The accounting faculty is again assigning students assignments requiring them to search official accounting literature, which for this assignment is limited to the pronouncements and standards and other notices/announcements from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). I will detail access to this literature in a separate blog entry.
Short workshops on searching FARS (the Financial Accounting Research System) will be offered:
Monday, Oct. 24, 5 pm. Room 135, first floor of the library
Tuesday, Oct. 25, 1 p.m. Room 135, first floor of the library
Wednesday, Oct. 26, 4:30 p.m. Room 135, first floor of the library
Saturday, Oct. 29, 1 p.m., Room 135, first floor of the library.
Monday, Oct. 31, 4 p.m., Room 135, first floor in the library
Thursday, Nov. 3, 1 p.m. Room 130, first floor in the library
Friday, Nov. 4, 5:30 p.m. Room 135, first floor in the library
Saturday, Nov. 5, there is a regularly scheduled Accounting Resources workshop at 12 noon in Room 135 in the library. I will incorporate FARS in this workshop. The workshop goes from 12 to 1:15 p.m. (Students should sign up for the Nov. 5 workshop by going to Instruction on the Newman Library homepage.)
For all other workshops, students can just show up. They should last about 20 minutes, based on my experience last year.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
How Many Wars?
Yesterday an e-mail question came in asking for statistics on the number of "active war situations" in the world today. The best numbers I could find were in the SIPRI Yearbook, available on the Web at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Monday, October 17, 2005
Prof. Cherny's Principles of Auditing assignment
Prof. Cherny's Principles of Auditing students are working on group projects that deal with one of 12 audit failures described in detail in their textbook. Among the things he is suggesting, but he stressed to me, and his students today, is for them to compare, if available, the financial statements of the firms that had audit failures for several years prior to the year in which the audit failure occurred, as well, if available, financial statements of firms in the same business. He realizes that these financial statements may not be readily available for some of the firms. If they are not, he told me that he expects the students to explain information that was available that they looked at. (He said a lot of times in real life you have to make decisions on less than perfect information.)
For example, one case involves Bernard Cornfeld, also known as Bernie Cornfeld, and Investor Overseas Services (IOS), a Panama Corporation with its principal office in Geneva, Switzerland, and Fund of Funds, Ltd., a Canadian open-ended investment company (mutual fund). Ok so far? The audit failure occurred about 1969, prior to electronic filings of documents. I contacted the SEC, which uses Thomson Financial for obtaining old filings pre Edgar (basically pre-1994 for U.S. firms.). Thomson Financial hasn't gotten back to me, but if the filings are available, it is at a cost of 23 or 26 cents a page. (I will work with Prof. Cherny to see if he wants these in the future for assigments.) IOS and Funds of Funds went into bankruptcy; much money was lost; everyone sued everyone; and litigation ended in the mid 1980s. (See Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis; the case against the auditors is cited in the literature that the students have.) Cornfeld was apparently quite a character; he went to prison for several years. There are books about this fraud which we have here in the library. (I didn't check to see if any financial statements were reproduced.)
Update 10/19 on the IOS/Funds of Fund/Bernie Cornfeld case: The SEC called back and said that since this fund wasn't registered in the U.S., they wouldn't have any financial filings. I relayed this information to Prof. Cherny. Encourage students to select another case if they want to compare financial filings. Checking Thomson Research or the SEC site for Edgar documents or Hoovers would be a good place to start/
Another more recent, from the mid 1990s, audit failure is for Livent, a Canadian-based firm, publicly-traded, that produced/produces live theatre shows, both in Canada and the U.S. (It has continues to operate under bankruptcy protection. There are many stories about both of these frauds in the popular press (WSJ, NYT, Financial Times, etc, accounting journals, etc. The Canadian SEDAR.com, which is like the SEC's Edgar, does have earlier filings for Livent, as does Thomson Research. Disney appears to be the only other publicly traded firm that produces live theatre shows, as a student and I searched by NAICS and SIC codes.)
So, where else to direct the students? CCH Business & Finance probably has some helpful information at its Securities tab. There is a selected Federal Securities Cases Archive 1941-1993 and SEC Releases and other Materials that can be searched. (The SEC Releases and other materials will give you the SEC case number and what happened --for example, in short, Cornfeld reached a settlement with the SEC.)
The new Audit Analytics database, for which one user can be on at a time, might provide some help as there is audit data back to 2000 and one can search by broad industry classifications--such as entertainment and one may also see the audit firm's opinion letters.
