Here’s a little required reading for my commodities speculation fans, courtesy of Rolling Stone.
It becomes a little more obvious, doesn’t it, why all the great verve to convince the easily fooled that commodities markets are governed by supply and demand? Greed.
I remain annoyed, frankly, that President Obama continues to fiddle while these scandals burn.
But as the article points out, the depths to which people have gone over the past 60 years to turn the commodities floor into a casino where only the ordinary man loses probably aren’t correctable in one presidential term.
Or two. Or three. Or four.
Intrust Bank Arena GM Chris Presson had it right when he said in Have You Heard? that the arena can’t control who is on tour and when. He was responding to some heat that IBA has booked mostly country acts since it started announcing performances last month.
After he said it, and after reading more comments today, I started to wonder what acts other arenas in the region have booked around the time IBA opens in January and beyond. And you know what? IBA stacks up quite nicely.
According to Pollstar, these are the acts that have been booked at other arenas in the region in January and beyond (bold indicates those not announced for IBA, which opens Jan. 9):
Sprint Center in KC: Bon Jovi, John Mayer, Taylor Swift, George Strait/Reba McEntire and Tim McGraw.
Ford Center in OKC: Brad Paisley, Mayer and Swift.
BOK Center in Tulsa: Strait/McEntire, McGraw and Bon Jovi.
Qwest Center in Omaha: McGraw, Mayer, Bon Jovi and Strait/McEntire.
That’s it folks: John Mayer. Would the Mayer concert be nice to have and increase the diversity of concerts? Sure. But I bet KC would like to have Paisley, OKC would like to have Bon Jovi, and Tulsa and Omaha would like to have Swift. And I’ve had several friends mention that they’re most excited to see Jeff Dunham, who isn’t scheduled to play any of those other cities.
So who is on tour, after IBA opens, that we’re missing here? Remember, you can’t book them if they’re not touring.
Sandwich chain Potbelly is prospecting for franchisees in Wichita. The chain has 216 company owned restaurants in the eastern part of the country and is looking for a cheap way to move west.
The chain’s plan is generally for one owner per store, and hasn’t said how many it wants to put here. Its gimmick is that its a quirky, authentic neighborhood sandwich place complete with potbelly stoves and live music reminiscent of the original Potbelly antique store in Chicago that started selling sandwiches to boost traffic. For more info, go to www.potbelly.com.
The following blog includes translation captions:
Chris Dodd, the day-late and dollar-long U.S. senator from UConn land, has stepped to the plate with a bill to freeze credit card rates immediately – a month or more after those moneychangers stepped out of their temples long enough to jack the rates up to loan sharking levels.
At the risk of causing the heads of all our free market pals to explode, Dodd’s bill, while doubtlessly well-intentioned (Editor’s note: Well-intentioned, meaning “a meaningless cosmetic action designed to fool the electorate into thinking we’ve done something”), is predictably dead on arrival in the Senate, where the poor, unfortunate banks – some of them flush with TARP funds – have convinced senators (read: sent contribution checks) they need more time to comply with the stringent new regulations (read: blast our card holders into bankruptcy to help cover our bad loans).
It evokes memories of President Obama’s pledge to reel in financial derivatives and oil speculators – which has now been quietly replaced by a Barney Frank bill to help both continue running amok.
As does my cynicism about this extremely belated piece of legislation from Sen. Dodd.
Here’s a shocker: More national analysts say speculators are responsible for the current rise in prices, at a time when gas prices historically fall.
Funny how the nonsense about supply and demand has died down, isn’t it?
WICHITA — Corporate profits lead to corporate jets, and the good news from a survey released by the National Association of Business Economists is that more companies are reporting growing profits than shrinking profits for the first time in more than a year.
The bad news is that it will take perhaps 18 to 24 months for that to start showing up in the aircraft makers’ order books.
I’ll say this for the long-struggling WaterWalk development: Its latest call to the bullpen has summoned the Mariano Rivera of Wichita entrepreneurs.
And we’re going to find out soon how much fastball Jack DeBoer has left, because the bases are loaded down there on the east bank and WaterWalk has nobody at all out. And the fans in the stands are hot under the collar, pointing fingers all the way.
DeBoer’s got a ton of challenges on his plate: The public’s angry about their investment and the lack of progress at the development, retailers and restaurateurs are running, not walking, from leases in this credit environment. His one retailer down there has a front door pointing the wrong way.
And perhaps most significantly, as we’ve seen this week, the only support he’s going to get from City Hall – the same building where the 2003 budget cuts that doomed the project got their start – is moral. This city council certainly wants DeBoer to succeed. But they’re out of money.
City Manager Bob Layton on Friday professed his confidence in DeBoer, which is more than some of the city’s commercial development crowd voiced this week. Some fear that the development will fail, leaving a financially strapped City Hall on the hook for $41 million in infrastructure scheduled to be paid back by the tax revenues WaterWalk has yet to generate.
DeBoer is a brilliant man, a fountain of ideas that he maps out on his trademark legal pad. He’ll need all of them to strike out the side down on the east bank.
But don’t bet against that happening quite yet. It’ll be fascinating to watch DeBoer’s work in the bottom of WaterWalk’s ninth inning.
Bon Jovi is on its way to Intrust Bank Arena. The band’s tour will bring it to Wichita on March 11.
