August 2008

Rigzone has this interesting map of all the platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and the projected path of Tropical Storm Gustav. ... read more

Getting ready for the morning program so only a few minutes for quick thoughts on the business angles of Barack Obama's speech last night: 1. Obama repeatedly referenced corporations and corporate profits, mentioning their low tax burdens and invoking his idea about a windfall profits tax on the oil companies.   We must remember that corporations are not singular entities with a common brain ... read more

In the race to outdo their own past conventions and each other, the Democrats and Republicans have turned what used to be important voting events into 4-day long Super Bowl-like productions, with the cost to go with it.  It's estimated the DNC will cost as much as $120 million dollars.    It's likely the Republican Convention will be equally extravagant.   Parties, free food, more parties, ... read more

The Pete Peterson Foundation is making headlines with the promotion of the new documentary I.O.U.S.A. It's the film that is meant to do for bad fiscal policy and debt what An Inconvenient Truth did for global warming by calling attention to what the organization believes is the greatest crisis facing Americans in the coming decades: America's massive debt load and financial mismanagement. read more

BusinessWeek just released its "World's Happiest Countries" list.     If the list is to be believed, high taxes and high gas prices have little to do with overall happiness. Eight of the 10 countries on the list are European and high-tax nations.    BusinessWeek's "happiest" country this year is Denmark.    This despite the highest income tax rate in the developed world, nearly read more

Tween retailer The Buckle (NYSE: BKE) posted another big quarter.   Net income rose 88.9% on a 36.6% net sales increase.  While those numbers are impressive, more noteworthy is the same store sales jump of 27.8%.    While this is actually a drop from the previous quarters 34.7% same store sales gain, its still an impressive figure given the economy and whats happening to its ... read more

The Wall Street Journal today reports that eBay (EBAY) is again changing its fee structure in a bid to raise customer traffic and increase profits.  The article notes: "Online auctioneer eBay Inc. said it will lower the fees it charges for products listed for sale at a fixed price, in a bid to become more competitive with rival Web sites such as Amazon. com Inc. Ebay, which sparked seller ... read more

The July producer price index figure shows wholesale prices surged 1.2% in July.   That's the biggest jump in 27 years.   Truly stunning, particularly when you consider many strategists believe we are entering a period of slower global economic growth.   Prices theoretically should be falling, not rising, as slower growth means (theoretically) slower demand.    Of course, economic ... read more

FareCompare.com's Rick Seaney wrote a thoughtful response to my airline posting.   You can read it here.  http://rickseaney.com/2008/08/07/pay-more-and-live-fly-with-it/ Rick makes many good points about my statement that "flying is essentially the same" as it was decades ago.   Those points though are mostly off topic.   If I wasn't clear what I meant was that while there certainly have ... read more

It must be bad karma from writing about the airlines.   My 3:38pm flight to Detroit on Northwest is delayed for three hours.   Apparently the plane needs maintenance.  Either way I will now miss my connecting flight, with the next one being the same time (6:30pm) on Friday.     So it looks like I'm going to get to the Motor City around 9pm tonight, rent a car and drive the 7 hours.   ... read more