Will's blog

QotD: Employee Loyalty

Do you believe that employee loyalty still exists in today's work environment? How loyal are you as an employee to your company or boss?
Submitted by Jessmiloo.

I'm loyal and I know other loyal employees that put the company's employees and owners (shareholders) before themselves. Unfortunately, you don't see this often enough with executives.

I'll call Minnesota

It looks like my favorite political author, Al Franken, has won the Senate race in Minnesota. He's up by 50 votes, but the state supreme court has ruled that the rest of the votes cannot be counted unless both parties agree to count them.
I did my part in Franken's campaign by not reading his last book, which of course, would have meant that he would have died.
I had an awesome year, politically. Almost everyone I wanted to win won. I couldn't ask for more.
Oh, Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Ron Kirk New U.S. Trade Representative

A guy I really like, former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk became Obama's new U.S. trade representative today. I'm really excited and glad that he got such an important post. I think he will do the job really well. I also like that this says you don't have to go to an ivy league school to be appointed to an important position in the U.S. government.

Shared paths to history brought Barack Obama, Ron Kirk together

PRC Stories

Have you noticed when you read a story about China, there's always someone from the Chinese government commenting? They usually do it under an American name, such as Tom Wittman. Please, I know your name is not really Tom Wittman when you spell "fantastic"with a "ph." It's pretty pathetic to pay government employees to canvas websites and post idiotic comments along with other idiotic people. God, I hope they don't think the people commenting on news stories are average Americans.

Good Morning, Car!

I've always wanted a car that would smile at me each morning.

09 Acura TL

Iraqi Throws Shoes at Bush

Iraqi Throws Shoe at Bush

Who among us hasn't dreamed of hurling a shoe at Bush?

QotD: "Mom, You're EMBARRASSING Me!"

What did your parents do when you were a child that mortified you?

Had sex with each other.

Seriously, the worst thing that happened was a girl I went out with saw my mother naked one night.

Ratatouille

Don't have time to blog today. But just want anyone out there to know that Ratatouille is $20 on Blue-Ray at Amazon.com. BTW, I spelled that right the first time. No spell check, swear to God. But then, I guess even a broken clock is right twice a day.

General Motors' Bail-Out

  In the US the government is discussing the possibility of giving GM, Ford, and Chrysler money to pay off their debts to prevent bankruptcy. The CEO of GM flew into DC in a Gulfstream IV, private jet. The jet is worth around $80 million, and is quite frankly, a little bit of overkill for this short a trip. As a pilot, I see a lot of corporate jets and it kind of pisses me off to see the sheer number of them, especially the upscale inter-continental jets such as the Gulfstreams and Falcons. I'm sure no more than 5% of the trips they make are longer than 2,000 miles. A top of the line King Air turbo-prop can be had for around $6 million. It would burn much less fuel on a short trip, as well. It's very excessive to fly something like a Gulfstream. A Gulfstream IV burns about 450 gallons of jet A fuel per hour. The largest King Air burns less than 100 gallons per hour in cruise. At $5 a gallon, that's a $1,750 / hour difference in fuel burn.
So let's recap:
Gulfstream IV - $80M plus $2,250 an hour in fuel

King Air 350 - $6M plus $500 an hour for fuel
Now, the CEO of GM is sporting around in this thing while his company is billions in debt. Can he really justify that expense? Then again, just about every CEO has an expensive jet these days. I see them all the time at airports. I don't know if this phenomenon will last. I just know, that my company thinks saving a few million on one thing or another is a very big deal. Yet, if you really want the truth, I could easily tell my CEO I could cut find $100M for my company's budget in about 5 minutes. However, I don't think he'd like the answer.

Here are photos of the Gulfstream IV, then the King Air 350, still a very large airplane.

Economy

The economy is getting really hard. A lot of companies are announcing lay offs and stocks are plummeting. I wonder if I should dump what I have left in the market. I just have a bunch of Berkshire-Hathaway B shares. I'm pretty confident the market will continue to fall. I hope things don't get much worse, but I think more than likely things will get really bad. I don't believe the U.S. government is acting decisively enough to curtail the problems. Things can get out of hand really quickly. I hope my job stays secure. Though cost accounting is the best position when the economy is down. The people who find the cuts are the last to get cut.
I bet things will get really bad in Japan, even if the U.S. markets start to recover next year. They just rely too much on luxury goods these days. Anyway, I feel bad for my inlaws there. They should be alright, though. My father-in-law is essentially retired and my brother-in-law is a school teacher.
Anyway, they say millionaires are made during tough economic times. Invest wisely and you can end up better off for the bad times.