Nice video by WSJ.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Showing posts with label recession. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recession. Show all posts
Swine Flu, take 2
Interesting times.
Everyone wants to re-live the 1970's so bad that they can not be happy just having a global economic collapse, a gas shortage and problems with Iran. Now we have to relive some Swine Flu memories as well. I think I have a scar on my arm from the last bout we had with this virus. So to bring back some "good memories" for you all, here is a great commercial telling you to get your shots! I can't wait to see what the new ones look like!
Everyone wants to re-live the 1970's so bad that they can not be happy just having a global economic collapse, a gas shortage and problems with Iran. Now we have to relive some Swine Flu memories as well. I think I have a scar on my arm from the last bout we had with this virus. So to bring back some "good memories" for you all, here is a great commercial telling you to get your shots! I can't wait to see what the new ones look like!
Cooking depression style
Clara was around for the first depression.Take a few tips from her to survive this one in style.
SNL just keeps getting more relevant every week.
Now if only I could find whole episodes online I'd watch the show again instead of snippets.
Laid off
Layoffs suck. But what is little appreciated is that they are great catalysts for change. I have now been laid off two times. The first was back in 2000 during the first recession to hit our industry. The second was last month. The first led to better things, I'm sure the second will as well.
I'm exploring all kinds of possibilities from starting something new to joining one of many companies that are better and more likely to succeed than MySpace, which was the last place that I hung my hat.
For those of you who don't know - mainly because I was never allowed to blog about anything work related until now - I co-founded FIMLabs, an R&D arm of FIM. Our quiet little group created products like SpringWidgets.com, the new design for the MySpace Mobile iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Wap and a lot of other things for Fox Interactive Media and MySpace including several top secret initiatives, MySpace and MySpace product designs and redesigns, new product prototypes and new ideas with completely fleshed out business models.
My team and I started the company from the inside and Influenced several tens of millions of dollars in revenue by doing so. We were integral to the creation of several very successful products, were the most prolific patent producers at FIM, had close to a 100% retention rate and we were probably the most frugal company that Rupert Murdoch owned, though I doubt that he knew anything about us.
I did get the chance to hang out with a childhood friend of Rupert's while traveling on FIM business and from his description Rupert sounded like someone that I'd have enjoyed meeting.
I personally met with and gave advice to everyone from the CEOs of both FIM and MySpace on down and in some cases, had they listened, my suggestions could potentially have allowed MySpace to remain the number one social network instead of on a fast track to third fiddle. But that is fodder for a book and not a blog post. (publishers, feel free to contact me at your convenience)
The best part of the last few years has been working with my team: The bright shiny people in this picture. (except for Bart, Lisa, Homer and Marge, who are in my garage waiting for an eBay sale) The picture is missing a couple people who joined after we took this, but this is the only group picture that I have)
We shared blood, sweat and tears as we climbed Mount MySpace trying to make a positive influence and meeting new challenges at nearly every step. Working at FIM has been a hard road, but my teammates made it a worthwhile journey.
I've been spending most of the last month trying to get members of my team work to do or jobs to take. As for my situation - I'm pretty well padded and have some time to consider options. Perhaps I'll use the next few months to try and start cleaning up my life again ;-) Maybe visit a soup kitchen and work the ladle? Maybe I should become human again.
Alas... I have time to consider the options.
For your amusement, I've added myself to the chart in this picture (original found here). The picture itself is a pretty scary image and I'm wondering when the curve back to normal happens. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I do think it could be a while. Potentially years.
Here is to hoping that Obama has the vision and the right people to get things fixed. In the meantime, it might get ugly. I'd recommend that you pretend like you are about to get laid off as well and save accordingly.
Good luck!
If you are interested on knowing more about me, check out my linked in page: Don on LinkedIn
If you owe me money, here is your chance to pay me back with perfect timing ;-)
I'm exploring all kinds of possibilities from starting something new to joining one of many companies that are better and more likely to succeed than MySpace, which was the last place that I hung my hat.For those of you who don't know - mainly because I was never allowed to blog about anything work related until now - I co-founded FIMLabs, an R&D arm of FIM. Our quiet little group created products like SpringWidgets.com, the new design for the MySpace Mobile iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Wap and a lot of other things for Fox Interactive Media and MySpace including several top secret initiatives, MySpace and MySpace product designs and redesigns, new product prototypes and new ideas with completely fleshed out business models.
My team and I started the company from the inside and Influenced several tens of millions of dollars in revenue by doing so. We were integral to the creation of several very successful products, were the most prolific patent producers at FIM, had close to a 100% retention rate and we were probably the most frugal company that Rupert Murdoch owned, though I doubt that he knew anything about us.
