Archive for the ‘Business’ Category:
The Oil Drum is a fantastic website in the Peak Oil niche. Their authors are very intelligent on their topics, and the information provided is truly top notch. However, a great deal of their articles assume an audience that is relatively well versed in the energy field.
I thought I would share this post as it is based on a presentation which may be a better intro for those less well educated on energy matters. You can see clearly that the world is a supply crunch when it comes to oil consumption. There simply isn’t much room for give in supply and we currently have some slack only from demand. If you assume that there is about a 4 million barrel a day surplus you can quickly decided that it will not take long for an economic rebound to usurp that surplus.
Furthermore, the U.S. only produces about half of the oil that it did in 1970. This trend (depletion of production) can be seen elsewhere in there world (especially in places like Mexico). I suggest reading this post from the Oil Drum as a primer to understanding the challenges that the world faces.
The old business adage is to cut the middleman out.
People always want to raise margins by cutting out the “middleman”.
Sometimes it’s that same middleman that can gain you customers, and revenue. Sometimes they have the irreplacable knowledge of the market that you need. A middle man can be an incredibly efficient thing.
I think it would be kind of unique to send out wedding invitations by Evite. It’s something different, and no one would expect it. Surely your friends would be talking, and you would probably get responses a lot faster.
Or maybe someone could start a service similar to Evite, specifically for wedding invitations. The invite could link directly to your registries, and easily link people to local hotels.
Just one easy solution to show that we really don’t need the post office anymore. The USPS is planning on closing down several hundred branch offices, and I really don’t see why we would need them anyway. Fed-Ex and UPS are solvent. I can get a post box at several other places, and stamps are easy to sell automatically. Drop off boxes work just fine for me, but I mostly email and work electronically anyway.
So get rid of those post offices. They are just a burden on the national budget anyway.
You know what’s funny. I bet that Sunday night mark’s peak traffic for netflix almost everyweek. But all of the sudden today their site goes down. Very strange indeed. I wonder if it’s due to the server burden from a heavy Sunday, or maybe those dang North Korean hackers.
You never know.
But I’ll tell you what I do know. If it is those dang North Korean Hackers I bet people will pay attention now. No one really minds much when our CIA, NSA, pentagon, and White House sites are being attacked. I think that cyber attacks can now basically be considered an act of war. Perhaps we should go after those bastards. No. Not Perhpas. We should. It’s an act of war in my mind. I say send a cruise missle to the heart of their electrical grid. That’d show em how much we like our Netflix.
There was a time where I had this bumper sticker on the back of my car. That was during the Bush administration, and I felt the same way. It doesn’t matter to me who is in office, I feel the same way about this. I suppose if some game changer like Ron Paul were in office, it might be different, but I haven’t seen any reason not to feel this way regardless of who the president is.
The sticker, Don’t steal, the government hates competition, rings true for many as we begin to work more and more for the government. Unfortunately, I fear that we are creating a society which is so dependent upon government that we will really have no choice but to continue the socialist model. It is sad, but we have seen periods of time like this before. Under Roosevelt I think many Americans saw similar changes taking place. We managed to come out OK, but there has been a feeling of “creeping socialism” for almost 100 years now.
A bill has been introduced by Ben Cardin which would allow newspapers to reform as non-profit corporations. I have to admit that I tired of the bailouts. If something doesn’t work, it should die. It is time now to be creative in finding solutions to the issues that we face. Bailing everything out is not the solution.
In my opinion a smart newspaper would take this opportunity to go entirely online, and maintain only a Sunday Print edition. Still, reforming as non-profits doesn’t sound like a terrible solution. My concern is that there would some unintended consequences here which I have yet to of thought of.
Economists gave Obama and Geithner failing grades in a confidence poll. Both received F’s from a panel of 49 economists in a Wall Street Journal forcasting survey. On scales ranging up to 100 points, Obama received a 59, while Geithner received a 51.
MSNBC conducted a poll asking for respondents to grade the Presidential performance thus far. The poll, which had over 160,000 responses asked individuals to grade Obama from “A” to “F”. An overwhelming majority of 59% voted “F”, While 20% voted “A”.
A personal opinion:
Tightening of the belt is the only responsible fiscal policy from the executive and legislative brances. Pooring on debt with baseless currency will only lead to larger problems. Taxing industry and individuals will discourage growth. We cannot hinder the very vehicles that are needed for economic rebound.
Leadership isn’t born in endless policy and debate. Leadership is addressing issues with a nation boldly and bluntly. Confronting those issues and reassuring the masses. When London was being relentlessly shelled Churchill reassured the masses of the British spirit to resist and overcome. We need a Churchill.
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