Capitalist Banter » News

Tiger Woods’ troubles means lost revenues

Jon — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:08:38 +0000

Tiger Woods sure is having a really bad time of late.

Of course, everyone now knows the trouble he’s had with his wife because of his serial infidelity — and his wife has redefined the use of a golf club.

But more than the bump on the head and the humiliation that followed suit, Tiger Woods’ reputation has been tarnished and this is affecting his bottomline. How? His endorsements are now jeopardized.

Companies hire celebrities and sports superstars to hawk their products because they want to ride on these people’s reputation and image. The better the image, the better the effect of the endorsements. Tiger’s troubles are not helping his reputation at all and the companies that hired him are realizing that they should cut their losses as soon as a possible. Accenture has already announced that they have ended their relationship with the superstar golfer. Gillette has also released a statement that they have suspended his endorsement deal.

Woods’ troubles means lost revenues for him and maybe, just maybe, companies will also realize that putting their reputations at stake by hiring people is not really a good strategy.

Golf champion Tiger Woods no longer represents global consulting and technology services firm Accenture, as of December 13. Accenture is the first of Woods’ corporate sponsors to pull out of the relationship completely. A day earlier, Gillette announced a suspension of Woods’ marketing appearances for an unspecified period.

For anyone missing two weeks of headlines, here’s a recap. Golf champion Woods crashed his car near his Florida home after what appeared to be a major league (oops, wrong sport) fight with his wife over alleged infidelities. At first Woods denied any marital misconduct, using the first line of defense of many public figures caught in a sand trap, which was to lie about it. Then other women surfaced with firm evidence of Woods’ affairs, for a total of 13, and Woods told the world that he had made mistakes. On December 11, he announced he is taking a mega-mulligan — a leave of absence from golf to repair his marriage.

Though Accenture doesn’t sell anything to consumers, it put itself in the public eye with its “Go ahead, be a Tiger” ad campaign. Working for Accenture since 2004, Woods seemed a plausible long-term choice. His consistently stellar athletic achievements and mixed racial heritage symbolize the best of a global economy. Now his departure could mark a seismic shift in corporate branding and marketing approaches.

Zynga could be worth $1 billion

Jon — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:16:14 +0000

As a hard core player of Zynga Games‘ Mafia Wars on Facebook, I often imagine that making money in the real world is as easy making money in Mafia Wars. I’m nearing my first billion dollars in the New York area and I always wish that money can just pile up like that with the minimum of effort.

Well, it looks like Zynga is living the reality of our collective fantasy. The prolific game developer for Facebook (who is responsible for many game properties in the popular social networking site) is reportedly now worth $1 billion if the sale price of a small competitor is going to be the basis.

Electronic Arts recently bought Playfish for about three to four times what the company is making and since Zynga’s revenue is so much bigger than Playfish, the computation is that Zynga could be valued at $1 billion. That’s a lot of money to buy Casinos and Beach Front Properties although it’s still chump change compared to what you earn in Mafia Wars.

Zynga’s value could easily make it the third largest videogame publisher in the United States. Expect the clamor for Zynga to go public to increase in the next few months. If I can withdraw my Mafia Wars money, I’d bet it all on Zynga.

Texting while driving should be banned

Jon — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:41:48 +0000

Mobile phone companies are earning a lot of money through its added services, particularly text messaging. Text messaging is the most used mobile phone feature right after voice calls. Actually, I think text messages are more commonly used rather than voice calls.

This doesn’t mean people should send text messages wherever they are. I’ve seen people texting even while driving, what seems to be a physical impossibility is being done with impunity by a lot of people. Thankfully, more rational minds are beginning to see the dangers of texting while driving.

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wants to make it illegal to text while driving and he has publicly denounced the practice with the same level of gravity as drunk driving and wearing seatbelts.

About 16 percent of deadly crashes that happened in 2008 involved a driver whose attention was distracted in one way or another. This is an 11 percent increase from figures posted in 2005.

This is the right move to make. I’ve seen motorists who text while driving and they are road hazards. They’re so dangerous on the road that I want to shove their phones down their throats.

