I have restrained myself mightily so far this political year, but the campaigns have become so juicy, so nutty, so deliciously crazy that I can no longer resist a political commentary. It is now likely that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will be our two choices in November. I say likely, not certain, because Trump could still do something so totally goofy that people will question his sanity, and Hillary could be indicted for putting 22 top secret emails on her private server and sharing the information with members of her personal staff over cocktails. I know Hillary Clinton’s supporters…
Author: Lloyd Graff
It has been a while since I wrote about business, which may be a commentary in itself about what I think life is like in the machining business in 2016. My sense of the action, or inaction, today is widespread caution. I would not call it dread or pervasive fear, but a mood of “wait and see” for more clarity of where the economy and the country is headed. Politically, there is considerable nausea about a Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton matchup. People confront me frequently with the rhetorical question, “what kind of country gives us The Donald and Hillary…
I am writing this piece at the kitchen table in my house. It’s where I write most of my blogs. It’s the one place where I can concentrate most easily, despite various newspapers, salt and pepper shakers, and reading glasses laying askew. The table usually is covered with a tablecloth that has been washed a hundred times. I like colorful tablecloths on my formica covered table to add interest while I eat or write or just look out the window. For a house or apartment to be a real home you need a place, like my kitchen table, where you…
After 50 stunningly disastrous years, Detroit is seeing the spark of revival that comes when things get so bad that only the truly visionary can see through the rubble. I’m not talking about autos. Making cars comes and goes. At the moment, auto is back with a vengeance; maybe 18,000,000 sleds this year! This is no surprise to anyone selling parts, turning metal, or molding polymers. That revival has been going on since two of the “big three” dumped their debt (and shareholders) in bankruptcy to improve their balance sheets, and the third hired a manager who actually understood that it…
Someone asked me the other day why I like to travel. Of course, there are a lot of reasons. Vacations are nice to get away from the office and chill out, but I didn’t need to fly 20 hours to Thailand like I did this March just to find entertainment and relaxation. Traveling to new places refreshes me. It’s not always easy, but it energizes me to arrive in a country with a different language, different money, different looking people and a different way of life. I’m excited to explore places, get lost and ask myself, “Where the heck am…
I got an email from an old friend in Florida, Bob Ducanis, asking me to write a column explaining what is going on in my Chicago. I immediately heard the refrain, “My kind of town, Chicago is my kind of town,” the old song. And then I paused to ask myself, is it still my kind of town? Is it a place I am happy to call my home? Do I want my kids and grandchildren, to call it home for a lifetime like I have? These are my feelings for Chicago, 2016. It changes slightly with the headlines, but…
In Chicago this week the big story (even bigger than the Illinois primaries) has been the retirement of Adam LaRoche, a designated hitter, first baseman for the Chicago White Sox. He walked away from a $13 million contract because the Sox management objected to the frequent presence of his 14-year-old son, Drake, at the team’s practices and games. Drake is being homeschooled so he has a lot of time to be with his Dad. He went to 120 Sox games last year, often traveling on the team charter plane. He has an official White Sox uniform and spent a lot…
Usually I live my business life talking to people who are extremely skilled at cutting bars of metal into a lot of useful widgets and selling them for a modest profit to a company that assembles them into useful industrial products. But a few days ago I had a lengthy chat with Mitch Free, who is playing the game somewhat differently than most of the folks in the machining business. Mitch Free’s name is appropriate because he has freed himself from the conventional wisdom of the business, even though he happily runs a nice assortment of CNC lathes and mills…
I once had a cousin named Don. Don was a couple months older than me. We played softball together and a lot of ping pong. That was until we were 16. Then I lost track of Don. I never saw him again. Donnie and I were first cousins. My Uncle Jerry, my father’s elder brother, was his Dad. He lived a few miles from us on the southside of Chicago. Jerry made a lot of money in the plumbing supply business, but he was too cheap to buy a home in a nice neighborhood. He rented a stuffy apartment in…
I must admit I am totally into the 2016 election. The ascent of Donald Trump is so stunning, so horrifying, but also so wonderfully amazing that I cannot get enough of it. Trump is narcissistic, incredibly egotistical, yet instinctively brilliant in his ability to connect with the American psyche. Somehow Trump gets it. This rich, womanizing boor, vain to the nth degree, has figured out America and the dissatisfaction and anger that rightfully fills the country. Frankly, I didn’t get it until very recently when I read an absolutely brilliant op-ed article called Why Trump Now? by Thomas Edsall in…