Horns

Greetings good citizen,

Our lead story from the business section of today’s New York Times was ‘almost as shocking’ as the news of Jim Neighbors tying the knot with his long-time boy toy in Hawaii…

U.S. Economy Unexpectedly Contracted in Fourth Quarter
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ 51 minutes ago

Weaker exports, a drop in military spending and a slower buildup in inventories combined to pull the economy down at the end of the year.
The government said economic output in the quarter fell at an annual rate of 0.1 percent.

So we are once again faced with the conundrum of rising stock prices while the ‘real economy’ continues its ‘death spiral’…

Can I get a WTF?

Oh yeah!

Military spending was down so (what passes for) the economy ‘slipped’?

Is it just me or does anyone else think our civilization is being grossly mismanaged?

I don’t think I going to find the answer here:

Boeing Battery Was a Concern Before Failure
By CHRISTOPHER DREW, HIROKO TABUCHI and JAD MOUAWAD 19 minutes ago

Even before battery failures led to the grounding of all Boeing 787 jets, there were problems that raised questions about their reliability.

Timeline: A Rocky Path for the 787 Dreamliner
Graphic: Battery at Center of Inquiry

How ironic is THIS, good citizen?

Boeing Earnings Exceed Estimates
By CHRISTOPHER DREW 25 minutes ago

The company said it did not expect the problems with the batteries on its new 787 Dreamliner to have a significant impact on its earnings in 2013.

Seriously?

DealBook
Chesapeake Energy Chief Steps Down
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS and MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED 41 minutes ago

After months of investor dissatisfaction, Aubrey McClendon, a co-founder of the oil and natural gas producer, will give up management duties immediately and will retire on April 1.

Don’t know about you good citizen but it don’t look like ‘stepped down’ isn’t the proper description here, looks a lot more like ‘shoved aside’. Wonder who’s corn flakes he pee’d in?

Chrysler Earnings Soar
By BILL VLASIC 8:00 AM ET

The automaker’s profit in the fourth quarter jumped 68 percent and for the year was about nine times that of the year before.

Again, looks like a classic case of if you made a dollar last year and you made two dollars this year, your income is up 100% but you still only have two bucks to show for a years’ worth of effort!

So why is it that only US carmaker still standing after the collapse of the global banking industry still can’t get any respect?

European Cloud Over Ford
By BILL VLASIC

Ford Motor posted a 54 percent gain in adjusted fourth-quarter profit, despite heavy losses in the troubled European market.

In apparently ‘related news’…
Appeals Court Suspends Peugeot's Job-Cut Plan
French Automakers’ Biggest Problem? French Consumers

The next headline simply screams ‘mismanagement’!

DealBook
MF Global's Bankruptcy Nears a Happy Conclusion
By BEN PROTESS

The push to make MF Global customers nearly whole, a goal now surprisingly within reach, is a remarkable turnaround for the brokerage firm.

And nobody is happier than the management of MF Global, who didn’t have to do a minute of jail time…

And our final headline…

Media Decoder Blog
CNN President Tries to Repeat Success in A.M. News
By BRIAN STELTER

Jeff Zucker, who formally took over CNN Worldwide last week, is assembling a new morning show, the first of several building blocks for the ailing cable news channel.

Correct me if I’m wrong here good citizen but isn’t this the same guy that used to be in charge of primetime programming at one of the major networks?

All I’m trying to say here is the wasteland that is TV just keeps spreading…

Returning us to our ‘theme’ of the day, gross mismanagement.

If we don’t grab the bull by the horns it’s going to drag us over the cliff with it…although most would opine that it is far too late for that…

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner