Random News

These past few weeks have proven quite strange...so much random news that it's hard to keep up.

**06-28-09 Billy Mays dies at 50, three days after Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Billy was unique and he loved what he did for a living-that says a lot, most people are miserable and wander around without a clue (don't think so? get on a bus/train in any city and look around). Without him, I would never have tried OxyClean but I won't miss all the yelling. It's not the same without him...the ShamWOW guy sucks.

**6-29-09 Two Mexican dwarf wrestlers die after a night with prostitutes. Further proving that prostitutes aren't that smart, the two brothers are drugged and die as a result of an overdose. Prostitutes in Mexico are a double threat...I would think that Mexican Dwarf wrestlers might have more options. Guess not.

**07-01-09 Karl Malden dies at 97 of 'natural causes'. He'd been out of the light for a while but his loss will be felt all over. 'A Streetcar Named Desire' is one of the best movies ever made in my opinion. I loved "The Streets of San Francisco" as a kid. Why can't actors today live a similarly 'un-public' life like this? Exit with dignity, not fanfare...

**07-03-09 Sarah Palin quits as the Governor of Alaska. There isn't much about this that makes sense...she just up and quit. Good thing she didn't get elected-she'd give other prominent women a bad name. The only thing more bizarre than the sudden forfeit of her post is that she seems to think she's going to run for president in 2012...what? Hoping that people won't remember that her IQ is the equivalent of Magic Johnson's shoe size? Dubya got in through nepotism...there's really no other explanation for it. And what's with her wearing terrier dog earrings during her announcement? Hey Sarah, come to Chicago and get eaten alive by the bat-shit crazy mayor.

**07-04-09 Steve McNair is killed by his 20 year old mistress. A great football player is lost. I can't say much about him otherwise...he seemed to make some odd decisions-including dating an emotionally unstable 20 year old. One bad decision can end you real quick. Reminds me of Nikki Catsouras (warning:Graphic Photos).

**07-06-09 Robert Strange McNamara dies of 'natural causes'. A guy I find interesting in his many facets of ability and talent. He had a diverse career portfolio and excelled at many of his varied roles in life.

It's been a weird few weeks, indeed.

Other things that caught my attention:

--Canadians and Drug Use...I'm nearly convinced that the creators were forced to make this in some sort of rehab program. You almost have to watch this to understand.
--A cabbie in Chicago rapes a passenger. What the fuck was he thinking? His name, photo and ID are visibly posted in the cab. He should be castrated, banned from driving and have to walk lower Wacker picking up trash with a shirt that reads "I'm a rapist" until he either leaves the country or dies.


/rant

Midwestern carnivals (or 'festivals')

I went to Heritage Fest today with a friend...after making one pass through the event, I found myself drawing a few conclusions. 1) They're not festivals, they're carnivals. Calling it a festival allows the snooty to slum it without feeling dirty. 2) Carnival food must not have more than three ingredients. 3) Most men really will have sex with anyone who'll let them-and often it backfires on them and they wind up becoming a parent. 4) People will eat anything if it's sold at a carnival. 5) By far the most solid source of people watching available.

There's another one next weekend around the corner from my office-I can't wait to see what happens there...it usually draws a much more lowbrow/interesting group of people. I'm sure at least one interesting picture will follow.

The top prize for potentially disgusting food? The Twinkie Dog. Next question you probably have is 'What is a Twinkie Dog'? Slit open a Twinkie, insert a cooked hot dog, top with Cheez Whiz...get it past the gag reflex and enjoy!

My favorite quote about the Twinkie Dog-"I ran out and immediately bought the ingredients for this concoction and fixed one. I must say it is the most repulsive piece of shit I've ever eaten."

I can hardly wait for next weekend...

Don't stop until you get enough...

"I must confess I am not surprised by today's tragic news. Michael has been on an impossibly difficult and often self-destructive journey for years. His talent was unquestionable but so too was his discomfort with the norms of the world. A human simply cannot withstand this level of prolonged stress." — Michael Leaven, a publicist who represented Jackson when the singer was accused of molesting a child in 1993.


While what little I know about Michael Jackson influences how I see him as a person and as a performer, I have great respect for his ability to communicate through his music. The message wasn't always clear and sometimes it was way too obvious...but it was creatively expressed-a talent that so many of today's 'musicians' cannot replicate.

I know Michael Jackson just as the person the media decided to portray...and as a former LA resident, I know that the words are so massaged that facts are hardly that upon being printed. Michael did seem to make some questionable decisions in his personal life...but don't most artists? It's not fair to hold any of this 'fact' against him in the end.

A great musical talent has been lost today...and for that (and his children), I am saddened. I don't, on the other hand, think that his death warrants clutching a pillow with his picture embroidered on it in Times Square in devastation...wondering aloud to myself "Why?!" I think it's pathetic that so many lost souls in this world are desperately seeking something to cling to and it's often the death of a celebrity. Was Michael Jackson REALLY that big of a part of your life? Probably not...and if he was-that might be the actual problem.

Farrah Fawcett died today as well-but no one seems to be as interested in her life in comparison. Tatum O'Neal lost both an ex-boyfriend and a mother figure in one day...that's a lot for one person to handle. I wonder how she's processing it...

one phone call from our knees

Mat Kearney's song, 'Closer to Love'. He's been compared to Chris Martin from Coldplay but I think his song writing is much more interesting.

