Ford Lowers Debt by Almost 10 Billion

Unlike its fellow counterparts GM and Chrysler, Ford Motor Company stated on Monday that they have been able to lower automotive debt by $9.9 billion, down to $15.9 billion from almost $26 billion at the end of last year. With this announcement today, Ford stock rose to 3.77 (up 16%). This announcement has greatly improved my confidence in Ford Motor Company.

Ford was able to achieve this milestone because of several different reasons. Ford made an agreement with the United Automobile Workers Union that would cut payments on health care for retired workers, a main factor in their present debt. In addition, Ford has bought out many of their higher-paid hourly workers and halted payments to executives.

Ford's platform should be a model for GM and Chrysler, who have yet to make an agreement with the United Automobile Workers Union. Ford's effort to reduce automotive debt during poor economic times is a step in the right direction for the American automobile manufacturer. It is unfortunate that cuts in retiree benefits were initiated, but steps like this must be taken to survive poor car sales during the current recession.

N. Korea – A Child with Matches

In every elementary class room across the world, there sits a child that constantly seeks attention. Attention from teachers, from peers, from his elders and his juniors. When they do not get the attention they want, they do more drastic things. It starts with something small, but if the issue is never addressed, it can turn into something huge. These children can become rebellious; they can become bullies; they can be a danger to themselves or others. As you have probably guessed, North Korea is this attention obsessed child.

A Los Angeles Times headline stated: “As North Korea readies rocket launch, U.S. turns up pressure”. Are we surprised? It seems like every week N. Korea is doing something to instill the world of fear. This week they are “readying” rocket launches, last week they are threatening the world about something that is now irrelevant. Just like the elementary child, N. Korea is insecure. Just as an example, North Korea has been working on a Hotel project to bring in tourism since 1987. Shortly after the building’s skeleton was complete the project ran out of money and construction was put to a halt. For 16 years the building sat there uncompleted. To this day, over 20 years later it is still considered “under construction”.

North Korea cannot be ignored. It does have threatening capabilities, but instead of publishing their “goals” (which we have seen is not a reliable source of information) in our daily papers, why not put them in their place? Not in an aggressive war-like way, that’s what they would want, but in a intellectual way, such as trade. This North Korean situation is getting old; I predict that next week, N. Korea does something to try and intimidate the world. The worst thing the world could do is actually let N.  Korea think they have control over people’s fear. 

The Dismal Trend in Audio Quality

Music appreciation has been increasing over the last 10 years, mostly due to popularity of portable music players including iPods. It seems like almost everybody owns an iPod, from young girls with Hannah Montana iPod cases to the Queen of England, thanks to President Obama.

Technology has allowed a wide range of music to be accessible to many different types of people. Because of this trend in technology, it would naturally seem that audio quality has improved as well. Unfortunately, this is definitely not the case.

Over 90% of the time that I see a person listening to an iPod, they are listening with the included headphones. If you have not heard these headphones, they sound worse than a clock radio from the '70s. This makes absolutely no sense to me.

I don't see how a person can spend $300 on a fancy audio player, just to listen to headphones that sound like neanderthal speakers (such as these). This would be similar to a mom buying a Ferrari only so she can take her kids to school.

I'm sorry if I have offended you, but all I ask is for consumers to spend $50 or more on a good set of headphones (Sennheiser, Grado, Bose, AKG). I promise it will be worth it, and $50 isn't much after dropping $300 on an iPod. Your ears will thank you.

President Obama at G-20 Meeting!

A Simple Understanding: G-20

In these past few days, the topic of many front page headlines has been the G-20 meeting (it also was the subject of my article "Consumer Power"). Everyone talks about G-20 as if it is common knowledge, when in reality, most people have no idea what G-20 is or means.

G-20 is a group of central bank governors from 20 of the most powerful economies of the world. They meet once a year to discuss, announce, study and review global finance. The goal of a G-20 meeting is to balance and maintain the global economy. Each year the meeting takes place in a different country, for instance this year the meeting is to be held in London.

The G-20 meeting this year is getting so much attention due to the fact of the global recession, which is the number one subject. They will look at and discuss many alternatives on how to solve this global mess.

Official Frog Domain Desktop Wallpaper Released!

Frog Domain has teamed up with desktop Wallpaper site Zeus Wallpapers to release the official Frog Domain wallpaper. It is available in two different resolutions: 1680x1050 and 1280x1024. Click here to download.