HATS OFF

HATS OFF to to the Southwestern INDIANA ARTS COUNCIL award winners for 2011! They are 2011 Mayor’s Arts Award went to Diane Schroeder for the excellent work she does with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra. Estelyn Eversoll won the Pike County Arts Award, Jonathan Uhr, was the youngest recipient to win the Youngest Artist of the Year Award. Matt Hart won the Gibson County Arts Award. The winner for the Posey County was the New Harmony Galley of Contemporary Arts. The family of the late William A. “WILL” Kock, Jr. won the Spencer County Award. Jan Stovall, was the winner the Vanderburgh County award. Carolyn Browning Weng of Newburgh was the winner of the Warrick County award. The Institutional Arts Council winner was the University Of Evansville. The Arts Advocate winner was Margaret “Maggie” Axton Rupp of Posey County. Educator of The Year winner was Kristi Miller. Artist of the Year went to Dana Taylor of Mount Vernon.

Hats Off to Dona Bergman Director of the Evansville Department of Sustainability, Energy and Environment Quality for keeping our readers aware of the local “OZONE” readings.

Big HATS OFF to Evansville Vanderburgh County School Corp., Evansville Parks Department and Ivy Tech’s public Safety Academy for donating 140 bikes to youngsters for good behavior, attitudes and attendance. Also HATS OFF to Dave Schutte and Chris Kiefer from the EVSC for making this program a big success.

HATS OFF to WTVW for changing from being a local Fox Affiliate to a local TV “Channel 7” station. We know the leadership of local “Channel 7” shall do very well in meeting the needs of the local market by providing high quality entertainment programming to it’s viewers

Will it last or was it just a Very Good Month?

Alexa.com reports the average time on Site by each visitor and updates it daily. Trafficestimate.com does a measurement of visits per month. The product of these two numbers results in a measurement of total time online.

Today the City County Observer for the first time has passed the Evansville Courier and Press in this key product. The values of the product as reported today on both 3rd Party measurement sites are as follows:

City County Observer: 3,907,750 viewing minutes per month

Courierpress.com: 3,869,208 viewing minutes per month

The Courier and Press has an estimated number of views per month that is 10.85 times what the City County Observer has according to TrafficEstimate.com. That readership volume is compensated for according to Alexa.com where the City County Observer enjoys a 10.96 times advantage in the category of minutes per visitor.

When combined the City County Observer edges out the Courier and Press right now for being the most read online publication in the Tri-State when minutes of readership are the metric.

Joe Wallace, acting editor and business consultant to the CCO attributes the rapid rise to the series of perfect storms of news coming from the Civic Center regarding issues like the Executive Inn Dilemma and the multiple deadline extensions granted to the developer of the McCurdy Hotel. “If the City of Evansville had implemented an effective vetting process and practiced transparency with public projects over the last couple of years, there would be no way that a tiny publication like the CCO could have even come close to a paper with over a hundred year tradition and a giant budget”, said Wallace.

The City County Observer starts its 4th year in business appropriately on July 4, 2011. The publisher Ron H. Cosby wishes to thank all of the readers and Moles for their continued encouragement and support of the CCO’s mission to advocate for good public policy.

Realist Columnists uses Outside Observations to yet again try to Teach Hoosiers a Lesson

Excerpts:

“The article gave a factual presentation of our state’s economic circumstances, but with an overriding sarcasm that left a bad taste in Hoosier mouths.

Probably this piece was assigned to the reporters before our Governor withdrew from the presidential primary race. However, since they already did the work, and it was a slow news day, an article depicting the difficulties of the denizens of Indiana must have seemed harmless.”

“This is our on-going problem. In good times and bad, Indiana generally fails to match or exceed the national rate of growth. We may not choose the hardships of a leadership position, but dare we settle for 25th or 33rd position in the economic derby of the 50 states?

We boast our fiscal position is sound, but we cannot claim our public services meet responsible standards. Part of the problem is money. We don’t want to invest in Indiana.”

“Would anyone want to invest in Indiana when the quality of our communities crumbles under the fiscal burden of a Tea Party mentality? Soon our low taxes will be all that we have to offer investors.

Ironically, the NYT was able to see all this while most Hoosiers remain blind to the disintegration of our state. And we were offended!”

“Few candidates for mayor this year and the two candidates-presumptive for governor in 2012 don’t talk about these matters. The so-called “social agenda” of abortion and gay marriage are more important to voters than the “survival agenda” of a state in danger of becoming a hole in the map between Detroit/Toledo and Chicago, Dayton/Louisville and St. Louis.

We have the money to flourish as a state. We lack sufficient insight and the necessary will to be more than mediocre.”

http://tribstar.com/business/x1692751488/EYE-ON-THE-PIE-Hoosiers-offended-by-report-in-the-New-York-Times

Schadenfreude.

What a beautiful word, it is German and means taking delight in someone else’s misery. As when some twit passes you on the interstate going about twenty over the speed limit and you mutter to yourself damn, where are the cops when you need them, and then over the next hill the guy is pulled over, and you pass by smiling broadly to yourself.

Exchange-traded warrants are complicated. There is an offer price, then after a period of time there is a settlement price depending on a formula. The biggest market for these things is Hong Kong where over $500 billion were traded last year.

Goldman Sachs (“too big to fail”, made millions when US economy imploded in 2008) is one of the major players in the Hong Kong market. They recently offered a product where in the prospectus the formula had a typo, where there should have been the divide symbol was the multiply symbol.

Oops.

