Profound and non consequential

Welcome to 2009 everyone! I hope everyone had good times over the holidays.

I know Wednesday is my blog day but hey, when you get laid off and you have all the time in the world you gotta do something right? That's right, I joined the millions of people who are now fully self-employed. Oh the life experiences that you learn from. Only the tough ones are the ones you can learn from. So, I’m taking it all in stride (as of now), and am focusing on staying healthy (mind and body). It’s not worth worrying about things you can’t control. The truth is, I was going to quit in June anyways, but I would have liked to have a job lined up beforehand. This brings me to my next point. . .

When you make lots of money, and you live a certain lifestyle, you are bound to that job. Unless someone else is willing to pay you that amount, you have no other options but to stay there. If you enjoy it, then great, but if you don’t enjoy every aspect of it, then you’re wasting your life away. I’ve been pretty miserable at work for the last year and a half and I’m looking forward to 2009. I may burn through all my entire life savings, but there’s something to be said for not putting myself through the daily monotony of cubical-ism. I’m actually looking forward to what the future holds, what opportunities may be presented. Now, when an opportunity comes along which 3 months ago I would have seen as a gamble, I can now take it and not worry about the consequences, because as far as I know, there are none.

Some of you may know that I’m a big fan of Howard Stern, not because he has strippers on his show, or asks celebrities about their sex lives. His pushing of the envelope has helped define freedom of speech in our country, and he is widely misunderstood. If you don’t like what he broadcasts then don’t listen to it, it’s as simple as that. Similarly, if you’re a celebrity and you don’t want to divulge your personal events on radio, don’t go on his show. But I digress, this article is not about Howard, I was merely making a point that you can’t innovate, excel, and succeed if you are tied to a desk. It will be tough, but I know that I will succeed. I’m glad that I have the chance to re-evaluate my career direction without negative consequences.

Speaking of non-consequential, I hope everyone is as disgusted with this as I am. A disgraced banking executive has returned to school, no not as a student as I would have expected, but as a professor. Greg Fleming will be teaching at Yale University instead of running the now defunct Merrill Lynch which was absorbed by Bank of America. I have a suggestion for the title of his syllabus: “What NOT to do.” I also have a suggestion for the prospective students of his class, DON’T DO IT. And last but not least, my last suggestion for Yale University, DON’T advertise that you’re hiring out of work bankers to teach your students, how asinine.

Merry Christmas Eve y'all. . .

Hey Everyone,

I wanted to send my best wishes to everyone in the holiday season and a happy new year. I'll be back in January to blog.

-Erik

Christmas and Gremlins and Tarsiers! Oh, my!

Follow me if you can on my inspiration for this week's post. I wanted to do something to celebrate the Christmas, and I found that inspiration while I was listening to NPR today about A Wonderful Life? Not In Every Holiday Classic which featured "timeless scenes set at the holidays," which of course would include a gremlin in a blender. Makes you feel like Christmas, right? Ok, maybe not. But since we're on the subject of gremlins, I was reminded of my trip to the Philippines and what I think is the closest to what you'll find as a real-life gremlin, the TARSIERS! Which, brought me back around to this article from MSNBC that talks about "Real-life Furbys rediscovered" and if you remember Furbys were THE hot gift several Christmases ago. I still have mine. So, in the Christmas spirit enjoy a few photos of Tarsiers and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

1/20/09 - 33 days and counting

There’s been 3 things on my mind this week: Unemployment Benefits Pay, Ponzi ‘Bernie’ Madoff, and the Illinois Governor.

This week has been full of negative news. To put a positive spin on it, all my investments I’ve made since September this year are up and Obama is 33 days away from becoming our 44th president.

The reason I write about unemployment benefits is because unemployment levels are increasing in the rocky economic times. Where does the money come from? Bush signed an extension of unemployment benefits but did you know that the funds are managed by state agencies, not the Federal Government? Where does the money come from? I’m not sure, if you know you can post a comment and let us know. Some states have 6 months of funds left, some are better off. Where does the money come from?

The SEC should be fined for not catching Mr. Madoff. They should track down all the money that he ‘managed’ and take it back and spread it proportionally to the investors who were swindled. In a perfect world that would happen. Apparently Mr. Ponzi, eh, uh, I mean Mr. Madoff is out of prison on $10 million bail. Where’d he get $10 million? Crime pays. They should take everything he has, and everything he’s given to relatives and friends.

Yahoo! Finance has been back to their bi-polar ways. Don’t read the headlines, just read the articles.

