I Don’t Shop at Wal-Mart

Not only do I not shop at Wal-Mart, I do not have my oil changed at Jiffy Lube. Companies like Wal-Mart do bring low cost goods to America and the world but they also treat their vendors and their employees like dirt. As to Jiffy Lube, I prefer the attention of a capable mechanic. I will never forget my one time at a quick lube franchise. I had to have my car towed to another garage.

I am willing to pay a little more for the competent workers that are employed by the independent stores and garages that really give me the kind of services I want.

Yes, I shop at Costco. The reason is that they pay their employees so well that the employee turnover is low. My next door neighbor, a Costco employee, bought his home at the bottom of the housing collapse but still paid $333,000. His wife has a part time at home business. The pay at Costco can’t be too bad.

Meanwhile the working poor are employed by the big and very successful national chains. Those chains depend on low wage workers. The companies are Wal-Mart, Target, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, etc. etc. The top 50 executives at each of those companies were paid an average of $9.4 Million a year. The typical worker at those companies has an adjusted gross income of $13,900 a year.

Focusing on Wal-Mart, it’s subsidized by the taxpayers of America. It has the most workers on public assistance. In 2007, the company shifted from regular shifts to flexible shifts, a change labor activists said was designed to force full-time workers to downgrade their status to part-time, so they would not qualify for health insurance or other benefits. The result is that hundreds of thousands of Wal-Mart employees rely on state benefits or Medicaid. Most of the company’s warehouses are contracted out to temp agencies, so even if a warehouse loader works full-time in a Wal-Mart warehouse for years, he gets no benefits. Wal-Mart has also spent at least $1 billion since 2005 settling lawsuits over unpaid wages or illegal working conditions. One study estimated that Wal-Mart workers cost taxpayers more than $1 Billion every year.

Source for part of this article is The Week magazine.

Los Angeles Needs to Grow Up

Major cities throughout the world are noted for their skyscrapers. Los Angeles lacks that distinctive architectural image.

The tallest building in Los Angeles today is the 73-story U.S. Bank Tower, which rises 1,018 feet (310 m) in Downtown Los Angeles and was completed in 1989. Among the next nine tallest buildings none are more than 858 feet (262m) tall. They are 52 to 55 stories high. Among that group of ten the last one was completed in 1992. Among the 34 buildings that are at least 400 feet (122 m) tall two were completed in this century and the rest were primarily completed in the 60’s, 70, and 80’s.

Korean Air’s $1-billion hotel skyscraper. Rendering of the 73-story Wilshire Grand hotel and office building to be constructed in downtown Los Angeles. (AC Martin Partners)

Cities either grow or shrink. Los Angeles has filled its land space with low rise structures. If we are to grow it must be up. When you add the new Korean Air 73 story building to new high rise developments in Hollywood and elsewhere you know the city is in growth mode. These new structures will be magnets for more new business. Most of us want to be part of a growing economy.

A proposal for two skyscrapers that would flank the Capitol Records tower in Hollywood gained the approval of the city’s planning department Tuesday despite push-back from dozens of disgruntled residents.

An artist’s rendering of the project near the Capitol Records building in Hollywood. (Handel Architects)

Those who continuously fight against tall buildings, public transportation and other elements of large metropolises are dreaming of another time when land was plentiful and the idea of big city life was something that only those east of the Mississippi could appreciate. Los Angeles has the second highest population in the nation. Metropolitan Los Angeles encompasses more than 10 million people. It’s time we started acting like a very big city.

Heart of Hollywood – Temple Israel Of Hollywood

Warner Brothers, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios and other long forgotten movie studios all had one thing in common. They were the all the creation of Jews. To this day Jews are a prominent part of the Hollywood scene. Geffen, Katzenberg, Iger, Spielberg are all Jews. There are others too who do not have common Jewish surnames.

David Bancroft

Click here!
http://youtu.be/VDp_KZvyXNo

Impact of Technology on the U.S. Economy

If only businesses would start re-hiring all those people who lost their jobs in the Great Recession everything would be as it was. It won’t happen like that! Globalization and technology have changed everything.

The Mobile World Congress is a show of the latest cell phone and tablet technologies. It will occur February 24 to February 28 in Barcelona, Spain. The facility used is a new state of the art convention centre called Fira Gran Via consisting of eight halls. With over 1,500 exhibits, it is a reminiscent of CES and Comdex that have been held at the Las Vegas Convention Center. This is a wake-up call that the United States is not necessarily the center for new technologies.

