President-Elect: Barack Obama

Victory is sweet...

GO TV!

It's election day in the USA and it couldn't come soon enough. After 21 months and a primary election, it'll be nice to get past partisan bickering and divisive campaign tactics by McShame and just move forward. Of course, it'll be easier to move forward if my candidate, Barack Obama, should win.

As expected, there were long lines this morning and I can only wonder if these will stretch out further for those after work voters. I cast my ballot this morning after waiting just over an hour. It was nice to connect with folks who were eager to place their votes. You could almost sense those who were voting for the first time or the first time in a really long time. And of course, you will see those who choose to walk away because they don't have "time" to wait in line; nevermind the fact we only do this once every four years.

It's going to be impossible concentrating on anything but the election over the next 12 hours. All I can say is get ready to embrace change. Regardless of your views, just Get Out the Vote today peoples!

As the Markets Crumble

To say that it's been an interesting week on Wall Street, would be an understatement. The sell off in equities and the flight to safety isn't exactly news, but the sheer volume of activity yesterday was a phenomena. We typically see institutional investors, hedge fund managers, pension planners and others mitigating losses by loading up on Treasuries as quickly as possible before the portfolios they manage deteriorate further. We've known for a while the credit crunch consumers faced would lead to slow down in economic growth, despite the stimulus package sent out by the Bush administration. And because the US consumer drives 2/3 of our economy, that's exactly what happened. But what's happening now is further cause for concern. The Dow Jones was down well over 5% in one trading day--I don't believe we've seen that since the Great Depression. We've got our government interested in protecting the lives of corporations more than consumers. We've got Fannie and Freddie, the staples of the secondary market for mortgages, lacking sufficient capital to cover losses resulting in a takeover by Paulson and the US Treasury.

The only question I have is: what happened to laissez-fair economics? The current administration, the Republican Party and Adam Smith himself said the individual, and thus a corporation itself, will pursue its own gain as if led by an invisible hand. The companies in question took actions that drove their revenues through the roof during the peak of the housing market. And now that the market is contracting, they should deal with it. But we throw this view out the window because what's at risk are companies that have been around for over a 100 years? One could even argue that it's a matter of survival of the fittest and these firms should dissolve or be acquired. As a taxpayer, as a financial consultant and as a progressive democrat, I simply can not support these actions.

Change can't come soon enough.

Beijing Olympics Telecast

It's been over a week now since the Olympics have been covered by the networks of NBC. And yet again, the West Coast has been getting the short end of the stick when it comes to "live" telecasts. As a fan of the games, I've been deeply disappointed with the events that NBC and its affiliates has broadcast but more importantly, the time that the games have been shown.
Would it really hurt NBC financially, to broadcast events at 5pm Pacific rather than 8pm? Does the network realize that some of the core audience members include school-aged kids who have to be in bed by a certain time? Or for that matter, that a large population of viewers also have to work the next morning? I wanted to stay up to watch the womens gymnastics team finals last week but the caffeine, no-doz and sugar cookies couldn't keep me awake after midnight. Not to mention that it became difficult to wake up the next day to go to work.

As the second week continues, I've decided to watch only those finals that will be televised before 11pm PST and read about the rest the next morning. One less viewer won't hurt NBC but I'm exercising my opinion as best I can.