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• Creative Accounting – Misrepresentation of Facts - 28 June 2010

It's a common misconception that accountants lack creativity. The numerous accounting scandals over past decades have revealed that at least some accountants can be extremely creative with the finances they control. Such creativity can include the misdirecting or misusing of funds, understating expenses, overstating revenues, understating liabilities and overstating corporate asset values, thereby misrepresenting the financial state of a company. To be fair, large scale creative accounting (also referred to as innovative accounting or aggressive accounting) is seldom, if ever, the brain-child of the accountant in charge, but is carried out with the support of key executives in a company, and may even rely on the cooperation of officials in other corporations or affiliated companies. Creative accounting generally skirts along the edges of the rules of acceptable accounting practices, using very complicated ways of presenting assets and liabilities, and income and expenditure, with the view to enriching certain individuals in some way. Creative accounting can also be used to manipulate the value of a publicly traded company’s shares for financial gain.

• The Conference Board - 30 July 2009

Promoted as providing "Trusted Insights for Business Worldwide", The Conference Board is a well-respected authority in the business world. With its main offices based on Third Avenue in New York City, this non-profit global business organization also has offices in Hong Kong and Brussels. Functions of The Conference Board include holding conferences with high profile executives from all over the world, and conducting business management research relevant to the current global market. One of the reports compiled by The Conference Board is its Consumer Confidence Index, which is of great interest to stock market traders, bearing in mind that a healthy economy is largely reliant on consumer spending.

• Dividend-Paying Stocks May Balance Out Investor Portfolios in Volatile Market - 8 September 2008

At one time considered to be an integral aspect of an investor’s portfolio, stock dividends have taken a back seat in recent years as investors turned to shares that offered greater capital appreciation. The current volatile market, however, has highlighted the value of including dividend-paying stocks in a balanced portfolio. This is especially true in light of the fact that the benchmark for the U.S. market, Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, has in effect delivered flat returns since 2000.

• Stock Hymns in Praise of Dividends - 8 may 2008

Ingratitude is worse than a common failing. It can lead you to the wrong stock picks. Search engines show you historical stock price trends. Denominators are missing. It is not just a matter of ratios. Those checks in the mail every quarter are chicks in your hands. The guidance stuff is for tired birds in the proverbial bush.

• The New Math of Stock Maneuvers to Protect Corporate Bond Value - 26 March 2008

We must start with a disclaimer. This post poses some questions without answers. They are about matters we do not understand. We need new writers. Use the link at the end of this post if you are an expert on corporate bonds.

• Innovation in Business and Stock Investing (Part 1) - 19 December 2007

Creative thinking is universally valuable. Executives in large corporations, small and medium business owners, as well as investors of all genres have stocks in discovering new avenues for growth and for delivering value. The path is full of thorns, especially when accountants are around, because so much of innovation appears to be wasteful of scarce resources. Business leaders always search for new efficiencies in their processes of innovation. Some of the most recent thinking on this matter postulates that customer focus and alignment with organization strategy are the best ways to keep research productive and relevant.

• Influences of Stock Options on National Issues (Part 1) - 18 December 2007

The stock market is not a level playing field. Stock quote dice are heavily loaded in favor of large corporations and large financial institutions. Small investors agonize endlessly over the tempestuousness and lack of logic of stock price trends. Derivatives, hedging, and short selling by large holders of stocks may be behind every unexplained movement in stock price. Regulations limit degrees of fluctuation within a single stock trading day, but officials are either helpless or parties to massive manipulations in day trading of some stocks. The situation, in this respect, is no better in developed democracies compared to totalitarian states.