en-us http://www.keithwatanabe.net/index.php Keith Watanabe's Website http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/18/bf99900ad345f5c9da6bdfaefc163b06.html
It doesn't look good boys and girls.

One thing I learned though is that fortunately markets are highly cyclical. After weathering the storm from the dot com fall, I realized that if you manage to persist, you probably just need to lay low for about 2-3 years. That's how long the dot com fall out took. But some good came out of that (Google, Skype, the numerous buyouts) and the fact that technology got confidence back likewise instilled confidence back into me about the industry.

The housing market has trickled into the finance market in profound ways. But then again the financial market has always been a sleazy one; anytime you involve money, the sin of greed pops up and people are more willing to sell their souls than benefit mankind. That said, despite having all the excess housing, it'll be very good for people looking to break into the US housing market within the next 3 years. The Federal Bank has intervened in cutting the lending rate and probably will continue to do so while the US economy falls. That implies that interest rates will eventually feel the effects, especially as less loans are taken out. For the individual it means that those who weren't able to get into the housing market at the right moment will have a new chance to sneak in. At that time though, the US government will probably do some watchdog service to ensure that financial institutions will have some checks and balances to prevent customers who aren't able to handle such payments. In short, a lot of potential good but only in the future.

Unfortunately though, it's still going to be rough for people. The climbing gas prices haven't come to a screeching halt yet. And the country is excessively spending for wars. That does little good for the little people stuck in the middle of all this. As a result, much of the political Presidential campaigns have turned towards the economy and what each contender will do.

So far, I haven't been that impressed with most people, except Obama. I think he's more clued into what the average person might feel, so hopefully he'll really help provide tax relief to low to medium income families. Bush's own plan for handling the situation wasn't impressive at all. The stock market wasn't receptive at all with his plans, dropping after feeling disappointment. Then again, I feel that when Bush took power, most people were disappointed in the choice and sold off since people realized that he added no value to the domestic economy. And truthfully outside of military spending, Bush has improved zero things domestically (doing just the opposite).

While the stock market will mostly be driven this year by the fallout from the housing bubble, the thing on everyone's minds that will drive the US economy for the next 4-8 years will be the next presidential candidate. I think that America's investors will go into hibernation this year and wait to see the impending election. The economy potentially can recover quicker if the next president is domestic friendly. In that case, I think that Obama or Edwards would make good choices in this regard. I'm too wary of Clinton and her recently pathos plea; it was unprofessional conduct on her part and hopefully people are smart enough to see beyond the tears to realize that you still need a platform and strength as a world leader. Crying will make you seem weak (the only positive thing I can say about Bush is that people fear him. Not because he's intelligent, a strong character, etc., but because he's an idiot that believes in his own hype and has enough power to back himself up).

Either way, I think a lot of people will lay low this year. But in terms of jobs, engineering is still doing quite well.
]]> Fri, 18 Jan 2008 21:30:16 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/18/bf99900ad345f5c9da6bdfaefc163b06.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/3/17/9dd11447599e1f427a7386c760ad57f1.html
George Carlin had a lot of interesting points that simply magnify what's being done. He talks about how the game is "rigged" and that these "cocksuckers are now coming for your social security." It's true. My poor dad, before he passed away, barely was able to receive any money and got the worst care and that was only after my mom had to deal with stress inducing bureaucratic forms. America put an honest, hard working person into a little room with sick old people and my dad caught pneumonia and died from it.

Then you see this company get bailed out and probably the CEO making shit loads of money in the end. It's very frustrating watching these crooks get away with murder like this. I'm certain other families have suffered similar situations in varying degrees due to the irresponsible greed of Wallstreet.

