Silicon Valley companies extending holiday closings

I have only worked for one company (in almost 20 years) that shut down for the holidays because business is so slow, it hardly makes sense to turn on the lights. Of course, that was during the good times. These changes all point in the direction of lean times in 2009.

Many Silicon Valley companies have traditionally shut down over the holidays when business is slow and employees are on vacation. Some are now extending those closures, or revisiting a practice long since eliminated, in a bid to save money in a rocky economy.

Workers are usually either given paid days off or are asked to take unused vacation days.

Hewlett-Packard Co., for example, now plans to close its offices for two weeks instead of one. Apple Inc. and Adobe Systems Inc. are also asking employees to take time off.

Cisco's closure begins Dec. 29 and lasts through Jan. 2. The company describes it as a 4-day shutdown because it includes New Year's Day, a federal holiday when Cisco offices would be closed anyway.

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Bush's mandate vs. Obama's mandate

Reader Phillip weighs in:

Note the difference between the GOP mandate and the Obama mandate:

"...we have a mandate to move the country in a new direction..."

Obama claims a mandate to move the country in a particular direction, his mandate is a vector quantity as it has magnitude and direction. He campaigned for health care, he has a mandate for health care. Bush claimed a personal mandate, a scalar quantity. He had made no mention of his plans to phase out Social Security in the campaign but claimed a mandate for them afterward.

The other distinction is that Bush interprets a mandate as permission while Obama interprets a mandate as an order. The beltway folk telling him that he should delay health care till the mid-terms or re-election are acting as if not acting on health care is the easy choice. Obama is saying that he has made a commitment and intends to fullfil it.

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Dan Savage: Game over

Dan Savage on the Prop 8 aftermath, and the argument that religious bigots are simply expressing their heartfelt faith

In the wake of Prop 8 millions of gays and lesbians all over the country have decided that we're no longer going to play by the old rules. We're not going to let people kick our teeth down our throats and then run and hide behind "Nothing personal -- just my private religious beliefs!" That game's over.

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Former UBS execs to decline millions

At least some have a sense of shame. If Wall Street can't reach a unanimous decision on this issue, someone is going to have to step in and force it because there is no way people are going to tolerate such a fleecing of the system.

As a number of American banks resist calls to rein in executive pay, the unthinkable is happening — at least in Switzerland, where three former officials of UBS, the troubled Swiss financial giant, said on Tuesday that they would forgo more than $27 million in compensation.

Marcel Ospel, the former chairman of the board at the Swiss bank, and Stephan Haeringer and Marco Suter, two former directors, said they would give up pay promised them after the bank reported nearly $50 billion in losses and received even more than that in financial support from the Swiss government.

“With the involvement of the Swiss government, I realized that decisive action was required on my part,” Mr. Ospel said in a statement. “I hope that my action will help to resolve a situation that was inconceivable to me until a short time ago,” he said.

Mr. Ospel will contribute more than two-thirds of the total; the balance will be paid by Mr. Haeringer and Mr. Suter.

In response, UBS issued a very brief statement: “We welcome the decision.”

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Bad times demand big thoughts

Reader Sean writes:

As the media spaces have been filled of late with the FDR-like public works talk that was a part of summer blog discussions, I’ve been struck by the lack of vision exhibited by most mass media yakkers on this topic and am curious to provoke blogosphere free-wheeling of a type similar to what Mr. Obama must be provoking amongst his assembling presidential posse.

Big Changes for a Big Century could include the much discussed ideas of wind farms and electric cars but I know your clever readers and writers might have a few other ideas for the economic recovery melting pot.

Here are a few of mine

-A transcontinental wide-body maglev or high velocity rail system
-More sensible and do-able than a radiation-killing Mars trip, Human science and manufacturing outposts at Lagrange or Trojan Points 4 or 5 on the edges of cislunar and interplanetary space
-National Urban agriculture for food and urban beauty
-A national Arts project similar to the Roosevelt’s WPA with the goal of uplifting or refining or further perfecting our humors, society, culture and spaces through traditional arts and new digital uses

I hope you consider this idea for a post or two…I think it could generate some good ideas and if nothing else give cable heads fresh topics for chewing.

