Blue Sun - a Reality?

IBM (aka "Big Blue") is reported to be entertaining the notion of buying Sun Microsystems - to the point of being "in talks" with them.

This has set a lot of people's hair on fire recently.

From my perspective - any economic downturn will herald corporate consolidation. It happens because it needs to happen from an economic point of view. There are overlapping product-lines from both companies competing for the same markets. AIX vs. Solaris, WebSphere vs. GlassFish, DB2 vs. MySQL, etc..

In the long term I do not think it will be good for the customer since prices will inevitably go up while development slows.

It may be good for Java - since both companies have a serious stake in it's success.

But the burning question on my mind is - will they re-brand the companies to something new?

Simple Solution: Remember Ma Bell?

I have a solution to the AIG problem. It is Very Simple.

The Problem: AIG was a very successful insurance company run on a very low risk and conservative business model. Deregulation allowed them to get into the financial services industry and do amazingly risky things that turned around and bit them like a crack dealer's neglected pit bull. This was really a Very Big Problem because they now have their tendrils embedded deeply in many Other Industries - which they will drag down with them in their death throes.

The Wrong Answer: This bailout nonsense. As I mentioned before - the number of the bailout is the same number that we owe to China. Essentially we're losing at the craps table and have decided that rather than cut our loses - we're going to double-down and throw the dice some more.

My Answer: Since the US Government now owns >80% of the company - they can do what they like with it. I say Split AIG Up into Smaller Companies, just like Ma Bell. Their interests are too broad. Let the financial services division fly or go down in flames on their own in a Free Market.

Everyone is so upset about the bonuses that the executives all received from AIG. Do The Math. That $156 Million represents 0.1% of the total $30 Billion that AIG received. That is a rounding error! Who cares!? Where is all the rest of the American taxpayer money going & why don't we get more say in how it is spent?

I pay my taxes to run the government, not corporations. They get my money on their own - and only the Good ones do that. The Failing companies should do just that - FAIL. That is what a Free Market means.

Our bankers are Communists. Yes - China is still a communist country. Never forget that! When exactly did America start copying from their playbook? You can try to call me Joe McCarthy but in my humble opinion Secretary Clinton is a communist sympathizer, and so were the Neocons.

Aiming for short term gains are what got us in this mess. China plays a very long term game. How much longer until they take back Taiwan? They have maneuvered us into a position where we can now do NOTHING to stop them.

Do I have to remind everyone of what they did to the spy plane that landed in China in 2001? The Chinese government has no love for America - they still refer to us as "Imperialists" to their citizens. They still do represent a threat.

Me Bitter?

I'm sure everyone is very concerned with the current economic crisis. We're all worried about losing our jobs - so we can't take the time to wonder what got us here. "Living in the past" is the label slapped on people looking to assign blame/bring people to justice/exact revenge.

Unless you are either too young to know any better, or have bought into the philosophy of fear that has been sold to everyone for almost a decade now -- let me try to explain to you what I am so grizzled about, by reciting the Preamble as the last administration seems to have interpreted it:

We the People ^Sheeple of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect ^{drive a wedge in our} Union, establish ^selective Justice, insure domestic Tranquility ^{National Security}, provide for the common defence ^{pre-emptive attack}, promote the general Welfare ^{of corporations}, and secure ^undermine the Blessings of Liberty ^{in the name of security} to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish ^{radically modify} this Constitution for the United States of America.