Small Businesses Weigh In on Wage Hike

Two senators got the ball rolling on pushing a minimum-wage increase bill through Congress this year by introducing legislation linking a tax credit for small businesses to the hike. Lawmakers are tying the issues together in order to put an end to the drawn-out battle in Congress to get a minimu...

By Sarah Johnson • Jan. 11, 2007

House Supports Higher Minimum Wage

The House of Representatives passed a minimum wage bill that would lift the pay floor from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour in three increments over two years and two months, according to CNNMoney.com.The bill, introduced by Rep. George Miller (D.-California), passed by a vote of 315 to 116 yeste...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 11, 2007

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

CEO Confidence Rises from Five-Year Low

Chief executive officers are more optimistic about the prospects for the U.S. economy than they were three months ago, according to the latest quarterly survey by the Conference Board.Though the Conference Board’s index stands at just 50, reflecting a balance between positive and negative respons...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 10, 2007

Small-business Optimism Declines

Optimism among small-business owners has dropped sharply, according to the latest monthly survey by the National Federation of Independent Business.The NFIB’s Index of Small-Business Optimism fell to a level it hadn’t seen since last summer, due to a sharp drop in job creation plans as well as a ...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 9, 2007

The Global Gusher

When Thailand’s introduction of capital controls sent its stockmarket plunging a few days before Christmas, you could have been forgiven for thinking, “Here we go again”. It is almost ten years since the start of the Asian financial crisis, when capital flight on a huge scale caused financial mar...

By Economist Staff • Jan. 5, 2007

Blinded by the Light

What leads to high business performance? Consultants and journalists have advanced many answers to this question, both in print and from the lectern. But most of those answers are little more than educated guesses. In fact, most of them are probably bunk.That, in a nutshell, is the message of a p...

By Edward Teach • Jan. 4, 2007

The Last Mile

It’s a warm November day on the plains of west Texas, and Dale Hosack, the 47-year-old CFO of bottle-maker Western Container Corp., has just finished an amiable conversation with two of the company’s factory managers.Hosack is in a good mood — surprising, given the time of year. At Midland-based ...

By Don Durfee • Jan. 4, 2007

Tuition Magicians

For many parents, anxiety about paying for their children’s college educations sets in at about the same time the “+” sign on the pregnancy test comes into view. The cost of college has outpaced the rate of inflation for years, and many experts expect that trend to continue. And while a higher pe...

By Marie Leone • Jan. 4, 2007

Business Outlook Survey

CFOs are feeling better about the prospects for the U.S. economy in 2007. According to the Duke University/CFO Business Outlook Survey, 30 percent of finance chiefs say they are more optimistic about the direction of the U.S. economy. That’s up from last quarter, when just 20 percent — a five-yea...

By Joseph McCafferty • Jan. 4, 2007

View from Asia: Who Needs the U.S.A.?

You can expect more pushback from Asia these days. Buoyed by rising consumer markets, China and India are feeling increasingly independent of the U.S. economy. China is conducting foreign affairs with a new confidence, and discussions on how it should manage its influence can be readily overheard...

By Tom Leander • Jan. 4, 2007

Q&A: Global Institute for Tomorrow’s Founder

The very idea of a think tank seems a throwback. That’s because so many—read American—smack of the mentality of the Cold War, whether they be neo-con or liberal. Most were born when business’s playbook seemed written from a US slant—and before the economic rise of China and India accelerated glob...

By Tom Leander • Dec. 29, 2006

A Metrics Mess

Do a quick search on the video website www.youtube.com and you can find a 54-second clip starring a BMW. It’s not just any BMW. This one is equipped with state-of-the-art infrared technology that improves a driver’s night vision. In the 24 hours after the video first appeared on YouTube last summ...

By Janet Kersnar • Dec. 27, 2006

Q&A: Tube Lines’ Finance Director

Tube Lines was born amid a political firestorm four years ago when it won a 30-year, £20 billion (€30 billion) building and maintenance contract for three London Underground lines with the backing of central government against fierce opposition from the Mayor of London, the leftist Ken Livingston...

