What you can learn from this ebook

If you’d like to ensure your assets are distributed as you’d like them to be when you die, estate planning is the answer. Successful estate planning transfers your assets to your beneficiaries quickly and with minimal tax consequences. Estate planning can also assure that family members know how you’d like your financial and medical affairs to be handled if you become incapable of making your own decisions.

The process of estate planning includes inventorying your assets; talking over important decisions with family members; and making a will and/or establishing a trust. This brochure provides only a general overview of estate planning. You should consult an attorney, and perhaps a CPA or tax advisor, for additional guidance tailored to your specific situation.

Webloyalty, Vertrue, and Affinion are companies that charge your credit card tiny amounts. Usually when they show up on your card you’ll see the words “rewards” or “club.” Most people don’t recall paying for a service or signing up for one and now the Senate has finally decided to do something about these companies.

So, when exactly do you sign up for things like WebLoyalty? Have you ever purchased something online then found yourself barraged by popups for $10 off or some kind of rebate? That’s where they get you.

Webloyalty has been known to act like a company that had something to hide. It has grown to be a company that hides information from the public and buries negative stores to try to make sure people don’t see them.

Now, however, there is one person out there trying to get the company to talk about their shady business practices:

However, Webloyalty may have learned from past mistakes. Webloyalty’s corporate PR office e-mailed me after I Twittered that I was looking for former employees of these three companies — no luck, I probably would have done better hitting some of the bars in downtown Stamford — to ask if I needed anything.

I wanted to know: How is the company considering changing its practices in light of the congressional investigation? “Although the incidence of individuals who appear to have clicked through our process without reading what they were doing is quite small as compared to all of our members, even a few is too many,” Beth Kitchener, Webloyalty’s vice president of corporate communications, said in an e-mail exchange. “The class action lawsuit settlement as well as the issues raised by the Senate Commerce Committee put an exclamation point on the need to get this number as low as possible.”

Source

Is a four day work week ideal to you?

Question:

Some employers are opting for a four day work week to help with the loss of profits from the recession and they are choosing to go this route instead of firing some of their staff.

How do you feel about a four day work week and would you be willing to try it out even if the recession wasn’t hurting business?

Answer:

I think we’re all programmed to want to work as little as possible but be paid the same. When it comes down to it, I would rather have the salary for that extra day than have the day off.

However, I may be in the minority because according to an article from Time Magazine, 17,000 workers in Utah have been trying out the four day work week and have really grown to like it.

What you can learn from this booklet

For the froogle person in all of us, comes 66 creative ways to save money. Everything from auto insurance, to gasoline, and mortgage refinancing to prescription drugs. Even the best saver will find something of use in this manual.

To download this e-book, or any of our current e-books, please visit the ebook page where you may choose the e-book(s) you wish to download. *Download an e-book by clicking on it’s title.*

What you can learn from this booklet

Contains some important questions that any potential investor should ask when selecting a financial adviser to handle their investments. Armed with this knowledge you can fell more confident allowing someone else to choose the correct investments for you.

To download this e-book, or any of our current e-books, please visit the ebook page where you may choose the e-book(s) you wish to download. *Download an e-book by clicking on it’s title.*

What you can learn from this booklet

This booklet is about making choices that can move you along the path toward the economic future you want for yourself. It’s also about increasing the chances that you attain the future you choose to seek. Making the best choices and increasing your chances aren’t easy. So you need to know what pathways lead from where you are to where you want to be. You need to know about ways to get on the path you pick, how to stay on it, and how to move ahead on it. This booklet offers you that kind of information.

To download this e-book, or any of our current e-books, please visit the ebook page where you may choose the e-book(s) you wish to download. *Download an e-book by clicking on it’s title.*

As we have covered before, we are about to enter a solid recovery. Many people have lost lots of money in the recession in all sorts of investments and are wondering what they should do from here. If you have not already unloaded those bottomed out stocks, hold on to them. If your retirement money is in any stock related format, do not even touch it. Stay put and ride the tide back up. Essentially, yes, this is a form of timing the market, but sometimes you just have to. You rode the Dow down from 12000 points to 6500 points. Why not ride it back up with the same stocks. Most of the stocks you hold, if the company has not gone bankrupt, will go back to their original status.

