Judge Vaughn Walker is back in the news even though he retired from the Federal Bench in February. Judge Walker ruled that California’s Proposition 8 was unconstitutional, which meant that gay marriage was allowed in California because the language of the earlier Proposition 22 had made it legal in the state. An anti-gay rights group had recently argued that Walker should have recused himself from the case because he was in a gay relationship. I had speculated that his would ultimately bubble up because I knew Vaughn was gay. Vaughn and I were close friends during out freshman and sophomore…
Author: Lloyd Graff
I have long been intrigued and perplexed by the ethical question of organ trading. In America buying and selling an organ or tissue from another person is illegal—but we know it’s done. Cadaver bone is bought and sold, cleansed, sliced and diced and machined for orthopedic implants. Steve Jobs of Apple received a liver transplant at a private hospital in Tennessee. Was it donated? We’ll never know. Blood is bought and sold daily. The argument against a legitimate organ market is that rich people will take advantage of poor people because the prime organs will be sold to the high…
The Eric Lefkofsky story absolutely fascinates me. Oh, you’ve never heard of him? You will. When Groupon, the Web coupon business, goes public this summer, this 41-year-old will be worth a cool $4 billion. The remarkable thing about his story is that his success is built on a string of business failures. Eric started his business career after his girlfriend dumped him during his freshman year at the University of Michigan. He was looking to vent his energy and started buying used carpet from trade shows and selling it to college students moving into the dorms. The business took off…
The disappointing numbers coming out of the economic stat providers on unemployment and purchasing manager sentiment confirm what we’ve been seeing since the gasoline run-up and the Japan earthquake—business in the second quarter is decidedly weaker than the first. The Precision Machined Products Association noted the slowdown in their recent survey of members. Graff-Pinkert has seen several orders evaporate because clients in auto-related businesses are waiting for production schedules to stabilize. The recent financial results of AutoNation, the huge dealership consortium out of Fort Lauderdale, indicated that their Japanese car sales fell apart last quarter with Lexus off 60%. Domestics…
I am always looking for events that shed light on trends that can make us some money, and I recently heard about a significant happening in the suburbs of Minnesota’s Twin Cities. Silver Springs Golf Course in Monticello, Minnesota, shut down in 2009. Its two 18-hole courses and 18,000 square foot clubhouse that could hold a party for 400 were on the market for $11.9 million. Over the last couple weeks huge woodchippers ate the trees and Caterpillars murdered the grass. Five-hundred-eighteen acres of fairways greens and sand traps were being prepared for corn and soybean cultivation. Welcome to the…
Today’s Machining World Archives June 2011 Volume 07 Issue 05 By Lloyd Graff I haven’t gone to an old-fashioned open outcry auction at an automotive factory in quite awhile. For sheer drama and boredom the Hilco Industrial four day 7000 lot sale this week was a throwback to the days when men were men and spark plugs were made on screw machines. The sale was at GM’s old Willow Run transmission plant—6 million square feet under one roof—that used to be a farm owned by Henry Ford in Ypsilanti, Michigan, near Ann Arbor. Today the biggest non-government, non-university employer in…
David Einhorn, New York hedge fund mogul, is reportedly buying a minority stake in the New York Mets from New York money mismanagers, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, because the team is hemorrhaging dough and the Bernie Madoff victims’ lawyer is squeezing them for a billion dollars they entrusted to the Ponzi artist. I ask this question: Why would anybody buy a major league baseball team, much less a minority stake in one? The older I get the more I understand that “ownership” of things is ephemeral and usually a losing proposition. I love baseball, always have, but owning a…
No machines in this blog, which probably should be on Facebook, but I don’t do Facebook. Today is my 41st wedding anniversary with my wife Risa. I think we are the rare couple who can honestly say to each other every day how blessed we are to have one another. I am a hopelessly sappy romantic who cries real tears on the cards I write for such occasions. She is the baker who makes everybody’s favorite dish for their birthday. Risa is the combination of lover and best friend, who has buoyed me up during life’s insults. I cheered her…
I haven’t gone to an old fashioned open outcry auction at an automotive factory in quite awhile. For sheer drama and boredom the Hilco Industrial four day 7000 lot sale this week was a throwback to the days when men were men and spark plugs were made on screw machines. The sale was at GM’s old Willow Run transmission plant—6 million square feet under one roof—that used to be a farm owned by Henry Ford in Ypsilanti, Michigan, near Ann Arbor. Today the biggest non-Government, non-University employer in the area is Domino’s Pizza, which is currently spending millions to advertise…
On May 12th, an interesting auction took place at Smart Parts near Pittsburgh. Smart Parts used to make paintball guns, until the recession and a big miscalculation about a Wal-Mart order for its equipment put them on the road to bankruptcy. The management of Smart Parts had been on top of the world as paintball caught fire. Wal-Mart wanted to get in on the fun and Smart Parts ordered two (CNC) Hydromat Epic machines in 2007 to meet the forecast demand. They paid well over $2 million for the two machines—then the bottom fell out and sayonara. At the sale…