa!
Sign up for the free Newsletter at
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Top Stories
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1. Shake
up in the DOW
2. IPOs:
Waves, Underwear, and Burying the Competition
3. Disney splits CEO and Chair positions
4. Ritter looks at differences between US and
European IPO markets
5. Better Governance = Better Credit rating
6. Fama
and French look at Capital Asset Pricing Models (yes plural)
7. Increased transparency leads to better
forecasts
8. Fed
Governor Bernanke endorses free trade and a safety net for displaced workers
9. OPEC
cuts production targets
10. A Shell game?
Oil firms cut reserve forecasts following Shell’s cuts
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Hi everyone!
Sorry this is a few days
late. It has been busy. But with so many stories it was imperative
that I get the newsletter out before I fell even further behind.
Before the news, I would like
to personally thank you to those of you who wrote letters of support on my
tenure application. I did get it! :)
Thank you!!!
I am trying to continue the
trend of recent newsletters by including more academic papers than just the
news. You seem to agree that this is
more useful and there are some great articles this time! I would especially urge you to read the
survey article on CAPMs (yes plural) by Fama and French. It is great!
(see Investments).
I hope your semester is going
well. Sorry I have been sort of bad on
replying to your emails. I have been
trying to cut down on online time (24*7 seems a bit much ;) ).
jim
JimMahar@FinanceProfessor.com
and now the news:
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Corporate Finance News
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Despite reports (and even
some illegal sales!) to the contrary, the most widely anticipated Google has
not yet gone public. It has been quite a
while since a stock has drawn this kind of anticipation--even pre school
teachers are wanting in on the action! Other tech firms are benefiting from the
publicity as analysts speculate that a hot IPO will push other internet stocks
higher.
http://www.jsonline.com/bym/news/mar04/217731.asp
Predictably, the publicity is
also drawing in more competition as a new generation of search engines hits the
street. Google in response has continued
to up their services and have announced they will also offer email.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1557825,00.asp
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/167021_marchex31.html
http://www.dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot.cgi?article_id=27043
As we have seen before IPOs
seem to go in waves. After some down
years, this seems to be an up year. Already
there have been almost as many IPOs as all of last year. Interestingly however, if the past is a good
indicator of the future, this may be more of a spike than a tidal wave. Why?
"While the IPOs to begin trading this year have risen 6.1% above
their debut prices, they've fallen, on average, 4% below their closing prices
on their first day of trading."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/markets/us/2004-03-28-ipo_x.htm
Can we have a little Dignity
please? Dignity is
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3589869.stm
A staple in any lesson on IPOs
is that a part of the underpricing may be the result of a fear of the
investment bankers and firm being sued in the event that the price is too
high. This is largely the reason for
such complete disclosures of all risk factors in the prospectus. Sometimes however things slip through the
cracks. Take ChinaLife’s IPO of last
year. It now is the target of a lawsuit
claiming that accounting irregularities were not “adequately disclosed.”
Immediately after the shares went public, the stock climbed to over 7 HK$, it
is now trading at about HK$4.75.
http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/01/news/international/china_life.reut/index.htm
(In the spirit of the band
the Barenaked Ladies) The IPO market is also hot down under. Under where? No Underwear.
HAH! ;) Australian underwear
manufacturer Pacific Brands had their IPO recently. The coverage is good as it shows the
allotment to institutions and retail clients, the fact that it was three times
oversubscribed, and it explains what the venture capitalists made on the deal
(about 73%).
http://finance.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9166429%255E462,00.html
http://www.lyrics007.com/Barenaked%20Ladies%20Lyrics/Pinch%20Me%20Lyrics.html
After a very public proxy
battle in which a surprisingly high 43% of shareholders withheld their support
for Eisner, Disney split the chairman and CEO positions. The new Chairman is former
http://ap.dallasnews.com/dynamic/stories/D/DISNEY?SITE=TXDAM&TEMPLATE=BUSINESS.html
One of my favorite topics in
a corporate finance class is to use option theory to analyze various
stakeholder positions. For instance,
bondholders (who are in a position equivalent to a short-put position) are risk
averse since their payoff is capped and increases in volatility increase the
value of the put. Using this type of
analysis, ceteris paribus, shareholders of a financially distressed firm (who
have a position equivalent to being long a call option) have a great incentive
to stall the actual bankruptcy proceeding (something good might happen). Recently, HealthSouth gave us an example of
this. Their shareholders are fighting
creditors and urging patience before any bankruptcy occurs.
http://www.forbes.com/newswire/2003/07/03/rtr1018091.html
http://www.webprowire.com/summaries/531167.html
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What a treat! European Financial Management has a cool
paper by Jay Ritter discussing the differences between the
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/eufm_lead_nov03.pdf
Loughran and Ritter (2002,
RFS) suggested that CEOs may not be concerned about leaving money on the table
in IPOs because the losses are netted against the rises in stock price in the
secondary market. Ljunqvist and Wilhelm
now test this and find that CEOs who are happy with the IPO are less likely to
switch investment bankers for the firm's SEO.