When I spoke with Prof. Cherny told, he told me that part of the assignment is also written and oral communication. (He worked in the profession for a number of years before returning to get his PHD.) Definitely, the case studies pose what were real life problems, and the students need to explain, to the best of their abilities, what they would conclude, based on what is available to them. I helped a student on Saturday with information on the Livent case, and she told me that, based on what the case presented, "the young auditor was in way over her head," as she didn't understand the business of financing theatre productions. The auditor unfortunately went along with what was going on....and ended up with a prison sentence.
Prof. Cherny is also looking for suggestions such as what weaknesses were apparent--for example, a lot of cash being handled only by one person, relatives-friends dealing with each other, but of course, perhaps there was nothing easily apparent, because of the nature of fraud.
Perhaps if any of these students come to the reference desk you could refer them to me. I don't know what the other 10 cases are that the students are working on. I think it is a semester project.
I think this assignment has information competency in it--for students and librarians.
For example, one case involves Bernard Cornfeld, also known as Bernie Cornfeld, and Investor Overseas Services (IOS), a Panama Corporation with its principal office in Geneva, Switzerland, and Fund of Funds, Ltd., a Canadian open-ended investment company (mutual fund). Ok so far? The audit failure occurred about 1969, prior to electronic filings of documents. I contacted the SEC, which uses Thomson Financial for obtaining old filings pre Edgar (basically pre-1994 for U.S. firms.). Thomson Financial hasn't gotten back to me, but if the filings are available, it is at a cost of 23 or 26 cents a page. (I will work with Prof. Cherny to see if he wants these in the future for assigments.) IOS and Funds of Funds went into bankruptcy; much money was lost; everyone sued everyone; and litigation ended in the mid 1980s. (See Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis; the case against the auditors is cited in the literature that the students have.) Cornfeld was apparently quite a character; he went to prison for several years. There are books about this fraud which we have here in the library. (I didn't check to see if any financial statements were reproduced.)
Update 10/19 on the IOS/Funds of Fund/Bernie Cornfeld case: The SEC called back and said that since this fund wasn't registered in the U.S., they wouldn't have any financial filings. I relayed this information to Prof. Cherny. Encourage students to select another case if they want to compare financial filings. Checking Thomson Research or the SEC site for Edgar documents or Hoovers would be a good place to start/
Another more recent, from the mid 1990s, audit failure is for Livent, a Canadian-based firm, publicly-traded, that produced/produces live theatre shows, both in Canada and the U.S. (It has continues to operate under bankruptcy protection. There are many stories about both of these frauds in the popular press (WSJ, NYT, Financial Times, etc, accounting journals, etc. The Canadian SEDAR.com, which is like the SEC's Edgar, does have earlier filings for Livent, as does Thomson Research. Disney appears to be the only other publicly traded firm that produces live theatre shows, as a student and I searched by NAICS and SIC codes.)
So, where else to direct the students? CCH Business & Finance probably has some helpful information at its Securities tab. There is a selected Federal Securities Cases Archive 1941-1993 and SEC Releases and other Materials that can be searched. (The SEC Releases and other materials will give you the SEC case number and what happened --for example, in short, Cornfeld reached a settlement with the SEC.)
The new Audit Analytics database, for which one user can be on at a time, might provide some help as there is audit data back to 2000 and one can search by broad industry classifications--such as entertainment and one may also see the audit firm's opinion letters.
When I spoke with Prof. Cherny told, he told me that part of the assignment is also written and oral communication. (He worked in the profession for a number of years before returning to get his PHD.) Definitely, the case studies pose what were real life problems, and the students need to explain, to the best of their abilities, what they would conclude, based on what is available to them. I helped a student on Saturday with information on the Livent case, and she told me that, based on what the case presented, "the young auditor was in way over her head," as she didn't understand the business of financing theatre productions. The auditor unfortunately went along with what was going on....and ended up with a prison sentence.
Prof. Cherny is also looking for suggestions such as what weaknesses were apparent--for example, a lot of cash being handled only by one person, relatives-friends dealing with each other, but of course, perhaps there was nothing easily apparent, because of the nature of fraud.
Perhaps if any of these students come to the reference desk you could refer them to me. I don't know what the other 10 cases are that the students are working on. I think it is a semester project.
I think this assignment has information competency in it--for students and librarians.
New bankruptcy act in effect today
CCH has a summary of the new bankruptcy law at http://www.cch.com/bankruptcy/. (It will link to a pdf file that offers an 8 page summary.)
