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Prompting discussions on Financial topics….

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Posted in July 29th, 2008

May 2012
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SEC updates

James McNamara Named Managing Executive of SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets May 18, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2012-98 Washington, D.C., May 18, 2012 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that James P. McNamara has been named to the newly-created position of Managing Executive of the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets. Mr. McNamara is currently an Assistant Director in the SEC’s Office of Financial Management. In his new po […]
Erica Williams Named SEC's Deputy Chief of Staff May 17, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2012-97 Washington, D.C., May 17, 2012 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Erica Williams will become the agency’s Deputy Chief of Staff. Ms. Williams has been a member of Chairman Schapiro’s staff since February 2011, primarily focusing on enforcement and regulatory issues. Prior to that, Ms. Williams served a […]
James Burns Named Deputy Director in SEC's Division of Trading and Markets May 17, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2012-96 Washington, D.C., May 17, 2012 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that James R. Burns will become a Deputy Director in the Division of Trading and Markets. Mr. Burns will oversee several of the Division’s core regulatory functions, including market oversight and operations, derivatives policy and trading pr […]
SEC Charges Seattle-Based Fund Manager for Secretly Diverting Client Funds to His Own Start-Up Companies May 17, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2012-95 Washington, D.C., May 17, 2012 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a Seattle-based investment adviser and his firm with defrauding clients by secretly investing their money in two risky start-up companies he co-founded. The SEC alleges that Mark Spangler, a former chairman of the National Association of Person […]
SEC Charges New Jersey Man in Real Estate Investment Scam May 17, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2012-94 Washington, D.C., May 17, 2012 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a New Jersey man with operating a Ponzi-like scheme involving a series of investment vehicles formed for the purported purpose of purchasing and managing rental apartment buildings in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The SEC alleges that David M. C […]

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Start-Up CFO / Mark Macleod

M & A: The VC Perspective
I was in Toronto this week to speak along with Dan Martell on M & A at PwC’s Vision to Reality Conference. It was a great event capped off with a key note by Mr. Lean Startup himself – Eric Ries. My job was to look at M & A from the VC or investor […]
Opportunity Cost
What’s the difference between founders and professional managers? While they differ in many ways from experience to risk tolerance, etc, you can boil them all down to one element – opportunity cost. According to Wikipedia, opportunity cost is “the cost of any activity measured in terms of the value of the next best alternative forgone […]
Getting Investor Ready
This morning I gave a talk to the Founderfuel teams on how to get investor ready and more importantly – how to get funded. Demo day is May 23rd, so everyone is gearing up for fundraising. Here are the slides: Getting investor ready View more presentations from Mark MacLeod […]
Hacking Legal Fees
Startup life often boils down to a few key moments. From incorporation to first hires, securing investments, key partnerships and hopefully a big pay day down the road. What all these moments have in common is that they involve lawyers. I have worked with some great lawyers over the years but I have never once […]
Vision can come later…
What do Acquisio, Freshbooks, Hootsuite and Shopify all have in common? Well, for one, they are all kick ass, high growth Canadian startups. For another, they all started out as web agencies. i.e. service companies. Each has a different story for how they transitioned from services to product. But each one had the benefit and […]

CFO Wise – Ken Kaufman

Professional Brawn, and Why You Need Some
In a recent interview, I was struggling to find a term to describe someone who had worked their entire career on building up a strong foundation of knowledge, contacts, successes, and failures; someone who had learned a bunch about being successful in business the right way, who knew how to build and foster mutually beneficial relationships, and who was humb […]
Fixed Cost Coverage Ratio
It’s been a long day with lots of customers interacting with your team and buying many of your products and services. Your staff seemed busy and you felt productive. But did your business actually move forward or backward? Did you win or lose today? Here is the main number you should track every day in your business to answer these important questions. read […]
The Downfall of Less Difficult, Less Expensive, and Less Risky
I just finished reading Norm Brodsky's article from the March 2012 issue of INC. He directly addresses a growing concern among 9 out of every 10 entrepreneurs he meets. They're starting web-based and SaaS businesses while they maintain their full-time employment and steady incomes. read more […]
1 Forgotten Characteristic of Entrepreneurs
In a recent speech at UVEF, Tony Zito of mediaFORGE identified three commonly recited characteristics of successful entrepreneurs: skill, timing, and luck. But he spent no more time on any of those. read more […]
Whatever You're Thinking, It's Probably Wrong
The entire audience was silently engaged, on the edge of their seats, as Tony Zito of mediaFORGE was as open, honest, and transparent as I've ever heard an entrepreneur be when explaining the dark days of being ready to give up on a start-up. read more […]

