One Motley Fool

Thank you to all the men and women that serve or have served in the military. This is a special Veteran's/Rememberance Day as the last of the WWI vets passed away in the past few months.

— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

This is also a special Veteran's Day as my five year old has really started to learn about such things and has had a lot of questions about her great-grandparents that served in the military, one of which was shot down over Germany and held in a POW camp by the Nazis. Seeing her interest in it really brought it home for me. It's amazing what a little one can do.

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So, five years ago Dell came to the State of North Carolina promising to build this huge manufacturing facility that would employ 1,500 workers forever. The Legislature of North Carolina couldn't help themselves and handed Dell $250 million in incentives to build the $300 million plant. In the five years since, there have been several lawsuits over the "Dell Statute" and the incentives given at a legal cost of millions of dollars to the state.

Well, guess what? Dell announced last night that they're closing the plant.

I'm guessing the five years wasn't a coincidence either. The relevant statute (Section 105-129.62(a) of the North Carolina statutes if you care) reads:

Determination by Secretary of Commerce.—A taxpayer is eligible for the credit allowed under this Article with respect to a facility in this State only if the Secretary of Commerce makes a written determination that the taxpayer has or is expected to have an increased employment level at the facility of at least 1,200 within five years after the time that the facility is first used as a computer manufacturing and distribution facility and that the taxpayer, either directly or indirectly through a related entity or strategic partner, has invested or is expected to invest at least one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) in private funds to construct a computer manufacturing and distribution facility over a five-year period.

My favorite argument is that the statute wasn't designed for one company but that any computer manufacturer that located in NC would be eligible for the credit. While not as limiting as some statutes (I've seen statutes even describe the city/county that the incentives apply to because in most states they can't name the business due to rules limiting the ability to write statutes to benefit one person) it's pretty ridiculous to argue that this is a general purpose statute.

It doesn't look like there's a clawback for the amounts already paid to Dell. The state's argument is that they won't have to pay any additional credits so it's not a loss for the state. I'd say the 1,000 workers that lost their jobs (who paid for the facility with their taxes) would feel differently.

Great job, North Carolina! Just think of this when your elected official touts how job incentives help the state.   

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Okay, I'm sorry but the WaPo story on the middle class getting their food from food banks (titled "Whole Foods to Food Bank") kinda disgusted me.

The Germantown woman was loading boxes of food from the Manna food bank into a shiny sport-utility vehicle one recent afternoon when she was approached by a donor dropping off food.

"What group are you with?" the donor asked the woman, who promptly burst into tears. With her Toyota Sequoia and quilted Vera Bradley bag, she had been mistaken for a volunteer -- rather than a client waiting to take home a bag of potatoes.

"I'm a mother of four just trying to feed my kids," the woman sobbed to the donor, who was taken aback, then sympathetic.

...

Out in the Manna parking lot, the Germantown woman -- who was visiting the food bank for the second time and did not want her name used to spare her children embarrassment -- was inspecting her food allotment with the zeal of a soccer mom at Whole Foods. She turned to Manna for help after her husband refinanced their home into a costly subprime mortgage and then moved out. She has been able to get the mortgage modified, but her finances remain precarious.

She checked the expiration date on a carton of soy milk, unscrewed the lid of a jar of organic peanut butter to make sure it was sealed and read the label on a tube of ground turkey. The turkey did not pass muster, and she politely returned it to a Manna staffer. "I don't know what's in it," she explained.

"It's a double-edged sword," she said. "You can't go without food, but certain foods at Manna, no way I'm going to feed my kids. It's kind of snotty." She rejoiced in a big bag of day-old bagels, sport drinks and doughnuts, treats she could no longer afford to buy her sons.

I'm not quick to violence, but I would have punched the lady if I was that food bank volunteer. Here's a lady rolling up in her $40k SUV that only takes items like soy milk and organic peanut butter. She rejects the ground turkey because it didn't pass muster? She's supposedly there to feed her kids because she can't afford food, her half million dollar house (in that area, it may be more), and her $40k SUV.

