Credit Woes Stifle Small-Biz Loans

A banking-industry leader blames inefficiencies at the Small Business Administration for the fact that much-needed financing for small businesses has begun to run dry.Lenders have been discouraged by the SBA’s high fees, staffing problems, and lowered loan-guarantee levels, said Cynthia Blankensh...

By Sarah Johnson • April 18, 2008

New Boss Means No Budget

As the long Presidential campaign continues, the impact of cutting taxes — or not cutting them — on the federal budget is sure to be a point of debate. One other thing is for sure, as well: federal departments and agencies won’t actually be preparing budgets for the fiscal year that begins in 200...

By Kate Plourd • April 18, 2008

Explore the Trendline➔

Tax policy shifts: What CFOs need to know to stay ahead

Discover how evolving tax policies are creating new opportunities and challenges for CFOs.

By CFO.com staff

Rising Gas Prices Push Small Businesses to the Brink

Small business executives, though not traditionally fond of government intervention, are begging for federal help in addressing the rising cost of fuel prices. In a Wednesday hearing held on Capitol Hill by a subcommittee of the House Small Business Committee, experts and executives testified on ...

By Kate O'Sullivan • April 10, 2008

Growth Engine

Last month, the executive team of Skoda gathered at the Czech carmaker’s headquarters in Mladá Boleslav, about an hour’s drive north-east of Prague, to unveil yet another batch of record-setting financial results. It was a wet, grey day that put the imposing concrete communist-era tower blocks wh...

By Jason Karaian • April 7, 2008

Into the Unknown

The debate over accounting for intangible assets rumbles on, as common standards on how to measure trademarks, brands, databases and the like have yet to materialise.Next month, the International Valuation Standards Committee, a London-based non-governmental organisation, will host a roundtable i...

By Eila Rana • April 7, 2008

Business Outlook Survey

It may not be a recession, but it’s awfully close. That’s how finance chiefs in Europe describe what’s going on at home, according to our latest survey of senior finance executives. More than 1,000 finance chiefs worldwide participated in this quarter’s poll, conducted in conjunction with Tilburg...

By Jason Karaian • April 7, 2008

Europeans Target Inflation, not Slowdown

European officials seem more interested in checking inflation than heading off a recession, as U.S. officials are doing. European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet seemed to indicate that it is more important to hold interest rates at their current level than lower them to stimulate the ...

By Stephen Taub • April 4, 2008

Business Outlook Survey

After months of steady decline, the economic outlook cannow only be described as bleak. Speakingat CFO’s annual CFO Rising conference lastmonth, veteran finance chief Jerry Yorksaid, “It’s going to be a very bad recession,perhaps the worst I’ve seen in the 46 yearsI’ve been working.” A majority o...

By Kate O'Sullivan • April 1, 2008

View from China

Aluminum Corp. of China (Chinalco), China’s biggest aluminum maker and a diversified metallic and mining company, won instant fame when it orchestrated a successful dawn raid on February 1, acquiring 12 percent of Australian miner Rio Tinto for $14.05 billion. By far the largest overseas deal by ...

By Wu Chen • April 1, 2008

One Standard, Many Laws

When he wanted to reprint U.S. accounting standards in a textbook he was writing, Lawrence Cunningham, a professor of accounting and law at George Washington University, was told he would have to pay. That’s because the Financial Accounting Standards Board holds copyright to its pronouncements — ...

By Alan Rappeport • April 1, 2008

Small Biz, Big Concerns

Just because Jim Smith oversees the finances at a private company doesn’t mean he’s immune to the rules and regulations specifically designed for his colleagues at publicly traded companies.In fact, Smith, the CFO of Phonon Corp., has also felt the same sting of higher audit fees that public comp...

By Sarah Johnson • March 31, 2008

For CFOs, Green Is the Color of Money

Sustainability issues are moving from a risk management focus to a revenue generation opportunity. That is, executives are moving away from a defensive posture, based on mitigating environmental cleanup, legal, and reputational risks, and taking the offensive, said several CFOs who addressed the ...

