Monthly Archives: June 2009

E-mails on BofA-Merrill deal fascinating stuff

June 12, 200911:25 a.m.

If you’ve got a few minutes to kill you ought to check out the e-mails between Fed and Bank of America officials prior to the Charlotte bank’s acquisition of the troubled investment bank Merrill Lynch.

Some of the correspondence suggests there was great concern about people protecting themselves and their organizations from legal actions.

What really stands out was the acknowledgment by officials that Merrill was very troubled.

One senior Fed official writes: “Merrill is really scary and ugly.”

You can read some of those e-mails here, courtesy of The Eagle’s friends at the Charlotte Obeserver.

By Jerry Siebenmark | Filed under Banking | Comments Off | Share this post

This just in

June 12, 20099:20 a.m.

We do indeed get a raft of press releases via e-mail here at the Eagleland Businessplex.

But few that catch my attention as much as this one:

Welcome.

Thanks a bunch. Rarely do PR folks begin their releases with such a homespun greeting. Smashing.

Ever driven over 600,000 potholes–on purpose? We have.

Well, I sure have driven over 600,000 potholes. I live in Harvey County. And I use West Street a lot. But on purpose? Nah.

The Nissan Altima must withstand more than 5,000 quality and durability tests to ensure it will deliver years of performance.

Outstanding. The 2000 Chevy Blazer I had sure wouldn’t survive one, let alone thousands. But it provided days of performance – before it broke down again.

It also has to be fuel efficient, getting 32 hwy mpg, and of course, it must be fun to drive.

Well, if it wasn’t fun to drive, it’d be a Mini Cooper scooting me on my wallet down Kellogg. Who’d buy it?

On top of that, it’s won a Consumers Digest Best Buy Award.

Dandy. We finally make it to the content of the press release.

Take a closer look at the Altima at your Nissan Dealer.

Good idea. Anyone got Dawson Grimsley’s phone number?

By Bill Wilson | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments Off | Share this post

Report: Oil to reach $80-$90 by early 2010

June 2, 200912:11 p.m.

OPEC’s secretary general told Reuters today that oil prices could hit $80 to $90 a barrel by early next year. At the same time, Abdullah al-Badri also said OPEC was not ready to formally increase its output ceiling.

Tuesday, West Texas crude was going for $68.25 per barrel.

In a separate story, Baldri told Reuters that more balance was needed between the amount of oil traded in the physical markets and the “paper” markets. OPEC has blamed that imbalance for driving oil prices to a record-high $147 a barrel last year.

By Rick Plumlee | Filed under Energy | Comments (6) | Share this post

Why did GM fail?

June 1, 20091:04 p.m.

Excellent piece here on the factors behind the long-term collapse of General Motors, which filed for bankruptcy reorganization protection today.

Lots of variables to consider. Personally, I have historically preferred Honda and Toyota for their durability – my one adventure into a Chevy Blazer was a near-bankrupting blizzard of repair bills and esoteric issues that challenged mechanics far and wide.

But if it’s true that GM is making higher quality vehicles now than a decade ago, it seems like a company with a future – if it begins making higher quality management decisions than a decade ago.

By Bill Wilson | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (21) | Share this post

UPC bar code fans rejoice

June 1, 20099:43 a.m.

barcodeWe get lots and lots of press releases in our inbox here at Business Casual Central. And frankly, a lot of them are junk. They come from this organization or that PR person based somewhere on a coast and have absolutely no relevance to Wichita, to Kansas, or to just about anything.

Normally, they are met with a quick press of the handy-dandy delete key, never to be seen again. But I got one this morning that caught my eye for some reason. Maybe I’m a little loopy after a restless night, but I found it interesting nonetheless: the 35th anniversary of the Universal Product Code will be celebrated on Wednesday.

How do you celebrate such an event? With a giant UPC-adorned birthday cake, of course.

From the release:

One of the world’s best-known symbols, the U.P.C. comprises a row of 59 machine-readable black and white bars and 12 human-readable digits. Both the bars and the digits convey the same information: the identity of a specific product and its manufacturer.

Originally developed to help supermarkets speed up the checkout process, the first live use of a U.P.C. took place in a Marsh Supermarkets store in Troy, Ohio, on June 26, 1974, when a cashier scanned a package of Wrigley’s gum. It ushered in extraordinary economic and productivity gains for shoppers, retailers and manufacturers alike, with estimated annual cost savings of $17 billion in the grocery sector alone, according to one study.

So when you go to Wal-Mart or Target or wherever on Wednesday, be sure to wish the bar codes a happy birthday.

By Dan Loving | Filed under Economy, Retail | Comments Off | Share this post