If you have invested in financial organizations that have not already filed for bankruptcy, you are in good shape to ride the recovery tide back up to prosperity. If you have not already diversified your 401k to minimize losses, do not bother now, Ride it back up where it was and then make plans from there. With the market at such a low and stocks that were once in the double digit dollar figures per share currently trading for pennies, this is the time when everyone and their mother will begin to buy.

Sure, read that Wall Street Journal issue that was on your front porch this morning. Check your IRAs, your 401k plan, and the stocks you are currently holding. The only thing you need to remember is that what you are reading is the lowest your investment will go. As mentioned in previous articles, “a rising tide lifts all boats,” and your ‘boat’ will surely rise with the oncoming tide. If you miss a major value incline now, it could be very devastating. Why lose so much value now and sell so low when you can just regain the value.

Of course a recession is difficult. This only happens every twenty years, just like any cycle you will find in any industry or any part of life. As difficult as it may be to hang on, this is the worst time to sell because we’re at the bottom. Some analysts, who this author agrees with, actually call this an artificial bottom. The bottom should not have been lower than a 7000 point Dow Jones average.

Flaring emotions and investors raging with adrenaline and anger actually brought the economy to an artificially low bottom. Selling in an artificial bottom is more unwise than words can express. Resist the urge to sell. In fact, if anything, try to buy more. It will raise the overall economy, doing good for all industries you have your fingers in.

The two month rally we saw in the stock market since late March has now officially hit a ‘plateau’. As that happens, investors naturally and understandably move to more defensive stocks, avoiding ‘gutsy’ moves. Stocks ended considerably low yesterday, or at least lower than expected, at closing, 4:00pm eastern time. As stated in a previous article, it is normal and healthy for an incline to fluctuate, mostly as investors break out of the defensive shells they confine themselves in and get a feel for the new increases. The main problem with this is that investors hold they key to where the stock market goes from here and the next few days are crucial.

If investors are unnecessarily cautious, that rally can be short lived, keeping the economy in the hole it is in, which is what is beginning to occur. If investors begin to risk a little again and stock prices rise as demand rises, the economy as a whole takes notice and rises accordingly. If Wall Street can hit enough of a rally, creating more money and productivity, jobs are created. It is a natural process. The next few days are crucial because we are waiting for investors’ next moves. The time to invest in the stock market is tomorrow morning. Prices are still very low, but investors spending new money, especially on more risky moves, hoping to jump on a successful rally, creates a positive self-fulfilling prophecy. Investors all investing wisely, hoping to catch the rising tide will boost the tide much higher, lifting everything. As the quote says, “a rising tide lifts all boats,” supposedly coined by Sen Lemass, former Irish prime minister.

Investors moved to investing in staple items like pharmacutical Pfizer Inc. and food and drink manufacturers like Coca-Cola that still perform in a downturn, your expected safe moves, preparing for the rally to collapse. (Pfizer’s chart looked like a roller coaster yesterday, spiking just before noon, just after noon, and just before closing.) This could also be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If all investors invest safely, the economy turns to safe mode and closes low. We have officially gotten a taste of a good rally, with the Dow bouncing up over 8,000. The only hope is that investors got addicted to the rally and the economy performs.

The president of Stuart Frankel & Company, Jeffrey Frankel, commented, “You have people who missed this mammoth rally and now those people are taking the opportunity on any pullback to buy.” Here’s to hoping he is correct. If that is the case, this plateau will attract the last-minute rally investors and shoot back up. If he has it pegged, we are looking at a short-lived plateau.

Analysts say that the rally we just finished off was overdue, and that the 155 point dropped followed by a 50 point rise akes it difficult to tell if the rally will kick back up or not. Investors pulled technology stocks as the Nasdaq composite index dropped .09%. The Dow rose a minimal 50 points today. Economic and corporate reports show that the economy is stabilizing, but the market is slower than usual reflecting it as cautious investors fluctuate. Many companies whose stocks pummeled late last year are already turning to the markets for cash by selling out stock, indicating a restored confidence in the market.

