So the Senate passes a bail out bill with tons of pork attached and sends it over to the House of Representatives. After several days of politicking and behind the scenes deals, the House met on Friday and passes the bail out bill. It was hand carried over to Presidnet Bush who signed it immediately.
The big whigs on Wall Street must be partying their asses off this weekend. I know that the executives at AIG all went to a 5 star resort to celebrate their Government bail out gift. This whole thing makes me so disgusted I can’t even speak.
Not that I pay much attention to the stock market, but the news all last week was about how dire the economy is, with a huge bailout requested by President Bush for Wall Street.
The housing market has been in trouble for almost a year now and now insurance companies and banks are in trouble.
The talking heads on the news channels have been declaring this an economic emergency and insisting that Congress needs to take taxpayer money to bail out Wall Street. Well, I don’t think that is the best solution to this situation and it is nothing more than the consequences of Bush’s faulty and failed economic policies these past 8 years. To come from an economic surplus that was left by the Clinton administration to the dire situation we are in now is more than just egg on the face of the President.
Sure enough the expected vote in Congress did not happen today. The bailout was voted down in the House of Representatives. And the Dow closed down almost 800 points today. Should not have been a surprise to these people.
When people hear that I live in Nashville I’m always bombarded with questions about the music business. What celebrities do I know? Can I can someone big to record a song written by a friend? Can I get them free concert tickets and backstage passes? Can I help someone get their big break?
Found a video on Youtube that you might like if you have an interest in the music business. I think it is always good to hear about the inside track from people who are in the middle of it. John Esposito is the CEO of WEA (Warner, Elektra, Atlantic), so here’s his opinion and advice.
Kelly was telling me more about her dad and how he has been building this personal portfolio of investment real estate. He started out with a lump sum when she just was a little girl and her grandfather passed away. Her dad inherited enough money to pay off his own house and have some left to invest into a vacation condo down in Florida.
They got in touch with a real estate broker at Bardell Real Estate who helped them buy a condo near Disney World in Orlando, and every summer her dad would take the family to Orlando for a 2 week vacation. They stayed in their own condo, basically for free, and the rest of the year he rented out the condo to other people who were coming to Orlando to visit Disney World or Universal Studios. Because of Florida’s nice weather, the Orlando area has lots of tourists, pretty much year round. The Bardell Real Estate brokers specialize in helping investors buy villas and other properties in the Orlando area.
After a few years her dad decided to get something bigger and they bought a nice villa in Orlando. He decided that buying property in Florida was lucrative, so then they bought another villa. Now he owns 4 rentals in Orlando and also the condo in Chattanooga. The money he gets from renting them out more than pays for the mortgages.
I really like that idea of buying real estate as you can afford it and building a portfolio. It sounds like the perfect way to build a solid future and also have someplace to go and stay for free when you want to take the family on vacation.
Last night I aksed one of the ambulance drivers where he bought his tactical pants that he wears on duty. I like the way they are heavy duty construction, meant to last a very long time under extreme conditions in the field. They have lots of pockets, with a specific purposed in mind when they were added, like the loop for a police issue flashlight and the cell phone pocket. These pants were designed for guys who work in rescue and military operations and that’s what I want.
So he told me about a web site called “LA Police Gear” and that’s where he gets most of his gear. They have all the sizes and styles, different colors and shorts as well as long pants, with the best brands, like 5.11 Tactical. So that’s where I’m doing my shopping tonight after the softball game.
At work last night one of the med techs was telling me that she’s taking classes to become a massage therapist. It started out with a little teasing because my shoulders and neck were really sore from the softball game Wednesday night. She wanted to give me a neck massage but was afraid that if she did that while at work that someone would cause trouble for us. Touching another employee is not a good thing as far as management goes - they don’t want to have a sexual harrassment lawsuit or anything. So I didn’t get the neck massage, but I wanted one!
