By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 commentator
Dallas, TX – It's Friday, so "It?s Only Money, " a review of the big and not-so-big stories of the week. I'm Maxine Shapiro with KERA Marketplace Middays.
First off, today Standard and Poors announced it raised Mexico's rating to investment status. Congratulations!
On to Enron... The hearings started last week and by the end of this week, four executives have taken the Fifth, including no-show and then-subpoenaed Kenneth Lay. Another former CEO, Jeffery Skilling (who resigned last August), did testify that before he resigned, he didn't have a clue Enron was hiding billions of dollars of debt or that it even had the debt to hide. He said he had no idea the company "was in any financial peril." You must be kidding. In a much smarter move, Skilling quietly resigned last week as director of the Houston Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. I feel better already.
EDS, that huge, nicely-landscaped computer services provider in Plano, announced today higher-than-expected earnings. But revenues were a little light, to put in their words. Revenue is earnings minus costs. See, there's some question in their accounting practice, to the tune of five hundred million dollars in financing costs for computers that its customers use. EDS is liable for these costs. You won't find that liability anywhere on EDS' books. That was reported in last week's Time Magazine. And in a generous gesture, Dallas-based Seven Eleven did award EDS with a 175-million dollar contract. You gotta support your neighbors.
Newly-bankrupt K-Mart, who is also being questioned for their accounting practices, will be closing ten stores in North Texas. I'm sure they won't have any problem leasing that property to Wal-Mart or Target. Heaven forbid we should drive a block without either one of those stores.
And as reported in the Dallas Business Journal, JC Penney's, Irving-based Michael's Stores, and Fort Worth-based Pier One all declared healthy January sales. This means we're still shopping as our debt is rising. And unfortunately, WE have no place to hide that debt. For KERA Marketplace Middays, I'm Maxine Shapiro.
Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 PM.