By Marie Leone • March 27, 2008

End Looks Near for Carlyle Capital

Carlyle Capital Corp. rocked the financial world Thursday when it announced it was unable to reach an agreement with its lenders and that the lenders are likely to take possession of its remaining assets.The company’s only current portfolio assets are U.S. government agency Triple-A rated reside...

By Stephen Taub • March 13, 2008

Darkness Visible: CFOs See Recession Through 2009

The news is getting grim. Optimism among U.S. CFOs has plummeted this quarter, with three-quarters of them predicting a recession at some point during 2008. Even grimmer: They expect inflation will rise to 3 percent this year. Grimmest: Nearly 90 percent say the economy will not rebound until 200...

By David Katz • March 12, 2008

U.S. Open

South-east of Los Angeles and known as one of America’s most dangerous cities, Compton is not the first place you would expect to see British royalty. But last month Prince Andrew — the Duke of York and the UK’s “special representative” for trade and industry — made the visit. The reason was to a...

By Tim Burke • March 3, 2008

They Don’t Like Surprises

Faulty forecasts have been the downfall of many CFOs. Last year, two telecom giants, Motorola and Ericsson, saw their CFOs depart amid massive cuts in revenue projections (Motorola) and unpleasant surprises regarding profits and share price (Ericsson).Despite the heavy toll exacted when investors...

By Alan Rappeport • March 1, 2008

Thriller

“If the federal government were a private corporation and the same report came out this morning, our stock would be dropping and there would be talk about whether the company’s management and directors needed a major shake-up.” That was David M. Walker, comptroller general of the United States an...

By Edward Teach • March 1, 2008

Skin in the Game

When James Lawrence left General Mills to become CFO of Unilever last September, investors hoped he would help boost the Dutch consumer-products giant’s lagging stock price. What they probably didn’t expect was that he would use his own money to do so. In two transactions spanning four months, th...

By Alix Stuart • March 1, 2008

As the World Churns

Turnover has long been been a hallmark of the top finance job, and 2007 was no exception. The 2,313 CFO changes at public companies marked just a slight increase from 2006’s rate, but reshaped the executive suites of some of the country’s best-known businesses. Pfizer, Citigroup, and McDonald’s —...

By Kate O'Sullivan • March 1, 2008

Offshoring Spreads Its Wings

During the last U.S. Presidential campaign, offshoring was a particularly touchy subject. Candidates denounced “Benedict Arnold CEOs” for sending U.S. jobs offshore, while CNN anchor Lou Dobbs kept a disapproving tally of companies with offshore operations. This time around, even with the economy...

By Kate O'Sullivan • March 1, 2008

View from Europe: Labor Lackings

For the first time in a long while long while, unemployment levels have begun to fall across Europe. Broadly speaking, of course, higher employment is a good thing, but European companies are facing a massive shortage of skilled labor. Some companies had hoped that the recent expansion of the Eur...

By Janet Kersnar • March 1, 2008

India’s Turn?

In less than six months, property developer QuarkCity is expected tocomplete its specialeconomic zone (SEZ) in Mohali, a district in theIndian state of Punjab. “Frankly, we paid more thanthe market rate,” says Fred Ebrahimi, QuarkCity’schairman, talking about land acquisitions. “In myopinion, if ...

By Oliver Jones and Uday Sekhar • Feb. 29, 2008

Visa Dust-Up

Asian companies looking to build their businesses in the United States havelong complainedthat Washington imposes an unfair block by a miserly issuance of H1-B visas.But another, lesser-knowntype of visa has become the cause of complaints in the other direction, viaAmerican politicians who charge...

By Tom Leander • Feb. 29, 2008

Dropped Call: Sprint Has $29.5B Q4 Loss

Sprint Nextel Corp. reported a fourth quarter loss of $29.5 billion, reflecting a noncash goodwill impairment charge of $29.7 billion. The flood of red ink represents the fifth-largest loss recorded by a Standard & Poor’s 500 company since 1990, according to Bloomberg News. The embattled tele...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 28, 2008

Warning: The Economy Stinks

More ominous warnings about the state of the economy have emerged in the past few days from a variety of sources. On Monday, the National Association for Business Economics warned that U.S. economic growth will slow to less than one percent in the first half of 2008. Almost half of the NABE’s pa...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 25, 2008