At the least they should have taken the food they gave her and given it to people that really need it. I'm a big believer in helping those that are needy. Food banks are having a ton of trouble right now (please donate if you are able) and this lady acts like this? You ask for help, you take what you can get. If you aren't at that point of taking what you can get, you don't need a food bank. Be thankful that there are people to help to you when you need it and remember that when you are blessed to have material possessions.

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For all of the (rightful) ribbing that Obama/Biden have received, I couldn't help but shudder at the lead paragraphs of the WSJ story on Sarah Palin's speech to Hong Kong bankers (whether or not the initial invite was a joke).

HONG KONG -- Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, in what was billed as her first public-speaking engagement outside North America, blamed the world financial crisis on government excesses and called for a new round of deregulation and tax cuts for U.S. businesses. "We got into this mess because of government interference in the first place," the former Republican U.S. vice presidential candidate said Wednesday at a conference sponsored by investment firm CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets. "We're not interested in government fixes, we're interested in freedom," she added.

Just think about this for a minute. Out of all of the commentary that you've heard about the financial crisis, how many blamed too much regulation? How many said we should further deregulate the banking sector which nearly crashed the world economy? Those lines are so far out of touch with reality. I don't even know where to begin. I don't think she has a grasp of what really went on. That's a line of an ideologue, not a leader. The answer to everything is not less regulation, which is exactly what the speech asked for. We got less regulation and we got a banking system that was so addicted to risky behavior that it nearly took us all out with it. We got a banking system that had no problem foisting crap investments on everybody else while knowing what they were sowing but that didn't care because they were getting paid. Is this the world that Mrs. Palin wants more of?

No, the Fed was not blameless in inflating the housing bubble with low interest rates for too long. But to say that the Fed's failure is a failure of regulation and proves that banks should be further deregulated is simply ludicrous. We've tried that and within 10 years of the repeal of Glass-Steagall we had another 1929 moment in the banking sector.  

If this was supposed to be her coming out party for the new Sarah, I think she should go back into hiding for a few months and try again. I'm still of the opinion that she's the conservative Jesse Jackson and from what I can see (from the notoriously liberal WSJ) this speech did nothing to sway that.

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I haven't written much lately, but wanted to leave a quick note that I'm disgusted at the orgasm the right is having over the death of Ted Kennedy. Even my friends on the right that claim to be above the fray can't help themselves but to join in on the "fun". The same thing happened when Reagan died and I condemmed the left for doing it. Was Kennedy a perfect man? Far from it. Did I agree with him on everything? Certainly not. A serious look at the man's life is one thing, but this is another.

Politics isn't life.

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There has been a ton of coverage in the last 12 hours over the FCC's letter to Apple and Google regarding the rejection of the Google Voice app and the removal of all approved apps that utilize the Google Voice service. (see letter here). Most of the coverage is specfically over the role of AT&T in app store rejections. Any really cool application that would either run on AT&T's tin can network or would potentially compete with a competing AT&T service has been blocked or neutered. AT&T is a popular villian in all of this because of the rejections and their seeming inability to support basic functions like MMS that other carriers immediately adopted. However, I think that the letter is going to go much deeper and the much more interesting question to me is the last one.

 

6. What are the standards for considering and approving iPhone applications? What is the approval process for such applications (timing, reasons for rejection, appeal process, etc.)? What is the percentage of applications that are rejected? What are the major reasons for rejecting an application?

 

I can't imagine that the answer to that one will not be covered by a confidentiality letter but that's the million dollar question. This potentially goes way beyond VOIP apps to cover all rejected apps. An earlier question asks if standards are posted to iTunes and given to potential developers (I think we all know the answer to those questions).

Maybe this is the straw that finally gets the cell companies in trouble? I'm sure the AT&T execs had heartburn last night pondering what the rejection of a single app could lead to. Especially since Google didn't complain to the FCC. It appears that the FCC took this action all by itself.

I doubt we'll get the answers to the interesting questions because I'm sure that Apple and AT&T will hide behind "company secrets". But it makes me more than happy to keep jailbreaking my iPhone.

