Small Companies Will Lag, but By How Much?

Let this be a warning to CFOs of private companies: The shift to new global financial reporting standards may yet happen during the Bush Administration. That would be the Jenna Bush Administration.Such was the tone of the most recent meeting of the Private Company Financial Reporting Committee (P...

By Josh Hyatt • Nov. 1, 2008

The Dollar May Be Up, But Are You?

One beneficiary of Wall Street’s bailout is the dollar, which is hot again. The greenback rose 12 percent against the euro between July and October, and is likely to get stronger over the next year, some experts say, even as the Treasury Department piles on debt to shore up banks.Thanks to the as...

By Avital Louria Hahn • Nov. 1, 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

Top Concerns of CFOs

Rest assured, another Great Depression is not on the way. That’s because it’s already here — at least as an accurate description of the psychological state of most finance executives.In fact, even before the latest round of bad news from Wall Street, CFOs were anxious about sputtering consumer de...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Nov. 1, 2008

The Great Green Hope

Amid much talk in this election year about blue states and red states, another color is being heard from: green. Politicians, mindful of soaring unemployment and wildly fluctuating oil prices, are advocating job creation in clean-energy-related fields. Pundits like Thomas Friedman (particularly i...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Nov. 1, 2008

View from China

For years the United States has blamed its huge trade deficit on China. What many haven’t appreciated is that underneath China’s export surplus lies a problem — for China. Chinese manufacturers have long provided financing to U.S. buyers — the bulk of China’s exports to the United States are on o...

By Wu Chen • Nov. 1, 2008

Drop ‘Til You Shop

It is official: the American consumer, for so long the main force driving the global economy, has cracked. Figures released on Thursday October 30th showed that America’s economy shrank at an annualised rate of 0.3 percent in the third quarter. The story behind the breakdown was a far sharper dec...

By Economist Staff • Oct. 31, 2008

Behind but Unbowed

JOHN MCCAIN has survived against long odds before. But, despite a stubborn televised interview on Sunday October 26th, in which he touted a poll showing him just a few points behind Barack Obama in the race for the White House, soon he may have to tape up his windows to keep out bad news. Pollste...

By Economist Staff • Oct. 29, 2008

Consumer Confidence Plunges to Record Low

Consumer confidence plummeted to a record low in October, signaling fears that business and labor-market conditions are sharply deteriorating, according to a closely watched monthly survey.The Conference Board said today that its consumer confidence index skidded to 38 from 61.4 in September. The...

By Alan Rappeport • Oct. 28, 2008

Market Turning Bad for Luxury Goods

Even the rich cut back during tough economic times, a new report from Bain & Company underscores. Growth in the worldwide luxury goods market is expected to slow substantially by year-end, to 3 percent, a steep fall from 6.5 percent in 2007 and 9 percent in 2006, according to Bain’s annual L...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 28, 2008

Flying Through a Storm

FOR AN industry that relies on thrust and lift, the ongoing difficulties of the financial system and the prospect of a widespread recession are reasons to worry. The skies look black indeed for many airlines. So far in 2008 over 30 carriers around the world have seen their planes take off for the...

By Economist Staff • Oct. 22, 2008

A Chill Wind Blows East

WHICH country will be the next Iceland? The dramatic collapse of the Nordic country’s economy has concentrated international attention on other risky but obscure corners of the financial system. The stability of the Ukrainian hryvnia, the ill-regulated Kazakh banking system, and Hungarian borrowe...

By Economist Staff • Oct. 21, 2008

Small Business and the $700B Bailout

The U.S. Treasury has opened up the bidding process for small businesses to offer their expertise in helping the agency manage the purchases of financial institutions’ bad assets. On Friday, Treasury issued a statement reporting how small companies can become financial agents or bid for procureme...

