A week of less funny and more irony, shame, and disappointment for some, and plenty of outrage as usual. I do not think anything was more outrageous than the announcement that Halliburton will take the money and run! by moving it's headquarters from Texas to Dubai. Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL) framed the move as "it's just good business" and it had a few supporters -- I was not among them. To summarize: "The company can rationalize it to the world press, Wall Street, and the three blind mice for all I care, but it still stinks to the high heavens!"
Sick Of It, wrote: "First we loose Michael Jackson to Dubai & now Halliburton......." I think HAL's reasoning is not so far off from MJ's. After taking our money, and behaving scandalously, they do not feel loved and respected anymore.
American Idol or Sad Idol?
Sanjaya is now among the top eleven competitors on Amercan Idol or Survivor: It's for real and may start to get some sympathy votes now because he looks so sad and remorseful on stage, his joyful smile turning to nervous laugh. He does have many legitimate supporters, but the Vote the Worst crowd bothers me as much as Halliburton. They have rationalized their existence as poorly as HAL its departure. They have contributed to a mean-spirited, tortuous-to-watch situation, which in the end will have a long-term detrimental affect on Sanjaya that may be inescapable for his whole life. I don't think this is how he would like to be remembered. At the same time they choose to mock American Idol, they probably have helped stir things up on a relatively boring season ... but this stinks to the high heavens also!
March Madness
This week college basketball started its playoff campaign with some great games and few surprises. Duke University lost it's first round game by two points. Tough year for a fine school. At the same time the price of a barrel of oil migrated downward a few bucks and ironically Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK), a significant consumer of oil, saw its share price weaken instead of rise. This perhaps in sympathy with Duke's loss -- Duke and DUK fade out together.
Speaking of Fading Out
There is starting to be consensus among Bush supporters and not, that George Dubya will not be looked upon very kindly by historians. For all his principals and all his good intentions, he is looking tired, sad, and beaten. His smile these days is plastered on in much the same way as Sanjaya's is with each passing AI voting round. His popularity rating in the United States is so low that it has sunk to the same level as it is in Iraq. Advice to the president -- follow Halliburton to the Middle East and set up shop in Iraq for the remainder of your term. Given that his legacy is tied to Iraq, and he does not seem to be able to do much from here, maybe he should roll up his sleeves and spend some time "in the trenches." If it does not work out, he will genuinely look like he gave it everything he had, which is important. After his term is over, he can find a nice corner office in Halliburton's new headquarters, which should be complete by then.
Not to let Democrats off the hook for anything either -- "after all is said and done, more is said than done," (Anonymous) -- so they will have hearings about numerous things and perhaps pass more nonbinding resolutions costing taxpayers more money and solving nothing except providing cover for the broadest possible number of outcomes. I fault Bush for not asking the question "And then what?" when he decides to do something, and think it through. The same is true of those making headlines about bringing the troops home, I ask, and then what? Watch Iraq go up in flames, Iran take over the country, oil prices go through the roof, Kuwait be threatened by another larger enemy, greater conflict in the region, terrorist organizations dancing in the street in front of their new schools and training grounds ... and the United States being drawn back into an even greater conflict at greater cost with zero credibility and zero help ... and then what?
Disclosure: I am a shareholder of Duke Energy.
Check out my other posts for BloggingStocks here.
Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the vice president for design and research at an architecture & planning firm.
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