The Gents Place Puts a Modern Twist on Barbering

My introduction to the Gents Place was through a Facebook ad that offered a free cut, shampoo and hot towel treatment—a $35 value—in exchange for my name, phone number, e-mail address and preferred social network. Who could resist? While waiting for my turn at the shop in downtown Leawood, Kans., I took advantage of the Wi-Fi access to catch up on the news on my iPad. Since the chop was free, I opted for a $10 add-on, a lathered neck shave with a straight razor. Ah, nice.

When I got home I mentioned the experience to my Facebook followers. Next day I got a message via LinkedIn from Davis, the 29-year-old founder of the Gents Place. He personally connects with every new client who provides a contact via LinkedIn, Google+ or Twitter. “I realized pretty early on that our business is social, by its very nature,” he says. There’s no better way “to connect like-minded guys in the local community and create long-term relationships.”

Think about how social networking could impact other “old line” businesses…

This paragraph illustrates the issue:

Carriers, such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless, have long chafed at having to spend billions of dollars to build and maintain networks only to watch Internet companies like Google Inc. and device makers like Apple Inc. collect most of the profits for using them. The pressure on carriers has grown more acute with the rise in use of smartphones like the iPhone, essentially mini computers that make mobile Internet use easy and put a heavy toll on networks.

I can understand that.

The change won’t affect me and my family. What about you? The article mentioned people switching to Sprint because they still have unlimited data plans. But, I have heard they are MUCH slower than AT&T and Verizon. Besides, it’s just a matter of time before Sprint changes their policy too.

As I understand it (if I’m wrong, please correct me), these customer funds are no different from a customer brokerage account at say Merrill Lynch or Charles Schwab. So, it would be like going to check your account balance one day and your account being empty.

I’m not sure why John Corzine and the other executives are not behind bars right now. He and the other executives at MF Global should at least be required to sell all their possessions and put that money towards what they stole from their clients. That would go a lot further than Corzine’s “contrite” attitude about the whole deal.

MF Global is a leading broker-dealer with a deep involvement in financial markets around the world. We work closely with clients to create customized trading and hedging solutions in the world’s markets for commodities, listed futures and options, equities, fixed income securities and foreign exchange.

MF Global is a member of more than 70 financial exchanges around the world, and we are a leader by trading volume on a number of these exchanges. We have trading desks around the world, and we facilitate easy connections to all of the major electronic trading platforms as well as direct market access. MF Global is also one of 22 primary dealers authorized to trade U.S. government securities with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

In addition to executing client transactions, we provide comprehensive clearing and settlement services. Moreover, we are active in providing client financing and securities lending services.

MF Global’s well-regarded research and analysis franchise produces a wide range of actionable insights—from equity research and policy-focused analysis of U.S. legislative and regulatory topics, to commentary on macroeconomic trends and issues driving markets.

And here’s a look at their awards:

I then clicked on their “News” page only to find this:

Page Cannot Be Found

The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

Click < < Back to return to the page from which you came.

That one made me laugh.

Their entire “Investor Relations” section is also gone.

Here’s a quote from their “About” page:

Working relentlessly to bring our clients superior market access, hardworking insights and powerful trading and hedging solutions. It’s our mission, and throughout our long history, it’s why clients have relied on MF Global to help them capitalize on new opportunities in the world’s ever-changing financial markets.

Bottom line: These companies are always the best right up until they go bankrupt. Leverage can kill.

As many state legislatures debate double-digit percentage cuts in higher-education funding, presidential pay could become a sensitive subject. In Austin, for instance, University of Texas Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa is asking lawmakers to limit proposed reductions in the state’s funding of higher education, even as his compensation was third highest, by total cost of employment, among public-university leaders in America.

Last school year, Dr. Cigarroa was paid $750,000, with perks such as deferred compensation bringing the total cost of his employment to $813,892, the Chronicle survey said.

A University of Texas spokesman said Dr. Cigarroa has received no pay increase since taking the job two years ago. In a statement, Gene Powell, chairman of the University of Texas System Board of Regents, said the vast majority of the chancellor’s compensation comes from an endowment rather than from taxpayers.

Did you catch the first sentence of that last paragraph? “A University of Texas spokesman said Dr. Cigarroa has received no pay increase since taking the job two years ago.”

I always find it funny that executive pay is always defended by, “But he hasn’t had a raise in X number of years.”

Even with a 3% inflation rate over the last three years, this president’s purchasing power is still over $684,000. Not too shabby if you ask me.

It’s no wonder college is so expensive.

Mr. Buffett said Mr. Sokol, 54 years old, had bought 96,060 shares in January, before Berkshire reached a $9 billion deal to acquire the company. Berkshire’s purchase price of $135 per share meant that Mr. Sokol’s stake rose $3 million in value.

Interesting.

What I found really interesting was this quote from the article:

“Mr. Buffett said he and Mr. Sokol didn’t feel the Lubrizol purchases were ‘in any way unlawful.’”

Maybe not but it sure looks bad.

Amazon or eBay?

Personally, I like Amazon 1,000 times better than eBay. I spend lots of money with Amazon but nearly nothing with eBay. The eBay site seems cumbersome, and gimmicky. And I don’t like feedback system, which seems like a joke.

I’m asking this question today because the WSJ reported that eBay is buying GSI Commerce in an attempt to compete with Amazon. I found this interesting:

GSI has a service called ShopRunner that could have helped level the playing field. Similar to Amazon’s Prime program, ShopRunner charges a flat $79 annual fee in exchange for free two-day shipping from dozens of retailers. Unfortunately, eBay has decided to sell most of ShopRunner. The thinking is that eBay doesn’t want to upset its existing sellers who would be in competition with retailers in the ShopRunner network. In contrast, Amazon offers free shipping even though it puts some third-party sellers that use its site at a disadvantage.

I have a suspicion that the reason eBay sold ShopRunner is because sellers would be angry over not being able to charge what they wanted for shipping. It’s pretty well known that eBay sellers use shipping as a way to make money.

Here is their list. You can click on the link to see more information on each CEO.

I’d like to see a ranking of all the CEOs of say the S&P 500 Index or some sort of index. That would be interesting to me.

I saw a graphic in today’s Wall Street Journal that detailed some of the component costs of the new iPad. The graphic broke down some of the component costs:

• Display: $50

• Front and rear cameras: $4.50

• Main processor: $25

• Radio components: $25

• Flash memory: $30

• Sensors: $2.50

• Battery: $20 – $25

As BG points out in his comment below, component costs aren’t the only costs to go into the creation of a product. There are also engineering, research and development costs, and marketing costs.

Anyway, I thought the component aspect was interesting. I thought components were more expensive than that.