I especially like option 1, a high speed train. It's a travesty that we have such a poor train system in this country. Read the rest of this post...

Bush's last days

Joe Klein at his best:

By mid-November, with the financial crisis growing worse by the day, it had become obvious that one President was no longer enough (at least not the President we had). So, in the days before Thanksgiving, Obama began to move — if not to take charge outright, then at least to preview what things will be like when he does take over in January....

That we have slightly more than one President for the moment is mostly a consequence of the extraordinary economic times. Even if George Washington were the incumbent, the markets would want to know what John Adams was planning to do after his Inauguration. And yet this final humiliation seems particularly appropriate for George W. Bush. At the end of a presidency of stupefying ineptitude, he has become the lamest of all possible ducks....

[H]is ridiculous, preening appearance in a flight suit on the deck of the aircraft carrier beneath the "Mission Accomplished" sign. The flight-suit image is one of the two defining moments of the Bush failure. The other is the photo of Bush staring out the window of Air Force One, helplessly viewing the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina. This is a presidency that has wobbled between those two poles — overweening arrogance and paralytic incompetence....

In the end, though, it will not be the creative paralysis that defines Bush. It will be his intellectual laziness, at home and abroad. Bush never understood, or cared about, the delicate balance between freedom and regulation that was necessary to make markets work. He never understood, or cared about, the delicate balance between freedom and equity that was necessary to maintain the strong middle class required for both prosperity and democracy. He never considered the complexities of the cultures he was invading. He never understood that faith, unaccompanied by rigorous skepticism, is a recipe for myopia and foolishness. He is less than President now, and that is appropriate. He was never very much of one.

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Credit card interest rates soaring

From reader Careyana:

I received a letter from CitiBank today informing me that they were updating my card agreement. They were modifying my Fixed APR of 7.99% to 14.99%. I was given the option to opt out of the changes which would then carry my current agreement until the card expires (7/09).

So I called Citi and got "Amit" on the phone and asked why was there a change to my account, as I've been a customer for over 4 years and I've NEVER had a late payment and ALWAYS pay over the minimum. Amit starts, "Well, due to the current economic situation..." I interrupted him immediately. "So what you're saying is that I'm being penalized because I'm a good customer?" He didn't really have a good scripted answer to that and kept repeating the "due to current economic situation..." mantra.

I'm curious how many more of your readers out there are receiving similar letters from their banks.

As Chris just wrote me, you're actually being penalized for the mistakes that your bank made. Read the rest of this post...

Breaking: Guilty verdict in MySpace suicide case

From ABC News:

A suburban mother was found guilty today of lesser misdemeanor charges for her role in an online hoax that prosecutors said led to the suicide of her teenage neighbor.

Lori Drew, 49, was convicted on three misdemeanor counts of unauthorized access to computers in a case that drew nationwide attention both for its novel use of a computer hacking law to combat alleged cyberbullying and for its tales of suburban neighborhood rivalries and teenage suicide.

The jury could not reach a verdict on a single felony conspiracy charge. Drew, who lives in a suburb outside St. Louis, was acquitted of several felony counts of unauthorized access to computers in order to inflict emotional distress on 13-year-old Megan Meier.

Drew faces a possible sentence ranging from probation to three years in prison for the misdemeanor charges. She could have faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the felony charges.

Meier committed suicide in October 2006 after the end of her online relationship with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans. "Josh Evans" was the fictitious creation of Drew, her daughter and her assistant, who created the fake MySpace account to spy on Meier, prosecutors said.

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Candace Gingrich goes on Keith Olbermann's show to talk about Prop 8 and her nasty brother Newt

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Barbara Walters' Obama interview

Barbara Walters' Obama interview is tonight on ABC (10 eastern). It should be pretty interesting, as I think Walters really does do a good job getting her guests to open up. Yeah, last week she interviewed the pregnant man, but she's a good interviewer, and it should be interesting to see what she's able to get out of the Obamas after so many months of the same old interview.

