Bailouts – Changing the Variables of Business

Before the Government goes bailing everyone out, they should consider the guys they don’t have to bailout and the impact it will have on their businesses. 

Note:  forgive this simplistic scenario but you’ll get the overall point.  Let’s say you own a bank and you chose not to give out risky mortgages.  And let’s say you also chose not to buy up other banks risky mortgages.  You also choose not to invest your profits into mortgage bonds because you don’t know which are risky and which aren’t. 

If you were a bank and you chose not to do those three things then you would be called an “idiot” by nearly everyone in the industry between say 2003 – 2007.  Most of the other banks you were competing against were making millions of dollars on loans you refused to make.  But, let’s say you managed to keep your bank open and were still turning a profit, not at the levels of other banks but still a profit.

Now, it’s 2008 and you look pretty smart.  You are still turning a profit while your competitors are hurting and even going out of business which means their customers are coming to your bank.  Great you are set!  Wait, your competitors have hired lobbyist to fly to Washington to try and get the government to help them out.  The government is broke so they say no but your lobbyists are smart.  They start scaring everyone into thinking that if their clients fail then the whole system will fail and everyone (meaning voters) will suffer and blame those in congress.   They also get newspaper columnists to write articles scaring the public into believing this scenario.  Pointing out that “Joe Blah Blah” is at risk of losing his job and his money.

So Congress jumps on board.  Now, the government is pouring money into your competitors even though they made bad business decisions.   Your competitors survive and the bailout makes potential customers and investors more likely to actually throw their money into your competitors instead of your bank.  Guess what?  The Variables just changed and you were penalized for not being an “idiot”. 

You go out of business and your competitors gobble up your bank only to make the same mistake again in 5 years.  The executive boards and managers of those banks avoid any real damage and go on to repeat their mistake once again.  After all, they made millions and when they started to face losses…government bailed them out.  What’s the downside? 

Or take that scenario and say you are an automaker or a builder or an airline.

Where is all the Opium?

I missed this story when it first came out but I find it pretty interesting considering all that is happening in the world markets right now. 

It’s a mystery that has got British law enforcement officials and others across the planet scratching their heads. Put bluntly, enough heroin to supply the world’s demand for years has simply disappeared.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) describes the situation as “a time bomb for public health and global security”.

I really don’t have much else to add as I don’t have the answers.  I have my own theories but they are just that.  I’ll just say that we know that Afghanistan is producing more opium this year than even last year (when the numbers went so high)…but where is it?  That’s a lot of temptation and a lot of power within the reach of a lot of groups, both good guys and bad guys.

Republicans or Democrats…Who is to Blame?

I decided to actually watch CNN tonight to hear what all the pundits had to say about the bailout failing to pass.  Let’s just say my head hurts now.  Before I even get into the Dems and Repubs, it’s amazing to me that we only hear one side of this argument.  Everything on the news is how the bailout just has to be passed and it was a major mistake not to pass it.  What about the other side?  

I even heard these morons say that yes the bailout is horrible but we just have to pass it.  We do?  Can’t we pass something else?  Don’t we have the power to rewrite bills or make new bills that may work better?  I seem to remember reading that in Government Class.  CNN completely ignored the other side of the argument in all their newscasts tonight.   It’s like I’m listening to the state run news network just repeating the talking points handed to them by the administration…strange feeling.  This is the United States of America, right?

Ok, now on to Congress…Now let me see, I’ll start with the Repubs blaming Pelosi’s speech (her Speech!) for the bill not passing. Seriously? 

• Did your feelings get hurt?  How old are you idiots? 
• Just once, just once, I would love to hear the Republicans take responsibility for their actions.  Guys you failed to get the votes to pass this bill.  End of story. 
• They BLAMED THE SPEECH!  They continue to just amaze me.

Ok now I’m going to rip the Dems…so any Democrats out there who can’t take it then you better look away.

• Pelosi why do you still have a job?  Every day that you wake up do you look in the mirror and just ask yourself if you can screw up as bad as you did the day before?
• Did the Dems blame the Repubs for not getting enough votes?  They said that they got their fair share and the Republicans didn’t get theirs.  Are your legs broken?  Get off your asses and go get more votes if you believe in this thing so much.  WTF?  That’s the weakest argument I’ve ever heard…oh wait.  They blamed THE SPEECH!

