Weekend Digest: The Hangover From The Holidays Edition

by Talk Business & Politics staff ([email protected]) 103 views 

2014: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

On this week’s edition of Talk Business & Politics with 2014 winding down, we take a look back at the year’s top business and political stories.

KATV’s Scott Inman and Janelle Lilley join host Roby Brock as well as TB&P contributors Jason Tolbert and Steve Brawner for a discussion of the biggest stories of the year.

What were this year’s highlights and lowlights? Tune in for the conversation on Sunday morning at 9 a.m. on KATV Ch. 7.

For our weekend business and political readers:

WHAT YOU CAN LEARN FROM BARBIE’S LINKEDIN PROFILE
She’s a Barbie girl in a Barbie world, and that world is now digital and very connected. Did you know Barbie has a LinkedIn profile?

She may have already worked up on the International Space Station, walked the Hollywood red carpet and danced en pointe in front of a packed house, but it’s Barbie’s newest career that prompted her to join LinkedIn.

Entrepreneur Barbie, whose official job title is Dream Incubator, only joined the professional social network a few weeks ago. But she already has more than 5,000 humans following her profile, which is actually a Mattel showcase page.

What can you and your business learn from Barbie’s social media presence in the business world? Read here for a few good tips.

THE BUSINESS DIVIDENDS OF WINNING THE HEISMAN
The Portland Business Journal examines how Oregon Duck quarterback Marcus Mariota’s Heisman trophy win will be capitalized by the star athlete and the university known for its colorful uniforms.

Brian Berger, whose syndicated Sports Business Radio program and blog, explores the business of sports, offers his opinions.

Mariota’s Heisman honor will certainly enhance his brand once he turns pro. The award will bring him instant credibility with NFL owners and GM’s looking to win and looking to sell seats and enhance a team’s marketing efforts. Mariota can step into the “face of the franchise” role that so many NFL teams are looking for.

Mariota’s Heisman win will also result in plenty of endorsement opportunities (starting with Nike) and his wholesome image will also be a big hit with companies who are looking to align their brand with someone who will stay out of trouble off the field — a big consideration for corporations who utilize athlete spokespeople.

Read more on the subject at this link.

THE HANGOVER FROM THE HOLIDAYS
How do you get your work motivation back after the hangover of the holidays? Tech Cocktail surveyed 75 entrepreneurs for a variety of advice. Here’s a sample:

“Get tough. It’s important to remember that every minute of every day counts and you own your attitude and effort. There is always a solution to the problem. Staying motivated requires tremendous perseverance and creativity, but that’s what separates those who make it and those who don’t,” says David Rush, cofounder and CEO of Evzdrop.

Here’s what else should you think about and, if you have some advice to share, add to the comments section here.

SOUTHWESTERN ENERGY GOES IT ALONE
Dateline: Wonderview, Ark.

The New York Times tours much quieter natural gas fields in Arkansas with Southwestern Energy CEO Steven Mueller. Southwestern is the largest player in the Fayetteville Shale play, but thanks to technology and the laws of supply and demand, natural gas drilling is far less crowded than it was a decade ago.

Natural gas prices have been taking it on the chin, just like crude oil prices. Southwestern’s aggressiveness has many industry analysts questioning a bit of a lone wolf strategy.

“Most of the companies — on the pure economics, oil versus gas — think we are crazy,” Mr. Mueller acknowledged with a thin smile. “I mean, when I walk in the room it’s like, ‘They’re crazy, they haven’t gone to oil.’ ”

After so much hype and billions of dollars in investment, the nation is deluged with gas and not enough pipelines to carry the bounty to consumers. One energy company after another, year after year, has written off or slimmed down its investments here and in Texas and Louisiana.

But not Southwestern Energy, a Houston-based company that has risen from being the nation’s 40th to become the fourth-largest producer of natural gas.

Read more of this interview at this link.

COPYRIGHT THAT FOOD RECIPE
Marketplace explores a common question that many of us have considered as we devour home cooking over the holidays.

Entrepreneurs and business owners constantly face intense competition in attracting new customers and retaining old ones. They must stand out and be original.

Which is why people register their original creations with the United States Copyright Office, to legally protect the logo, design, literary work, architecture, etc., that they have spent so much time and money on.

But would you be able to do the same thing for, say, your homemade sugar cookies? Or any other food recipe for that matter?

Find the answer and listen to the full report at this link.

IS WASHINGTON LOSING ITS GRIP?
In a column for the Washington Examiner, Michael Barone looks at how highway funding is an illustration for how the centralized approach of the federal government is devolving to the states to find solutions.