Which does fit the initial story.
It should probably be noted that this line of research (behavioral
finance in a corporate setting) is still in its infancy. Stay tuned.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=485302
This one makes sense. Better governance, better credit rating. Ashaugh, Collins, and Lafond find that
increased transparency, increased board independence, and a decreased ability
of shareholders to block takeovers associated with higher credit ratings. On the other side, a higher number of
blockholders is associated with lower ratings.
Additionally the authors report that "having a majority of the
board that is made up of outside independent directors is a key provision in
corporate governance that overshadows the NYSE and NASDAQ requirements of
having 100% independent audit, nominating, and compensation committees."
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=511902
In an upcoming JF, Grullion
and Michaely give us an in depth look at stock repurchases. They find more
buybacks and that the buybacks reduce the free cash flow problem. They also find that buybacks apparently do
not signal improved operating performance in the future. Cool factoid: "between 1984 and 2000
corporations spent approximately 26 percent of their annual earnings on
repurchases." Additionally, the
paper brings up some interesting questions.
Probably the most interesting question is why stock repurchases lead to
lower systematic risk?! My guess is that
there is a confounding variable at work.
Specifically, suppose that firms who have seen recent increases in slack
(so lower leverage) are more apt to do buy backs. These same firms would be more likely than
their peers (who have not seen their leverage drop) to have lower systematic
risk. Which is a bit of a stretch, but
is consistent with the finding.
http://www.afajof.org/Pdf/forthcoming/repurchases.pdf
On the other hand, in the
Journal of Financial Intermediation, Hirtle finds that profitability at banks
who do repurchases does in fact increase following the repurchase. http://www.olin.wustl.edu/jfi/vol12.htm#Repurchases
Garcia has a thought
provoking piece that warns against short-term thinking. The short version of the paper is that as
technology, competition, and strategy have shrunk the business world, firms may
have an even greater incentive to think short term. Winner takes all idea and if you do not win
the first round, you may not be around to play other rounds. While I am not in total agreement, is a very
thought provoking--be sure to read the modified prisoners dilemma and the
doctor example, both are good!
http://www.westga.edu/~bquest/2004/thinking.htm
Sometimes too much of a good
thing is a bad thing. This can be the
case with money (Free Cash flow problem), with food (obesity epidemic), insider
ownership (Philippe). Huh? Never heard
of Philippe? Me neither. Here is the deal: if you figure out what firm
this is really about you get a free FinanceProfessor newsletter :) Ok, so it is not that hard to figure
out. It is a case study by Carol Fischer
and myself on a cable firm that is in the news quite a bit lately. (BTW if you want the case using the real
names, check out FinanceProfessor.com.)
http://www.westga.edu/~bquest/2004/philippe.htm
http://www.financeprofessor.com/Adelphia/adelphia_communications%202.19.04.htm
http://www.financeprofessor.com/Adelphia/Adelphianews.html
Frye confirms that firms are
using equity based compensation *EBC) more than in the past. Additionally she finds a "positive
relation between Tobin's q and the percentage of employee compensation that is
equity based." Interestingly, she
finds accounting measures decrease after firms begin paying with EBC. (which may suggest that firms without EBC
focus too much on accounting measures and not enough of cash flow
measures.
http://www.business.sc.edu/jfr/forthcoming.html
The diversification discount
is the finding that diversified firms sell at less than similar firms in the
same industries. (the 1+1 = 1.5 story
from class). In a forthcoming JFR piece,
Best, Hodges, and Lin find that this discount is partially (but not completely)
explained by higher information asymmetries at diversified firms which does
make perfect sense.
http://www.business.sc.edu/jfr/forthcoming.html (BTW sorry about the link)
Anderson, Becher, and
Campbell (ABC) report that following bank mergers, CEO pay increases. That part is not new. What is new is that they show that these
increases in pay are the result of increases in
productivity and not just because
the CEO is running a larger bank or because the CEO is more entrenched. While
almost a year old I found the link when doing class notes and since I am
friends with all three
authors, figured, why not?
http://www.olin.wustl.edu/jfi/vol12.htm#Incentives
While I think it was posted
before, I am using it in class and it is interesting, so I will run it
again. Penas and Unal examine bonds
around bank mergers and find that bondholders benefit from the deals. Why?
Diversification (that lowers risk) and "achieving too-big-to-fail
status" are the main reasons.
http://jfe.rochester.edu/03176.pdf
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I love summary articles. They help make sense of the world and let us
see the forest through the trees. Some
of my favorites include the Harris and Raviv summary article on capital
structure, Fama's paper that responds to Behavioral Finance Theories, and Cliff
Smith's introduction to his book of readings in Corporate Finance. And now I have a favorite on the CAPM and
other pricing models. While still
officially a working paper, Fama and French give us an excellent recap of both
current and past work in the field. My
favorite line (and totally coincidentally the conclusion): "The CAPM, Like
Markowitz' (1952, 1959) portfolio model on which it is built, is nevertheless a
theoretical tour de force. We continue
to teach the CAPM….but we also warn students that despite its seductive
simplicity, the CAPM's empirical problems probably invalidate its use in
applications." WOW! Well said. http://gsbwww.uchicago.edu/fac/finance/papers/capm%202004.pdf
Confused about the differing
assumptions of pricing models? More than
likely you know that the assumptions don't hold very well and you probably know
much research has looked at how the assumptions matter. Fama and French now provide a framework to
hopefully make sense of some of this confusion. In a working paper they show
that investor tastes and expectations matter.
For instance, when discussing the CAPM, they conclude that with
differing expectations, there is little a priori reason to expect that the
market portfolio is the tangency portfolio (and hence the market portfolio may
or may not be mean variance efficient, which is a central tenant of CAPM). Additionally the authors use the concept of
investor disagreement (and its impact on the market portfolio) to discuss a
range of topics ranging from value investing, to stock picking, and mutual fund
performance. Very interesting. Not sure how they do it. Great paper after Great paper!
http://gsbwww.uchicago.edu/fac/finance/papers/assetprices2004b.pdf
The Financial Analyst Journal
has an editorial designed to stir up controversy. The title?
"Is Our Industry Intellectually Lazy?" In it the editor Robert Arnott references
numerous cases where people who know better either make use of unrealistic assumptions
or forget their fundamentals, and subsequently make erroneous conclusions. Interesting and disturbing.
http://www.aimrpubs.org/faj/issues/v60n1/pdf/f0600006a.pdf
The Dow Jones Industrial
average is being shaken up. Kodak,
International paper, and AT&T are being removed while Verizon, AIG, and
Pfizer are being added. The good people at
Dow Jones say this is because they want to keep the Dow representative of the
overall economy. As telecommunications, Finance, and health care have grown, it
was felt that these sectors were underrepresented in the index. BTW for a look at how the Dow (a price
weighted index) differs from the S&P 500 (a market weighted index) check
the FinanceProfessor link).
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Dow-Components.html
http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2004/mft04040111.htm
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=61E725A5-DC1F-4C04-93C31F1749FC27CB
http://www.financeprofessor.com/introcorpfinnotes/marketindicies.html
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/streetlife/0,15704,607005,00.html
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2479849
http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/01/markets/dow/index.htm
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Financial Institutions and Markets
(also Money and Banking)
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Increases in Central Bank
transparency seem to be working. That is
the conclusion of a working paper by Swanson that finds increased transparency
over the 1980s and 1990s led to improved market forecasts of short term interest
rates and other Central Bank actions.
Interesting given the improved technology and methods we have seen over
the past two decades, the paper also finds that market participants did not
improve in their ability to forecast GDP changes.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2004/200406/200406abs.html
John Reed has agreed to stay
on for another year as head of NYSE.
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/breaking/breakingnewsarticle.asp?feed=OBR&Date=20040401&ID=3551750
http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/01/markets/reed.reut/index.htm
While definitely not an
official case, I threw some past notes together on the NYSE problems of last
fall. Feel free to use them if you like.
http://www.financeprofessor.com/mba610/Problems_at_NYSE.html
Speaking of the NYSE, it is
now considering trading derivatives!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4645116/
A bill to revamp Fannie Mae,
Freddie Mac, and other so-called agencies passed a senate committee but its
future looks doubtful. One area of
criticism that may lead to changes is how the agencies (Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac in particular) fail to write-down their assets in a timely fashion.
http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/01/news/fortune500/fannie_mae.reut/
http://www.quicken.com/investments/news_center/story/?story=NewsStory/dowJones/20040401/ON200404011612001110.var&column=P0DFP
The European Central Bank
kept interest rates constant at 2%. Interestingly while some in the
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3589841.stm
http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/040401124627.o8y794b4
World markets got an early
April Fool’s Day joke when someone started the rumor that Alan Greenspan had
had a minor heart attack. Fortunately,
he did not and is fine.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2479191
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Sorry for the long section of
quoting, but this is such a good recap it is definitely worth it! It is from a speech by Fed Governor Bernanke,
but I am convinced he took it from our discussions of globalization in class
last semester!
“Despite what seems to
economists to be a compelling case for trade, non-economists are far more
skeptical. A perennial public concern, from the emergence of the "Rust
Belt" in the 1980s, to the days of Ross Perot's "giant sucking
sound," to the more recent debate about the effects of international
outsourcing, is that the expansion of trade will cause production to move
abroad, at the expense of domestic employment.” While conceding that some jobs will be lost and some jobs
created, and states that “the workings of a competitive labor market, assisted
perhaps by appropriate economic policies, ensure that jobs will be created that
are commensurate with the size of the labor force and the available mix of
worker skills. Thus, in the long run, factors such as population growth,
education and training, labor force participation rates, and labor market
institutions determine the level and composition of aggregate employment.”
Finally he wraps up by stressing the importance of assistance for displaced
workers because it “is the right and fair thing to do. Second, helping workers
who have lost jobs find new productive work is good for the economy as well as
for the affected workers and their families. Finally, if workers are less
fearful of change, less pressure will be exerted on politicians to erect trade
barriers or to take other actions that would reduce the flexibility and dynamism
of the
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2004/20040330/default.htm
One of my all time favorite international
finance papers is by
http://www.business.sc.edu/jfr/forthcoming.html for Hon, Strauss, and Yong paper
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=221992 for Butler/Joaquin paper
Do we believe them?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3591753.stm
There are signs that the
Japanese Central Bank may finally be ending (temporarily) their intervention in
world currency markets. T is estimated
that over the past two years, they have purchased nearly $500 B in US
government bonds. Why? TO keep the yen from rising and hurting
Japanese exporters.
http://money.cnn.com/2004/03/31/news/economy/japan/index.htm
Will the current weakness in
the US dollar (and heightened prices of oil for US consumers) lead to pricing
oil based on a basket of currencies? OPEC is reportedly looking into it. My guess?
Sooner or later it will happen.
Why? Economically it does make a
lot of sense for OPEC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3590133.stm
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Although if you watched TV
much you will deny it, the
http://www.reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml?type=economicNews&storyID=4730600
http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/01/news/economy/ism/
http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/01/news/economy/jobs_walkup/index.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4645334/
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April has been designated as
Financial Literacy month by the US Senate.
Fed governor Ben Bernake took it as an opportunity to address students as
part of the Fed’s jump Start program.
Given the increasing financial complexities of the modern world, it is
imperative to be financially literate.
To this aim, the Chicago Fed has created an online resource to aid
people in personal finance decisions. (The last link from the Fed itself is
better.)
http://www.chicagofed.org/cedric/financial_education_research_center.cfm
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2004/20040401/
http://www.jumpstart.org/
http://www.federalreserveeducation.org/fined/index.cfm
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Given the almost ubiquitous
coverage in the
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N01555945.htm
http://www.forbes.com/business/newswire/2004/04/01/rtr1320570.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3586197.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3590133.stm
Interestingly, the Saudis and
others are insistent that market conditions do not warrant such high prices and
that the market price is simply too high because of hedge funds and other
speculators. Lo and behold, upon news of the production cuts, oil prices did
fall as it was reported that US supplies were greater than previously reported.
However, from a political point of view,
some are now speculating that higher prices may lead to increased tension
between the
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aQ1wtxbAeMFw&refer=top_world_news
http://metimes.com/2K4/issue2004-13/methaus.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3591299.stm
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/01/whitehouse.oil/
It should be noted that not
all oil producers are part of OPEC.
Moreover even those that are generally do not abide by the production
limits. Additionally the decision to cut
production was far from unanimous.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2478959
How do I know when oil prices
are high? I go for a run. Living in a marginal oil producing area (
http://metimes.com/2K4/issue2004-13/methaus.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3589583.stm
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Financial Service Industry
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Congrats to SBU grad Sam
Molinaro! The Bear, Stearns chief
financial officer made almost $11 million dollars last year! “As is the custom at the investment bank, the
executive's salary was just $200,000. However, Molinaro received a bonus of
more than $5.3 million, about 25 percent higher than last year. He also
received more than $4.5 million in restricted stock, an increase of more than
50 percent, and about $777,000 in "other income." “
http://www.cfo.com/Article?article=12501&f=ThisWeekInFinance030504
The SEC named Chester Spatt
of Carnegie Mellon Chief Economist replacing Larry Harris who will return to
USC (the
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/kqvradio/s_187223.html
http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2004-45.htm
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04092/294311.stm
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Lost in the shouting over the
debate on whether to expense stock options is how to value them. CFO.com has an interesting article that
suggests the binomial model, and not the Black-Scholes Option pricing model, is
the way to go. Why? Largely because with differing assumptions,
valuations can be brought down using the Binomial model. I am not convinced yet.
http://www.cfo.com/Article?article=12679&f=AlsoOn032904
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One of the first things that
you learn in the first accounting class is the importance of accrual basis
accounting. Surprisingly, the
http://www.cfo.com/article/1,5309,12499||T|441,00.html?f=TodayInFinance_Inside
For the second time this year
Shell lowered its reserve estimates. Now
news comes that the company had known the estimates were overly optimistic
since 2000. Largely as a result of these
well publicized restatements, regulators and analysts are turning up the heat
on other producers and sure enough some are reducing their estimates as
well.
http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/01/news/international/shell.reut/index.htm
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/8291946.htm?1c
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~33~2027564,00.html
Is it over yet? Please stop? I am so sick of the whole argument of whether
to expense options or not. Yes, they should
be expensed. Now get on with it. This has been dragging on for years and
years. Finally FASB agrees.
http://www.cfo.com/article/1,5309,13039||T|881|,00.html
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/040204dnbusoptions.95c8a.html
Want a real “feel good
story”? How about this? Auditors are doing their jobs better! That is the conclusion of a Wall Street
Journal story that says these changes are the result of market demands and
government mandates.
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=98946
A small study of
http://www.cfo.com/article/1,5309,12906,00.html
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Top Ten List
***********************************************************
After giving it some thought
I came up with the ten papers that have influenced my thinking on the nexus of
contracts.
1. Jensen
(1986) Agency Cost Of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and
Takeovers" American Economic Review, Vol. 76, No. 2, May 1986
2. Alchain and Demsetz (AER 1972-Production,
Information Costs, and Economic Organization” AER 62:777-795.
3. R. Coase Nature of the Firm (1937)
4. Jensen 1994: Theory of Man: Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 1994
5. Jensen and Meckling (1976) Theory of the
firm, Managerial Behavior, Agency costs and Ownership Structure:, JFE3,
305-360.
6. Black and Scholes (1973). The pricing of
options and corporate liabilities, Journal of Political Economy, 81, 637-654
7. Galai and Masulis 1976. Option Pricing model
and the risk factor of stock. JFE, 3:1, 53-82.
8. Jensen and Ruback 1983.
Market for Corporate Control, JFE 11:1—5-50.
9. Stuart Gilson 1989-Management Turnover and
Financial Distress, JFE 25, 241-262.
10. Jensen and Murphy 1990 Jensen, Michael C.,
and Kevin J. Murphy, “Performance Pay and Top Management Incentives,” Journal
of Political Economy, April 1990; 98(2): 225-64
How many have you read? What do you think? Agree?
Disagree?
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FinanceProfessor.com Site of
the Month
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Two this month. I used them both in class and am amazed at
how useful each was.
The first is a multiple time
winner. Erisk.com. Sure they changed the format of their
newsletter (less often but more in detail) a move which I was not a great fan
of, but their site is just so good. If
you teach or take any course, the site is a wealth of information. I particularly like their Cases. Great learning tool!!
http://www.erisk.com
http://www.erisk.com/Learning/CaseStudies.asp
The second may have been Site
of the Month before as well. I think it
was. The Corporate Library. While you have to pay for some things, it is
a very helpful site that specializes in corporate governance. For instance they list actual executive
contracts (useful for class and maybe research) as well as make an annual worst
board.
http://www.thecorporatelibrary.com/Research/default.html
http://www.thecorporatelibrary.com/Products-and-Services/popup-descriptions/BA-WorstBoards2003.html
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Financial Trivia/History
***********************************************************
On
It closed March, 1999 at 9,786
It closed March 1994 at 3,635
It closed March 1990 at 2,707
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Teaching Ideas
***********************************************************
I have long had students fill
out a short “bio” on the first day of class.