With all the audits and distrust that goes on with the way Wallstreet earns it cash, one must wonder at times if it can be sustainable long term? Of course, Wallstreet with all the bankers are the ones financing many businesses and digging their grubby hands into things (I mean, why else would Yahoo dismiss those bastards from a boardroom meeting with Microsoft the other day?). Even if Wallstreet morphs into some other fungoid manipulation racket scheme run with their mob friends in the government and media, I truly wonder how much longer they are going to last? The stock market practically has no true value. It's just a bidding zone on paper at the end of the day. The information has no value, except for accountants and those within the circles. You can eat a stock, for instance.

More and more I get convinced that these crooks will slowly die off while information from the net replaces their valueless system of staying in power. That's my vision. Call it 10-20 years and the entire stock market and Wallstreet will die off completely, replaced by information commodities in the form of information trading. More companies like Google will turn information into a commodity itself without monetizing it so that anyone will some talent can reinvent this system of interdependence, but at the same time giving it meaning.

In the meantime, I hope that people start recognizing how the world really is run by the NWO. It's all these elites in power trying to create a single club and enslaving the rest of us and instilling fear through their security systems. All these people are simply criminals against humanity. They should be tried as if they were mini-Hitlers.]]> Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:56:14 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/3/17/9dd11447599e1f427a7386c760ad57f1.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/7/19/15f43b790f821b708d9ef31590379bd1.html
Google is another one that got shot down big time and unmercifully by Wall Street the other day. The recent disappointing profit drop naturally caused former investors high on the tech giant to flee in panic with a $52 drop in price. Obviously, the stock has been overrated for some time, but the lack of confidence in the company demonstrates that across the board, the US stock market is experiencing one of the worst seasons.

Tech isn't being as hard hit last time, which is good news for myself. However, the overall outlook just isn't pretty. I have a feeling that several industries might completely collapse in the wake of this. The least stable at the moment are airlines and auto. On the other hand, it's obvious that we need transportation, so it's natural to assume that some replacements will be on they're way. Toyota and Honda will probably make the most headway in this area. It would be quite the coup to see Toyota or Honda buying out one of the distressed auto manufacturers to gain greater ground in the US. I mean, already we're seeing more plants being built for Toyota in the US, especially for the Prius as the demand for that car seems endless.

However, what also seems to be emerging rapidly is the electronic car industry. Tesla Motors is releasing their vehicle soon and has a fair number of orders. Of course, they are facing some lawsuits and other troubles as well as cater mostly to yuppies. However, they've also got a new sedan lined up for late 2010 production. The future looks bright for them. Aptera is another one I frequently blog about to keep your eye on.

Not sure what will happen for the airline industry. 9/11 was certainly the beginning of the end for the airline industry as we knew it. Some are blaming gas prices, but I think that the protocols implemented after 9/11 also gave rise to the industry experiencing an irrecoverable collapse. It's been said that the industry is heavily competitive and a money losing one at best. Without something like a Star Trek teleportation device though, we're still heavily dependent upon the airlines industry. One possible outcome from this is that the industry will simply become one for luxury and business executives. The prices for flights just aren't worth it as it relates to oil. For that part, I place most of the fault on the manufacturers for being lazy and not considering ways to upgrade the design of planes. However, it's a distinct possibility that commercial space flight might be the next real phase from this, using suborbital technology. Now, I think that it'll be tough and that at the same time that new industry would simultaneously need to consider fuel alternatives to oil. If that happens, it'll be the way to go.

Of course, we have to mention solar and other Green shops. The oil crisis is leading people to move extremely fast in this industry. Unfortunately, it's hard to say if the cost in the near term will resolve some of the major problems. It might cut some areas down like electricity for the home, business cost and maybe car cost if people move quickly onto electric cars. But I don't know if it'll affect other areas of cost like food.

Then you have finance. I personally think finance as we know it should disappear. It definitely will not be owned by Americans as before. Maybe a few large banks will still exist, but many seem to be in desperate need of a bailout. Citi's $2.5 billion loss is just an exorbitant number....and yet it's said they still beat the Street. That's just mind boggling. Maybe it's time for Wall Street to collapse and be rebuild into a new institution. I personally think that the finance sector is going to move towards a completely electronic version. You already have things like PayPal and ETrade. But I'm thinking AdWords and other forms of information will increase in value since the stock market has become unstrustworthy for investment.