So CNN went on to say that the house Republicans who voted against the bill were putting their re-elections ahead of the country.  But, then they went on to say that 90% of the calls into those same Repubs offices have been against the bailout.  Don’t they work for those people?  Aren’t they supposed to represent them?  I’m so sick of this crap about putting the country ahead of everything else…this is not the Soviet Union!  You are free to have differing views here in this country.  In fact, it’s healthy and natural. 

The majority of American people do not support this bill and the congress who represents them voted it down. So what’s the problem?  If it’s so important then explain it to the people of this country and stop trying to scare them into supporting it.  I mean, I know that’s Bush’s only motivational tactic but someone in congress should be able to do something.  How about those two idiots running for President?  Maybe they could explain it to the American people.  I’m pretty sure that’s how this whole thing called government was supposed to work.

And does anyone, anyone have a problem with the Democrats in Congress lining up behind President Bush on this? 

I know this post is long but I got one more thing to say.  Where is Dick Cheney?  Where do you think his money is?  Dubai?

Long Lasting SEO

I’ve had a few conversations with other people in the SEO business lately and they all have one thing in common…they don’t agree with me on seo timelines.  They are looking at SEO as a race to the top instead of building the company brand so that it stays at the top.  This is a key difference in SEO strategy that can actually ruin a company.

For instance, let’s say SEO company A focuses solely on getting a clients website (let’s call them Speedy)ranked as high and as fast as possible.  Sounds great, huh?  Well, it can be great for a few months or a few weeks.  There are a few things you can do to make this happen (and no i’m not going to give that info away for free) but the effects are not sustainable.  You will fall and you will fall a lot.  Now, some say that it doesn’t matter because you will make so much money during that time that it will make up for the fall.  In theory yes.  But in actuality it’s not going to happen that way.  Let’s say the Speedy company has increased sales 500% as a direct result of being ranked at the top of the search engines but this is only going to last for 2 months. 

Now Speedy doesn’t know this is not sustainable, the SEO company probably knows this but won’t tell them because they want to look great and justify their fees.  So what if Speedy decides to expand their business based on these new sales numbers and then 3 months later sales are down 40%.  What do you think happens to the Speedy company?  They tank. 

Don’t be fooled by the “I guarantee you top 10 rankings” people.  Ask them how long that ranking will last?  If you ask that specific question then most of them will move on to the next sucker.   They know the only way to make it last is to do it right which takes a long time and a lot of work.  Not something any sane person does for free.

Don’t believe the SEO hype

I get a lot of questions from readers who want “free advice” on seo.  I rarely give any out and there’s a few reasons.  First, I can’t tell people everything I know about SEO because then the value of my work will decrease.  It’s just not a smart business decision.  A pointer here and there is no big deal but I’m not going to give out exact instructions on how to do SEO. 

I’ve had some people tell me that this isn’t smart because the information is being offered out there by someone else so why not be the one to offer the advice.  Well, let me tell all of you out there one thing…”Do not believe the SEO hype that you read”.  Most of it is wrong and is written to mislead you away from the things that really matter in getting rankings.  Yes, I know that no one is else is saying this but those of us who do SEO everyday in a variety of industries know exactly what works and what is just hype.  And my experience has told me that most of the things out there on SEO are just misleading.  They are designed to steer you away from the important factors in SEO. 

And I will just leave it at that. 

Lazy Marketing

On Sunday, HBO decided to air this double feature. 

This is a “premium” channel that I pay for.  Seriously?  How lazy are the people at HBO?  I expect this lineup from G4 or something but I get this on HBO.   It’s bad enough that stupid “Epic Movie” is on 25 times a week but you give me Dennis Rodman  and Vanilla Ice on a weekend…On a freaking weekend! 

I should get a refund for the entire year.  And for anyone who thinks that it would be funny to actually watch those movies…just sit through either one for more than 5 minutes…the novelty wears off fast and you are just hoping someone walks in with a shotgun to put you out of your misery.   But, then you think to yourself…if I die then then last thing I’m going to remember is Dennis Rodman and Vanilla Ice.  Please.  Don’t let it end this way. 

I hate you HBO.  I really hate you. You ruined my life with your Sunday lineup.

