The reaction of weak management to weak operations is often weak accounting.

I like to go for cinches. I like to shoot fish in a barrel. But I like to do it after the water has run out.

It's much easier to stay out of trouble now than to get out of trouble later.

Too often, executive compensation in the U.S. is ridiculously out of line with performance. That won't change, moreover, because the deck is stacked against investors when it comes to the CEO's pay. The upshot is that a mediocre-or-worse CEO - aided by his handpicked VP of human relations and a consultant from the ever-accommodating firm of Ratchet, Ratchet and Bingo - all too often receives gobs of money from an ill-designed compensation arrangement.

If you cannot control your emotions, you cannot control your money.

Does the business have a consistent operating history?

At this point, when treasury bills, seven day treasury bills at 1/20th of one percent, it's not because people want to earn 1/20th of one percent, it's because they trust the fact the treasury will give it back to them next week.