International Law

Is There A Market for Franchise Reputations?

Posted on September 26, 2008
Image via WikipediaLes Stewart has an interesting post about how to regulate the quality of franchise offerings, but using the marketplace.Governments have a legitimate role in regulating the quality of market transactions as the unfolding worldwide depression will prove (again)...

Correcting Errors?

Posted on September 26, 2008
Image by Marcio Eugenio via FlickrDavid Balan, writing at Overcoming Bias, has a nice observation about knowledge and action."Most of the discussion on this blog seems to focus on figuring out how to identify biases.  We implicitly assume that this is the hard part; that biases can be really sneaky and hard to ferret out, but that once you've identified a bias, correcting it is pretty straightforward and mechanical...

Why Don't Franchises Don't Reveal Earnings Power

Posted on September 26, 2008
Image via WikipediaDarrell Johnson, writing at Frandata, has a great post on earnings claims.An argument used by some franchisors ("We're not allowed to make such representations.") goes away. "More than 700 brands, or approximately one fourth of all active franchise brands, make FPRs [financial performance representations] today, and that number is steadily growing...

James Asset Advisory Ponzi

Posted on September 26, 2008
Image via WikipediaFrom the SEC Press Release on the James Asset Advisory PonziOn September 24, 2008, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil injunctive action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida against James Asset Advisory, L...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

When is an Award a Bribe?

Posted on September 23, 2008
A franchisor press release announces that"Nurse Next Door Home Healthcare Services is proud to announce that, this past weekend, Chris Wilkinson and Tawnya Ketch accepted the inaugural Nurse Next Door Franchise of the Year Award on behalf of their Nanaimo franchise...

NakedShorts: A nation of morons, led by idiots

Posted on September 23, 2008
Image via WikipediaI  have to most of reprint Greg's post on the current financial problems.A nation of morons, led by idiots Problem: Too-big-to-fail financial institutions Solution: Bigger financial institutions (BAC+CFC+ML/JPM+BSC/BCS-LEH ad nauseum)...

Cold Stone Case Study

Posted on September 22, 2008
Image via WikipediaI am in San Diego for the meeting of the AAFD Standards Committee, saw a Cold Stone franchisee.Gwendolyn Bounds, writing at the WSJ has an article on Cold Stone, with three warnings for franchise buyers. "1. Is there too much expansion? Cold Stone's rapid pace of store openings was enticing...

What is too good to be true? That frauds and scams self announce.

Posted on September 19, 2008
Image via WikipediaI am critical of regulators who claim that if the victims of fraud had just realized that "if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is." This "advice" makes the victim of a con criminal feel that there was some simple check by which they could have avoided the con criminal...

How to spot a fraud?

Posted on September 19, 2008
Nevil Gibson, writing at New Zealand's The National Business Review, has an interesting question."Which comes first - the con man or the gullible victim? In the case of Derek Turner, the answer is just as likely to be the latter than the former. Few who watched TV3's 'docu-drama' on Turner, The Million Dollar Con Man, will not be appalled by the story, except that it reveals a long-familiar pattern...

Robotic thoughts

Posted on September 19, 2008
Image via WikipediaNotwithstanding my view that the prisoner's dilemma game is both the most over researched and under studied experiment in all of social psychology, Mind Hacks points to a mildly interesting article."One study that found that the perceived 'human-ness' of another player in a game altered the extent of activation in brain areas associated with understanding others' mental states...

Is Teaching Financial Literacy a Waste of Time?

Posted on September 19, 2008
Image by Getty Images via DaylifeSteve Dubner writes, over at the Freakonomics blog, about teaching financial literacy."Not long ago, I wrote about the sad state of financial literacy in the U.S., and how some people, like Annamaria Lusardi of Dartmouth, are proposing widespread education to fix the problem...

FTC Sweep Stops Peddlers of Bogus Cancer Cures

Posted on September 18, 2008
Image via WikipediaFrom the FTC Press Release:The Federal Trade Commission today announced 11 law enforcement actions challenging deceptive advertising of bogus cancer cures. The FTC charged the companies with making unsupported claims that their products cured or treated one or more types of cancer...

False Franchising Numbers

Posted on September 18, 2008
Image via WikipediaJim Coen, who writes a very nice franchising blog Let's Talk Franchising, had a good comment on my earlier article about Franchising being a Con. I am going to reprint it all because Jim makes some excellent points about bogus numbers used by franchise brokers to sell dubious systems...

Robotic thoughts

Posted on September 18, 2008
Image via WikipediaNotwithstanding my view that the prisoner's dilemma game is both the most over researched and under studied experiment in all of social psychology, Mind Hacks points to a mildly interesting article."One study that found that the perceived 'human-ness' of another player in a game altered the extent of activation in brain areas associated with understanding others' mental states...

Is a Franchise a Sure Thing? No

Posted on September 18, 2008
Barry Thomsen has an interesting and informative article about franchising, in which he writes:"The only sure thing I've learned from owning a franchise is that the franchisor receives their initial fee and a check every month that you are open for business...

