It has been a month that I moved to Nice for my sabbatical leave. I had barely set foot on the tarmac at the airport that the honeymoon phase set in. How could it not? There is the obvious, especially for someone used to Montreal winters: balmy temperatures that keep thick coats stowed away, the …
In 2009, I wrote an article about Chrysler called “Tout un défi!” (i.e., “What a challenge!”) for La Presse, a Montreal daily newspaper. The article discusses the future of Chrysler, which was then in the midst of a massive reorganization.
I recently watched the documentary Blackfish. It tells the story of Tilikum, a star orca at Seaworld Orlando. Orcas, in spite of being called killer whales, are not known to have killed humans in the wild. Left to their own devices, orcas roam the oceans where they cover daily distances large enough to put the …
Earlier this year, I wrote about how locavores may end up encouraging local firms to persist in doing what they are not great at doing. Yet such persistence is not necessary. In today’s interconnected environment, local firms can focus on doing what they are good at and leave the rest for others. A local firm does …
A few weeks ago, a friend contacted me with a business conundrum. His company was looking for help with a web-related issue. A foreign firm had provided an original and cost-effective plan for solving the issue. Domestic companies too had submitted solutions which were less original and cost-effective than that of Foreign Firm. My friend …
I am visiting family in Luxembourg. The news here closely follows ArcelorMittal, the international steel giant. The local media interest dates back to 2002 when Arcelor was born from the merger of Luxembourg’s ARBED with the Spanish Aceralia and the French Usinor. In 2007, Arcelor was acquired by the Indian Mittal. ArcelorMittal is headquartered in …
Elections are upon us in Québec, with all the ensuing brouhaha and commotion. After having lived here for a few years, I have sprouted an interest in Québec, and Canadian, politics. This in spite of the fact that I cannot vote, since I am not (yet) a Canadian citizen. But then again, I am told …
Last week, Mr Romney announced his running mate, Mr Ryan, a representative from Wisconsin. Mr Ryan is known for his libertarian thinking, which has been profoundly influenced by the writings of Mrs. Ayn Rand. Mrs. Rand, who grew up in Russia, embraced egotism (and hence rejected is rival twin, altruism). Not surprisingly, her economic views …
Remember Lehman Brothers, the once stellar investment bank, now defunct? Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, the barely salvaged bank? Dexia, the former banking behemoth spanning France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, shattered into smithereens? More recently, Barclay’s Bank, one of the largest in England, has come into spotlight, and very ingloriously so. It has admitted to manipulating the …
If only we knew. Alas, an answer is difficult to come by, as the recent executive pay controversy at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) illustrates. In January 2012, the CEO of RBS, Mr Stephen Hester, voluntarily renounced being paid 3.6 million shares of RBS, worth about one million pound at the time. Mr Hester’s …
Mr Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, writes about the power of the state to shape individual behavior in a recent New Yorker article. He worries that politicians can promote wrong policies for wrong reasons, which feature most prominently their desire for power, and cautions that “We probably have no duty to like Beethoven or hate …
Yes, it does, and more so than we think! We usually view investors as the primary users of information disclosed in financial reports. The information buck does however not stop at investors. In my study “Corporate Investments: Learning from restatements” published in the Journal of Accounting Research, I find that a firm’s financial reports are useful …