When she finishes the massage classes she will probably move out of the area and get a job at a resort or large spa. There’s not much of that in Chattanooga.
The closest big city for us is Atlanta. It’s about a two hour drive south of here. I don’t know if there is a lot of demand for massage in Atlanta. We were talking about that possibility and did a search for Atlanta Massage and were surprised to find so many listings. We found these using a special search directory called Clicksmart. This directory lists professional in categories like:
Contractors
Florists
Home & Office Services
Massage Therapists
Mortgage Brokers
Real Estate Agents
Weddings and Events
So if we go ahead with the mall kiosk, the critical question is, “what do we sell?”
We need to find something that is an inexpensive gift item, because this is just for the Christmas selling season. We need to keep the cost down to a level where people won’t hesitate to spend the money on an impulse item. Around $10-$20.
It should be small in size and not too heavy, so it can be carried out easily. Probably no larger than a folded sweatshirt.
I found a couple of wholesalers on the internet and will have to do some surfing to see if there is anything really cool that we can do.
The guys are pretty much broke but not in desperate straights. We just are very frugal with the cash that we have and are always looking for ways to get more money. So we were hanging out at the softball game last night and talking about ways we might raise some extra cash for Christmas.
Alex has a girl now. Her idea is to open a kiosk at the mall and sell gift items for the Christmas selling season. I don’t know what kind of gift items will sell around here. But she’s very insistent that we can make some good money if we all go in together and take turns manning the cash register for the 3 months.
Even though I’m working the night shift at the hospital I might have an extra day here and there to help out. But to be honest I think this is more for Alex and his girl to handle. I can handle some of the background effort, like finding wholesalers and arranging for credit card processing and things like that.
I firmly believe that if you are selling a retail product that you must accept credit cards in today’s world. Most people don’t carry much cash any more - they use either credit cards or debit cards to pay for things at the store. In fact, the only cash I spend is at the fast food places. Most places I go take my credit cards without blinking an eye, and if they didn’t take plastic then I probably wouldn’t be shopping there.
For my economics class I have to do an analysis of an existing business and try to change it’s business model to an alternative form. The Professor used the example of a Subway Sandwich shop, which is a franchise. So if you look at what makes a Subway Sandwich shop successful and identify the advantages of it being a franchise, can you theoretically operate the same business under a different business model and have it be comparably successful?
He handed out slips of paper with actual businesses to be assigned and examined by each student. By the luck of the draw, I got a Wilmington NC auto repair shop. The business is a family owned and operated, single location repair shop. At least the subject is interesting to me and they have a web site, so I can do a lot of research from my computer in my room. I might also make a couple of telephone calls during the day and see if the owner would be willing to talk to me.
The shop is named Atlantic Car Care and their web site is pretty nice. It has the hours open and their street address on the sidebar, which is probably what most people will be looking for. They also list all the credit cards that they accept for payment. One cool feature they have is that you can schedule your car repair or maintenance on the internet from their site. It’s got enough informaiton on the site to know that this is a successful business and I can start my analysis with this.
Alex’s dad is an engineer and when the bridge collapsed up in Minneapolis several months ago, he was called in by the Feds to do some consulting work on the bridge repair. He’s an environmental engineer, and to be honest I don’t really know what he does or what it has to do with the environment. Neither does Alex. LOL!
Anyway, his Dad really like Minnesota and has been calling here encouraging Alex to come up to Minneapolis on our next break and spend some time with him up north. He’s even told us about the local newspaper, the Star Tribune, and how it has lots of listings for Minneapolis jobs.
He says there are a lot of companies hiring in Minnesota and that Alex can write his own ticket after he graduates. Of course, Alex should go on up north and check out the area before he takes any career advice and moves up there. Plus, graduation is still eight months away. But we are getting a lot of mail from recruiters and it’s never too early to make your plans for after graduation. Hell, maybe I should check out the job listings and go up north for a visit with Alex - we might both find something.