Ben Paramore/Beyond Beans

Bradford Van Siclen / Novo Companies

Bernanke Recovery, Updated Trickle Down Economics - 7 / 29 / 09
The real question is why the markets are moving up. And the answers are telling. It's my view that cheap capital does not create opportunities for businesses to borrow or obtain growth financing, the type of 9,10, or 11% money that allows them to compete in new markets, or compete better in old markets. Standard loans of that nature are offered by Banks […]
Perspective 2009 - 7 /26 / 2009
Its an interesting time for market pundits. On the one hand we are in the midst of a terrific market rally. But on the other hand there is really not much to base this rally on. It is the opinion of at least one pundit that the low of this market in March represented the gamblers / speculators worst case US economy valuation, and that recent highs represent […]
There and Back Again - 7 / 15 / 2009
Times like these give a new definition to the term trading range. Here, the past 2 weeks Dow Jones Index closing prices:7/1 85427/2 82807/6 83247/7 81637/8 81787/9 81837/10 81467/13 83317/14 83497/15 8519 -> at 10:30amThat is a 500 point or 5% swing over 2 weeks. The Financial media loves to scream market up 100+, market down 100+. But this simple table s […]
When Will We Begin To Improve? 7 / 10 / 2009
The Stock Markets - what's up there? Frankly nothing. The government's bail out program of banks has not restored confidence. It has merely created a back stop. Value investors then grabbed onto the recent bottom created by the bail out and propelled by the "green shoots" commentary from Bernanke. And the market moved from its march lows […]
7 / 1 / 2009
No changes in this market yet. The Dow Jones is still in the the grips of wealthy hedge fund managers who, lacking any real desire to evaluate discrete issues or sectors they view as momentum plays, are now satisfied moving large sums back and forth along the Dow Jones Index. Everyday these professionals show up and say "You have to be in this market an […]

Wine news…

Vibrant Bean and Radish Salad and Fresh Rosé for Memorial Day (Wine Spectator) May 18, 2012
Foley Family Wines Expands in Napa and New Zealand (Wine Spectator) May 18, 2012
Wine and Jubilees for Jack Nicklaus and the Queen (Wine Spectator) May 17, 2012
Lights! Camera! Pour! Video Contest! Wine Spectator's 6th Annual Contest (Wine Spectator) May 17, 2012
Bordeaux Futures Hit the Market, But Is Anyone Buying? (Wine Spectator) May 15, 2012

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Translators

CFO magazine updates

Dimon in the Rough May 18, 2012
A scramble to benefit from a bad trade. […]
What Makes a CFO Great? May 18, 2012
Technical skill and running the finance department are secondary to talking to customers and making a difference, senior executives say. […]
CFOs on the Move: Week Ending May 18 May 18, 2012
AllianceBernstein, CSC, AmerisourceBergen, McGraw-Hill Education, Global Franchise Group, MEMC Electronic Materials, The McClatchy Co., Rimini Street […]
Effective Tax Rate Rises for Industrials May 17, 2012
U.S.-based firms have higher ETRs than their global counterparts. But some will benefit from favorable tax treatments they receive on their investments in emerging markets. […]
Wave of Consumer Spending Expected to Ebb May 17, 2012
Growth in consumer buying will be undercut by stagnant incomes and still-weak household balance sheets, say economists and some members of the Federal Open Market Committee. […]
Why Isn’t the Stock Market Higher? May 17, 2012
What companies can do to help their share prices catch up with the surge in corporate net income. […]

WSJ – U.S.

Facebook Falls Back to IPO Price May 18, 2012
Facebook shares struggled to stay above their $38 IPO price, as Wall Street bankers stepped in to prevent the newly minted stock from ending its first day with an embarrassing loss. […]
GM to Forgo Pricey Super Bowl Ads May 18, 2012
General Motors has decided it won't advertise in the next Super Bowl, balking at steep ad rates as the auto maker overhauls its global marketing operations. […]
Winnebago Gets Takeover Offer May 18, 2012
Winnebago Industries received a $322 million takeover offer from private-equity firm North Street Capital but said it didn't have sufficient information to deem the bid credible. […]
Chesapeake Cuts Pay, Jet Travel for Board May 18, 2012
Chesapeake Energy said board members will take a 20% pay cut and no longer have personal use of company aircraft, the latest move by the embattled natural-gas company to placate critics. […]
Repsol Cancels Argentine LNG Shipments May 18, 2012
Spain's Repsol is canceling 10 LNG shipments to an Argentine public energy company that it says isn't honoring the supply contract. […]

