Monday

4's blogs are much more interesting than the OPB (Old People's Blog). Generational connectivity is a bit of a problem. Or should I say, dis-connectivity?

The Big Three auto executives are still testifying before the Senate, essentially begging for money. Their problems extend beyond the credit crunch. They operate in an excess-capacity industry, that has failed to anticipate modern day dynamics in the market place. They can't adapt quickly. They can't run fast enough to catch up on negative cash flow. And their credit supply sucks. My guess is that even if we lend them $25 billion now, they'll be back for more inside of a year.

I did read an interesting analysis in this week's Barron's magazine about the problems at AIG. The conclusion was that one of their investment divisions was led by a hard-charger who pushed the envelope in a large mortgage portfolio, and got caught in bad bets. Their basic insurance business was fine. But they got greedy, and when the tide turned, they were "out of trust", a term used to describe an entity with borrowings that exceed the value of the assets upon which the funds were originally acquired.

These stories are why OPB's suffer.

The business of Bowling for Dollars gets a change in 2011 when ESPN gets all of the BCS bowl games after winning those rights in a bidding contest this week. While ABC (a Disney-owned company like ESPN) retains the Rose Bowl, the other four BCS games jump over to the cable service. I'm not sure that this is all that bad. The old argument that there was something un-American about major sporting events not being on free-access network TV, has lost a lot of substance with the proliferation of reception choices for consumers. Satellite. Internet. Blackberry. We pay for everything anyway.

In related information, there was a big stink in these parts last year when Mediacom did not carry The Big Ten Network (BTN) on it's primary packages. Each side politic-ed in the media about their respective interests to serve their constituencies. Lots of posturing, but no BTN football or basketball broadcasts in our area last year. Finally, this Fall there was the much-hyped announcement that the two sides had finally reached an agreement and the BTN would be added to the Mediacom package.

Oh. And last month, Mediacom announced that it was raising it's rates in Iowa for it's expanded basic package by $4 per month. Shocking.

Here's a little recognition to former PV Breaker Lindsay S for leading the Minnesota Golden Gophers into the third round of the NCAA D-I women's soccer tournament. The senior from Bettendorf has been the team's leading scorer this year. Great accomplishments for a hard-working girl. The reward for this success is a date with #1 rated Notre Dame in South Bend on Friday. Ouch!

AM commented last week that they had received their SB's gold card for free after having been an online SB regular card customer for some time. These retirees are killing us. First, it's this monster unfunded liability in Social Security. Then its all this free AARP crap. And now we're paying their bills at SB's. I'm reorganizing myself as a bank, and applying for TARP money.

For the fans of Sports Not Stilettos, Brady Quinn won his first pro football game as a starter last night. It took a kicker for the other team to go "wide right" at the end of the game. But a win is a win is a win. And he looked good doing it. Not great. But not bad.

Have a great evening.

BCOT