I did get the chance to hang out with a childhood friend of Rupert's while traveling on FIM business and from his description Rupert sounded like someone that I'd have enjoyed meeting.
I personally met with and gave advice to everyone from the CEOs of both FIM and MySpace on down and in some cases, had they listened, my suggestions could potentially have allowed MySpace to remain the number one social network instead of on a fast track to third fiddle. But that is fodder for a book and not a blog post. (publishers, feel free to contact me at your convenience)
The best part of the last few years has been working with my team: The bright shiny people in this picture. (except for Bart, Lisa, Homer and Marge, who are in my garage waiting for an eBay sale) The picture is missing a couple people who joined after we took this, but this is the only group picture that I have) We shared blood, sweat and tears as we climbed Mount MySpace trying to make a positive influence and meeting new challenges at nearly every step. Working at FIM has been a hard road, but my teammates made it a worthwhile journey.
I've been spending most of the last month trying to get members of my team work to do or jobs to take. As for my situation - I'm pretty well padded and have some time to consider options. Perhaps I'll use the next few months to try and start cleaning up my life again ;-) Maybe visit a soup kitchen and work the ladle? Maybe I should become human again.
Alas... I have time to consider the options.
For your amusement, I've added myself to the chart in this picture (original found here). The picture itself is a pretty scary image and I'm wondering when the curve back to normal happens. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I do think it could be a while. Potentially years.Here is to hoping that Obama has the vision and the right people to get things fixed. In the meantime, it might get ugly. I'd recommend that you pretend like you are about to get laid off as well and save accordingly.
Good luck!
If you are interested on knowing more about me, check out my linked in page: Don on LinkedIn
If you owe me money, here is your chance to pay me back with perfect timing ;-)
Was the crash manufactured?
Disclaimer, this post was sitting as a draft since November if 2008 and I just now decide to publish it (March 2009)
You are going to think I'm crazy, but something doesn't feel right about this crash. Granted, I've only lived through one crash before where my focus was on the market, but this crash feels like it has been manufactured.
The whole time, I've been running under the same rules that I did the last three years. Find a good company, predict what their business will do and use that to invest in the company or not. My friends will tell you that I have been right most of the time until this year. This year has really sucked. Every call I make on a company's performance is right, but the behavior of the stock goes the opposite direction.
I just figured that it was me until I put two and two together last night when Jim Cramer mentioned that you could tell which way the market is going by watching XOM. Previously, he had mentioned that AAPL, which is a favorite stock of mine was a "tell".
Which is what made things click for me.
I think that AAPL was a target at the start of this year by people trying to take down the stock market and bring upon a crash. I think that XOM and other Dow Oil stocks were jacked up so that they could be brought down in the same way that AAPL was - hard. By proxy, if AAPL drops 50%, the Nasdaq drops with it since it is so large a portion of that exchange. XOM and other Oils drive the Dow and much of our economy.
Think about it, have we really had a recession this whole year? Has it felt like things have been slow until the last two months? The American people have been largely oblivious until this stock market crash in October that we were in any trouble at all.
I mean sure, we are in a recession now, but without the news on CNBC and the constant battering of stocks causing people to start contracting, would we be here now? Would it be this bad?
I don't know.
You are going to think I'm crazy, but something doesn't feel right about this crash. Granted, I've only lived through one crash before where my focus was on the market, but this crash feels like it has been manufactured.
The whole time, I've been running under the same rules that I did the last three years. Find a good company, predict what their business will do and use that to invest in the company or not. My friends will tell you that I have been right most of the time until this year. This year has really sucked. Every call I make on a company's performance is right, but the behavior of the stock goes the opposite direction.
I just figured that it was me until I put two and two together last night when Jim Cramer mentioned that you could tell which way the market is going by watching XOM. Previously, he had mentioned that AAPL, which is a favorite stock of mine was a "tell".
Which is what made things click for me.
I think that AAPL was a target at the start of this year by people trying to take down the stock market and bring upon a crash. I think that XOM and other Dow Oil stocks were jacked up so that they could be brought down in the same way that AAPL was - hard. By proxy, if AAPL drops 50%, the Nasdaq drops with it since it is so large a portion of that exchange. XOM and other Oils drive the Dow and much of our economy.
Think about it, have we really had a recession this whole year? Has it felt like things have been slow until the last two months? The American people have been largely oblivious until this stock market crash in October that we were in any trouble at all.
I mean sure, we are in a recession now, but without the news on CNBC and the constant battering of stocks causing people to start contracting, would we be here now? Would it be this bad?
I don't know.
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