Recently I was wathcing the Bloomberg Business Channel when it was announced that a heretofore totally solid investment firm was announcing an additional 19 billion dollar loss. The firm's CEO announced his abrupt departure. Then they announced that they had secured 19 billion in additional financing through some foreign source and were in very solid position...thank you.
The reporter from Bloomberg then asked the person, "Do you think that this is really a positive thing...I mean is it time to buy this company?"
There seems to be a real fashion lately that when things are totally desolate, it really is a buying opportunity and ....and...well really wonderful.
Recently a blogger in Evansville, Chasin the News, has noted that even though there has been quite a bit of painful costs incurred by local businesses due to going on three years of downtown construction, some news sources have been firmly intent on hyping this as a totally prosperous situation. Chasin even felt it was a propaganda bit or at best poorly written fiction.
Addressing the first of these, I would recall with fondness the Yale professor, Mr. Shiller who said on T.V. lately that the recent infusion by the Fed has really solved nothing....It did refloat things for a while....and delay...but the underlying problems persist....and thus in his view the national housing situation will persist....
In the local situation, it seems likewise that simple denial of the reality of business contraction does nothing but provide an excuse for inaction. And even better than denial of the situation is to not talk about it at all, except in circuitous prose, or fictional fantasy.
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Everybody calm down. Look at where you are getting your information from, and by that I mean right under Chasin's "propoganda" piece she is advocating for an AMWAY wanna be company. Sometimes I just can't believe people. By the way there is a business going in to the Farnsworth insurance old office. Yeah pretty much all you would have to do to know that would be to walk downtown. What a concept? All this whining about the city not having businesses downtown is, surprise-surprise, coming from somebody who does not support the downtown. No kidding.
ReplyDeleteListen I gave up on Chasin's site a while back but was coerced into checking it out by the Observer. Shame on you Observer. I will never again go to that site which is there for Chasin to make money off crappy health insurance and AMWAY like businesses and then turn around and whine about everything in town except for a candidate that did not campaign at all, unlike Tony. I know I live in that district and was pleasantly surprised to meet Tony, a real nice guy. Enough negativity and enough sour grapes. Wahtever happened to blogs that are not compromised by advertising?
As the author of the article, I would ask readers to read the words carefully. The article does not insinuate in any way that downtown businesses are booming -- rather, the first sentence reads, "Location, location, location: Every smart businessman will you tell it's all about the location. Business is booming for one downtown storefront business - State Farm Insurance..."
ReplyDeletePerhaps my error was not in emphasizing the "ONE." In the fourth paragraph, that point is continued with "Business {intent: STATE FARM'S} is so good, in fact, that while other insurance agencies are downsizing, State Farm is expanding."
The article also says that while some may not like services in storefront windows, it is better than having empty windows and that the owners of State Farm would gladly move if a retail store wanted the space.
Neither I nor the subject, have performed denial (simple or otherwise) of business contraction. Business is good for this insurance agency. That was the theme of the story.
Since the Observer has referred to Chasin's blog, and since I can't post on Chasin's site, I will answer Jenny's concerns here:
Yes, this may be free advertising for this business, but so are the many other feature stories on local businesses. It is a perk for the advertising they have done with our company, an incentive to advertise in the future, and a service to the community members who want to know more about our local businesses, businessmen and citizens.
To her question, if Jeff has offered any incentives to prospective/new businesses, the answer is definitely YES. I personally interviewed Tammy at insideoutexpressions, who told me that Jeff did offer her assistance for her first few months.
Propaganda? The spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person. Guilty as charged. Yes, it was my intent to spread information and ideas with the purpose of helping this business AND our community. What's so wrong with that?
Tammy T. Pomplun
Oh, they're around.
ReplyDeleteThere's an office supply store coming to Jeff's old office, the Hometown Video building has changed hands and the owners are working to get something going there. There are two new businesses working at the old Ringhand property.
Things are happening. You just gotta look around. I'd sooner take Farnsworth's appraisal of the business climate in this town than a lot of other folks.
Some people just can't see how good they have it.
empty space divided by available space(in the identical area) equals vacancy rate. Why are you arguing instead of doing the math and being done with it?
ReplyDeleteBTW, I just want to clarify that when I say "one" downtown business is booming, I don't mean ONLY one downtown business is booming, just that State Farm Insurance is ONE OF THE downtown businesses that is booming. Certainly, there are others who are thriving in our beautiful downtown.
ReplyDeleteTammy T. Pomplun