A Different Take On Plunging Stock Prices

What costs more — a spark plug or a share of General Motors?  A Sunday New York Times or a share of the newspaper company?  A General Electric toaster or a share of GE?

In the surest sign of the depth of the recession, the products associated with high-profile companies now cost more than buying a piece of the business.

Since the start of 2007, shares in companies from every sector have been hit.

• General Motors shares have fallen from $30.30 to $2.22, less than the cost of a standard spark plug (about $3.79).

• New York Times shares have fallen from $24.27 to $3.95, cheaper than the $4 cost of its Sunday edition.

• General Electric shares fell from $30.30 to $9.08, cheaper than a GE two-slice bagel toaster at Wal-Mart, selling on the clearance rack for $12.

• Office Depot is down from $38.27 to $1.26, less than a 12-pack of medium point Papermate BallPoint Stick Pens which runs $1.89.

• US Airways has fallen from $53.89 to $3.66, less than the current $4 cost of two in-flight coffees.

The bargain-basement stock prices of America’s best known companies present either the greatest opportunity of a lifetime — or the biggest money pit this side of the Great Depression.

Of course, many didn’t survive then — and many won’t survive now.  Someone who bought shares of Circuit City, which cost $5.75 before the one-time retailing bellwether announced it would close,  would have been better off buying a four-pack of AA batteries.

The company is now selling furniture and fixtures from its headquarters as it liquidates.

Bobby Jindal’s So-So National Debut

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a so-called rising star of the Republican party, said the answer to America’s problems lay in its citizens and not in big government.

Jindal, often cited as a possible Republican presidential hopeful in 2012, gave the party’s rebuttal to a speech by President Barack Obama to a joint session of Congress and accused the Democrat of spreading doom, gloom and big-spending policies that will fuel recessionary fires.

“Our troubles are real, to be sure. But don’t let anyone tell you that we cannot recover — or that America’s best days are behind her,” Jindal said.

“The strength of America is not found in our government. It is found in the compassionate hearts and enterprising spirits of our citizens,” he said.

Jindal, 37, often draws comparisons to the 47-year old Obama. The son of Indian immigrants, Jindal is viewed as young, bright and charismatic — someone who could reinvigorate the Republican party and make it more attractive to minorities, who voted overwhelmingly Democratic in last year’s election.

Early reviews of Jindal’s speech ranged from ‘it fell flat’ to ’amateurish’ to ‘boring’ to ‘he looked like a high school student running for student body president.’

Is this the best the GOP has to offer?

Miracle In Amsterdam – Almost Everyone Survives Jetliner Crash

A Turkish Airlines jetliner plummeted out of cloudy skies and plowed into a muddy field on approach to Amsterdam on Wednesday, but remarkably some 125 people — the vast majority of those aboard — survived.

The nine dead included both pilots.

The Boeing 737-800 en route from Istanbul to Amsterdam broke into three pieces when it hit the ground about two miles short of the runway at Schiphol Airport at 1031 a.m. (0931 GMT, 0431 EST). The fuselage split in two, close to the cockpit, and the tail broke off.

But the wreckage didn’t burn and scores of people walked away from it.

Survivor Huseyin Sumer told Turkish NTV television he crawled to safety out of a crack in the fuselage.

“We were about to land, we could not understand what was happening, some passengers screamed in panic but it happened so fast,” Sumer said. He said the crash was over in five to 10 seconds.

Pieter van Vollenhoven, head of the Dutch Safety Authority investigating the cause, said it appeared the plane lost speed before crashing.

“You see that because of a lack of speed it literally fell out of the sky,” he told NOS radio after visiting the crash site.

The plane’s flight data recorders have been found and will be analyzed by experts.

Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said it was “a miracle” there were not more casualties.

“The fact that the plane landed on a soft surface and that there was no fire helped keep the number of fatalities low,” he said.

Obama Perfectly Happy With Current Marine One

President Barack Obama never had a helicopter, which he says might explain why he’s perfectly happy with the current White House fleet and doesn’t need a more costly one. At the conclusion of a fiscal summit, Obama faced questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers, including his former presidential rival, Sen. John McCain.

“Your helicopter is now going to cost as much as Air Force One,” McCain told Obama at the summit. “Mr. President, we are going to have to make some tough decisions about not only what we procure but how we procure it. ”

The new fleet of 28 Marine One helicopters being built by Lockheed Martin Corp. — now over budget at $11.2 billion — will cost more than Air Force One, a specially equipped Boeing 747.

Obama said the helicopter he has now seems adequate, adding that he never had a helicopter before and “maybe I’ve been deprived and I didn’t know it.”

“It is an example of the procurement process gone amok, and we’re going to have to fix it,” Obama said.

The helicopter, which will be outfitted with communications equipment, anti-missile defenses and hardened hulls, is dubbed Marine One whenever the president is on board. The aircraft is expected to be similar to Air Force One, unlike the 30-year-old helicopters they would replace.

Happy 450th Birthday Pensacola!

Long overlooked in favor of hot spots like Orlando and Miami, Pensacola hopes a yearlong 450th birthday bash will lure visitors to this city on the western edge of Florida’s Panhandle.

Festivals, parades, battle reenactments, art exhibits and other events will commemorate Spanish explorer Don Tristan de Luna’s 1559 arrival at Pensacola Bay.

King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain set the tone with a royal visit Feb. 19, touring the city of 60,000 and visiting Pensacola Naval Air Station, home of the world-famous U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels aerial demonstration team.