I love it when I stumble upon a new artist and subsequently like more than one song. I downloaded an entire album (City of Black and White) and haven't looked back.

Aurgasm

http://aurgasm.us/

I can't stop listening to this music...like nothing I've heard before by groups I've never heard of.
It's on all the time, everywhere I have access to the internet and a computer.

Tetris turns 25 today

It's shit like this that makes me feel old.

Why didn't this happen six months ago?

In the last few days, GM has announced the sale of Saturn to the Penske Group, announced a buyer for Hummer and started running PR ads about the 'reinvention'. GM will still make the cars but Penske will sell them and (hopefully) maintain the dealership network. I think this is a win-win for both sides. Saturn has some potential and GM gets to shed a cost structure it couldn't maintain. If this is successful maybe they can follow suit with GMC .

I don't really understand why GM is keeping this GMC 'line' of duplicated trucks...it seems to fly in the face of what they advertise to strive for-smaller, leaner and more focused. Or perhaps they'll shed the Chevy trucks and focus that division on cars.

Hummer, as a brand, was a mistake, plain and simple. The idea was to run it like a niche brand, like Jeep...but GM got silly with it and turned it into something bigger than it could ever sustain. Fail. It'll be interesting to see what the Chinese company does with it...and what the 'ProAmerica' rednecks will say once they realize that the US military is riding around in vehicles manufactured by a Chinese-owned company. Holy shit, it's going to be epic!

I already get a kick out the 'ProAmerica' rednecks with regard to GM...I had a guy in a class a few years ago who was wearing a HD tee shirt, Levi's and spouting about how he only buys 'American' products...after a brief discussion, we (the class) discovered that he maintains a savings account with a Chinese bank and drives an 'American' car with an engine made in Japan and a transmission made in China. Turns out his shirt was made in Bangladesh and his Levi's were made in Honduras. Two countries I'm willing to bet money he couldn't find on a globe. For once in my life, I was glad that I didn't know CPR...dude, seriously...think before you speak.

The PR ads are cluttering up the airwaves-along with a website to explain what they're doing...I wonder if GM employees are reading this site. Maybe they can all get on one page finally. Ahh, my tax dollar hard at work-running advertising for a company that can't build and sell a decent car at a profit. It'll be another move in the right direction when GM announces additional dealership closures.

I wonder how much more effective GM as a company could have been if Fritz had been shuffled into the CEO position sooner...or if he's simply reaping the rewards of a prepackaged plan from the days of Wagoner. My boss is doing the same thing but nobody cares because he's getting shit done that the previous four didn't bother to address.

If GM can reduce dealership numbers, focus the last four brands with a quality product at a reasonable price...and provide service on a level of a non-domestic dealership...they might have something.

I still think a 30-60 day return from bankruptcy is a pipe dream...

History repeats itself

All day today at work, I've been casually thinking of how to best phrase what happened on Monday.

Then, today via email, I received a poignant theft of my very thoughts by the crafty folks at Despair.com who say it best:

Yesterday marked the end of one era, and the dawning of a new. An American Giant- General Motors- finally collapsed under the weight of decades of poor management decisions, unsustainable labor agreements, and other unfortunate missteps. And now- thanks to the unvolunteered-but-nevertheless-mandatory financial contributions of a third-of-a-billion tiny little people like you and me- that colossus of heavy industry is now majority owned by the US Government. That's right. The entire fate of one of the largest corporations in the history of Capitalism now rests in the hands of the one group potentially even less qualified and capable of leading it a more efficient, more consumer-oriented, more quality-focused future- The United States Government.

Good God, man! If the US government can fix up GM, why can't the IRS audit itself? I shouldn't have to pay taxes to an organization that can't tell me how effectively they're handling the money. /rant

It's interesting that only under the strong arming of the US Government that GM can magically find the organizational skills to shed itself of dead weight (Hummer-potentially sold to a Chinese company, Saab-three potential buyers, Saturn-a half dozen potential buyers, and the WAY overdue death of Pontiac). Here's a question: Why didn't anyone have the testicular fortitude to do this a year ago? Here's another: Why did the government have to flush $15 billion down the proverbial taxpayer toilet to figure out that GM wasn't going to emerge on its own?

Anyone hazard a guess as to where they might have found a clue? History...yep, that's right, good old history. This wasn't GM's first management issue where the end result was near collapse. Let's face it, bankruptcy isn't the end in this case. Another point is that GM (and Chrysler) should have gone bankrupt six months ago (or earlier) and found the road to recovery by now. As it is, GM will be in a tough spot to catch up to the foreign car companies (no news here) who already have one hell of a head start. It's like WWII all over again in some aspects. The US companies setttle on being 'one of the best' while the competition innovates and eventually takes over-even after being tariffed and bombed back to the stone ages. There's a reason we didn't win in Vietnam-the same reason we'll never win in Iraq...Americans don't take the time to learn about other cultures well enough to either fit in or fight appropriately. We simply think that making something bigger, faster or cheaper is the answer. In the end, cheap falls apart and it doesn't go any faster...and bigger simply translates into harder to innovate or move around.

It high time GM reincarnated...hopefully this time around they watch their competition a lot more closely. They're not just there taking market share from GM-they're benchmarking other successful companies and innovating in far less expensive, more time efficient ways. As long as American companies fail to realize what's happening in their own backyard-this chapter in history will continue to repeat itself over and over...try following the obvious lead gift-wrapped in benchmarking from Toyota. It's called 'inventory control' (kan ban) and 'continuous process improvement' (kaizen). GM, like most Americans, was stuck in a mental belief that the American way is the best.

