I was hoping for a snow day today, but not for the usual reasons. I had a summons for jury duty, and I only saw it about a week before I was due to appear because I had been in Miami, and someone did not mention that it had come while I was away.
If there had been a snow day, I could have left the big kids in charge of the almost three year old, and her little two year old friend who is spending two weeks with us while her parents are away.
So the predictions of 3-6 inches of snow did not materialize, although the snow is currently making a valiant effort to make up that deficit. We may end up with early dismissals.
Anyway, I figured let me go down and see what I can do, maybe the case will be dismissed and it will be considered "time served," as happened with MBB. Either way, I had been SUMMONED! so I needed to take care of it.
I asked my almost 16 year old to stay home, and I'd figure out around lunch time getting her to school for math, and getting coverage for the two little girls.
I went to do my civic duty, and got yelled at. After instructions on filling out the back of the summons (even that word makes it hard to try to think about dodging), and collection of those cards the movie began. The "you've got to be kidding me, my taxes paid for this???" movie about the jury trial system, that begins in medieval times with "trial by ordeal." If you're accused of a crime, grungy looking people, some weeping, some looking severe, bind you and throw you in the river. If you float you're guilty, if you sink you're innocent (and based on the amount of time it took the Obi Wan Kenobi looking judge to decide whether he sunk or not, I'd say possibly dead)all narrated by Ed Bradley. Right around the time Diane Sawyer came on to expound on the wonders of jury service, I went into another room to speak to the woman in charge,the Commissioner of Jurors, who with a title like that should really dress better, if not a uniform, then at least something more Commisionery then a V-neck polyester loud print tunic over black leggings and high heeled short boots. I asked if she knew when lunch was, because I had some child care issues to work out. She got all angry at me, and said "we don't know you have children, that's why we send the summons out three weeks in advance so you can send us this info."
In my defense, I did not tell her this, it says clearly that you have to pick a date two to six months in the future. Ummmm, that's not really any better for me, so I went down to serve the day, but apparently you're on call for a week, and she told me later when she called me back in that she can't take a chance that I wouldn't get selected, and gave me a two year deferment, contingent on my sending in a birth certificate for Little Miss Eat Everything. I also did not mention that I was in Florida when the summons came and did not see it right away.
It really doesn't say anywhere in the summons that you can be excused (not postponed)for young children, so I don't really feel bad that I went down there. It was my time that was wasted not hers, so I don't think she had to be so nasty. Granted, you want a pool of a certain amount of people, but c'mon! She does this every day, and I do it....never. Anyway, I would have liked to gone through Voire Dire, but I guess at this stage in my life (like many other things) it will have to wait.
Trial by Ordeal, indeed.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The Invisible Woman
How many times have you opened a newspaper or magazine and seen ads for a dinner honoring "Mr. and Mrs. So and So" with a picture of a very happy smiling man? Last I checked, a couple included a man and his wife.
I understand that the world we live in keeps women out of the spotlight, but then don't honor couples. Don't have a video presentation where only one half of the "ticket" gets to speak or be shown. For that matter, don't honor any women teachers, because then there are no video tributes apparently possible. Well, that's not true. If she teaches girls under fourth grade they could video tape them talking about what a great teacher she is, and of course her male bosses, and her husband. You know, the guy who will accept the award for her.
Yeah, yeah, let's all wring our hands at the scourge of frum men, who obviously NEVER leave their houses, being subjected to unclean images in their homes (see: newwpapers/magazines above) or at a dinner, when they know going in who the honorees are.
It's something we shake our heads at and wonder what the world is coming to in a tsk, tsk way, but truthfully it's a really big deal.
We are raising a generation of women who are growing up in a culture that so diminishes them, and then ties it to religion. How do you argue with religion? what's WRONG with you? So what's the end game, in this culture that the boys are growing up in too? Do we end up with girls who don't understand that marriage is an equal partnership, and are unable to communicate their needs and wants to their husbands because they've been brought up in a society that seems to relegate them to secondary status? How can we expect more from young husbands who have been taught throughout society that women are "the other?"
