As you might have read in this blog post last week, Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” has been engaged in a little battle with CNBC.
Since it started, Stewart has been in a war of words with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, who you can see on “Mad Money.”
Well, tonight is the night. Cramer and Stewart face off on Stewart’s show, which airs at 10 p.m. in Wichita. It will be interesting to see what happens. I know I’ll be watching.
Alex Garvin, the Yale University urban planning professor, put a few tips for kickstarting Wichita’s downtown on the table Wednesday night at the Wichita Downtown Development Corporation’s annual lecture.
Tucked neatly among those tips was a message for the the huddled masses yearning to park in a lovely $20,000-per-space concrete parking garage next door to the Intrust Bank Arena: Forget it.
Garvin’s only been in Wichita for a couple of days, so he can be excused for missing the city’s pathological aversion to – gasp – walking.
But he’s been involved in reviving downtowns for decades, and his advice to strategically spread out downtown’s attractions to induce patrons to walk among them for pre- and post-event food, drinks and fun should be taken very seriously.
He talked frequently Wednesday night about the economic dangers of allowing patrons to “get in their cars and go home.” Which is precisely what you do in Wichita by allowing the exercise-averse to park within a few feet of Intrust’s front door. Do that, and you all but assure that downtown won’t develop around the arena.
Call Garvin’s advice what you will. I call it an unqualified endorsement for the initial plans put in place by the Sedgwick County Commission and the Wichita City Council.
Very quietly, a federal program to jump-start consumer lending kicked off today.
Experts think the program could ease skin-tight consumer and business credit, which would translate into needed business for everyone from car dealers to property owners.
It will be interesting to see if this move works – and what kind of partisan criticism it draws.
It’s fascinating what you can find on Google.
Proposition K, the anti-tax proposal in Kansas to standardize property tax hikes at 2 percent, was the subject of a Google search today as I sought to learn more about it.
Imagine my surprise to find this Proposition K that went to the ballot last year in San Francisco.
Hmmmmmm. Anyway, here’s a good capsule on what Kansas’ Proposition K covers, and it’s not prostitution.
Let’s get a discussion going on Kansas’ version. Is this normalizing property taxes? Or is it a thinly-veiled attempt to shift property tax burdens off the affluent?
What do you think?
The headline above is the mantra of Tim Pett, director of Wichita State’s Center for Entrepreneurship. And now, this article by Financial Express substantiates that.
In fact, Pett thinks now is the time for entrepreneurs to begin chasing their dream, much as Bill Gates used a recession to kick-start Microsoft.
Your thoughts?
I have to confess: When I opened this commentary from former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, I expected to be smacked in the face with the words “The fundamentals of the economy are strong,” the phrase that brought down her friend John McCain’s presidential campaign.
Being oblivious is never a good thing.
Instead, what this commentary does is bring forth some common-sense moderation on the admittedly absurd compensation packages CEOs receive. As we’ve seen, too often the CEO is busy driving the company into the ditch with just one hand, because the other’s plunged deep into shareholders’ pockets and employees’ futures.
It’s predictable, frankly, that Americans — and our leaders — are going to react harshly to the unregulated corporate greed that’s so heavily damaged our economy.
But moderation’s never a bad idea, either.
There’s a recurring incident that we chuckle about in the Business Today cockpit every so often.
You make a call to a retailer for information. The reply comes across like a winter cold front: “We’re not interested in participating in any story.” Sometimes you get a bonus: “Corporate won’t be interested, either.”
Although cooperative retailers greatly outnumber that level of rudeness, it happens surprisingly often.
Now, left-leaning America-hating scalawags that we media types are (Warning: sarcasm alert), we nonetheless find humor in these little beatdowns.
Because, media folks have money. We’re consumers, too – consumers who take note of these little eruptions of rudeness and cross these businesses off our shopping list.
The tug of war between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and declining oil demand took another interesting turn Wednesday.
Meanwhile, OPEC’s making noise about further production cuts to try to “stabilize” oil prices.
Which force prevails here? Is demand so curtailed by the economic downturn that OPEC can’t stop the slide? Will a seller’s market return, with $3 and $4 gas down the road?
I’m thinking today that maybe Thomas Etheredge’s amusement park idea wasn’t so hot after all.
According to the Associated Press, attorneys for Hard Rock Myrtle Beach Holdings LLC have filed for liquidation bankruptcy, eight months after the $400 million 55-acre amusement park opened. The park was the biggest single investment ever in South Carolina tourism.
Last month, the park was auctioned but no bidder who could pay at least the opener of $35 million, or about 9 cents on the dollar, emerged.
In the words of the immortal Yogi Berra, “It’s like deja vu all over again.”
There was some good news to come out this morning from the Federal Reserve.
Households are paying down their debt for the first time in 56 years.
I say it’s good because maybe the masses are beginning to realize that overextending themselves to keep up with the Joneses isn’t a good thing.
Of course the downside is that they aren’t out their spending as much on products and services, the fuel for our nation’s economy.
Maybe the economic downturn has created a much needed “correction” in society. Just like a correction in the stock market.
Dan Loving and I had lunch today with Bryan Derreberry and Barby Jobe from the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce. We congratulated them on having such a great annual dinner this year. Doris Kearns Goodwin was an undeniable hit.
So how do they top her next year (or even come close to having as good of a program)? Bryan said he’s already at work on that. He was also nice enough to ask for suggestions. So here goes.
How about a journalist? Ted Koppel, Tom Brokaw or maybe my personal favorite, Maureen Dowd.
Journalists have front-row seats and backstage passes — literally and figuratively — to all kinds of news most of us only get in black and white or soundbites. They can offer behind-the-scenes stories and perspectives on events and world leaders.
With the right pick — hopefully someone more engaging than professorial — the chamber could get a speaker who appeals to Republicans and Democrats alike.
And for this journalist, that will be worth reporting.
Tiger Woods is out as a General Motors spokesman at the end of the year, the Associated Press reports.
GM said in a statement Monday that it is looking to reduce costs, and that the star golfer also wants more personal time as he expects his second child.
Woods has endorsed GM products around the world and has been closely tied to its Buick brand in the U.S., Canada and China.
GM’s vice president for North American sales, Mark LaNeve, says the separation is the result of discussions earlier in the year and is not related to the company’s campaign for $25 billion in loans from the federal government.