Yet few realize that back in 1945, the US bombed Japan literally back to the stone ages and for the better part of 30 years, they've pretty well succeeded in kicking our ass in nearly every method of production since. Assembly lines have a learning curve, that much is certain...manufacturing has a learning curve, that much is certain. But taking 30 years to not quite get it is a bit of a stretch. This had to happen...it was inevitable.

If GM is banking on the Chevy Cruze and the little one-the Beat....well, they've just started digging again. Neither car is an improvement over the Aveo or Cobalt when they first debuted. The designs, materials and powerplants are unsuitable given what people are buying. Compare what Chevy will offer with the Beat to a Mini, a 3, Focus, Civic or Yaris...or the oddly shaped Versa. Less technology for more money=failure (especially with the now dated design).

The second phase for GM and Chrysler? Update the crusty dealerships. When the gas station down the street is cleaner than the local GM dealership-it's a sign. In an age where image seems to be 'everything', why is it that Toyota, Mazda, Nissan and Honda have the cleanest, most modern dealerships in town? Compare the local Pontiac GMC dealership in town to the Nissan dealership next door. The GM dealership hasn't been renovated in 15 years (literally-I asked four years ago when my GM car was being repaired on a TSB). The Nissan dealership was nearly torn down and rebuilt-now brand new, clean, modern and attractive. On any given Saturday they have more foot traffic than the Pontiac dealership next door.

Across the street from said GMC/Pontiac dealership is a Chrysler dealership with a blue ceramic tile roof. It's one on the Chrysler hit list... I think it's the oldest dealership in town and it's age is not concealed well. To its immediate right, a Chevy dealership that's ten years too late for a remodel. And to top it all off, the local Toyota dealership is being moved next door. It's literally four times the size of the Chevy dealership and it'll be brand new. This is coupled with the Lexus dealership that is only three or four years old (same owner as the Toyota dealership). I know I wouldn't go to a place that was a clean as a 1980's truck stop and I'm far from being a snob.

If GM is smart (hypothetical, I'm not getting excited about it) they won't 'revive' Pontiac or Oldsmobile. They're dead-leave them buried. We're all better off without the Aztec and the Achieva. Don't bring out another 'hail Mary' by starting another car company. The days of 'everybody's doing it' are over. Even Mazda knew to throw in the towel when the Millenia didn't take off-it wasn't their niche. They build small sporty fun to drive cars, not luxury cars or large trucks. Nissan is likely to give up on the Titan/Armada due to a lack of sales and Toyota has only the Tundra/Sequoia.

Chrysler will most likely dissolve into Fiat if they execute it the way I suspect. It might be better that way-replace the abysmal Chrysler cars with substantially less abysmal cars built by Fiat at almost no additional cost. They'll have to crash test the Fiat/Chrysler models but that's a small price to pay to gain an obese dealer network and fully functional assembly plants in the US. Fiat can play this one savvy and reap the rewards...Chrysler will survive in name only.

I bought a new car on Saturday and didn't for a second consider an American car company. I considered only Japanese cars. Why? Quality, Cost and Dependability. For the money, no American car company can offer me a car that's small, reliable and inexpensive to maintain. I believe this is why they continue to fail....Rinse. Lather. Repeat. I'm not anti-American, I simply want a quality product and American car companies fail all three points rather consistently.

I hope both GM and Chrysler are at least successful enough to sell stock so that my tax dollars might be used for something less wasteful...and then maybe the dollar will be worth something again.

The Despair.com shirt can be found here.

Interesting times, indeed

Chrysler is hoping to cement a deal with Fiat to avoid complete liquidation-and it appears that the US Government is prepared to allow the deal to happen. Fiat gets immediate entrance into the US auto market and Chrysler gets new small cars-one of the many product weaknesses at Chrysler.

Fiat is one of the two primary partners for Opel in Europe. It'll be rather ironic if Fiat, a company not known for its reliable cars (Fiat proper, not Ferrari/Maserati), winds up with both Chrysler and Opel. It's good news for GM-the other company struggling to tread water.

Fiat is in a great position here...they have the opportunity of picking up the pieces of Chrysler with US Government money to back the cost structure up for a bit, existing production lines and a (too large) dealer network. If they also pick up Opel, they'll gain a stronger market share of European car markets and additional technology and production. It's almost a win-win for Fiat.

Chrysler announced the closure of 789 dealerships across the country in an effort to cut costs and drive vehicle prices higher. On one hand, it was needed. Living in DuPage County in Illinois, there are way too many car dealerships. On one street, a person can drive less than ten miles and see the same car dealerships at least twice (if not three times, as is the case with Chrysler/Dodge dealerships). The number of dealerships should have contracted with the market share when it started to shrink ten years ago but it didn't...and that coupled with some of the worst new cars on the road, Chrysler started to crumble.

GM is headed for a structured bankruptcy in the next week. Bondholders rejected the latest deal...and once again, the US Government is going to flush more money down the GM toilet. I think it's ridiculous that companies get this big and fail-forcing those of us who've avoided these toxic companies for this very reason to bail them out through taxes. And it'll happen again.

The auto unions should die with these bankruptcies. There are many arguments for and against unions-but their main purpose evolved out of necessity over a decade ago. Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Subaru, BMW-they've all avoided unions in the US and they're not crying for help. Sure, Ford is married to the same union as GM/Chrysler but they've been able to leverage the situation to their advantage.