Ad Surf Daily Ponzi Calculations

Posted on September 17, 2008
Image by Raymond Yee via Flickr Interesting debunking of the Ad Surf Daily ponzi;One promoter engaged me in a very lengthy explanation of how "ASD only paid out 50% per day so how could it be a ponzi?" Well, let's look at that. The marketers of ASD used this sleight of hand to confuse the hapless members, at first glance, that does make some sense, right? "We take in $10,000, we keep $5000, and we profit share the other $5000 minus some administrative expense"...

Franchising is the latest Big Con

Posted on September 17, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Les Stewart, always provocative, makes an important point about the limitations of franchise pre-purchase investigation."I believe modern mom-and-pop franchising has largely morphed into a Big Con. Illusion of Legitimacy: The methods of the confidence game have evolved into a much more difficult fraud to deal with because there is very little difference in the look of a blatant scam and a legitimate business format franchise...

Persuasion Science and Practice

Posted on September 17, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Dr. Robert Cialdini has a neat article about reciprocation at his Inside Influence website. "The rule for reciprocation--that we feel obligated to give back to others the form of behavior they have first given to us--explains a lot of human behavior, including some baffling instances...

Great Stories from Around the Net

Posted on September 17, 2008
Image via Wikipedia 1. Bad State Regulator: How State regulators allow thousands with a criminal past to peddle home loans -- costing consumers millions - from the Miami Herald.  "When state regulators showed up at Samantha Johnson's mortgage company, she had already stolen her first house...

Could Mary Kay survive in Only A Retail environment?

Posted on September 16, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Tracy Coenen raises a fascinating question over at Pink Truth, about whether Mary Kay could survive in a pure retail market.As we all know, the market for Mary Kay with actual retail customers is pretty small. Mary Kay depends on inventory orders from consultants and directors...

To think or Not to think

Posted on September 16, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Interesting post over at the Psychology Today blogs, by Art Markman, about making decisions based on gut feel instead of reason:"For the past eight years, much has been made of President Bush's tendency to make decisions from his gut...

Usana Investigative Blog

Posted on September 16, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Interesting post by a person who appears to be investigating USANA talking about being approached by a USANA Rep."The woman did not strike me as some kind of con artist, and she seemed to be fairly revealing about the nature of the company...

More Transparency Talk

Posted on September 16, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Megan McArdle is another commentator who believes in the myth of disclosure in the earnings opportunities markets."I would much rather see America's regulators do what government is really good at:  transparency and coordination.  Providing as much detailed information about firms, securities, and markets as they can, particularly in assessing systemic risks...

Too Few Regulations?

Posted on September 15, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Tyler Cowen, writing before the September 15th, 2008, on financial regulations states:"In short, there was plenty of regulation -- yet much of it made the problem worse. These laws and institutions should have reined in bank risk while encouraging financial transparency, but did not...

Pipe Ponzi

Posted on September 15, 2008
Image via Wikipedia From a SEC Press Release on a Ponzi Scheme enabled by Private Investment in Public EquityThe Securities and Exchange Commission today charged an Irvine, Calif., attorney and two other promoters for conducting a $52.7 million Ponzi scheme in which they sold investors bogus PIPE (private investment in public equity) investments, promised unrealistic profits, and misappropriated more than $20 million of investors' funds to function as their own personal piggy bank...

Systemic Change in Franchise Systems: How to Handle Technology

Posted on September 15, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Tariq Farid writing over at the IFA, has an interesting although flawed article about introducing new technology in a franchise system in order to collect royalties more efficiently:The article starts off with stating the obvious, but soon veers into pro franchisor territory...

Franchise Trade Shows

Posted on September 15, 2008
Image via Wikipedia The Canadian Franchise Association has a checklist about how to maximize your return at attending a franchise tradeshow."Do your homework and research franchise systems, industries and markets.Do develop a list of questions to ask and don't be afraid to ask them Do dress professionally - first impressions are important...

Edward Jones & Co Settlement

Posted on September 12, 2008
Image via Wikipedia California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced a $7.5million settlement with financial-services firm Edward Jones & Co. for the company's failure to inform its customers of its revenue-sharing agreements with various mutual-fund companies...

Con Man and Advance Fees

Posted on September 12, 2008
Image via Wikipedia I have followed Jack Payne's Con Man blog with mixed feeling.  Although I would like to see Payne as the modern Joseph Weil, or the Yellow Kid, his novel and writing is a bit stilted for my taste.I keep hoping for more from Jack, and today I think he delivered on his observations about the advance fee scam...

Franchisor Guru's Secrets

Posted on September 12, 2008
Image via Wikipedia Any time I hear "secrets to success" I automatically think scam.So when the National Post did an article on "Franchisor Guru Reveals his Secrets", I had to read it.This is what Derek Sankey, from the National Post, wrote:"Whether you're looking to buy into a franchise or trying to roll out your concept by taking the business to the next level, those who have had repeated success employ some similar strategies...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.