A.E. Feldman Blog

In a slowing economy, corporations must find ways to expand and generate income. Today, a growing number of companies are focusing on the strength of their patent portfolio. Strategic use of IP assets, particularly licensing and franchising, has become a significant and reliable source of income for many companies, according to the World Intellectual Property [...]

Corporations are waking up to the vital importance of energy efficiency as “green initiatives” promise to make a significant and positive impact on the bottom line….as well as the environment. A number of leading companies with large data centers have experts on their boards to strategize and develop energy saving measures. Many more corporations, including [...]

The U.S. has at least a $170 billion annual funding gap in addition to its outmoded land use and infrastructure models, according to a report by the Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young. The nation’s 54,000 drinking water systems also face an annual shortfall of at least $11 billion to replace aging facilities over [...]

Citigroup is promising to improve its risk management. Fortune reports that the financial behemoth is expecting to cut roughly $500 billion from its $2.2 trillion balance sheet. The bank has announced plans to exit unprofitable client relationships, and really complete the 1998 merger of Citicorp and Travelers. The Fortune report quotes Citigroup CEO, Vikram Pandit, [...]

Firms in the U.S. are bracing for the convergence of global accounting standards. U.S. and foreign accounting regulators are about to unveil a new plan to expedite the convergence of international and U.S. accounting rules, according to Reuters. Their goal is to have all major capital markets operating from one set of standards by 2013. [...]

In Michigan, plans to expand and improve I-94 through Jackson County are reportedly expensive and long overdue, according to the Jackson Citizen Patriot. In Pennsylvania, a three-mile stretch of I-95 was recently shut down, backing up traffic for miles, according to Fox News. The reason for the delays: emergency repairs on a 6-foot crack in [...]

Data centers are voracious consumers of energy. Collectively, they are becoming major contributors to global warming. That’s according to a new joint study just released by McKinsey & Co. and The Uptime Institute. In fact, the study also contends that data centers are on track to surpass the airline industry as a major greenhouse gas [...]

Industry experts see no shortage of restructuring work on the horizon. The Federal Reserve says the percentage of banks reporting tighter lending standards is near historic highs for nearly all loan categories. Now, as credit conditions tighten, corporate insolvencies and workouts are expected to increase. The nation’s leading experts anticipate a “big spike” in corporate [...]

Reeling from the credit crunch, Washington Mutual has appointed John P. McMurray as the bank’s new Chief Enterprise Risk Officer. Formerly the bank’s Chief Credit Officer, McMurray is now responsible for overseeing the company’s risk management functions, including credit risk, interest rate risk, market risk, operational risk and audit. McMurray will become a member of [...]

The nation’s 54,000 drinking water systems face staggering infrastructure funding needs over the next 20 years, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The group also says that although America spends billions on infrastructure each year, drinking water faces an annual shortfall of at least $11 billion to replace aging facilities that are [...]