The Gran Via Convention Centre

No business will hire employees in the western world when the job can be done for far less in developing countries. Workers in China, Mexico, and elsewhere are willing to work for $1USD an hour. Workers in the United States, Canada, U.K., Germany and other industrialized nations cannot pay their bills on that rate of pay.

Businesses of all types try to solve their employment needs by looking for automated equipment rather than hiring. The benefit is lower cost for services rendered where ever labor is needed.

From cars to bread, robots dominate modern production

On-line Digital Camera Review owner/editor Jeff Keller, “The smartphone became the preferred photo tool for many.” The web site closed down effective December 31, 2012.

Newsweek’s final print publication mailed out on December 24, 2012. The final issue is dated December 31, 2012. The cause was a decline in advertising revenue. The magazine’s owner will attempt a digital version that will be available only to subscribers.

Borders bookstores have closed. Barnes and Noble stores are closing too. E-readers are this year’s sought after device. Barnes and Noble’s Nook is one of those readers.

Modern manufacturing isn’t based on human labour; it’s based on the robot. Still, most people cannot grasp the breadth of automation in factories. We still picture plants full of human workers toiling to make our cars and furniture, just as we imagine our meat comes from animals in a barn. The truth is much more awe-inspiring, perhaps even frightening. The factories of today have some human workers, but huge portions of assembly lines are 100% mechanized. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics expects automotive jobs to decline 18% by 2018 despite expected increases in production. Robots eliminate the need for more workers.

What is the United States doing to sustain its lead in technology and grow its economy? Arguing about gun control, immigration, and government debt.

Credit Cards Can Be Better Than Cash

I bought a new bed using a credit card. I could have written a check for the full amount but the bed store offered a one year no interest payment plan. Why not? I thought. So the bed was to be delivered three days later.

Oh, there is one thing I neglected to tell you. The old bed had a foam topper that was purchased separately and has been on top for about seven or eight years. My beautiful wife said it’s not the topper that is sagging it’s the bed. OK, I agreed without challenging her wisdom. However, the next day, after I had ordered the new bed, she decides to remove the topper and check the mattress. “Look at this” she says, “the mattress without the topper seems quite comfortable.” I lay down on the bed and surprise. It feels identical to the new bed. I called and cancelled the bed order! Did I yell at my wife? No! Was I happy the bed was bought using a credit card? Yes!

Thus you have learned one of the benefits of credit card purchases. If you have a problem with a product you’ve purchased – it’s damaged or defective, or is never delivered you have extra legal protection if you bought the item with a credit card. Federal law gives consumers the right to withhold payment on credit card purchases in certain situations.

Try to resolve the dispute directly with the seller. If you call the seller or visit in person and don’t get a resolution, send a letter so that the issue is documented. In the meantime, don’t pay the amount that is in dispute, the California Department of Consumer Affairs says.

If the problem remains unresolved, call your credit card company and tell it you want to withhold payment for the disputed transaction. Follow up with a letter to the card company, and send a copy to the seller. This will “demonstrate to the seller that you intend to follow through with your complaint, and that will increase the chance that the seller will resolve the problem voluntarily,” the consumer agency said.

The credit card company will contact the seller and try to resolve the dispute. While the item is under investigation, your card issuer may not report you as “delinquent” for withholding payment, provided that you follow the steps above. But the card company can describe the amount as “disputed.” “Since the dispute probably will end up on your credit record, the right to withhold should never be used frivolously,” the consumer agency said.

Your right to withhold payments does not apply if the transaction was for less than $50, or if it took place more than 100 miles from your home and in a state other than your own. But those restrictions are waived if the credit card was issued by the seller – a department store credit card, for example.

You can withhold payment only if you use your card as a credit card. Using it as a debit card is like paying cash.

Calculated Risk

When the Los Angeles Times prints an article about a blogger that is not associated with the paper that is news. Appearing on today’s front page of the business section it was an eye catcher. Bill McBride predicted the housing crash in 2008 and more recently the bottom of the housing market in 2012. The Times article is here. I have added Calculated Risk blog to the listing at the right.

Apple Needs to Take Bold Action

Apple is done, say teens

We know this company for the Mac computer, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. All were leaders in technology.

Many people do not believe that Apple (AAPL) will be a leading innovator now that Steve Jobs has passed away. There are flaws in that thinking. Steve Jobs lead the company through some serious mistakes and the company did thrive despite those events. Those bad decisions did impact company earnings and Apple’s reputation. Some examples below.

