News item: Sen. Bob Corker requests Congressional hearing on JP Morgan derivative losses

At last, JP Morgan shareholders and their politcal representatives might find out exactly what transpired within the JPM Chief Investment Office. As much as the Wall Street Journal may try to get the story precisely correct, and as hard as JPM executives may try to spin their way out of an inexplicable situation, none of this is being done under oath. And thats the wonderful thing about whats to come: investors will actually find out what was being hedged, to what end, and how comfortable JPM is to say that they never took a naked bet on changes in the backdrop of the European economy.

Republican Senator Corker is trying to get ahead of the curve with his request, since JPMs US$2.45B in mark-to-market losses have added import to the demands of those who say the pending Volcker Rule is both required, and needs to be toughened.

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There’s no financial prerequisite for starting a small business. In fact, as many of us would admit, the financial side of managing the business is not our strong suit.  At least, not in the beginning.

But like exercising a muscle, paying more attention to your numbers on a regular basis can actually strengthen your “financial IQ.” Not to mention help you avoid all kinds of (unavoidable) trouble—and take advantage of some real opportunities you could be missing.

Peri Pakroo, author of The Women’s Small Business Start-Up Kit, wrote awhile back on entrepreneur.com that small business financial shortcomings can fall into two broad categories: (1) Full-on neglecting to track income and expenses, losing receipts, etc.; or (2) Doing a reasonable job of tracking, but then not using this information to establish where the business is at any given point in time.  (We’re not sure whether you have to be in one category or the other; maybe there are hybrids?!)

Overcome mental hurdles               
Pakroo says that loathing dealing with the numbers (as “tons”) of successful business owners do, doesn’t have to be your undoing. We so identify.  Instead of giving

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Last Fall, the Toronto Sun reported that the board of Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment would soon name a new boss. That was almost five months ago, and with Richard Peddie now 10 weeks gone, after a 14 month notice period, the time is certainly ripe for a new CEO to be appointed.

The MLSE business runs so well, you can almost appreciate why theres no rush to choose Mr. Peddies successor. But any successful business abhors a vacuum, and MLSE currently has one. For Korn/Ferry, the headhunter reported to be working to secure a CEO replacement, the short list work of compelling external candidates will have been completed long ago. Im sure theres someone from Portland or Seattle who is just fantastic, in theory. But for the local fan base, the ones who turn those turnstiles, we already know the answer: its MLSE EVP COO Tom Anselmi.

Attend a concert, Leafs or Raptors game at the ACC with any frequency, and youll be struck by the professionalism of the fulltime customer-facing staff: the ushers, the guards, the servers.

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I know we plan to celebrate National Lemon Chiffon Cake Day today (March 29) in a big way. Seriously. You may want to, too. But while you’re doing that, you’ll be interested to know that it’s also National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day, definitely worth celebrating—and acting upon.  Be sure to visit and buy from a small business, today,especially. But also a good thing for all of us to keep in mind every day.

In the meantime, everyone’s heard that so-called ‘mom and pop’ businesses are going away, but that they’re the backbone of the economy, yada, yada, yada…We think there are a lot of myths about mom and pop businesses … we hear or read them and suddenly they’re true, repeated again and again. Like all myths, these bear a second look.  So in honor of mom and pop business owners, here are a few of those myths:

Myth #1
Mom and pop businesses are unsophisticated.
So not true! Many have been early ad

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Americans plunked down about $1.5 billion on the biggest jackpot in history No, it wasn’t me that won the mega jackpot of $640 million. I never even bought a ticket in the end. What happened is that I got caught up in my own dream and never made it to the ticket kiosk. Like every other American, I read about the giant payout and lapsed into a sort of self-induced semi-coma thinking about all that money.   Small start Actually, I started small, making believe that I had won one million dollars. At that point I spent time thinking about my new car. The new Chev? Maybe a Jag? How about lashing out and buying an Aston Martin for about $280,000. I mean I would still have considerable change… I tried to imagine what that car would look like standing in my driveway and then I understood I needed a bigger jackpot; my new house with the fancy driveway would cost more than I had. I upped my win to $2 million.   Read all post…