Bullet Proof Balance Sheets
While a focus on growth has always been in fashion, the advent of COVID-19 has enhanced the currency of balance sheets. I know this because an article I wrote with client Ken Berman of Gorilla Trades quickly generated more than 400,000 page views after we published it on Kiplinger. The list of 25 companies includes
Reminiscing The IPO Market
The unicorns are filing one after another for initial public offerings and the excitement in the IPO market is taking me back to 1982, when I was working at a publication called Going Public: The IPO Reporter, the pre eminent journal tracking initial public offerings. I joined the staff in late 1982, and the total tally of
Elon Musk’s Mark Twain Moment
Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Clemens. Clemens was a very clever writer. So it should come as no surprise the very name he chose for himself — Mark Twain — would be steeped in mystery and uncertainty. Since time immemorial sailors have marked the depth of by throwing a weight in the
Innumeracy Hurts
Innumeracy — the numerical version of illiteracy — hurts. It hurts more because unscrupulous parties use it to paint a convincing picture that is at odds with reality. Discourse, opposition, and needed change can all be suppressed by preying on innumeracy. To see this in action, consider the case of Walmart back in the spring of
When Capitalism Hurts: Amazon and Detroit
When Amazon released its top 20 contenders this morning, I quickly scanned the list — not for my city, Philadelphia — but for Detroit. I was sad Detroit didn’t make the cut. It was a bad day for them and a bad day for the country, I thought. It made me think about all the statements
And Now, Fake Earnings
With earnings season here once again, and the term fake news ricocheting across social and traditional media, it’s not too great a leap to get to the concept of fake earnings. Lots of companies present earnings that aren’t really earnings. For example, in January Intel reported earnings of $10.3 billion, and then adjusted earnings of $13.2 billion, about
Getting Media Exposure: Sharing Matters
For companies trying to develop relationships with the media, here’s another arrow for your quiver: Share the stories they write with your social media networks. This according to journalists and reporters themselves. When asked in the 2017 State of the Media Report by public relations software firm Cision, ‘How can communications professionals improve their media relationships and
The Myth Of The Mainstream Media
It seems almost every reporter, anchor, radio host or ‘influencer’ out there likes to point out they are giving you information that ‘the mainstream media won’t report on.” Sometimes it’s information the mainstream media “wouldn’t dare report on.” I would offer that if you are trying to interpret the media landscape today, remove the notion
More Cheating = More Regulation
I kind of like seeing the CEO of Wells Fargo on the hot seat in front of the house and senate for the fraudulent opening of customer accounts. I always felt Wells Fargo’s conduct in general and their attitude toward their customers was criminal. I just didn’t know how accurate my sentiments were. Don’t get me wrong. The