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LEED – Don’t Follow
- July 12, 2010
- Posted by: Ted Bullen
- Category: Construction, News
No CommentsIn the early 1990’s, Rolf Eligehausen, Professor at the University of Stuttgart’s Institute of Construction Materials, published a research on anchorage in concrete construction. He had developed a theory related to cracked concrete in building structures. The theory states that should a crack form near a mechanical wedge anchor in a concrete structure, the crack
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Wall Street Reform And Consumer Protection – The Foxes are Eating the Chickens
- July 9, 2010
- Posted by: Ted Bullen
- Category: Economy, Financial Services, News
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, named for Senator Chris Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank – the two foxes who watched over the henhouses of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, helping to kick off the current U.S. financial crisis – was severely criticized by Deutsche Bank this week. Deutsche is a very
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Microsoft KIN is Dead, But Next of KIN Remains Alive
- July 1, 2010
- Posted by: Ted Bullen
- Category: News, Telecommunications
Yesterday, Microsoft announced the discontinuance of its, much touted, foray, into the Smartphone market. The KIN had its own social networking software and Microsoft’s Zune digital music player. The problem: Facebook and iTunes. Another problem was the inability to download apps onto the phone. Microsoft was late to the internet and has just stumbled with
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Tesla IPO – Wave of the Future or the Beginning of Another Bubble?
- June 29, 2010
- Posted by: Ted Bullen
- Category: Automotive, News
Tesla Motors, manufacturer of an electric luxury car, priced in excess of $100,000, beat expectations with its IPO, today, that gained more than 40% from its offering price. In fact, the Tesla IPO had the second-biggest first-day gain this year. The Tesla IPO comes at a time where investors are risk-adverse base bothered by market
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Aircraft Manufacturers’ “Airing” of Grievances May Soon End
- June 29, 2010
- Posted by: Ted Bullen
- Category: News, Transportation
Brussels-based Airbus, yesterday, called for talks between the European Union and the United states, in an effort to arbitrate an end to a protracted, and expensive, fight over subsidies to aircraft manufacturers. The World Trade Organization is ruling on two complaints, one for each side of the conflict: 1) The United States has claimed that
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Can GDP Growth Outpace Spending in Order to Reduce the Deficit?
- June 28, 2010
- Posted by: Ted Bullen
- Category: Economy, Government, News
No. That means that increased taxes and austerity measures are on the horizon, though such action is beyond the policy and historical practices of our government. Yesterday, the G20 published a communiqué endorsing a goal of cutting government deficits in half by 2013 and reducing the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product by
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Honest Services Too Intangible to Abolish Corruption
- June 24, 2010
- Posted by: Ted Bullen
- Category: Government, Legal, News
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court substantially limited the “Honest Services” law which purports to make it a federal crime to employ a scheme or artifice to defraud another of the intangible right of “honest services.” This 1988 law has been applied by federal prosecutors in public fraud cases to strengthen the case against corrupt business
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Councils in the Workplace
- June 22, 2010
- Posted by: Ted Bullen
- Category: Leadership, News
Traditional leadership systems involve close supervision, simplified tasks, narrow job descriptions, detailed procedures, and formal controls. On the other end of the scale are high commitment work teams which are based on participation, open communications, empowerment, and mutual trust. Such a system involves little of no supervision, complex tasks, broad job descriptions, few procedures, and
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Delisting of Fannie and Freddie – Irredeemable with an Exclamation Point!
- June 17, 2010
- Posted by: Ted Bullen
- Category: Financial Services, Government, News
On June 16, 2010 the Federal Housing Finance Agency ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to delist their shares from the New York Stock Exchange. The reason was that shares for both had traded at less than $1.00 per share for more than 30 days.
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Gulf Oil Spill Headache – Take a Tylenol or at Least a Lesson from History
- June 9, 2010
- Posted by: Ted Bullen
- Category: News, Oil & Gas
Since the Deepwater Horizon, a semi-submersible drilling rig, sank on April 22 as a result of a lethal explosion (11 people were killed) on the rig two days earlier, more than a million gallons of oil has been gushing in to the Gulf of Mexico each day. British Petroleum, which leased the Deepwater Horizon is