Most banks are down for the second day in a row, but falling only pennies. General Motors, on the other hand, is to the lowest level since the Great Depression, mostly due to investors that are worried their stocks will lose even more value if more are issued as projected or if the company declares that ‘inevitable’ bankruptcy everyone talks so much about these days. By closing today, GM was trading as low as $1.09. Exxon Mobil rose 2.2% due to the safer investments being made these last two days. Bond prices lowered but leveled off as the Federal Reserve bought about $6 billion in government debt as an effort to artifically lower interest rates and reduce loan costs.

In the sourced article from the AP, it says that the Dow is what average Americans look at to judge the economy. I feel that’s partially true because of the volume it handles. While professionals may look at the S&P 500 for a sign of the times, the media never really puts a lot of emphasis on those indexes. Whenever you turn on the TV, the news is always talking about the Dow, you never even hear about Dow’s other indexes, just the Industrial Average…

Here’s what happened today (on all the indexes):

The Dow lost 89.68, or 1.2 percent, to end at 7,465.95.

The blue chips have fallen 9.8 percent in the last eight sessions.

Broader indexes also fell. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index ended down 9.48, or 1.2 percent, to 778.94. The index finished above its Nov. 20 close of 752.44, which was its worst finish since April 1997.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index suffered the biggest hit Thursday after Hewlett Packard Co. tumbled 7.9 percent after posting worrisome results. The Nasdaq fell 25.15, or 1.7 percent, to 1,442.82.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 6.47, or 1.5 percent, to 416.71.

Source

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Here’s a preview of some of the ads…

You can see more and “teasers” at Adweek.com

Caterpillar is expecting its worst and slowest sales year since the end of World War II.

Manufacturing plants of equipment like Caterpillar should be expecting the cuts. Since new construction is down and commodity prices have dropped, there are far fewer people building new things or mining for metals and other commodities.

Ford said today that even with the loss, it will not seek government bailout money. Instead, it will be borrowing the remaining $10 billion of its secured credit line, not to be used for operating expenses.

It looks as though Ford is looking to the future pessimistically, which could be the key to survival in the long run. Ford, along with other car makers, thought this year would have a slow start and perhaps a recovery in the second half of the year. However, using the credit for something other than operating expenses makes it appear as though Ford isn’t as optimistic as it was when the 2009 outlook was posted.

If Ford can’t do something to turn the company around, it will be down to its minimum amount to operate the company of $10 billion by August…

Here is the text of the speech:

“My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sanh.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. Those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers … our found fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all the other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence — the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

“Let it be told to the future world … that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it).”

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.”

Source

1. “What does your company do?”
This is something that should be researched before the interview process. “We need to show up for a job interview knowing what the employer does, who its competitors are, and which of its accomplishments (or challenges) have made the news lately.”

2. “Are you going to do a background check?”
When you ask this question, you’re saying “Please don’t do a background check…I have a shady past.” and it makes it more likely for your potential employer to run one on you.

3. “When will I be eligible for a raise?”
“Instead of asking about your first raise before you’ve got the job, you can ask (at a second interview) ‘Does your organization do a conventional one-year performance and salary review?’”

4. “Do you have any other jobs available?”

5. “How soon can I transfer to another position?”

6. “Can you tell me about bus lines to your facility?”
Again, this is something else that you should probably find out yourself.

7. “Do you have smoking breaks?”
“Lots of companies don’t permit smoking anywhere on the premises, and some don’t like to hire smokers at all. Why give an employer a reason to turn you down?”

8. “Is [my medical condition] covered under your insurance?”
You could ask to see a benefits pamphlet from the potential employer rather than flat out asking this question. Besides, an interviewer will not likely know the answer to this question either.

9. “Do you do a drug test?”
See #2

10. “If you hire me, can I wait until [more than three weeks from now] to start the job?”
If you ask for tons of time off before you start working — unless you have a very good reason — the employer may think, ‘How serious is this candidate about working?’”

Source

So this could be a much more toned down year as far as advertising during the “big game” goes.

The companies that aren’t pulling their ads may be changing the message they want to send consumers.