The topic of labor unions is a sensitive one. It's like discussing politics, abortion and religion all at the same time. It's typically one of the four things I don't discuss with people I might need to interact with again in the future. People get so fucking uptight about it...like I'm taking food out of their personal mouth during a famine. I'm sure I'll post something about it in the coming days.

It's been a drought here on this blog for a while...I can't just open the floodgates and drown everyone.

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.

Drive and text message. or 'How to kill someone and only get six years in prison'.

Okay...let me wrap my head around this...a 49 year-old woman is so busy paying bills via text that she can't pay attention to 1) her speed 2) her path of travel 3) other vehicles 4) a construction zone.

I would flip the fuck out if I were a relative of the woman who died. This result sends the wrong message to people who prefer to pay more attention to their phone than the 4000 pounds of steel they're responsible for piloting well enough to keep from killing someone with it.

This daffy woman should have her license privileges revoked-for life. You get to choose-'phone' or 'car'. She's clearly chosen the phone-even over the life of another person. She should go to prison for at least twenty years-with two broken thumbs and a cell phone shoved up her ass.

The best part? Under California law, she'll serve 3 years and be eligible for parole...when I'm sure she will seek out her next victim. Should they send her to the electric chair? No-but they should hold her responsible for her actions and lack of responsibility. No more driver's license. Period.

It's true-the real difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has limits. The trouble is that trying to make something "idiot proof" seriously underestimates the creativity of idiots.

GM research...? Isn't this an oxymoron in term?

One thing about this economy is that the stories are more interesting to read...and people care quite a bit less about Hollywood. I lived near Hollywood most of my life, and let me tell you, it's so much less interesting that it's made to be in media. Anyhow, I digress...

Here's the article.

Here's my favorite quote:

"GM research continues to show that customers would shy away from buying vehicles from companies in bankruptcy."

First-GM had to do research to figure this out? Did that research also conclude that people won't buy a car when the economy [and their job] is unpredictable? How much money did they spend on this research to reach this common sense conclusion?

Second-Is this the same company that determined that building the Pontiac Aztek would be a good idea? Or the company that decided to build the SS-R but then put a POS 6 cylinder engine in it and charge $50k for it? Or the company that thought Hummer was the road to riches? Or the company that, next to Chrysler, builds the worst quality vehicles on the road? [I don't particularly like Ford's vehicles but they did cash in on both trucks and small cars, while toying around with the Mustang and GT without asking for a handout. Ford, by its own estimates, will make it through 2009 without asking for welfare.] The Cavalier was a piece of junk every single year it was manufactured-ask just about anyone who's owned one-I have and the concensus is that they'd have better spent their money on a wheelbarrow. Look at quality ratings, life span, repair costs, etc.

GM is a company strangled by its own bean counters-great concept cars/prototypes, horrible cars in reality...the vehicles that work are duplicated three or four times with different sheet metal and dilute the very market they hope to control. Not smart...not complicated...this is "Marketing 101". In the scramble for market share, they dilute their own product line?

GM is making proposals to the government about how to restructure...okay...here's a question: If they saw this coming (and they did...I work for a tooling company that supplies tools to the Big 3 and we all saw it coming), why didn't they do something early last year...? It's easier to expect a bailout and let the taxpayer buffer the incompetance of one of the largest corporations in the world. Infuckingcredible. GM is in no place to make proposals. It's time for new management-a group that will allow the design department actually do something with their ideas. Shelves are for collecting dust, not profit. Hell, spin the company off into two groups and let them focus on their core competancies (whatever they may be...?) and if one dies...well, they probably deserved their demise.

If a company produces a product that customers will not buy due to price-lower the price. If customers won't buy a product because it's not functional or the perceived value isn't there-change the design and conduct more effective market research before sending the product to market...or just throw in the fucking towel and knock on my door and ask for money. Someone would get muff punched with a typewriter...

Where is Chrysler in all of this barking? Rather silent...watching GM make mistake after mistake (destroying Saab, riding Hummer into the ground, turning Pontiac into a life-size toy car company) and then create proposals to the government about how they should restructure when there is so little remaining.

It is true that failure teaches far more than success...but is now the time to let GM decide its fate when they don't appear to know which side is up?

I read an article a while ago about all of the cost cutbacks that Chrysler is making at their Auburn Hills corporate office (the second largest in terms of sq feet in the country)-not plowing the top level of the parking garage, taking down all of the clocks in the buildings (so they wouldn't have to change the time on five or six hundred clocks twice a year), etc. Is this all they have left? No other costs to cut, huh? I doubt it. I work in operations, there's always more that can be cut when times are tight...we've cut costs greater than the clock stunt at Chrysler with two phone calls. Our main office is probably smaller than their executive washroom-we don't have space we don't absolutely need to operate. That's the trouble with eating good for so long...you forget how to make Top Ramen.

Sometimes, Top Ramen is the key to getting ahead when the shit hits the fan.

Maybe I'll have our office in Michigan send them a fan.

oh, but they really should....

An article I read tonight made me smile until I reached the end...

Sen. Charles Grassley is so angry over AIG bonuses that he says the executives should resign or kill themselves.

In a comment aired this afternoon on WMT, an Iowa radio station, Grassley (R-Iowa) said: “The first thing that would make me feel a little bit better towards them if they’d follow the Japanese model and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I’m sorry, and then either do one of two things — resign, or go commit suicide.”

