by Tim Delaney | Aug 8, 2010
When Tony Hayward took over as Group CEO of BP in May of 2007, he acknowledged BP’s past failings and promised to correct them. He continued plans to make $7 billion in safety improvements. He took personal charge of BP’s group operations risk committee. He expanded...
by Tim Delaney | Jul 11, 2010
It’s tragically obvious now that BP has deep problems with operational risk management, but it’s no challenge to identify risks after the fact. For credit analysts the challenge is evaluating risks before they occur and to do it with limited information. ...
by Ron Carleton | May 26, 2010
For the 7th time in 10 years, Wal-Mart is #1 on the Fortune 500 list (in the other 3 years, it was #2). The company is the largest private employer in the U.S. and accounts for 8% of total retail sales in the US. As big box retailers (including Wal-Mart, Target, The...
by Tim Delaney | Apr 13, 2010
Last post, we argued that Lehman’s Repo 105 balance-sheet-management tactic was not the worst thing Lehman Brothers did on its way to extinction. Volume 8 of Anton Vakulas’s Bankruptcy Examiner’s report details a bunch of blunders with far more serious consequences....
by Tim Delaney | Mar 30, 2010
A few weeks ago, the world was shocked to learn that Lehman Brothers was guilty of “window dressing” its balance sheet throughout 2007 and 2008. As the New York Times’ Dealbook put it, ”In Lehman’s Demise, Some Shades of Enron.” The outrage is based on information in...
