I’m on my bank’s home page and, frustratingly, I can’t get to my account. While continuing to try in vain, I can’t help but laugh at a little remark posted next to the bank’s annual report. It says “Bank X (not it’s real name) is sound.”
Of course, my immediate thought is how sound can the bank be if it can’t even keep its Web site working?
OK, that’s not entirely fair. Still, I laughed at the irony.
Christmas is still a long way away for most people, but retailers are already sweating heavily. With a mushrooming crisis on Wall Street, likely recession, rising unemployment and depressed home prices in some markets, even the normally optimistic National Retail Federation is predicting this will be a bad year for Christmas shopping nationally. The group is calling for growth of just 2.2 percent, half the annual average growth rate since 2000 and the worst since 2003.
That’s not to say that Wichita and its retailers will be affected as much. Although unemployment appears to be rising locally, the local economy remains solid for now. Maybe there will be some Christmas cheer, still, for Wichita stores.
Cancer treatments are advancing steadily, but the supply of cancer doctors isn’t, USA Today reports.
The United States could face a shortage of as many as 4,080 oncologists by 2020, according to a report from the American Society for Clinical Oncology.
Factors contributing to the impending shortfall include the aging of the U.S. population (cancer is more prevalent among older adults), retiring oncologists, and — shockingly — a growing number of female oncologists. Apparently, studies show female cancer doctors see fewer patients than their male counterparts.
Business Facilities magazine has listed Wichita among its seven Editors’ Location Picks in 2008. The list also includes Salt Lake City; Midland, Texas; Syracuse, N.Y.; Philadelphia; Oklahoma City and Minneapolis/St. Paul.
Here’s part of what was said about Wichita in the article:
The Wichita MSA is a hotbed of aviation activity. In 2007 aerospace sales growth broke records for the fourth year in a row according to the Aerospace Industries Association, making it one of the target industries on economic developers’ lists. But Wichita already has a great aviation cluster in place. In fact, the south central Kansas region is one of the largest centers of composite aircraft component design and fabrication. Companies such as Boeing, Cessna and Hawker-Beechcraft have utilized these materials in aircraft for more than 25 years, and recent technological advances are increasing the use of advanced materials and polymers in commercial and general aviation manufacturing. The growth in composite structural aircraft is estimated to be 14% per year over the next 20 years. This is keeping the Wichita MSA pointed in the right direction for economic growth.
You can read the entire article at the Business Facilities Web site.
The life of an athletic director isn’t perhaps as cushy as it might seem.
Wichita State Athletic Director Eric Sexton was at Cessna Stadium early today. It wasn’t exactly bright and early since it was still dark outside. But it looked like he’d stopped by to cheer on those of us either determined enough or crazy enough to participate in “Shocker Fitness with Coach Bolt.” Of course, it’s not like Sexton was in his sweats.
Among other abuses, track coach Steve Rainbolt made us run the bleachers. The steep, imposing and, at times, menacing bleachers. He pointed out that when people come for events, sometimes they have a hard time making it to the top seats.
To which one weary participant added, “That’s why we don’t have football.”
According to the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan, but definitely anti-tax group, about 33 percent of tax filers don’t pay taxes because they don’t make enough money or qualify for credits that cancel out their tax bill.
How do the presidential candidates rate? The foundation says Obama would take another 10 percent off the tax roles through various tax credits, so that 44 percent of the populace (63 million people) would pay no taxes, with several new tax credits. McCain would add 9 percent to 43 percent (62 million people) not liable, with a major new tax credit that encourages people to buy health insurance.
Not much difference.
Some of the reasons fewer medical students are choosing to specialize in primary care — a subset of internal medicine — has to do with lifestyle, says a report in the Sept. 10 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.
They want better hours and recompense for the amount of time and work it requires to treat the large portion of elderly and medically complex patients this specialty sees.
A study to find out students’ impressions and concerns found they were concerned about patient complexity, the practice environment and lifestyle, compared with other specialties, officials said.
