The Other Facts of Life

Jim McConnell had a dilemma: He wanted to share his wealth with his children, but he didn’t want the money to lead them astray or sap their will to succeed on their own.He’s far from alone. Currently, about 2.7 million Americans have at least $1 million in financial assets, according to the World...

By Chuck Jaffe • Feb. 1, 2007

Water for Profit

When most CFOs think about liquidity, they’re calculating how fast they can turn assets into cash. But Aqua America finance chief David Smeltzer is just as likely to be concerned about how smoothly water is flowing through the 10,000 miles of pipes his company owns. As the largest among a handful...

By Alix Stuart • Feb. 1, 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

View from Europe: Global Warming’s Cost

Gordon Boyd doesn’t see eye to eye with a lot of other CFOs. That’s because the finance chief of Drax, a UK power generator, is a fan of the European Union’s Emission Trading Scheme (ETS). The two-year-old mandatory program aims to mitigate global warming as cheaply as possible by imposing strict...

By Janet Kersnar • Feb. 1, 2007

Planning for the Best

Does your finance organization focus on budgeting and planning, or cost management? While the two are not mutually exclusive — the best firms focus on both — emphasizing one over the other could have a dramatic impact on the overall effectiveness of the function.A new study by the American Produc...

By Joseph McCafferty • Feb. 1, 2007

The Great Unbundling

Globalisation is a big word but an old idea, most economists will say, with a jaded air. The phenomenon has kept the profession’s number-crunchers busy, counting the spoils and how they are divided. But it has left the blackboard theorists with relatively little to do. They are confident their tr...

By Economist Staff • Jan. 31, 2007

Links Still Missing

Scorecard systems that help track performance have been around for years. So why do companies still use them incorrectly?A new survey sponsored by a group of 10 organizations and associations confirms what might seem intuitive: scorecards are not static instruments. It all comes down to whether o...

By Laura DeMars • Jan. 29, 2007

Travel Expenses, Down to Earth

For Matthew Hackett, “power traveler” is hardly a glamourous label. A Waltham, Massachusetts-based business designer with the Global Consulting Oracle Practice of Computer Science Corp. (CSC), he spends 80 to 90 percent of his working hours on the road.“I’ve been caught in situations where I’m no...

By Esther Shein • Jan. 29, 2007

Without Tax Relief, Wage Hike Stalls

Efforts to increase the minimum wage stalled in the Senate on Wednesday, as Republicans renewed attempts to tie the increase to tax credits for smaller businesses.The “clean” version of the bill, already passed by the House of Representatives, has just one goal: to raise the minimum hourly wage f...

By Sarah Johnson • Jan. 24, 2007

Paying for College, Again and Again

This article is part of an expanded web version of “Tuition Magicians”, which appears in the January edition of CFO magazine.With the cost of a college education soaring, more grandparents are volunteering to help pay for their grandchildren’s college tuitions. In fact, a widely-referenced survey...

By Marie Leone • Jan. 16, 2007

Cultural Revolution

Separating truth from propaganda in China has always been hard, not least when it comes to numbers. Accountants, of all people, were seen as such a threat that during the 1960s they were packed off to re-education camps, dooming the profession for decades afterward. Even in kindlier times, busine...

By Economist Staff • Jan. 11, 2007

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

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

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

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

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