But isn't the Delorean the "Car of the Future"?

The Chevy Volt - which, despite its name, runs on less than 1.21 gigawatts - is the car being asked to "save" General Motors. This electric model will produce zero emissions for most Americans (those that drive less than 40 miles per day) and goes from zero to 60 in nine seconds. (No word on how soon it gets to 88 miles per hour.)

The full model isn't due until next year, and it's going through some growing pains. In the meantime, as Wired reports, the Obama administration is trying to kill it. The task force appointed by the President to oversee handouts to the auto industry doesn't think the zero-carbon electric car will be profitable anytime soon. According to this blue-ribbon panel - which, incidentally, gets paid whether or not GM goes belly-up - GM should focus on more immediately marketable vehicles, rather than vehicles which will be marketable long-term.

Somehow, the Obama Administration has succeeded in being more nearsighted than Detroit auto manufacturers.

If GM was flush with profit, it would be a good time to experiment with new technology. Unfortunately, they are currently being propped up with someone else's money. The Obama Administration wants a return on their investment, and they won't let things like the long-term viability of GM get in the way.

That's the downside of asking for money from a controlling interest that doesn't understand your business.

The Business of America

When Washington talks about regulating business, the rhetoric is usually couched as a way to keep large companies in line and protect consumers. In reality, these regulations tend to bite the businesses that do the most to help people improve their own position in life. Dan Flynn mentioned one such story this week: the ouster of a homeless bookseller Ken O'Brien from Harvard Square.

O'Brien, who sold books from a kiosk, was the subject of rarely-applied, antiquated permit laws that ultimately led the city to force him from his business. The city's defense is that O'Brien was lax in his permit paperwork; surely the Boston city fathers frowned upon the fact that his kiosk doubled as his sleeping quarters as well.

As the Globe reports, O'Brien had plans to expand his business - a model which could have helped line the tattered pockets of his fellow homeless people. Perhaps, with a steady job, a few might have graduated to non-homeless status, as O'Brien did for a brief time.

On what is, unfortunately, a completely unrelated note, here's a link to the city office charged with helping the homeless get back on their feet.

Ex-AIG employee names his own name.

In case you missed it, one of the recipients of the AIG bonuses, Jake DeSantis, turned in his resignation. DeSantis had been working for almost no pay ($1) with the promise that he would be compensated for 12 months of work all at once - compensation which may now be taxed at nearly 100%. His resignation letter, printed in the New York Times, chides AIG's corporate leadership for lacking backbone and accuses the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut of abandoning their oaths to uphold the law.

Recession? Not for some folks...

From the "A recession for some is an opportunity for others" file... Time reports on products which have done the best since the going got tough. Predictably, the products reflect a new national priority on conserving resources and spending smart. For instance, people are buying elements of food to prepare their own meals and snacks rather than prepackaged food, like baking mixes rather than delicious, delicious Tastykakes. It's nice to see, in Time's article, that people are establishing good habits out of necessity - plus it's encouraging that some folks are doing well.

And the headline ("What Sells in a Recession: Canned Goods and Condoms") reflects that no matter how the economy is doing, sex sells.

Innovation Nation

A research firm released an "innovation heat map" last week - using a variety of factors to identify where new and exciting advances were taking place across several industries. Not surprisingly, Silicon Valley was the most innovative area of the United States. But somewhat troubling is they way innovation is tanking in some of our major cities: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and other industrial cities are simply not keeping up with the times.

Washington, D.C., with its culture of federal government and bureaucracy, isn't even on the radar for this - which is no surprise, and which is probably a big reason why the tech team that funtioned so freely and successfully on the Obama campaign is meeting so many challenges during the Obama Presidency.

Washington's premium on the status quo and aversion to innovation will taint any aid failing industrial cities receive - and worse, will prolong those cities' economic woes.

