http://edswatch.com Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:18:00 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I hope you've had a great Holiday Season, and you're excited to start 2009. I certainly am as I've got a fun, high-end event and other product launches planned for my business this year. I know the people in the supposed know say the economy will be bleak, etc. But ... http://edswatch.com/happy-new-year.htm My niece has been attending Notre Dame and is home for the Christmas holiday. We didn't go shopping to catch Day-After-Christmas sales. Instead, with a break in the weather here in the San Francisco Bay Area, we had a chance to play golf yesterday with my nephew and my Dad. ... http://edswatch.com/golf-just-for-fun-with-family.htm I've always believed if someone cheats on the golf course, you'll likely discover he or she also cheats off the course. Bernard Madoff, the biggest cheat of the century, appears to have cheated on the course as well, which should come as no surprise. After not playing for a year, ... http://edswatch.com/cheater-on-and-off-the-course.htm At the present time the Achilles heel of the Italian economy has a name, and it is called Unicredit. In a number of posts on this blog (here, here, here, here) I have tried to draw attention to the potential problem the deteriorating balance sheet of what is now Italy's ... http://edswatch.com/unicredit-shares-fall-again-merrill-lynch-downgrades.htm I've had two instances where I've used golf to my advantage even without playing golf with the other parties. The first time I used golf to my benefit was at a local pizzeria. The owner-host was always professional during past visits, but never friendly. The other night I started talking ... http://edswatch.com/using-golf-off-the-course-to-build-rapport.htm http://edswatch.com/wie-does-it.htm I've been hard on Michelle Wie because of the decisions that she or, more likely, her parents have made. Today she qualified to play on the LPGA. I congratulate her!Unlike some decisions they've made, she or her camp made the right decision to not talk to the media all week. ... http://edswatch.com/wie-makes-it.htm Golf Digest has a short article about what to do if your boss asks you to play a round of golf. It's a pretty good article and echoes many points that I give in my book, On Course for Business--Women and Golf.I'd like to add a couple of points. First, ... http://edswatch.com/playing-golf-with-your-boss.htm California is facing a $11 Billion deficit this year. Rather than cut spending dramatically, Governor Schwarzenegger's answer is to put a sales tax on every round of golf at 8.75%. With the economy, drought, and now a possible sales tax, I don't know how much golf course operators can take. ... http://edswatch.com/schwarzeneggers-attempt-to-terminate-golf.htm Italy's manufacturing purchasing managers' index contracted at the sharpest pace in Italian survey history in November. The Markit/ ADACI manufacturing PMI declined to 34.9 in November, reflecting the sharpest deterioration in operating conditions in the sector in the eleven and half years of data collection. A reading above 50 ... http://edswatch.com/italys-manufacturing-contraction-accelerates-in-november.htm