Friday Thoughts
We’re coming up on another weekend already and another summer holiday. Seems like we just enjoyed Memorial Day. Here in Chicago we wait all winter for summer so I don’t complain about the heat. I like the heat. Reminds me of Mexico…
First Forbes Magazine Feature
/8 Comments/in Food for ThoughtMy first feature article for Forbes magazine is out on the newsstands today.
McKenna Featured in Wired
/2 Comments/in Food for Thought, Pure ContentMost initial news accounts of the Facebook S-1 focused on CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Stalinist-like stranglehold on the stock, the strategy, and the board. Tim Carmody of Wired waited a while to file his story, after recording an hour of conversation with me on the phone a few Saturday afternoons ago, and Carmody got lucky. Apple announced some significant to changes in their corporate governance that contrasted sharply with Facebook and Zukerberg’s one-man band approach.
More On Chief Risk Officers
/in Food for ThoughtI do not believe the measure of a man or a woman is what they make. But in the case of the two MF Global CROs, the testimony they gave about their salaries, coming at the end in response to a question from a cranky Congressman from New Mexico, offered the perfect punchline.
MF Global Updates: Forbes, American Banker
/8 Comments/in Food for Thought, Fraud, Pure ContentAmazing but true, the MF Global story is still red hot, reason being $1.2 billion in customer funds is still missing. Here’s a recap of recent columns at Forbes and American Banker that have tracked new developments.
MF Global Mystery: The Beginning of the End or the End of The Beginning?
/6 Comments/in Food for Thought, Latest, Pure ContentLots of news and updates on MF Global, PricewaterhouseCoopers, JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon and the politics of money.
The Plot Thickens: The House Financial Services Committee MF Global Hearing
/in Food for ThoughtView the story “The Plot Thickens: The House Financial Services Committee MF Global Hearing ” on Storify]
The Legacy of Arthur Andersen
/7 Comments/in Food for Thought, Pure ContentYesterday, The Financial Times asked me to comment on the Enron anniversary. Last week, it was the Houston Chronicle. So Arthur Andersen’s demise is ten years behind us. Today, I re-post one of my first, from October 13, 2006, which presents my thoughts from that time. As I re-read it today, how little has truly […]
Falling In Line
/8 Comments/in Food for Thought, Pure ContentThis post is reprinted from Thanksgiving Day 2008, November 27. Every once and a while I have to take off my re: The Auditors hat and put on the fancy dress of a typical member of a large urban, Catholic, ethnic, up-from-the-working-class family. We celebrate the traditional holidays like anyone else although, like anyone else, […]
Rogue Traders, Rogue Firms: The CME, PwC, MF Global and the Legacy of Refco
/9 Comments/in Food for Thought, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Pure Content, Regulators, Laws, Standards, RegulationsLet’s not forget PricewaterhouseCoopers, MF Global’s auditors.
When it comes to hands-on access to private information, the auditor has more than any other regulator mentioned. And they are supposed to be experts in that client’s business and in the accounting and auditing standards for that industry. PwC also audits JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Goldman Sachs. They are all large players in the futures brokerage industry.
Building a Community Around Your Blog From Scratch – Ten Steps
/10 Comments/in Food for Thought, Pure ContentHere are my ten steps to building my blog community. They might not work for everyone, but they’ve worked for me. This is not meant to be an all-inclusive list or all the details. Please let me know if you have any questions or want to dig into a subject further.
An Update On The GM IPO: The Numbers Don’t Add Up
/in Food for Thought, Pure ContentMy trusted investor “straw man” reminded me that GM’s current stock price is much lower than the IPO price and far short of the target for a U.S. Treasury breakeven on the investment. That’s an easy story to write.