Lookng Back At Hof's Blog 2005

Looking Back at Hof's Blog 2005 - Part 1 January and February

Well Class, it's time to review for our final. What did we learn last year?

Hof's blog 2005 started with a link to a site describing how Capital One tries to undermine your credit score. Bankruptcy deform was berry berry good to the credit card companies in 2005, at least in the short term. They had their way and made record profits.

Also in January, Schnappi the Crocodile was berry berry big in Germany, big enough, in fact, that the Schnappi website was hi-jacked for awhile by some kind of web hooligan that downloaded who knows what onto the computers of those who visited the Shnappi website.

In January, I introduced Wikipedia to the blog. In the months since, I've come to rely on Wikipedia about as much as Google.

Cars previewed included the Chevrolet HHR, Buick Lacrosse, Lincoln Zephyr and Saturn Aura. All but the Aura are currently on the market. I initially panned the HHR, I've softened my stand somewhat in the intervening months. I tried to test-drive the Buick, but the dealer didn't have a dealer plate. The Zephyr looks good, but seems overpriced compared to its sibling, the Ford Fusion.

In consumer electronics, the Mac Mini came out and the JVC Everio was previewed. Both show the way the world is headed, small computers and even smaller do-everything camera/camcorders. The Radio Shack Cinego lead the way for integrated home theater projectors with speakers and dvd players built in. The cost at the Consumer Electronics show? $1495. This past Christmas season, the Cinego was on sale for $995.

General Motors announced that its 2004 profits would be approximately $6 per share, but warned that its 2005 profits would be down to $4-5 per share. It also stated that its health care costs were up $1 billion over the year before. How accurate were the 2005 profit predictions? The last I heard, GM was on target to lose $4.5 billion for 2005.

I looked at the Home Price Comparison Index where from market to market, the cost for a 2200 square foot house ranged from about $134,000 to $,1700,000.

State Farm was in the news for whitewashing the titles of rebuilt wrecks. I predict they'll be in the news again in 2006 for exactly the same thing.

On the lighter side of things, I looked at the rubber band gun - perfect for "mildly disgruntled" postal workers.

In February, I summarized a Detroit News article describing Chinese employment law. Among other things, employers must contribute to the "three insurances". Also, Chinese law mandates one month of severance for every year of employment.

February 10, 2005: "What if GM went bankrupt?"

Also in February, GM cut a deal with Fiat to get out of buying the portion of Fiat that it didn't already own. The cost to GM: $2 Billion. What did GM get in return: the right not to buy Fiat. At the time, Fiat was considered to be a money pit that might sink GM. As it stands now, Fiat's market capitalization is higher than General Motors'.

I looked at mandatory consumer arbitration from several angles. Among other things, I wrote about how at the same time Walt Disney's ABC Network was touting the evils of mandatory arbitration in its newscasts, the Disney Visa featured a potent arbitration clause.

Speaking of bad corporate actors, I hit on Ameriquest a couple of times. We'll hear more about Ameriquest in 2006 as they enter a huge settlement with regulators, all designed to clear the way for its CEO to become the Ambassador of the Netherlands.

On the lighter side, February featured a link to the Brady Bunch sack race game. (Don't everybody thank me at once.)