Loren C. Steffy's Blog, page 69

Neflix tries to make nice

I got a long, heart-felt mass email from Netflix CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings this morning. It's framed as an apology, but it's more of a promotion for the split of Netflix's DVD service into a new operation called Qwikster. The Netflix name will now apply only to the company's streaming video service. One big [...]

New York Review of Books on `Drowning in Oil'

New York Review of Books calls "Drowning in Oil" "quite an achievement" and says "Steffy tells this sordid story well."
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archi...

Report: Poor decisions on shore, other factors contributed to BP spill disaster

The final report on last year's Macondo well disaster found that a series of shortcomings led the explosion that killed 11 rig workers aboard the Deepwater Horizon. Those factors included "poor risk management, last minute changes to plans, failure to observe and respond to critical indicators, inadequate well control response and insufficient emergency bridge response [...]

New details about BP's Macondo well continue to leak out

It's rather amazing, yet almost a year and a half after BP's Macondo well disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, new details continue to emerge that it appears the company has attempted to keep quiet. Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that a BP scientist identified a zone of gas that may have contributed to the explosion that engulfed the Deepwater Horizon rig and killed 11 men aboard.

Airlines hike fares again as summer travel winds down

Yep, they did it again. Airlines are raising fares as the traditionally busy summer travel season comes to an end. Late last week, Southwest Airlines said it would join an increase initiated by United/Continental, Delta and US Airways earlier in the week. Southwest's participation basically guarantees the fare hike will stick because it carries the [...]

Bartz employs the doofus offense against Yahoo's board

Carol Bartz has had some tough words for Yahoo's board since they unceremoniously fired her by phone on Sept. 6. Bartz later criticized Yahoo's board in an interview with Fortune magazine, including this comment: "The board was so spooked by being cast as the worst board in the country," Bartz says. "Now they're trying to [...]

Poll: Is the president's jobs bill a solution or a retread?

Last night, President Barack Obama outlined a plan to create jobs and jump start the economic recovery through a series of tax cuts and other stimulus. The president also claimed his $447 billion program would be paid for, although it's not clear exactly how. In the short-term, the jobs bill will undoubtedly add to the [...]

Obama talks tax cuts, but he's really hoping to dodge recession

President Obama's $447 billion jobs package — yes, the price tag has already increased from the earlier estimates today — outlined a number of politically safe ideas to bolster the stagnating economy. The centerpiece of the program, proposed in a speech before Congress this evening, is a one-year expansion and extension of the payroll tax [...]

Obama to call for payroll tax cut

In his speech tonight, President Obama will propose cutting payroll taxes for workers and small business owners as part of a package to stimulate job growth and bolster the flagging economy. According to Bloomberg News: He proposes to extend and increase the temporary cut in payroll taxes for workers, from 4.2 percent under last December's [...]

Why the fear runs deeper than taxes and regulation

If my email stream is any indication, there's a solid line of thinking out there that our economic woes are solely based on uncertainty about taxes and regulation. Businesses, the theory goes, won't hire because they're afraid the Obama administration will shackle them with punitive regulations and crippling taxes, in part from health care reform. [...]