This week’s Disgraced Politician of the Week is Rod Blagojevich. Step down you punk ass. He’s the epitome for everything that is wrong with our leadership. What happened to honesty? You’re reaction to this situation is one of two: you’re either indifferent, or angry, either way I bet you just chalked it up to another government scandal. . . sadly, you’re right. Am I the only one who’s mad as hell about our lack of leadership situation? Let’s hope Obama has his shit together.

Monday Morning Back Up Quarterback

The NFL playoff picture becomes a bit more clear after this week of games:

Exciting Finishes: Bears over Saints in OT, Chargers beat Chiefs with an on-side kick and a Rivers' TD drive, Jets win on a fumble returned for a TD versus the Bills, Atlanta triumphant in overtime at home against the Bucs, and the Steelers win their division on a reviewed TD pass from Big Ben.

Awful Games: Bay Area football is put in check by the AFC East, Carolina rolls a terrible Denver team (that will win the AFC West), Bengals/Redskins is unwatchable, The Cowboys dominate a team that once was thought to be the best in the league but no looks awful (NY Giants), and the Vikings put one nail in the coffin of the Bears by beating the Cards.

That's about all for the NFL. I'm less and less interested as I realize the Bears won't be going to the post-season.

The Yankees Have Cash to Burn-ett: Don't you hate lame sports story titles that think they are clever? Me too- I apologize for just typing one moments ago. The Yanks have now spent $243 million on CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett. That's $60.75 million per initial. If I was a Yankees fan, I'd be half pumped, and half worried that the Brewers wrecked CC's arm and that AJ's was never fixed to begin with. We'll see how it goes...

BREAKING NEWS: Reggie Theus is out as Sacramento Kings coach. I didn't think he was doing a bad job with what he had to work with, but I've also heard the team was very disorganized and management did not like that. I imagine a coach should be pretty hands-on with a young team, so maybe it's a good move. You know what's not a great move? Firing Rick Adelman. Oops!

Solice in a time of Greed

You might look to religion to find greater meaning in life, or solace in a time of grief. Just about 3 minutes ago I had a moment of enlightenment. My moment of enlightenment is well overdue, after many days of deep thought and reflection, I was listening to a tech ticker video online about what capitalism's role in society is. I think they hit the nail on the head here. Let's talk about why you invest in the marketplace of businesses. It's simple. Not so your money grows, compounding until the day you need to rely on it. Not so you have a 'break in time of need' fund. Not so your blood pressure can stay at healthy levels. The whole premise of investing in Wall Street is to put your money in the hands of a greedy, unethical, immoral person who is willing to do anything to make you a buck. I have moral limitations which limit my money's ability to compound. If I invest in Company X, I am trusting the CEO and senior management to do anything they have to do, including but not limited to laying people off, reducing benefits, eliminating annuities, and/or breaking contracts, to give themselves large bonuses and make me money. The largest argument/complaint in the news these days is how large the bonuses for CEOs are. The only reason this is an issue is because of the immoral actions of these CEOs, if they had corporate accountability they wouldn't even be asking about bonuses. It will be interesting to see in 5 years if anything will actually change.

If you look at historical employment lengths at companies over the last 40 years you will notice turn-over rates have increased. This is because companies have not fulfilled their responsibilities to society of creating and providing jobs which pay fair and livable wages. When companies reintegrate those goals into their companies is when things in the economy will look better. Proper treatment by the company to its employees creates loyalty within its workforce. We're seeing the beginnings of capitulation on behalf of the Senior Management Monopoly on American workers. I relate it to the cereal industry. A few years back the government had to implement stringent regulations on the cereal industry because companies weren't competing, they collectively raised prices. It's a lack of competition between companies to pay their workers livable wages. Corporate management has squeezed their workers and raped the coffers of the companies which are built on the backs of the hard-working staff level employees. Does capitalism work? I think it does for awhile, until you need some government intervention to defend Joe the Plumber.

I blogged a few weeks back about John Thain, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch. On Monday he had the balls to ask for the $10 million bonus that he was DUE, then on Tuesday he retracted his request after some public grumblings. John Thain is a ball-less pussy. Have we raised a generation of ball-less pussies? I guess we'll have to see how many more CEOs ask for bonuses this year. If he truly thought requesting a bonus was the right thing he would have fought for it. On the other hand, $10 million would pay for 200 employees at $50k a year salary. Does John Thain really think his productivity in the past year was worth more than 200 other employees combined? Possibly he thought so, but obviously he wasn't sure about it. Pussy.

This quite possibly was my most confusing and disjointed blog yet. Now back to the title. . . If I could offer some solace in a time of greed, what would it be, you ask? Government is the only entity that can fairly reallocate monies within a society. I'm not talking about hand outs, I'm talking fair taxes giving relief to those who need it. I'm looking forward to the greatest president in my lifetime to take office this January, mark my words. That's my solace.

