1. The “bailout” plan stinks. The last “Bush” bailout accomplished nothing. This “Obama” thing is a waste of time. I see it having absolutely no impact on manufacturing, increased freight, jobs or anything else for that matter. We should spend nothing. Scrap this nonsense and get busy on a real economic stimulus plan that involves tax breaks for everyone who actually pays taxes, especially the Fortune 5000. If my wife doesn’t have the money to buy stuff at Wal-Mart, employ someone to repair the roof and replace her leaking car radiator, the economy will continue to stall. Want to stimulate the economy? - give private school teachers a raise.
2. I bought a Blackberry Curve from Verizon. I’ve used Verizon for a few years now for cell and internet and the service is pretty good. After playing with the Curve a few days, I don’t understand how the hell I ever lived without one. Other than the IPhone, I wouldn’t waste your time buying any other phone, especially if you communicate, as I do, a lot by e-mail and text messaging. I couldn’t sleep the other night and at 3:45 AM was reading an interesting blog by someone who is headed to the Antarctic by ship. The Curve now serves as my mini-laptop.
3. Sirus/XM is in trouble. The Huffington Post reports that (according to the Wall St. Journal) Sirius needs $175 million by Feb. 17th to avoid bankruptcy and a possible takeover threat by EchoStar Corp. I wouldn’t be surprised if along with my useless PrePass transponder I’ll eventually have to deep-6 my Sirius receiver. The full story at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/06/charlie-ergen-echostar-se_n_164664.html
4. Michael Phelps, Olympic gold medal swimmer, has only one problem and it’s not the whole “bong” smoking overblown PR fiasco or his 3-month suspension or the loss of his Kellogg’s sponsorship. No, his #1 problem is that he looks like an ugly white chimp (big ears and big teeth) with little or no personality. He is a great swimmer and that’s it. Just like Mark Spitz.
5. Peanuts. Tomatoes. We never did get closure on the bad tomatoes that made all those people sick this past summer. Now we have bad peanuts from a dirty Georgia factory that passed inspection by the GA Dept. of Agriculture. Let’s follow China’s example – arrest all those involved and put those responsible to death. I guarantee the incidents of salmonella tainted food products will disappear. And once again, we need to divide the FDA into two separate agencies – one overseeing the drug industry and the other the food folks.
6. For many companies that are trying to hang on, the next “decision point” will be April, at the end of the first quarter. “They” can continue to do business for now, perhaps laying off small percentages of their workforce and maybe closing a terminal or warehouse or two. Certainly for trucking companies, that’s not hard – just don’t replace the drivers who leave due to the typical industry turnover of about 125%. But, if there is no improvement in business by April, then you’re going to see a lot more closures and layoffs in mid-sized businesses, especially trucking.
7. Finally, kudos to the LaGuardia air traffic controller who was right on top of his game communicating with the US Airways flight that ditched in the Hudson river.
Photo credit is: http://www.techshout.com/