Housing....one vision I had was people moving inward. The cost of land and housing towards the center are far cheaper than in places like California. But it's a distinct possibility that people might discover states like Nebraska, Kansas or Iowa and colonize those parts. I've read stories about how some poorer cities are being turned around. People would buy up real estate, put a fancy coffee shop and increase the value. As a result, people within the area no longer can afford it, thus driving out the poorer folk. There's actually a few South Park episodes like that. But it's an interesting idea of how housing might turn out.]]> Sat, 19 Jul 2008 06:33:31 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/7/19/15f43b790f821b708d9ef31590379bd1.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/16/5812b9b85ffb591cd3e3e6d397e47a3a.html
After the Enron mess, CEOs and CFOs now are fully accountable for their actions in corporate fraud. The whole meltdown of Lehman indicates the smoke and mirror tricks that allowed these people to make millions off of unsuspecting people. Right now, according to my friend, all the upper management in Lehman Brothers are in hiding. I bet right now, they're shifting their money and other assets overseas in Swiss bank accounts.

I think Obama's immediate policy ought to be finding these corporate crooks and persecuting them. I think the democrats and next president ought to freeze all these people's assets (everyone not just the CEOs and CFOs, but the upper management and traders that exploited this system), throw these people in jail, and redistribute their assets/money to the public in the form of a tax reimbursement. If you want to know about how to fund your tax relief, there you go!

In the case of Enron, one group was affected. In the case of a company like Lehman, we're talking global. Same with these other big finance companies. Funny how the feds are willing to bail them out but they weren't willing to bail out the dot coms.

Well, Obama just needs to pin the real face of the American enemy as the greedy corporate white collar crooks. Now, you have someone to verbally beat up in rallying the American middle class.]]> Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:45:48 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/16/5812b9b85ffb591cd3e3e6d397e47a3a.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/27/9f0bfbac09b512e33e798c7bcf191eb9.html
The sad part is that the US isn't the only country limited to this form of government. Japan, too, follows this trend. A Japanese friend from work commented that he no longer followed the politics in Japan because, "It's just the government doing nothing and companies doing everything." Last week, just to not be outdone by America's media coverage over the financial crisis, Japan's own Prime Minister had stepped down to be replaced by a guy named "Aso." (Appropriate, don't you think?) Not a very popular guy with the public for his so-called outrageous comments, but a guy with a tremendous amount of support within his party. The last Prime Minister, Fukuda, as my other friend had mentioned, "wasn't doing that bad." So what led to Fukuda's downfall?

Honestly, I wasn't paying attention much to the political situation either. Just as my friend said, it's the corporations running the show. The politicians here just enforce policy, but they don't really do much for the people here. In my opinion, the so-called houses are just gratuitous and are used to demonstrate externally that Japan's government has some facade of democracy in place. Truthfully, the corporations (and those other guys) are the ones in charge.

The correct view of the two previously mentioned issues in America ought to have been resolved via public consensus rather than corporate lobbying. Yet it's known that the government and corporations would not ever relinquish their power over something like this. It's like what George Carlin mentioned on multiple occasions about the owners of the country. You really need an impartial system to handle and properly judge things like this. But it seems that there's no way that we can absolutely ensure in having a person in charge that the person would be incorruptible.

Next one has to ask what's the gain from the system in place? My feeling is that the illusion of democracy exist to placate the middle class into perpetually supporting the upper class, politicans and corporations. The notion that an individual has some power as a right continues to justify why the system is allowed to stay in place. But the truth is that the system is not just corrupt, but bureaucratic, bloated, flawed, fractured and stiched together with duct tape without any thoughts on modernity that only a complete collapse or revision can really save whatever remnants of democracy is left in a country like America.

