Not so much, according to Michelle Malkin. She’s got some great information that was fed to her by a House Ways & Means staffer, in light of the “economic stimulus” package that politicians are currently arguing about.
The Senate is arguing over whether or not to extend the normal 13 week unemployment benefits to add another 26 weeks of eligibility. Sounds nice, right? Wrong. It doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t improve unemployment figures. If anything, it just keeps people on their couches longer.
Here’s what the extension of similar benefits in the past got us:
The extensions went on years longer than originally promised
It’s because you can’t make this stuff up. Real life is soooo much better than scripts. I promise!
This is courtesy of Tanisha, from The Bad Girls Club on Oxygen. Tanisha was upset because her rude roommates were up until all hours of the morning, being loud and disgusting. So Tanisha got no sleep. And when the rude roommates wanted to get their sleep in the morning…. well…. here ya go:
Once again, Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) loses money. During the fourth quarter…. you know… the quarter that is supposed to be the best quarter of the whole year? Yep. Still couldn’t pull out any profits there.
But don’t worry… it’s a smaller loss than the previous year, only $4.3 million, for a loss of 18 cents per share. Apparently analysts thought there would be earnings of 13 cents per share, but no dice!
So for all of 2007, Overstock.com posted a loss of $44.1 million. Way to go Patrick. I think you’re shoring up your place in the list of worst CEOs… at this rate, you’ll never get off that list!
AOL and SmartMoney had a feature article this past weekend about reality television, and how realistic (or not) they really are. It’s no surprise that a lot of scripting and planning goes into those “reality” shows. You didn’t know? Where have you been!!!!
Here’s a brief rundown of the 10 ways reality shows aren’t so realistic…
1. “Step aside, crime dramas. There’s a new sheriff in town.”
Reality television is ruling the airwaves, filling up about 20% of prime-time programming. Why? Partly due to the low cost of producing the shows… which is about 1/3 of the cost of a regular nighttime drama show. The bigger factor is the ratings, as reality TV is taking up more of the top slots in the ratings.
2. “The reality is, it’s fake.”
Truth be told, lots of the stuff on reality television is really somewhat scripted. Producers choose players who will fuel controversy and people on set have been known to push participants to pursue certain controversial story line. Former reality television stars also have experienced the phenomenon of producers stringing together sound-bytes which are out of order or out of context.
3. “Once you sign our release, we own you.”
Death, injury, embarrassment…. they’re all considered “too bad, so sad” once you sign your release.
4. “Our background check’s a joke.”
Background checks seem to be nothing more than a formality, and in fact, those with troubled pasts might provide more interesting content for the show. Read the rest of this entry »
Cynthia Cooper, WorldCom whistleblower, is releasing her book in just few days. Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower is her story. If it is anything like the speech I heard her give a few years ago at the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners Fraud Conference, it will be fantastic.
Unlike other so-called whistleblowers of the Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco era… Cynthia is the true hero. She stood up for what she knew was right and she suffered for it. Make no mistake that she was in danger as she and her team attempted to get to the bottom of accounting shenanigans at WorldCom.
Publishers Weekly writes:
In Cooper’s thorough and efficient narrative about the fantastic collapse of telecommunications giant WorldCom there are two distinct themes: her insider’s view of the corporation’s widespread wrongdoing and the life experiences that led Cooper to becoming a courageous whistleblower. Cooper, former vice president of WorldCom’s internal audit department, is most successful with the former. She brings us into the boardrooms, the backrooms and, somehow, into the heads of key players as some struggled with and others embraced the deceptions that would bring WorldCom down.
I’ll be reviewing the book in the next couple of weeks and can’t wait to share my thoughts.
I put the word executive in quotes because I don’t think anyone in their right mind really considers Judd Bagley an executive at Overstock.com (NASDQ: OSTK). He is the smearmeister for Patrick Byrne. They like to call him an investigative reporter, but his investigation skills lack one critical element: accuracy.
