Author: RB

SF Chron on blogs

— Your latest old media take on blogs is at Just Another Cultural Co-Op? / Blogging hits the mainstream, for better or worse. “People mostly compare their favorite bloggers to the boring and predictable columnists on the op-ed pages,” says Matt Welch, one of the writers behind LA Examiner. “It sheds light on what newspapers … Continue reading “SF Chron on blogs”

— Your latest old media take on blogs is at Just Another Cultural Co-Op? / Blogging hits the mainstream, for better or worse.

“People mostly compare their favorite bloggers to the boring and predictable columnists on the op-ed pages,” says Matt Welch, one of the writers behind LA Examiner. “It sheds light on what newspapers have gotten progressively worse at doing: giving readers lively and relevant personalities to read and interact with.”

They quote Matt Welch, Ken Layne, Billy the Quick, and some other folks. It’s pretty much a “just the facts, ma’am” piece, but it does highlight the personality vacuum in big media that created the need for blogs.

Patio Pundit

— Patio Pundit Martin Devon is one of the more interesting sources of RoboPundit summaries, and a regular read who’s not too wedded to an ideology to see the truth. He said some nice things about me the other day regarding my former activism on behalf of divorced dads and kids, and in the course … Continue reading “Patio Pundit”

— Patio Pundit Martin Devon is one of the more interesting sources of RoboPundit summaries, and a regular read who’s not too wedded to an ideology to see the truth. He said some nice things about me the other day regarding my former activism on behalf of divorced dads and kids, and in the course of it speculated:

I’ll tell you what, if a legislator decides to take up the banner on behalf of divorced dads and their kids they’d had far more support than most people realize.

There have been a couple in the California legislature, first Sen. Chuck Calderon, former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and then Asm. Rod Wright, former chairman of Utilities and Commerce. Both men are Democrats, and both found their political careers harmed by their support for dads, children, and civil rights.


The other side, lead by some fairly open anti-male activists, such as lesbian rights crusader Sheila Kuehl, really aren’t satisfied with winning the debates and passing their laws — they’re vengeful. Stories that support this are abundant, and I can post some if anybody’s interested, and the victims of these vendettas haven’t always been male legislators. Fathers’ rights is something you advocate at your own risk in California, but the tide is slowly turning.

Kinsley on corporate reforms

— Pinko liberal commie Marxist Michael Kinsley isn’t fooled by the Washington circus around stock options: In short the abuses these reforms address, if anything, drove stock prices up, but what really bothers people is that they came back down again. Politicians promising to solve that problem are making the same mistake they purport to … Continue reading “Kinsley on corporate reforms”

— Pinko liberal commie Marxist Michael Kinsley isn’t fooled by the Washington circus around stock options:

In short the abuses these reforms address, if anything, drove stock prices up, but what really bothers people is that they came back down again. Politicians promising to solve that problem are making the same mistake they purport to correct: grabbing a short-term advantage that will cost them dearly in the longer run.

So why is Kinsley so clear when Great Authorities Greenspan and Buffett (Warren, not Jimmy) are so confused? Kaus has one answer, and I have another: Greenspan is a political animal, who knows which way the wind is blowing, and Buffett has similar predilections for different reasons: he has to explain why Berkshire Hathaway, his pricey holding company, bit the big one throughout the Tech Bubble. He was robbed by cheating CEOs, of course.

Give me a break: even the most ardent proponents of draconian accounting for stock options don’t really believe this issue has squat to do with restoring investor faith in the market.

Expensing options

— The Indepundit: Stock Options Revisited isn’t done with options yet, hauling out big guns Greenspan and Buffett (Warren, not Jimmy) on behalf of expensing them. Buffett says: 1) If options aren’t a form of compensation, what are they? 2) If compensation isn’t an expense, what is it? 3) And if expenses shouldn’t go into … Continue reading “Expensing options”

— The Indepundit: Stock Options Revisited isn’t done with options yet, hauling out big guns Greenspan and Buffett (Warren, not Jimmy) on behalf of expensing them. Buffett says:

1) If options aren’t a form of compensation, what are they?
2) If compensation isn’t an expense, what is it?
3) And if expenses shouldn’t go into the calculation of earnings, where in the world should they go?

So let’s answer Buffett, who was kind enough to take a break from buying the wired infrastructure of the Internet (while the world goes wireless) to help us out with this weighty question. Options aren’t a form of compensation, they’re an investment. People forego compensation for options, in many cases by making a direct choice, as I did on my last job where I was offered either a higher salary and an option for a certain number of shares, or a lower salary and an option for more shares. By choosing a compensation package that combines cash and options, we invest in the company. Companies don’t have to account on their balance sheets for the profits and losses shareholders make buying and selling shares, so why should they account for options?

