Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Starbucked
Expanded just a bit too fast.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp (NasdaqGS:SBUX - News) said on Tuesday it plans to close another 500 underperforming stores and eliminate as many as 12,000 fill- and part-time positions.
The company, which now plans to close a total of 600 underperforming stores, will take related charges totaling more than $325 million.
The Consumption Possibilities Set Is Not Convex
While making fun of Rod Dreher, Roy brings up a point that some people miss which is that you can't live in the middle of nowhere and have all of the benefits of more densely populated areas. This true even if you have very large amounts of money, though obviously large amounts of money can help ameliorate the downsides of wherever you live and improve the upsides a bit.
Good policy can also help tip the scales quite a bit, but ultimately there are going to be some downsides to living in densely populated areas. Different people will of course have different preferences and that's whyI'm going to make you all move to Manhattan people live in lots of different types of places (recognizing that choices are constrained by budgets and other things). But hopefully high gas prices will spur a bit of better urban policy which has been lacking in most places for so long due in large part to disproportionate representation of nonurban people at various levels of government.
...adding that the reverse is true obviously. You can't live in a big city and have the benefits of living in the middle of nowhere. The point is you can't just pick out the best bits that you like from each and try to combine them, though I think decades of suburban development has in large part been a failed attempt to do just that.
Good policy can also help tip the scales quite a bit, but ultimately there are going to be some downsides to living in densely populated areas. Different people will of course have different preferences and that's why
...adding that the reverse is true obviously. You can't live in a big city and have the benefits of living in the middle of nowhere. The point is you can't just pick out the best bits that you like from each and try to combine them, though I think decades of suburban development has in large part been a failed attempt to do just that.
Repair
It's a shame we have a malevolent dictator, because a benevolent one would see this was a good opportunity to repair some infrastructure.
The worst Midwest flooding since 1993 has generated images of swamped towns, cracked roads, washed-out bridges, overwhelmed dams, failed levees, broken sewage systems, stunted crops and water-logged refugees.
The losses are in the billions of dollars and still mounting, as the costs of crop losses alone send shocks through the inflation-wracked world food system and threaten insurers.
The disaster has reminded policymakers of the decrepit state of U.S. infrastructure, stirring concerns similar to those following the deadly Minneapolis bridge collapse in 2007 and the flooding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Everybody's Waiting For The SUPERTRAIN
So they aren't buying cars.
The economic slowdown and the high gasoline prices hit the carmakers hard in June.
Sales fell 28 percent at the Ford Motor Company, 21.4 percent at the Toyota Motor Company and 18 percent at General Motors in June the worst month yet in a miserable year for the automobile industry.
Sales at Honda Motor Company and Volkswagen rose about 1 percent. Those two automakers are less-dependent on pickup and sport utility vehicles.
Jeffrey Goldberg Speaks For Islam
Of course it makes perfect sense.
In his previous incarnation he advocated awar "profound act of morality" which would result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of practitioners of Islam.
In his previous incarnation he advocated a
Everybody's A Critic
One thing about blogging during the campaign is that you end up pissing people off on all sides. There are those who, understandably, think it's vitally important that Barack Obama be elected and so important that asshole bloggers like me should refrain from any and all criticism lest my mighty blog powers cause Obama to fail. And there are those that get mad because I'm completely in the tank and don't criticize Obama enough. And everyone in between.
I actually think all perspectives, except the crazy people who imagine the Obama campaign is funneling lots of money to me, have merit. It is vitally important that Obama win this election, and the importance of that towers over most day to day stuff But I'm inspired to criticize at times when I think Obama (and Kerry before him) is engaging in bad politics.
Mostly I just do whatever it is I do on this sucky blog without thinking too much about it. Still I try to distinguish between actions (what Obama does as a senator) and campaign rhetoric which doesn't matter nearly as much. Obama isn't trying to win my vote and the campaign isn't going to be aimed at me. There are ways a campaign approach can narrow options after victory, but mostly a campaign is about winning. Hope is not a plan, but let's hope they actually have a plan to do that.
I actually think all perspectives, except the crazy people who imagine the Obama campaign is funneling lots of money to me, have merit. It is vitally important that Obama win this election, and the importance of that towers over most day to day stuff But I'm inspired to criticize at times when I think Obama (and Kerry before him) is engaging in bad politics.
Mostly I just do whatever it is I do on this sucky blog without thinking too much about it. Still I try to distinguish between actions (what Obama does as a senator) and campaign rhetoric which doesn't matter nearly as much. Obama isn't trying to win my vote and the campaign isn't going to be aimed at me. There are ways a campaign approach can narrow options after victory, but mostly a campaign is about winning. Hope is not a plan, but let's hope they actually have a plan to do that.
Faith Based
I don't actually have a problem with money going to church-linked organizations as long as they aren't exempt from oversight or anti-discrimination laws and don't proselytize. Early Associated Press reports incorrectly stated that Obama would allow such organizations to discriminate in hiring based on religion, but that apparently is not the case.
As with all of these things the devil is in the details, but there's nothing wrong with supporting good programs.
As with all of these things the devil is in the details, but there's nothing wrong with supporting good programs.
Different
In the previous oil crises there were supply disruptions, and in the first one price controls. You can have increasing prices without supply disruptions, which is what we're experiencing at the moment.
Speculation is probably causing some oil price volatility, but count me among those who don't really see it as the underlying cause of high prices. Though the dollar decline has of course played a significant role.
Speculation is probably causing some oil price volatility, but count me among those who don't really see it as the underlying cause of high prices. Though the dollar decline has of course played a significant role.
Crisis
It's true, I suppose, that there can be temporary market conditions such that "fair value accounting" might give an inaccurate picture, but the financial and mortgage lending crisis we're in isn't temporary. Those foreclosures are real, those loans aren't being paid back, and all of the investors who bought CDOs are going to be getting a bit less than 100 cents on the dollar.
There's really no chance that the housing market will suddenly rebound, that prices will appreciate 30%, that people trapped in mortgages they can't repay - some due to crazy lending terms, some simply because they have big mortgages they could never afford - will cease to be underwater and be able to refinance or sell.
There's really no chance that the housing market will suddenly rebound, that prices will appreciate 30%, that people trapped in mortgages they can't repay - some due to crazy lending terms, some simply because they have big mortgages they could never afford - will cease to be underwater and be able to refinance or sell.
Obama's Packer Problem
And ours, too, really. I'm not really sure why people who have helped cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of deaths in a pointless and stupid war are to be listened to, but for some reason people keep listening.
Hat Trick
And, as expected, the Clinton rules of journalism have become the Obama rules of journalism.
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