October 10, 2011

Why do mattress
companies have sales
on Columbus Day?

It's not really Columbus Day although many businesses will be closed today in recognition of the explorer sailing the ocean blue in 1492. I have no idea why businesses take a holiday on the day that Columbus supposedly discovered the Americas (he actually spotted the Bahamas), or why retail businesses have big sales on Columbus Day. I'm sure one of the closed businesses will be my bank. I didn't think about that until just now. It makes me wish I had a debit card so I could get some cash, since I think there is only $1 in my wallet.

How many people watched 60 Minutes last night? The new jobs czar, General Electric's Jeffrey Immelt, was interviewed by Lesley Stahl. I think it's amazing that the CEO of a company that has outsourced more jobs overseas than another any other business is President Obama's jobs czar. What Immelt is proposing is a "tax holiday," under which companies could repatriate cash to the United States under a temporarily lower tax rate of about five percent, instead of the full 35 percent corporate tax rate. Many companies have argued for this tax holiday, as well as other changes to the corporate tax system, as potential ways to encourage more firms to hire American workers. Sounds good in theory, but so did corporate bail outs and we all know how that stimulus program worked out.

Today I'm creating a resume for a friend, and a report on the WOW fundraising event for my Board meeting this afternoon. Sounds pretty dull to me.