By Tony McAuley • Dec. 20, 2006

Small-Business Chairs Rap Contracting

A new Small Business Administration rule that purports to secure more government contracts for small firms falls short, according to Sen. John Kerry and Rep. Nydia Velazquez, who will be heading the small business committees of their respective congressional houses next year. “The agency’s rule f...

By Sarah Johnson • Dec. 5, 2006

SEC’s Campos: One More 404 Delay for Small Biz

Small companies won yet another reprieve from having to comply with the most controversial provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Roel Campos said Monday that the regulator will recommend at its Dec. 13 meeting that the deadline for small companies ass...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 5, 2006

Sarbox Getting Costlier for Small Firms

Costs related to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act seem to be increasing for small businesses, according to a Merrill Lynch report. In fact, 35 percent of small-business CFOs and CEOs predict Sarbox expenses to rise over the next year. The executives are hoping a new Congress will bring them some Sarbox rel...

By Sarah Johnson • Dec. 5, 2006

Flying the Unfriendly Skies

What are your biggest complaints about air travel?Cramped seating: 75%Security-screening delays: 58%Declining service on board: 49%Flight delays: 47%Cost: 30%What additional safety measures would you consider tolerable?Fingerprint scans: 73%More-expensive luggage screens: 64%Retinal scans: 54%Ext...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Dec. 4, 2006

Over There: Private-Equity Sets Sail

Private-equity investments overseas have hit a record high, reflecting a four-year upward trend, according to a European publisher. Through mid-November, international investments announced by U.S. private-equity firms in 2006 totaled $82 billion, compared with $46 billion during the same period ...

By Sarah Johnson • Dec. 1, 2006

View from China: Unions at Wal-Mart

In Beijing these days, it’s common to hear the phrase “Building a Harmonious Society” being uttered by CFOs in both public and private. This newly minted Communist phrase is being taken seriously in a way that recent party lines never were.That’s because the phrase is not just a slogan, but also ...

By Wu Chen • Dec. 1, 2006

Biotech Dreaming

Two years after its founding in Boulder, Colorado, Sirna Therapeutics Inc. picked up and moved to San Francisco in 2005. While most CFOs might have balked at the idea of relocating to one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country, finance chief Greg Weaver saw the move as critical ...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Dec. 1, 2006

Alternative Universe

It has been called “illogical,”“horrific,” “a slow-motion trainwreck,” and, most colorfully, the “roachmotel” of taxes: you check in but younever check out. The alternative minimumtax (AMT), dreamed up by Congressin the late 1960s to make sure therich don’t exploit tax loopholes, nowaffects more ...

By Marie Leone • Dec. 1, 2006

A Productive Debate

If there’s anything like an elixir for aneconomy, it’s productivity growth. Economic theoryholds that when output per worker rises, so shouldwages, and hence living standards. In practice, that’swhat transpired so impressively in the United States duringmuch of the last century.But recent data su...

By Edward Teach • Dec. 1, 2006

Third Thoughts on Foreign Capital

The next great globalization, according to Frederic Mishkin’s new book (The Next Great Globalization, Princeton University Press, 2006) of that name, will be financial in character: the flow of foreign money into stocks, bonds and banking in emerging economies. A recently appointed governor of th...

By Economist Staff • Nov. 22, 2006

A Good Cause

Within 24 hours of the tsunami hitting southeast Asia on December 26th 2004, more than 230,000 people were dead, 1.7m people displaced, 430,000 homes destroyed and some €10 billion of damage done in 14 countries. It immediately became a showcase for aid agencies and other nonprofit organisations....

By Janet Kersnar • Nov. 22, 2006

On the Record: Jumeirah Group’s CFO

You know you’re in Dubai when you walk into the lobby of the world’s tallest hotel and you’re bathed in the glow of its gold-leaf interior. The sail-shaped, all-suite Burj al Arab is an icon of the booming Gulf city and the crown in the portfolio of Jumeirah Group. A part of Dubai Holding, the in...

By Abe De Ramos • Nov. 21, 2006