Sometimes derided as the gateway to Florida’s “Redneck Riviera,” — the stretch of Panhandle beaches and kitsch attractions long favored by Southern tourists — many native Pensacolans would rather play up the city’s history. Leaders dubbed Pensacola “The City of Five Flags” in the 1950s to recognize the Spanish, French, British, Confederate and American flags that have flown here.

Hurting Pensacola’s efforts to promote itself has been the difficulty in getting there. Pensacola Regional Airport now has six airlines offering service to Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte, N.C., Houston, Memphis, Orlando and Tampa. But unlike other Florida tourists attractions, the city has never been an easy trip for visitors beyond the South.

Free Drinks Flow Again On US Airways

US Airways is returning complimentary beverages to the coach cabin on all US Airways and US Airways Express Flights beginning March 1st. Passengers will be offered free soda, juices, tea, water, and coffee in flight.

The beverage purchase program was introduced last year as part of US Airways’ new a la carte business model – where customers pay for what they choose to use.

“We are firmly committed to the a la carte model and believe it’s the right one for our business,” said US Airways Chairman and CEO, Doug Parker. “It is also a work in progress – US Airways was the only large network carrier to charge for drinks and that put us at a disadvantage.”

“The beverage program was distracting from the outstanding improvements in on-time performance and baggage handling US Airways’ 34,000 employees worked so hard to achieve last year,” said Parker.

The company still expects to generate from $400 to $500 million in 2009 from a la carte items like checked baggage fees, Choice Seats, and the new $7 blanket and pillow offering – the US Airways Power-Nap Sack .

More on US Airways a la carte pricing:  http://alindenauer.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/us-airways-to-charge-for-pillows-and-blankets/

Sarah Palin Fights Back – Attacks Media In New Documentary

Sarah Palin believes that the media deliberately tried to bring her down during her vice presidential run.

As part of an interview with conservative filmmaker John Ziegler for his new film, Media Malpractice, out this week, Palin said she believes the media made a decision that “we’re going to seek and we’re going to destroy this candidacy of Sarah Palin’s because of what it is that she represents.”

“Obviously something big took place in the media,” she added. It is “very frightening, I think, what the media was able to get away with, this go around.”

Palin suggested that unbalanced media coverage posed a threat to democracy.

“This is for the sake of our democracy that there is fairness in this other branch of government, if you will, called the media,” she said. “It is foreign to me the way some in the mainstream media are thinking.”

“There have been lies told, there have been reputations trashed, there have been children that have been harmed,” she continued.

Looking back on her interview with ABC News’ Charles Gibson, in which Palin seemed unsure of how to define the Bush doctrine, the Alaska governor said she was disrespected in a way that another candidate would not have been.

“I’d have to say there would be much more respect shown to the subject, yes,” she said.

Dentist Fined For Repossessing Dentures

A German court found a dentist guilty of assault for forcibly extracting the dentures from a patient who did not pay a 700-euro bill.

Chirin Kolb, a reporter for the Suedwest Presse newspaper, said the dentist, 57, apologised to the municipal court in Neu-Ulm after he was fined 6,000 euros for going to the woman’s home and taking the false teeth from her mouth.

“His lawyer read a statement expressing remorse and he apologised, saying he just blew a fuse because he was under a lot of professional and personal stress,” Kolb told Reuters. He was trying to collect 700 euros not covered by her insurance.

The woman appeared in court with no teeth and said she did not want to wear dentures again because of the distress the incident had caused.

Bollywood Triumphs In Hollywood

Hollywood has met Bollywood at the Academy Awards, and the makers of Oscar champ “Slumdog Millionaire” hope it’s a sign of future melding between the U.S. dream factory with its counterparts in India and elsewhere in the world.

The low-budget production was a merger of India’s brisk Bollywood movie industry, which provided most of the cast and crew, and the global marketing reach of Hollywood, which turned the film into a commercial smash, said British director Boyle.

“We’re Brits, really, trapped in the middle, but it’s a lovely trapped thing,” Boyle said backstage. “You can see it’s going to happen more and more. There’s all sorts of people going to work there. The world’s shrinking a little bit.”

Though set in a foreign land, the film tells a universal story of optimism that has been eagerly embraced by U.S. audiences.

“This country has changed, from the moment we started making the film to the moment it was released,” “Slumdog” producer Christian Colson said. “I think America is cool again, for the first time in my lifetime. … I think this is a symptom of how it’s beginning to embrace a more-globalized view of the world.”

Tzipi And Bibi Meet In Attempt To Form New Israeli Government

Likud chief Benjamin Netanyahu and Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni failed to come to agreement on various issues that would allow for the formation of a national unity government, though the two party heads did agree to meet again later this week following their sit-down at Jerusalem’s Inbal Hotel.

Speaking last night to reporters after their first meeting since the February 10 election, Livni said there are still “profound differences” between the two parties’ positions on the peace process and talks with the Palestinians. “I will be taking Kadima into the opposition,” she said. “Netanyahu has asked for another meeting and I agreed. As far as I am concerned, this meeting has changed nothing.” 

“In the coming days, I will make an effort to form a national unity government in light of the significant challenges the State of Israel faces,” Netanyahu told reporters. “This is what is needed now and this is the nation’s desire.”

Netanyahu hinted at the disagreements that emerged between him and Livni during their talks. “In my view, we can bridge the gaps on various issues with good will,” he said. “But if people look for a way not to, they find it. It is possible and it is necessary to find a common way.” 

Netanyahu said he is convinced that the people want a unity government and that he “hope[s] to find the way vis-a-vis the leadership of Kadima and the Labor Party.”

Livni’s Kadima party won the February 10 election taking 28 Knesset seats to Likud’s 27, however Netanyahu was taked with forming the new government after it became clear that the majority of Knesset members backed his efforts.