This allows me to not only get to know the students more quickly but
also look back either during the semester or after and often the stories etc
are much more interesting and helpful. A
colleague suggested using a digital camera and attaching a picture to the data
base so it would “come up” when the student’s bio came up. This would help when
you get that dreaded call from a past student asking for a reference and you do
not remember him/her. (has only happened
once—to a student I had in a summer class, but still felt horrible).
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Of interest to students and
others!
***********************************************************
What great advice! CFO.com suggests how you can build your own
Kitchen Cabinet. No it is not a
woodworking class, but rather a group of people that you can trust and that can
help you in your career and life. (FYI:
Andrew Jackson’s Kitchen Cabinet was his informal advisors. They complement his official cabinet). A MUST
READ.
http://www.cfo.com/Article?article=12799&f=Careers040204
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An Imperfect God: George
Washington, his slaves, and the creation of
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1559279273/finpapers/104-9378365-5272442
While I am not yet done with
Testament, I am convinced that I must be lucky—no one should randomly be able
to get so many good books in a row. This
was a Christmas present (the giver had not read it) so I did not know what to
expect, but it is great. It is the story
of Webb Baker a union Soldier from
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743250915/ref=ase_finpapers/002-8519378-9308813?v=glance&s=books
I finished The Last Stand of
the Tin Can Soldiers. Definitely
recommended. It centers on the amazingly
long odds facing the US Navy in The Battle of Leyte Gulf during the
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553802577/finpapers/104-9378365-5272442
I finally finished last Train
to
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400049474/finpapers/104-9378365-5272442
I also Finished Riotous
Assembly. Way off the beaten path, it
was funny but somewhat disappointing. It
is by Tom Sharpe who is one of funniest writers ever, but no where near as good
as Wilt (also by Sharpe). (warning: some subject matter may not be appropriate
for all). It is set in
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0871131439/finpapers/104-9378365-5272442
In an attempt to get ready
for spring and summer bike riding, I have just started reading (not doing) the
Lance Armstrong Performance Program by Lance Armstrong and his coach Chris
Carmichael. While most reviewers say the
book is too simple and geared towards beginners, I fid it interesting (which I
guess says something about my biking abilities). FWIW Lance has nothing to worry about from
me. His personal training would wipe me
out!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1579542700/finpapers/104-9378365-5272442
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Labor disgraces no man;
unfortunately, you occasionally find men who disgrace labor---US Grant
Those who bring sunshine to
the lives of others cannot keep it fro themselves---Sir James Barrie
For many, the acquisition of
wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them---Marcus Annaeus
Seneca
The best preparation for good
work tomorrow is good work today---Elbert Hubbard
Fatigue is the best
pillow---Ben Franklin
All quotes from The Book of
Positive Quotations by John Cook
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0517202166/finpapers/104-9378365-5272442
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Well that is was fun, but
alas that is all I have time for this time around. I hope you enjoyed it and learned something
(or even many things) from it!
THANK-YOU for reading it. I
always am glad when I hear that my energies have not been totally wasted. ;)
If you have any ideas for the
site or the newsletter please let me know.
Jim
Where spring is flirting with
us. We had 15 inches of snow two weeks
ago but this past weekend was great!
Temperatures about 60 and sunny.
I even got out on the bike for the first time. Now there are snow flurries in the air and
the weather people called for up to 3 inches of new snow.
SBU has lost four men and
three women basketball players for a variety of reasons. Mmm, I wonder if I have any eligibility left
;)
who at last look was in the
96th percentile in the Yahoo fantasy sports basketball pool. I have three of the four teams, but had
Who is now going to go prove
Ben Franklin correct.
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Oh and a final favor…pass
this on to someone you think would like it….a fellow student, a past teacher,
your current teacher, your parents, anyone who it might help. Thanks!
Thanks for forwarding this so
much. That is the only way I know this
newsletter is growing so fast. :-)
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copyright 2004
FinanceProfessor.com