Wall Street puts holiday parties on ice

Wall Street puts holiday parties on ice

In years past, Wall Street financial firms have spent tens of thousands of dollars or more (reportedly $1.2 million on one party at Barclays) on lavish holiday parties.  Most financial firms on Wall Street are canceling their plans for holiday parties this year out of fear of the bad press. 

This is great news for once.  These banks many that own millions of dollars to the government are actually doing something to help reduce their unnecessary expenses and pointing them in the right direction of paying off their debt to the American Taxpayers.

Afghanistan: Pay for it or charge it?

Afghanistan: Pay for it or charge it?

President Obama announced that he is planning to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in early 2010 at an expected additional cost of $30 billion per year.  The question arises how to pay for it.  Congress is discussing if they should just charge it like they do everything else or if they should pay for it as they go.

I personally feel that we as Americans should pay our bills as we go, not continue to run up the Government debt that is estimated to be $21 trillion by the year 2019.  Senator David Obey said it best: “Regardless of whether one favors the war or not, if it is to be fought, it ought to be paid for.”

Best Buy wants your electronic junk

This article is about Best Buy recycling program, a green reputation and a way to get customers into stores.  The traffic in electronics travels a two-way street. Junk goes in that can be sold if is separate and flat-screen TVs, netbooks, and other kind of electronics. Since March, when Best Buy began offering free recycling of gadgets and small, so far more than 25 million pounds of ISTB –that’s is the amount receive buy Best Buy stores. Best Buy came to embrace corporate responsibility and recycling, because their founders set out to build a different kind of company.  Best Buy began to focus on its social and environmental impact at the behest of its workers and customers. The article also says some customers-not most- but enough to matter- said they preferred to do business with retailers that cared about their community. The CEO think that his job is to be the chief listener, the CEO don’t believe that there are a few really smart people but the only way to make companies to success is to be around the enterprise and look for people with passion and ideas.  Best Buy new goal is to do more than sell technology. The company began by installing kiosks in stores where customers can drop off cell phones, batteries, and ink-jet cartridges for Best Buy it turns out to be a good business.

I think that Best Buy is getting smarting buy turning green, by doing that more consumers would buy their products.  In the meanwhile it gives Best Buy more stability, while customers are disposing their old electronics. Best Buy is changing the way of doing business; recycle is more than garbage if you recycle the right products. I think the Best Buy is making a lot of profit by collecting old electronics; because they are collecting millions of old parts every day.  I like the idea of Best of trying to do new business by became green for the reason that it would help future generations. With this idea Best Buy is doing more sells because customers need to buy new products.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/30/technology/best_buy_recycling.fortune/index.htm

White House Crashers

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/12/01/state.dinner.couple/index.html

This article is about the couple that supposedly crashed a dinner at the white house.  I think that whatever this situation pans out to be it should not be publicized.  It seems clear that the couple was not on the guest list so either they were doing this to get publicity and get their minute of fame or they were just trying to get passed white house security and succeeded.  Either way I do not think they should be advertising this on every news channel.  What the couple did is wrong if they were in fact not on the guest list and if they were this is an embarrassment the white house security.  The last thing this country needs is people thinking that they can invite themselves into dinners with the president!

failing journalists

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aKnLb7Zqtfv4

In this article Rupert Murdoch is very angry that his company News Corp. as well as other publication places, are not getting the credit or money deserved because of sites like google. With google someone can just go right to a news article instead of buying a news paper cutting out the middle man completely. This is good for consumers and college students that need current events, however this is causing mass layoffs and less need for journalists everywhere. Murdoch discusses getting a fee for looking online at the articles. He also says he will block google from getting to his articles so that yo have to go directly to his websites that pay for the news service and pay due credit. This i don’t agree with because a company like google is just trying to make it easier for people to connect to websites whether they be pay sites or not. It is the companies fault to begin with that they decided to give out free news. Google just makes it easier for the people to find those free news websites. Also if these news companies decide to cut Google off and also charge people for what used to be free news, then I think they will lose a lot of business.

Tareq Salahi Says He and Wife Didn’t Crash Dinner

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aZw5xRuzeqoY

I dont know how relevant this topic is to the class but i just thought that this is a hilarious article. Tareq Salahi and his wife are accused of “crashing” a White House state dinner which was held in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The White House has launched a full scale investigation and is considering presseing charges against the couple. This same couple was involved in another alleged “crash” on September 26 when they attended a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Inc. fundraising dinner and sat at a $20,000 table that they werent on the list for.

