According to a Bloomberg report, analysts expect Macy’s to take a big writedown related to its 2005 acquisition of May Department Stores. The St. Louis company, parent of such chains as Famous Barr and Marshall Field’s, cost Macy’s $11 billion.  Bloomberg…

There are good reasons and bad reasons to be concerned about Wall Street’s pay structure, a subject I tackle in today’s column. Because you think nobody deserves such huge amounts of money is a bad reason; because you want to…

Bloomberg columnist Jonathan Weil has taken a close look at Regions Financial’s balance sheet and he doesn’t like what he sees. In particular, he doesn’t like the $11.5 billion value that Regions assigns to goodwill, an intangible asset that companies…

If you spend much time reading financial statements, the auditors’ opinions have a numbing sameness to them. Once in awhile, with a troubled company, you come across a red flag called a “going concern” statement. It means that, in the…

Bloomberg columnist Jonathan Weil takes a close look today at the balance sheet of Lee Enterprises, parent company of this website and of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He notes that Lee’s book value, $1.09 billion on Sept. 30, is almost twice…

 We hear plenty of complaints from public companies about the burdens of complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. But even private companies, which are not affected by SOX, have their own gripes. Barry Melancon, chief executive of the American Institute of…