December again ... Already?

AuthorHeffes, Ellen M.
PositionEditorial

As we near the end of 2010, reports on the economy have been moderately surprising. The economy has grown minimally, and the most recent jobs numbers reported by the U.S. Labor Department came in at 151,000 jobs created in October, the first uptick since May. But unemployment persists at 9.6 percent, not including those who've stopped looking.

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Also on the upside, equities markets seem to be shunning bad or questionable news and have leapt back to near pre-financial crisis levels. Which kind of proves to me that no matter what, the American spirit can't be held down for long. Sure, we get knocked down at times, but we also rebound. For those without jobs, perhaps there's some hope that better times will follow, as soon as companies sense demand and begin to add jobs to produce more to respond to rising consumer demands.

There are those who believe the only way to a full-blown recovery is by way of another game-changing technology--like the Internet itself (which, of course, then sparked the dot-com bubble). Similarly, many believe that game-changing trip has begun--with the introduction of the "cloud," the subject of our cover story.

Make no mistake about it, write two KPMG experts, the cloud is not something "out there." It's here, and it's now. "With the virtualization of technology comes the virtualization of business applications, processes and services and, in effect, the virtualization of an organization." This shift, they say, "is profound and is poised to have a transformational impact on business models and core drivers of competitive differentiation."

Another article highlights feedback to guidance by the International Accounting Standards Board for companies preparing narrative reports to accompany financial statements, known in the U.S. as MD&A (Management Discussion and Analysis). Financial executives from several countries comment on...

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