Too much power being grabbed by Washington — Obamacare, environmental regulations, education standards. That’s a constant complaint of conservatives not only during Barack Obama’s presidency but during George W. Bush’s as well.

But power is also flowing out of Washington, largely unnoticed, and back to the states and localities. You can see that if you look at transportation policy, which is following the same path as the little remembered federal revenue sharing program enacted in the Nixon years and phased out during the Reagan presidency.

Read his full take at this link.

HOW THE DEEP SOUTH IS TRYING TO GAME THE GOP PRIMARY
It has been tried before, but now a slate of southern states are looking to coordinate party primary elections to have more influence on the presidential primary in 2016. From Politico:

The Deep South has elected Republicans to every top office in the region. Now it wants to be sure that clout extends to the choice of the GOP’s 2016 presidential nominee.

Officials in five Southern states — Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas — are coordinating to hold their primary on March 1, 2016. Texas and Florida are considering also holding a primary the same day but may wait until later in the month.

Either way, March 1 would be a Southern Super Tuesday, voting en masse on the heels of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

What are the risks and rewards of such a strategy? Read more here.

JEB BUSH EMAILS OFFER GLIMPSE INTO HIS WORLD
The New York Times reports on a batch of emails released by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has said he’s exploring a Presidential run for 2016.

Mr. Bush sought this month to get ahead of the anticipated public records requests, and perhaps score some political points, by announcing in an interview with a Miami television station that he would voluntarily post about 250,000 emails on his own website.

“Part of serving or running, both of them, is transparency, to be totally transparent,” Mr. Bush said.

But Florida’s public information laws are among the most open in the country, and Mr. Bush knew the messages would be open to public scrutiny whether he posted them on the website or not. The emails he releases are likely to include only those publicly accessible under state law, meaning that messages regarding legal and personnel matters will not be available.

Mr. Bush seemed to have been mindful of that eventuality while he was in office and was careful with his language. But he did occasionally offer insight into the way he views the world.

Read more here of the exchanges that are part of these emails, which include thoughts on teachers’ unions, growing and shrinking government, and how he handled “hate” emails.

THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT
Two authors, Steven Pinker and Andrew Mack, tackle the question of whether or not the world is indeed more dangerous than at any previous time in history.

It’s a good time to be a pessimist. ISIS, Crimea, Donetsk, Gaza, Burma, Ebola, school shootings, campus rapes, wife-beating athletes, lethal cops—who can avoid the feeling that things fall apart, the center cannot hold?

Last year Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before a Senate committee that the world is “more dangerous than it has ever been.” This past fall, Michael Ignatieff wrote of “the tectonic plates of a world order that are being pushed apart by the volcanic upward pressure of violence and hatred.”

Two months ago, the New York Times columnist Roger Cohen lamented, “Many people I talk to, and not only over dinner, have never previously felt so uneasy about the state of the world. … The search is on for someone to dispel foreboding and embody, again, the hope of the world.”

Pinker and Mack take a crack in this essay for Slate.com.

THE CHRISTMAS CLASSICS
Now that you’ve “decked the halls,” dreamed of a “white Christmas,” and perhaps seen “Grandma get run over by a reindeer,” it’s time to ponder another interesting Christmas question: Where are the new Christmas classics?

The Washington Post tackles the question of why it is so hard to create a new classic yuletide hit. Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber haven’t done it; neither has Beyonce. One of the most recent modern-day Christmas hits is 20 years old.

This time of year, Run-D.M.C.’s Darryl McDaniels doesn’t like to leave the house. “I’m scared to go to the mall, because every five steps somebody’s screaming, ‘It’s Christmastime in Hollis, Queens!’ Kids, grandmothers, it’s crazy,” McDaniels says. “I can’t be going shopping till after Christmas.”

Run-D.M.C.’s “Christmas in Hollis” is a modern holiday standard, making McDaniels a member of a vanishingly small club: Most lyricists of classic Christmas songs are dead.

Mariah Carey had a big hit nearly two decades ago, and she’s strategically guided the song’s usage during that time.

But what are the rules of holiday hits? Who else has made successful and unsuccessful runs at them? A variety of artists and songwriters weigh in on the subject at this link.

TO THE NINES
Ever wonder why gasoline prices always end with 9/10ths of a cent after them? Marketplace heads to Three Lakes, Wisconsin, to meet up with Ed Jacobsen, head of the Northwoods Petroleum Museum, for answers.

“We have to go way back to when the oil companies were selling gas for, let’s say, 15 cents, and then the state and federal boards decided they wanted a piece of that to keep the roads going, so they added 3/10 of a cent. And the oil companies said, ‘Well, we’re not going to eat that,’ so they passed that on to the public,” Jacobsen said.

Learn more in this radio report.