The future first lady Michelle Obama added, "That was the first thing I said to some of the [White House] staff when I did my visit. Because of course, the girls, they're so good. I said, 'You know, we're going to have to set up some boundaries. Because they're going to need to be able to make their beds" and clean their own rooms.

Michelle Obama added with a laugh, "Don't make their beds. Make mine."

I think Michelle Obama has really grown into the job, fast. She had a bump in the road earlier in the campaign and learned, quickly, that America (unfortunately) likes its first ladies in the background, somewhat demure, and gaffe-free. I think that role is especially difficult for a woman who is obviously smart, strong, and a co-equal parent in her own home - i.e., not the Southern Baptist dream of a subservient wife. America, collectively, is still a bit sexist when it comes to the First Lady. It would have been fascinating to see if the public expected Bill Clinton to be demure during a Hillary presidency. Only time will tell. Read the rest of this post...

New home sales tumble, yet again

Some good news would be nice for a change but the economy remains ugly and will only get worse. It's a relief to see Obama continuing to reach out and build his economic team. Compared to the economy, everything else is secondary.

Sales of newly built U.S. single-family homes dropped sharply in October and were running at levels last seen 17-1/2 years ago, according to a Commerce Department report on Wednesday that offered a fresh measure of the U.S. housing sector's distress..

The annual sales pace of 433,000 was down 5.3 percent from a revised 457,000 in September and was the weakest since 401,000 in January 1991.

Wall Street economists had forecast that October sales would be at 450,000-unit pace.

The median sales price fell to $218,000 from $221,700 in September and was the lowest since September 2004 when it was at $211,600.

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Microsoft researching cyberchondria

One of the great advantages of the Internet is having access to so much information so easily, but as we know, it can also be a distinct disadvantage for the same reason. In the context of healthcare, I started reading a lot when my father was diagnosed with cancer to educate myself on treatments, insurance issues (including who makes money and how), and diet. When either Joelle or I visit the doctor we will also ask questions related to something or other that we've read about online. Some doctors are terrified by the Web, afraid of anyone challenging their authority while others (like our doctor) embrace this change and are happy to discuss what is written online.

Cyberchondria starts with the best of intentions but then veers off course.

On Monday, Microsoft researchers published the results of a study of health-related Web searches on popular search engines as well as a survey of the company’s employees.

The study suggests that self-diagnosis by search engine frequently leads Web searchers to conclude the worst about what ails them.

The researchers said they had undertaken the study as part of an effort to add features to Microsoft’s search service that could make it more of an adviser and less of a blind information retrieval tool.

Although the term “cyberchondria” emerged in 2000 to refer to the practice of leaping to dire conclusions while researching health matters online, the Microsoft study is the first systematic look at the anxieties of people doing searches related to health care, Eric Horvitz said.

Mr. Horvitz, an artificial intelligence researcher at Microsoft Research, said many people treated search engines as if they could answer questions like a human expert.

“People tend to look at just the first couple results,” Mr. Horvitz said. “If they find ‘brain tumor’ or ‘A.L.S.,’ that’s their launching point.”

Mr. Horvitz is a computer scientist and has a medical degree, and his fellow investigator, Ryen W. White, is a specialist in information retrieval technology.

They found that Web searches for things like headache and chest pain were just as likely or more likely to lead people to pages describing serious conditions as benign ones, even though the serious illnesses are much more rare.

For example, there were just as many results that linked headaches with brain tumors as with caffeine withdrawal, although the chance of having a brain tumor is infinitesimally small.

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How former South African president Mbeki sent 365,000 people to an early death

I've felt for years that someone should have gone in and forcibly removed this man from office by any means necessary. When the leader of a nation basically denies the existence of AIDS - the idiot still believes this crap - he is committing genocide. Mbeki's health minister proposed using garlic, lemon juice and beetroot as a treatment for AIDS - that moron was removed from office only two months ago when Mbeki was forced out of his job. The world should have come together and removed Mbeki a long ago. He is no better than the apartheid masters he replaced. And anyone who aided and abetted this man in the South African government should be thrown in jail. I'm sorry, but he prematurely murdered 365,000 people. The man is a pig. He ought to be in jail. He ought to be with the 365,000 people he killed. Read the rest of this post...

