Look, I don't want to be a pill and rain on the whole gloom thing we're all experiencing. There's no doubt it's real. I look at the numbers the same as you do. Revenue is down. Unemployment is up. We're circling the drain, definitely, I'm not arguing with anybody about...

I flew from here to there last night. As sometimes happens in Business, I ran into somebody who is in business. We swapped a few observations for a while. After some time, I felt so appalled that I was forced to feign sleep. I think it was over St. Louis.

Just a question I've been thinking about since yesterday... What do you think the boys at the Big Three auto companies were thinking about when each took his own private jet to Washington to ask for help? A number of subsequent queries suggest themselves:

Are they stupid?

Assuming...

It is my belief, based on a day-by-day analysis of the situation as it pertains to my own sector and the economy as a whole, that Wall Street should be shut down immediately and re-opened to people who can prove their sanity on January 2.

We don't let people drive...

One of my very hostile but articulate readers, Mike from Spokane, gives me both barrels between the eyes this morning. I think Mike thinks I won't publish it, because I'm a panty-waist business type swilling gin at breakfast. Here's what he says:

Bing...with all due respect (as you recently stated...

Word comes from an official at the Bank of America that the decompression that we're in right now will end in the fourth quarter of 2009. I don't know about you, but I don't want to wait that long.

This isn't the first time I've heard the prediction, though. I...

Wherever you go, there you are. It doesn't matter how far you fly, how many time zones you traverse, how odd the stated agenda or proposed workflow, the land of business is the same the world over.

The same gentlemen strutting around in suits whose quality bespeaks the wearers' level...

It's morning in America. I say this without irony, because it's not a time for irony, or cynicism, or fear, as enured as we are to those emotions as we are, as easy as they are to achieve. The President-elect talks a lot about hope. For the majority of Americans,...

The other day I was having lunch with a couple of guys I know. The check came, as it will. Only two of us reached for our wallets. "I'm an elderly gentleman on a pension," said the third of our number. The other two of us put down our cards...

A few of today's headlines:

-- Mortgage applications are up 17%.

-- New home sales are up 2.7%.

-- Existing home sales jumped.

-- Americans are saving more.

-- Durable goods orders are up.

-- A $50 billion bailout for distressed home buyers is near.

-- Oil...

Everybody hurts. The Hindenburg is imploding. We're up, we're down, we're up, we're down. And nobody knows what's going on. Oh, the humanity!

As the machine creaks to earth spewing hot gas, those who rigged it up to blow continue to do their jobs to help it do so. When...

What do you think Arjun Murti has to say for himself right now? The Goldman Sachs analyst predicted a few months ago that oil would move to $200 per barrel in the next couple of years, and sent everybody into a tizzy. Perhaps the one upside of the recent economic...

I was at a meeting the other day with a bunch of really rich dudes, and for the first time in my experience in such a venue, the talk moved to politics. Incredibly, the majority were Obama guys, a testament, I think, to the essentially conservative stance that the Democratic...

Just a little note after reading some of the news during the weekend. I've made a decision in regards to this election. I haven't announced my endorsement yet, of course. But I do know one thing very clearly.

I don't care about Joe.

Now, this is not to...

I walked home last night from the office. All along the route, I passed the places I used to stop in for a drink. It's been a month now since I had a nice, frosty martini, so cold that the ice chips float to the top and the sides of...

When the Founders got together to establish this great Republic of ours, they had certain clear goals in mind. Here they are:

-- form a more perfect Union,

-- establish Justice,

-- insure domestic Tranquility,

-- provide for the common defense,

-- promote the general...

I don't have a lot of time this morning, and I'm getting pretty sick of all attempts to complexify this question, so I'll lay it out for you right here.

Who's to blame for this incredible mess? It's really clear.

No, it's not Wall Street. Wall Street is there to...

A few minutes ago, Congress passed the bailout, and the confused and psychotic market, which had been up for the day, started coming down. Tell me if you can figure out this particular iteration of its dementia. I can't. Maybe we'll all just agree from this point on in that...

With the financial infrastructure in a state of pre-liquification, and the political race in full swing at the same time, there is continuing scrutiny on the issue of who has enough experience to be a senior executive in this great corporate state of ours.

Everybody's got an opinion about...

If there's one thing the Street hates, it's uncertainty. Like most of my neurotic friends, its mood swings inappropriately high on the slightest whiff of good news, and zooms to depressing depths at the merest suspicion of impending bad karma. Given the paucity of the former and the plethora of...