U.S. Marines in are in the middle of a major offensive in the Helmand River valley in southwestern Afghanistan. This area has been controlled by the Taliban and poppy harvests and opium smuggling there provides major financing for the insurgency. So far there has not been any major resistance as most Taliban fighters have chosen to slip away rather than face the U.S. head on. However, holding the area and getting the farmers to grow something other than poppies will be the real test. Reuters has a great Q&A for anyone who has basic questions.
Meanwhile, in low-profile celebrity deaths, actor Karl Malden also died this weekend at the age of 97. I have a soft sport for character actors and remember Malden from his amazing performance in On The Waterfront – a great film if you find yourself with extra time this weekend.
The Wall Street Journal is really starting to get into this banner headline thing, as they splashed yesterday’s massive market gains across all columns. U.S. stocks are looking ready to continue yesterday’s massive gains as investors speculate on a rate cut by the Fed. Yesterday was the second-largest point gain in market history. Thought some are still cautious because the largest point gain in history took place on October 16 of this year and, well, things got ugly after that [By the time I finished this post, the markets had opened and were slightly down as investors wait for the Fed's announcement this afternoon].
The New York Times is trying to get ahead of the next crisis before it even happens. They are reporting that the tightening of credit markets is going to start to trickle down to consumer credit cards. Soon it will be harder to get credit cards and harder to get large lines of credit. Even if you have a card, your bank might be reducing your credit limit or revoking the card if you have bad credit or are deemed too risky. I am sure this will make life tough for a lot of people, but the fact that yesterday I was offered a credit card in the mail, when I bought a soda and when I bought some pants, I think a little tightening in this market might not be the worst thing.
Tom Friedman explains how decreasing oil prices (when did it hit $57 a barrel) will give the US increased leverage when negotiating with Iran and Russia. He points out that a hypothetical President Barack Hussein Obama would flummox the Iranian worldview, further giving the US the upper hand in any negotiations. Of course, a hypothetical President McCain would just invade, which would fit neatly into the Iranian worldview but probably also flummox them somewhat.
Finally, we are all vindicated by our chosen method of wasting time. A study by the British think-tank Demos suggests that attempts to ban employees’ use social networking software like facebook could damage a company in the long run. The study finds that employees are not just using facebook for personal reasons; They are also using it to collaborate, share documents, and develop closer relationships with customers and ex-coworkers so a blanket ban halts productive activity. Let me be the firstto thank the good people at Demos and suggest some possible new studies:
Beers at lunch and increased afternoon creativity.
Napping in empty conference rooms and increased job satisfaction.
Employees who spend all their time blogging at 2.0somethings should be given raises.
The creepiest man in America today, Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis, said it was like “finding a winning lottery ticket in the cushions of your couch” when his staff found a nude Mistress Spitzer, Ashley Alexandra Dupre, in their video archives. On a hunch, the staff went back further in the archives and found that a drunk Eliot Spitzer would do anything (and we mean anything) for some beads.
Arthur C. Clarke, author, visionary, and the original badass from Sri Lanka (take that, M.I.A.) passed away at 90. He was immediately reborn as the starchild.