WSJ – Europe

Fresh Worries Hit Spain May 18, 2012
Jittery U.K. customers of one of Spain's biggest lenders pulled out funds on Friday, and bad debts held by Spanish banks rose to a 17-year high, underscoring the challenges facing the country's financial sector. […]
Spain's Regions Contribute to Wider Deficit May 18, 2012
Spain's said late Friday it has revised its budget deficit estimates for 2011, largely because of more red ink reported by four regional governments. […]
Serbian Campaign Sets Up Friction May 18, 2012
Serbia presidential election challenger Tomislav Nikolic and incumbent Boris Tadic appear to agree on the need for closer ties to the European Union, but other differences could make it harder to tackle serious economic problems. […]
Defiant Message From Greece May 18, 2012
Alexis Tsipras, head of Greece's radical left party, said in an interview with the Journal that there is little chance Europe will cut off funding to the country and if it does, Greece will repudiate its debts. […]
Joining the Über-Euro Male Zone May 18, 2012
From man bags and friendship bracelets to vintage Mercs and Marlboro Lights, the particularities and peculiarities of the Über-Euro male. […]

CNBC alerts

Why the US May Ban Some Motorola Smartphones May 18, 2012
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Citigroup Wins Dismissal of Suit Alleging Firm Hid Risk May 18, 2012
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Facebook Brings the Retail Investor Back … for a Day May 18, 2012
The price action in Facebook may be a bit of a letdown, but check out the volume. It's record-setting. […]
Thousands Protest in Chicago Before NATO Summit May 18, 2012
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Looming Global Catastrophe: Marc Faber May 18, 2012
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Harvard Business

Boringness: The Secret to Great Leadership
Until recently, I hadn't really known any great leaders. As a writer, the highest-ranking people I deal with are editors,... […]
Do You Know What You Are Feeling?
Over the 23 years since we met, my wife Eleanor and I have spent considerable time, money, and energy on... […]
How to Market to Someone Who Knows Everything
People talk about Francis Bacon as the last person to know everything. Apparently, these people don't know any 15-year-old girls.... […]
Are You a Closer? Take the Test
My last HBR blog post, How to Close a Sales Call, reviewed sales call closing techniques. Now let's analyze whether... […]
Mark Zuckerberg's Magic Touch
Facebook's shares open for trading today. Chances are, you're holding your breath or rolling your eyes. Whether you're inspired or... […]
Your Brain on Facebook
While Facebook's rise took many by surprise, its success was little surprise to the hundreds of researchers who study social... […]

Seeking Alpha

Should the SEC Try to Boost the IPO Market? April 11, 2011
Felix Salmon submits: Clare Baldwin and Sarah Lynch are unambiguous: “As U.S. regulators review rules on shares issued by private companies,” they write, “they must not make it too easy for hot Internet companies such as Facebook or Twitter to avoid the scrutiny that goes along with an initial public offering.” They’re talking, of course, about the letter wh […]
4 Stocks Snapped Up by Insiders Ahead of Earnings This Week April 11, 2011
Kapitall submits:Below we present you with a list of four companies releasing earnings this week that have seen significant insider buying over the last six months.If you're interested in getting ahead of the market, this list might offer you an interesting starting point given that managers are buying into their own companies. Full details below.Click […]
Weekly Market Outlook: Healthcare and Energy Sectors Stand Out April 11, 2011
Price Headley submits: The bulls just didn't have enough gas in the tank to make it three weeks in a row. The lack of gain, however, isn't even the alarming part; stocks only lost ground to a tiny degree. The red flag is the shape of the chart and the way things progressed over the last five days. We'll look at that idea in detail below. First […]
Today in Commodities: Reversal Day April 11, 2011
Matthew Bradbard submits: Perhaps an interim top in Crude as prices are down over 4% today with the front month trading back near $109/barrel. We expect to see some downside follow through in tomorrow’s session and have a first target at the 20 day MA, about $3 from current pricing. That should equate to a 15-20 correction in the distillates as well. In our […]
Global Growth Is Heating Up, U.S. Growth May Slow April 11, 2011
Financial Sense submits:By Chris PuplavaHeading into 2011, the overall consensus was to overweight the U.S. versus emerging markets, as most emerging markets were undergoing monetary tightening, while the U.S. had a second round of quantitative easing still to come. The Fed's often repeated line was interest rates would likely stay low “for an extended […]