I was sitting at a party the other day, and a woman from a town in NJ was talking about all the snow they had one weekend, and how she was trying to walk through huge tractor tire treads, but every time she saw a man approaching she had to move off the treads into the 20 inches of snow. Ummmm...this woman is shorter than me. Why would she not think for a minute to let the MAN let HER pass? Most men are taller than five feet (this woman is not, as I mentioned, she's shorter than me), 20 inches of snow would come up a lot lower than on a woman in a skirt.
I'm sure many of you have heard me tell the story of my niece's eighth grade graduation. There was a guest speaker who stood up and told over the story of R' Akiva and his wife Rachel. What better message for girls about to embark on a tough road to high school, and the road to real adulthood, then to tell them they have no mitzvah of limud torah, but if they want a piece of it they don't need to wait until their husbands are learning and they are facilitating it. No, they should "have a plate of cookies waiting for your brothers when they get home from Yeshiva. Better yet, bake them cookies."
Nothing about ways to better serve God on their own, and nothing about how to better connect through prayer, and the beautiful Mitzvos that women ARE obligated in. No we focused on how to have religion by proxy. How to subjugate yourself for someone else, because we all know that that is the best way to serve God.
A society that both diminishes women and then expects the world of them at the same time. It makes no sense. What does make sense is that God is true and just, those who have co opted his "P.R.," so to speak, are miles away.
I understand that the world we live in keeps women out of the spotlight, but then don't honor couples. Don't have a video presentation where only one half of the "ticket" gets to speak or be shown. For that matter, don't honor any women teachers, because then there are no video tributes apparently possible. Well, that's not true. If she teaches girls under fourth grade they could video tape them talking about what a great teacher she is, and of course her male bosses, and her husband. You know, the guy who will accept the award for her.
Yeah, yeah, let's all wring our hands at the scourge of frum men, who obviously NEVER leave their houses, being subjected to unclean images in their homes (see: newwpapers/magazines above) or at a dinner, when they know going in who the honorees are.
It's something we shake our heads at and wonder what the world is coming to in a tsk, tsk way, but truthfully it's a really big deal.
We are raising a generation of women who are growing up in a culture that so diminishes them, and then ties it to religion. How do you argue with religion? what's WRONG with you? So what's the end game, in this culture that the boys are growing up in too? Do we end up with girls who don't understand that marriage is an equal partnership, and are unable to communicate their needs and wants to their husbands because they've been brought up in a society that seems to relegate them to secondary status? How can we expect more from young husbands who have been taught throughout society that women are "the other?"
I was sitting at a party the other day, and a woman from a town in NJ was talking about all the snow they had one weekend, and how she was trying to walk through huge tractor tire treads, but every time she saw a man approaching she had to move off the treads into the 20 inches of snow. Ummmm...this woman is shorter than me. Why would she not think for a minute to let the MAN let HER pass? Most men are taller than five feet (this woman is not, as I mentioned, she's shorter than me), 20 inches of snow would come up a lot lower than on a woman in a skirt.
I'm sure many of you have heard me tell the story of my niece's eighth grade graduation. There was a guest speaker who stood up and told over the story of R' Akiva and his wife Rachel. What better message for girls about to embark on a tough road to high school, and the road to real adulthood, then to tell them they have no mitzvah of limud torah, but if they want a piece of it they don't need to wait until their husbands are learning and they are facilitating it. No, they should "have a plate of cookies waiting for your brothers when they get home from Yeshiva. Better yet, bake them cookies."
Nothing about ways to better serve God on their own, and nothing about how to better connect through prayer, and the beautiful Mitzvos that women ARE obligated in. No we focused on how to have religion by proxy. How to subjugate yourself for someone else, because we all know that that is the best way to serve God.
A society that both diminishes women and then expects the world of them at the same time. It makes no sense. What does make sense is that God is true and just, those who have co opted his "P.R.," so to speak, are miles away.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Bring It On
We sit here, awaiting snow. There is no doubt that tomorrow will be a snow day, though we were convinced we'd have SOME sort of precipitation last weekend when nary a drop flake or flurry fell from the sky. Tales of 26 and 33 inches of snow were cruelly out of reach 90 miles to our south.
