Archive for March, 2009

Lesson II-3: Business, finance and labor

March 2nd, 2009 by Jack

Points of emphasis for critical thinking:

  1. I continue my semester-long mission to convey the value of Nexis and Factiva.  Both provide basic company information.
  2. Two other good commercial databases for company information that we have access to at school are Hoover’s and Mergent.
  3. What about company annual reports (and the like)?  For the “PR version,” you can set up a free account with Annual Report Service or try AnnualReports.com or even try a company’s web site, but caveat emptor.  For the various reports public companies are required to file with the government, such as a 10-K and 10-Q, use the Securities and Exchange Commission web site, where you can find information like the number of stock shares and company value, among many other things.
  4. What about non-profits?  Guidestar is the place to go, particularly for annual form 990 filings.  Register for free.  Also, Foundation Center has some older 990s for free that Guidestar requires a fee-based premium account to access.
  5. Need the latest business news, quotes, etc.?  Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN Money, Google Finance, MarketWatch, The Street and Yahoo Finance are there for you.
  6. A few notable reference sources: Currency Converter, Forbes lists, the Occupational Outlook Handbook (from BLS), N.Y.S. Local Area Unemployment, the N.Y.S. Business Directory and ReferenceUSA, the last of which can help you find the largest companies in your Community District!