On reading recently that the Texas Society of CPAs has thoughtfully compiled a list of recommendations for money-minded toys that “give children the gift of financial literacy,” such as remote-controlled electronic safes, I suddenly realized that there’s a huge need for toys that teach tax literacy. How can we expect our children to master a 70,000-page tax code and the intricacies of tax accounting unless they start really, really early?

While I’m waiting for the patents to come through on my Pals ‘n’ Playmates FAS 109 Calculator and FIN 48 Shark Attack! Board Game, I’ve put together my annual roundup of bizarre-o, vaguely business-related tax stories, just to prove that taxes can be every bit as much fun for grown-ups as they soon will be for kids. more

Strategies for navigating the rising prices.

Over the past year, the price for coffee has jumped 46 percent, crude oil is up 13 percent, wheat has climbed by one-third, cotton has doubled, and copper has risen by more than 20 percent. Almost across the board, commodity prices are heading higher. To find out what’s behind the rise, whether it’s likely to continue, and a few strategies that corporate finance pros can use to contain their exposure to the price increases, I talked with Kevin Kerr, founder of Kerr Trading International, a commodities trader and frequent commentator on all things commodity-related.

Kerr notes that that the major commodities, such as rare earth metals, grains, copper, and gold, all are climbing considerably. The increases are especially significant, he notes, considering that the global economy is slugging through one of the worth downturns in decades. more

Does your risk management strategy contain a defense against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks like those that WikiLeaks supporters – an online posse that calls themselves “Anonymous” – have unleashed against MasterCard, Visa, and others in recent days?

Probably not, but should it?

It depends: If your company is Amazon (or Visa or MasterCard), the answer is yes. This topic has elements – major threats, major unknowns, and major headlines – that can stimulate an overheated response from organizations and IT-security vendors.

As a result, it makes sense to apply fundamental risk management principles to evaluating these and other potential threats to IT security so that any response is reasonable from both a protection and a cost perspective. more

GM video questions from BusinessFinanceMag on Vimeo.

Join us Dec. 16 for an exclusive Business Finance webcast: “Lessons from GM’s Turnaround,” featuring “Car Czar” Steven Rattner in a live Web event. ###