I expect we will not be spared this time, and I welcome the white stuff. Snow pants are ready for the kids to go sledding, baking supplies are in the house, and the Wii is at the ready. The freezer is well stocked with three types of Ben and Jerry's, which just adds an amendment to life lesson #246. Life Lesson #246 states do not go shopping while hungry. Amendment to Life Lesson #246 is do not go shopping when you are hungry - right before a major snow storm.
Luckily our municipality uses our high property tax dollars to provide good snow removal (and good garbage pick-up), so I do not expect to end up like my cousin in Baltimore who had to hire a private plow to plow her street, on MONDAY!!! after it snowed on Friday, I have no idea what they're going to do with another 20 inches of snow. The people should pack it in their cars and bring it down to their city council and dump it on the floor of the council room. What are these guys doing that they're not plowing streets for three days?
So bring on the white stuff, the ground was due to be frozen solid and snow covered for the next week or so, as it is every year, so that MBB has to dig and pour boiling water on the ground so we can put up the jester!
I expect we will not be spared this time, and I welcome the white stuff. Snow pants are ready for the kids to go sledding, baking supplies are in the house, and the Wii is at the ready. The freezer is well stocked with three types of Ben and Jerry's, which just adds an amendment to life lesson #246. Life Lesson #246 states do not go shopping while hungry. Amendment to Life Lesson #246 is do not go shopping when you are hungry - right before a major snow storm.
Luckily our municipality uses our high property tax dollars to provide good snow removal (and good garbage pick-up), so I do not expect to end up like my cousin in Baltimore who had to hire a private plow to plow her street, on MONDAY!!! after it snowed on Friday, I have no idea what they're going to do with another 20 inches of snow. The people should pack it in their cars and bring it down to their city council and dump it on the floor of the council room. What are these guys doing that they're not plowing streets for three days?
So bring on the white stuff, the ground was due to be frozen solid and snow covered for the next week or so, as it is every year, so that MBB has to dig and pour boiling water on the ground so we can put up the jester!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Working Off the Surplus
FBB's previous post, about our current embarrassment of lime riches, reminded me of another, far-more-damaging case of over-purchasing, which took place many years ago.
When my brother was 7 years old or so (and I was 12), he suddenly developed an affinity for root beer. Naturally, my father picked up several cases of C&C Root Beer at the "soda place." By that time, soda was being sold in disposable plastic bottles, but we still patronized the same establishment where we'd purchased our glass bottles of Hoffman or Cornell sodas, and returned the empty bottles to be refilled. These places are nearly obsolete nowadays, but I will always remember them with great fondness.
In reality, my father probably bought only one case (6 bottles) of C&C Root Beer, but it certainly seemed like a lot more. Shortly after these sodas had been procured, my brother's taste for root beer disappeared, as abruptly as it had developed. We sensed that something was wrong when he repeatedly eschewed the root beer, choosing to drink any other flavor soda that was available, even pineapple. I'm not sure what pineapple soda was doing on our table in the first place, considering that no one in my family speaks Spanish.
So there we were, stuck with a bunch of bottles of root beer that nobody wanted to drink. We'd rather drink water than root beer. Yes, water. From the tap. Or from the garden hose outside.
Our situation started to become desperate, and my father did everything he could to unload that root beer. First, he tried to convince us to drink it, even at breakfast. Then, he recommended that we invite friends over to the house, so that he could try to get them to drink it. That didn't work, either.
One day, with my martyr complex in full bloom, I decided to "take one for the team," and drank nearly an entire bottle of the stuff. I drank it while giving my brother the evil eye, and promised to never let him forget what he had caused (I remind him about it from time to time, 'till this very day). My sister helped me polish off the bottle. Unfortunately, we still had about 5 bottles left.
Technically, we could've just given the remaining root beer away to homeless people, but it wasn't that simple. This took place during the early 1980s in New York City, a period I've referred to as the "Brazen Homeless Era." People were making a very big deal about the plight of the homeless, and frankly, these domicile-challenged individuals were letting it get to their heads. In those days, you could go into a deli, purchase a huge hot corned beef sandwich, and hand it to the first homeless guy you saw outside, and more likely than not, his response would be, "What, no pickle?"