Here’s an example from the AP:

Take the case of Hyundai Motors America.

Automotive ads during the Super Bowl tend to focus on vehicle launches, and Hyundai was planning to run two 30-second spots for its Genesis Coupe — one with renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma playing a Bach piece that viewers can re-edit online.

But now, the South Korean carmaker might exchange one of the ads for a spot featuring a new incentive program that forgives auto loans for car buyers who lose their income within a year of the purchase. – Source

Jane Wellman authored a report from the Delta Cost Project to find out why and here’s what the report had to offer:

–The main reason tuition has been rising faster than college costs is that colleges had to make up for reductions in the per-student subsidy state taxpayers sent colleges. In 2006, the last year for which Wellman had data, state taxpayers sent $7,078 per student to the big public research universities. That’s $1,270 less (after accounting for inflation) than they sent in 2002.

–Public universities have been reining in overall spending per student in recent years. Flagship public universities’ spending per student has risen from about $12,400 in 1995 to $13,800 in 2006 after accounting for inflation. But since 2002, spending at public colleges has generally not exceeded inflation.

–Increases in spending were driven mostly by higher administration, maintenance, and student services costs. Public universities spent almost $4,000 per student per year on administration, support, and maintenance in 2006, up more than 13 percent, in real terms over 1995. And they spent another $1,200 a year on services such as counseling, which was up 23 percent. Meanwhile, they spent about $8,700 a year on classroom instruction for each student, up about 9 percent.

–Big private universities, powered by tuition and endowment increases, have increased spending dramatically while public schools have languished. Total educational spending per student at private research universities has jumped by almost 10 percent since 2002 to more than $33,000. During that same period, public university total spending was comparatively flat and totaled less than $14,000 a year.

Perhaps at other colleges this is the norm, but I just can’t find out where my college spends $4,000 a year on me for administration, support and maintenance, unless they are talking about keeping the lights on at the giant football stadium all night, when there is no football game going on…I get emailed from my student advisers and the administration at my college processes my financial aid every year…And some of my teachers aren’t worth the paper that their pay stub is printed on. To cut costs perhaps a university should start re-evaluating their tenured professors according to the student evaluations that are published every semester.

Source

From the AP:

SABMiller said lager volumes fell 1 percent in the three-month period that ended Dec. 31, compared with the same period a year earlier, because of the economy.

“Consumer demand has been affected by the current global economic slowdown, and has continued to weaken in many of the group’s markets,” the company said in releasing its quarterly trading update, which does not provide financials.

So I suppose this means that beer is not recession proof, however sales of beer haven’t declined as fast as sales of other consumer goods…and I don’t see Budweiser asking Congress for a bailout either.
Source

From CNBC.com:

“I was turning down Priuses in March and Japan was sending them to other countries. I was taking Cadillac Escalades in trade on Priuses by July and now, today I can’t give away a Prius,” Jackson said.

“Sales are down 50 percent all because the price of gasoline is on a roller coaster. I mean when are we going to have energy policy and a gas tax that puts a floor under the price of gasoline so that we can cease whipsawing the American consumer back and forth on this issue of fuel efficiency which for industries for lead times of two, three, four years, it’s an impossible situation.”

There is still a part of me that wants a Prius only because I know one day that gas prices will rise again, but also because I had a chance to actually see the inside of one and I really liked the features it had. A lot of the reason people aren’t buying cars right now is because 1) the cars they have are fine and 2) financing is hard to come by.

Source

Is it the actual BlackBerry that is so amazing or is it any all-in-one device, like Android and Windows Mobile phones?

I have played around with BlackBerries in the past and don’t see what makes people so addicted to them. I can’t think of one feature that it had that I can’t get on any other PDA. I mean, I don’t have to pay the extra service fee for having a Palm, and my email is not only sent to my phone but it buzzes when I get a new message. Not to mention the hundereds of applications I can put on it to organize my day a little easier.

If you’re a BlackBerry user, let me know. I’m actually curious.

