I think I may have a solution for the American Autos. Put simply, it is time to for them to have another mini-van moment. That is, create something that is a total game changer. All this bail out talk is a joke. They vote, it doesn't pass, they vote again, it doesn't pass. The bills are littered with crap, so just stop all the hand out wishing, and go build a product that people want to buy.

Naturally, that's easier said than done. But it's definitely easier that finding some car czar that has a magic wand to waive and fix all the problems of the auto industry. But on a side note, the thought of some government appointed person to oversee the Autos has got to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard. That person doesn't exist. And you can't have some outsider telling you how to spend your bail out dollars.

But I digress. Here's my suggestion: Disappear for one year.

Support current warranties, repairs, and yadda yadda yadda. But for now, and at the least; stop making stuff that isn't competitive. Bolt the doors. Go into deep R and D. For one, the media will go nuts because they won't know what you're up to. Spend a year thinking, researching, prototyping, and stop making all the same old same old.

For years, we have watched the American Autos go BACKWARDS. They have been sitting around the boardroom thinking, "Hey, what worked in the 70s?... Lets make that again. And what was that one car that was popular in the 80s? Let's do that again." It's regression at its finest.

Now, you might be saying, what about all the union workers, and all those jobs? Well, if the autos stay on the track their on, then they will all be unemployed anyway. Wage cuts are a way better option. Massive unemployment is already the probable case scenario. It's time stop making crap just so you can employ people and start looking long term towards, "What can we do to get a competitive edge?" Now, I'm not literally calling the product crap, it's not; but it's seems like they have 15 brands of cars that are the same ol same ol, producing ridiculous volumes of brands and cars and nothing is sticking. That's a lot of crap. So stop. Spend some time thinking, and come up with something (like the mini-van) that will be a game changer. Tweaking one curve of the fender to come out with next year's model has got to stop.

Americans don't need a cooler looking car, and we don't need to relive the muscle car days. We don't need a 3rd cigarette lighter under the rear passenger seats, and more gadgets and options that will break in 2 years anyway. We need fuel economy, safety, performance and reliability. Is that so hard?

Now, you want the easy road to profitability? Just kill off every model except the overgrown black SUV's. We all know those things have sold like hot cakes, and still are.

On a side note, I watched a discovery channel special on aircraft carriers the other days. An American aircraft carrier only has to fill up once every 24 years. So if I'm supposed to believe that an American made 97-thousand TON boat can run on fuel so that it only has to fill up once every 24 years, but the best GM can do is make their Hybrid Tahoe achieve 2 more miles per gallon than it's gas guzzling non hybrid counterpart, you've got to be kidding me.

If you want revenue, you have to make something that people want to buy. I don't know how any company can go on employing tens of thousands of people spinning all their wheels making a product that isn't competitive, while executives fly around on private jets begging for money.

Judging by employment history, I'm a consultant... an internet strategist really. But at the same rate, I'm a professional musician that also happens to own a coffee shop. I'm interested in all things Wall Street, but my real calling is race car driving. I don't have any sponsors yet, but I promise, put me in coach... and I'll win. If this sounds like a three ring circus... you have no idea. And since it is my circus... most everything you read hear is my opinion... and as such, it hasn't been run through the least of any filters. Which means unless your name is Katie Murph, this is the closest you'll ever get to experiencing the raw state of my brain. And that's probably a good thing.

Welcome to my blog. I'm glad you're here. Kick off your shoes and get comfortable, because this is a great place for you to procrastinate. And if you are not sure what a blog is, type "what is a blog" in Google and let the education begin.

With that said, allow me to be your tour guide. We'll start with the top left. Those are the categories on which I blog on. If you click one, you will see the recent posts in that category. Beneath that, you will see the Recent Posts. That list will show the most recent 10 posts with the most recent at the top. If you want it to show more than 10, click Show More at the bottom of the list. Below that is where I run various polls from time to time. Make sure and vote... all the cool people do it. Under that you'll see some photo albums, frequented sites and books on the shelf. That's all pretty self explanatory.

Here in the wide middle section are the blogging posts. You can read and comment on them at will. To comment on a post, simply click the blue Comment button at the bottom-right of the post.

The right section there starts with Ticker Time. I am what you might call an active trader (which is somewhere between the buy-and-hold types and the day-trader types). The Ticker Time list will show stocks that are on my current watch list. Meaning, those are the stocks I am actively watching and trading. Beneath Ticker Time are the Top Ten songs that I am listening too currently. You can click a song and it will take you to iTunes to hear a preview. Under that are recent comments from people like you. The most recent will be at the top. If you want to see more comments, just click Show More at the bottom of the list. And finally, under the comments, is a little box that does nothing other than link over to Easy Tithe, which is an arm of The Murph Group business, my company. Clicking the link there is a great way help further your coolness. I can't tell you why... that's classified.

Now that you know your way around, perhaps I could suggest a few posts to get your feet wet.

My thoughts on driving from Another Simple Question

What every webmaster should know from What Every Webmaster Should Know

An example Wall Street post from Is Your Money TIE'd Up?

Learn to be a better investor starting with Market Part 2 and Market Part 3

Go behind the curtain at Fellowship Church in Behind the Curtain at FC

And if you've gotten this far... wow.... I am shocked. Thanks for reading.

I'll keep this one short. The potential Auto Bail Out is the biggest bunch of bunch of crap I've heard in a long time.