Timeshares also hit by recession

Jon — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:41:12 +0000

Vacation timeshares started becoming popular in the 1970s because it’s a great way of spending a vacation without paying too much.

But even a “budget” level vacation option is getting a drubbing because of the recession. According to the American Resort Develpment Association, timeshares sales may drop by 30 percent this year, compared to sales figures posted last year. The Association also said that selling timeshares will be a big challenge for the next 18 months.

I think that these are obvious conclusions. With so many people defaulting on their mortgages and losing jobs, buying a timeshare in some vacation locale is just a bad decision. Timeshares are considered “perpetual vacations” and with everyone scrambling to save every precious dollar, vacations should be farthest on their minds.

Swine flu scare means garbage pileup in Egypt

Jon — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:02:45 +0000

Talk about a knee-jerk reaction.

Reacting to the swine flu scare, Egypt President Hosni Mubarak ordered the slaughter of the country’s 300,000 pigs. Unfortunately, the government has also forgotten one crucial fact — those same pigs are helping the country by eating its organic waste.

Now that those pig “cleaners” are in hog heaven, the country’s garbage is beginning to pile up, it has also affected the livelihood of the zabaleen — freelance trash collectors and pig farmers. An estimated 70,000 families are now suffering from this short-sighted government response to the swine flu scare.

Experts say that the Egyptian government failed to consider the economic ramifications of their kill-all-pigs policy and its people are suffering because of it.

Epic fail, Egyptian government.

Bailout and Chrysler – Capitalism at its Best

Jon — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 06:12:06 +0000

Chrysler tries to beat total collapse by getting aid from the government in the form of $4 Billion dollars last January is again getting protection with the blessing of the White House by filing for bankruptcy. The globally charismatic President Obama whom people simply cannot get enough of carries a sense of something everywhere he goes, call it charisma or call it the change he is promoting in the government but many favor his style, well not all. There will always be detractors for as the eternal battle between the Democrats and Republicans, there’s always two sided to a coin. The world of politics is again getting shaken up by the moves of the President to bolster and support the deal Chrysler and its foreign partners which sadly failed to meet the government’s standards is still getting support, too much support according to some political analysts that the president may be over-extending his powers over corporate matters.
In another bizarre yet annoying fact, most Americans are getting clean cold cash, $400 for singles and $800 for couples this year as part of the economic stimulus, that’s the good news. Now here’s the annoying part, you better be paying the IRS enough taxes of they’d be wanting a huge chunk of this cold cash next time you pay your taxes. Yep, there is a certain need for information dissemination that may have to be rolled out for this one for not much (if anybody at all) know of the said problem that may arise should you fail to know what you have to do. Even we were amazed at the news and if it weren’t for the breaking news we wouldn’t have known about it. Now That’s the capitalist mind at work, better check your tax records, you maight just end up paying the IRS more than you think you have to!

Capitalist Blunders from the UK and US

Jon — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 05:25:02 +0000

Talk about the lack of control and forward thinking, in the UK, health officials released a drug-dependent schizophrenic on the grounds that his out-patient treatment would be monitored by health servicemen that just didn’t happen. The outcome, the drug-laden man goes on a rampage eventually killing a police officer in the process before being stopped by other police officers. The man was released to care for himself, expected to take all his necessary medication with NHS people supposedly to go check in on him regularly for progress and evaluation of his case. He misses his scheduled check-ups, eludes health officials who by the way fail to inform the police that a dangerous man is at large which could have gotten him back into custody for his and the general public’s safety. He goes missing, eventually killing Police Constable John Henry. Talk about a failure in the highest regard, these people should have known better and kept constant tabs on him. PC Henry leaves a wife and daughter behind who still calls out daddy when she sees his dad’s pictures on TV.
In the US, the capitalists in Capitol Hill are seeking to and end to the many secretive bailout agreements that are struck out of the eyes of the general public who are fuming with anger at rumors that they’ve been happening all over all through out the US’s long history. Information that has leaked shows that bailouts have always been a norm for executive action where the President is given the right to decide whether a company should live or die, falling ill due to it’s many debts and ill-policy making management. As we’ve been saying all along, why the hell should bailout’s be allowed when these people are responsible for their own demise. Take a look at these rich and famous a top executives, who amidst all the economic turmoil still have the guts to take bonuses from bailout funds, talk about a failure!