In response to a POLITICO inquiry, Grassley spokeswoman Jill Gerber clarified Grassley’s comments, saying “clearly he was speaking rhetorically – he meant there’s no culture of shame and acceptance of responsibility for driving a company into the dirt in this country. If you asked him whether he really wants AIG executives to commit suicide, he’d say of course not.”

“Point being, U.S. corporate executives are unapologetic about running their companies adrift, accepting billions of tax dollars to help, and then spending those tax dollars on travel, huge bonuses, etc,” Gerber said.

Grassley’s statement was the most over the top among the many expressions of outrage Monday, as the White House and Congress struggle to figure out how to recoup $165 million in bonuses from AIG, which has received more than $170 billion in federal bailout funds.

If this is true-the only real difference between us is that I wouldn't recant the statement (and this is why I'd never make it in an elected position). Why reward the greedy while we all struggle?

Maybe Obama should look to replace the greedy asshats in charge at AIG or nationalize the company and make them work for peanuts (and if they quit?...who cares). Or I'll chip in a few hundred dollars to watch the greedy bastards disembowel themselves. The problem is that another greedy bastard will replace him...and maybe the replacement bastard has more tricks up his sleeve. Be careful of what we wish for-we just might get it.

It's far too easy to rip off the average American taxpayer in this country...and this taxpayer is growing tired of mediocrity in government. It's good to see the old guys in the Senate get riled up about something.

Stick a fork in them-they're done!

It's time to pull the plug on GM...and Chrysler (if they cannot seal the alliance with Fiat).

Chrysler stands to gain...well...anything if they form the alliance with Fiat. Fiat gets to import their cars into the US (and will probably outsell Chrysler). Granted, Fiat Group is a rather large company when all branches are considered (Fiat, Ferrari, Maserati, New Holland, Case, etc.). Somehow, they're able to make cars, trucks and tractors...and stay in business. Chrysler can't seem to make a transmission that will outlast a set of mediocre tires-never mind the fit and finish of their cars. I had a 16 year old Toyota pick up that was more reliable than a co-workers brand new Dodge truck. My truck had 500,000 miles on it...her truck had 6000 miles on it before it dropped its first of three transmissions in as many years. I sold my truck for more than I paid and never spent more than $500 on it for repairs.

GM should have been put to sleep six months ago-they'd certainly be in better shape now if that had happened. The UAW would have been banished from GM-yes, the government would have to pick up the health care of the disbanded union members-but WTF? We're doing that AND paying all of the executives, R&D, marketing, storage, rent, leases, etc. Pull the fucking plug already! I'm tired of working in a shaky industry (ironically supported in part by the US auto industry) to watch my 401k cost me money...watch my IRAs lose value. And no, it's not all the fault of GM and Chrysler...but Japanese executives of a company comparable would have committed hari kari by now.

Citibank's hand will come out again, as has AIGs...when will it stop? Why bother to fill a hole when the bottom cannot be found? It's a waste of effort. There's no value added by doing so-it's actually a losing proposition-just like Iraq.

Obama needs to run the country like a business-get rid of the waste, put a bounty on lobbyists and get rid of them until they can serve a real purpose for the American people (like they were originally intended to do...), make companies either get competitive or let them die. Trying to support every failing large business is a bad idea...like doing open heart surgery on someone whose torso has been torn from their body...they'll bleed out and the effort is wasted.

Where's the investment in infrastructure? Where are the benefits to a large company for economizing or increasing efficiency? Tax credits for large companies to replace low efficiency appliances? Paradox of thrift is killing our economy...no one is spending money because they don't know if they'll have a job in the near future...thus the need to manufacture/purchase is drying up, thus the job market is going sour. How do you get people to spend money in an economy this unstable? The government should stop wasting money trying to shore up GM and Chrysler (and AIG and Citibank)...at this point, it would probably be cheaper to finance GM by giving people in a specific tax bracket a voucher for a new car...it would at least keep people employed, move old inventory and if GM did go bankrupt-there would be less assets on the books when they dried up and shriveled from the vine.

I don't claim to know what should be done here...but it's pretty fucking clear that the status quo isn't the answer. Dumping money in the accounts of GM, Chrysler, AIG and Citibank is doing nothing...except keeping people employed who probably deserve to be unemployed.

I recently read an article in the WSJ with Nouriel Roubini about nationalizing the banks and I tend to agree with what he says.

"The kind of government interference in the economy that we saw in the last year of Bush was unprecedented. The central bank -- supposed to be the lender of the last resort -- became the lender of first and only resort!
"Between guarantees, liquidity support, and capitalization, the government has provided between $7 trillion to $9 trillion of help to the financial system. De facto, the government is already controlling a good chunk of the banking system. The question is: Do you want to move to the de jure step."

"We started with banks that were too big to fail, but what has happened, in the process, is that these banks have become even-bigger-to-fail. J.P. Morgan took over Bear Stearns and WaMu. BofA took over Countrywide and then Merrill. Wells Fargo took over Wachovia. It doesn't work! You can't take two zombie banks, put them together, and make a strong bank. It's like having two drunks trying to keep each other standing."

"So if you took over a big bank, and you split the assets in three or four pieces, maybe you create three or four regional or national banks, and they're stronger! Nationalization -- or 'temporary receivership,' if you like, if the N-word is a political liability -- is an occasion to undo the sort of consolidation that has created an even bigger systemic problem. And the only way to do it is by essentially taking them over and breaking them up."

