Has Volvo, the premier family car manufacturer, lost its way? Even though Ford now owns this Swedish company, I somehow suspect that Volvo isn’t building cars targeted at the American market, hence its late arrival in the SUV market. Still, for families with children, which I think is Volvo’s core market, nothing beats the convenience of a minivan in terms of passenger space and accessibility. So, where’s the Volvo minivan? I looked at some of Volvo’s concept cars and didn’t spot a minivan among them. Too bad. In a day and age when two infant car seats can completely crowd out the entire rear row of a sedan or wagon, having the full-sized third row becomes more of a necessity than a luxury.
Category: Business
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Pump Up the Volume in the Morning
The next time you fill-up, take a look at some of the warning labels affixed to the gasoline pump. I saw the above label recently while purchasing gas from Costco.
This device dispenses gasoline solely by volume measured in standard gallons (231 cubic inches). It does not adjust for temperature or other factors which may affect the energy content of each gallon dispensed.
Makes sense. Obviously, if you purchase gasoline in the morning, each gallon of gasoline would presumably be denser because of the cooler temperature. I was going to research this issue, but Snopes had already beat me to it.
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Recession Special
Could really have used a polarizing filter to cut down the reflection in the window. Anyways, I spotted this sign in the window of a Thai restaurant in Millbrae over the weekend.
Special Lunch Dishes Today For Those People Who Are Unemployed.
Any noodle dish with your choice of chicken, pork, beef or veggi $5.50On one hand, it’s really compassionate for them offer a reduced price meal to those who are unemployed. However, if you really have no income flowing in, even a $5.50 lunch may seem extravagant because every dollar adds up.
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Sign of the Times: Not Hiring
Spotted the “Not Hiring” sign during the weekend. You think a few people have already stopped by to ask about job openings? From what I hear, construction work has come to a dead halt. So, any contractor that is building in this economy will be very popular. Anyways, the sign really means a lot of people are looking for work. Enough at least that it is worth it to the contractor to put up a sign.
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Best Selling Children’s Books
Amazon has been a bit off with their recommendations as of late. Today, I received an e-mail regarding the best selling children’s books under $10. I understand why Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
is on their list. But, remember the “one of these things doesn’t belong here” song from Sesame Street? Now, I was curious how a book entitled Chosen (House of Night, Book 3)
with a book cover showed an exposed neck could possibly be a children’s book. Vampires, dark forces and bloodlust? Uh, I think Amazon missed the mark on this one unless you are trying to scare your kids.
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No Need to Panic
The financial meltdown on Wall Street “is like deja vu all over again,” to misquote Yogi Berra. Somehow, these once in a lifetime or once in a century financial crises keep occurring, well before the century has run out. With 1999-2000 still fresh in mind, we all have some frame of reference for understanding how this entire debacle will unwind.
First, the companies that you’ve never heard of will fold. We cruised past that stage about a year or so ago when all the small mortgage brokers started closing shop. Once this occurs, the grim reaper starts knocking on the door of the big boys. Any flight to quality is illusory. As we’ve all seen, even the industry giants will take their lumps. 8 years post-bubble, Cisco is still selling at roughly 1/4th of its year 2000 peak. Microsoft took a beating. GE took a beating. Everyone took a beating, well, except for Apple who has soared well past their year 2000 highs, but Apple is a special case.
In the financial realm, we’ve seen the dominoes starting to topple: IndyMac, Fannie Mae, Lehman Brothers, AIG, etc. And, as we’ve seen before, no one has immunity, not even Goldman Sachs. They’ll take their beating as well. However, we all know that Silicon Valley survived the bust and bloomed again with new roster of companies leading the charge. Wall Street will rebound once the bloodletting is done. For college students entering their senior year, make alternate graduation plans. The companies you are interviewing with this fall may not be around by next summer. Working for a big company does not necessarily offer more safety than smaller one. Until then, keep an eye out for the next bubble.
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Dreaming of the Good Life
Yahoo! News reports that a homeowner that received a brand new house courtesy of Extreme Makeover is now facing foreclosure. The homeowners had taken out a business loan and used the house as collateral. Unfortunately, their construction business failed. Of course, every businessperson plans to succeed. Most people don’t plan to fail, but failure inevitably visits most small businesses. The news article quoted the mayor as saying, “You do that much work, and they just squander it.” Of course, hindsight is 20/20 at this stage. However, would it be better that the family stayed in the house and not reached for financial independence? Without knowing more about how their construction business operated, this is a difficult question to answer.
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30 Days of So-Called Sustainability
In Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock taped his experience of eating 3 meals per day at McDonald’s for one month. 30 Days is a spin-off television show of that concept. Morgan hosts the show, but finds one or two guests to follow through on the 30 day immersion experience. In Off the Grid, Morgan sends two people to live at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage for 30 days.
From the Chinese-American perspective, I found this show to be fascinating. In China, you have several hundred million people seeking to live on the grid and join the 21st century. However, our modern lifestyle is resource intensive. Where will we find the energy, water and food for all these people? In America, you have a small band of people seeking the opposite route. While these people may have renounced consumerism, their lifestyle depends entirely on consumerism albeit by their neighbors. Recycling or reusing doesn’t exist unless you have a neighbor throwing away perfectly reusable goods. Biodiesel doesn’t exist unless you have restaurants and fast food chains producing vast amounts of grease. Basically, if everyone tried to live like the people from the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, their lifestyle would collapse because their would be no restaurants producing grease, no companies selling solar panels, and no consumers abandoning usable goods in dumpsters. So, while they do use less energy and water than most of us, I don’t think their lifestyle is sustainable.
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Pain Pain Go Away
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that China will be increasing retail gas prices on Friday by 16%. The last time China had increased retail fuel prices was in November. A one day 16% price hike sounds steep; however, consider that prices have been stable for the prior seven months. I last saw $3.99 gas just before the Memorial Day weekend. A month later, we’re around $4.60, or a 15% increase. I would like to take my 15% retroactive to last November as well, please.
I have no idea whether these increases in gas prices are caused by financial speculators, rising global demand or constrained gasoline supplies. Regardless, these price shocks do alter the calculation for determining the break-even point for investing in solar energy and other green technologies.