Why You Should Study Accounting

When a person living in a small village in India buys a can of Campbell's soup, that act triggers an elaborate economic scorekeeping system that both describes and empowers worldwide commerce. The scorekeeping system is called accounting, and the score is a measure of rewards owed to people along the value chain for their effort, ideas and investments.

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Categories: Education | Entrepreneurialism | Finance | Economics

3 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 10:40 PM

Other People's Money at the Game

I've written in the past about Manhattan's opulent restaurants, crowded to capacity at lunchtime as executives treat each other to lunch on the shareholder's dime. I also find it outrageous that people brag about their $2,500 Lakers tickets. Companies purchase expensive tickets because they are tax deductible - those fancy skyboxes are taxpayer-subsidized entertainment.

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Categories: Corporate Culture | Economics | Ethics

1 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 2:07 PM

De-Automate Accounts Payable

Most of us run businesses considerably smaller than Bank of America - or even Exxon. A good way for us "mere mortals" to keep track of things is to enlist more of our coworkers to review expenditures - by signing or approving checks. I know that check generation and bill paying can be automated, but the time saved sometimes deprives us of valuable oversight and coworker education. Few things help coworkers appreciate the business more than reviewing a month's checks, and understanding - in very concrete terms - the real costs of doing business.

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Categories: Corporate Culture | Management Skills | Entrepreneurialism | Finance | Economics

2 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 10:57 PM

Contemplating the Thinkable

Many people over forty did not believe the Berlin Wall would come down in their lifetime. Of course, many people did not believe CDs would replace vinyl LPs, or that Arizona would ever go to the Super Bowl. Not only do these unthinkable things happen - they seem to happen suddenly.

For sixty years, almost no one has believed there can be peace in the Middle East, but the wheel of history is gaining momentum. As we saw with the Iron Curtain, when enough people demand change, change comes.

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Categories: Leadership | Economics | Optimism

1 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 11:22 AM

The Nuclear Family Option

During the twentieth century, society focused ever more attention on the nuclear family - one group of parents and children. Here and abroad, government pensions had the unintended consequence of separating extended families and reducing our individual sense of responsibility for our elders. Ironically, our attempts to make older citizens more independent have made many of them completely dependent on the government.

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Categories: Education | Economics | Family

2 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 1:13 PM

The Most Important Thing to Learn Before You Graduate

In a best-case scenario, we learn both career skills and money skills before leaving school, but most schools do not offer much in the way of financial education. The evidence is all around us in this recession: even people who excel in academics are at risk of life-long insecurity if they do not learn how to manage their money.

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Categories: Education | Management Skills | Finance | Economics | Optimism

8 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 4:44 PM

The Healthcare Questions We're NOT Asking

From the White House to the Wall Street Journal to the table next to you at Starbuck's, everyone seems to be talking about healthcare. Except that they're not. What people are debating right now is how to pay for healthcare. That's a tough enough question, but society might be better served by asking some tougher questions first.

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Categories: Education | Nutrition | Finance | Leadership | Economics | Ethics | Environment

7 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 9:44 PM