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October 2025. An Idea From Mr. Buffett – Stop Coming Up With So Many Ideas
We know he’s retiring, but who wouldn’t want a ton more good ideas from Warren Buffett before he does…? A WSJ article explains that just one good idea every 5 years was actually more than enough for Mr. Buffett. But hold on, what was he doing the rest of the time? Creating astronomical investment returns…
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May/June 2025 | Fortunate are Those Who Report Way Less and Way, Way Less Often…
Let’s simplify financial reports. In fact, let’s just get rid of them, at least quarterly guidance reports. Why? Because Warren Buffett said so. An article from BCG describes today’s financial reporting efforts as focused 80% on report generation but only 20% on analysis and insight-generation. And that most financial reporting can be improved by taking…
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January 2024 – Words of Wisdom…in a Glossary
While not as scholarly and elegant as a dictionary, one should never gloss over the importance of a glossary. Especially in a business simulation class. Accounting is often referred to as the language of business. But if that’s the case, then many industries seem to be speaking their own dialects. And often have a vocabulary…
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November 2023 – Insurers Pay The (Inflated) Cost to be The Boss
PriSim recently held a virtual Open House featuring business simulations for the insurance industry. One of the discussion topics was how hard the insurance industry has been hit by inflation. Insurance companies sometimes get a bad rap for their profitability, but inflation is adding pressure to claims expenses and increasing the cost of repairs, litigation,…
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June 2023 – SPACs Give Their Goodwill Back
Sometimes companies throw a business-related Hail Mary pass and hope for the best. But many of the pass attempts by companies that went public through the non-traditional IPO process known as SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies) in the past 2 years have landed incomplete. Including a SPAC from former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, which cost…
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May 2023 – Whatever Floats Your Business Boat…
Timing is everything – and when it comes to financial float it so happens that time actually is money.
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April 2023 – When Companies Buy Back Their Shares and Go Home
It’s never fun when a kid threatens to take their ball and go home. What about when companies do it with their shares of stock? 2023 is shaping up to be a big year for share buybacks, with more than $1 trillion in repurchases expected by the S&P 500 alone. That’s a lot of money…
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May 2022 – Spiraling Out of Control – Wages and Prices
Unless you’ve been hiding in your basement for the last couple of months (understandable if you were), you’ve probably heard about the dreaded Wage-Price Spiral (WPS) that many economists are predicting. A WPS can occur when prices rise, causing workers to demand higher wages. Companies then raise prices again to cover their now-higher wage expense…
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March 2022 – This Blog Post Is Taxing. It’s About Taxes
Economist John Maynard Keynes said that avoiding taxes was “…the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward.” But in the case of book income vs. tax income, all rewarding things must come to an end. A minimum corporate tax in the US has been proposed that would be based on the book income of large…