patrick.net

My point is that unrest abroad may entice foreign interests to move businesses here.

That is all.

At this point I wish the government would nationalize the banks. At least I have some say when I go to vote on who runs it. Now they just steal money from us and give it away to the f*cked banksters.

Given that our banking system is insolvent, this is an almost certainty.

However, should this come to pass, hyper-inflation will be a serious risk. There will no longer be any safeguards preventing heli-Ben from firing up the printing presses.

Chipmaker Maxim Integrated Products Inc. has announced the closing of a factory in Dallas, which will result in 172 job cuts.

Sunnyvale-based Maxim Integrated/Dallas Semiconductor notified the Texas Workforce Commission that the company has initiated a plant closing at its Dallas facility at 4401 S. Beltwood Pkwy. in Dallas.

The letter indicates that 167 employees on the manufacturing side will lose their jobs, in addition to five other employees who work in administrative or other positions.

Maxim Integrated purchased Dallas Semiconductor back in 2001.

In the layoff announcement, Maxim (NASDAQ:MXIM) tells the Workforce Commission that employees were notified on Jan. 19. The announcement says the first round of cuts will take place on or about March 20, with additional cuts to take place in June.

SAN CARLOS, California — Before the economic meltdown, Tesla Motors had ambitious plans to build an electric-car factory in Silicon Valley. But it has shifted gears, saying now that it will find an abandoned factory to help it win a low-cost federal loan.

The $450 million that Tesla hopes to get from government loan programs means it would go in the direction of "retrofitting existing buildings rather than constructing new ones," according to a report in the local San Jose Mercury News.

Tesla is in competition with other automakers for low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Energy. That federal agency has funds available to develop so-called "brownfield" sites — factories that are no longer in use.

The AFP news service reported on Friday that Tesla is in "late stage" negotiations with another site for its Model S plant and expects to begin production in 2011 as originally planned.

The Model S is a five-passenger sedan run by a lithium-ion battery pack. The Model S is expected to be priced around $60,000.

Based on feedback from Patrick.net posters, we are deciding to postpone buying a home by 9 months. Will get back in the market on late October .... goodbye Kentwood Place ... goodbye Kristin Munday - (408) 973-1326

In recent months, Americans have been disappointed and appalled by Wall Street, banks, the big-budget film “Australia,” investment counselors, Detroit, the governors of at least two states, hedge fund managers and even the geese at La Guardia, which used to know better than to interfere with those metal birds they fly among.

After Sunday, you could add Super Bowl advertising to that lengthening list of letdowns.

Few commercials that ran during Super Bowl XLIII on NBC offered viewers anything special. To paraphrase a line from the movie “Sabrina,” you could pick some ads out of a hat blindfolded and come up with better ones.