1/08/2007

NOTES ON A ZIG ZAG PAPER

Just in case you read in the Drudge Report about the girl with two heads, two hearts, and so on.....Good Ol' Rodger has pix and live action of them/her. For me, not fun to watch.

FOX News is totally kicking ass on cable in every time period including the second showing of show where they still outrank everyone else.

Boeing is also kicking ass in a major way in their duel with Airbus. If Airbus was really a company they'd be out of business. They remain in the market only thru government subsidies of $15 billion. Eventually Boeing will not be able to match them. We are going to have to rethink our economic system.

Auto Extremist
really lays it out there about the coming demise of the Ameircan car companies.....while Congress and the two parties ignore the problems faced by the car companies.....

......the bloated contracts that the Detroit car companies and the UAW acquiesced to in the "good old days" were now relics from a wildly short-sighted era, and that fact, combined with the U.S. government's continued failing in dealing with the burgeoning crisis in health care and pension funds was propelling "Detroit" - as an industry and a region - head-first to oblivion.
Meanwhile Detroit shows just how incandescent their minds are at the Detroit Auto Show where they beautifully presented an encyclopedic array of cars.....that they have no intention of bringing to market. Example below.


The Hot Winter
has people talking $45 oil prices. Why? Well, heating oil represents almost half of refinery output during the winter months and hot weather has withered demand. HO inventory is coming out their ears in the retail oil sellers lots . This means excess refining capacity so they switch to making gasoline which in turn means more gasoline supply on hand too...

Red Hot Duke prosecutor, "Magnificent" Mike Nifong is now in the seminar business where he offers priceless advice to law school grads thinking of going to work in DAs offices around the country.....

French Cooking, oo la la: See, this dude is in jail, and because he's been to cooking class he knew exactly how to eat his cell mate.
"The absence of these body parts -- which have not been found at the scene of the crime -- make the suspect's confession of an act of cannibalism very probable."
The gravy recipe is upcoming, will premier on "The View."

Troop Surge?
Victor Hanson gives the pros and cons in his usual clear way. Read his piece in NRO and you will know all you need to know. A terrific piece that nobody in power will read.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Boeing is also kicking ass in a major way in their duel with Airbus. If Airbus was really a company they'd be out of business. They remain in the market only thru government subsidies of $15 billion. Eventually Boeing will not be able to match them. We are going to have to rethink our economic system.

I don't think that the stakes are that high either way. Whatever may happen, there always will be more than just one big maker of planes, nobody wants a Boeing or Airbus with a monopoly.

Besides, the A380 is actully a kind of sideshow for Airbus. The company also has sold a record number of smaller planes, namely A320 and variants. Airbus has lost money on the A380, but is stil making a profit. Btw, Boeing also receives subsidies in form of highly profitable military procurement deals, even if the US goverenment doesn't want them regarded as such.

It also has to remembered that the A380 is more than just a big plane, its fate will also decide that of the big air travel and transport hubs. The hubs worldwide are mostly suffering from NIMBY, so that they can't build additional runways, so that the number of slots for starts and landings are limited. If the A380 succeeds, it will be possible to increase the number of passengers of freight per slot, and the hubs can increase revenues and throughput. If it fails, the hubs are going to stagnate and will be outstripped by smaller airports, via more compact planes flying directly between them, avoiding the congested hubs (which on their part are going to bend over backwards to help make the A380 a success).

Best,

Ralf