Obama says the "m" word

Mandate, baby. Obama mentioned it yesterday during a press conference:

"We had, I think, a decisive win, because of the extraordinary desire for change on the part of the American people," he said in response to a reporter's question. "And so I don't think there is any question that we have a mandate to move the country in a new direction, and not continue the same old practices that have gotten us into the fix that we're in."

You may recall that Dick Cheney, I believe, claimed a massive mandate shortly after the Supreme Court gave George Bush the presidency in late 2000 (or, to be precise, I think Cheney said that they should rule as if they had a mandate, even if they didn't). And that's certainly the way they governed. And look where it got them. While Bush and Cheney certainly were able to reshape the country in their image (lots of unfinished wars and broken banks), they also succeeded in destroying their own party in the process. You can only rule like a dictator for so long before someone has to pay a price - usually the American people, followed by your own political party.

Obama has a mandate, to be sure. But he also knows that part of the reason he won was because of the hubris of the guy(s) before him. Read the rest of this post...

Wednesday morning open thread

One day until Thanksgiving. Anybody have any unique traditions out there, or do we all just do the turkey, cranberries and stuffing thing? Our Thanksgiving is decidedly American. I can't think of a thing we do that's our own unique tradition, other than perhaps celebrating my birthday with a pumpkin pie (my bday falls on or around Thanksgiving, this year it's Thanksgiving). Otherwise, we do the eggnog thing (God, I love eggnog - mom spikes it with rum, but I'm happy just injecting it straight into my veins), and eat sometime in the mid afternoon. How about you guys? Read the rest of this post...

Food stamps set to hit new high, over 30 million

Results from the Republican economic policies continues to arrive and we're a nation of Katrina now. The compassionate conservatism was only compassion for the richest of the rich who still line up for handouts from their old friend Hank Paulson. If you don't happen to be in that elite club, it's nothing other than old fashioned, traditional, brutal conservatism that kicks you when you're down.

Fueled by rising unemployment and food prices, the number of Americans on food stamps is poised to exceed 30 million for the first time this month, surpassing the historic high set in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina.

The figures will put the spotlight on hunger when Congress begins deliberations on a new economic stimulus package, said legislators and anti-hunger advocates, predicting that any stimulus bill will include a boost in food stamp benefits. Advocates are also optimistic that President-elect Barack Obama, who made campaign promises to end childhood hunger and whose mother once briefly received food stamps, will make the issue a priority next year.

"We soon will have the most food stamps recipients in the history of our country," said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, a D.C.-based anti-hunger policy organization. "If the economic forecasts come true, we're likely to see the most hunger that we've seen since the 1981 recession and maybe since the 1960s, when these programs were established."

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Obama calls for no bank bonuses this year

In this economy, any additional reward would not be popular with anyone, including Obama. Americans are losing jobs, losing retirement and paying out enormous sums to keep business afloat so taking a pass on bonuses is the only option this year. The bonus culture doesn't end in the executive suite, with many mid-level workers doubling their annual salary at bonus time to the tune of one hundred thousand and beyond. The bonus freeze needs to run deep, very deep on Wall Street.

President-elect Barack Obama thinks bank executives should forgo their bonuses this year to show they are taking responsibility amid difficult economic times.

In an interview with Barbara Walters to air Wednesday, Obama also said he's trying to keep his BlackBerry or find another way to "break through the isolation and the bubble that exists around the president."

Obama talked about a range of topics in Tuesday's interview, including troop deployments in Afghanistan and Thanksgiving plans with his family, ABC News said. He also discussed the adjustment of moving into the White House with his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters.

According to excerpts of the interview released by ABC, Obama said bank executives should make sacrifices because so many other people are struggling as the nation's economy slips further. Some financial firms, including Goldman Sachs, the Swiss bank UBS and the British bank Barclays, have said they aren't handing out annual bonuses to top executives, and Obama encouraged more to follow.

"I think that if you are already worth tens of millions of dollars, and you are having to lay off workers," Obama said, "the least you can do is say, 'I'm willing to make some sacrifice as well, because I recognize that there are people who are a lot less well off, who are going through some pretty tough times.'"