When the Going Gets Tough, The Capitalists Band Together

Jon — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 04:46:13 +0000

The housing market crash that is currently bringing chaos to the many homeowners who stand to lose their homes even with the ton’s of bailout money the government is shelling out is far from over. From the idiots at wall street and the banking sector who conjured out home packages that required no collateral to the very top levels of the housing market giants, Freddie and Fannie who are two of the biggest players in the housing industry they all benefited from the billions of dollars that the market earned. To make matter worse, all the watchdogs watching the watchdogs all knew this was happening and they simply looked the other way, till the market crashed and everybody started pointing fingers at everybody else.
Fannie and Freddie are reporting losses in the billions of dollars (as if they didn’t earn many times that amount) as the housing market crashed taking along the effervescent status symbol that is owning a home of millions of Americans who stand to lose their homes due to the events that transpired against them. Now the government is issuing bailouts as if they were pancakes and who wouldn’t love free handouts but what about the saying, “rather than giving out fish, why not teach people how to fish”. Now the government has a budget deficit in the trillions of dollars and yet people are still losing homes. Now you be the judge and say that that is good governance! Just hope the Federal Government has trillions more for the crisis is still on a rampage!

Underdog Wins Giant Flunks

Jon — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:44:13 +0000

The economic crisis has many a companies fighting for survival and yet out of the blue an underdog in the It industry made it big and even managed to post earnings. Apple has managed to post good profits in spite of the economic downturn which may be reason for a former CFO ratting out on the company’s CEO Steve Jobs. They’ve been at it for a while and it seems that the capitalist mind is hard at work trying to get the better of both of them. The stocks issues and many other financial information that was leaked to the SEC has Jobs in hot water for seemingly unfair stock options in terms of ownership of the company. The truth is out there somewhere yet many questions still have to be addressed regarding their true form (maybe the SEC can finally do their job, properly?!?).
Microsoft the ever looming giant of the software market that has been forcing people to use their many corporate products for many years is accepting defeat as result of the economic downturn as it releases profit projections that is showing losses (well, you win some you lose some as they say) in their many products which failed forecasts. The software giant has established it’s place in the IT industry by first bullying it’s way to the top, pissing everybody else who then came up with many products to rival theirs. Now that the era of the free-ware and open-sourced software has come, they stand to lose a lot of the market they formerly held (on their own) and failure to adapt may spell the end for the software giant. Being the sole representative of capitalism in the IT industry, it is subject to attack after attack by people who make viruses and many other forms of malware as the most used software on earth. Hackers from the dark side hate their ways and seek revenge by plaguing the rest of us as they exact revenge on the giant.

Young Bandits, Shot Tea Makers and Bad Teachers

Jon — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 09:15:29 +0000

The effects of the recession may be bad, bad enough to get a 13-year old boy to get the bright idea of robbing a bank for some extra cash. The boy was caught red-handed, literally when dye packs blew and stained him red. According to police records, he is the youngest ever bank robber who has ever been documented making parents shiver at the thought of the way these kids are dealing with the hardships of life in today’s challenging times. They truly are getting younger, may be all those violent video games that are as good as the real thing.
From Alabama in the US, a man shot his wife in the head with intent to kill and then turns his gun onto himself effectively ending his life. But the wife, survives, makes tea and offers deputies the beverage as she suffers a through and through shot from her forehead through the back of her skull. May be another sign that the recession is taking it’s toll on the general public who have been getting it harder and harder as cash gets harder to come by. The woman serves tea to deputies who stood, mesmerized at her ability to do so, but maybe also due to the fact her head has a hole from the front to back as they respond to calls for help, now that’s lucky, in the real sense.
Sense is also fading in the hearts and minds of people, as in this case, common sense eludes a teacher in Southwest Ohio who takes her students to a strip club for which she says she got permission from the kids parents for. The only problem, the kids were 8th grade cheerleaders, ages 17 to 18 which makes the act illegal, thus resulting in her having to resign. Bad teacher, to think you were employed to tech kids the better facts of life. What were they Thinking!!!!