I wonder sometimes why people are so against neutral factions. It seems like you have to be good or evil. Liberal or conservative, pro this or pro that.
Is it so wrong to not confine yourself in a box?
I find no matter what facet of society we have polar opposites without much room for navigation between them.
It troubles me.
Take stock of what Blue Chips like Microsoft are doing. Forget focusing in on investors and put your cash flow to work by going after bonds.
Banks are crippled needing investment vehicles that are stable, you’re a company with a AAA bond rating. Forget the higher premiums that investors demand from stock issued debt.
So learn from microsoft… help the economy…. put money to work, rather than having banks choking on it in their vaults.
Its good to know that all of the anger people feel towards bad management won’t just be directed at the CEOs of America’s companies any more.
Thats because we have the wonderful people in the UAW, who have decided they would like to piss people off too.
Ahhhhh unions, I’ve always been on the side that they are archaic holdovers from the robber baron days of business who have been completely supplanted by OCEA and other Federal standards groups. Its hard for me even after working for a pretty terrible company to believe unions serve a great purpose, and that’s not some pro business leaning of mine.
You see decisions like this where the UAW tells the entire world they do not care about the health of their dieing company, in which their union members will have to be able to keep their jobs, just makes me feel they are completely out of touch with reality.
55% of a company going up on the selling block at one time, when investor confidence is low, and there isn’t a lot of institutional investors to pick up the stock due to bad investment decisions in the last 5-10 years sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Your union members are already likely to lose a lot of their perks during the bankruptcy Chrysler is going through, and now actions like these may have them losing a heck of a lot more.
So I don’t really know how to feel. On the one side we give these banks billions of dollars for the purpose of stimulating the economy by allowing them to increase lending, thereby rewarding them for their wreckless behavior vs. teaching them a lesson and watching our entire system take it in the pants because of it.
So we see banks who are troubled people like Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase who both turn profits ($4 billion and $2 Billion resepctively), just a quarter or two after we gave them all that cash. Seeing them making money so soon after we injected all that cash (even while they are writing off tons of assets) really makes one wonder if they could have survived without the injection.
In the end this is just me being pissed like most everyone though. Its a good thing they are our making money (it means more people could get money), its just one of those things where we all feel like we’re left getting the short end of the stick though.
Saw this on the back of a 18-wheeler today:
“The term “Happy Camper” was born in 1982″ ~ a play off when Joes (previously GI Joes) started their business.
Well kiddies looks like 2009 killed the happy camper because Joes is no more (although a GI Joe movie is coming out soon).
With that in mind I think its time we all sign a contract right now to get our economies back on track.
Investors
Companies
Workers
If all three wings of the problem don’t work together this is just going to get worse.
“When programs are out of control, when they’re six years late, when they’re twice the cost that they were originally forecast, something has to be done. Something has to give,” Gates said.
Good lord the US military is out to cut costs and provide a defence in a way that promises much better coverage for our tax paying dollars. When the government starts making sense be afraid…..
Fortunately the US congress is still being plenty irrational. Their fear is the F22 raptor cuts.
Heard a quote from Gates that was something to the effect of “We need to fight the capabilities of the enemies we have not the capabilities of a mystery enemy with unlimited means and time.”
Gates was discussing the need or lack there of of the F-22 raptor. He makes a valid point who on earth is still engaging in Air to Air dog fights? So what’s congress all freaked out about? Job losses. Yes because if we took away the F-22 it would lead to unemployment.
I guess they never considered all the jobs they could create with the millions and millions they save from not buying these planes that only see action when they’re in combat simulations.
On the Doctor Scholls gel insoles: “They’re outrageously comfortable”
Bonus terrible marketing:
For a product that was a cross necklace that contained the entire lords prayer within a small stone with a target audience of christians: “It’s almost miraculous”
I just find myself thinking these people need some help with their descriptors. How could comfort be outrageous? How can using the term miraculous to sell something be anything other than blasphamy?
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20090326/black-thursday-at-big-blue-2/?mod=ATD_rss
For a company that has always has sold itself on value its funny to see IBM claiming their job cuts are to “stay competitive”. Funny I always thought high margin software and services was enhanced by human capital… I guess they see things differently.
Or maybe its just more convenient to say we’re making a move to be competitive, than say we’re sorry our investors expect a better ROI. i guess the citizens with pitchforks understand being competitive a bit more than being greedy.
So you find yourself in a company working extremely hard to keep your job. At the end of the year there is an expected bonus that has been written into your contract based on performance your ability to not get fired from a company that obviously doesn’t dismiss employees based on inability to perform (or they wouldn’t be getting $190 billion from the government to not fail); yes you’re working at AIG.
So I pose this question to everyone:
You signed a contract and have decided to build that contract and expected annual retention bonus into your expectations. The US government freaks out over the fact you’ve received what was required for your contract, all because your company and colleagues (not you) screwed up royally (so you claim publicly).
Do you
If you chose #3 in my mind you’re a complete d-bag. If you chose 1 or 2 I commend you on being a realist, you either understand your contract entitles you to something and feel justified, or you feel that the society at large would better benifit from you “doing the right thing”.
Its funny really…. someone feeling betrayed as the CEO is just trying to salvage the company when the government really has their balls in a vice. Get off your high horse and just accept the fact that you receiving $740k just because you somehow managed not to get fired at a company that doesn’t even know how to run its business (see needing a bailout) is deemed idiotic by the unwashed masses.
At the end of the day your compensation didn’t match the realities of the business. You were in your rights to say no I won’t turn the money back in, but don’t for a minute think anyone cares about how betrayed you feel. Stop being emo and get out of the press your 15 mins are done.
This is an Internet meme that’sbeen going around for quite some time. I stumbled across it on failblog.org and just couldn’t resist.
Typically this blog is about terrible decisions people make in their business (especially executives). That is when I bother to update it, but bad math I couldn’t resist.
$.002 does not = .002 cents
http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/2006/12/verizon-doesnt-know-dollars-from-cents.html
Listen to the audio you won’t be disappointed.