ACRL Launches an Official Blog
ACRL now has an official blog: ACRLog. You can view the list of contributors on this page on the new blog. Among the contributors is Steven Bell, who is the Director of the Gutman Library at Philadelphia University and who is also the person behind The Kept-Up Academic Librarian blog.
Corporate Social Audits
Look for the business press to focus on corporate accountability through social audits when Baruch's International Center for Corporate Accountability Inc. (ICCA) releases its audit of the multinational, Freeport Mcmoran Copper & Gold, this week. The 133 page report will be posted at www.icca-corporate accountability.org.
Although Freeport had social and human-rights policies in place and set up a Partnership Fund for Community Development, it asked for the human rights audit in 2003. The report is the first of its kind. Business Week in an article, "Freeport’s Hard Look at Itself” (October 24, 2005), says the audit may set a standard for multinationals. Prof. Prakash Sethi is pictured in the article with the Freeport staff.
Although Freeport had social and human-rights policies in place and set up a Partnership Fund for Community Development, it asked for the human rights audit in 2003. The report is the first of its kind. Business Week in an article, "Freeport’s Hard Look at Itself” (October 24, 2005), says the audit may set a standard for multinationals. Prof. Prakash Sethi is pictured in the article with the Freeport staff.
Friday, October 14, 2005
Library Open 24-hours during Mid-terms
The Newman Library will be open 24 hours for mid-term examinations. The
dates were chosen by Undergraduate Student Government in consultation with
the Vice President for Student Development and Enrollment Management. The
library will open at 7:00 a.m. on October 19 and remain open continuously
until 11:59 p.m. on October 27. The same rules that we apply during
extended hours for final exams will also apply in this case. After midnight
access to the library will be restricted to Baruch College students.
dates were chosen by Undergraduate Student Government in consultation with
the Vice President for Student Development and Enrollment Management. The
library will open at 7:00 a.m. on October 19 and remain open continuously
until 11:59 p.m. on October 27. The same rules that we apply during
extended hours for final exams will also apply in this case. After midnight
access to the library will be restricted to Baruch College students.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Library Instruction Wiki
As noted on this recent posting on the Librarians with Class blog, there's a new library instruction wiki up that may grow to be a valuable clearinghouse of ideas for information competency.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
English 2150 assignment help
Peggy and I assisted a student in Prof. Burger's English 2150 class with an assignment to write about a modern-day poem based on a fairy tale. We found that Anne Sexton wrote "Cinderella"in a book of poetry Transformations, which is not available here at Baruch, but her Complete Poems is available at PS3537.E915 A17 1981. We printed several bibliographies of poems and fairy tales that we found. They are at the reference desk.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Computer Security at the Reference Desk
Starting today all librarians staffing the reference desk must login at the start of their shift using their personal username and ID. When you leave the desk, remember to sign out.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Industry Codes
Recently a student looking for world trade data asked which international industry codes to use. The key international system is ISIC from the United Nations which students can view from the UN Classifications Registry site.
If students need to translate SIC codes or NAICS codes to ISIC, there is a Website, Jon Haveman's Industry Concordances , that links to translations of codes for various industry coding systems including ISIC, SIC, NAICS, NACE, HS, TSUSA, and SITC.
For more about the various industry and product coding systems used for trade data, Columbia University has a guide to Codes Used for Reporting Trade Data.
If students need to translate SIC codes or NAICS codes to ISIC, there is a Website, Jon Haveman's Industry Concordances , that links to translations of codes for various industry coding systems including ISIC, SIC, NAICS, NACE, HS, TSUSA, and SITC.
For more about the various industry and product coding systems used for trade data, Columbia University has a guide to Codes Used for Reporting Trade Data.
Articles on Technical Analysis
An MBA class has an assignment to compile a bibliography on technical analysis using peer-reviewed journals. Neither ABI/Inform nor Business Source Premier use "technical analysis" as a subject term although articles with author supplied keywords will often use the term. One workaround is to combine "technical analysis" with the subject terms "investment*" or "finance" or with one of the various technical analysis methods like candlestick charting. Harry also suggested Scopus as a relevant database and it brought up titles not found in ABI or BSP.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Full web access at public PCs
At the end of this summer, new Dell PCs were installed on the 2nd floor. Some were placed in the cubicles where there used to be Macs that only had CUNY+ access (those terminals have been moved around a bit) and others were placed in the cubicles across from the reference desk where there were already three PCs with full web access.
