Already it seems inventory is growing lighter–you have fewer choices today than yesterday if you’re buying. So now is the time to cash in your gift cards or lose them.

I do have an observation with regard to Circuit City. Last March the company fired 3,400 of it’s highest paid hourly workers. That is, it fired it’s best salespeople, and hired salespeople that would work for less money. That right there was the harbinger of things to come. I recall being surprised and angered that they would simply get rid of their best employees to save a buck. Rubs me the wrong way–I don’t care if the shareholders loved it.

The only way you make money in this world is with other people. I believe firing those workers may have led to the place they are now: bankrupt and liquidating. They can’t even find anyone to buy the company! When you replace your best people with people not as experienced, you sell less products. It’s a pretty simple equation. If you sell less often enough, your competition eats your lunch. Best Buy and Walmart have not only eaten Circuit City’s lunch, they’re enjoying dessert right now.

Locally about 80 people will lose their jobs at the Vestal Circuit City store. I feel for them and wish them all the best. Of course Best Buy is coming soon to the Parkway, but not soon enough. If you’re working hourly you likely need a replacement job asap. Prayers and best wishes to the folks out there looking for work. It’s not a fun environment to be job hunting.

No doubt Circuit City’s corporate officers will be vacationing in the Bahamas as soon as the dust settles from liquidating assets. And so life goes on.

UPDATE: This post was actually composed and scheduled on Sunday, Jan. 18 (although I released it this morning at 8am). It’s nice to see the Press & Sun-Bulletin comes to the same conclusion I have in an article appearing in today’s paper: Circuit City’s death traced back to layoffs.

Technorati Tags: Vestal, Circuit City, bankruptcy

I’ve written about Economic Development Zones previously (Empire Economic Development Zones Hurt Broome Taxpayers). The organization that administers EDZs and is in charge of handing out big tax breaks to businesses that do nothing more than put on a good show is the ESDC–that Mr. Wilmers now runs.

Let me connect the dots for you: ESDC hands out big tax breaks to businesses. Those tax breaks benefit a business’ bottom line–helps make that business more profitable. M&T Bank makes loans to businesses. Do you think that maybe, if I’m the CEO of a business looking for a loan, I might consider getting my loan from the bank whose chairman could influence whether or not I get a big huge tax break from the state?

If Mr. Wilmers wants to magnanimously help the state and shower us with his brilliant leadership (and the ESDC can use good leadership for sure), he should step down from the board of M&T immediately and sever all ties–divest himself from their stock–and become a truly independent leader of the ESDC. While he remains chairman of the board at M&T there is a bigtime conflict of interest.

Something about this whole thing just stinks to high heaven. The real solution is to dissolve the ESDC and stop favoring some businesses over others with tax breaks. Lower the tax rate for EVERYONE in New York, businesses and individuals alike.

For more information, see:
M&T chairman tapped for state economic post (Press & Sun-Bulletin, June 6)

Technorati Tags: Empire State Development Corp, Empire Zones, Empire Development Zones, David Paterson, Robert Wilmers, M&T Bank

Here’s a statement uttered by our astonishingly brilliant governor:

In his statement, Paterson said he looks forward to the PSC’s “speedy resolution of issues in the acquisition case before it. I am hopeful that the outcome will be one that provides an opportunity to Iberdrola to bring its financial strength and commitment to expand renewable energy generation in the state, while also protecting the interests of ratepayers in the Energy East service area.”
(Press & Sun-Bulletin, June 6)

Translation: Get off your rear-ends Public Service Commission, and get this deal done. I’m waiting for “contributions” from Iberdrola to my campaign re-election fund!

Wake up people.

Technorati Tags: Iberdrola, Energy East, NYSEG, David Paterson, wind power

• NYSEG Covers Up Alternative Bids in Favor of Spanish Company Takeover
• Sale of NYSEG to Spanish Company Iberdrola Hits Big Roadblock
• NYSEG Selling Out to Foreign Ownership

The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) is doing their best to prevent the sale–kudos to them. But Iberdrola is not going away quietly. I saw this interesting advertisement online at the Press & Sun-Bulletin website, right at the top of the page (click the image to see full size):

The odd time or two I’ve purchased the print version of the P&SB, I believe I’ve also seen large full-page ads from Iberdrola there as well. In publishing there is something known as the “Chinese Wall” between ad sales and editorial. It means there is supposed to be an imaginary wall between the two and one (the sales department) should not influence the other (the editorial department). People in the publishing business know that’s not necessarily how it works in the real world.

I wonder when, if ever, we’ll see a negative story in the P&SB about the Iberdrola/Energy East deal, the way we see an endless parade of negative stories about Bush/Cheney? Does anyone seriously doubt there’s a left-leaning bias (and economic self-interest) in P&SB reporting?

