Was there perhaps a shack where the caddies congregated? cuz, RNN.
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i am not sensing any total consciousness
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I spent 5 years at the caddy shack playing roofball, foosball, and getting loops.
And at the end of that rainbow was a 4-year scholarship - tuition & board. But I never did get to share a Fresca with the judge. true story.
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Quoted for posterity. Someone, write down todayâs date!
Oh. never mind.
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When I was finally old enough to wait tables I was making $2.13 an hour plus tips and I definitely felt incredibly rich.
George Cohonâs book, To Russia With Fries, provides an entertaining and insightful account of what it took to get McDâs established in Russia in 1990. Although I am not a fan of McDâs food, I concede they were a huge improvement on the Russian dining experience of the time.
McDâs establishment in Russia was a byproduct of glasnost and Gorbachev even wrote the prologue for To Russia With Fries. Putin has effectively written the epilogue to the story though.
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Here we goâŚ
Russian President Vladimir Putin endorsed a plan Thursday to nationalize foreign-owned businesses that flee the country over its invasion of Ukraine, reflecting the Kremlinâs alarm over job losses and other economic pain the exodus is inflicting.
The Butcher of Ukraine shows no sign of backing off.
Yep, that was pretty predictable.
McDs and some others have said they were planning to continue to pay their workers in Russia. I suppose that ends.
I said earlier in this thread that Iâd expect them to re-open if McDs left. The buildings, equipment, workers, and suppliers are all still in Russia. Weâll see if Putin will let the workers run it or if he will mess it up. The first is profit for Putin.
And, a bunch of companies are going to be adjusting their earnings estimates for 2022.
SNL did a great skit on this with what you could get with a Happy Meal . . . like soap!.
Not an American company, but Deutsche Bank has no plans to end operations in Russia, citing that doing so would âgo against their valuesâ. I guess when youâre deeply involved in money laundering to the point itâs much of your operations, itâs difficult to just shut things down and go on about your merry way.
When even Goldman Sachs says âyeah, weâre outta hereâ it should speak volumes about your willingness to stick around and maintain contacts to engage in business.
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why do I think it just means they are pulling out so it can hit a true bottom and then get back in at the right time to make money off of it?
Interesting to re-read about the 1990 opening of McDâs in Moscow. It was an expensive restaurant by Russian standards.
I can remember the optimism. The theory was that trade and travel would lead to more market capitalism. And, economic growth through capitalism couldnât co-exist with authoritarianism.
It didnât work. Countries with extractive economies can import the goods the upper tier wants, while suppressing everyone else. China showed how you can import/steal technology, have a veneer of economic freedom, and control dissent by controlling communication.
Iâm pessimistic.
I would. Then again, Blackrock tried it and isnât totally wiped out because it wonât write off the last $1B of its $18B original position. [Yet.]
Iâm pretty pessimistic as well.
Authoritarian rule meant the Leader and his friends shared the economic spoils that would have gone to entrepreneurs in a market-based democracy.
The great globalization experiment is in danger of collapsing. Buy America policies are even stronger under Biden than Trump. The US/Mex/Can trade agreement is largely ignored by the US because of special interests: this leads to expensive, time-consuming challenges by the other parties.
Russian lumber comes into the US tariff-free (!?) whereas Canadian lumber attracts a high tariff because US billionaire forest owners want to keep the price above market levels. Steel imports from Canada are limited for US ânational securityâ reasons. The Keystone pipeline is blocked by the Biden administration whereas US is looking to Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela for more imported oil? And a proposed tax credit only for electric vehicles 100% sourced in the US: this subsidy is counter to the trade deal but is being ignored. The list goes on but âfreeâ trade between the US and Canada is a joke.
On the Canadian side, we do put some limits on the amount of the imported dairy products from the US but the US subsidizes its dairy industry through taxpayer subsidies whereas the consumer pays the full price at the store for Canadian dairy products: US dairy products are cheaper as a result but I have a security and quality concern about being wholly dependent on another country for your basic food supply.
Papa Johnâs International said last week that it was suspending all of its corporate operations in Russia, following in the [footsteps] of other high-profile American brands like McDonaldâs and Starbucks.
However, the 190 Papa Johnâs restaurants in the country are still open and selling pizzas. And they have no plans to stop.
These Papa Johnâs shops are primarily owned by Russians through a franchise agreement with a company controlled by Christopher Wynne, a Colorado native who has lived part time and worked in the country since the early 2000s. And even as the war with Ukraine continues and numerous global food brands and [retailers] suspend operations and stop selling goods in Russia, little has changed with his operation,
omg whatashock whocoudanode thisdhapen
Interesting article about how Russia is getting around sanctions to keep their domestic air travel going.
The countries where the leased planes are registered have revoked their air worthiness certificates which are needed to be able to fly. So Russia passed a law allowing the airlines to register them in Russia and get air worthiness certificates to keep flying. But changing the country of registration requires the owner to agree.
I expect Putin is fine with dropping commercial flights directly to European countries. He can tell the airlines to keep flying and maybe make any lease payments to an escrow account with the Russian govât (or else just nationalize the planes).
They can fly domestically on new Russian certificates and internationally to nations that decide to recognize those certificates (Iran, UAE, China, India, for example).
I have mixed feelings about this. If the Russian government is just going to seize the assets of any abandoned / suspended business and then try to keep it running anyway but enriching Russian oligarchs rather than American millionaires & billionaires then Iâm not sure it actually helps the people of Ukraine to do so.
Is the messaging worth more than the cash flow? Are the Russian oligarchs such poor businessmen (and women? Or are they all men?) that they will run the businesses into the ground and end up with nothing anyway?
Iâm not sure whatâs the optimal strategy here in terms of actually hurting Putin / helping Ukraine.