Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
Dan from Madison This morning I woke up, showered, and drove to work. It seemed like any other day. The convenience store where I always stop to pick up vitamin fortified water had a familiar song playing on the radio:
I logged on, checked email – yep, tons as always. Then I logged in to Chicago Boyz to organize some pixels with some personal thoughts this day after the election. I look forward to checking out this post in four years.
This morning on the radio I heard a promotional advertisement for Feed the Pig. I have heard things about this site before and decided to check it out. It is outstanding. They have calendars so you can see ways to save money throughout the year, and there are many tips on how to pinch pennies.
Basically the concept is to teach people how to save, knock down their debt, and generally help them to not waste money (things that many modern day Americans are horrible at). I can’t really see a downside to this. The site is sponsored by the American Institute of CPAs. I am not sure why they put up the site, but I wholeheartedly support it.
I give the site a big thumbs up, but think I will give their choice of advertising venues a small thumbs down. I was reminded this morning of Feed the Pig while listening to Bloomberg Radio on XM on the way in to work, getting my business news for the day.
**Quick aside: I have three choices of business news to pick from on XM: Fox Business, CNBC and Bloomberg. I choose Bloomberg because it is just the facts, with interviews sprinkled in – and the interviews are with interesting and smart people. In addition, the interviews are always respectful and low key even if people are disagreeing, unlike some of the other places where there are a bunch of idiots yelling and screaming at each other. In other words, Bloomberg Radio seems more professional to me.**
I really don’t think that anyone who seeks out Bloomberg Radio doesn’t understand the simple concepts of saving and debt that Feed the Pig is trying to teach. I just think that these are wasted advertising dollars. A better target IMHO would be radio stations, magazines or TV networks that reach places where the people are perhaps not educated or are unaware of the concepts that Feed the Pig is educating people on.
It is almost like putting ads up for scrap booking during an NFL football game. Not the right demographic.
Cross posted at LITGM.
One of the ways I cope with tough situations is to joke. My whole family is that way. Even in the most stressful situations we use dark humor to help us get by. This may be an American thing, or a Midwest thing – I don’t know. I do know that this video is pretty funny, even though I just opened up my account statement and my total net worth on paper is down about a third for the year. Oh well, at least I have time on my side – I feel for those who need their money sooner.
The past few years my mother had been feeling fatigued. The condition kept getting worse and she finally went to a doctor. To make a long story short, the mitral valve on her heart was compromised, and the heart was not able to fully function.
Yesterday she had open heart surgery. Everything went great. The didn’t know until they opened her up if they were going to be able to repair the valve or replace it. They prefer to repair it, but in this case it was damaged too much. It was replaced with a valve made of tissue from a pig. Really! She will be walking through the hospital hallways TODAY (albeit very slowly), a mere 24 hours after the surgery. I am simply amazed at this.
As a joke my dad is going to purchase a small pig trough and place it in their bedroom for my mom to see when she gets home from the hospital. That is how my family rolls – we always make jokes in tough or stressful situations. I think the hard Midwest winters darken our sense of humor.
As an interesting aside, the valve was damaged not because of a genetic defect, but from disease (this was good news for me). The doctor proposed that my mother had rheumatic fever as a child and that this was the cause of the valve being compromised.
It has been a stressful week for me, as there was a 1%-2% (between one and two percent) chance that my mother could have died on the operating table. We are very thankful that everything went well.
Over the last week I have been thinking of Shannon’s posts about parents that don’t give their children vaccines because of quack science, and people not having any sort of decent number gut.
During a recent conversation with a csr from a vendor of mine, things began to get a bit heated. I had several promises broken to me by the vendor. They had not sent the stuff to me, and as a result my customer was getting pissed. I was in danger of losing the entire job, and a customer to boot. Bad.
I started to try to come up with solutions for the company, since they had none. Here is an abbreviated version of the conversation.
Me: Can you sub the item?
CSR: No.
Me: When are they expected to be in?
CSR: Hopefully within a week.
Me: Unacceptable. How about looking at other distributors to see if they have some?
CSR: Can’t do it.
Me: Come on! How about giving me a better model for the same price?
CSR: No can do.
Me: I need a solution to this problem – pass me up the chain of command.
CSR Manager: Can I help you?
Me: Does your company have any cheese at all?