How can we fix the government?

I do think that the founders were onto something when they allowed states and municiplities have control over their own regions. The problem was getting these non-uniform pieces to somehow coexist and behave in a sensible manner was beyond their foresight.

First, I believe that large simply cannot scale in a truly democratic environment like the US. Largeness defies the meaning of democracy because in the end it puts more emphasis on the whole than the individual. From there you begin receiving idioms of just how small the individual is. Such as "the cog in the machine, " "just doing my job, " etc. I don't even know if the founding fathers envisioned how large America (as well as the world) would become. The problem is that the number of uncertainties arise because each individual adds more complexity and randomness to the system. Even with the best math, statistics, psychology, sociology, AI and predictability models, you just cannot account for every single scenario. And I honestly don't think you want to nor ought to.

Second, I think that American democracy should not equate to jingoism. That means, we should not be the enforcers of democracy in a global environment. Sure, we should protect our workers when they go abroad. However, the role of a democratic American government should not be that of a global police man. At that point, you lose focus of democracy for the expansion of power for the country, as well as losing focus on domestic issues. Naturally, foreign policy is critical in the global environment simply because we need to trade with other countries (oil, electronics and cars are obvious examples). But you should never underemphasize your home base.

Next, I really believe that the country needs to be further divided. Obviously, the country becoming annexed into a huge mass was for resources and general solidification of political beliefs. However, maybe those days need to be reconsidered since the country is, plainly stated, dysfunctional. The three division should be simple: west, east and middle. The idealisms really fit the nature such that the three should be split in that manner. I think continuing to have cooperation between the three is tantamount to the remaining America's survival (e.g. sharing military, continuing trade). But certain aspects like education in school, religion, budget, etc. need to be split up.

Also, I'm a bigger believer in small communities. Call me a true socialist from Rousseau but I just am a firm believer that smaller is better. Just common sense dictates that smaller is easier to manage. Things are more intimate, less random, more predictable and easier to deal with. There's the saying "divide and conquer." The problem is that people only seem to conquer, not divide up the problem into smaller chunks to handle. Having worked in large organizations, the only guarantee is generally slightly more stability. But you are more focused and have less opportunities for yourself. Also, I tend to feel that large organizations themselves simply lose focus on what they're attempting to achieve in the name of growth, their shareholders, gaining market share and power.

America has become nothing more than a large corporation, controlled by the interest of their shareholders investing in it. That's where the democratic power lies. The problem is that the American people are shareholders too but Uncle Sam doesn't recognize their efforts. With all the money we put into the system, what do we really see for our efforts? I don't see fixed roads, cheaper electricity, better internet infrastructure, affordable housing, quality food, excellent health care, retirement packages, etc. None of that exist despite all the money we place into the American system. Instead, we get useless wars and bail outs for crooks because the crooks fund their friends in the government. Funny how that works? So I bet our Social Security will just go back into these assholes' pockets after they figure out more ways of scamming the government into stealing our money.

So what can one do if democracy is merely an illusion?

My belief: form smaller communities.

Yes, go out to some rural areas, purchase land and cheap housing, even in areas you think suck. Forget places like Florida, New York or California. Those places are overrated. Get your friends and family to join you. Make your own stores, grow your own vegetables, raise your cattle, etc. Pay taxes so that you're legal. But become independent. The thing is that you can't trust the government because the government is run by the corporations. And you never can trust corporations because they're run by a few select elite and shareholders, who only care about their short term investments.

