Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives
This is a great show about fun food. If you are a wine-sniffer or crazy for white tablecloths and over the top service, don’t tune in. The food showcased is often created by amazing chefs, without pretense but with tons of innovative talent.
This recipe for Mona Lisa pizza looked amazing – I’m gonna try it.
Think Positive!
We are well down a slippery slope of panic solutions that are just throwing taxpayer money at what appears to be ways to instill confidence, loosen inter-bank credit etc. Nothing seems to be working as fast as needed, and it appears that everyone is running for the hills. Obama is only human and in spite of the best of intentions has a formidable task just to fill his cabinet posts.
Today, Bank of America hit new lows – down over 90% in a year! I was in a waiting room a few years ago at Bank of Montreal and was reading about the history of VISA. What I took away from my quick read was that Bank of America (originally Bank of Italy) operated by Amadeo Giannini, emerged as a San Francisco institution when the owner recovered the bank’s hard assets out of the earthquake damaged building in a vegetable push cart, and then went down to Fisherman’s Wharf and set up a table in the open air, and began extending credit and resuming operations to help the city recover from the earthquake. The Company later went on to be a founder of the Visa card (BankAmericard).
Wouldn’t it be a shame if BAC is nationalized by the US Government as suggested by Sen. Chris Dodd – Bloomberg
Somewhere out there is another Amadeo Giannini, a man who can be trusted to get things moving without the government bailout, maybe running a small regional bank that in 25 years could be the world’s largest!
With his cowboy boots stuffed with cash, platinum, a fake passport in his own alias name and swiss bearer notes, the dimwit alleged mortgage ponzi schemer Christopher Warren took a cab from Toronto airport to the US border. Huffington Post reported that as Warren was on his whirlwind adventure, he showed flight crews a stash of gold.
I’m not sure these were the boots Warren was wearing (they are gorgeous huh?) when he got busted at the border, but “Court documents alleged they defrauded investors and mortgage companies of $100 million since 2006. The fraudulent deals involved 500 homes and condominiums in California, Florida, Nevada, Illinois, Colorado and Arizona” ——-
News today that Venezuela seized Stanford Bank , reminded me that Allen Stanford is missing after allegedly scheming 8 Billion out of 50,000 customers. Huffington Post reports that Stanford’s damage could match the Madoff ponzi scandal, and lists the “most shocking” allegations…
Bloomberg reports that Michael Zarich, a senior investment officer with Antigua- based Stanford International Bank, in a sworn deposition, described how “Stanford told investors the program had positive returns for periods in which clients actually lost money. The firm claimed a return of 18.04 percent in 2000 when actual investors lost as much as 7.5 percent, according to the complaint. In 2008 client pitch books, Stanford presented hypothetical data under the heading “Historical Performance” alongside the audited 2005 through 2008 figures, the complaint said.”
- Frank Abrams is the founder of zenPeak Inc., helping companies find and retain peak performers.
Today is the best time to join the Financial Services business!
- Frank Abrams is the founder of zenPeak Inc. , helping companies find and retain peak performers for high-trust and high-integrity positions.
Satyam founder, Ramalinga Raju has admitted to being a liar and a cheat. His company name, Satyam means “truth”
Lying in public
He has admitted to falsifying the financial records of SATYAM a leading Indian publicly traded company. Ramalinga Raju, is not a slumdog millionaire but a man who took his family’s agricultural roots, and grew them into a successful conglomerate, most notably as a computer services offshore outsourcing powerhouse. Now Raju and his company are in the outsource outhouse. Ramalinga Raju was an Indian hero and has delivered The Mea Culpa – “what I did and why” to the Board of Directors.
- Frank Abrams is the founder of the zenPeak Inc. , helping companies find and retain peak performers.
I was listening to the all-night radio show “Coast to Coast” last night and they were talking about you know what… the terrible economy.
The guest talked about one result of GM/Ford/Chrysler failures, would be a shortage of the cars, bringing about higher prices and no buying incentives. Supply and Demand.
For a person starting a new business this could be a time of opportunity. As stores and offices close up, the supply of goods and services shrinks. If your goods and services are what people want, there will be demand, and you will be surrounded by dropping supply. Entrenched businesses will be in survival mode, service will likely slip, and they will lose customers.
If your dream is to open a store, or if you need an office… your rent costs will shrunk because of too much supply. Now, you can probably go month to month as a start, or sign a more advantageous lease from a desperate landlord.
If you need to hire staff or seek out a partner, the best people will be more receptive and will likely work for less $. This gives you an opportunity you didn’t have a year ago.
Is it a great time for wage earners and job security?… no. But is this a new trend?… no.
There is a saying in the brokerage business that the best time to start is in a bad market. Brokers stop calling their clients, and clients are ready to switch if you have a sound investment idea. In a rising market everyone is a genius and people don’t switch. A great investment idea now is a safe deposit with federal government FDIC guarantees. Tomorrow it might be a stock that is emerging from the recession with growing revenues and earnings.
I think the same applies to many businesses as these tumultuous times shake up traditional behaviors, and loosen up relationships, so customers will give the feisty upstart a chance!
Today, I am excited about the future of Canada and the United States.
I was wondering what would happen in this election race if GM went bankrupt in the next few months. Would this affect the election? My thinking is that the press would blame management and the board, and it would be an embarrassment for American pride. and YES it would affect the election result.
muscle car
Obama might be green and pompous, but he is an outsider. MacCain is probably perceived as more of a Wall St. type, and he inherits Bush’s stink.
This would help Obama a lot in my opinion.
Meanwhile… it is a real possibility.
Its true.
If you are in the game of registering people and collecting their emails, setup a facebook page and direct your traffic to it. No worries, people don’t have to be signed up at facebook to see your page OR TO ENTER THEIR DATA!
I discovered this by accident when I have been unable to get into FB this am. and popped one of my pages.
Then it dawned on me… some folks don’t need a microsite or blog unless they are restricting access pending a registration.
OK so maybe its not for everyone but a useful tool.
This film is 25 years old and is a visually stunning experience, that reminds us geniuses, how we are turning a beautiful world into sheer ugliness.
Over 70% of web traffic is logged to countries with just 7 languages
English 35.1 %
Japanese 8.9 %
German 6.7 %
Chinese 6.1 %
French 5.3 %
Italian 3.8 %
Spanish 4.2 %
Consider the diminishing returns and poor ROI unless your company has significant operations in a local language.
http://www.commonsenseadvisory.com/members/res_cgi.php/0709_countries_and_languages.php