The homeless crowd really started to get uppity with the 1989 launch of the "Street News." The Street News was a newspaper written and distributed by homeless people (mostly on the subways). They charged $0.75 or $1.00 for it, and the seller would get to keep about $0.50 for each newspaper he/she sold. An enterprising fellow could sell enough newspapers in a day to buy about 5 crack rocks.
At its peak, about four months after its launch, the Street News sold one million copies. By 2002, the paper sold only 18,000 copies all year. Interestingly, considering its circulation decline curve, and the obviously liberal slant of its articles, the Street News is really just a poor man's New York Times. Actually, a homeless man's New York Times. They're really the same newspaper, if you think about it. That is, if the Street News had moved into a massive new headquarters building at the height of the New York City commercial real estate market, incurred billions of dollars in debt, failed to develop a realistic, profitable online business model, and sold a big chunk of itself to a Mexican mega-billionaire who will visit all sorts of indignities on its brand in the coming years. Then, they'd be the same newspaper.
Without the homeless distribution outlet as a viable alternative, and realizing that the local squirrels preferred to drink beer out of half-empty bottles and cans they found in knocked-over garbage cans, we had to face the grim reality that our C&C Root Beer inventory would be with us for a while. In this way, we were sort of like the U.S. steelmakers at the time. Eventually, over a period of several years, we were able to finish the root beer, and put the entire sad chapter behind us.
I'm not worried about our overabundance of limes, though. FBB (also known in Blogland as the "comment magnet") seems to have received a quite a few recommendations for the eventual use of these limes. Some of these ideas sound appetizing, others not as much.
No matter how you slice it, though, it's got to be tastier than a root beer float.
When my brother was 7 years old or so (and I was 12), he suddenly developed an affinity for root beer. Naturally, my father picked up several cases of C&C Root Beer at the "soda place." By that time, soda was being sold in disposable plastic bottles, but we still patronized the same establishment where we'd purchased our glass bottles of Hoffman or Cornell sodas, and returned the empty bottles to be refilled. These places are nearly obsolete nowadays, but I will always remember them with great fondness.
In reality, my father probably bought only one case (6 bottles) of C&C Root Beer, but it certainly seemed like a lot more. Shortly after these sodas had been procured, my brother's taste for root beer disappeared, as abruptly as it had developed. We sensed that something was wrong when he repeatedly eschewed the root beer, choosing to drink any other flavor soda that was available, even pineapple. I'm not sure what pineapple soda was doing on our table in the first place, considering that no one in my family speaks Spanish.
So there we were, stuck with a bunch of bottles of root beer that nobody wanted to drink. We'd rather drink water than root beer. Yes, water. From the tap. Or from the garden hose outside.
Our situation started to become desperate, and my father did everything he could to unload that root beer. First, he tried to convince us to drink it, even at breakfast. Then, he recommended that we invite friends over to the house, so that he could try to get them to drink it. That didn't work, either.
One day, with my martyr complex in full bloom, I decided to "take one for the team," and drank nearly an entire bottle of the stuff. I drank it while giving my brother the evil eye, and promised to never let him forget what he had caused (I remind him about it from time to time, 'till this very day). My sister helped me polish off the bottle. Unfortunately, we still had about 5 bottles left.
Technically, we could've just given the remaining root beer away to homeless people, but it wasn't that simple. This took place during the early 1980s in New York City, a period I've referred to as the "Brazen Homeless Era." People were making a very big deal about the plight of the homeless, and frankly, these domicile-challenged individuals were letting it get to their heads. In those days, you could go into a deli, purchase a huge hot corned beef sandwich, and hand it to the first homeless guy you saw outside, and more likely than not, his response would be, "What, no pickle?"
The homeless crowd really started to get uppity with the 1989 launch of the "Street News." The Street News was a newspaper written and distributed by homeless people (mostly on the subways). They charged $0.75 or $1.00 for it, and the seller would get to keep about $0.50 for each newspaper he/she sold. An enterprising fellow could sell enough newspapers in a day to buy about 5 crack rocks.