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When Editor John Meacham announced the revamp of Newsweek a few weeks ago, he basically said that the goal was to become the American version of Economist magazine. Do a search for Economist in my archives and you'll know that it's a magazine near and dear to me. I was a bit skeptical of the ability of Newsweek to transform itself. There are few magazines like the Economist for a reason. Even though the newspaper (as they call themselves) has been around for 150 years and is hugely successful, most imitators flounder. I'm thinking that Newsweek isn't going to make it. They want to be the American voice of serious news journalism with a dash of opinion thrown in.

How do they show it? By letting a fake news guy take over the magazine for a week. I've triple checked the calendar and it's not April. It's not the Onion reporting the story either. I keep wanting this to be satire, but I'm not sure it is.

While it's made me mention the magazine, it surely won't make me associate it with serious journalism.

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Oh, please, please, PLEASE let this happen.

The WSJ is reporting that GM is in talks with Renault to simply give the Saturn division to them. As a little background, I have grown attached to my Saturn (despite some early issues). I really hope that the company makes it because I think that if it gets back to its roots, it could go back to being a viable entity.

Basically, Saturn needs to de-GM themselves and go back to what made it successful: small cars and a labor agreement that is much more flexible than the GM agreement. Renault could supply the small cars. I was really impressed with Renault's vehicles when I was travelling to Germany. I would absolutely love to get euro-designed fuel efficient small cars into the US market. If Renault could get 50 state diesels over here, they could easily challenge VW as the diesel maker of choice in the US.  

There's a lot of potential in a Saturn-Renault tie up. I hope that Mr. Ghosn (who runs Renault and Nissan) wouldn't simply buy Saturn to sell repackaged Nissans (that's what got Saturn in trouble, they sell nothing but rebadged Chevrolets).  I would hope that Mr.Ghosn, who  seems like a smart guy, realizes that there is still value in the quirky car company that almost could. Without GM breathing down their throats, and undercutting their marketing and production, I think that Saturn could thrive in the market.

Will it ever be a GM? No, but it could easily be a Hyundai. I realize that there is the potential for politicking in this move. Luckily, Nissan has a large presence in Tennessee (Saturn's home state), so it should tamp down on state politicians trying to take advantage of the situation. It really is in the best interest of Saturn, and therefore Tennessee, to have them viable.

However, the whole auto industry (including labor and local politicians) has shown an acute inability of seeing the big picture. Both the labor unions and politicians have decided it's better to try and hold on to the little piece they have currently while the whole industry burns around them. While the UAW has made some concessions in the past couple of years, this whole situation could have been helped (though not avoided because management is to blame for running the companies extremely poorly) if they had made concessions earlier. Politicians have made the problem worse by doing everything they can to keep the domestic auto industry from making the changes they need to make to make the industry healthy.

And I'm not saying this as an uninterested observer that couldn't care less about the industry. I work in an industry that depends on a healthy auto industry and every move that is made by the automakers could have an impact on my job. I want to have a healthy industry. I need a healthy industry and we don't have one. If done right, this could definitely be a step in the right direction.

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I'm sure that there's a lot of outrage on the right about Specter's defection to the Democratic Party today. I'm not really surprised, I mean they've made no bones about telling him he's not wanted in the party. Why is Michael Steele now surprised that he left (other than the fact that Steele appears to be about the most inept party chair ever)? However, I think the state that it will affect the most will be Minnesota. There is zero chance that the GOP lets Coleman concede the election until the SCOTUS weighs in on the decision. This probably hurts Pawlenty's chances because polls are showing that Minnesotans just want another Senator and want the whole charade to be over. The poll I saw (sorry, no link) was that the majority Coleman to concede but would want Franken to concede if he lost the next court battle. If the national GOP forces Coleman's hand, Pawlenty could lose a lot of support in his home state. I'll never know if Specter switched for personal political gain or if for true idological reasons. But like I said, I'm not surprised as I could only take the crap that the GOP has given him for so long before just leaving as well. There was zero reason for him to stay in the party and every reason for him to leave. I think that has the potential to help the Democrats well beyond PA if the GOP continues to act like the Democrats circa 2002.

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