You need people, real communities, not these online social networks. But you need people you can trust. You also need to be self-sufficient. It's impossible to reinvent the entire wheel, but I think it can be done within reason.]]> Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:11:00 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/27/9f0bfbac09b512e33e798c7bcf191eb9.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/27/97ecbae9ba07b67bb8c5ed2d49717130.html
The frustrations of seeing these things happen are just unbelievable. I'll probably end up moving my money, since obviously keeping it in Wamu is just too much of a risk at this point. But I heard people talking about a bank run, which would lead to even further collapses with the possibility of banks not being able to retain their money. That would result in banks just halting any transactions, leaving people to be unable to touch their money for a while. Some scary thoughts on those possibilities.

Originally, they said it would be Citigroup taking over Wamu's assets. I really feared that scenario because I straight out hate Citigroup. In the end though, it happened to by the government that took over Wamu. Again, I think the idea is terrible but small people like me can do nothing about it.

Right now, you can't trust banks or financial institutions. The whole thing is rotten. It's really unbelievable just how bad things have come. This definitely is far worse than the dot com bubble.]]> Sat, 27 Sep 2008 20:15:48 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/27/97ecbae9ba07b67bb8c5ed2d49717130.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/10/14/18715e8676016beffbcb03abd54b3aaa.html
Truthfully, if the American economy skydives big time, I'll be happy. It's about time that Americans wake up to the reality that they should not be living on credit and that their arrogant, decadent lives are just meaningless imitations of what they view on TV.

The worse the situation gets, the better. It's sad that the stock market keeps faltering after the government keeps trying to recsusitate it. Now, I know that the majority of the investors doing this see-saw effect are not the average joe. This is all done through fund managers, traders and power brokers on Wall Street, etc. So these fucks are the ones that somehow are creating this ripple in the economy. I also see things as these fucks trying to squeeze the market and the government for more funds so that they can escape from this situation with big bonuses. There's no other rationalization for this constant downturn in the stock market.

With that in mind, I think that the whole thing should go up in flames so that those people lose all their money. Watch them flee to another country as they rape America of whatever money they've been suckered into funding. Perhaps, this is a new global conspiracy where the creation of a new state in Iraq is being done by Bush and his cronies to take complete control over the oil and completely force America into a slave nation state for dependency on those resources. In the meantime, they'll arm people in Iraq and later have an invasion while our military, now penniless and demoralized, will be weakened.

For people who worry about their money, I say stop going to work. Yes, go home right now and tell your boss, "Fuck you!" Anyone who has a boss should do that in the US. Instead, have the local communities support each other and stick it to the government and big corporations in their global conspiracy to deprive the average American of their dream to live an honest life.]]> Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:37:28 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/10/14/18715e8676016beffbcb03abd54b3aaa.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/10/19/89dcccf3f57e1d9513b1f77fac045bca.html

• Zero purchases of music. I haven't purchased music in ages so this won't change. But considering that Pro-IP law that was passed, I will broadcast a counterattack to the RIAA's plans for creating a copyright czar by stating that I will not support them one bit. I encourage everyone to stop purchasing music. If you must purchase music, do so in the form of directly supporting the artists by attending live events.
• Zero purchases of movies, DVDs, or other videos. Just like my stance on music, I will completely eliminate any spending at theaters, video rental, online purchases, etc. Besides, when was the last really good movie made (okay, The Dark Knight was an exception, but those only crop up once or twice a year these days).
• Energy reduction through elimination of watching TV. I never watched TV before and I hope to help my watch reduce her habits as well.
• Shrinking of my food budget. Actually, what this means is less crappy fast food. This will help two things: 1) Improve my health; 2) help my pocket book. More people should consider this. In the last recession back in the dot com bubble burst, people went on a diet of Krispy Kremes and became the fat nation. In this recession, rather than becoming depressed and slinking into bad habits, people should save their money and just eat less. If you must spend, use that extra $35/month for a membership to the gym. Or if that amount is too high, just walk around your block five times.
• Shrink my game playing usage to one company: Blizzard. Since EA sucks and Ubisoft completely screwed over the entire Might and Magic series with their half assed rendition, the only computer game company worth purchasing anymore is Blizzard. In the next year or two, the only games Blizzard will produce that I'm interested in are Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3. At that rate, I'll definitely save a ton of cash per year.