At its peak, about four months after its launch, the Street News sold one million copies. By 2002, the paper sold only 18,000 copies all year. Interestingly, considering its circulation decline curve, and the obviously liberal slant of its articles, the Street News is really just a poor man's New York Times. Actually, a homeless man's New York Times. They're really the same newspaper, if you think about it. That is, if the Street News had moved into a massive new headquarters building at the height of the New York City commercial real estate market, incurred billions of dollars in debt, failed to develop a realistic, profitable online business model, and sold a big chunk of itself to a Mexican mega-billionaire who will visit all sorts of indignities on its brand in the coming years. Then, they'd be the same newspaper.
Without the homeless distribution outlet as a viable alternative, and realizing that the local squirrels preferred to drink beer out of half-empty bottles and cans they found in knocked-over garbage cans, we had to face the grim reality that our C&C Root Beer inventory would be with us for a while. In this way, we were sort of like the U.S. steelmakers at the time. Eventually, over a period of several years, we were able to finish the root beer, and put the entire sad chapter behind us.
I'm not worried about our overabundance of limes, though. FBB (also known in Blogland as the "comment magnet") seems to have received a quite a few recommendations for the eventual use of these limes. Some of these ideas sound appetizing, others not as much.
No matter how you slice it, though, it's got to be tastier than a root beer float.
It's Not Easy Being Green
I really don't know what I was thinking. Probably, it had something to do with me having been away for a a few days in Florida without MBB.
When I got home I saw a few remnants of his favorite "cocktail," Diet Coke with a slice of fresh lime in it. And no, he doesn't like Diet Coke with Lime, he likes Diet Coke with a slice of fresh lime.
This is not something he drinks often, but I know he likes it, and will drink it especially while watching football (even the debacle that was the championship game. You people do not even KNOW how amazing it is that there was not a single post about this year's Minnesota Vikings, an excellent team, and one that would have beaten the Colts in the Super Bowl, had they not beaten THEMSELVES against the stupid Saints, who they ABSOLUTELY outplayed. They just kept turning the ball over. Then again I think the unwritten football posts came pouring out in a torrent this weekend....).
Anyway, I came home on Tuesday night, and Thursday I found myself at Costco. I saw this bag of limes, and immediately thought of my dear husband, and purchased the small sack of 20 or so limes.
After I got home and opened the package to fix him a drink (how domestic!!)it dawned on me that one lime usually takes him about a week to finish.
Well, so far I made chicken wraps with fresh lime juice, and apples with lime juice, and I guess I could buy some mint and make some mojitos. Anyone with any good recipes involving limes or lime juice is welcome to post it in the comments sections.
I could use the help.
When I got home I saw a few remnants of his favorite "cocktail," Diet Coke with a slice of fresh lime in it. And no, he doesn't like Diet Coke with Lime, he likes Diet Coke with a slice of fresh lime.
This is not something he drinks often, but I know he likes it, and will drink it especially while watching football (even the debacle that was the championship game. You people do not even KNOW how amazing it is that there was not a single post about this year's Minnesota Vikings, an excellent team, and one that would have beaten the Colts in the Super Bowl, had they not beaten THEMSELVES against the stupid Saints, who they ABSOLUTELY outplayed. They just kept turning the ball over. Then again I think the unwritten football posts came pouring out in a torrent this weekend....).
Anyway, I came home on Tuesday night, and Thursday I found myself at Costco. I saw this bag of limes, and immediately thought of my dear husband, and purchased the small sack of 20 or so limes.
After I got home and opened the package to fix him a drink (how domestic!!)it dawned on me that one lime usually takes him about a week to finish.
Well, so far I made chicken wraps with fresh lime juice, and apples with lime juice, and I guess I could buy some mint and make some mojitos. Anyone with any good recipes involving limes or lime juice is welcome to post it in the comments sections.
I could use the help.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
That Nagging J-O-B-S Issue
In retrospect, I should have seen this one coming.
