November 2008 Archive

Sent by my brother on this wonderful Thanksgiving Day. And wishing all of my readers a Happy Thanksgiving.

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Yesterday, I pulled out of my mailbox a couple of letters - and one of them came from GE Money Bank looking somewhat ominous. The letter started out innocuous enough, thanking me for being a valued customer at a particular department store. And then it went on to say:

Based on a recent review of your credit history, we have decided to lower your credit limit to $100. Your account remains open and available for use, subject to the new credit limit and will continue to be periodically reviewed.

Now, truthfully, the department store is one I rarely go to (as evidenced by the reasons provided by Equifax which included “# trades active in last six months” - and they had pressed the signup of the credit card on me - but it brought back a conversation with one of my business partners on how the bailout was progressing - and how, like the Surge in Iraq, there were no terms/strings associated with the increased support.

The one case he brought up was about American Express. Amex is asking for $3.5B from the Federal Government to address defaults to their business, and to become a bank. Amex, as was explained in the article,

American Express relied on packaging pools of credit card debt and selling them to investors in the securitization market. As investors have shied away from purchasing all but the safest forms of debt, the market for credit card-backed securities has dwindled.

But, in speaking with friends who are running small and medium-sized businesses have found their own credit-lines cut off from Amex. Now, it may not seem like much, but these credit lines are the life-blood of any small business - especially since these companies require a line of credit to carry them through the delays other accounts payable need to resolve. Heck, even my clients need to get their payments to me with delays (since their customers are delayed), and so I also need a line of credit at times.

Where are the strings?

If the Federal Government just hands over the cash to Amex without ensuring that the money is effectively used to help the consumer and small/medium sized business owner, then what are we doing? The frozen credit markets hurt us all the way down here - when we need to make purchases, keep our businesses afloat - and by only focusing on the banks hording cash (as the article is suggesting)

The credit card company now has access to financing from the Fed and the ability to grow a large deposit base.

the Federal Government is enabling banks to choke the mainstay of the American economy - small businesses.

Please Mr. Treasury Secretary, look out for the little guys and make sure that Amex (and the other banks) do not just focus on their bottom lines - they should be thinking like any other sustainable and responsible business does - thinking about the impact they have on their local economies, and their potential for damage when hiding from the storm.

The Great Depression was locked in place for so many years due to government inaction and the fear the large corporates had when they held onto their reserves. If we do not mandate a process where corporates are required to put the money directly into action within the economy, we will find ourselves in even worse trouble.

On the latest Yi-Tan Tech Conference Call, Jerry Michalski sent us a link to a terrific visual that literally says it all (from Gong Szeto’s blog):

The other day, I was reading this terrific article (I have included below) that discussed the pros and cons of the branding efforts of all of the Presidential campaigns.  I can speak directly to it, since I had a very similar experience during the 2004 Campaign.

When I first joined the Kerry Campaign, I tried to get a handle on what was the message of the campaign - specifically in terms of branding: what did John Kerry stand for? Someone told me that the “position book” was somewhere in the office and they would get it for me. I was trying to figure out how to drive how the website content would be framed - and spent WAY too much time looking for this object - which had all the reality of the door-stretcher that you hear about when you work in shopping malls.

I later learned that the branding message was not quite clear - as evidenced by the variations of tag lines we heard. For example:

• September 2003 - “The Courage to do What is Right for America”
• November 2003 - “The Real Deal” in military font
• January 2004 - “Bring It On”

I did finally find a document that described why they chose the “courage” theme, and then “The Real Deal” based on various focus groups, but the challenge was trying to wrest the message from Dean at the time who was offering change versus experience (sound familiar?). When you read Al’s article, note the strange similarities, which is why I thought it incredible instructive.
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From a friend, Karl Frisch (and others):

This evening, after spending the day babysitting the twittervotereport machines with Dave Troy of twittervision fame and the guys at NetworkRedux (Thomas Brenneke, Damien Korzenoski, and others), I had a suite of parties to go to this year, since everyone was incredibly jazzed to see the election results.

I took a walk to the DL21C party (located in a beautiful theater with three levels) but it was incredibly crowded and not quite personal. So, after a while, I followed a friend from BALCONY to the New York State Dems Party at the Sheridan near Times Square. In that party were a lot of the same people I have seen in other NY State parties and watched as Obama was declared the winner by CNN to be the President-Elect.

My friend Mitchell and I decided to get out of there - and decided to head toward Times Square - all the while discussing the incredulousness of that had just happened. It was something like a dream. As we walked, Mitchell joked that there would be no one at Times Square at this late hour. And then we came upon the CNN Election Watch Party at the crossroads of 50th and Broadway.

All four sides of the street were lined up with people just waiting for the chance to cheer on their new President, and we patiently waited while Senator McCain gave his concession speech. And then we waited until we were told Senator Obama was coming to the stage. And as he strode forward, the cheers erupted aloud and all of Times Square was nothing but an extension of the crowd in Chicago.

Suddenly, the TV goes out!

Yep - as we are about to listen to Senator Obama speak, the big screens surrounding us suddenly go to rainbow test colors - and we can not see anything except the screen int he far distance being run by the ABC crew. The people there are insane with cries of “WTF?!?”
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Simply put - wanted to thank all of my readers who have written me and commented on the posts for this election. To make it easier to find answers to your questions, I wanted to provide a link to all of the posts for your information.

Broward County Charter Initiatives

Broward County Charter Initiatives - details on the changes to the Broward County Charter

Florida Constitutional Amendments

Florida Amendments - details on the proposed changes to the Florida Constitution

Elected Officials

Elected Officials - summary of the Presidential Election, for Florida Congressional District 19 and the Broward Sheriff

Oliver Parker vs Fred Segal

Oliver Parker vs Fred Segal - information on the Broward County Soil and Water Conservation District, Seat 3

This has been one of the more popular posts - especially since both candidates decided not to campaign for this seat. I was able to get Mr. Segal to respond, but I have yet to hear from Mr. Parker.

Christine Jennings vs Vern Buchanan

Christine Jennings vs Vern Buchanan - information on the Florida Congressional District 13 race in Sarasota, Florida.

Update November 5th at noon: Congratulations to Sheriff Lamberti on his successful win (at least as far as I know today).  As for Mr. Parker, congratulations - and I sincerely hope you leverage Mr. Segal to help Broward County.  He is a good man and can be of great service to the community.