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Germany: "Yes We Cem"

A non-white political leader in Europe? Shocking and now true.

He has been described as "Germany's Obama", and as he campaigned to become the country's first ethnic Turk to be elected leader of a major political party, Cem Ozdemir's supporters coined the slogan "Yes We Cem!"

Whether the Obama factor helped or not, the son of a Turkish immigrant – who describes himself as a secular Muslim not averse to the odd glass of vodka – won the leadership of the country's Green Party this month, shattering a racial barrier that had held sway in post-war Germany for decades.

As Green Party leader, the last thing Mr Ozdemir, 42, appears to want to do is campaign on behalf of Germany's still disadvantaged Turks. Instead he wants to help them via osmosis. "I hope that people will notice my name and realise that someone with an ethnic Turkish background can also play a role in politics," he says.

His parents arrived in Germany's southern state of Baden-Württemberg in the early 1960s as "Gastarbeiter" or guest workers. They came at the invitation of the German government in search of well-paid jobs and although they intended to return to Turkey, like millions of others, they stayed.

Germany's 2.7 million Turks are the country's biggest ethnic minority. But decades of policy has kept many in the ghetto. Less than a quarter have German passports, and therefore, a vote.

NOTE FROM JOHN: Ozdemir was at a conference I attended in Greece this past summer. This is great news. Read the rest of this post...

American workers more cautious about 401K plans

You don't say? So just because Americans have increasingly been pushed into 401K plans as opposed to old fashioned pension plans and they've all been scorched by Wall Street, they're now less enthusiastic? It's almost too hard to imagine such a result. Whether we like or dislike Wall Street, it's in our collective best interest to have a Wall Street hitting on all cylinders. As the system stands today, periods such as this are crushing retirement plans which means years of lost investments and delayed retirement *if* people can still find employment.

The retirement problems alone should have been enough for Washington to provide serious oversight but no, the free market phonies won the day. The likes of Phil Gramm, comfortable with his earnings from UBS and Wall Street lobbying, is just fine and without a scratch. And everyone else?

U.S. workers are increasingly cautious about investing in corporate retirement funds, having shifted money out of stocks, reduced how much they contribute and, in some cases, stopped contributions altogether or withdrawn money, according to a study released Monday.

The study by Hewitt Associates, which administers 401(k) plans for corporations, found the average U.S. 401(k) plan balance was down 14 percent through October to $68,000 from $79,000 in 2007.

401(k) refers to a section of the U.S. Tax Code that allows retirement plan investors to defer paying taxes.

Hewitt, a human resources consulting and outsourcing firm, found 4 percent of workers had stopped contributing to their plans in response to the declines on Wall Street, and fewer are investing in stocks.

Many people moved money into safer assets after particularly bad days in the stock market, said Pamela Hess, Hewitt's director of retirement research.

"I see people that are very unsophisticated moving to cash, but I also see people who believe themselves to be sophisticated trying to time the market," she said.

After the initial drop earlier this year I listened to a fairly sophisticated fund manager from Saxo Bank talk about moving out of the market to 90% cash, if I recall correctly. Even with currency fluctuations, cash has been much more stable than the market and the insider experts have not exactly been right about much lately. Read the rest of this post...

Thanksgiving cooking reminder

If you are going to brine - and if you're not brining, you are missing out - get that brine started so the turkey has enough time to be ready for Thursday. You will need to brine the bird overnight. I've successfully used this brine in the past but if anyone has something different that they like, leave a link or the recipe in the comments.

The Times had a few good options for something different if you are serving regular roasted potatoes or sweet potatoes. I tried the roasted potatoes on Sunday and really enjoyed them. The roasted garlic bits (that are soft inside) are so mellow and make the dish. We don't have any black tea so I used our organic rooibos which goes with everything. As soon as I round up some fresh sage, I'll try the sweet potatoes.

There is also a link in the Times food section for carving a turkey but I just watched this one and thought it was easy to follow. As they say, work with a sharp knife. Read the rest of this post...