The main message I want to send people is this: stop over consuming!!!!!!!!!

The problem before the recession hit was that people were already in a mode of overconsuming, which is why people in the US became fat, lazy and stupid. The recession is a great thing because it'll force people to put their thinking caps on when it comes to money and their lives. Instead of wasteful spending, hopefully people will realize that they cannot live on borrowed money their entire lives and just live on what they have. America still has more than many parts of the world, but there is a limit on how much people can consume. In America's case, they have mostly been manufactured into a state where they unquestioningly buy things....worst yet, junk that destroys themselves.

Just because you're depressed doesn't mean you should go on a buying binge to make yourself feel better. That feeling of happiness from materialism only last temporarily. This is why the illusion of wealth in America has gone on so long and only recently been exposed as a national fraud. Most people are stupid, lazy and poor and cannot nor should not emulate the lives of the fake rich people on TV. Turning off your TV and returning to what's in front of you (i.e. your homes) will show you that you are not in that calibre and that you need to work hard, think and do things smart to get to that level. Until then, simply stop overconsuming and buy what you need.]]> Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:48:57 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/10/19/89dcccf3f57e1d9513b1f77fac045bca.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/10/27/478350dca6743bad6483fedd22e212f3.html
The biggest problem I see (outside of the fact that most Japanese companies are fucking dead cheap in terms of paying their non-executive staff) is that many people's parents live far away from Tokyo. The people, whose parents live in closer suburbs like Saitama, Yokohama, or Chiba, are more fortunate since they can live at home and save money.

However, those who live in cities like Fukushima, Fukuoka, Yamagata, Aomori, etc. face a serious disadvantage by comparison. They cannot take advantage of using their parents' home as a base of operations while climbing up the social ladder. The ones that face the biggest hardships are the lesser skilled ones (i.e. temp staff or hakken staff).

The problem in Tokyo is that the cost of living is just unreasonable for anyone earning less than 6,000,000-en. If the government forces companies to move away from Tokyo or offer incentives like tax breaks and spread better jobs around the country, it'll improve several things:

• Decrease the cost of living by decreasing the demand for living in Tokyo.
• Nurture growth and economies in other cities.
• Decrease the density in Tokyo.
• Decrease the overcrowded situation in the subways.
• Internationalize other cities in Japan by attracting foreigners who are NOT JUST English teachers.

Even adding business centers in areas like Saitama would help a great deal. There are some business areas slightly outside of Tokyo like Chiba's Makuhari or Yokohama/Kawasaki. But there simply isn't enough where companies do enough to localize themselves around suburbs. Instead, there's some odd/stupid theory where centralizing jobs in Tokyo would pull in all the people from the suburbs, thereby generating a great deal of diversity in terms of skills and talent.

But I think that it really doesn't matter after a certain point. Tokyo should be reserved for only the most elite companies and jobs, at least if they're going to retain the high cost of living. Smaller companies should attempt to grow new business centers outside of Tokyo, not local offices, but actual concentrations of types of businesses. Kinda like how you have film people in Hollywood, Securities in Manhattan, tech jobs in Silicon Valley, etc. That way you can scale the cost of living to the industry, rather than generalizing it for everyone.]]> Mon, 27 Oct 2008 04:40:39 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/10/27/478350dca6743bad6483fedd22e212f3.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/10/27/2911613d7db7a4fa3e6a8354ba1292ab.html
One word:

OUCH!

Or if we want to pay our respects to the Japanese:

ITAIIIIIIII!!!!!!

Ironically, currency is doing excellent with the yen at 92.9. In some ways, it's a bit of a shame that I'm NOT going to be working in Japan just for the currency ratio. But that can go both ways.