Monday Morning Back-Up QB

Sorry I've been so lazy... well, actually, I'm not that sorry. I've been busy!

Week 14 of the NFL: I have to be honest, I didn't watch a ton of the games- and for good reason. I won't watch the Bears because they literally are 0-"every time I watch them." I couldn't watch the Giants/Eagles, Niner/Jets, or Steelers/Cowboys because none of the games really entertained me. Some were interesting if you're a fan of those teams, but overall they were very boring, slow paced games. Same with Ravens/Redskins on Sunday night. I will say this though, NorCal talk radio is going to be on fire today with people thinking the Niners are on their way back to greatness. For example:

A caller on Murph & Mac (KNBR 680) called up this morning with a metaphor- I'll paraphrase: I see a strong correlation with history and the Niners. Coach Singeltary is General Lee and Mike Martz is Stonewall Jackson -

[Murph interrupts- "The only problem I see is that Confedercy ended up losing." - caller continues]

Hold on there buddy! WE ran out of men! I'm not saying it wasn't a good thing the North won, but that was "The War of Northern Aggression."

Awesome. What have we come to in the Bay Area? Honestly, keep on holding to that metaphor, buddy. There's no way the Niners are going to end up winning this war.

MLB Hot Stove Update: I'm truly addicted to checking updates on baseball signings. It's truly great if the team you root for has the ability to go out and make big moves. It feels like winning the World Series when your team makes a big trade. Oh wait- I have no idea what that actually feels like so I can't be saying such silly things. But what I will say, is the Cubs don't really have an excuse to not get Jake Peavy. Here's how:

- Trade Jason Marquis to the Mets. Preferably for Aaron Heilman, but if not, just take whatever prospect and have the Mets eat a large portion of Marquis' salary.

- Next, swap Felix Pie for Garret Olson (Orioles). The O's have wanted Pie forever. They still think he's good. Take advantage of that. They took Sammy Sosa and Corey Patterson off your hands, I'm sure they will take another bust outfielder.

- Throw Garret Olson on his way to San Diego along with Sean Marshall, Ronny Cedeno, Josh Vitters, and Mike Hart. GM Kevin Towers wants five players in return for Peavy, so give him five players. He'd love to have those particular five players. You don't give up Jeff "I'm going to have to look up how to spell" Samardzija. You don't give up Mike "I hit pinch hit homers all day" Fontenot. You don't give up Micah "I won't play until Derrek Lee is gone, but I still hit .400" Hoffpauir. Heck, if Brian Giles would waive his no-trade clause, I'd even throw in some of these players to get him as well.

So what? I'm a greedy Cubs fan. But seriously, that trade would get it done- and with reasonable payroll. It's like I majored in Econ and should be a GM (well, at least one of those things is true.) I don't think that scenario is unrealistic, and if the Cubs end up getting Peavy, check out the framework- I bet it looks similar to the above.

The BCS - I hate the BCS. I'm not a fan and never will be. It disgusts me that Texas does not get a shot to at least redeem themselves against Oklahoma (in a tournament, perhaps?) Which is why I'm going to anger even myself when I say this- I think the two best teams are playing for the National Championship.

I understand that Texas beat them earlier in the season on a neutral field. Even when I was watching that game, it felt like Oklahoma was better. I actually think if they played 10 games, OU would win 8 out of 10 times. And you can definitely disagree with that, but we can't prove it because there is no tournament.

With that being said, does a tournament even solve anything? I've seen teams get upset in the NCAA basketball tournament that are clearly more talented teams than the eventual champions. Many underdogs can pull of a 3-14 or 4-13 upset and then immediately get bounced in the next game (e.g. Santa Clara (15) beat Arizona (2) in the first round of the 1993 tourney only to lose to Temple (7) in the next game.)

Maybe eliminating the tournament also sets up the ideal match-up. It eliminates all those great moments that everyone lives for where the underdog beats the powerhouse. No George Mason No Kent St. No Miami of OH. No Gonzaga.

Sorry, I can't jump on board with a system that eliminates those great moments. Regardless if these are the two best teams in College Football, they both have losses to Texas and Ole Miss (making them good, but not automatic championship game good). There should be a tournament where the winner EARNS their championship game participation by beating the other best teams in the nation.

Go Texas and USC. Blow out your Big 10 opponents (Ohio St and Penn St, repectively) and cause a massive problem for the BCS.

Phew! Sorry for being absent. I'll try to raise my game a bit in the coming weeks.