Think about this for a second---what happens if Chase or BofA slide toward failure? It'll be the F5 tornado that makes all of the other failures look like a mild dust storm. Citi is coming apart at the seams right now...it's only a matter of hours/days before they either break apart or collapse (fortunately, they didn't get Wachovia).

The banks should be nationalized-even if only temporarily-to stabilize them and the skittish public. It's the fastest way to stabilize them and get them back on track. Regulation is a bitch-yes-but it's stable and controlled...which, if anyone remembers, is why we wound up in this situation to begin with-unregulated lending to just about everyone.

Increase the gas tax-it's largely unchanged for the last...what...? Ten years? Shift the focus from fossil fuels to supporting alternative energy-that will create jobs and reduce foreign dependence when the economy turns back around in a couple of years (yeah, I think it'll take that long-this place is a mess).

I'd rather send my wasted money to some family in Africa-at least I'd know that they were going to use it for something worthwhile. I really hope Obama can change my mind about the kakistocracy that's run this country for the last 8 years. I've been to Canada twice in the past six months and it's starting to look better every day.

recent recessions

Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office released this chart highlighting the sharp spike in job losses around the country.

This chart compares the job loss so far in this recession to job losses in the 1990-1991 recession and the 2001 recession -- showing how dramatic and unprecedented the job loss over the last 13 months has been. Over the last 13 months, our economy has lost a total of 3.6 million jobs - and continuing job losses in the next few months are predicted.

By comparison, we lost a total of 1.6 million jobs in the 1990-1991 recession, before the economy began turning around and jobs began increasing; and we lost a total of 2.7 million jobs in the 2001 recession, before the economy began turning around and jobs began increasing.

the economy....or lack thereof

What else does our government have up its proverbial sleeve? We've bailed out the banks. They used it to go on vacation, pay bonuses and generally do everything except use it for its intended purpose. They've proven that the government still cannot provide adequate oversight and they'll continue to take any handouts offered.

The consumer isn't going to spend money while the economy sheds jobs.

I stumbled upon an article about Nouriel Roubini, an economist that predicted the crash of our economy two years ago, and I've been following him for several months now.

--As long ago as February 2007, Roubini was writing on his blog that “the party will soon be over,” and warning of “painful consequences for the U.S. and the global economy.” By last February, his tone had become apocalyptic, raising the specter of a “catastrophic” meltdown that central banks would fail to prevent, triggering the bankruptcy of large banks with mortgage holdings and a “sharp drop” in equities.

The next month, Bear Stearns Cos. failed, to be taken over by JPMorgan Chase & Co. in a government-backed deal. Then, in September, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. went bankrupt, prompting banks to hoard cash and depriving businesses and households of access to capital. The U.S. took over AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index suffered its worst year since 1937.

“I was intellectually vindicated,” Roubini says. “But I was vindicated by having an economic disaster which has political and social consequences.”

“The consensus is catching up with me, but it’s still behind,” Roubini said in an interview in Davos. “I don’t know what some people are smoking.”

I've always contended that the people who are best suited to run the country are smart enough to steer clear of the job. This is exactly how we wound up with Bush...the guy who couldn't construct a sentence to convey either a point or a message.

Why isn't this guy providing advisement to Bernake? It's clear that Bernake (or Greenspan) couldn't have predicted or controlled the outcome-but it may have been wise to know of the risks as soon as they're identified. Our government is notoriously slow at reacting to issues (see the previous post about food safety-the state of Minnesota identified the problem far quicker).

Clearly Roubini is on to something-he's been talking about it for two years and until the shit hit the fan, nobody listened. Now, he's a veritable celebrity among economists.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601170&refer=special_report&sid=a6A9lCHrtAqk

A proposal to prevent wholesale financial failure

What do food safety and our economy have in common? They both require a lot more oversight to keep them in check. I don't propose that the government step in and take over-just create regulations and enforce them consistently. The latter is more the problem.

A lack of oversight is exactly what allowed Madoff to rack up such an elaborate scheme.

The losers of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi Scheme

and, in the words of the e*Trade baby's friend "I want to punch the economy in the face"


I'm thankful to have a job and relatively little debt-but I know that I am one of a very few who was prepared for this economy...and in all honesty, my preparation was happenstance.

Food safety failures...now it's our turn.

Every time there's a story about food safety in this country, I'm reminded just how easy it is to get tainted food into the consumer stream...we're sort of like China on a small scale. How is it that it takes over five months to find the source of an outbreak? How does a company make a product without any inspection by the FDA?

Clearly, the management of this company knew they were taking a risk and I'm sure they hoped that the problems would either not surface or not be traced back to them. Wrong on both accounts.

The management of this company should be fired immediately-there's no debating the poor choices made by them to save a product that should never have made it to market. The government should not bear the cost of the recall-PCA should bear the FULL cost of the recall. If they're greedy enough to sell a tainted product-now is the time to send a message and shut this place down-put these greedy assholes out of business.

I hate it when companies make irresponsible decisions and people die. I hate it even more when I realize that we're wasting people and money in Iraq, fighting the 21st century version of Vietnam when we should be spending the money to ensure food safety. This should be a basic government competency for its citizens.

