Minnesota Morning

Being a guy who watches the stock market and economy closely I understand at a freshman level college course what is going on. I get what the issues are and understand most of the ideas to fix it.

Most folks do not follow this like I do. And rightly so. I am a little nuts for following this stuff like I do.

Then again, it is part of my job to follow market and industry trends and as we know and are experiencing labor markets go with the economy.

Our elected officials have and are missing opportunities to speak to the American people and explain the heck is going on.

Point #1 President Obama press conference:

Monday night President Obama gave a nice prepared statement on the economy and why he believes it is important to act now. Then he took questions.

The problem is that when you do a press conference you cannot control the questions that are asked. So not all questions that were asked were not economy related. That happens and I get it but some focus on one topic would have been nice.

Worse, many of the reporters in that room need to go back to college and take economics courses again. Some of them asked the most stupid questions I could imagine. Hopefully one or two of their bosses were watching and are embarrassed that their report was an idiot.

The opportunity missed was when the President decided he needed to educate these morons. Three to seven minutes to answer a question is much, much too long.

Point #2 Treasury Secretary Geithner:

Tuesday the Treasury Secretary testified on Capitol Hill about the new banking proposal. Before going forward I still have issues that he is the Treasury Secretary. Dude didn’t pay his taxes. Not once but twice.

Anyway, so he rambles and rambles about what is going on.

And then he said and this is a paraphrase, that he has only been on the job for two weeks. OK, (a) he was the President of the New York Fed and (b) if he is claiming he needs some ramp up time then clearly he was not the best person to be picked.

Reaction to his testimony was mostly negative and the Dow Industrials at one point were -417.

Not exactly the reaction you want from one of your top leaders who are working to fix the economy.

Point #3 8 bank CEO’s on Capitol Hill:

Apparently the CEO’s of the largest banks (and who took TARP funds) are getting the message why taxpayers are upset. (WTF, why would it take this long and what sort of bubble are they in?)

One apologized in general and Vikram Pandit (Citigroup CEO) apologized about the plane they almost acquired.

But the testimony at the House Financial Services Committee was a wasted opportunity too. I did not time it but it seemed that each member had 5 minutes for Q&A. Most every one of them used 3.5 minutes to soapbox about whatever rant they had, .5 minutes to ask a question, leaving 1 minute for the CEO’s to answer.

1 minute to answer? That’s it? I thought the purpose of this was to find out what they did with their TARP money.

Closing of my rant: The President of the United States, Congress and CEO’s are missing ample and easy opportunities to explain what is going on and most importantly going to fix things going forward.

And they wonder why taxpayers are upset...

LINKS

Recruiter and HR:

• Reuters: Hiring firms gear up for finance mop-up
• Fistful of Talent: Social Media and Business - We Were Communicating Poorly Long Before a 140 Character Limitation...
• The Talent Buzz: Announcing the $1,000 Blog Post Contest

Career and Job Search:

• What Would Dad Say: 10 Job Sites With Unique Opportunities, Says Lifehack
• Career Hub: 17 Interview Questions You Must Be Able To Answer
• HR Minion: A month goes by fast
• CollegeRecruiter.com: Applying to Jobs But Getting No Interviews
• MSNBC: Despite the economy, Uncle Sam is hiring
• Career News: Say Thank You
• Blue Sky Resumes: Networking for People Who Hate Networking

Local blog posts from TwinCitiesBlogs.com:

• Rick Mahn: Afraid of being cataloged online? You’ve just lost.
• FunnyBusiness: How Facebook ,Twitter, Blogs, And YouTube May Force Kellogg's To Do The Backstroke On Firing Michael Phelps
• Media Relations Blog: 4 Tips for Better Blogger Relation-ships
• Social Studies: Twitter’s Wings
• Minnov8: Why You Need a Social Hub
• Lawyerist: Notes from a Twitter curmudgeon
• Communications Conversations: 7 ways to hone your consulting skills
• Twin Cities Real Estate Gal: Looking For A Condo Downtown Minneapolis?

Comments

[Dava Stewart]

Paul,

I don't know half as much as you do about the ecomony and not even 1/8 as much about the stock market, but I do know enough to totally agree with everything you stated in this rant! Thanks for the post.

[Business Opportunities]

Hello everyone,
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