So, I am reading an article by the AP on finance.yahoo.com about the auto bailout passing the house but looking at heavy opposition from republicans in the senate. Now at this point the government has doled out so much money, what is another $ 14 Billion ? The government whats someone to oversee General Motors and Chrysler when they take the federal financing, and Ford Motor Corporation should they participate , although they still are stating they have enough cash to stay liquid at this point.

   Now up to this point I am following and it is more or less what we have come to expect. Business is run poorly, bad decisions made, business going under, fed bails business out, tax payer left holding proverbial bag. They would leave us to believe that if we allow these companies to take the natural course of other mismanaged companies ( bankruptcy ) that we would be left it some sort of apocalyptic ruin. I could be wrong as I am not a studied expert of economics and the auto industry but really ?! There are businesses making money , buying , merging and hiring. Why ? Because they are well run with healthy cash flows and strong balance sheets. Is the consumer going to benefit from the Big 3 being bailed out. I doubt this because, whatever stipulations the government tries to impose will still be mediocre when compared to the technology we possess. People are getting 40 year old pickup trucks to run off of firewood, how is it that my car a 2002, gets 17 mpg city ( and its japanese ) . Or Ford makes the the 24 mpg fuel economy on their new Ford Flex seem like a real gas sipper. It goes without saying you are not going to get 24 mpg as no one lives in a perfect lab test enviroment. Yet, intel can put 291 million transistors on its core 2 duo chip die that measures in at a minature 88 mm x 88 mm .

    The clintcher for me though was at the very end of this article it says there is a provision for a pay raise for federal judges. Not only is that obviously not related in any way to the auto bailout but does the government not thing it is in poor taste to give these guys a pay raise in a bill that is going to add an additional tax burden to the American people. I can tell you the cause of our economic woes, greed. Greed is the reason that we did not have the oversight and measures in place to prevent the financial meltdown. Greed is the reason gas mileage sucks. Greed is the reason the government continues to pass bills with large sums of wasted tax dollars. Hey, at least the stock market went up some.

~ Matt

   I use to shop at traditional grocery stores for the food, and general home goods. I know for meat, you usually can not beat a good butcher but I never took the time to find one. Then as money got tighter I started using a great place called Trader Joes. They were not the best in price for most your groceries but they do care many items cheaper than their larger Stop & Shop and Big Y counterparts.

   Now of course the economy has changed greatly. And I am sure you know groceries have increased dramatically. Unlike oil and gas, the prices of milk, bread, meats and most other groceries has not fallen. I feel this is because they are using the economy to keep inflated prices , though I suspect their underlying costs have decreased. This leads me to warehouse discounters. I never joined because of the membership fee and having to buy bulk. This of course means that you may get more at a lower cost per unit, you have to store it and use it before it expires.

   I have joined Costco and can tell you with the greatest certainty that I have recaptured my membership cost many times over. The membership starts at $50 a year. For this to be worthwhile to a family of four ( me ) you would have to save $4.17 per month. I would say we have to go twice a month so now we are talking $2.08 per trip. Very easy to do. They offer a discount on gas as well which was useful while prices were crazy. That is not to say everything is a deal and cheaper than buying it from a mainstream supermarket. But if you have kids and go through milk and Orange Juice like I do you will save your membership costs on those items alone. They sell a store brand organic store brand of milk in a case of three. When compared to other organic milk brands it ends up being roughly buy two get one. And for the orange juice most stores charge $3.00 plus per 64 ounces. Costco sells these items in a case of four for which I think ends up being about buy two get two.

   In summary if you have one of these stores close to you I think the membership costs will more than pay for the discounts you will receive. And I forgot to mention, they carry very good apples that last for weeks, making them an excellent purchase. So check out the costs and benefits to see if you can start saving real money on those items we buy most often.

~Matt

    I have been using Twitter for about two weeks now. Twitter explains there site as; “Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” This site like MySpace and Facebook are part of this social networking arena.

   Now I have a myspace account and am being pressured to create a Facebook account as well. I also have a Linkedin account. I cannot speak on Facebook yet but of the services I participate I find Twitter to be the most compelling. Much like receiving an email on the blackberry you feel almost guilty if you do not respond. It amazing how these technologies that once did not exist now shape our behaviour. I think I favor Twitter because it is simple and very viral. I also prefer it because it integrates well with my Wordpress blog, www.faslip.com .

   Twitter also has allowed me to meet people that share similar interest and who have already helped me to gain new knowledge. Considering the service is free , and the time I did not have to spend trying to learn the same points, the service has returned value many times over. I must point out, I am not a texting nut or addicted to IM. In fact, I have often avoid these services as I would rather speak to someone directly because it is more personal. But Twitter has captured me at this time as a long term user.

   In summary if you run a Wordpress log get the tools to integrate your Wordpress Blog with Twitter. Just google Twitter Wordpress plugins. At minimum get a plugin that tweets your blog posts and one that posts your tweets on your blog. This should help with creating material on your site for the search engines to index and hopefully drive organic traffic to your blog.

~ Matt

AT&T Massive Layoffs 12,000 to Lose Jobs

Apparently AT&T has announced that they may cut up to 12,000 jobs.Apparently this will lead to the first time they have had a total drop in employment since merging with Bellsouth. Then there is DuPont which manufactures industrial products and they are looking to cut up to 2,500 jobs. Deep breath, let us not forget starbucks who has closed 600 underperforming stores to date, and I am sure there are more to come. This is in addition to the thousands of jobs already cut and only a couple weeks after Citigroup announced their massive layoffs of 50,000 jobs.
I know I sound like a broken record, but people need to tighten budgets and get some emergency savings in place. I am sure many of those who get cut in this next wave of layoffs are thinking to themselves , ” I never thought it would happen to me. ” People, if you have a private sector job, it is considered “at will employment”. That means at your will to work there and at the employers will to continue to employ and pay your salary. We are in hard times and can not stumble along with the dangerous mentality of shutting out worst case scenerios.

This all of course leads to my final point that you must always be learning and reading. The more skills you obtain the more marketable you remain and or valuable to your current employer. You need to make the time to continue to grow yourself as a person and as an employee. Because if they need you its less likely you will be let go , than if you are just going along with the flow like everyone else. Stand out, make a difference , and show how much value you are adding to the business. This of course will not make you invincible but it may be enough for them to hold on to you through the tough times.

~Matt

   I thought this was worth mentioning, especially since I missed it in the initial announcement. My apologies for that oversight. The increased FDIC insurance of $250,000 will expire December 31, 2009. Starting January 1, 2010 the insurance will revert back to the $100,000 we are all so familiar with. In case you are not sure of what I speak, FDIC is what insures your deposits from your bank failing. This means if your bank goes bankrupt and you have $250,000 or less in checking and savings acocunts combined you will not lose the money. The good thing worth mentioning is this is a per bank limit allowing you to insure more money by opening accounts at different banks, if you are fortunate enough to have this problem. Please keep in mind though that because this is temporary if your account does exceed $100,000 at any single bank you will no longer be fully insured against losses. To clarify though like myself you may not currently have such concerns I wish everyone great fortune and prosperity so that one day this is something you and I will both have to consider.

~ Matt