Tax is bad enough without needless complexity
Sir Christopher Gent and a precinct of policemen provide some insights to our tax system.
Profits without honour
The bullish 1990's market lead companies like Enron and WorldCom to strive for unrealistic earnings growth - eventually by any means necessary. Their stories show that shareholder value should be an end, and not the aim of good businesses.
Look and learn from Enron
Some major lessons can be learnt from Enron's collapse. Here they are, in an easy to remember list
Stiffening the auditors’ backbones (written with Bryan Carsberg)
The debacle of Enron has shaken core assumptions about auditors and auditing . A new accounting standards body needs to be appointed to maintain the integrity of corporate reporting.
A true and fair view of productivity
Politicians, business people and financial commentators talk about economic growth as if they were discussing objective data, like population growth, or temperature. But national income accounting is every bit as much a subjective enterprise as the private sector accounting on which it ultimately depends.
On John Kay’s Bookshelf – Archive page
Books that John has reviewed in the past...
Insiders calls the tune
Treating the value of share options as a cost makes a dramatic difference to the reported profits of many technology companies. And it points to a broader issue. In the knowledge economy, the distinction between employee remuneration and shareholder return is fundamentally changed
Stretching the figures
“Do the math” has become the mantra of a generation of consultants and investment bankers. The new economy, they claim, requires new principles of valuation. But the rules of logic hold even in cyberspace, and so do the principles of economics. Profits are hard to earn in competitive businesses, and markets that are not competitive are usually regulated.
Downside of regulation
There are many things wrong with British banks, but contrary to the Cruickshank Report, the fact that they make profits is not one of them.
Looking at cost, not value
Regardless of what something seems to be worth, I should never pay more for something than it would cost me to replace it. On this basis, mobile phone companies look expensive.