Point 1

The bail out is not the American thing to do, it is the stupid thing to do. As an American (company, businessman, entrepreneur, or otherwise), you can not go on year after year making a product that your American consumers are buying less and less of. That's not American, it's foolish. America is an innovation powerhouse; (businesses) get on that train or get left behind.

Point 2

Point 3

The economy is down, and it's hit my business too. People are spending less, paying invoices slower, and everything in between. Should I line up and ask the government for money? No! You, me and anyone else with a business has to adapt, not whine off crying to mommy government saying give me money, or jobs will be lost.

Economy or not, if you aren't making product people want to buy, your business will decline; it is as simple as that. All this lining up for the bail out buffet is absurd.

What ever it is, 70 billion, or 700 billion... the bail out of the financial industry will have positive and negative impacts. Positive, because they've basically put a giant band aid on a giant whale.... But the root of what caused the injury still exists. So regardless of how much money the government decides to appropriate to the bail out... it's just a temporary fix. So for positive's sake, it's a quick fix, and might avoid the panicking recession that is at hand.

The negative side for me is the lesson of responsibility. If I tank my company from personal greed and/or stupid decision making, no one is coming to my rescue. I believe at the heart of the credit crisis, mortgage write downs, and other financial collapses is personal greed. And I'm not really hypothesizing here either. There are several cases of a new CEO coming into leadership with a company and in just a year or two they wreck the company having created such a golden parachute in year 1, that the fines and firing that will take place in year two are simply a quick way out, where they can wash their hands of it all. And after all of it, they still have gobs of compensation they created and approved for themselves in year 1. So in those circumstances, there is no accountability.

There is one positive I see with the ridiculous rescue plan. Individual investors like myself can take heart of a certain stability of the markets. I can now throw my money into 10 baskets of good companies, and feel assured that if I picked industry leaders, my money is safe with a higher probability of positive return. With the example of the bail out, if things get bad enough, the government will step in and inject cash to fix the potential recession times. So my fear of my investments tanking, is much less. Sure it's now more of a fixed game, but we are forced to play the game with the rules at hand. It's not just supply and demand anymore. The market won't simply correct itself anymore. The market will correct its speed bumps, but if there's a road crater, it's government to the rescue. The big picture is kind of crappy, but we the individual investors can play this game with the new rules.

And here's a side note on the mortgage crisis. Everyone has been playing a ruthless game of blame for sometime now, and that's really a rope that has no end. There are so many people at fault, you can't just say it's the crooked CEO's, or the predatory lenders, or the dumb people who didn't read their contract and signed mortgages that are way over their pay grade. You can't say it's the real estate investors that spiked up a market so full of hot air that it was bound to deflate. Again, greed is at the forefront of the fault.

Greedy home buyers wanted to get in huge houses with little down, and then bet the farm that their over sized house would appreciate and make them gobs of money. How many millions of people want(ed) to make their millions off real estate? When board games are sold in stores about the industry, that's a sign of a bubble I would say. Lesson learned, the housing market doesn't always go up. But then again, no market does.

Then you have the mortgage industry. In this industry there are zillions and zillions of bees swarming around fishing out the next origination fee. They place a loan, and at minimum they get a point. We'll call it a point, because it sounds a lot better than saying you're going to finance an extra $1000 over the next 30 years so I can put that $1000 (1% of the loan) in my pocket right now, for placing your loan. And that's only on a $100,000 home. The national average is around 200K per home, which makes that one point yield a quick bee bonus of $2,000. Do you think any of these bees might present a not so good situation as great if they are a signature away from a quick $2,000? Many of these bees cared not about honest, ethical, situation appropriate loans. They would just push and fix and sell (which is the industry word) things until they could get their "point" on your loan. And because of this behavior, most of these people aren't working anymore. The days of those points getting passed out like bubble gum are over.

The end result, definitely not laissez-faire. I don't even know if there is a French economic term to describe our current economic state. Some are saying it's the United States of France; not from an ownership point of view, just from an economic governance point of view. That phrase certainly sounds strange, so even if it is accurate, I can't really buy into it. Never the less... and for now... long live the mostly free markets.

Here are a couple links for those who want to confirm their suspicions regarding the age of the Chinese gymnasts in the Olympics.

http://www.socialmedia.biz/2008/08/google-cache-on.html

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/27/sports/OLY.php

Now if I could only find some credible sources to explain the idiocy of the judge’s inconsistent method of scoring and the new gymnastic scoring system.

Up until now, I've been fine with the Bob Costas commentary coming from the Olympics broadcasted by NBC. My favorable opinion of Costas was strongly reversed, almost instantaneously, at the close of his interview with President Bush.

I expected somewhat of a liberal based question drilling of the President to happen, given that Costas is with NBC and they almost exclusively drink the liberal Kool-Aid anytime it's served. But I personally think that Bobby showed very little respect for the President. Like him (Bush) or not, he deserves respect. Bob's questions were long, leading, carried a sour attitude, and were worded in a spoon fed liberal fashion; anything but balanced and unbiased.

But to cap it off, Bob's final remarks in the short interview directed to President Bush were, "You are dismissed." Did I really hear that? A reporter telling the President, "You are dismissed?"

I think, "Thank you for coming" (to the interview) might have been an appropriate final remark. Or how about, "It was an honor having you." Maybe, "Thank you for your time." But no, it was, "You are dismissed". It was extremely pompous.

I wish someone with cue cards, or working a camera could have quietly reminded Costas, "Hey... remember you are a news reporter, and you're talking to the President... just remember that in case you have the urge to feel more important then you actually are."