The Great Illusion

Earnings per share (EPS) is defined as net income divided by the number of shares of stock issued to stockholders. Higher EPS values indicate the company is earning more net income per share of stock outstanding. Because EPS is one of the five performance measures on which your company is graded (see p. 2 of the GSR) and because your company has a higher EPS target each year, you should monitor EPS regularly and take actions to boost EPS. One way to boost EPS is to pursue actions that will raise net income (the numerator in the formula for calculating EPS). A second means of boosting EPS is to repurchase shares of

Advances in technology and the expansion of trade have, without a doubt, improved the standard of living dramatically for peoples around the world. Globalization brings respect for law and human rights and the democratization of politics, education, and finance to developing societies, but is usually slow in doing so. It is no easy transition or permanent solution to conflict, as some overly zealous proponents would argue. In The Great Illusion, Norman Angell sees globalization as a force which results from and feeds back into the progressive change of human behavior from using physical force toward using rational, peaceful methods in order to achieve economic security and prosperity. He believes that nations will no longer wage war

Such an intense focus has been placed on quarterly earnings as an indication of a company’s success by everyone from analysts to executives that ethics have for the most part been thrown out the window, sacrificed to the all important number, i.e. earnings per share. This is the theory in Alex Berenson’s book “The Number: How the Drive for Quarterly Earnings Corrupted Wall Street and Corporate America.” This number has become part of a game to be played, a figure to be manipulated – beat the number and Wall Street all but throws a parade, miss it and a company’s stock may be abandoned. Take into account the incentives that executives have to beat the number and one can find plenty of reasons to manage earnings.

In an excerpt from Empire of Illusion, Christopher Hedges argues that “the most essential skill in political theater and a consumer culture is artifice...Those who are best at deception succeed. Those who have not mastered the art of entertainment, who fail to create a narrative or do not have one fashioned for them by their handlers, are ignored. They become “unreal”” (Empire of Illusion). Today, the ideology of “the most essential skill [being] artifice” to reveal the truth or reach the favored outcome is prevalent and portrayed across various media. For instance, in Hamlet written in the early 17th century, William Shakespeare portrays Polonius as a nobleman who advocates for techniques of deception to achieve his goal. In addition, detectives implement this method of misleading in interrogation rooms to evoke a true confession. Similarly, politicians, like Donald Trump, delude the public by creating distractions that sway their attention from the more pressing topic. Examples from literature to modern government demonstrate that many hold the belief that “the most essential skill...is artifice” to achieve the desired outcome (Empire of Illusion).

The standard statements focus on accounting income for the entire corporation, not cash flows, and the two can be quite different during any given accounting period. However, for valuation purposes we need to discount cash flows, not accounting income. Moreover, since many firms have a number of separate divisions, and since division managers should be compensated on their divisions' performance, not that of the entire firm, information that focuses on the divisions is needed. These factors have led to the development of information that

This can happen when a company uses equity to raise additional capital. Besides, it would decrease the earnings per share, since it would either would be less in value with additional shares of stock available. As a limited supply of shares would increase the EPS, as there are only a few

b) If Olin issues $40 mm in debt to repurchase 2 million shares of equity (i.e. they replace $40 mm of equity with $40 mm of debt in their capital structure), and the interest rate on the debt is 10%, what will be the expected EPS next year?

The return on equity (ROE) has also shown an increase in 2009 over the previous year suggesting a successful investment by shareholders. This increase, coupled with the fact that the basic earnings per share (EPS) has increased significantly from 61.78 cents in 2008 to 88.26 cents in 2009 (143%) shows great improvement in the profit per share. Please note that the basic EPS has been used in this analysis as the diluted EPS includes employee options (JBH Annual Report, 2009), skewing and reducing the value of the EPS.

Baruch Lev and Feng Gu authors of “The End of Accounting and The Path Forward for Investors and Managers” indicate that over the past 110 years, the structure and content of financial reports has not changed, and that the role that these reports play in influencing the decisions of investors has greatly diminished. Lev and Gu make a case that non-transaction events that are not captured by the financial reports such as those disclosed through 8-k filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) have a greater impact on stock prices, and thus more useful to investors. In addition, they suggest that one of reasons for the decline in usefulness of financial reports stems from the increase of estimates that has made its way into these reports (Lev and Gu 2016).

A graph below represents Earning per Share ratio. EPS ratio is used when the company wants to know how are they doing in their businesses from year to year. EPS is shown in pence. (Dyson, 2010) A year 2009 was not so profitable for company as EPS was -2,79p. This means that business was making little money, which was not good for shareholders. However, in 2010 the EPS was quite high, 14,76p, what means the company is making profit and shareholders want to invest in business.

Reality is the state of the world of how it really is, whereas an illusion is erroneous interpretation of reality. Illusions often derail people from their sanity, as they cause them to inadvertently live lives in accordance to false beliefs. As a result, the outcomes for these people, and the people around them, are often atrocious. The theme of illusion versus reality is excessively demonstrated in Macbeth, a play written by William Shakespeare, and also in The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller. In both plays, the characters that lived illusive lives ultimately ended up leaving behind a trail of ignominy, grief, and death. In Macbeth, it is Macbeth and Lady Macbeth who consistently misinterpret reality as a world that

Potential investors examining Caterpillar’s stock’s value will see that Cat outperforms the competition in almost every area concerning stock valuation. Earnings per share is a measure of a company’s net income relative to the number of shares of common stock outstanding. Caterpillar’s earnings per share of 7.40 dominated the industry in 2011. The second best EPS in the industry was 3.91, posted by CNH Global.

The only thing in my life that I can be positive about is change. Everything changes, from the moment we’re born to the moment we die. Reality has many twist and turns, and our perception of reality is what shapes us to become who we are. Our life is spent on deciphering the difference between reality and not reality. This is hard to define because reality is unique to each individual.

Positive illusions are unrealistic, biased attitudes that individuals have about themselves and towards other individuals, normally close friends or family members. Positive illusions is “a perception that represents what is perceived in a way different from the way it is in reality. An illusion is a false mental image or conception which may be a misinterpretation of a real appearance or may be something imagined. It may be pleasing, harmless or even useful (Stein, 1982, p 662). The more positive illusions the higher self-esteem an individual has. It should be noted that positive illusions are more common in western countries than other parts of the world. Research has found that positive illusions promote a better mental health.

“Reason is the illusion of reality.” A quote from Hazrat Inayan Khan, the founder of The Sufi Order in the West in 1914 and teacher of Universal Sufism. People do accept reality but when they start to find a reason of their reality, illusion happens. The meaning of reality is the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them. On the other hand, illusion is defined as a thing that is or is likely to be wrongly perceived or interpreted by the senses. There are a lot of reasons why people often go back and forth between the reality and illusion. When a person have an illusion, it does not simply means that he/she cannot accept the reality, however, it may be because the person wants to feel more about the reality.