Second Quarter Profits are Lowered by $153M

Wal-Mart profits are LOWERED yet earnings rose from 50 cents per share to 72 cents per share? How does WMW arrive at “lower” profits when per share earnings rose 44%?

First of all, Nick, it’s not WMW arriving at anything. It’s the Associated Press.

Since the price of WMT has dropped considerably during the 2Q, that 72¢ really isn’t ‘earnings’, merely reduced <b>loss</i>.

So if Wal-Mart reported it’s profits for the 2nd quarter, and now has to revise them down by $153 million, doesn’t that mean that the first set of numbers lied?

Ken

Three years ago, GM reported a huge loss. They then revised their numbers a few months later. A $10.6 billion loss became a $13 billion loss. It is all an accounting game. GM didn’t actually fork over an additional $3 billion. Rather, they made an adjustment in their paperwork that said they lost an additional $3 billion.

GE happened to report their write off of Montgomery Wards in the same quarter in which they reported a one-time gain from the sale of Kidder Peabody to UBS.

Accounting is all about shifting numbers. Hence, the Social Security “Trust Fund” of IOUs to be paid for by..........you and me. But, hey, at least the money is there, right?

$ 0.72 $ 0.50 $ 1.40 $ 1.13

Nick I did not reference the page this came from ,but it compares the end of July 2007-2006 big gap from 1.40 last July to this July don’t you think

By the way Wal-Mart took 100 million write off the first of the year this extra 153 mill they forgot about.

Did you know Wal-Mart took Montgomery Ward credit cards when they went belly up some one in HQ though that was a good idea think it was.

Nick

So what you’re saying is that all those “facts and figures” are nothing more than convoluted lies that you post. Thanks for your, your,.......honesty?

“As for being pro business, isn’t everyone?” ~RDS

NO! They’re not, RDS!  Defend this...you ignoramus:

1) Richard Parsons, CEO of Time Warner since May 16, 2002, has “missed his numbers” BIG TIME.  During his “watch,” Time Warner stock has lost 31% in the five years ending in December, 2006.  Despite this, Parsons has collected a juicy cash bonus of $7.5 million to $8.5 million in each of the past four years. Minus taxes, the $32 million in bonus for 2003-2006 that Time Warner’s board has lavished on Parsons, would cover four years worth of state-school tuition for about a thousand students.

2) Robert Nardelli, the embattled chief executive of Home Depot, collected compensation of about $240 million during his six-year stay at Home Depot, even though the company’s stock price declined by 6% during his tenure.

3) AT&T;CEO Edward Whitacre Jr. is one of the more richly paid CEOs by any standard. He got $57.3 million in 2003-05 in salary, bonuses, options, long-term incentive pay, restricted stock grants and other pay. He earned $85 million during the past five years, an average of about $17 million a year.

Whitacre will continue as a consultant for three years after he retires—at more than $1 million a year. He’ll also get lifetime access to a corporate jet, a car, an office and a support staff. He’s in line for an annual pension of $5.3 million, as well.

4) Dane Miller, the CEO of medical-device maker Biomet, is about to get a raise of nearly 350%, or nearly $2 million a year. His pay in the first year of the deal will be a tidy $5 million.  Why the raise? Miller is stepping down as chief executive and cutting back to a 10-hour-a-week consulting role. To help with that “work”, he’ll receive $100,000 a year for expenses, including an office and a secretary. Biomet will also provide Miller—who with his wife owns about $230 million worth of Biomet stock—with a cell phone, laptop computer, PDA and company car.

Nick and RDS will go to any length to defend this capitalistic model.  As stalwarts of the status quo, and defenders of the “free market” and the “global economy,” they don’t have a problem with this!

Law No. 1 in the Big Book of Economics, co-authored by RDS and Nick states:  “Welfare for the poor is bad...welfare for the rich is good!”

Screwedby,

There you go again with your ALL or NOTHING thinking!!  I think that most people in this country would agree that the business they work for would continue to exist and therefore are pro business!!  You sound alot, in many of your posts, to be one of those, “Let’s tear the country down and start over” people!!  If you are anti business, why do you care if businesses leave the country, “Good riddence”, right?

“Law No. 1 in the Big Book of Economics, co-authored by RDS and Nick states:  “Welfare for the poor is bad...welfare for the rich is good!””

The problem with this statement is, that it is not true, we don’t like welfare for either!!  I am for temporary help for the poor, but not lifelong welfare and the rich should get NO welfare!!  The problem comes about with your definition of what welfare is!!  If you claim that a huge salary and benefits is welfare, then look at all those sports figures getting all that welfare!!  The system for CEO pay and a sports figure’s pay are the same, they are both based on past performance!!  And, if it is for tax breaks, since the rich pay most of the taxes, it only makes sense that any tax break would benefit them the most!!  We are anti corruption, not anti business!!  As for workers, we are pro workers keeping their jobs, not pricing themselves out of the labor market!!  Too bad that YOU don’t know the difference!!

You talk about excessive pay for CEO’s and go as far as to mention “a cell phone, laptop computer, PDA”, but have no problem with a union worker constantly asking for MORE, with NO extra benefit to the company, what a hypocrite!!  You mentioned 350%, isn’t a person making $35.00 an hour, making 350% more than someone making $10.00 an hour?  Therefore, isn’t the $35.00 an hour person making an outrageous wage, compared to the $10.00 an hour person?  What would you purpose as a solution, bring everyone up to $35.00 or bringing everyone down to $10.00?  If you purpose bringing everyone up, then wouldn’t it also be a good idea to bring every CEO up to top CEO pay?  It is not the way people get paid that irks you, it is the amount of pay they get, that’s called “Class Envy”!!

Sorry, the word should be ‘propose’, not ‘purpose’!!

As any reader knows I am just as critical of Nick, RDs,
SDV, Alex, Ken and others who keep on spieling all this union, non-union, numbers, etc.

No CEO does it all by himself:  it is the workers in the trenches who do it.  If the CEO has invested his money from the start and all of the capital came from him, then fine he
can do what he wants.

The CEO’s of these companies do not make them successful in amd of themselves.  It takes the people at the bottom.  The problem is all the Board of Directors, etc. sit on other boards and hand out huge sums of compensation while screwing the people at the bottom.  None of them are worth it.  Yes a good salary but not all of the extra compensation.

The same can be said of the union execs and union workers.
Work hard and you are deserving of a good wage.  You are not entitled to sabatoge the business or the product, to be non-productive and expect to get paid.  The union execs are
not to have all kinds of fringes (most workers, don’t know how they also protect themselves in the good ol” boy game)

In brevity (??) we are all in it together, the janitor on up to the top.  The different pay scales account for the differences in “job qualifications and skills”.  The bonuises are the result of profit by the hard labor of all and that should be shared equally --naturally the stockholder is entitled to a return for his investment.

The majority of CEO’s are vastly overpaid, and under productive.
The majority of Union leaders are overpaid (not like CEO’s
but in their own class) not really productive, and take care of themselves.

Think about it—a very intelligent post by the Sage
(I’m now trying to pat myself on the back)

<b>You’re DARN Right!  Unions Should Ask for Much More!

RDS you’re just a maggot!  Why should we be expect anything more out of you?  You question or defend someone like Dane Miller who will be making around $5 million dollars in the first year of his “deal,” but somehow can’t afford to buy or furnish his own cell phone, laptop computer, PDA and car, at the same time you rail against unions because they “ask for more.”

“...most people in this country would agree that the business they work for would continue to exist...” ~RDS

Yeah, I’m sure many of the hard-working people for companies like Enron, World Com, Tyco (and the list goes on), all believed their companies should “continue to exist.”

“accounting is all about shifting numbers”,nicks quote. Whoa, what page from enron economics 101 did that gem come from?

Screwedby,

“Yeah, I’m sure many of the hard-working people for companies like Enron, World Com, Tyco (and the list goes on), all believed their companies should “continue to exist.””

First, TYCO does still exist!!  Second, do you think these people are ‘happy’ that Enron and World Com do not exist anymore, now that they are ‘free’ from those greedy people at the top or would they rather they did still exist and they still had a job there?

RDS

You truly are a piece of sh...work. I can’t believe that anyone could somehow think that the world is somehow better off with companies like that around. What ENRON did to California alone should make the case for government regulations of Power Co’s, Oil prices, The Cable industry, ECT. They have all shown what happens when the free market is turned loose to its own greed.

Big D

Yeah, let’s let government control everything, like in Soviet Russia. Let’s let government control the economy and our health care! Ask anyone who came to the US from a Communist country what system they would like to see! Why do you trust politicians-OF BOTH PARTIES-who lie, cheat, steal and manipulate all to one end-reelection. If politicians don’t get re-elected, they might have to get real jobs! The horror!

Our government, with a $2.8 TRILLION budget, including more than $400 billion in annual military and intelligence spending, can’t track down a 6’ 4” Muslim who is hiding in caves and hauling around a dialysis machine! Our government, which refuses to address the $45 TRILLIION in unfunded Social Security and Medicare liabilities. Our government, which cannot deliver the mail on time, protect our military secrets, keep track of military hardware, cut spending, protect our borders, protect our citizens or manage ANYTHING-are these the people you trust to run our health care and our economy?

Very frightening. If politicians had ANY talent, they wouldn’t be in politics in the first place!

Big D,

“I can’t believe that anyone could somehow think that the world is somehow better off with companies like that around.”

I didn’t say that I think the world would be better off with companies like that around, what I said, was that the workers would be happier if they still had a job and their pensions and all this had never happened!!  I agree, that it is good that when ‘crooked people’ ruin businesses, they should have the BOOK thrown at them, but, on the other hand, just becuase someone is a CEO, doesn’t make him ‘crooked’!!

“...just becuase someone is a CEO, doesn’t make him ‘crooked’!! ~ RDS

Would you and Nick care to extend your statement to lawyers and Union organizers as well, RDS?

“It is all an accounting game...Accounting is all about shifting numbers.” ~Nick

Take your place in line behind these guys, Nick.  You pretty well summed up the mindset of Jeffrey Skilling, Andrew Fastow, Ken Lay, Dennis Kozlowski, and Bernie Ebers.

Maybe you should lay off reading your atlases Nick, and read up on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Screwedby,

“Would you and Nick care to extend your statement to lawyers and Union organizers as well, RDS?”

Sure I would, not all lawyers and Union organizers are ‘crooked’!!  Like I said once before, I was once a union organizer for the UAW for 3 years, we got the elections but our drives failed for lack of votes, so I was accused here of sabbotage, etc., therefore, the people here were the ones accusing me of being ‘crooked’!!  I have also said, that there are many ‘good’ unions, they are the ones who don’t make the headlines and work for their rank and file, not the glory of the Union!!

for those who took me to task on another thread about a mongomery ward account morphing into walmart(a different thread),please read walstreet’s comment at the beginning of this commentary section!!! LITTLE NICKY,WAS THAT YOU WHO SAID WALMART WAS IN NO WAY AFFILIATED WITH MONTGOMERY WARD????????