Changes are coming

Today is my 7 year anniversary at work. In that time, the company has gone from being an up and coming independent telecom provider to being part of one of the largest telecoms in the world. Our annual revenue ($700M) is hardly a rounding figure to BT (British Telecom) revenue of $65 Billion.

After graduating from Pepperdine with my MBA, I was looking for a job where I could use what I spent all that money learning. I had sent out my resume and the day I had an interview scheduled with a small company (its profitable) that looks to go public in a few years, the VP of finance offered me a position in the finance side of the business. The timing of the offer was incredible. The VP was leaving for vacation the next day and if he had waited to make the offer when he got back, most likely I would have already given notice in order to taken the position at the other company. As it is, I will continue to work at BT but in the finance area instead of the accounting area.

However, my new job means my time to blog will likely be curtailed. I will have to see, so the boss may have to step up and contribute more or this blog might go semi dormant again.

I should be moving to my new cubical Thurs or Fri and then for the next month work two jobs, my new job and my old job since there is a hiring freeze in place. It will be interesting, especially since March is our company's year end.

Tanker Deal

Article in the Seattle Times saying the reason Boeing lost the tanker deal is their proposal was inferior to Airbus in all aspects. If Boeing expected to be handed the contract, well they have been given a rude awakening. While I would rather Boeing win then Airbus, I really do want the best contract to win and so far it looks like Airbus' was the best contract.

More trouble for Citi Bank

The bank is having more trouble with its loans and now some investors are saying the bank may not be able to be saved.

Thank you Bill Clinton

For convincing many young people that oral sex isn't sex.

Reaping what we sow.

PALS

Just don't let Homeland Security catch you trying to use this homebrew launcher to deploy your amateur ham radio antenna near an airport, you might get mistaken for somebody else.

Ethanol

There are a lot of reasons to doubt the wisdom of using ethanol as a fuel to replace gasoline. Eric Peters makes another one saying fires from ethanol has to be fought differently then gasoline fires and forcing the fire departments to get the training and equipment will be too expensive.

That is a straw man argument.

Anytime there is a change in the way transportation is powered (from horse drawn wagon to the
steam engine railroad to the diesel powered truck) there are costs for society bear.

There was a cost when passenger airplanes switched from propeller planes (burning aviation gasoline) to jets (burning kerosene) but we as a society made the switch because the reward for making the switch was worth it.

If burning alcohol as a motor fuel is worth it, the cost of equipping and training the fire departments to fight those fires will be worth it too. Saying we can't use alcohol because of the fire risk is a foolish argument that tries to win by fear not facts and gives the impression the author has other motives (maybe he owns an oil well) to fear ethanol.

King Dollar . . . . . .

Larry Kudlow over at NRO says we must make the dollar king again and make it strong. His argument is the dollar has been falling against the EURO and other currencies and this has lead to an increase in inflation in the US. It has also made imported commodities (read oil) more expensive since the countries that sell oil will demand more dollars to get the same purchasing power when the dollars are converted to their local currencies.

There is a problem with making the dollar king quickly.

You have to make people (foreigners) want dollars by giving them better returns on their investments. That means raising interest rates. Currently the US government is trying to head off a recession by lowering interest rates.

Kudlow says we should do what we did back in 1981-1982 to make the dollar strong. I'm not sure I want to see the government raise interest rates to 18% for US Treasury bonds. That will drive us into a deep recession for sure.

A longer but better way in my opinion is we have to decrease our imports and increase our exports. That means we have to cut spending so our government deficit is less (thanks to the tax rebates the deficit for the current fiscal year is expected to be almost $500 billion instead of about $100 billion). We also need to import less oil. That means drilling in Alaska and off the coast of Florida and California. We also need to promote more manufacturing jobs in the US so we do not have to import as much stuff but can export more. We can do all of this but it will be a slower process then just raising interest rates and will take more political capital. However in the long run it will make the US a stronger place.

If McCain (or Clinton or Obama) want to make the dollar king again, lets hear how they will do it in a way that will strengthen the country instead of hurt it.