Technorati Tags: Binghamton, Press & Sun-Bulletin, Iberdrola, NYSEG, Energy East, New York PSC

Fast forward to today. Endicott-Johnson Shoe Company sold or off-shored it’s U.S. manufacturing operations and moved it’s headquarters to Tennessee–today it employs no people in Broome County. IBM sold most of its local interests and now employs something like 1,200 people at one remaining location. Link Aviation has been sold and resold many times, with most of its jobs moved to Texas and other locations. Maybe you’ll understand why this area’s collective psyche has been in a permanent state of depression since the 1980s, when many of these changes occurred.

Enter natural gas. (No, this is not a punch line or joke.) It’s early days yet, but there’s quite a stir going on if you own any amount of land in this part of the country. With energy prices skyrocketing, one of the great underutilized resources in the U.S. is suddenly becoming popular and profitable–natural gas. And who woulda thunk there’s potentially a large reservoir of it sitting beneath Broome County?

Today’s Press & Sun-Bulletin provides background information about this phenomenon, along with a hint at what may be “happy days are here again” for our area. Here’s a few paragraphs from Gas drilling raises economic prospects:

Gathering the manpower and equipment to tap natural gas under the Southern Tier will continue for months and years as companies recruit qualified help for jobs ranging from land prospecting to drilling, industry sources said.

Some jobs, such as clerical help to process land deals and laborers laying pipe to carry the gas, will be local. Others, like specialized teams operating drilling rigs, will likely be brought from out of the area.

Until recently, low natural gas prices and technological limits caused a lull in the industry regionally, said Brad Gill, a spokesman for the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York. A drop in gas prices below $3 per 1,000 cubic feet in the late 1980s and through the 1990s “decimated our industry,” he said. Consequently, prospecting slowed, infrastructure development lagged and jobs dwindled.

Prices have since more than tripled, and new technology and current geological models have led to a rush to tap the Marcellus Shale formation. It’s the largest untapped natural gas reserve in the country and it extends under the Southern Tier and Pennsylvania.

Everything is suddenly changing, as companies race to catch up.

The article goes on to say that one energy company, XTO Energy of Fort Worth, TX, is about to sign a land deal with 300 local landowners in the Deposit, NY area worth $90M! Wow. And this is just the beginning. Maybe happy (economic) days are returning to our area! Too soon to tell. What we have right now are hopes that these prospecting companies will find some good veins or deposits. Perhaps the naming of Deposit all those years ago was a prescient act.

Let’s hope the socialist politicians in this area don’t tax the profits into the ground, and let’s hope the drilling companies start pulling natural gas out of the ground.

Technorati Tags: Broome County, Broome County history, Binghamton, natural gas, natural gas drilling, Marcellus Shale, Deposit NY

The PSC is digging and has found there were two other offers for Energy East. But the big guns at Energy East don’t want to disclose who, or what, those offers were. I wonder why? Could it be the other offers lacked some of the gold in the golden parachutes the people at the top of Energy East will get from Iberdrola? You can be sure the people at the top are looking out for themselves and themselves only, and don’t care a wit for the workers or the ratepayers. No doubt they will move out of the area once this deal is done, meaning they won’t have to live under the higher rates that will surely come as a result of their actions.

The whole thing stinks to high heaven if you ask me. I have been against this from the start on the grounds that key infrastructure should not be foreign-owned. As I state every time I write about this, I am not xenophobic–I have many friends in other countries. It’s nothing against Spain or the Spanish people. My objection has everything to do with the security of our homeland.

Perhaps wiser people than I, who read this blog, can answer a question for me. I’ve noticed in following this story that there are rumors another company is trying to buy out Iberdrola itself! Of course Iberdrola denies the rumors out-of-hand. But ‘what if’? What if Iberdrola buys NYSEG and say, a French company buys Iberdrola? And then, because France freely engages in commerce with Iran, an Iranian company buys the French company and becomes the new owner of NYSEG? Or instead of France, a company from North Korea buys Iberdrola? Or a company from a country with hostile relations toward the U.S.? What happens then? Can we prevent and control who the ultimate owner is once ownership of NYSEG transfers off-shore? Perhaps approval of the sale of an American utility is always subject to approval by our country–I’m not sure but would like to know.

Equally disturbing to me is lack of control at the local level. When Iberdrola sends down the word to “reduce the workforce” (i.e., fire people) to boost the bottom line, or to “invest” all sorts of money in “green technologies” (socialist pap that increases our gas and electric rates), local managers will have little control. Yes, the PSC must approve rate increases and the like. But those who own this monopoly, and it IS a monopoly, will be able to do with it what they want and there is no way to ultimately control them. The owners, instead of being here in the U.S. of A, are a continent away.

Yeah, maybe I’m a bit paranoid on this topic. But something instinctively tells me this is not a good deal for New Yorkers, and not a good deal for America. What do you think? Leave a comment and make me feel better about NYSEG being sold to a foreign country.

