On Europe...

Terrific piece on Eurozone status & future. Getting into the EU was like snagging a liar loan mortgage in booming Scottsdale, Miami or Vegas. As to Maastricht? Yeh, right...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904106704576580522348961298.html

I Like Kara!

Cool Kara Swisher of WSJ/All Things Digital on CNN this AM smartly savaging the TechCrunch foolery. Everything wrong with Silicon Valley right now can be seen effervescing in that fishbowl. The worst affliction of youth may be failing to know what you don't know. Can adults wrest control fom the Naifs, please...

Kara Swisher already hates whatever Michael Arrington does next | Real Dan Lyons Web Site

Fad Worm Turning?

So Google Plus bores their CEO. Groupon quits China. IPOs are delayed. Kids are so over FB. Businesses have other priorities. I'm just cranky about social media. The bubblemeisters credit it with everything from Arab Spring to Keith Richards' longevity. Please. The worm turns...

On September 11th, 2001

The facts of my life on September 11, 2001 had me a few degrees closer to the event than most watching it around the world.  I was flying on 9/11.  I was flying at 7:55am.  I was flying on American.  I was flying on American from Boston, to New York.  I was in the American terminal with the hijackers, I suppose.  But because the gates were all so busy, hot and crowded, I walked to the Continental terminal and took the puddle jumper to White Plains.  We were the last plane to land in the NYC region before all aircraft were ordered out of the sky.  Soon I was driving to a meeting across the broad, bright Tappen Zee bridge.  Downriver to the south I could see the churning plumes of smoke rising from the Trade Center towers.  I saved my boarding pass from that morning, laminated it and carry it always in my wallet.

Yahoo: Break it up, sadly, and sell it...

As an early Yahoo investor I have one of the first 100 accounts. Did very well, sold in '02 as they went wrong. Yahoo board makes HP's look good. 1) Backed paid search (vs algorithmic) way too long. 2) Hired Semel, then Bartz. 3) Passed up a $33 per share $45m MSFT deal. 4) Backed Bartz way too long (showing her stuff in an angry, profane exit.) A FIX? Sell off Yahoo Japan & 40% Alibaba stake. Sell what's left to AOL/Huffpo. Comcast will buy that eventually to fold into MSNBC.  I'm just sayin... 

From a Former GOP Operative

Terrific piece: "The media are so terrified of criticism for perceived bias they practice false evenhandedness, the centrist cop-out. If one party declared the earth was flat the headline would read 'Views Differ on Shape of the Planet.'"  Full article at this link: 

http://www.truth-out.org/goodbye-all-reflections-gop-operative-who-left-cult/1314907779

A Challenge

Ten years since 9/11. We haven't rebuilt. I had a ticket that morning from Boston to New York at 7:55 on American but took Continental to White Plains because the gate was so busy. I carry the laminated boarding pass in my wallet. I'd like to see Obama issue a challenge in his speech, one that will require more jobs: By this time next year, the re-building at the 9/11 site will be completed. That it has taken over a decade is, well, you fill in the word...

Andy Grove on American Jobs. Terrific.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_28/b4186048358596.htm

HP PCs: 30 Days? 90 Days? A year? Never?

So where are the buyers scrambling to grab HP's PC business?  Infact, what do they actually get if they buy it? The products are near-commodities with little IP. So its brand value. Use the name? HP design is plastic-y, smudgy, ugly - the anti Apple. Lenovo got & kept the IBM look & feel & the Thinkpad sub-brand. Will there be HP PCs by a company other than HP? A costly re-branding? Use Compaq? Why not start a line from scratch with parts? What is a buyer buying?

Hurricane as Motivator...

Is it the word "hurricane" that matters?  Government left & right (and even the media) did pretty well against Hurricane Irene. Little sniping, lots of can-do focus. Yeh, most folks were overprepared but that's an OK mistake considering some really got hit hard.

Since we now know how to kick into gear and do well against natural disasters I suggest we immediately create the following hurricanes: Hurricane Jobs, Hurricane Demand Creation, Hurricane Startup Bill, Hurricane Jobs, Hurricane Infrastructure, Hurricane Education, Hurricane Arab Spring, Hurricane Debt, Hurricane Housing, etc.

For a Presidential Speech on Jobs...

With the exception of moving ahead on coverage of the uninsured & those with pre-existing conditions, perhaps Obama's jobs plan can include a review hold on Healthcare reform, as well as Dodd-Frank, Sarbox, CAFE standards, oil drilling restrictions & EPA regs since '08? Should all pending trade deals be fast-pathed? Should corp tax rate be reduced by Presidential order from 35% to 25% for any funds repatriated? How about for every new school we've built in Iraq and Afganistan since 9/11 we build one in the US.  I mean I'm just saying...

Who Knew?

Cool!  From Steely Dan to the Pentagon: http://youtu.be/bUaYfnQb6dI