Can you tell a good story? Especially when it is about numbers, charts, graphs, spreadsheets? Storytelling can be learned. Practice, practice.
The market-to-book ratio proxies for a firm’s investment opportunity set. The market is forward-looking; book values are largely backwards looking. What is this saying about Intel?
VW “is like a state-owned company.” Surprising? How do you assess the level of governmental control over the private sector?
There are lots of “I told you so’s” out there about racing ahead with EVs. Maybe they were right. Too early for the times? Range anxiety (especially in the cold weather), charging stations, time-to-charge, cost, externalities (again that word) from mining operations for the materials for the batteries, and then the impact of manufacturing (heavy) batteries, etc. For accounting, Ford will have to write-off some stranded assets. Journal entry, anyone?
We talked some about unintended consequences (aka “externalities”). The PCAOB (the “auditor’s auditor”) has enacted new rules to increase audit quality and increase as a result the trust in financial statements. Buried in the article are a couple of these externalities, both of which point to potentially lower audit quality. Hmmm . . . what are your thoughts?
This is a lot of money ($30 billion). Where is Lina in this one, especially given food inflation? Big Oil, Big Tobacco, Big Pharma, etc. . . . now Big Food?
Google is a monopoly, according to a court ruling. What comes next for Google?
150 hours of college credits to become a CPA (in other words, an extra year in college) is one reason students choose something other than accounting. Makes sense. Rational. It also is a roadblock because of the out-of-pocket $. Anyway, there are cracks in the system that may change this.
Speaking of AI, which we always are, this one’s about a problem we mentioned in class. How do you set a budget? Most everyone will have an ROI in mind, but how do you measure return on that spend? Is this a time where you re-think this decision criteria?
Can you explain the accounting behind banks’ held-to-maturity loans and unrealized losses?
What would be the pressure to pull sales forward? How could it be detected?