Ones and Zeros

In a post about customer service and tech suport, Mark over at Enterprise Search makes the point that “zero problems is not a reasonable expectation when you’re living on the crest of a technology wave”.  If fact, it might be a definition of the crest of the tech wave.

At one time, new products had extremely intensive testing and trials with small groups to figure out where the problems were.  And this was after very extensive design and prototyping.  Detroit is the only area that this sort of process still goes on in its full glory.  Which is one reason that Detroit’s having problems now.

Another reason Detroit’s having problems is that the oil crunch in the 1970s wasn’t taken well to heart.  The learning only seemed to be short-term with no long-term retention.  Or, no way to respond to changes quickly.  This many be populist of me, but the CEOs and other management are directly to blame for the loss of jobs and failure of their companies to do well now.  Yet, they’re getting the buyouts.

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The Motley Fool website has a funny list of the Top 10 Things to Do While Waiting for the End of the Financial Apocalypse.  Some good quotes, “Take a drink whenever someone says “contained,” “1929,” “subprime,” or “Roubini”.”  Or, “In fact, it’s hard to find a failing CEO without an immense exit package. Why work hard for success when failure is so lucrative?”.

Of course, their real point is that at some time stocks will be oversold and cheap and then it is time to buy.  Some people are buying already, that’s part of the volatility in the markets right now.  The markets still seem a little treacherous right now though.

So, moving on from my last long-winded post on the financial mess, what’s next? Are we heading into a 1930s style Great Depression? And more importantly, is YOUR bank going to fail?

I don’t know what’s next. No one does. But first things first; your bank probably won’t fail. While there are no guarantees, I do know that most banks will not fail,. Even in the ’30s that was true. Plus, deposit insurance was just increased, safeguarding accounts up to $250,000.

As a rough rule of thumb, if your bank wasn’t advertising on a national or major media scale over the last year or two, you’re probably ok. The same organizational motivations that led to large-scale bank ads also led to mortgage-backed securities investments. Many local and regional banks didn’t invest in these securities and aren’t directly affected by current credit market problems.

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One good thing has come out of the financial mess: an entertaining bit of writing.  See this story from Randall Munroe of XKCD.  I see a future for him in the economic/nerd/adventure genre.