One reason: the company has granted options for more shares than it holds in reserve to satisfy options. In this case, the company has to buy shares on the market when options are exercised. So this sort of a transaction certainly is an expense, and it probably should be reported.

But what if the company has sufficient shares in reserve to satisfy outstanding options? Should the paper value of these shares be reported as an asset, or as income to the corporation? We don’t know if options against such shares will ever be exercised, esp. if the options are underwater for some period of time.

So the question of how to account for options and how to account for shares held in reserve is a bit complicated, and until the proponents of expensing options can say how they want it handled, we don’t have much of a debate — it’s like every other issue in politics, where the parties generally agree on abstract principles, such as justice and freedom, but disagree on how to put such principles into action. We wouldn’t be having this debate, however, if the government hadn’t already passed a salary cap law. Options are a work-around for that law, and a messy one at best.

Evil communist Ted Barlow also weighs in on options, but no link to a particualr post since he’s a Blogspotter and his archive is hosed like all the rest of them. (p. s. – anyone who doesn’t like stock options is a an Evil Communist, by definition.)

Nationwide WiFi

— Reiter’s Wireless Data Web Log reports on the Big Story du jour: The New York Times today reports that a group of large telecommunications and computing companies is discussing the possibilities of creating a nationwide 802.11 network. The group includes Intel, IBM, AT&T Wireless, Verizon It won’t be long until essentially all laptops will … Continue reading “Nationwide WiFi”

— Reiter’s Wireless Data Web Log reports on the Big Story du jour:

The New York Times today reports that a group of large telecommunications and computing companies is discussing the possibilities of creating a nationwide 802.11 network. The group includes Intel, IBM, AT&T Wireless, Verizon

It won’t be long until essentially all laptops will ship with WiFi built-in, which bodes ill for the smaller chip companies. Nation-wide networks are coming as well, and there will be more than one. So what’s Warren Buffett doing about all of this? Read Letters from Exile and you’ll see.

He’s back

— KEN LAYNE is back on the web: OK, the site looks good enough for me. The news-blogging will start once I’ve had 50 hours of sleep. Good night. Thanks to those who helped him make bail.

— KEN LAYNE is back on the web:

OK, the site looks good enough for me. The news-blogging will start once I’ve had 50 hours of sleep. Good night.

Thanks to those who helped him make bail.

Stock options

— The Indepundit believes limiting stock options is necessary to restoring investor faith in the markets, so let me amplify on remarks below. He’s right that creative accounting is partially to blame for investor worries about the market, but other factors are investment banker/stock broker conflicts of interest and lax investigative reporting by the business … Continue reading “Stock options”

— The Indepundit believes limiting stock options is necessary to restoring investor faith in the markets, so let me amplify on remarks below.


He’s right that creative accounting is partially to blame for investor worries about the market, but other factors are investment banker/stock broker conflicts of interest and lax investigative reporting by the business press, especially the tech press. Investors realize that the market is an insider’s game, and cosmetic changes in accounting regulations aren’t going to repair that fundamentally sound perception.


Stock options are tangential to all of this. Executive stock options are necessary since Congress enacted tax codes that require all executive compensation above $1M/yr to be double-taxed, once by the exec and again by the company, since they’re forbidden from writing it off as a business expense.


Stock options for tech workers are an essential element of compensation for engineers taking the risk of joining startups, and startups are key to the tech leadership the US enjoys over other countries. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water.

Stock options survive Senate

— The Washington Post reports that stock options survived efforts by Democrat Carl Levin and the emotionally disturbed sometime Republican John McCain to severely restrict or eliminate them as part of the Sarbanes accounting fraud bill: Stock options were a major topic of the debate in the final afternoon of action on the bill. Sen. … Continue reading “Stock options survive Senate”

— The Washington Post reports that stock options survived efforts by Democrat Carl Levin and the emotionally disturbed sometime Republican John McCain to severely restrict or eliminate them as part of the Sarbanes accounting fraud bill:

Stock options were a major topic of the debate in the final afternoon of action on the bill. Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) described stock options as “stealth compensation” that serves as a “driving force behind the deceptive accounting practices that have bedeviled this nation.”


Levin proposed that the Financial Accounting Standards Board, an industry group that writes accounting rules, be directed to study how to properly account for stock options and act on its findings within a year.


But Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) objected to Levin’s proposal, saying it was akin to ordering “a fair trial and then a hanging,” meaning that it was aimed at requiring companies to record stock options as expenses. He said it should be considered at another time in connection with other proposals dealing with stock options. Under rules in effect as the debate ended, a single senator could block a vote on any amendment, and Gramm’s objection effectively killed Levin’s proposal.

Silicon Valley voters would be wise to note who’s trying to kill stock options, and who saved them, at least for now.