Jim Nolen
Jim Nolen received his BBA and MBA from The University of Texas at Austin. Until his retirement in May 2012, he taught both undergraduate and graduate classes at UT since 1980. He also taught in the Mexico City and Dallas MBA programs, as well as IMADEC University in Vienna, and received numerous teaching awards. His research and teaching interests include entrepreneurship and corporate finance, including business valuation and mergers & acquisitions. Nolen was the faculty advisor for Venture Fellows and the Entrepreneurs Society.
Nolen also has extensive executive education experience working with corporate clients such as Dell, Texas Instruments, Essilor, PetSmart, St. Jude Medical, USAA, Shell Oil, HB Zachry, Fedex-Kinkos and Motorola. He serves on the board of directors of an independent bank, a recycling company and a medical distribution company.
Posts by Jim Nolen
Posts about Jim Nolen
It's been a year since Warren Buffett penned a New York Times op-ed calling for higher taxes on millionaires like himself. Since then, the issue has become a potent political symbol. But is Buffett's proposal economically sound, or is it merely a gimmick?
As the federal income tax nears its 100th birthday, the revenue source is being reconsidered in light of alternative ideas. Several tax and finance experts at the University of Texas at Austin suggest that the U.S. consider a parallel tax system: a national consumption tax.
When it comes to taxes, many Americans believe they’re paying too much and/or someone else is not paying enough. Who's right?
In the latest episode in America’s deficit saga, a 12-member Congressional panel, nicknamed the “supercommittee,” is trying to slow down a runaway train: the national debt. It’s crafting a plan to trim at least $1.2 trillion, on a deadline that’s approaching faster than a speeding bullet. The plan is due before Thanksgiving. It’s a job that might require superpowers, say faculty at the McCombs School of Business: a superhuman grasp of economics combined with superhuman political skills. The committee has to tighten Uncle Sam’s belt without squeezing him into another recession, and do it in an atmosphere where compromise is treated like kryptonite.
Your doctor sounds the alarm: Your weight has hit the danger zone. You ask for a miracle drug that could slim you down overnight. His matter-of-fact reply: Eat less and exercise more. Like losing weight, the steps needed to deflate the federal deficit are not drastic, say faculty at the McCombs School of Business. The chief obstacle is not economic practicality but political willpower. “We’re a wealthy country with a solid central bank,” says Dean Thomas Gilligan. “We can work through this.” How much should America restrict its fiscal calorie intake? A reasonable target, say many economists, is to maintain publicly-held national debt at its current 62 percent of Gross Domestic Product. With no change in current policies, that number would top 350 percent in 75 years. To bridge that gap, calculates the Treasury Department, will take spending cuts and revenue hikes that add up to 2.4 percent of GDP. That would amount to $360 billion this year, and larger amounts as the economy grows. “That’s what it needs to add up to immediately, and it needs to be lasting,” says McCombs senior lecturer Sandy Leeds. “If we can keep our debt-to-GDP ratio constant over 75 years, it would be an amazing feat.”
When the world’s largest bond fund dumps the world’s safest bonds, the investment world takes notice. That happened over the past year, as the PIMCO Total Return Fund reduced its hoard of U.S. Treasury securities from $147 billion to zero. The culprit, said manager Bill Gross, was the national debt. To date, America’s mounting deficits have been an abstraction, a threat a couple of generations down the line. But there’s evidence, say faculty at the McCombs School of Business, that they’re starting to take a toll on the U.S. economy. “We’re getting close to the tipping point,” says McCombs finance professor Lewis Spellman. One closely watched indicator is the ratio of the nation’s debt to its Gross Domestic Product. Four years ago, it stood at 64 percent. At the end of 2010, it hit 93 percent. That figure sets off alarm bells for some economists.
What a difference a decade makes. Eleven years ago, the budget of the U.S. government was $236 billion in the black. Today, it’s $1.6 trillion in the red, and the national debt has nearly tripled. How did it climb so far, so fast? Call it Deficit Attention Disorder: an irresistible urge to cut taxes and increase spending, whether or not the nation can afford it. It afflicts both major political parties, say faculty at the McCombs School of Business. Over the past 80 years, each party has relaxed standards and upped antes, making the national debt perhaps the most bipartisan program ever to come out of Washington. “The parties keep fighting over it, but nothing’s getting done,” says Jim Nolen, senior lecturer in finance at McCombs. “Republicans were supposed to be fiscally conservative, but when they have no checks and balances, they like to spend as much as the Democrats.” It wasn’t always so.
Finance expert Jim Nolen explains what motivates entrepreneurs and investors in the different stages of fundraising for a start-up.
When she decided to strike out on her own, Elayne Crain knew she wanted a company that was all hers. Foregoing investors, she's bootstrapping Austin Sugarworks, her new company that sells specialty sculpted sugars. In this video, Crain shares stories from the first few months of her start-up, with commentary and analysis from the McCombs School of Business' entrepreneur-in-residence Louise Epstein. Also, McCombs finance expert Jim Nolen explains the reasons to avoid venture capital in the latest installation of Lingo, while our infographic team focuses on entrepreneurial history with a glimpse at the numbers behind some well-known bootstrappers and we offer a list of useful resources on forging your own path in your start-up.
Lingo video: When you want to be your own boss, you have to make do with the resources at hand.