Now, here's my opinion of things right now:

It's best to avoid working for large and public companies. I think companies that depend on their stocks for money are going to do really poorly, even if revenue might look good (sounds counterintuitive, but I'm certain there are companies out there that follow this model). Also, any companies that constantly are borrowing are going to be shot dead, since it sounds like credit is going to be hard to come by in the near future.

However, I think smaller companies might be the way to go. Large companies tend to overhire, so your position at one of these companies is variably dependent upon your relationship to others. But overall unless you're a bigshot inside of one of these companies, your position will be suspect.

Smaller companies won't hire as much and will demand more from you, but will depend on you far more than a larger company. There's less barriers involved and more opportunities to grow. I've seen companies that were in trouble and facing pay raise freezes, despite the fact that they still made a huge killing. But people would see their benefits slowly eradicated and would sweat in fear of their jobs.

Certainly, smaller companies have equally high (or higher) risk because of the lack of profitability in many cases. However, I would argue that you're more than likely going to lose your job in a larger company, since you're basically a cog. It's not a pretty situation in either case, but these days, what is?]]> Mon, 27 Oct 2008 05:08:17 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/10/27/2911613d7db7a4fa3e6a8354ba1292ab.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/11/22/2c8f4b0ff021e2a041aa50f1539eece8.html
Or has it?

My belief is that the price of oil has fallen not because of the demand, but because Bush and Chenney are getting kicked out of the Oval Office and their crony friends in oil (and whatnot) are now running with their profits. If McCain's party had won the election, I believe that oil would still be at an all time high. Now though, the oil companies have done their damage and are slowly deflating the cost before the next president comes into office and investigates them.

It's really an odd occurrence if you think about it. Why would oil suddenly drop so dramatically within the past few weeks just around the election period? Sure, stocks have gone done but that's because the market has been inflated and people have retreated. But I doubt that the real demand for oil would shoot down so far so fast.

Could loss of jobs relate to the drop in oil prices? Possibly. It is entirely possible that people who are being laid off now are staying home. But the raw number of people that should be effected until now probably wouldn't number this great of a difference.

Also, naturally supplies could not have magically appeared out of nowhere, so the demand could not have shrank by that much. So I have no other choice but to eye the oil manufacturers and their link to the current administration for this price crisis. Hopefully, the next administration will put a special eye on these companies and Chenney in particular. Lowering the price is not an apology for what has gone on in the past 8 years.]]> Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:49:29 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/11/22/2c8f4b0ff021e2a041aa50f1539eece8.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/11/22/0da5ded7b854d4c9279cf9524d2ff863.html
Sure, millions of jobs will be affected should these companies continue squandering their money on god knows what. But it's not unlike this situation is well deserved. We could easily traceback several years ago when the US automotive industry had numerous opportunities to halt production on their oversized, costly and economically inefficient SUVs and completely switch to hybrids. It was painfully obvious back then as it is now that a new form of engine was needed to help combat the likely scenario of oil shortages. Any sane person or someone who could read a newspaper would realize that. However, some brilliant people on top and in accounting probably only saw large figures for each sale rather than the long term impact. What, did these people believe that magically oil was going to rain down from the heavens and allow their behemoths to become affordable?

The fact that these companies made poor decisions must force them to be held accountable. Certainly, it's going to be extremely scary for millions of people to lose their jobs. But lessons like these need to be taught to demonstrate that greed and hubris are sins.

These companies long have needed to fall. They've done enough damage. Asian car manufacturers are what's leading the charge now, simply because they put a little thinking into their products, something that the lazy American automakers have refused to do.

Personally, I think the people who deserve the bail out money are companies like Tesla Motors, Terrafugia or Aptera Motors. These are the companies of the future. If the Big Three have a concrete business plan, it ought to be to purchase these companies and let them shape the future of America's automotive industry. We don't need to sustain old, worn out, and lazy companies. We need to bolster the new, innovative companies that are going to lead America so that demand for these vehicles come not only from inside the country, but outside as well.
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