Giving Banks the “Bird.”

Chock this up to the too unbelievable to be true category. Bank America is being sued for seizing a parrot.

If seems an employee contractor was sent to the wrong property when it believed the owner of the property was in default on her mortgage.

The women was not home at the time, but the contractor changed the locks, cut the water pipes and electricity, poured anti-freeze into the sinks and toilets.

If that was not enough, the contractor took Luke, her blue macaw.

When the women contacted B of A, she was told the company had zero tolerance for that kind of error; but the women still had to drive 80 miles to recover her parrot.

She is suing B of A for $50,000 in damages.

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Budweiser Wins in Poor Economy

Well, here is a surprise. People drink in a poor economy.

When people are depressed or undergoing financial hardships, they drink. Who would have thought?

My proof? Anheuser-Busch made $1.28 billion in the last quarter of 2009. Budweiser remains the market leader in the US and Brazil.

Sure some people will say it had nothing to do with the economy but I beg to differ. If it is not due to the economy, what is it?

  • Certainly there were not that many NASCAR events going on.
  • Martha Stewart has not changed from cooking with wine to beer.
  • With the increasing shortage on chicken wings; beer and wing combos have not increased.
  • Beer is still more expensive than water (for now).

Yep, I pretty much think it was the economy but will need extensive time and money to research fully.

[Insert government approved grant here for further testing]

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We Beat Our “Low” Expectations!

Pop that campaign cork and go pick up that Snickers bar you had on layaway now!

The Commerce Department has just announced that retail spending, in January, was up o.5%. This far exceeded the estimates*.

*Understand the estimates were pretty low to begin with. Pretty much the economic equivalent of expecting a “special” kid to make the Taj Majal out Popsicle sticks. Unless it is the Elephant man or that kid from the movie Mask, it just isn’t going to happen.

Seriously? 0.5% is worth the “hey-the-recession-is-over” celebration?? Isn’t that the equivalent of some tourist going in and paying full price for a NASCAR t-shirt during the Daytona 500?

Ok, maybe it is a bit more, but certainly not worth celebrating the end of an economic crisis. I guess if we hear “it is over” enough times we will believe it.

What do you think? Now I can go buy an iPad?

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Treasury Loses $2.3 Billion on CIT Group.

I just knew we should have invested in Franklin Mint Plates – no one ever listens to me. The government could have made a killing buying limited edition Who’s the Boss commemorative plates*  – but nooooo, the government had to “invest” TARP funds in the CIT Group.

In the treasury report released a couple days ago the government indicated the loss [on the loan to CIT] at $2.3 Billion. The loan was an effort to save the failing company which ended up declaring bankruptcy in December 2008.

However all is not lost…

So far Treasury has recovered two-thirds of TARP investments in banks and earned $17 billion in income from those investments. – oh, and one plate sent in by Mrs. Gladice Milson of Wells, NV.

*SPECIAL DISCLAIMER: I made up Gladice Milson. As far as I know, Who’s the Boss commemorative plates do not exist. Please do not try and buy them or send me hate mail if they actually do exist. Any investment in Franklin Mint plates is not recommended by the Godfather. Investment has risk. So do plates (they fall on the ground and break).

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Recession Has Ended, Now Get Back to Work!

Yea! The recession is over. What? There are no jobs available? But the recession is over! Oh, we have to innovate first? But no one is hiring people that will then innovate? It ended in the summer of 2009?! WTF, clearly a bunch of us didn’t get THAT memo in time for Christmas!

I am so confused. Can I buy the new Apple iPad or should I be buying rice and beans to store in my cellar?

This is from Mr. Greenspan on Meet the Press this week. (read the whole transcript here).

MR. GREENSPAN: The recession is over. It bottomed back in the middle of last year. And while it doesn’t have the strong momentum I had hoped it would have, strangely, because of the fact that we had such a strong fourth quarter, which was essentially using up a lot of the latent power of events, which was the gradual reduction in the rate of decline in inventories. We did it all in the fourth quarter, and we since–we shot our ammunition. So it’s going to be a slow, trudging thing, but I do think we’re going to be moving forward. And, as Hank says, the issue here is basically innovation. Innovation by definition is not forecastable, so we don’t know where the jobs are coming from. We don’t know how this market is exactly in terms of dynamics going to move forward. But we know that this process is under way, and there’s every reason to believe that it will continue to do so.

Click your heals and just believe Dorothy. There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.

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Got Debt? (Part II)

DebtClock285Well we have not checked in with the debt clock lately so here you go….(click here for the debt clock “live”)

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Fifty Years of Math 1959 – 2009 (in the USA )

MathNot sure where this came from, but it cracks me up for some, sad, reason…

Fifty Years of Math 1959 – 2009 (in the USA )

Last week I purchased a burger at Burger King for $1.58. The counter girl took my $2 and I was digging for my change when I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and gave it to her.. She stood there , holding the nickel and 3 pennies , while looking at the screen on her register.

I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two quarters , but she hailed the manager for help. While he tried to explain the transaction to her , she stood there and cried. Why do I tell you this? Because of the evolution in teaching math since the 1950s:

1. Teaching Math In 1950s [Read more...]

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