When we gathered the end-of-the-year stock market predictions for our annual contest , we received 7 contest entries. Not a single one anticipated a decline in the stock market in 2010. In terms of an investor sentiment index, that's a very bearish signal, as the sentiment index is a contrarian indicator, wherein any reading above 50% bullish is negative. The IcebergCarwash sentiment indicator is 100% bullish, which is downright scary.
The idea behind the investor sentiment index is rather simple. If a significant percentage of investors are bullish, for example, the assumption is that these people are already in the market, so current price levels indicate their optimism. If, on the other hand, most investors are bearish, this typically means that many investors are currently on the sidelines, and when their sentiment changes for the better, their buying activity will put upward price pressure on the market.
It is debatable as to whether or not investor sentiment indices are accurate predictors of the future short-term direction of financial markets, but there are plenty of advisory services who track it.
Using the IcebergCarwash sentiment index, then, we should've been bearish on the market at the outset of the year. Indeed, through Friday, February 5th, the market is down 4.4% for the year, as measured by the S&P 500.
IcebergCarwash's increasingly obvious (or obviously increasing?) relevance in the world of Finance aside, the market's recent performance seems to be a matter of financial market participants starting to catch on to the idea that we cannot have a meaningful recovery in the U.S. without job growth. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy lost about 20,000 more jobs in January. While that's not a large number by any means, it does indicate that our economy is not yet adding a significant number of jobs, and that any employment-driven recovery is still a while off.
The implication, of course, is that the government needs to focus nearly all of its legislative efforts on job creation. Things like health care reform, while important, will only serve to distract our lawmakers from the task of creating jobs. We absolutely need to put any other major items on the back burner. Unfortunately, the President and his liberal brethren in Congress are much more concerned with pushing through the key elements of their liberal agenda than with actually helping Americans get back to work.
If our lawmakers were to actually put the appropriate amount of focus on job creation, the hope here is that any resulting policies and tactics would result in actual job creation. For example, while extending unemployment benefits (yet again) is certainly a good thing to do from a humanitarian standpoint, it doesn't actually do much to create jobs. Like it or not, companies need to be convinced that adding workers at this point is in their best interests. Considering that so many companies have been managing rather well for quite some time now with reduced headcount, and enjoying the resulting improvements in their respective operating cost models, there's a real reluctance to add jobs. We've got to grease the rails, by offering something like corporate tax credits for newly created positions. Those who typically assail anything that even smacks of "corporate welfare" will surely howl, but these people are clueless, and should not be listened to.
If Congress doesn't act soon to fuel a recovery in employment, the stock market's performance might turn out to be the least of our worries.
As for me, my 2010 year-end stock prediction was the lowest of all of the entries, so if the market declines in 2010, I'll win the contest. It won't be much of a consolation, though.
When we gathered the end-of-the-year stock market predictions for our annual contest , we received 7 contest entries. Not a single one anticipated a decline in the stock market in 2010. In terms of an investor sentiment index, that's a very bearish signal, as the sentiment index is a contrarian indicator, wherein any reading above 50% bullish is negative. The IcebergCarwash sentiment indicator is 100% bullish, which is downright scary.
The idea behind the investor sentiment index is rather simple. If a significant percentage of investors are bullish, for example, the assumption is that these people are already in the market, so current price levels indicate their optimism. If, on the other hand, most investors are bearish, this typically means that many investors are currently on the sidelines, and when their sentiment changes for the better, their buying activity will put upward price pressure on the market.
It is debatable as to whether or not investor sentiment indices are accurate predictors of the future short-term direction of financial markets, but there are plenty of advisory services who track it.
Using the IcebergCarwash sentiment index, then, we should've been bearish on the market at the outset of the year. Indeed, through Friday, February 5th, the market is down 4.4% for the year, as measured by the S&P 500.
IcebergCarwash's increasingly obvious (or obviously increasing?) relevance in the world of Finance aside, the market's recent performance seems to be a matter of financial market participants starting to catch on to the idea that we cannot have a meaningful recovery in the U.S. without job growth. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy lost about 20,000 more jobs in January. While that's not a large number by any means, it does indicate that our economy is not yet adding a significant number of jobs, and that any employment-driven recovery is still a while off.
