Dubai became the Gulf's biggest credit crunch victim a year ago. But its ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, had continually dismissed concerns over the city-state's liquidity and claims it overreached during the good times.
When asked about the debt, he confidently assured reporters in a rare meeting two months ago that "we are all right" and "we are not worried," leaving details of a recovery plan – if such a plan exists – to everyone's guess.
Then, earlier this month, he told Dubai's critics to "shut up."
"He needs to produce a recovery plan that will be respected by those who want to do business with Dubai," said Simon Henderson, a Gulf and energy specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "If he does not do it right, Dubai will be a sad place."
Should we use taxes to deter financial speculation? Yes, say top British officials, who oversee the City of London, one of the world’s two great banking centers. Other European governments agree — and they’re right.
Protesters marched on Goldman Sachs this week, after the latest report (pdf) from the TARP inspector general again raised questions about
whether the powerful investment bank had benefitted disproportionately from the
multi-billion-dollar government bailout of A.I.G. Conspiracy theorists were
again out in force, airing the supposedly sinister links between ex-Treasury
Secretary Henry Paulson, ex-New York Fed Chair and current Treasury Secretary
Timothy Geithner, and the Goldman chief executive Lloyd Blankfein. CBS said
Geithner “gave away the farm.”
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It's a concept startup owners and entrepreneurs rarely embrace. The fact that customers, if happily using our services, are worth to us a lot more than their first payment.
In Nozbe very often people sign up first for a $7 monthly solo plan and later either upgrade to a yearly or 2-yearly plan (which give the customer great savings and us good cash-flow) or even upgrade to a higher plan first like Plus, Family or Team... so yes, it's really important to remember that customer's lifetime worth when selling them what we have.
Neil is a serial entrepreneur and he highlights the fact that his success also depended on the fact that he's "cheap", meaning - he spends only as much as needed, but never too much.
While I don't totally agree with that, as i believe buying really cheap stuff can be bad in the long run as cheap stuff usually breaks down a lot earlier meaning a lot more replacements and much more hassle with the product... I do believe in really researching and trying to get the best "bang for the buck" on your purchases whenever possible.
Right now we're finishing our new apartment and we're really watching our expenses but we're not trying to buy the cheapest chinese stuff we can get... we're aiming for the best quality at the most reasonable price.
WSJ compared three time-management techniques - GTD (Getting Things Done), Pomodoro Technique (a quite entertaining technique where your main accessory is a kitchen-timer in a shape of a tomato) and Steven Covey's focus.
I really liked the conclusions there: "In the end, I expect I will embrace elements of each of these systems—the approach experts recommend for most people. The essence of good time management is sticking to rituals that make you more productive, and rituals are largely a matter of personal preference."
Question: Which article or blog post made an impression on you this week? Are you looking at a total lifetime value of customer when selling them things? Are you a cheap buyer? What is your time-management technique of choice?
Since I listed five reasons to sell Abercrombie & Fitch back in August, the retail stock has risen another 32%. Year to date, the stock is up over 75%. And what really takes the cake is Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse both upgraded Abercrombie earlier this month.
I'm far from ashamed of my recommendation. Abercrombie is a teeny-bopping train wreck. Posting third-quarter results that were once again much worse than its peers, Abercrombie has problems unrelated to the recession. The downturn has just exasperated it. And I want to reiterate my extreme bearishness toward the retailer.
Abercrombie was once as popular among Wall Street analysts as it was throughout the halls of high schools across the country. A genius management team slapped a moose logo on basic, preppy attire and successfully convinced fashion enthusiastic teens to pay huge premiums for its merchandise. The result led to gross margins surpassing 66% -- unheard of in the retail industry -- and alluring growth.
But all good things come to an end and Abercrombie's strategy became outdated. The company has failed to adapt to evolving trends and -- gasp -- can't sell the same exact sweatshirt lined with the word ABERCROMBIE today that it sold a decade ago. In fact, I saw nearly the same coat being sold that I purchased more than five seasons ago.
With 12 straight quarters of double-digit comps under its belt now, Wall Street has attributed poor performance to management not properly playing out the recession by not running steep promotions.
I disagree. Abercrombie was right to not run around its stores with red pens slashing ticket prices. As I've mentioned before, that's a brand-killing technique that will come back to haunt the retailers that have implemented that tactic. Of course, desperate Abercrombie eventually jumped on the markdown bandwagon and is now not only facing a plummeting top line but also a slimming gross margin.
Abercrombie's problem wasn't that it was too late to the discount party. It was because its style has become irrelevant among today's funky and more mature dressing youth. As Urban Outfitters and True Religion have proven, retailers can maintain their premium prices and uphold their high-end brand status if they offer unique and funkier merchandise. And J.Crew is an ideal example of how a preppy retailer has successfully adapted its style to remain relevant.
During booming times, Abercrombie was able to keep its top line buoyant by expanding its store base. And of course, shoppers were buying up merchandise from about any retailer as cash was freely flowing from their wallets. In tight times, however, consumers are more conservative with their purchases and carefully select items they find valuable.
