Walking versus Public Transit

Today I am lucky enough to live within a 35 minute walk of my office. But, because I live in Boston, and I would prefer not to be sick 6 months out of the year, I typically take the bus at least when it's below 50 degrees or rainy. I have a love/hate relationship with the bus. I love that it continues to expose me to the GP (general public). I hear the latest tunes out of other people's iPod's, and I know all about my neighbor's son's hockey tournament this next weekend. I hate the bus because- like all forms of transportation, other than our feet, it is polluting the environment. But, my justification for riding the bus is that it would be going with or without me. It doesn't matter if I am on it or not. At least I am not driving into the office. I might as well enjoy the comforts of the bus, relish in the goings on of my neighbors, etc... But, on day's like today- when it's above 50 degrees and sunny to boot, you will see me on foot, sparing the air and listening to the sounds of birds and passing cars...

Airline Woes...

Does anyone else wonder if maybe these recent "grounding" of flights due to "maintenance" issues might just be a way to curb the soaring operational costs in the airline industry today? For those of us that might just need to hop on a quick day trip for a meeting, we might just host those meetings via WebEx.

I wonder if these costs will lead companies to start outsourcing their sales calls to sales consultants. Example: let's say you live in Ohio, and you can easily get to: Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, Kentucky and even upstate New York. If you are skilled in one industry or target market you might be employed by multiple companies because they can't afford to keep flying people everywhere...

It's not going to happen tomorrow, but it might just happen.

A recession, really? More like finally...

I understand something my old boss used to say more clearly now than ever, "perception is reality." Bernanke is finally admitting that a recession is looming. It makes sense that the Fed Chairman would hesitate to say something about a recession because of what it would do to the markets. But that's the general problem with the study of economics. We study what happened, not what's going to happen. Economists are some of the most conservative people I know, never wanting to tip the scales in any certain direction because they to understand the phrase "perception is reality." They know the value of letting the market balance itself out, so they keep their comments to a minimum- at least the good ones. But I have to laugh when the Fed Chairman finally says something about it- months after all the minions have been living it...

The last thing the economy needs is to be shoved off this cliff that we stand on with no sense of protection against the fall- I think... The government is working on protections, and it seems that regulations and some corporate/banking process changes have been made, so that we will gently fall to the ground with a "parachute" of sorts. But maybe what we need is to be shoved off the cliff, and fall and see what the disaster looks like at the bottom. Maybe we need to really understand what kind of situation our greed and need to "keep up with the Jones'" has done to our system and our people. We might not be able to understand if we don't just let the bottom fall out.

We Shall See...