Many years ago, I wrote a Market Watch column on branding. I opined that the importance of brands might be declining in the action sports world as products became reliable and similar. My friend and, at that time, editor Sean O’Brien at Transworld thought enough of it to immediate publish it online without telling me.
What About Brands? Read More »
That’s the title of a scroll through presentation by the Financial Times. It shows and discusses the growth, and projected growth, of data centers. Talks about the energy needs and cooling requirements (resulting in more energy needs) and some of the solutions big players are pursuing. Here’s the link. You probably thought, like I did,
Inside the Relentless Race for AI Capacity Read More »
I don’t know what the actual tariff rates will finally turn out to be. The chart shows you that they haven’t been this high in 75 plus years. Economists argue about the impact of the Smoot-Hawley tariffs (19.8%- show in the chart) but it wasn’t good. Tariffs never have an overall positive impact on any
Historical Tariff Rates in the U.S. Read More »
“The current national conversation about manufacturing confuses a reduction in manufacturing jobs with a slowdown in U.S. manufacturing. Period. Once we have properly understood this distinction, unpacked the reality of both, cared to look into the causation of both, and fully analyzed what it all means, we will have a much more effective understanding of the
The Reality of American Manufacturing Read More »
In August of 2007, then Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that the subprime crisis would be contained. We went on to have the Great Financial Crisis GFC), of which the subprime crisis was just one cockroach. Now we’re facing another financial crisis- potentially worse than the GFC- caused by another 15 years or
Seattle’s main airport is surrounded by communities and has grown like a weed right along with the Seattle metropolitan area. It has no practical way to expand. Through recent technology and some clever evolution of facilities the airport authority is doing everything it can to shoehorn more passengers and flights into the same space. But
Airports and Mountain Resorts Read More »
It started in May of 1984 when Continental Illinois Bank failed. And was rescued. People were saved from having made a bad investment. So much for moral hazard- the idea that investing is a risk, which has evolved to be not the case in “too big to fail” companies. We know what happened. More and
You haven’t heard from me much. Spent the last few months trying to figure out just how I could be useful to the industry. I decided it wasn’t by analyzing publicly traded company filings. Truth be told, that wasn’t fun for me anymore. I also think covid/masks/lockdowns/caution changed my behavior. Permanently? Don’t know. How about
And Now for Something Completely Different Read More »
I’ve used this before. But I want to use it again; it’s increasingly relevant and I can give credit to the person who came up with it. There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys.
The Water We Swim in: Don’t Stop Your Pandemic Thinking Now Read More »
It wasn’t that long ago (actually it was, I’m afraid) when I reported, in a somewhat sarcastic tone, about Quiksilver trying to sell surf trunks in vending machines at resorts. This was before their bankruptcy filing. I thought that if they were highlighting this effort in a conference call, they were really struggling to find
What’s Jeff Reading: Vending Machines, Off Price Retail, Ghost Franchises Read More »