The Lahde Concept

I blogged yesterday over Andrew Lahde who bragged about the ease of making vast sums of money against the Harvard and Yale MBA crowd morons. As he correctly pointed out….all of the vast banking operations and insurance operations that failed over the past sixty days….were run by a club of fools who gain some kind of certificate via a fine MBA college and stood amongst the elite. The same crowd ran around the US government and bragged there of their abilities….yet allowed vast stupidly to run amongst us.

I think Andrew ought to coin this concept….because of the vast number of folks who got an automatic pass to be a big player in the world of finance or government or banking or companies….just by getting some dimwitted parents get you into the front door of a major university. The daughter of Hillary Clinton would be a candidate of such a concept….making almost six figures upon graduation from college and actually thinking she was capable of running a real operation. Across the US today….we can find 250,000 Lahde-fools who got into management and will screw up as much as they can before they get fired or promoted (note: either way, they go somewhere else).

The US Air Force runs with the same Lahde concept…if you graduate from the Air Force Academy….you automatically get a “pass”….and can quickly move up and be someone of various standing….thus screwing up organizations, operations, or continuity. They could walk in and quickly advocate “change”, when the change they suggest of no value and doesn’t save a penny of funding.

Six months ago, there was a massive shift of a function on Ramstein, with a carefully word phrase of “saving funding” within the shift. When the change was complete….someone of high standing (a general of course) tossed the magic term to the budget guys….”how much did I save?” It was an amusing moment….because the budget guy looked at the individual and said “nothing was saved”. This led to a group meeting later where the individual looked at the dimwits who advocated the change and they had to show some charts and claim man-hours were saved somewhere in the process. It wasn’t a significant quantity….nor did it make the whole change worth accomplishing. The change was based on selling change….and more change….and even more change….across to everyone. “Change is good” is a motto that these individuals use often, but with no meaning.

The Lahde concept says a lot. Folks are financing fantastic college experiences for their kids….sending them states away….to get a certificate of some value which leads onto a real position of importance in life. Imagine going off to Harvard or Yale or Princeton….to entertain yourself for four to six years…..merely to get a position in life which has no practical value beyond the paper its written on. You could have accomplished the same thing at South Alabama State….for a quarter of the value….and even tossed in lots of pocket money for the kid to spend each weekend.

It didn’t take a genius or group of geniuses to arrange the creation of the mess for the bailout. It took Harvard, Princeton and Yale graduates. That really says a lot.

The Lahde concept ought to be written up in a book. Every company that hires….ought to bring in the top ten candidates for a job….and immediately cut out the college name on the guy’s resume. They ought to actually ask stupid and smart finance or business questions to test the guy….because obviously Harvard isn’t teaching them smart finance. Yale isn’t teaching smart business operations. And Princeton isn’t teaching smart banking. And if a tiny community college in western Kentucky can teach the same principals or logic…producing a much smarter finance manager….why hire the Harvard dimwit?

So that’s my two cents of analysis for today….why hire any of these guys? Find the Lahde guys and hire them by the dozens. They seek out and find the Harvard dimwits….and counter them with “shorts” and “longs”….betting in the world of business. Losers are losers….no matter how fancy their certificate is.

The Gitmo Spiral

This week, Bush let it be known that Gitmo will continue to operate….and it’ll be the next president who determines its end or shift.

Most folks anticipate a something to occur next year, with the incoming president. In the case of John McCain…the anticipation is that he will give them a order to find a method of shutting down the operation. I’m guessing by September…the plan will be announced….with half of the guys going back to their original territory and the rest being placed in secure facilities within the US. The court cases under McCain? I expect them to kinda stop. Even if the guy was guilty of something…I can’t see the Gitmo military guys prosecuting them. It’ll pass off to some civilian run operation. Will the folks at Gitmo be happy about this? I have serious doubts….prison activity in civilian prisons in the US are twice as bad as a military-run operation at Gitmo. Don’t anticipate fancy meals or books catering to your personal interests.

With the Obama camp in charge….it’ll be a big shift. By late January, the order will be given for the operation to shut down immediately (my guess is 60 days). What plan will then be put into place? An amusing barely discussed plan which three guys came up with over a weekend and then got presidential approval for the plan. There will be massive holes in this plan. All of the occupants will be sent to dozens of facilities throughout the US (my guess), and any attempt to focus on interrogation or intelligence collection will be worthless. Most of the guys will be released by the end of the year, with no court cases ever sent further. No prisoners will be collected at any overseas point from this point on….and things will be fairly simple….forget about intelligence gathering via prisoners.

A movie on Gitmo? Why yes of course. At least two will be delivered before Xmas of next year….again my humble opinion. Neither will tell much of a story.

By 2012, Gitmo will be mostly forgotten. Somewhere in the next four years under President Obama….with greatly improved relations with Cuba….I see the base at Gitmo quietly shutting down.

It’s a interesting twist to the entire Gitmo period….how nothing much came out of nothing.

Where do 1.4 Million Folks Go?

According to some media research organization....all three of the evening dimwits that do nightly news....ABC, NBC and CBS....have lost viewers. For the past week or so...CBS and Katie Couric lost a half a million viewers, down to 5.9 million viewers. The ABC crowd lost half a million...and is down to 7.6 million now. Finally....NBC lost 400,000 viewers and sits at around 7.8 million.

Why?

This should be the number one question that they asked...along with the three networks. No, they didn't ask the question. Even Drudge where the report sits for public consumption....there are no questions asked about this.

Here we are in election season...and none should have lost any viewers. Altogether...they lost almost 1.4 million viewers. Do viewers fall off the face of the earth? No. Thats the curious thing.

I'm making only an educated guess...but I think a number of folks are just turned off about the attitude and the slant on the news in this election season. If none of the big three gained viewers...its obvious that they aren't making viewers satisfied. This was the suggested problem with keeping Katie Couric around for the election period...most analysts felt she had nothing to sell...while the network felt she was the seasoned pro who would carry them through. Obviously, they were wrong...and they are missing something very serious in their nightly news.