A.E. Feldman Blog

Facing new-home sales at a 50-year low, jobless claims at an unexpected 16-year high and signs of a deepening recession, President-elect Barack Obama delivered a rundown of his economic recovery plan, which includes creating 2.5 million jobs by January 2011. “We’ll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that [...]

The time has come for companies to reexamine internal audit (IA) - an underutilized resource whose efforts for years have been focused on a small part of the overall risk picture. That’s according to a recent report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). The research suggests that what is needed now is an internal audit function that [...]

Although hiring plans in many industries have dwindled over the past year, executives in the energy sector remain optimistic. That’s according to the third quarter 2008 McKinsey Global Survey on the economic and hiring outlook. The survey reveals that 43% percent of the energy executives polled expects hiring levels to increase - by far the [...]

Citigroup sees clear opportunities in infrastructure. In a recent report, Citigroup states, “The secular drivers for increased developed world infrastructure spending are clearly in place.” Citigroup also notes there is increased political focus on infrastructure spending as a way to jumpstart the economy, to improve U.S. competitiveness and to reduce reliance on foreign energy sources. [...]

Fortune 1000 companies plan to invest more in risk management in 2009 as experts anticipate new laws and regulations aimed at improving corporate risk management oversight. That’s according to the results of a recent survey conducted by OpenPages. Meanwhile, companies continue to shore up their risk management teams to better manage risk and strengthen internal [...]

As the economic crisis continues to unfold and layoffs and cost cutting plague the financial sector, private equity is bucking the trend. The Private Equity Analyst-Holt Compensation Study shows that private equity firms of all types - buyout, venture, mezzanine - continued to hand out generous increases in compensation in 2007 and into early 2008. [...]

Despite economic woes, CFOs are enjoying a notable rise in compensation, with the increases to their pay packages outpacing those of other C-level executives, according to CFO.com. One reason for the jump: greater accountability. The report states that, “From the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley through the subprime meltdown and into what feels like a perpetually looming [...]

Despite the slowing economy, energy and environmental policy is poised for dramatic change under an Obama administration, according to CNET News. Renewable energy advocates and environmentalists anticipate a comprehensive national energy plan focused on fostering clean-energy technologies, states the report. CNET quotes Dan Farber, a Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, [...]

The country may be slipping into recession, but its boom time for a growing number of attorneys as the bailout is creating no shortage of work for a number of top firms. While the New York Times reports that a number of law firms are in fact cutting back and trimming their ranks, top bankruptcy [...]

UBS has raised more than $1.5 billion for a new long-term infrastructure investment fund and plans another offering for next year, according to the FT. The report argues the move underscores the sector’s relative resilience to the financial crisis. The bank’s global asset management division said the committed capital it raised was more than its [...]