Tuesday, December 16, 2008

More Interesting Items


It's the Blogmeister Holiday sale. Read one and get 50% off the next item.

LET YOUR KIDS GROW UP TO BE A UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT

It's not such a bad job except when their is a strike. Otherwise, tenured position, nice salary, free home, good benefits and even a PC too.

And to top it off, a Big Three auto that his spouse can drive too!

Read the contract of the new President of the University of Windsor here.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/8576184/Pres-Contract?secret_password=13f7rezr9yhxinez8s75

[Graphologists might be interested as well.]

ONLINE NEWSPAPERS

  • "Welcome to the new windsorstar.com

By Marty Beneteau, EditorNovember 29, 2008Comments (62)

Today we welcome our readers to a new information age in Windsor and Essex County.

Following months of research and preparation, we flipped the switch over the weekend on a completely redesigned windsorstar.com.

In partnership with your printed newspaper, this cutting-edge information portal is designed to keep you plugged in, 24-7, to the region’s top source of news and commentary.

Windsorstar.com has been overhauled to deliver a compelling viewer experience, with easy-to-use and intuitive navigation.

[Clearly Canwest is positioning themselves for the day they go completely online. Don't worry, you will still have paper ads for your birdcage. There will be something I am sure like the Windsor Star Review that is distributed that will be full of paper.

Look what happened in Detroit today if you think I am wrong about online newspapers:

  • "The changes, expected to be implemented in March, mean home delivery of The News and Free Press will end Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Delivery will continue on Thursdays and Fridays at both papers and Sundays at the Free Press. Both will still be available at the regular price at 20,000 stores and boxes throughout Michigan and through an electronic "e-edition" that allows readers to view replicas of the printed papers online. "]

NEW DWBIA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Congratulations to Chris Edwards who has been named executive director of the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association.

You ought to see what qualifications they wanted:

  • Post-secondary degree or the equivalent in one of the following disciplines:business administration, urban planning,urban design,business marketing,public administration and political science;
  • Demonstrated experience and expertise in increasing market share,building a strong brand, and developing innovative business recruitment and retention strategies;
  • Managerial, financial and marketing background, preferably within the retail, professional services, hospitality or tourism industries;
  • Experience in municipal planning, development and/or operations;
  • Experience in public/private partnerships and government relations at the municipal, provincial and/or federal level; business and residential recruitment and development; tourism and hospitality and/or related industry sectors; economic development initiatives;
  • Familiarity with theWindsor, Essex County and Detroit markets an asset;
  • Outstanding organizational and interpersonal skills;
  • Experience with public speaking and community relations;
  • Proficiency in major office software applications

[The WEDC could have used him with those abilities as CEO or VP!]

SHOULD WE SPEND MONEY ON INFRASTRUCTURE AFTER ALL

  • The Washington Post

    What they're spending

    While no other country has proposed spending the $700 billion that some say President-elect Obama may propose to create or preserve 2.5 million jobs over three years, some plans are particularly bold:

    China's $586 billion stimulus will accelerate projects to build more nuclear-power plants and a vast natural-gas pipeline.

    Italy may erect the first bridge connecting Sicily to mainland Europe.

    The European Union called for member countries to spend $258 billion to spur growth.

    Britain has already unveiled a $30 billion proposal.

    Spain expects to spend $14 billion.

    France, one of the bloc's largest economies, is expected to announce a huge package next week.


    WASHINGTON — In a bid to jump-start the beleaguered global economy, countries around the world are introducing massive public-spending programs aimed at creating millions of jobs, boosting the use of green energy and modernizing infrastructure in a way that could transform urban and rural landscapes.

    The viability of some of the plans remains unclear. But observers say the number of countries moving at once underscores the perceived severity of the coming global recession and the view that governments must at least temporarily pick up the slack as the hard-hit private sector sheds jobs and cuts spending.

    It is time "to invest massively in infrastructure, in research, in innovation, in education, in training people, because it is now or never," French President Nicholas Sarkozy said in a recent public address.

    World leaders are pursuing a variety of strategies to tame the economic crisis, including moves to unclog credit markets, strengthen financial institutions and ease monetary policy. But fiscal stimulus packages have emerged as a favorite tool of policymakers.

    Worldwide, economists say, the increase in public spending, if executed wisely, could add as much as 1 or 2 percent to global growth next year, perhaps easing recessions in the U.S., Europe and Japan while cushioning the slowdown in the developing world.

    Yet if the promise of combating a global recession with public funds is big, so too, experts say, is the danger that billions could be spent in vain.

    Analysts point out that the pitfalls of growth-by-spending were exposed by Japan, which launched a huge infrastructure program in the 1990s. To spur expansion after stock-market and real-estate crashes, Japan spent billions on new public-works projects. Those projects not only failed to prevent a decadelong economic slump, but produced a herd of white elephants including new, but little-used, airports and ports, as well as a $250 million bridge to Kourijima Island — population 361.

    "There is a huge danger of bridges to nowhere, and as Japan showed us, that is no way to get out of a recession," said Grant Aldonas, a former high-level Bush administration trade official and a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies...

    A snapshot of how governments plan to increase spending is emerging. Those plans include not only the building of more bridges and roads but the introduction of measures to put more cash into the hands of strapped consumers..."

    [I wonder if they were reading about the DRIC project when writing this story]

WHY THE MARKET ACTS THIS WAY

The dual stock market collapses continued the recent trend in which month-end rallies are vapourized almost as quickly as the calendar month is flipped.

“I’m not sure what to make of that. It’s more than just coincidence,” said Doug Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.

“I suspect what we’re seeing is that towards the end of the month, some big, long-term players are finding themselves very underweight equities and are rebalancing.”

[When are the fees of the mutual fund managers calculated? Are the fees a percentage of the fund assets? If they are, then if share prices are high at month end, then the fee is high too.]

HO-HO-HO, YOU ARE FIRED

Jays cut 24 front-office jobs

All staff members of the Toronto Blue Jays were invited to a catered farewell Monday morning for outgoing team president Paul Godfrey. According to one person present, several top Jays staffers, including general manager J.P. Ricciardi, spoke at the upbeat ceremony. The emcee for the event was the Jays' director of guest services, Will Hill.

Yesterday, Hill's job and 23 others were eliminated as part of a wider cull by team owner Rogers Media. That represents about 10 per cent of the front-office staff not involved in baseball operations.

News of the cuts came only hours after the death of team owner Ted Rogers.

"It's regrettable," the team's interim president, Paul Beeston, said...

"There were some tears. Emotions were running high. One woman was crying saying, `It's only three weeks till Christmas,'" a Jays staffer said. That former employee was anxious that their name not be used in connection with this story, citing a confidentiality agreement the team was asking laid-off employees to sign in return for severance benefits. "

[In this case, no strikes and you are out!]

No comments: