Gloomy Retail Forecast For 2009 December 31, 2008
Posted by The Underground Conservative in Business, Economy, Retail.comments closed
The deepening recession and poor Christmas sales will force the closing of over 70,000 stores in the first half of 2009 alone, says a leading retail analyst.
Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) — U.S. retailers face a wave of store closings, bankruptcies and takeovers starting next month as holiday sales are shaping up to be the worst in 40 years.
Retailers may close 73,000 stores in the first half of 2009, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. Talbots Inc. and Sears Holdings Corp. are among chains shuttering underperforming locations.
More than a dozen retailers, including Circuit City Stores Inc., Linens ‘n Things Inc., Sharper Image Corp. and Steve & Barry’s LLC, have sought bankruptcy protection this year as the credit squeeze and recession drained sales. Investors will start seeing a wide variety of chains seeking bankruptcy protection in February when they file financial reports, said Burt Flickinger.
“You’ll see department stores, specialty stores, discount stores, grocery stores, drugstores, major chains either multi- regionally or nationally go out,” Flickinger, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, a retail-industry consulting firm in New York, said today in a Bloomberg Radio interview. “There are a number that are real causes for concern.”
There is an upside to the thinning of the herd, though:
Retail bankruptcies may help the industry in the long run, according to Flickinger.
“We’ll be going from a Dickens-esque worst of times this December to the best of times in future Decembers because we’ll rationalize out all the redundant retailers and retail space in shopping centers,” Flickinger said.
Jib makes a similar point here:
The one thing that I always had trouble wrapping my brain around was how so many retailers felt it wise to rapidly expand all at the same time. I mean, I understood that expansion was critical to market share and new revenue while same store sales suffered, but they were moving into smaller and smaller markets that could be challenged to support their stores (while eroding business at existing stores in larger markets), and there was sooo much competitive overlap in so many areas. I’ve felt for a long time that we were due for a large wave of store closings as competition and poor decisions came home to roost for many retailers.
Something Is Wrong Here December 31, 2008
Posted by The Underground Conservative in Gov. Jim Milhous Doyleone, State Government, Wisconsin.comments closed
Here’s a look at what state taxpayers are paying $1.1 million to an out of state group to accomplish: creating a state website with a picture of the state Capitol and the skyline of Minneapolis.
Madison – State Sen. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee) noticed something a little odd when he logged onto the state’s new Web site for campaign finance information.
Prominently displayed at http://cfis.wi.gov is a picture of the Capitol in Madison next to a beautiful skyline – of Minneapolis.
“I’m looking at that thinking, what the heck?” Plale said Monday. “I don’t think a lot of Minnesota legislators care about our Government Accountability Board, but who knows?”
The board, which runs the Web site, confirmed the only way to see the skyline from Wisconsin is with a telescope in Hudson.
Patrick from Badger Blogger has a screen shot of the goof and adds:
I would build their site and even use pictures from Wisconsin for a whole lot less.
What strikes me as odd —even more so that a technology company that cannot even use a picture of a city in Wisconsin for a state of Wisconsin website — is that state taxpayers are forking over $1.1 million to a company in Connecticut. What? There aren’t any businesses in Wisconsin that could have done this job? As Roland Melnick points out in the comments thread at Badger Blogger, I thought we were this Mecca for high tech jobs and businesses. You mean there was no one anywhere in Wisconsin that could have created this website and done it correctly?
There’s something else at play. With Gov. Jim Milhous Doyleone’s administration, there always is.
Here’s one possibility: Connecticut. It may be just an odd coincidence, but the Mohegan Indian tribe is located in Connecticut. The Mohegans are involved with the attempts to convert the Dairyland Greyhound Park in Kenosha into a casino. It might be worth a look to see just what connections may exist between the Mohegans and PCC Technology Group, who received the contract to design the website. Given Diamond Jim’s propensity to take bribes from Indians here in Wisconsin and to sell off state contracts to the highest bidder, it’s in the realm of possibility.
Bruce from Badger Blogger has a free gift for PCC Technology.
Dan Cody from Left On The Lake has been out front on this one here and here. Here’s a take:
I know a lot of people in this particular industry right now who are going through hard times. Good people working hard to support their young families and facing the kind of choices due to the economy that I pray I never have to.
At a time when we’re bleeding jobs and trying to transition from an economy dependant on manufacturing to one that can seize the opportunities of the information age in Wisconsin, it only makes sense to me that we should be awarding this kind of work to companies here in Wisconsin that are creating careers for the next generation of workers.
Dan also fisks the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for writing a trite piece about the million-dollar bonehead mistake while casually mentioning that the million dollars went out of state.
I agree with Dan. That was the real story.
A Look At The Future In Public Education December 31, 2008
Posted by The Underground Conservative in Education, Gummint-Run Skoolz.comments closed
You think it’s bad now.
Wait until the Democrats get complete control of it in a few weeks.
Arne Duncan is the current head of Chicago Public Schools and has been tapped to be the Secretary of Education for The Messiah. If Duncan brings the accomplishments from Chicago to Washington, we’re all in trouble.
Under his leadership, CPS has failed to meet the Illinois state standards set under the federal No Child Left Behind Act the last five years. In fact, CPS is on academic watch status because of its failure to make any progress.
In 2006, 58 percent of students in the Chicago Public Schools met the state standards in reading and 59.7 percent met the state standards in mathematics. Both percentages were above the set 47.5 percent AYP success rate for that year.
However, to be counted as making Adequate Yearly Progress, schools must also achieve proficiency for all subgroups of students–White, Black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American, Multiracial/Ethnic, Limited English Proficiency (LEP), Students with Disabilities and the Economically Disadvantaged (ED).
In 2006, for example, only 20.2 percent of Chicago’s “Students with Disabilities” subgroup met the state reading standards, and only 22.9 percent met the math requirement–both well below the expected percentage. As a result, the Chicago school district did not meet AYP goals in 2006.
In 2008, meanwhile, 60.1 percent of all students for the district achieved the standard in reading, which was below the 62.5 percent level required for that year.
The Black subgroup failed to meet the minimum level of proficiency in both reading and math, and the Hispanic subgroup fell short in reading along with the LEP and ED subgroups. The Students with Disabilities subgroup failed to achieve goals in both reading and math.
In addition, only 17 percent of 8th grade students in CPS can read at grade level.
According to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report for 2007, Chicago public schools have consistently performed below the national average during Duncan’s tenure.
The report measures students at the fourth and eighth grade levels in the subjects of reading, math, science, and writing, and ranks them at below basic, basic, proficient, or advanced levels.
Students in eighth grade are those most likely to have been in the Chicago system for a majority of Duncan’s tenure. CNSNews.com used the scores for these students to best determine the results of Duncan’s administration.
By 2007, only 17 percent of Chicago eighth graders were at or above grade level in reading. Thirteen percent scored at or above grade level in math. Twenty-three percent scored at or above grade level in writing.
By 2005, the only year Chicago participated in the NEAP assessment program, 16 percent of eighth grade students were at or above grade level in science.
Nationally, students did much better on average in reading, math, science, and writing.
In 2007, 29 percent of eighth grade students scored at or above grade-level in reading, 31 percent in math, and 31 percent in writing. In 2005, 27 percent of eighth grade students were at or above grade level in science.
These figures are stunning for a district that has a $4.6 billion budget. Spending per pupil was $10,555, about 90 percent going toward education-related expenses.
Just what are they doing in Chicago? Well, one of Duncan’s priorities was an all-homosexual high school. And there are all sorts of ties between Duncan and the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, the project of unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and Barack Hussein Obama to radicalize Chicago’s schools.
In other words, turn the students into mindless little leftwing rabble-rousers community activists before making them proficient in reading and math so they can actually make something of themselves.
Our gummint-run skoolz will become even more of the propaganda and brainwashing centers over the next 8 to 10 years. The students will be properly prepared to go out and continue to vote Democrat mindlessly. Works just like it did in the former Soviet Union and continues to in Red China and Cuber.
Our schools will feature more and more of this:
And this:
Every totalitarian state needs to produce its mind-numbed robots programmed to follow orders.
And to think schools used to be institutions of learning. Now they are just mindless propaganda centers for the state.