The mistake meant that the offer price from Goldman was ridiculously low. Just after the opening of trading, the exchange began receiving complaints from traders who wanted to buy in. By mid-morning, with prices spiking and after a request from Goldman, the exchange suspended trading.

Of course now the lawyers are involved, but Goldman Sachs might be out somewhere around $50 million. It couldn’t happen to a nicer group of guys.

More is in the link below:

http://www.economist.com/node/18744559

China’s Holding of US Treasuries.

By: Michael Guess

Every so often you read or hear something like this: China is holding of billions of dollars in US Treasury bonds, and that puts us at risk as it could give them leverage over us via our currency.

Rubbish. China has the problem, not us. Let me explain.

This is how foreign exchange is supposed to work:
– A foreign company sells a product to a US company.
– The foreign company is paid in dollars.
– The foreign company takes the dollars to their Central Bank and exchanges them for their own currency.
– The Central Bank then goes on the open market, sells the dollars and buys their own currency.

But the Chinese Central Bank has decided not to sell the dollars. Instead they are just sitting on them. Why?

The answer has nothing to do with Chinese foreign policy and everything to do with Chinese domestic policy.

Selling a lot of something lowers the price, and buying a lot of something raises the price. The action of selling US dollars and buying Chinese yuan will affect the exchange rate between the two currencies. The Chinese currency would become more expensive compared to the US currency. In the case of the dollars and yuan the change in the exchange rate could be significant.

China is a dictatorship. The number one fear of the Chinese government is domestic unrest. A recent issue of the Economist magazine reported that the Chinese government now allocates more money to domestic security than to the military. A large increase in the value of the yuan will negatively affect the Chinese export industry. Millions of people would lose work. The very survival of the Party could be at risk.

Given that risk, what should the Chinese government do with all the dollars they are accumulating? Sell them and risk massive discontent, or just keep them? Clearly they have decided to hold the dollars, out of fear of the consequences.

Like I said, they have the problem, not us.

So…if in the future President Obama does something to offend China (like scheduling a lunch meeting with the Dalai Lama or something), and China responds by contacting Hillary Clinton and huffs and puffs that if that happens they will “use the dollar weapon”, she should smile sweetly at them and say: “Go ahead, make my day”.

Now, if you’re talking to somebody and they start going on about the Chinese owning us or something like that, explain the above to them. They will be impressed.

EPD Activity Report July 2 2011

Living Outside the Box is what makes Thinking Outside the Box Worth the Effort

IS IT TRUE that John Kish the Arena project manager and reluctant but game on manager of the downtown Convention Hotel Project is on camera stating that the hotel project is an 18 month construction project?…that the site on which the hotel is to be built is about as “shovel ready” as the country was when President Obama embarked upon the now infamous “Stimulus Plan”?…that a 10 foot pile of concrete, rebar, and guano is not quite ready to start building an hotel on yet?…that there are no detail drawings of any proposal for any hotel for downtown Evansville?…that Mr. Kish says that the hotel projects is on schedule to open in late 2012?…that is physically impossible given the 18 month construction project duration?…that we must start at the beginning and that the first step will be to issue a new RFP on July 6, 2011.

IS IT TRUE that the bids will be opened and/or presented by a new group of suitors during the 3rd week of July?…that there will then be a selection process that hopefully includes a VETTING PROCESS and involves ELECTED MEMBERS OF THE EVANSVILLE CITY COUNCIL?…that under the best of circumstances that this will be completed by mid August 2011?…that then there will be a formal announcement and a presentation of approved renderings?…that then there will be about another month to get a new CONTRACT SIGNED?…that by then it will be the middle of September of 2011?…that then and only then will any good business (and we trust that the next winning bidder will have been vetted and will be capable of proceeding) start a formal detail design process?…that the design may be completed and approved with permits issued by the END OF 2011?…that by the end of 2011 the Arena will be complete and that Mr. John Kish will be happy to be the heck out of Evansville and recuperating back home in Indianapolis?…that Mr. Kish’s 18 month construction timeline will end in a best case scenario of a Grand Opening in the Summer of 2013?

IS IT TRUE that in the case of a fully funded and vetted developer and a highly cooperative building commissioner may be able to pull this off in 12 months instead of the 18 months that conventional wisdom would estimate?…that a commitment to run two shifts may really make Mr. Kish’s end of 2012 completion date possible?…that other locations have actually offered performance bonuses in the millions of dollars to developers for early completions of all sorts of projects?…that a 7 figure bonus may be both necessary and appropriate to provide the carrot incentive needed to get this downtown Convention Hotel opened in time for the new head of the CVB to start booking conventions into the place?…that being a player in the 2013 convention season is worth offering a 7 figure bonus to the developer?…that if Evansville does not find a way to make this happen that 2013 will be the 4th year that the City of Evansville sat on the banks and watched the rest of the country compete for conventions?…that this is a NO-BRAINER?

IS IT TRUE that in other timing issues that the City Council and County Commissioners have kicked the consolidation plan approval down the road for another month in to August?…that when and if an approval takes place that there is a 30 day window for final approval?…that right now we are looking at mid September as the earliest that there will be something for the people of Vanderburgh County to examine?…that we bet the can will get kicked down the road for at least two more months?…that if these politicians can do that, and believe me they can, that no one running for office this year will have to offer a position on the consolidation plan before this year’s City of Evansville elections?…that none of the candidates are particularly enthused about having to issue an opinion on a consolidation plan this year?…that this should have been ready to be an election issue in this year’s City of Evansville elections?

IS IT TRUE that the Convention Hotel is the can that kicks itself down the road, but that the Consolidation Plan is the can that gets kicked down the road?