The implication, of course, is that the government needs to focus nearly all of its legislative efforts on job creation. Things like health care reform, while important, will only serve to distract our lawmakers from the task of creating jobs. We absolutely need to put any other major items on the back burner. Unfortunately, the President and his liberal brethren in Congress are much more concerned with pushing through the key elements of their liberal agenda than with actually helping Americans get back to work.
If our lawmakers were to actually put the appropriate amount of focus on job creation, the hope here is that any resulting policies and tactics would result in actual job creation. For example, while extending unemployment benefits (yet again) is certainly a good thing to do from a humanitarian standpoint, it doesn't actually do much to create jobs. Like it or not, companies need to be convinced that adding workers at this point is in their best interests. Considering that so many companies have been managing rather well for quite some time now with reduced headcount, and enjoying the resulting improvements in their respective operating cost models, there's a real reluctance to add jobs. We've got to grease the rails, by offering something like corporate tax credits for newly created positions. Those who typically assail anything that even smacks of "corporate welfare" will surely howl, but these people are clueless, and should not be listened to.
If Congress doesn't act soon to fuel a recovery in employment, the stock market's performance might turn out to be the least of our worries.
As for me, my 2010 year-end stock prediction was the lowest of all of the entries, so if the market declines in 2010, I'll win the contest. It won't be much of a consolation, though.
I Brake For...No One
Unlike many others, I did not take any joy in the news of Toyota's mounting troubles over these past couple of weeks.
For one thing, I never like to see any corporation, in any country, faced with billions of dollars in losses (or lost business), even if their difficulties were of their own doing.
On another, more personal, note, I currently work for a Japanese company, and Toyota is one of our parent company's largest shareholders, owning approximately 14% of the outstanding shares. At least publicly, I need to exhibit sympathy for the automaker. Privately (and let's face it, IcebergCarwash is still rather private), I'm hopeful that this situation can lead to some long-term competitive benefits for the U.S.-based automakers. It's also gratifying to see that foreign companies have major issues too.
The latest part of the story struck me as very interesting, however. Last week, reports emerged that the Toyota Prius - the world's #1-selling hybrid vehicle and a veritable symbol of "green" sensitivities - had experienced a disturbingly high number of incidents of brake pedal failures. Now, I'm not a mechanic, and I've never subscribed to "Road & Track" or "Motor Trend" magazine, but even I know that if your brake pedal doesn't work, that's more than just a minor inconvenience.
Think about it.
A hybrid vehicle, which could possibly end up killing a bunch of humans?
Why, that car is an environmentalist's dream!
I hope Al Gore drives one. Then again, Mr. Gore has nothing to worry about, given his own personal, built-in airbags, which deploy whenever he collides with a microphone.
For one thing, I never like to see any corporation, in any country, faced with billions of dollars in losses (or lost business), even if their difficulties were of their own doing.
On another, more personal, note, I currently work for a Japanese company, and Toyota is one of our parent company's largest shareholders, owning approximately 14% of the outstanding shares. At least publicly, I need to exhibit sympathy for the automaker. Privately (and let's face it, IcebergCarwash is still rather private), I'm hopeful that this situation can lead to some long-term competitive benefits for the U.S.-based automakers. It's also gratifying to see that foreign companies have major issues too.
The latest part of the story struck me as very interesting, however. Last week, reports emerged that the Toyota Prius - the world's #1-selling hybrid vehicle and a veritable symbol of "green" sensitivities - had experienced a disturbingly high number of incidents of brake pedal failures. Now, I'm not a mechanic, and I've never subscribed to "Road & Track" or "Motor Trend" magazine, but even I know that if your brake pedal doesn't work, that's more than just a minor inconvenience.
Think about it.
A hybrid vehicle, which could possibly end up killing a bunch of humans?
Why, that car is an environmentalist's dream!
I hope Al Gore drives one. Then again, Mr. Gore has nothing to worry about, given his own personal, built-in airbags, which deploy whenever he collides with a microphone.
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