From the AP:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich was impeached Friday by Illinois lawmakers furious that he turned state government into a “freak show,” setting the stage for an unprecedented trial in the state Senate that could get him thrown out of office. The 114-1 vote in the Illinois House came exactly a month after Blagojevich’s arrest on charges that included trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat. The debate took less than 90 minutes, and not a single legislator rose in defense of the governor, who was jogging in the snow in Chicago. -AP

Perhaps this guy has nothing else to lose, but I think that this is just ridiculous. What is he thinking, that he’ll get re-elected after a debacle like this?

Source

Well, Asus looked like the early winner with the touch screen netbook, but then Palm came out punching. Palm had the Pre and took center stage. The device was unlike anything anyone was expecting from them. After all, this is a cell phone company many had already written off as dated and ready to be “put out to pasture.” Palm showed that it wasn’t ready to go down without a fight. The Pre will likely be compared to the iPhone, but the Pre has all the newest technology in it (after all the 3G iphone is nothing but the regular iPhone that was made in 2007 with a faster internet connection).

I’m just sad that CES is over, it is my favorite trade show of the year and I would absolutely love to work a trade show like that.

Again, I’m sitting in a very condensed 2-week intersession class about advertising and promotion. The very first day of class, my professor talked about FedEx cutting the ad from the Superbowl. She asked the class what we thought about FedEx since it decided to back out. The answer was simply, “it is weak.”

We also talked about how companies cut their marketing budgets during an economic downturn. Usually advertising is one of the first things to go, but if when they stop advertising, consumers see them as weak…perhaps cuts should come from somewhere else first.

There were some software upgrades announced, like iMovie upgrade and iLife 2009. The iMovie upgrade will supposedly fix the problems customers were having with the previous edition. The iLife 2009 software will feature a picture application that has face recognition technology as well as geomapping.

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However, now there are too many homes on the market, and new home and commercial building has come to a crawl. Many undocumented workers are in construction so they are currently losing out.

I can’t find any recent numbers (since after the markets crashed in August) that distinguish between illegal and legal immigrants, but the numbers from April-June show that the unemployment rate for Latinos (both legal and non) was higher than it was for non-Latinos:

…the Hispanic jobless rate — immigrant and native-born alike — climbed to 6.5% in the first quarter of ’08 (non-Hispanics are at 4.7%). Compare that to late 2006, when Hispanic unemployment rates got closer than ever before to non-Hispanic rates, at 4.9% to 4.4%. Latinos have lost a lot of ground, particularly the immigrants among them. Their immigrant unemployment rate is 7.5% now; for those who have arrived since 2000, it’s 9.3%.The report doesn’t distinguish between illegal and legal immigrants, but it’s known that illegal workers are overrepresented in construction, the industry that has taken the the biggest lumps. Over 220,000 Hispanic immigrants lost construction jobs in the last year. -TIME; Jun 4, 2008

So, what does this mean for immigration? Well, it isn’t exactly headline news anymore and reports are showing that apprehension of illegals is decreasing; this may mean that there just aren’t as many to catch?

The Dow rose 258.30, or 2.94 percent, to 9,034.69, finishing the week up 6.1 percent. The blue chips last closed above 9,000 on Nov. 5, when they stood at 9,139.27.

The Dow, the oldest of the big market indexes, fell 33.8 percent in 2008, its worst performance since 1931, during the Great Depression.

Like the Dow, broader stock indicators also advanced for the third straight session. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 28.55 percent, or 3.16 percent, to 931.80, its highest close since Nov. 5. The Nasdaq composite index rose 55.18, or 3.50 percent, to 1,632.21.

For the week, the S&P 500 finished up 6.8 percent, while the Nasdaq rose 6.7 percent.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 6.39, or 1.28 percent, to 505.84. -AP

Perhaps the market is finding a bottom. I won’t judge anything because there were plenty of early predictions about 2008 that were horribly wrong. I won’t speculate, just enjoy a rally.

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As of tonight, no deal has been reached between the two companies.

So, at 12:01 tonight (or in the morning?) 15 million Time Warner customers will no longer receive these channels.

