Okay I’ll  see you and raise $1.4 B a point.  In this case a point would be a one dollar per share increase in the MSFT bid for YHOO.  Nothing has surfaced in the two weeks since the offer was made. This article makes the point that paying lawyers, investment bankers and such millions is still cheaper than upping the ante on so many shares.  As we study the equity section of the balance sheet, this is an interesting view of how a potential takeover works.

It has been said that the most efficient from of government is a benevolent king. Seems that works well in the media business too.   One guy companies like Murdoch’s News Corp are moving ahead, Time Waner is not. Facebook is  a one guy company.  Ross Perot, Gates, and Dell were one guy companies when things were going their way.  It seems that business moves a bit quickly for multiple layers of organization.

After doubling this pat year AAPL has given back two thirds of the gain. While analysts delight in its user friendly high tech gadgets, it is gadgets that get hit in a recession.  Read this article to learn how consumers really ‘feel’ about the economy.

I told you things were changing fast at Lancaster Hospital, no kidding, it closed today.

Patients were transported to other hospitals. The entire 300+ staff was let go.  I guess the metrics were more negative than we thought.  The hospital was owned by a private company.  The first link is to the WFAA report, the website is short and to the point,www.mclancaster.com.

I guess we will have the entire time to ourselves this Saturday in ACCT 5130. I doubt Jeremy will be there to talk about the obstetrics unit. Still this I suppose is an example of the metrics not measuring up to CVP of what a facility has to do.  Business changes quickly these days.

We study planning in the managerial class.  Lancaster had a Master Plan drawn that laid out a future Medical Beltway along Pleasant Run, the street that fronts the now shuttered hospital.  This is an economic blow with the lay off of employees.  In addition the doctors using the hospital will have to re locate with the patients to other facilities.

INvestors are learning that near cash is not cash.  The City of Springfield MA got $14 M back from MER.  MetroPCS and Basil Maher were not so lucky.  Seems  MER and Lehman respectively mixed their money with sub prime debt and whoops the cash was not there when they wanted it. Lehman and MER were apparently using customer cash to prop up shaky deals, they say they have a defense.

Last I checked the USA is in a shooting war, the deficit is $400 B, neither party has a presidential candidate yet, our borders are anything but secure, Lehman and Merril can’t seem to distinguish customer cash from junk debt, so what is Congress doing?  Grilling baseball players over steroids. Where is the authority for that?  Why isn’t Congress grilling CITI, MER, Bear Stearns, Lehman, et al…..  Again a pox on both their houses, Waxman and Spectre should be grilled on their priorities…..

Maria Bartiromo interviews Meredith Whitney.  Mert has finally hit gold predicting CITI would need more capital and cut its dividend. She says more of the same is in store as the banks and brokers re being overly optimistic about their so called assets.  This seems to be a particularly good issue of B/W with several articles on the credit crunch.  If you are nt subscribing, well I told you to!

It seems employers in the Lehigh Valley are getting turned off by the under thirty set.  Soft job skills include showing up on time and getting some work done. Even at $13 an hour this is not happening. Companies are shunning folks under thirty and going for the over forty set.

I can remember protestors in the sixties saying ‘Don’t Trust Anyone Over Thirty!’  Today’s rallying cry seems to be ‘Don’t Trust Anyone Under Thirty…’

John Stossel is one of my favorite common sense columnists.  Here he takes on the stimulus and identifies the economist who made the ‘bucket of water from the deep to shallow end’ of the pool observation.

This past weekend my wife and I observed a $899,000 new house for sale in Duncanville.  There were about five others like it as well as several vacant lots in the same small two block area. That makes a dozen or so potential $750 K + properties or would be properties. It took an annual income of $233,000 for a cou0ple to qualify for a loan.  We wondered if there are a dozen couples with $250K annual income wandering around hankering for such a house.  I would guess the utility bills for a 4900 sf home, especially with all the 15 foot high windows this one had would be well above $1,000 per month. This seems as foolish as a 5,000 pound 15 mpg pickup at this point.  My point is that the builder speculator has debt at the bank just on these properties of over $5 M and the interest meter is running.  It is hard to see how $600 spent at WMT is going to help these guys or their banker.

Warren Buffet advanced a proposal to resuce the municipal bond insurance industry, at a steep price. And they can keep their sub prime debt and other problems he said.  Oh well, no one ever said Warren was not  a smart shopper.  I discussed this today in intermediate as we studied the bond market. Why is it important that this insurance is believed to be reliable?

Ford was not answering Dealer Inquiries about the Mercury brand.  GM dropped Olds but spent millions settling dealer contracts.  And as we know from cost accounting, GM dropping Olds or Chrysler dropping Plymouth, or now Ford dropping Mercury does not lower fixed costs.Instead it raises fixed costs per unit over the rest of the product line.

Apparently all three thought is would save money. But as Jerry Flint points out you do not save  a car company by closing plants, anyone can do that. You save the company by building cars people want to buy.