I just think that this is hilarious that these people are notorius for crashing large scale government events. This puts a whole new spin on Wedding Crashers. I also think that its rediculous that this has been made into such a big deal. These people were not removed by security at any time. If anything the White House security team should be the ones catching grief for this event. If two random people can attend a White House function without an invitation and not even be detected then i fear for the future safety of White House officials.

Please comment on this. I know im not the only one who finds this particular article somewhat humerous.

Adam Lambert Tried to Defy ‘Cliche And Safe’ Gay-Male Stereotype With AMA Performance

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1627343/20091201/story.jhtml

American Idol star and gay celebrity Adam Lambert  appeared on the Ellen DeGerneres show today and discussed his controversial performance during the American Music Awards. During his performance he delivered what was describes as a “controversial, sexually charged performance”. Lambert says that he was nervous before the performance and he just got really excited. He claims that he might have gone a little too far with his performance but he says he will not apologize. Lambert stated that he thinks the media blew the entire thing way out of proportion because he is a gay man.

I do believe that the reason this performance was such a media exposion is becuase Lambert is gay. However i also believe that Lambert may be using his position as a gay man as a publicity tool. These are only my personal opinions but i beleive that Lambert is being overly flamboyant in his portrayal of an openly gay man. The cover of his new album shows a picture of Lambert complety covered in makeup and he looks completly like a female.

Now Lambert talks about how he thinks the media is just after him becuase he is gay but i believe that by parading around in makeup and putting on homesexually driven performances on national televisions is kind of asking for the attention.

Please let me know your opinions on the topic.

Bernanke to defend his record and the Fed’s

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousivMolt/idUSTRE5B057U20091201

Ben Bernanke, the current Chairman of the Federal Reserve is seeking the approval of the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, December 4.  Bernanke will be the first person the hold the Chair position for two terms if he is approved. Bernanke has been the chairman during what is arguably the hardest economical times the U.S. has every seen. He held the chair during a recession the eliminated 7.3 million jobs  and cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out banks and financial firms. So it is clear that the questioning during this hearing will be harsh.

Now to talk about what i think about this situation. Personally i believe that we need to make as many changes as we can to aid in the ressurection of our economy. I do not think that granting a second term to the man in the chair during an economical depression would be the wisest decision. This is just my personal opinion on the matter.

I would really like to hear some other peoples opinion on what they think should happen and what decision they beleive the Senate Banking Committee should do.

Murdoch Says Web Aggregators Should Pay for Content

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aKnLb7Zqtfv4

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NEWS CORP.  Rupert Murdoch is saying that online news aggregators must start paying to distribute his companys newspaper articles. His argument is that these news aggregators are helping themselves to articles that they did not make any kind of contribution to. They did nothing to aid in the production of the news.

Murdoch is planning to also talking about blocking Google Inc. from displaying its news articles to the public. Murdoch made comments that they may also charge people to access his company’s website and the articles that his company produces.

I believe that he has every right to do this. This man is the business of selling newspapers. His job and his livelyhood rely on his ability to sell papers. If people are just scanning the articles from his papers and displaing them online for everyone to access for free then no profit is being made. This man and the other members of the board for News Corp. are putting money into the production of these papers and other people are just taking what they put together and displaying free of charge. I believe that Murdoch should start charging people to access his articles.

Please let me know your opinion on the matter. Thank you.

Private detective hired to snoop on job applicant’s sex life

Private detective hired to snoop on job applicant’s sex life
The article “Private detective hired to snoop job applicant’s sex life” reveals another scandal of the Deutsche Telekom which reportedly hired an private detective to investigate the sex life of a potential employee.
This article matches our discussion about hiring processes and personnel policies. In this case, the woman that was spied on applied for a management position at Deutsche Telekom’s Croatian subsidiary and obviously, Deutsche Telekom found the sex life of this woman an determining criterion.
We learnt that personnel decisions of a company had to be fair and that its personnel policies should be “based on criteria that are job related, clear and accessible [...]” (book, page 421). I’m wondering to what extent the sex life of an applicant is job related. Probably not at all. Sexuell preferences are absolutely irrelevant for a managment position at Deutsche Telekom.
Apart from the fact that the private life of the woman is not job related at all, the spying is also an interference in her privacy and for that reason likewise morally wrong.
Those people should mind their own business!