Financial Management | Jeff Harbaugh

Changing Role of the U.S. Dollar: Why, How? With a Whimper- Not a Bang.

Finance and Funds Flow, Financial Management, Market Watch

“When nations can trade directly via blockchain platforms, settle in their own currency, and store value in physically-backed gold contracts, the dollar becomes increasingly optional.” Tariffs and the uncertainty of an irrational trade war, the weaponization of the U. S. Dollar, seizure of Russia’s dollar reserves, the impact of debt, the general historical cycle of […]

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What’s “Bankruptcy” and How Does it Work?

Financial Management

What exactly is a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and how does the process work? A Chapter 11 is a “reorganization” bankruptcy. That is, it is filed with the assumption that the filer will use the protection of the court to reorganize its finances so that it can continue as a going concern. That doesn’t always

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Possible West Coast Port Strike or Slowdown.

Financial Management

I trust you’ve all been following this. Some companies in their conference calls are acknowledging that they’ve brought in some inventory early in case things go south in the negotiations. I would imagine that unions feel they have the most leverage now during the holiday shopping season. Most of you have product that arrives in

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Rents Versus Income: How Does It Impact Your Customer?

Financial Management, Retail

Thought you might be interested to see what’s happened to rents compared to average incomes in recent years. Take a look at this link. Anybody with kids trying to get started on their own probably won’t be surprised by this. While this is for all employees, I’m pretty sure it’s especially impactful on our target

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Some Interesting Numbers

Financial Management, Snowsports

I was lucky enough last week to be at IASC’s Skateboard Industry Conference. I was sorry to have to leave early, but among the things I enjoyed doing while there was making a presentation. As part of that presentation I showed some numbers provided by Snowsports Industries of America and I wanted to share them with you. Here

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Let’s Review; Lessons for Being in the Winter Sports Business

Financial Management, Snowsports

Well, here we are in the middle of a new snow season. Among the things people are probably thinking about are: “It can’t be any worse than it was last season.” That seems statistically likely to be correct. “What am I going to do with last year’s product?” Probably something brands and retailers are both still thinking

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Do Retailers Really Need to Carry All That Inventory?

Financial Management

I suppose that seems like a stupid question. But having just been through another Christmas shopping (and return) season, I’m not so sure it is. I’ve shopped on line. I’ve been to too many malls too often (I confess it- I hate shopping). In those malls I saw way too much product on sale at way larger discounts than

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What Will You Do When Your Greek Receivables are in Devalued Drachmas?

Financial Management

There are lots of public company quarterly reports I should be writing about, but I am going to step off that track and think, for a bit, the unthinkable. Or at least it was the unthinkable. But at this point the Eurozone seems to be moving towards two choices, either of which has huge implications for

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WeSC’s Annual Report; Numbers and Strategy

Financial Management

I didn’t spot WeSC’s annual report until Shop-Eat-Surf did a story on it. Now, I’ve been through it. The Swedish approach is an interesting combination of a U.S. style annual report and our 10K SEC filings. I’ll start with a review of the numbers, but more interesting (I hope) will be a discussion of WeSC’s strategy and market

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The Lesson to be Learned from SIA’s Sales Report

Financial Management, Snowsports

SIA recently reported that the snow sports market in February exceeded $3 billion. You probably get the same emails I get, but if not, you can see the announcement and analysis here. SIA expects the industry to set a record by the time the season ends. Through February, sales are up 13% in dollars and 8% in units. In

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