Dr. Michael Osterholm, a former head epidemiologist for Minnesota's state health department, said CDC officials were still looking at chicken as a potential source of the outbreak "11 days after Minnesota made the peanut butter announcement."

"And you know what? That is irresponsible," he said.

FDA officials said they moved as fast as they could given the evidence they had. But Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC's food-borne bacterial illness division, agreed the system is overly complicated, prone to delays and underfunded.

"The reality is that we have 50 different states, each with their own authorities, each with their own processes and each with their own budgets," Tauxe said.

Hubbard said the result is "an embarrassment" to a 21st-century nation -- about 5,000 deaths a year from food poisoning, with another 325,000 hospitalized and tens of millions sickened, according to CDC figures.

"We are losing the equivalent of the World Trade Center attacks every eight months to food-borne illness," Hubbard said.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/05/peanut.recall/index.html

Marketing...anyone?

Since I seem to spend so much of my computer time working on class material, I thought I'd post some of my random replies to online discussions for said classes. I'm taking Marketing and Total Quality Managment...neither class all that challenging with the exception of the work load and my new inability to properly manage my time. Welcome to the location of the drain on my time...

Many times firms take advantage of a popular, well-known brand by developing brand extensions because they know (think!) that the brand equity of the original or parent brand will be transferred to the new product. However, the results can be less than desired, almost to what could they have been thinking at the time. Find a select a brand extension that has gone wrong and discuss the reason you think it did not work.

It's laughable when some companies get to that point in success that they think their brand will transcend all barriers in marketing. Here are some of my personal favorites with the web links below each section:

Coca-Cola's RPet clothing at Wal-Mart, Playboy energy drink and Disney Sleeping Beauty executive fountain pens priced at up to $1,200, particularly ill-timed in this economy.
http://www.thebrandelastic.com/worst/

What do Burger King underwear, Kellogg's hip-hop street wear and Allstate Green insurance have in common? They all were voted among the worst brand extensions of 2008.

Precious Moments coffins, Hooters airlines, Cheetos lip balm and Salvador Dali deodorant won the dishonor of being selected for the list in 2006.

The macabre coffin based on the teary-eyed figurine maker was voted the most inappropriate extension by 33.9% of respondents. It was followed by the Humane Society Dog Lovers Wine Club (28.4%) and Girls Gone Wild apparel (14.9%).

The most questionable food extension went to Hooters energy drink (32.5%), Bumble Bee Prime Fillet Chicken Breasts (21.9%) and Trump Steaks (21.1%).

Hooters has the dubious distinction of winning a worst brand extension category for the second time in the four years the survey has existed. Hooters Airline, which has since been grounded, was the other.

"Hooters doesn't stand for energy. It stands for boobs and chicken," said Laura Ries, president of Ries & Ries brand consultancy, Atlanta. "At least the airline had girls on it. This is just another example of a line extension that doesn't make any sense."

Too often new products stray from their core values "to the point where there is no relation to the brand at all," said Ries.
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/magazine/current/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003682958

So what were the most unfortunate product rollouts in light of the recession? The Sleeping Beauty pen was selected by a third of respondents, followed by the Porsche Design Kitchen and its $100,000 price tag.

Still, the Burger King underwear was selected as the single most inappropriate line extension according to 45.5 percent of those polled. "Marketers are so in love with their brands that they think consumers are as well and will go to the lengths of wearing their brand name on their underwear," said Laura Ries of Ries & Ries brand consultancy. "While people love the Whopper, they don't want to parade around in underwear that says, 'This is where my big, fat ass came from.'"

Bill Cross, who is a vp at Broadstreet Licensing Group—the agency that inked the deal—said marketers are missing the point: "It's a fit for the predominantly male 18-24 target. People who are buying it aren't reading Brandweek and don't care anyway. BK likes things to be a little edgy. Their CMO, Russ Klein, loves stuff that's a little weird."

Kellogg's hip-hop street wear was second worst (22.8 percent), followed by the Kanye West's travel site (Kanyetravel.com). "It's a classic logo slap. What possible value does Kanye West hold for a travel site? How does it differentiate?" said Sprung.
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/licensing/e3ie36ce5eb50d8af30025fd813e1143d6e?pn=2

This is a great place to start when looking at Brand Extensions:
http://www.thebrandelastic.com/strange/

90% of these don't work because the brand extension doesn't make sense with the new direction-like the Precious Moments coffin. Precious Moments are creepy little figurines with a cult-like following...but a coffin stretches the already bizarre cult consumer in an inelastic direction, so to speak.

When you think about air travel, Hooters is probably the last name that comes to mind...(okay ValueJet is probably the last name you think of)...unless you live in a trailer in unincorporated areas of Tennessee with three generations of your immediate family...and cannot afford to fly anywhere (or get to the airport, for that matter). Hooters, as a 'restaurant', is a concept that was 'novel' fifteen years ago but quickly died as on on-going reality. I went to a Hooters once about 10 years ago-the only memory I have of the place is the atrocious food. Does anyone eat here anymore?...I digress...

The Hooters decision to get into air travel made no sense at all. Think about the stereotypical flight attendant: Female, young, attractive and attentive...right? Why does she now have to dress like Jane Fonda, circa 1985, while providing peanuts and beverages? Does it make her anymore qualified, attractive, or 'female'? Most likely the answer is 'no'...

