I want to highlight a few of the things Vertabase has been doing for Haiti. This is not to toot our own horn but to point out a few extremely meaningful programs and ways to help.
1. We participated in sponsoring medical supplies that went with doctors from Holy Cross Hospital in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The surgeon that helped raise the money has an incredible, first-hand account of his time there. You can also contribute on the site.
2. The One Laptop Per Child program has started planning for the educational needs of the children of Haiti by launching this great collection of XO laptops for Haiti that were given out as part of the Give a Laptop Get a Laptop program over the last few years. As eary participants in this program we are sending them our XO’s.
One other neat program that is the geeks for Haiti t-shirt. You can promote your support and help your choice of charities like UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders at the same time.
Two top economists (one a Nobel prize winner) provide an excellent analysis of the current financial crisis. While they don’t say it, it also points to a counter-intuitive solution to the problem. Its all in the hands of the American consumer.
Their main hypothesis is that this current meltdown is very similar to the meltdown that led to the Great Depression. Both were caused by massive consumer debt.
“It appears that we’re witnessing the second great consumer debt crash, the end of a massive consumption binge.” Steven Gjerstad and Vernon L. Smith, in The Wall Street Journal.
Read the rest of this post »
This month we moved our Michigan offices into a great new space in Southfield. Its got tons of room and a nice training center. Its perfect for our company.
Aside from the fit with our corporate goals, the space reflects our vision for the changing face of Metro Detroit and its future.
The space is located at the crux between Detroit proper and the suburbs. Its right off of 8 mile road.
The building itself is a mix of dedicated front office and light industrial. Like the location, it is a meeting point of urban and suburban, physical and virtual, industrial space and internet space -and it captures a moment in time.
These days are a fulcrum. These are the times when the citizens of this area can decide what they want to be in the future or let the forces of the past drag them down. No-one is helping. Its up to the people alone. If people don’t step up and move themselves forward, this area will be dragged down further and it won’t be pretty.
Read the rest of this post »
What an amazing game. Super Bowl 43. Players playing their hardest. Doing incredible things. A field full of passion.
And great entertainment. Tons of fun to watch.
Stock full of swag from Mid-Michigan CFUG and MAX, my son decides to reveal to the world his secret identity of Adobe Boy.
Here he is suited up for a RIA mission.
The bailout is on track to rack-up another $800 billion. That’s in addition to the original $700 billion, which is in addition to $25 billion here and there to rescue various financial service firms before the $700 billion and the roughly $135 billion of other funding that was attached to the $700 billion.
This brings the total amount to over $1.6 trillion dollars
And people are fussing over $25 billion to the auto industry?
The biggest winner was Barack Obama (though the RIA technologies definitely shined on the news websites).
Every major news site seems to have caught the RIA bug.
Check out http://www.cnn.com and http://www.foxnews.com for some electoral map Flash fun. On Fox News the electoral vote count below the map re-tallies in real team, right before your eyes as the new numbers come in. Can’t tell if its just animation or if its actually counting it up.
NBC News has got the desktop pegged with RIA Widgets they call Newsware Widgets.
Fun stuff.
Since the start of the talk of bailouts, I thought that $700 billion was low. The price tag will likely be around $3 trillion dollars.
Several recent factors appear to lend credence towards that estimate.
1. The US Government appears to be moving towards taking direct stakes in banks;
2. Despite falling gas prices, the pain on US consumer may increase - if so, the government may decide to directly help the consumer and pick up a portion of the consumers mortgages/debt -much like Mexico did after the collapse of the peso in 1994.
Once the full cost of the bailout is known, their might be another short term buying opportunity in the market as retail investors re-evaluate the stability of the market and the US’s ability to pay. But I believe that most institutional investors have already factored in this size of a price tag and would be buyers at lower prices.
Altria (Philip Morris), Diageo, McDonalds and Microsoft.
A long time ago I used to work on Wall Street. For many years, I’ve thought stocks were way too expensive to be an interesting asset class. For better or worse, they are starting to look attractive again and I can’t help but write about some of the stocks I think are worth keeping an eye on. With the market down as far as it is, stock prices are starting to reflect the reality of underlying fundamentals. But keep in mind that the downturn in the market may have a ways to go -driven by people being spooked or needing cash and therefore pulling money out of the market.
Read the rest of this post »