“Current students recognize the increasing demands on internists, particularly primary care physicians, to accomplish large numbers of preventive and therapeutic interventions during short visits with chronically ill patients while also managing increasing administrative expectations,” the authors wrote. “Career interest in general (internal medicine) is particularly low, reflecting the challenges in the primary care practice environment…”
Aerial refueling bids from Northrop Grumman and Boeing were both “technically outstanding” but Boeing’s bid came in almost $3 billion more, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer told the Washington Post.
John Young, the undersecretary for acquisition, said the tanker proposal from Northrop Grumman and partner European Aeronautic Defence & Space, the first 68 tankers would have cost $12.5 billion, compared to $15.4 billion under Boeing’s bid.
Northrop also promised earlier delivery and that its aircraft “provided more tanker capability and offload rate,” Young told the Washington Post.
I’m here to endorse the point made below by my colleague Carrie Rengers, and to amplify on it a little more.
I just finished a 40-minute interview with one of the most fascinating business leaders I’ve met in Wichita. Not going to tell you who, because of the competition, but it’s something for you to be looking forward to in the coming days in the Eagle.
Candid. Funny. Sincere. Down-to-earth. All the things that help a reporter understand an interview subject better.
And proof that Carrie’s right: The better we as reporters know you, the happier you’re going to be with the context of the reporting we do on you.
It’s become an American spectator sport among pundits – a Latin word for “talks constantly, knows nothing” – to paint the media as Satan. We all have agendas. We all are liberals. We all hate America’s institutions. Blah, blah, blah.
The truth is: Sit down with us. Get to know us. Let us get to know you.
You’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results.
I know it goes against most people’s instincts when talking to a reporter, but I’ve found time and again it’s best to be as open and frank as possible.
I was reminded of this while at lunch with a businessman this week. He’s someone who’s been in the news a lot through the years, and not always in a positive way. We had an off-the-record lunch, so he felt more free to speak. I came away from our meeting with a new understanding of him, his partners and what they do. It seemed to me if they had been this open all along — with everyone — their business dealings might have played better in the press.
I certainly understand the need for privacy in business transactions. But sometimes secrecy leads to more questions and misperceptions than would exist if someone simply said, look, here’s the deal, and explained it frankly.
Just a thought.
To call what has been happening in the stock market this week crazy is an understatement.
In fact, it’s stupidity.
No where is that more clear than what is happening to Morgan Stanley, one of the nation’s two remaining independent investment banks.
Yesterday, Morgan Stanley turned in a good quarter. Not stellar, mind you, but its results beat analysts’ expectations and, more important, it posted a profit.
Stanley’s results were positive enough that officials of the company released results a day early, maybe thinking they could bring some calm to an industry that’s besieged by bankruptcy and forced mergers.
But guess what? Despite turning in an admirable performance, Morgan Stanley’s stock price tanked. And because of that, it’s having to look at a merger.
Incredible.
Perception, in this case, truly is reality. Even though that perception among investors is deeply misguided.
The battle for Wichita market share between Cox and AT&T’s UVerse might heat up a little bit this week, with Kansas Jayhawk football in the middle.
The Jayhawks’ game Saturday night against Davy Crockett – I mean, Sam Houston – will be broadcast on Fox College Sports. UVerse offers FCS; Cox does not. This morning, the hosts of the Game Plan, a sports talk show on KSGO, were mounting a campaign to try and change that.
We learned weeks ago that UVerse’s sports offerings are FAR superior to Cox, including satellite-like access to the collection of Fox Sports directional channels – you know, Fox Sports Midwest, Fox Sports Houston, Fox Sports Clonmel, etc – across the country. Despite that, a Cox representative in Arkansas said then that the company has no plans to change its channel menu to compete with AT&T.
I recall that a few years ago, Cox responded to the outcry over a Wichita State basketball broadcast on ESPNU by adding the channel to its digital sports tier. It’ll be interesting to see if there’s a similar outcry over KU’s Saturday game, and if Cox responds.