SEO: Image Alt Tag Keyword Stuffing

Gotta love image alt tag stuffing.  How did this ever sound like a good idea to these cheaters?

And if you take the time to read some of the text, they not only stuff every sentence with keywords but it’s impossible to read through without taking a knife to your wrist.  How can you put up crap like that and be happy?  I hope these guys are raking in the dough because that’s the only way you could possibly justify crap like that.

Tell Google what you think of them.

The Very Rich are Hurting

The economy is tanking from the top down.  We may be headed to a “ZIRP” similar to what japan did, the stock market gains aren’t holding at all.  Google ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) for more info and the debate.  I think many average people haven’t really felt the effects of this downturn but you can bet that people at the top are getting nervous.  Here are a couple of stories and they all have one thing in common…the very rich are losing millions. 

• The Carlyle group created a hedge fund that is collapsing…now the Carlyle Group itself is not in trouble with the likes of Jim Baker, Bush SR. and a number of Saudi’s but at least one arm of this group is hurting. 
• A new football league was ready to begin up until a few weeks ago…until one of the guys bank rolling it lost millions.  Now, they are pulling the league this year.
• Joseph Lewis wants some of his money back that he lost with Bear Stearns collapse.  This huge company collapsed basically overnight. 
• More on Bear Stearns:  this is a personal story but a friend of mine actually bought 100K worth about 2 weeks ago…saw it’s worth drop to 80K.  At that time their CEO was on TV saying they were fine and had plenty of money…my friend decided to take the loss and sell immediately and 24 hours that same CEO was telling everyone they were bankrupt.  so instead of losing basically everything my friend salvaged the 80K.  What is interesting or scary is that everyone in his office was telling him not to sell. 
• This next one is pure speculation by me.  The Denver Broncos are making budget cuts and letting people go.  Now, the NFL itself is very popular and they have a salary cap so why would a team need to do this?  Could it possibly be because Pat Bowlen (Denver’s owner) has lost millions in investments over the past month? 

 Somewhat related…I ran across an article by Ron Paul back in 2006.  It’s pretty long and talks a lot about Gold..which many are turning to.  He has a lot of interesting points (rather you agree or not) but a few of them:

• the buying of gold is really a bet against the currency…not really an investment
• inflation hurts the poor and the only way to pay for many social programs is to print more money…leading to inflation
• there should have been a “war tax” to pay for Iraq…by doing this you really make it clear to the people that you have to actually pay for the war…instead they just printed more money so the emotion of a war tax is gone.  If we had been paying a war tax the last 5 years, I’m sure this thing would be over by now. 

Anyways, I think it’s interesting whether you agree or not.  It’s not often we see a congressman go into this much detail on the economy. 

SEO Cheater of the Day

Yes, it’s been awhile since my last cheater…had an associate send me a cheater today.    Note, that Google is not able to detect this cheating…again and again we find this to be true.   There will come a time where the public will demand better results from Google but where is Google’s motivation without competition?

Hidden text across the top of the page and note the bottom section.  The bottom section is borderline cheating and only there for the search engines.  Do us all a favor and Report the bastards. 

Report an SEO Cheater to Google
http://www.google.com/search?q=web+site+design+san+diego&hl=en&start=40&sa=N

Monday Reading – Get Your Head out of the Ground

1. What exactly did the Fed cuts accomplish?  I never thought I would see anything like this in my life,” said James Steele, an HSBC economist in New York.
2. City Budgets a mess.  Sales tax collections were down (7.5)% compared to January 2007, and were $(71.9) million short of the monthly forecast. This is the largest percentage year over year decrease since at least FY 1991.
3. What do you get for 736 Million?  Slavery apparently…The private construction company, First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting, declined repeatedly to provide safety inspectors with reports on fire protection systems at the embassy, according to reports released by Waxman. First Kuwaiti, based in Kuwait, remains the target of a separate US criminal probe into allegations of labour trafficking.
4. Has the Iraq War affected the economy?  That’s not what the Republicans are saying.   The former World Bank vice-president yesterday said the war had, so far, cost the US something like $US3trillion ($3.3 trillion) compared with the $US50-$US60-billion predicted in 2003.
5. How many more people can we send to jail?  And we all know an environment filled with gangs, violence, drugs and raping is great for rehabilitation.  Can’t wait for them to move next to me.