CFO strategy

Two facilities quoted 75 basis points apart. Once field exams, appraisals, collateral monitoring and the finance team's own hours are counted, the cheaper-looking one costs 82 basis points more to run. The gap reverses entirely.

July brought the first contraction in commercial and industrial balances all year, at minus 1.1 percent annualized. Over the same stretch, lending to non-bank financial institutions reached $2,016.1 billion, up 20.4 percent.

July CPI came in exactly as forecast, both measures eased, and Treasury yields fell across the board. Futures still priced a 42 percent chance of a September hike. What that asymmetry is worth on a floating balance.

A distributor doing $40 million in revenue needs $6 million. Read against cash flow it is short. Read against its assets it clears. Read as a blend it borrows $8.2 million. Same company, same week, three answers.

June core PCE held at 3.3 percent, still above the Fed's 2 percent target, while the policy rate stayed at 3.50 to 3.75 percent. Why a capital plan priced to a 2 percent world mismatches the cost of capital lenders are quoting today.

A factory index above 50 reads as a growth signal, but hiring is still contracting and input costs are still high. Why financing sized to the headline misreads a margin story as a volume story.