By Sarah Johnson • Oct. 20, 2008

At Yahoo and Merrill, Jobs Are in Peril

Merrill Lynch & Co. has joined a parade of companies announcing major job-cut prospects, with CEO John Thain telling the press that the investment banking giant expects thousands of job cuts after it is acquired by Bank of America.Thain said to Bloomberg News that most of the cuts will impac...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 20, 2008

A CFO Survey: Payroll Cuts Are Imminent

More than half of the CFOs participating in a recent survey (56 percent) said they expect the credit crisis to force them to cut payroll in the coming year. Further, 57 percent anticipated slashing operating costs by more than 5 percent, while 50 percent said they predict a decline in company rev...

By Marie Leone • Oct. 17, 2008

As IBM Goes…? One Can Hope

What the Fed’s rate cuts and bailouts couldn’t do, International Business Machines Corp. did — at least to start Thursday — as the upbeat analysis of its third-quarter earnings statement gave investors some respite from the persistent gloom.The ironic backdrop of a Dow Jones Industrial Average th...

By Roy Harris • Oct. 9, 2008

Cut or Grow?

Our latest quarterly poll of senior finance executives asked them to rank their strategic priorities for 2009. (See “Business Outlook Survey.”) All consider top-line growth and cost-cutting as the top goals, but the degree of emphasis on these and other priorities varies by country. German compan...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Oct. 6, 2008

Here, There and Everywhere

Poznan is described in travel guides as a quaint, historic university city with a population of less than 1m. Most visitors to Poland are lured instead by bustling Warsaw or trendy Krakow, with Poznan attracting attention only because it lies on the Paris-Berlin-Moscow rail route.But Poznan’s eco...

By Janet Kersnar and Bennett Voyles • Oct. 6, 2008

Business Outlook Survey

“A global economic slow-down is looming,” according to the European Commission’s latest forecast. According to finance chiefs, the slowdown is already well under way, and likely to get worse before it gets better.Pessimists outnumber optimists worldwide in this quarter’s poll of nearly 1,300 seni...

By Jason Karaian • Oct. 3, 2008

View from Europe

Although spared the mudslinging ads on television and in local press, CFO son this side of the Atlantic are watching the final weeks of the U.S. Presidential campaigns more closely than they have in previous elections. Indeed, regardless of whether they’re in the Obama or McCain camp, there’s a w...

By Janet Kersnar • Oct. 1, 2008

Cut or Grow? It Depends

The Duke University/CFO magazine Global Business Outlook Survey recently asked chief financial officers to rank their strategic priorities for 2009. The tug-of-war between revenue growth and cost-cutting was evident, with a strong number of responses in both categories. Ultimately, the top priori...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Oct. 1, 2008

Convergence Divergence

The unveiling of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new road map to international financial reporting standards (IFRS) in late summer came as a relief to some, but also sparked a backlash as critics questioned not only certain details but the entire rationale for adopting international stan...

By Marie Leone • Oct. 1, 2008

Dear Mr. President

On November 4, the nation will choose either Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain as its 44th President. The winner will inherit a mess. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a crisis in the credit markets, a painful housing bust, and soaring energy and commodity prices head the list of thorny...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Oct. 1, 2008

The Champ Feels Some Heat

Deep into the largest financial shock since the Great Depression, it is easy to imagine that the rise of the Chinese and Indian economies and the resurgence of London as a financial center could tilt the balance of capital-markets power. America’s biggest global banks, desperate to rebuild capita...

By Randy Myers • Oct. 1, 2008

And They’re Off! (But Should You Worry?)

When Kathleen Casey-Kirschling collected her first Social Security check in Vero Beach, Florida, last February, alarm bells went off across the nation. Casey-Kirschling, born January 1, 1946, is considered the first baby boomer. Therefore, her retirement foreshadows the mass exodus of tens of mil...

By Alix Stuart • Oct. 1, 2008

Business Outlook Survey

When it comes to predicting a U.S. economic revival, even optimistic finance executives sound gloomy. They do expect the economy to show signs of life — but not until mid-2009. And while this quarter’s Duke University/CFO Global Business Outlook Survey counts fewer pessimistic CFOs than it did la...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Oct. 1, 2008