Time Warner Chief Executive Glenn Britt on Wednesday called Viacom’s demand for a 12 percent increase in fees — an extra $39 million on top of the estimated $300 million it pays Viacom annually — extortion and outrageous given the recession. Viacom countered that the requested increase amounted to an extra $2.76 annually per subscriber.-AP

Today, all over the world, 30 GB Zunes, for no apparent reason went into “brick mode.” Meaning, they went to the load screen, froze, and have been there ever since. What does Microsoft have to say to its customers who are going without music this New Year’s Eve?

From Zune.net:

Early this morning we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices (a large number of which are still actively being used). The technical team jumped on the problem immediately and isolated the issue: a bug in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year. The issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009. We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset tomorrow (noon, GMT). By tomorrow you should allow the battery to fully run out of power before the unit can restart successfully then simply ensure that your device is recharged, then turn it back on. If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you may need to sync your device with your PC to refresh the rights to the subscription content you have downloaded to your device.

Sure it works, my cable company has changed it name about 3 times in five years. It holds about 80% of the market and everyone knows that its service is sub par. Your cable or internet can go off at random for days. Add to the fact that when this company decides to do maintenance work it basically shuts down the whole town of an internet connection for a few days. It has no multinetwork line backup, nothing, they are in fact a simple reseller of Quest Communications services.

You’d think with all this someone would come and knock the king off his hill. Well even though everyone in town knows that there service isn’t the best, newcomers to the town simply do not know and are force feed advertisement after advertisement from this company. It also helps that they own one of the local broadcasting channels and stream free real estate listings to your tv, with the only commercial between house listings are ads for there services. When enough people get mad, it seems that the company just changes it name, and then relaunches itself and goes on an even bigger marketing campaign in the local market to newcomers. However, I have as of yet to see a change.

So why do companies just change the name and never upgrade there level of service or product. The are many reasons some simple some complex. For starters it is easy to do a corporate name change, this might not do anything but change your name on paper, but for a simple filing fee to your local secretary of state you can now call yourself something new. It’s not quite like getting a new slate, more like pulling the cover over your potential new customers eyes. Some companies simply cannot upgrade there product/service b/c they are in fact dependent on someone or something else. If you are a reseller service and your core product has issues you can either choose to drop it or just keep relabeling it in order to keep up with the customer drop off rate by bringing in new customers.

In some cases companies rename something not because the product is bad but because they hope to increase consumer awareness by adding all sorts of marketing flare to drill into the minds of there hopeless victims(I mean, customers.) Take Wendy’s for example, a few months back Wendy’s started renaming itself in wake of slowing sales growth and a new consumer shift towards healthier eating habits. It tried to promote itself as a new better fast food place a valid start by any means, but what really stands out is it’s slogan for this marketing twist, “It’s not fast food, it’s Wendy’s”.

That’s kind of like saying a car is what people from New York drive and a vehicle is what someone from the south drives. A car/vehicle is the same thing, it’s a ford, a Honda, a shiny compact/large piece of equipment that we use to get from point A to B. There is no difference here than Wendy’s saying that they are not fast food. By fast food standards, “fast food” is defined as a drive thru restaurant one can order and receive food from in under 3 minutes. Nationally McDonald’s holds the fastest time for this with an average wait time of under 1 minute, but how can Wendy’s set itself apart.

Should we now assume that because they are no longer fast food they will take longer. No Wendy’s knows there customers don’t want to wait longer for there food to get to them. What about the salads and other “healthy” options on there menu. Wendy’s has been selling salads for years, other fast food chains had added more healthy options than Wendy’s as of late. So what has Wendy’s basically done. They basically called there car an automobile, a republican a GOP member, it’s all the same.

I like Wendy’s, some of there food is quite tasty, but if you are going to rename yourself, do it with a little more passion. Don’t put yourself in a class of other companies that simply pull the cover over the eyes of their customers. Consumers are smarter than that. The short sales spike to your bottom line, is not worth putting your corporate reputation at risk by simply putting a big shiny bow on the same old thing.

The source I’m using for this entry says that the cheapest gas in the country is in Utah at $1.45, but obviously they aren’t polling areas around Memphis, TN, where gas is less than $1.45 a gallon.  Regular unleaded was under $1.45 last week right before Christmas there.

Gas has fallen from record highs to 5 year lows in a matter of months.

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