Five Bios -- November 10, 2022

Jack Welch: ruthless; "took advantage of a banking loophole" to build a US conglomerate; the enterprise was so vast, others were unable to see the mess he had created; handed it over to an unsuspecting Jeff Immelt who spent seventeen years trying to right the ship; unsuccessful.

Elon Musk: buys Twitter $44 billion, a company that might have been worth $11 billion when the deal closed; no clear plan how to monetize it; he hasn't ruled out Twitter bankruptcy in 2023.

Mark Zuckerberg: way over-hired (too many employees); "group-think" led him to the metaverse which even if it works, was decades premature going down that road; there is real risk of Zuck losing the entire company.

Jeff Bezos: buys and successfully monetizes Thursday Night Football for $1 billion on an annual basis; foresaw slowdown and cut back on warehouse real estate;

Tim Cook: viewed as an expert in logistics, but real talent may be understanding basic human needs.

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Talking Turkey

After posting a note on Thanksgiving meal expenses, I ended up in an e-mail discussion with a reader from Minnesota. Both he and I were comparing notes on grocers giving frozen turkeys away as promotional items if customers bought $50 to $100 worth of groceries.

If grocers are giving away turkeys as promotional items that suggests to me there is not a shortage of Thanksgiving turkeys as the mainstream media would have us believe. 

I also noted the price: that a non-Butterball turkey was actually slightly less expensive than last year (although I might be comparing non-Butterball with Butterball turkeys). Be that as it may, you can still get a Thanksgiving turkey for less than $1.00 / pound.

Curious, the Minnesota reader simply typed in Butterball in his google search and this was his return:

Google/Walmart was tracking his location and referred him to a Mankato, MN, Walmart store. Note: this Butterball turkey at Walmart was priced at $1.18 / pound, a decrease from the "original" or perhaps competitor's price of a $1.70 / pound. 

This certainly suggests to me that there is not now a shortage of Thanksgiving turkeys and they aren't much more expensive than last year.

However: my hunch is that by the last week in November, before Thanksgiving Thursday, it may be hard to find a turkey at your local grocery story. Plan accordingly. 

.... it never quits. Now this, another google search that took me to Amazon:

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The Book Page

Ordered from Amazon today; will arrive tomorrow:

• Cinema Speculation, Quentin Tarantino, published November 1, 2022. 

Considering Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of An American Icon, William D. Cohan, to be released November 15, 2022. Weighs 2.55 pounds; 816 pages. Rank:

• best seller list: #2,864
• oil and energy: #1 -- this is why I will get the book if I get the book.