Technorati Tags: Energy East, NYSEG, Iberdrola, foreign ownership utilities

Our first step should be the thoughtful development of a vision for a system of care and services that will enable us to meet our moral and ethical obligations to serve our elderly and others with chronic care needs.

I ask a simple question of Mr. Young: How is it in any way moral or ethical for New York State to force me to pay for other people’s health care, when I can barely afford my own?

This is why people are leaving New York in bus loads. We’re tired of this socialist pap. The Democrats and RINOs (Republican In Name Only) have created a state (New York) of dependency so complete we don’t even question the absurdity anymore. We now think our money belongs to the government. IT DOES NOT.

In 2006 New York spent $44.6 BILLION on Medicaid. This is mind-blowingly obscene by any standard. No matter how many words you write, how clever your arguments are, how you whine it’s “for the children” or “for the elderly” or for anyone else, the naked fact is that Medicaid in New York is out of control.

The solutions to this problem are not nearly as “complex” as Mr. Young would have us believe. See my previous musings on the topic of Medicaid.

Note: Mr. Young heads up an industry advocacy group/association by the name New York Association of Homes & Services for the Aging whose members are nursing homes and others who depend on the government for their profits. He is advocating taking money from your pocket to give to his member companies via Medicaid. The last paragraph of his missive contains the real reason he wrote it in the first place:

The way to “get Medicaid under control,” at least in the long-term care arena, is through thoughtful policy-making, not payment-cutting to nursing homes and home care intended to make us more “competitive” with other states whose service delivery systems are truly not comparable to New York’s.

It’s called corporate welfare, and it’s as sickening, addicting and cancerous as plain old regular welfare for individuals.

Technorati Tags: New York Medicaid, Medicaid funding, RINO, Carl Young, New York Association of Homes & Services for the Aging, NYAHSA, corporate welfare, socialism

Local restaurant workers may soon be serving french fries fried in soybean oil and cookies baked with margarine substitutes under a voluntary program to encourage restaurants to discontinue the use of trans fats.

Broome County Legislator Joseph Sanfilippo, D-4th Ward, who chairs the legislature’s health and human services committee, announced the campaign during a news conference Friday. He was joined by Claudia Edwards, public health director for the Broome County Health Department, and Robert Denz, director of environmental health for the health department.

Next week, the health department will mail surveys asking about the use of trans fats in cooking to Broome County’s 700 restaurants and other food service establishments, Sanfilippo said. Restaurants that eliminate trans fats will be featured on Broome County’s Web site: www.gobroomecounty.com.

The campaign is voluntary — unlike New York City, which implemented a local law in 2006 to ban the use of trans fats by July, according to the law.

I love that last line…”voluntary.” Yeah, right. It’s a very small step from voluntary to mandatory, a step that local, as well as state and national socialists, are all too willing to take.

My advice to any freedom-loving Broome County restaurant owner receiving the survey? Don’t fill it out and don’t return it. Let the nannies eat static.

Technorati Tags: Broome County, Binghamton, nanny state, socialism, trans fats, public health

The PSC is correct in their assessment: There is no advantage to ratepayers (and taxpayers) in this $4.5 billion sale. My take: Infrastructure like roads, bridges, ports and power companies should NEVER be sold to a foreign interest (see my previous post on this). It’s a homeland security thing. We need to protect our country. This is the United States of America, not the United Countries of the World. I think the Spanish people are great–it’s nothing against them. But they will not have our best interests at heart when it comes to the security of our country.

Iberdrola thought they could sneak in to our country and pick off an easy mark (and they found it with the money-grubbers running Energy East) to get themselves established here, before moving on to bigger targets. No thanks. Iberdrola can keep the alternative energy schemes they want taxpayers and ratepayers to fund. Let’s keep NYSEG in U.S. hands.

As Matt Drudge says, Developing…..

Technorati Tags: New York Public Service Commission, PSC, Energy East, NYSEG, Iberdrola, homeland security

Here’s the blurb from the P&SB:

MONTROSE, PA — Donald Dean and Sons Inc., a Montrose-area manufacturer of custom cabinet doors, was recently awarded a $452,000 grant to replace their boiler system. The grant was part of Pennsylvania’s Energy Harvest Grants program, which is designed to promote awareness and build markets for clean or renewable energy technologies.

Donald Dean and Sons now uses a biomass boiler system. It will be replaced with a wood fired boiler, using more efficient systems produced in the United States. It will eliminate the need for 180,000 gallons of heating oil, according to Gov. Edward Rendell.

Swapping out an oil burner for a wood stove for a half mil–yeah, that’s real progress.

Technorati Tags: Pennsylvania taxpayers, New York taxpayers, Energy Harvet Grants, renewable energy, Edward Rendell, Montrose PA, Donald Dean and Sons