Economics/Geekonomics

More Cuts At AOL

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You can get the skinny here.  It’s 100 employees being laid off.

What’s most interesting are the cuts to super-popular AIM, which an insider says is basically support staff.  Surely that will be fixed, but my guess is AOL sees AIM as a cash cow and doesn’t plan to do anything new with it.

A good deal of AOL’s activities seems to be seeking to maximize the numbers in profit, so I don’t see any actual plan so much as calculations.  Not sure where this is going to end up.

TAKEAWAYS:

  • AOL is probably going to go for some radical rebranding soon.  OK further radical rebranding – they really aren’t “anything.”
  • AIM will probably survive, but it’ll be just a service that doesn’t really grow.
  • I wouldn’t send a resume to AOL.
  • Bonnie and I?  WAY wrong on AOL in the past.  Just apologizing.

– Steven Savage

The Letter Heard Round The World

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If you haven’t seen this bouncing around the internet, here you go: a very public letter of resignation from Goldman-Sachs from Greg Smith, one of their executive directors.  You can guess by the fact this is very public he wasn’t happy, and essentially sites a declining culture focused on quick profits over relationships and dehumanizing to clients.

So my guess is that you don’t feel you have to read it because you’re nodding vigorously.  Still, take the time to go through it.

I’ve followed some pushback, but most of it is assuming he was disgruntled – but few disgruntled people tell off a company that large (and to an extent an entire industry) over a low bonus or a lack of promotion.  If that was the case, we’d see a lot more of it.

Curious where Mr. Smith goes next and if this letter will produce any actions or penetrate further into public conciousness.  Certainly there’s concern over financial regulation – and I’m wondering just how badly he’s screwed Goldman-Sachs.

– Steven Savage

 

Finally, Some Good Economic News

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When a site called Layoff Watch says the economic news seems positive, you pay attention.  This is a nice, quick analysis that helps give some perspective on what’s going on.

Now my take on this is that we’ve seen a recovery not so much from effort as a kind of  rebalancing.  Yes, things are better, but we’ve got long-term issues, structural problems, questionable home inventory, and more.  This is positive, but not something to do your happy dance for.

If you’re able to leverage this improving situation, then leverage the hell out of it because I don’t know if it’ll improve or last.  Make those connections, get that job, make that move, and make the most of it to stabilize things for the future.

– Steven Savage