Sticking with AT&T as an exclusive partner for too long

If only Jobs had pulled the plug on Apple’s exclusive relationship one year earlier, the U.S. smartphone landscape might be radically different. Motorola released the first DROID phone for Verizon at the end of 2009. It was the first Android phone that we remember seeing in the wild. It was Verizon’s answer to the iPhone.

Emailing an iPhone 4 customer to say, “Just avoid holding it in that way,” was a mistake

Apple had its sterling reputation severely tarnished by Antennagate. The iPhone 4 became synonymous with dropped calls and signal problems. (Sneer if you want, but when we’d pull out the new iPhone a lot of people would ask us if we could even use it to make phone calls.)

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, needs to go Bold. That translates to taking on some new ideas for new products and extraordinary improvements for existing products. He can do it! The question is: Will he do it?

Performance Enhancing Drugs Used by Athletes

AP source: Armstrong tells Oprah Winfrey he doped

At the beginning of this commentary I confess to not being a big sports enthusiast. I watch three to four football games each year. UCLA vs. USC, the Rose Bowl, the Super Bowl and one more time at random. I watch the World Series and the NBA finals.

I believe that the professional teams know that some of their players are using drugs to enhance their performance. They just don’t want to confront the issue. After all a Barry Bonds hitting run after run draws larger crowds to the games and that translates to more money.

Are all extraordinary performances the result of drugs? Of course not. However, if owners of clubs want to sustain their reputations they need to enforce the rules that they have created.

As to the Tour de France bike race. This is supposed to be an amateur race but clearly there is significant money to be earned. Besides the prizes that are as high as €450,000($601,000 USD) and there are the salaries for pro team riders that range as high as €190,000. The Seattle Times reported, “Amid a booming market for TV sports rights, the Tour could be worth as much as $1 billion, says Conor O’Shea, a media analyst in Paris at Kepler Capital Markets. Is it any wonder that Lance Armstrong would be taking drugs to win?”

Where are the screeners who check for drug use? Where are the owners, managers, and others who are responsible for keeping sports drug free? The answer is simple. Money and fame are more important than honesty.

Who cares? Not many people. They watch the sports for entertainment. The public will ultimately abandon events that are not honest. Example: no one in America takes wrestling (WWE) seriously because it is thought of as pre-planned entertainment.

Cerberus: The Three-headed Dog in Greek Mythology

The ancient Greek pantheon is rife with symbolism. One such symbolic creature is Cerberus, the three-headed monstrous canine, the loyal servant and guardian of the Greek God of Death. In the Greek mythical tradition, Cerberus is the guardian of the gates of the underworld, the realm of Hades. His job is to prevent the living from entering the land of the dead and to prevent the dead from escaping the boundaries of the underworld.
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/cerberusthree-headed-dog-in-greek-mythology.html

Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is an American private equity firm. The firm is based in New York City, and run by financier Steve Feinberg, who co-founded Cerberus in 1992 with William L. Richter, who currently serves as a senior managing director. The firm has affiliate and/or advisory offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. [this information from Wikipedia]

Is this an odd name for an investment firm? You decide!

According to Bloomberg News, the father of Cerberus chief executive Stephen Feinberg lives in Newtown, Conn. Cerberus said in its statement that it would “immediately” begin the process of selling off the assets of the Freedom Group (the manufacturer of the Bushmaster assualt weapon used in the Newtown massacre).

Cerberus is the company that owned Chrysler Corporation when it decalred banruptcy on April 30, 2009.

The Financial Times reported that after buyout firm Cerberus Capital Management bought a majority stake in GMAC and took that firm private, it later sold most of its exposure to a variety of other investors in order to reduce its own risk. Fair enough. But how did those other investors decide whether they wanted in on the deal? According to several of them, a group of hedge-fund managers were invited to a private meeting with Cerberus, and most decided–rather quickly–to join in without making any true investigation of their own. “It was a ‘trust me’ kind of trade,” one investor who bought a small piece of GMAC told the Financial Times. “You had no time to do real due diligence. But it was a hot deal and everybody wanted in as part of the gang.” [this item found in a Morningstar.com report]

And now Bloomberg News reports that Cerberus has agreed to acquire Supervalu’s Albertsons, Acme, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s and Star Market grocery stores in a transaction valued at about $3.3 billion. Will these grocery chains be in business a year or two from now? The Cerberus track record is not encouraging. The owners of this private equity fund may earn significant profits but at what cost? Reduced competition and layoff of employees are the two possible consequences.

Is this the job for the three headed dog?