I'd rather have a flight attendant that knew EXACTLY what to do if something goes wrong. I don't buy plane tickets to check out the latest fashions in plastic surgery or fabric elasticity. I don't care what they look like-it's not a core competency of the job...I'd be willing to bet that not one of the people on the USAir Jet that went down in the Hudson river thought "Wow, our flight attendant wasn't much to look at but she sure got us out of the plane quickly."

Brands are meant to sell a specific product in a specific market...sure it's cheaper to use an existing brand to market a new one but the failure rate is often quite high. I don't like cross marketed/brand extensions-it leaves me to wonder what the company has to hide by not bothering to create a new brand. It's tantamount to saying "This is a crap product wrapped in a fancy package"...you know, like elective plastic surgery (see above).

Ford tried to 'rebadge' Jaguar for years and failed. They turned a genuine brand into a dumping ground for aggressively mediocre products until the consumer stopped buying their cars.

One of the single greatest properties of the free market economy is that consumers, for the most part, will tell a company when they've failed...often without remorse.



:::end:::

From one corrupt state to another...

One of the few 'non friends and family' things that I miss about California is the ridiculous amount of laws on the books...most of them are trite but every once in a while, they get one right...sort of. I grew up in California...the most self-absorbed part, Southern California, for almost 30 years before I packed up and left...but enough about me.

The HOV or carpool lanes could have been a great idea if the government had properly written the laws governing their use. There must be two people in the vehicle in order to permit use of the specific lane...the law doesn't state that the second person be of driving age (so a 12 year old passenger qualifies). The lanes were touted as being created to alleviate traffic and give people a reason to carpool. How does getting a kid off his bike reduce traffic? Do kids even ride bikes anymore?

Then the ban on cell phone use while driving that went into effect in July of 2008...except that people could still text message (why didn't one of these lawmakers spend time in a car with a Gen Y member?). The fine is $20...not enough for most officers to warrant the effort to pull someone over.

Some five months later...the text messaging ban that went into effect today. Same ridiculous fine, $20 for the first offense, which will do little to curb the rash of people who insist on texting others whilst piloting a vehicle they can barely drive to begin with due to "mastering the basics". Isn't the concept of a fine purposed to prevent the action through a financial detriment? $20 isn't much of a detriment to most of the people who pay upwards of five times that amount for the device in which they're using to require the fine.

State government is notoriously corrupt...I live in Illinois, where the governor is up for impeachment (he should be set on fire in a field of chairs)...and the government of Chicago is so corrupt the government won't even touch them. Daley has figured out how to carry out his deeds and not get his hands dirty...daddy taught him well.

2009 should prove to be an interesting year for government, consumers and business...the climate of our economy will push things in interesting directions. Survival will come in many new forms...as it should.

Nonstop entertainment...

How much effort does it take to fail so consistently? You know when you have one of those days where you drop your keys five times on your way from your front door to your car? Where you miss the doorknob and walk into the door? When you toss the tissue box on top of the toilet tank and it goes into the water because it fell short? When you are walking and trip over absolutely nothing? Remember Bill Murray's character in "Groundhog Day"? His name is GM.

Ugliest truck on the road gets a transplant (sort of)

GM, for me, has become the 'Sarah Palin' of the auto industry...too ridiculous to be true, but here it is continuously providing me with material through its own inability to figure out what appears to be obvious to so many. Yes, even bankruptcy couldn't save GM...they'd simply get lost in all of the paperwork (even though the lawyers would handle it).

One reason Ford can survive longer than GM: they get their designs to market faster...hell, even Chrysler beat GM to market with the Challenger. Why does it take GM so long to 'conceptualize' and bring to reality their mediocre cars? In defense of GM, they have some great cars in the pipeline-they're just 3 years late to the party. The Cruze, 2010 LaCrosse, Opel Insignia (now a future Buick) and the Camaro (just get it to market already...)-the Mustang has been out long enough for an update, making it look more like a rental car from the back.

Seriously, what is taking so long, GM? While your CEO and CFO sit around and wait for the rescue dollars to roll in-what are you doing to improve the mediocre assembly and shoddy designs? The new Corvette ZR-1 is gaining rave reviews in spite of what many consider cheap construction and poor build quality for such a car. How is it that Nissan can create an all new car that rivals Porsche for less than a Porsche or a ZR-1? I beat on GM because I know it once was a great company that designed and built great cars and trucks that people actually wanted to buy. Getting 'bailed out' is only one part of the puzzle-good for you...now you're 'solvent' for a couple of weeks-now try to build something worth buying, make some progress, do something...make a decision to effect change. Work with what you've got-shave off the dead weight-and move forward but don't just sit there on your collective asses, scratching whatever connects with your hand.

Makes me wonder if any of the executives at GM have ever had to work for anything other than their jobs. For that matter, they should work for free for a year to prove their 'desire' to make it right again...God knows they can afford it. I still think Wagoner should go away...hire Roger Penske, Willy Wonka...or one of the penguins from 'Madagascar' to do the job...they would be challenged to do anything but make an improvement at this point.

Trust me, when (if) they figure this out and get profitable, I'll be the first to offer up congratulations...really, I will.

I'm not holding my breath.

The first sign of maturity is the discovery that the volume knob also turns to the left.

It's time to organize the blogs-therefore, I am moving the 'personal' stuff to absenceofguilt.blogspot.com and the random, non-personal stuff will be posted here. The 'absence' blog is invite only to regular readers (to keep the riff raff out). If you want to read it let me know and I'll add you to the list.

I'm determined to start the new year off organized...and I've got to start somewhere.