At the moment, all the new PCs that have been set up do not have full web access (there is no address window in the browser), so users can't get beyond the library web site, the Baruch web site, and things like eSIMS and Blackboard. Saad's staff will change the browsers in these PCs sometime soon.
At the moment, all the new PCs that have been set up do not have full web access (there is no address window in the browser), so users can't get beyond the library web site, the Baruch web site, and things like eSIMS and Blackboard. Saad's staff will change the browsers in these PCs sometime soon.
ProQuest corrects our Historical Newspapers subscription
Our free ride has ended. ProQuest just realized that they had accidentally given us access to more titles in ProQuest Historical Newspapers than we had paid for (the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal). We no longer have access to:
- Atlanta Constitution (1868-1925)
- Boston Globe (1872-1901)
- Chicago Tribune (1860-1969)
Monday, October 03, 2005
Spinoff and merger examples--American Express, Ameriprise; Procter & Gamble and Gillette
If you need an example of a spinoff, American Express and Ameriprise are a current example. The spinoff was completed last Friday, and Ameriprise, formerly American Express Financial Advisers, started trading on NYSE today with the ticker AMP. Ameriprise representatives rang the opening bell at NYSE today.
The closing bell was rung by officials of Procter & Gamble, which acquired the Gillette Company today. American Express's and the Procter & Gamble and the Gillette Company's homepages are a source of all the filings that are needed for spinoffs and mergers.
The closing bell was rung by officials of Procter & Gamble, which acquired the Gillette Company today. American Express's and the Procter & Gamble and the Gillette Company's homepages are a source of all the filings that are needed for spinoffs and mergers.
MS Office Tip: Use Word Wraps and Line Breaks in Excel
One of my favorite blogs, Lifehacker, posted this handy tip for adding paragraph breaks to a long cell in Microsoft Excel.
Bloomberg information
Last Thursday I attended an open house at Bloomberg's headquarters. I attended some short information sessions on independent research and corporate governance. I received some reports and search guides that Bloomberg has prepared on these topics and subjects. If you want to see them, please let me know.
Economic Census 2002 Information
I attended a workshop on the 2002 Economic Census sponsored by the Census Bureau last Friday. I have extra copies of the handouts if you want to see them. The Powerpoint presentation is available.
Among the most important things that I learned:
The Economic Census reports are the only census reports that include both businesses with employers and businesses without paid employees. The American FactFinder, a quick link on the Census's web site, and the other reports, do not include businesses without paid employees. Businesses without paid employees number in the millions--ma and pa businesses owned by the couple, taxi drivers who rent their cabs, many used car dealers, and perhaps consultants who own their own business, etc.
The Census Bureau also had good questions for examples of limitations of the data. For example, if one is trying to determine the number of casinos, one must also search for casinos in hotels. (I didn't know that New Jersey requires a casino to be in a hotel.) Connecticut is an example of a state in which the number of receipts from casinos is suppressed to avoid identifying single businesses--Connecticut has two casinos and if you knew the receipts of one casino, you can figure the amount of the other.
Among the most important things that I learned:
The Economic Census reports are the only census reports that include both businesses with employers and businesses without paid employees. The American FactFinder, a quick link on the Census's web site, and the other reports, do not include businesses without paid employees. Businesses without paid employees number in the millions--ma and pa businesses owned by the couple, taxi drivers who rent their cabs, many used car dealers, and perhaps consultants who own their own business, etc.
The Census Bureau also had good questions for examples of limitations of the data. For example, if one is trying to determine the number of casinos, one must also search for casinos in hotels. (I didn't know that New Jersey requires a casino to be in a hotel.) Connecticut is an example of a state in which the number of receipts from casinos is suppressed to avoid identifying single businesses--Connecticut has two casinos and if you knew the receipts of one casino, you can figure the amount of the other.
Librarians' Index to the Internet revamped
As of September 30, the Librarians' Index to the Internet has been completely redesigned and renamed. It is now known as the Librarians' Internet Index.
- Old version of lii.org
- New version of lii.org
NYCdata at the Weissman Center
Prof. Eugene J. Sherman and the Weissman Center for International Business, have compiled a database of statistics, NYCdata, about "New York City, the capital of the modern world". The compendium covers 16 topics including population and geography, income and wages, fiscal data, international trade, housing, education, culture and business activity and headquarters. You can connect to the site at http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/nycdata/
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