Rules of Congress

Some rules about Washington that Wall Street needs to know:

• Never give Congress a deadline
  Unless there's enemy tanks on the Washington Mall, don't expect Congress to rush into anything. They do things there way.
• Never ever give Congress one option on a bill.
  Every Senator / Representative will want to add something to it. Giving them the do or die option will always results in... die...
• Never rely on Congress to bail you out.
  That's not the role of Congress, it was until the 16th Amendment (Enactment on February 3, 1913) to the United States Constitution that they had any money control.

However, a 777 one day drop does call for some action. So expect so breaking news overnight to calm the markets.

Anyone else ready for Post-Season baseball??

Cobweb Theory

Perhaps Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson need to review the famous Cobweb Theory of Economics.

End of iKitchen.com?

Looks like its pretty wise to avoid iKitchen.com! The above is from a email that I received this morning. I discovered that other people are having problems with iKitchen.

I wouldn't order from them again, I am waiting for a shipment of 4 Aqua Globes that were on sale in July. I ordered it on July 7th, and half of the order arrived on August 6th! I am still waiting for the other 2 Aqua Globes.

If you are considering purchasing from them, I would highly recommend avoiding them. Your better off buying from other companies. Also make sure to watch your credit card, they say that you won't be charge until it ships, but that isn't always the case.

If you are charged and they say that they are back ordered, you should contact your credit card company and request a refund or charge back.

Tough Day on Wall Street

It's going to be a tough morning on Wall Street. There's some tough news in the financial sector that may have some investors thinking bear instead of bull this morning. Early indicators have the market going down 300 points.

The fall of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch are signs that the fall out of the sub-prime market isn't over yet. There's speculation that there's some more casualties on the horizon.

The interview this weekend from former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan about how the economy hasn't bottom out of economic downturn won't fair well with the market. Some say that we are in this situation because of the Mess that Greenspan Made.

I'll post an updated graphic on how the market did later today.

Today the market closed was the sixth worst close in US history. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

FedEx Experience

This morning I spent 30 minutes at FedEx waiting to pickup a package. Here's the whole story:

Yesterday, I got a FedEx Door tag that they attempted to deliver a package but needed a signature. So this morning, I decided to goto the FedEx center on my way to work.

I arrived at FedEx on 151 3rd Ave in Needham, MA at 8 am when they are scheduled to be opened. However the doors weren't open and I waited for about 3 minutes with someone else. Someone who worked at FedEx arrived and called inside to get the door open.

Finally the door opened and the lady let us inside. The other customer went over to the package counter to fill out some form for a package that she was going to send. I walked over to the other counter to give the lady my FedEx door tag. The lady that opened the door was opening the curtins and didn't pay any attention to the people that open the door.

When she finally took my order she said that she would have to go in the back to get the package. I said, 'Ok' and stepped a side. The lady then took the other customer order and then disappeared in the back to get my package. She came back and said that someone was looking for my package and they should have it in about 10 minutes. So I waited and waited.

After waiting for 20 minutes, the lady went into the back and came back and told that they were going to need another 10 minutes to locate my package. I decided at that point that it wasn't worth my time waiting.

I don't know why FedEx would think that customers were willing to wait 30 minutes for their packages. They are not. Some might if there's a long line, but waiting because FedEx is unable to find it in their own building?? I guess FedEx is not efficient as they use to be.

America's Famous Street Addresses: The Parks

Here are the street addresses of some amusement parks:

Pareto Principle

If your a familiar with the Pareto Principle or commonly known as the 80/20 rule, anything a few (20 percent) are vital and many (80 percent) are trivial, you may have heard of Joseph M. Juran. He was the one who educated business about implementing the Pareto Principle. You'll be sad to learn that Joseph M. Juran died on February 28th at 102.

Some Examples of Pareto Principle:

• 20% of your daily activity accounts for 80% of your productivity.
• 20% of your employees account for 80% of your revenue
• 80% of the economy is controled by 20% of the population

Your can find information here:

• Wikipedia
• LA Times

Troubles of your Job

I found the following text while cleaning my office earlier this week, not sure where the orginal source is from:

Be thankful for the troubles of your job.

They provide you with about half of your income.

If it were not for the things that go wrong, the difficult people you have to deal with, the problems and unpleasantness of your working day, someone could be found to handle your job for half of what you are being paid.

It takes intelligence, resourcefulness, patience, tact, and courage to meet the troubles of any job.

This is why you hold your present job.

It may be the reason why you aren't holding down an even bigger one.

If all of us would start to look for more troubles and learn to handle them cheerfully, and with good judgment, as opportunities rather than irritations, we would find ourselves getting ahead at a surprising rate.

For it is a fact that there are plenty of jobs waiting for men and women who aren't afraid of the troubles connected with them.

Companies swing jobs axe in 2001

More than 400,000 job cuts have been announced by late August, 2001 as companies around the world wrestle with slowing growth and plunging demand.

Here's a list of companies in the Technology and Telecom sector that announced layoffs in 2001. Note this list was created before September 11, 2001

Recession Letter

Is the United States getting ready for a recession? It all depends on who you talk to. Most experts agree that we are in a slow period, but time will only tell if we are in mist of a recession.

A letter sent to employees at a Silicon Valley company in October 2001:

Due to the current economic conditions we have seen our business decline from $132 million annually to a current run rate of approximately $40 million annually. The $40 million run rate is the consistent amount that we have been achieving over the last six months. The management team has spent a significant amount of time analyzing and evaluating our expense structure and employee base. We have over the last few months made a number of changes to reduce expenses to regain profitability to the organization. While this has not been easy, we have made a lot of progress.

We believe that we now have enough information to further right size the organization to the current market demand which appears to have stabilized. In right sizing the organization, we have had to further reduce our staff by five employees. In order to have the current expenses not exceed current profit, as well as to retain employees, the management team has to implement a companywide 10% salary reduction. While this is not easy, this is necessary to make sure that we have a healthy company that will be here through these tough times. At the same time, we will continue to look for other ways to control and reduce expenses.

It is fully our intention to reverse this reduction once we return to a reasonable profitability level which is maintained for three consecutive months. The management team will define this level of profitability during the next quarter. This reduction will be effective November 1st and will be reflected in your November 15th payroll check.

If you have any questions about this, please see your manager or stop by my office. I believe that we have a great staff and I also believe that we have all the tools we need to grow this company. Thank you for your understanding.