This is how bad it is...

I was reading a note from a classmate the other day stating that a Jeep dealer in Greece gives you the following deal: If you buy a Jeep car from the dealer, you can return it after 3 years and they will pay you back the amount of money you paid for it. Good deal huh? Well, maybe not! If we assume that you pay 20,000 Euro today to buy the Jeep, then you will get 20,000 Euro in three years. Assuming that inflation will be around 5% per year for the next 3 years, then that means that you pay 20,000 Euro today, you use the car for 3 years and you return it for what it would be an equivalent of about 17,241 Euro. Still pretty good deal huh? Definitely, if it works out. But the chances are that with the economy, in 3 years you will be driving with your Jeep to the dealer to give it back and receive your money, but you will probably not find a Jeep dealer there any more. The dealer would have probably sold out his inventory, got his cash, paid off his loans and is probably taking a vacation somewhere in Hawaii..or maybe he opened a restaurant.
American Express in the United States is paying $300 to account holders to close their credit accounts. They are scared that people will not be able to pay back after they use their AMEX cards. Problem is that this only applies to special customers..i.e the ones that owe money. So if you owe $1000, the deal is that you pay us $700 and you close your account.
Blockbuster’s stock took a big dive today. It is only a matter of months or even days before the film rental company closes down operations. Maybe if they were not as static in their business they could have achieved something. How did they respond to NetFlix? How did they respond to On Demand Television movies? How did they respond to downloading movies? Well..they are rumoring to have hired a bankruptcy agency to help them go bankrupt.
2009 and 2010 are said to be the worst years for MBA hiring. Even in my class one can feel the recession. A lot of companies have taken back their job offers, a lot of companies have postponed the start date and the majority of students have no job. Still the B-schools are recruiting more and more students. After all, somebody needs to make money.