Some refer to Abercrombie as an iconic retailer. I see it as an iconic brand that has been laid to rest in a vault labeled "turn of the century fashion." Abercrombie's sales started sagging in 2006 before even the slightest sign of this recession was visible.
I've stated before that the retail industry will continue to shrink until supply starts to match new demand levels. With fewer dollars to go around, the weakest links will get weeded out.
Like the jeans hanging behind the navy shutter doors of every retail outlet, the Abercrombie brand looks worn out and I don't see any chance of its problems being patched up.
Investors can follow the money on this stock. But consider yourself warned that this investment will prove a major fashion flop in the long run -- it already is in the fashion world.
I don't really like Abercrombie and never have so this is refreshing news to me. They were embroiled in legal cases involving accusations of institutional racism as shown in their hiring practices a few years back during which I lost any respect I had for the company.
I finally got a Google Wave invitation (yaay) and have fooled around with it a bit. It's tough to really kick the tires when most of the people you would wave with don't have an account yet. The only other option is to wade into massive public waves that appear a bit chaotic. It's like when I first discovered usenet and electronic bulletin boards way back when. I had no idea what was going on and the geek factor was kicked up a notch. But it was also sort of cool. Anyway, here's former Lifehacker Gina Trapani explaining Google Wave at W2E:
Nevertheless, is it just me, or does Google Wave cry out for a trading desk application? I can see an enterprising outfit using Google's open source Wave protocol to bring trading communications into the 21st century. Between the persistent state of wave "documents" and the extensibility it offers with bots and gadgets, I could see Google Wave replacing many solutions firms currently depend on for internal and external communication. There are good structural reasons why it probably won't happen, but a little speculation doesn't hurt.
From my experience, investment banks currently use a patchwork of communication channels. Most have their own internal chat system, Bloomberg messaging/chat, email, AIM (well they used to use AIM), and the telephone. From a research perspective, notes are syndicated via email, Bloomberg, internal chat, proprietary blog-like systems, and (of course) hardcopy.
So what does Google Wave offer? From an inside-the-firm perspective, it's easy to see Wave helping traders, analysts, and salespeople collaborate around a central hub of information. That's the whole point of having a "desk" where people sit right next to each other - to improve communication. In a global enterprise, however, it can be difficult to achieve the immediacy market-making demands. Using a centralized waves to manage communications would certainly reduce the number of tools in use and provide a re-playable record of the day's activity. For example, currency traders in NY could replay or review a shared global wave as they take over for London, etc. Wave gadgets could also be created for the ever popular polls that get sent out to clients and other traders in the bank. In-line responses would also help organize the information in a single place rather than switching from chat to email to bloomberg, etc. etc. throughout the day. I could see a salesperson subscribing to a trading wave (it may be he can make a risk free trade by crossing with another salesperson), and maintaining a client wave (for those who choose to do so).
For firms with strong data infrastructures, I could see Wave paired with plotting and analytical extensions that could be used to share data and potential insights. Before Lehman's demise, LehmanLive was a great example of a firm moving to the web in a way that allowed the entire firm to leverage its data and analytics. For those of you who remember, imagine LehmanLive, POINT, and Google Wave all wrapped up into a single package, and you get where I'm going with this.
Many of the same benefits could be enjoyed by clients in separate sandboxed waves. And since firms can implement their own Wave system, client accounts could be created that access the firm's servers rather than Google's. And compliance will love it since wave's are persistent (again, see the playback feature). Those who want to do something shady will probably stick to the phone...
Of course, it's probably a long shot any of this will happen. The Bloomberg network effect has been well-documented. Everyone uses it because everyone uses it! As such, it can crowd out patience for another system. Furthermore, the wave approach isn't immediately familiar (though I have no doubt Wall Street would adopt the technology if it thought it would make more money). One might argue that, in liquid markets, information is already traveling pretty darn fast (particularly as computers cut humans out of the loop). In less liquid, over-the-counter markets, there's actually an incentive to fight transparency since it has a direct negative impact on profitability...though the drive to gain volume and market sustainability often drives the market towards transparency in the end. Finally, for structured products, the process is so darn long and complicated, who cares? Just tell the lawyers to hurry up!
A final thought on Google OS. I watched the presentation today and was tickled by a pointed question by a member of the audience that essentially asked "What can I do on Chrome OS that I cant' do on a regular browser?" The answer was along the lines of "uh, nothing really...but you won't get the really fast boot-up!" From an IT perspective, however, I could see Chrome OS being a godsend. Again, as an open source project, a firm could build Chrome OS into a netbook for use with a distributed workforce. If you are the aforementioned firm with a strong, web-enabled infrastructure (using Wave even!), an analyst or salesperson in the field could have instant access to most or all relevant data on the road, either using local storage or a wifi connection/vpn. Since all data is encrypted on the netbook (at least according to the keynote), it's essentially worthless (from a corporate perspective) to anyone who steals it. And netbooks are CHEAP.
Banks that are not eco-intelligent, or have not committed to social responsibility and/or environmental stewardship initiatives where impact can be measured, are subject to depository extraction. Bank depositors are empowered to allocate thier money where it is aligned with interests, values and priorities.
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