Posted on December 15, 2008 by Aaron
Fred Wilson beat me to a GM post that I wanted to write over the weekend. If only I had watched less football. Fred nails it so read his post, but here are my thoughts. General Motors is a disaster and we send the wrong message to everybody in this country and around the [...]
Filed under: economy, finance | Tagged: bush, Detroit, Fred Wilson, General Motors, Obama, Pelosi, Rick Wagoner, TARP | 7 Comments »
Posted on December 8, 2008 by Aaron
The WSJ reports that Tribune has retained Lazard to help restructure its debt and that Tribune may seek Chapter 11 Protection. A month ago I met Bruce Toll (Toll Brothers) at a cocktail party. Toll is the Chairman of Philadelphia Media Holdings and had helped lead the deal to buy the Philadelphia newspapers from McClatchy. [...]
Filed under: economy, finance, media | Tagged: Automobile Industry, Bits, Boomtown, Bruce Toll, Chapter 11, Chrsyler, debt restructuring., Ford, General Motors, Kara Swisher, Lazard, local advertising, New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Media News, Rupert Murdoch, Sam Zell, Saul Hansell, Tribune, Wall Street Journal | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 3, 2008 by Aaron
I still loathe the BIG 3 Auto CEOs today. I know that’s strong, but these guys are the Larry, Moe, and Curly of the Fortune 500.
Meanwhile John Markoff at the NYT reports that Better Place is moving into Hawaii with another sweet deal in the worst financial climate in two generations. Because Electric cars make [...]
Filed under: Politics, economy | Tagged: Australia, better place, Chrysler, denmark, Detroit, electric cars, Ford, GM, israel, Renewable Energy, shai agassi | Leave a Comment »
Posted on December 2, 2008 by Aaron
The current Venture Capital Road Trip (literally Wagoner and Mullaly are driving from Detroit to Washington in hybrids; Nardelli reserves the right to fly) reeks of prepackaged public relations. These guys presided over huge destruction in shareholder value and been very well compensated for it. The WSJ now reports that Ford will speed up production [...]
Filed under: Politics, economy, media | Tagged: Auto Industry, change, Chrysler, Elizabeth Kolbert, Ford, GM, Mullaly, Nardelli, National Treasure, Obama, Talk of the Tonwn, The New Yorker, Wagoner, William Clay Ford | 3 Comments »
Posted on November 22, 2008 by Aaron
One need look no further than changedotgov to understand how Obama and future presidents will use the Internet to communicate in a completely unfiltered way with citizens and the world’s population. Obama uploaded his weekly radio address earlier today. Already a 155,000 people on YouTube have seen it on by Saturday at 5PM EST. Remeber [...]
Filed under: Politics, economy | Tagged: Barack Obama, changedotgov, energy, energy crisis, Internet, national infrastructure, Obama, President-Elect, transition team, unemployment, weekly radio address | 5 Comments »
Posted on November 22, 2008 by Aaron
Today’s radio address begins the beginning of a progressive political era in Washington. Obama has said that he will create a sustained economic stimulus plan focused on improving the country’s infrastructure and investing in the still amorphous alternative energy economy.
The Republicans held the line this week with the automotive industry and with Waxman replacing Dingell [...]
Filed under: Politics, economy | Tagged: alternative energy, AMA, Daschle, dingell, education, energy, energy crisis, Geithner, hilary clinton, HMO, Michelle Rhee, Obama, pharmaceutical companies, waxman | 2 Comments »
Posted on November 21, 2008 by Aaron
This week, Better Place cut a $1bn dollar deal to bring electric car charging stations to the San Francisco area. Better Place is without question, the most ambitious startup to ever come out of Israel and perhaps the company that has the best chance of restructuring the automobile industry in the next 5 years.
Better Place [...]
Filed under: Politics, early stage, economy | Tagged: bay area, better place, denmark, electric cars, energy crisis, fossil fuels, israel, shai agassi, silicon valley, TechAviv | 2 Comments »
Posted on November 21, 2008 by Aaron
Thanks to Fred Wilson, I was turned on to these great slides at Slideshare.
.
These slides will help many people understand our current financial predicament.
Moreover, it’s very exciting to see people are bringing great innovations and creativity to presentations. If you are an entrepreneur who presents material with dozens of slides, hundreds of bullet points, and [...]
Filed under: early stage, economy, finance | Tagged: citigroup, Credit Crisis, economy, financial industry, Fred Wilson, goldman sachs, morgan stanley, Powerpoint, Slideshare, Venture Capital | Leave a Comment »
Posted on November 18, 2008 by Aaron
The New York Times has published the definitive piece on the General Motors situation this morning. In it, Andrew Ross Sorkin has laid out the case for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding and, in my opinion, laid the foundation for the bridge President-elect Obama referenced in his 60 Minutes interview. No constituency including shareholders, management, [...]
Filed under: Politics, economy | Tagged: 60 Minutes, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Barack Obama, Chapter 11, Chrysler, Genarl Motors, GM, New York Times, NYT, Rick Wagoner | 3 Comments »
Posted on November 15, 2008 by Aaron
Earlier this week, I wrote that I questioned the GM bailout. For me, it was ideological. Does anybody really believe they can ever compete again effectively? But perhaps, ideology needs to be softened and pragmatism needs to take center stage.
I had lunch yesterday with a close friend and former Goldman Sachs executive who is quite [...]
Filed under: Politics, economy | Tagged: AIG, Bob Herbert, GM, New York Times, NYT, roger ehrenberg | Leave a Comment »