This weekend, Judd, “Director of Communications” at Overstock.com was patting himself on the back for what he thought was a good bit of investigative work. Turns out he took a few facts, threw in several falsehoods, and drew erroneous conclusions that he’s now proclaiming as truth around the world wide web.
Judd’s primary duty at Overstock.com seems to be stalking and smearing those who ask questions about the company and those who point out “unusual” things in the company’s financial statements. Never mind that the company is a total POS: always losing money and burning through cash faster than Patrick Byrne can say “burn those kids.”
Overstock is announcing earnings this week, and what better time for Judd to crawl out from under his rock than now… there must be some awful information coming! This is the company’s usual M.O…. divert your attention away from the crappy performance. Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t read the title of this and make a mistaken assumption about my opinion on this case. I think the teacher deserves to lose his job….
Dan Bearss teaches science at Custer High School, part of the Milwaukee Public Schools. The City of Milwaukee has a simple rule: City employees must be residents of the city. The rule was implemented in the 1970s, and is still alive today.
Friday will be Dan’s last day teaching for MPS. He lives in Brown Deer, and has lived outside the city limits since he was hired to teach at Custer six years ago. He has apparently not hidden the fact that he lives in Brown Deer, it’s just that the administration didn’t realize it until recently.
Dan says that he and his wife should have the right to live wherever they want, and they don’t want to leave their house. So he will have to get a teaching job elsewhere.
Many debate whether or not the residency rule is outdated, necessary, or even reasonable. I believe that at the time it was created, the goal was to give city employees a feeling of belonging and making them more invested in their jobs. If they and their families lived in the city, they maybe had more of a personal investment in keeping the city a good place to live through their jobs.
It’s sad to lose a good teacher, but the rules are the rules. If you don’t like them or you think they are unfair, work to change them. Don’t try to beat the system. It’s wrong and it sets a poor example for our children.
Société Générale in France has reported a fraud of over US$10 billion, perpetrated by a trader in European stock futures. The trader accused of the fraud is Jérome Kerviel, who has been with the bank since 2000. He first worked in the back office, and then two years ago he was promoted to the trading desk.
It’s unclear how the fraud really happened. The bank says the trader bought huge long positions in “plain vanilla futures hedging on European equity market indices” that were “beyond his limited authority”.
That really doesn’t give us a clue to how a fraud occurred. Is the fraud simply the fact that he made purchases he wasn’t authorized to make, and now the bank is suffering losses because they were bad trades? Or did this man somehow profit personally from the scheme?
Société Générale says that the long positions were found and analyzed on January 19 and 20, and that all the positions have been liquidated. They also say that this loss doesn’t mean that they have a bad risk-management process or poor controls over employees.
How could the situation say anything else? Of course an employee exceeding his authority at this high of a level exposes weaknesses in the bank’s systems!
This one comes from Dennis Howlett’s blog, and to me, it’s hilarious. I’m not sure if you have to be a an auditor or not to think it’s funny. Apparently there are some emails from KPMG associates circulating and here’s an excerpt:
The best question is: 4. Do you feel like KPMG’s lack of technology is slowing down your development and progress in your career? My response: Absolutely. The use of morse-code telephones, word processors and telegraphs is a hinderance to my auditing ability. My developement has suffered too - I cannot speak in full sentences, have forgotten my colors, and can no longer put shapes into their apporpriate slots. My career has suffered as well. After looking around for another job, I am only eligible for jobs at Taco Bell and McDonald’s because they have an automated beeper when to take the fries out. I don’t know how to use this thing called a telephone, and is there a little man living inside, what people refer to as, a “computer”?
Tracy Coenen is a forensic accountant and fraud examiner who investigates white collar crimes, including cases of financial statement fraud, embezzlement, tax fraud, and insurance fraud. She is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud and more than 100 articles on fraud featured in industry publications.
Cynthia Cooper, WorldCom whistleblower, is releasing her book in just few days. 
is her story. If it is anything like the speech I heard her give a few years ago at the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners Fraud Conference, it will be fantastic.