Bon Jovi’s 2010 “The Circle World Tour” North American Itinerary
| February 19 |
Seattle, WA |
KeyArena |
| February 22 |
San Jose, CA |
HP Pavilion |
| February 24 |
Phoenix, AZ |
Jobing.com Arena |
| February 26 |
Anaheim, CA |
Honda Center |
| March 02 |
Sacramento, CA |
ARCO Arena |
| March 04 |
Los Angeles, CA |
STAPLES Center |
| March 06 |
Las Vegas, NV |
MGM Grand Garden Arena |
| March 08 |
Denver, CO |
Pepsi Center |
| March 09 |
Omaha, NE |
Qwest Center |
| March 11 |
Wichita, KS |
INTRUST Bank Arena |
| March 13 |
Fargo, ND |
Fargodome |
| March 15 |
Kansas City, MO |
Sprint Center |
| March 17 |
Detroit, MI |
The Palace of Auburn Hills |
| March 19 |
Montreal, QC |
Bell Centre |
| March 20 |
Montreal, QC |
Bell Centre |
| March 23 |
Philadelphia, PA |
Wachovia Center |
| March 24 |
Philadelphia, PA |
Wachovia Center |
| March 29 |
Washington, D.C. |
Verizon Center |
| April 07 |
St. Paul, MN |
Xcel Center |
| April 10 |
Dallas, TX |
American Airlines Center |
| April 13 |
Tulsa, OK |
BOK Center |
| April 15 |
Atlanta, GA |
Philips Arena |
| April 17 |
Tampa, FL |
St. Pete Times Forum |
| April 18 |
Ft. Lauderdale, FL |
BankAtlantic Center |
| April 21 |
Nashville, TN |
Sommet Center |
| April 22 |
Charlotte, NC |
Time Warner Cable Arena |
| May 26 |
East Rutherford, NJ |
New Meadowlands Stadium |
| May 27 |
East Rutherford, NJ |
New Meadowlands Stadium |
| July 15 |
Edmonton, AB |
Commonwealth Stadium |
| July 17 |
Winnipeg, MB |
Canad Inns Stadium |
| July 20 |
Toronto, ON |
Rogers Centre |
| July 24 |
Foxboro, MA |
Gillette Stadium |
| July 28 |
Regina, SK |
Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field |
| July 30 |
Chicago, IL |
Soldier Field |
From earlier:
Could Bon Jovi be on its way to Intrust Bank Arena?
We don’t know for sure, but we got an interesting release this morning from Beth King, who handles public relations for the arena. According to the release, there will be “a special announcement of interest to fans worldwide” during an 11 a.m. webcast at BonJovi.com.
So far, there are three known concerts scheduled for the arena, which opens in January. Country star Brad Paisley is the first on Jan. 9. Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham is scheduled for March 12, and singer Taylor Swift is set for April 1. Also scheduled for the arena are the Harlem Globetrotters (Jan. 22) and the Professional Bull Riders (May 7-8). The Wichita Thunder hockey team will start playing there Jan. 23.
Bill Wilson snapped a few photos from the Visioneering trip to Chattanooga. Thursday’s tour included a boat tour of the Tennessee River:
Wichita City Council member Lavonta Williams, Mayor Carl Brewer and Goddard Mayor Marcey Gregory view the Tennessee River during a Thursday afternoon boat tour.
From left, Pete Gustaf of WATC and Bob Hanson of the Greater Wichita Sports Commission talk to the Wichita Chamber's Susie Ahlstrand, back, during a boat tour of the Tennessee River Thursday afternoon.
The Visioneering Wichita members talk during a boat tour of the Tennessee River Thursday afternoon.
Create Here co-founder Helen Johnson talks with Assistant Sedgwick County Manager Ron Holt and Mary Eves of the Orpheum.
Spirit's Debbie Gann talks with WDDC board member Joe Johnson at Miller Plaza in downtown Chattanooga.
Clay Bastian, Pete Gustaf, Goody Clancy's David Dixon and USD 259 Superintendent John Allison cross the Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge on Thursday afternoon in downtown Chattanooga.
Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey and Chattanooga Chamber chief Tom Edd Wilson are at the lecturn, talking about how they landed a Volkswagen plant.
It gives you an appreciation for the capriciousness of economic development.
A site selector gets lost, and you drop into third place. The Germans who run Volkswagen hate mosquitoes. And tornadoes.
And they’re not excited about cynical citizens – and especially cynical members of the print and electronic media.
Here’s one statistic that struck me this week in Chattanooga:
Staff at the RiverCity Company, which oversees the local revitalization effort: 12.
Staff at the Wichita Downtown Development Corp., the point organization for Wichita’s growth plan: 3, and sometimes 4.
One of the thoughts percolating through the Visioneering Wichita delegation Thursday was WDDC staffing. President Jeff Fluhr will need more bodies as the effort ramps up.
Philanthropy is going to be essential to get Wichita’s downtown program going. Chattanoogans talk a lot about “motivated local money.”
And one good starting point for a Wichitan who’d like to buy into downtown’s future would be to fund an increase in the WDDC staff.
It’s been another frantic day in Chattanooga, for which I owe the undying energy of WDDC president Jeff Fluhr.
A couple of thoughts:
I hope you’ve seen the earlier blog about Create Here, a group of vibrant folks charged with harnessing Chattanooga’s creativity, largely by blending the arts and business acumen in a community-wide outreach.
Out of that grows a tangible idea for Wichita: Get the ROK ICT folks down here for some mentoring and idea exchange.
Sounds good from here. Wichita’s pretty good at the arts, entrepreneurship and outreach – but the three need to be blended, and the ROK ICT folks look like the people to do it.
Next, ice cream. As my colleagues will tell you, rarely do I wax in rhapsody about food. FAR more criticism than praise comes from my lips.
But I have to tell you about the best ice cream of my life, Clumpie’s, in Chattanooga’s Old Town.
Eat your hearts out: Homemade ice cream, from fresh products, made without air and jam-packed with enough fat to take five years off my life.
That’s OK. It was worth it.
