Value Meal

I’m working with a team of three other students to perform a financial analysis of McDonald’s Corporation for a Valuation class this term.  We’re getting toward the end of the term, which means that for the next three weeks I’ll have to eat, sleep and breathe McDonald’s (kind of like Morgan Spurlock without the weight gain, or any of his numerous imitators without the weight loss).

It also means that I’m really excited that McDonald’s finally filed it’s 10-K for 2008.  I have a lot of reading to do.

The Mark Cuban Stimulus Plan

For those of you who don’t know, Mark Cuban is a billionaire, and he has his own idea about how stimulate the economy:

Rather than trying to be a Venture Capitalist, I was looking for an idea that hopefully could inspire people to create businesses that could quickly become self funding. Businesses that just needed a jump start to get the ball rolling and create jobs. I’m a big believer that entrepreneurs will lead us out of this mess. I just needed a way to help.

…I will invest money in businesses presented here on this blog. No minimum, no maximum, but a very specific set of rules.

Mark calls his plan “open source funding,” because in order to seek funding from him, a business owner has to present their business plan on his blog with the intent that others may (and should) copy the plan in establishing their own businesses.

So far, Mark reports that he is considering funding 12 of the businesses that have been submitted on his blog, and appears to be open to more.

Can I just say that I love this idea!  Mark is actually stimulating the economy by helping build business and he’s doing it by investing, which will do much more for the economy, the businesses, and the people involved in both the long and short runs than any multi-billion dollar government boondoggle ever will.