Yellow ribbon on a hummer!

I am sure you must have all seen mails floating around about the one day boycott of gas stations. Personally it doesn’t make sense to me. There are so many better ways to do this. Buy energy efficient vehicles, carpool if you can, don't overspeed, walk wherever you can etc. The best way would be to come up with an efficient alternative for gasoline.I am sure that the day is not very far when this would happen.

Today I saw a man driving a big gas guzzling hummer with a yellow ribbon on it in support of the troops. Seeing it I wasn’t sure what to think. He should realize that he is indirectly helping the hegemony regimes in the Middle East and ofcourse the big oil companies by driving that hummer. I guess he would look a little more patriotic if he put in on a hybrid rather than on a hummer.

P.S I am feeling guilty typing this. I own 2 SUV’s! But my next vehicle would deifinitely be a hybrid.

A/C or Heat?

Spring is the most confusing time of the year when I am not sure whether to turn the A/C 'on' or heat 'on'. If I keep the A/C turned on all the time, it becomes very cold in the night and if I keep the heat on all the time, it becomes very warm during the day. So everyday I have to keep changing between heat and A/C at various times depending on how the weather is. I am sure most people here in Michigan go through this at this time of the year unless they have something to automatically switch between heat and cold depending on outside temperature.

I don’t work here!

Don’t go to a retail store wearing the same colored outfit as their official uniform. I went for shopping yesterday and since the store was being remodeled, I had to ask for help to locate various items. So I asked for help from one of them wearing the same exact outfit as the store employee not knowing that he is also out there like me shopping. The man was so upset and said that he did not work here. I could see that he was furious as soon as I asked the question. But it wasn’t my fault that he happened to wear an outfit that looked exactly like the store uniform. I simply apologized and walked away.

MasterCard Surge

If you guys have been following Master card which IPO’ed last year, you would have noticed how the stock has jumped almost 250% in a matter of months. This leads me to the question as to the credibility of the people pricing these IPO’s. It’s just stunning that this IPO was priced so low ($39) especially knowing what a mammoth MA is. Now the entire sets of analysts are coming out one by one with an upgrade saying how mammoth MA is.

What were they thinking when an IPO price is set? Or is this a Wall Street ploy to reap huge profits that an individual investor like me cannot understand?

Marketing Drugs

The most disturbing thing about the drug industry is the fact that it pays doctors incentives for prescribing their drugs to patients. Granted the industry helps the masses by researching and creating a cure for different kind of diseases. But for it to survive, it has to market like any other company that markets consumer products. I am not sure how much federal help is lent to these companies. But based on the aggressive marketing, I can conclude that it is either very less or none.

The negative side to it is the fact that consumers may end up taking medicines that might be unnecessary for them. Even though it is not harmful, it may still be unnecessary. So ultimately we end up being the losers. But this is the reality and we have to put up with it.