When accounting goes unaccounted for
“So in my opinion, this is a good bill. And I hope that my fellow Democrats will support it.”
~ Former President Bill Clinton, at press conference today with President Obama (who bailed early), on the tax cut compromise. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders, at the time of publication, is still going strong.
Warning Signs about the Future Supply of Accounting Graduates [The CPA Journal] At the ground […]
There’s some funny business going on in InterOil and a lot of it is pure juvenile humor. First of all, you have Louis from Even Stevens pumping their crap stock. Then you have him in Playboy saying he’s less than well-endowed.
It’s as if the jokes write themselves but then you realize that investors are actually counting on the soundness of markets and suddenly it’s not so funny. Never mind, it’s funny.
The first problem with InterOil isn’t really that the guy from Transformers is clumsily pushing it now that he’s worked beside the real Gordon Gekko – sure Wall Street is cool again but not cool enough to rub off on Shia LaBeouf who has apparently taken to pumping stocks lately.
Yeah, we know, we’re confused too.
Getting ready to play next to Michael Douglas for Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street” sequel “Money Never Sleeps”, LaBeouf studied under the financial ninjas at John Thomas Financial (yes, JDA already made that joke. A bunch of times) and apparently turned $20,000 into $489,000 says Business Insider.
And yes, he really did tell GQ readers to grow some balls and short gold at 120 (whatever that means). 120 what? Euros?
“He’s So Money” says GQ in the April 2010 issue. Give me a break. From the mouths of garbage-stock-pumping babes:
“I thought my life was pretty wild. I’m Richie Rich. I land in New York, secretly thinking I’m like the coolest guy in the world. I’ve been on the cover of GQ! But then I met these guys, and it’s humbling. It’s the most sex-drugs-and-rock-‘n’-roll atmosphere that exists on the planet. I was hanging out with some wild human beings.”
So we’ve established Shia is a douche but what about InterOil’s “fundamentals”? I’m so glad you asked!
How about this “bad faith” bankruptcy filing by InterOil’s esteemed CEO Phil Mulacek?
InterOil also recently announced a that part of the Antelope-2 well will need to be re-drilled, greasing it up further for 14-year-old humor for months to come. For 7 years InterOil has promised awesome discoveries and for 7 years it has failed to deliver. Since we no longer have logical fundamentals (InterOil outperformed well through 2009), the best we can do is juvenile humor, I guess.
Grow some balls and short InterOil or just sit there and wait for it to implode, up to you.* Shia needs to hurry up and jump on the tax problems bandwagon like many of his fellow “stars” so we don’t have to listen to this anymore. Wonder how much his toilet seat collection would snag at IRS auction?
Earlier: QOTD: Sam Antar is Ready to Rumble
*Disclaimer: nothing here should be taken as investment advice and I don’t take back what I said about Shia’s John Thomas nor his Financials.
Many of you and your fellow accountants are doing more with less these days. Your company has had cutbacks, people have bolted for (presumably) greener cube farms and you’re left to do the heavy lifting. You’re miserable but dammit, you’re not happy unless you’re unhappy, amiright?!?
Besides, you’re doing an awesome job, as Tony Schwartz writes at the Harvard Business Review blog The Conversation, “Americans are working 10 percent fewer total hours than they did before the recession, due to layoffs and shortened workdays, but we’re producing nearly as many goods and services as we did back in the full employment days of 2007.”
He cites AG’s archenemies Ben Bernanke as saying these are “extraordinary” gains in productivity by you, the American worker.
Except there’s one small problem with this, Mr Schwartz notes:
[I]t’s called fear. If colleagues around us are being laid off and cut back, we can’t help worrying that our jobs may be next. Our survival instincts kick in, and we push ourselves harder, so we’re not the next one to go. We get more done, which sounds like good news and certainly explains higher productivity…
…Americans already put in more hours than workers in any country in the world – and that doesn’t include the uncounted shadow work that technology makes possible after the regular workday ends.
Here’s the bigger point. Just as you’ll eventually go broke if you make constant withdrawals from your bank account without offsetting deposits, you will also ultimately burn yourself out if you spend too much energy too continuously at work without sufficient renewal.
Sound familiar to anyone? No one really thinks that you’re working like a mad(wo)man because you love your spreadsheets that much. You know what? Try giving the shit a rest. You can ask E&Y; they’ll tell you. Mr Schwartz mentions “A comprehensive study by Ernst & Young showed that the longer the vacation their employees took, the better they performed.” There it is! One of your own has proof that you’re better employees if you took a break.
Whether E&Y has translated these findings into mandatory vacation for its employees is unclear. Regardless, there are those hopeless souls who consider their presence indispensable and simply won’t take time off to recharge or – God forbid – enjoy doing anything besides working. Sigh. Unfortch, As long as face time (i.e. the billable hour) rules then this will likely continue, unless TPTB wake up. “Stop measuring your people by the hours they put in, and focus instead on the value they produce.”
The Productivity Myth [The Conversation/HBR]