Since it's March, imagine a young basketball player with bad shooting habits. The only way that player will get better is if he changes his or her shooting motion to adapt to the game. The federal government solution might be to replace basketball rims with hula hoops or lower backboards, but none of these will actually make the shooter better - and eventually, he or she will get to a level where the rules can't be changed.

(By the way, this is not some sort of clever metaphor for why the Washington Wizards and Georgetown Hoyas suck this year.)

Girl Scouts 2.0

The Girl Scouts understand two concepts which have escaped the people at the controls of the economy: supply and demand.

The Girl Scouts of America have announced sweeping changes in order to boost membership. Recognizing that this isn't 1955 anymore, the concepts of campfire sing-a-longs, sewing and cooking, and even merit badges are being replaced by video conferences, financial responsibility training, and a leadership development curriculum. With more girls socializing online, blogs and online networks are emphasized (which gives the Girl Scouts a chance to teach about online safety, too).

Breathe easy, those peanut-butter-and-chocolate cookies aren't going anywhere.

Of course it's sad when traditions are phased out, but the Girl Scouts are reacting to the reality of dwindling membership - the organization was forced to change to meet the needs and demands of today. By clinging to those traditions, the Girl Scouts could serve nostalgia-seekers, but not the young girls who need them - and they would slowly die out.

Any industry seeking a bailout should heed the example of the Girl Scouts. And if the parallels aren't readily clear, maybe they could go door to door selling thin mints for a week or so - apparently, you can pick up pretty sound economic lessons that way.

"I should be able to get some sort of job..."

Our nation's newspaper of record, the New York Post, today chronicled the lifestyle of Christopher Poole. Poole runs 4chan, which is one of the most active web sites, but lives with his Mom and is about $20,000 in debt.

Poole's story is markedly different from other computer wunderkinds - like Bill Gates - who dropped out of college to devote time to digital endeavors, and it's reflexive of different times. Gates, Steve Jobs, and other innovators of the late 1970s and early 1980s used their own creative abilities to invent or build products that were commodities - software, computers, etc. - that could be bought and sold. These commodities became high in demand and served as the cornerstones of a revolution in computing, making the innovators rich.

Poole is successful on today's internet because he built a successful forum that harnessed the creativity and imagination of its users; 4chan originated as a site about Japanese animation and evolved to serve a specific and active niche audience. And unfortunately for Poole, use of his product is free. It is also a bastion of free expression, meaning advertisers are loathe to be associated with the site's often inappropriate content.

That Poole has had trouble parlaying his online success into offline profits speaks to the need for any individual to devote attention to his or her personal brand. Clearly, Poole is an expert at something, or has certain experiences no one else has. He could bill himself as an authority on running a website, creating an open forum, managing a product that takes on a life of its own, or even Japanese animation - or possibly all of the above.

Not to mention his whole situation could be a book in an of itself.

Novel concepts from the 30s

Mashable mentioned an interesting trend yesterday: businesses are building blogs that are focused on their area of expertise, but not necessarily on their products. The idea is simple: by building a media outlet that interests their target demographic, businesses hope to lure more customers.

As the post notes, some journalists would argue that private companies are not credible sources. You can probably find these journalists' stories on the pages of your favorite newspaper - right next to the ads that fund those pages. Mass media has always relied on sponsorship - entertainment or information nestled around product pitches. Why take offense when the same thing happens on the internet that happened on the DuMont network in the 50s?

From the companies' perspective, using online media makes perfect sense. There are few better ways to extend your brand - for instance, Whole Foods runs a blog about food and recipes to help establish itself as an expert in groceries. And it's cheap to do - all the company really needs is the mental discipline to update a blog daily.

With ventures like this cheaper, easier, and more effective than traditional advertising, you can see why advertising revenues are declining. It's another way the business community will have to adapt to a changing world.

Waking up about Wal-Mart

Bruce Springsteen's Super Bowl halftime appearance came as he apologized for a promotional deal he signed with Wal-Mart to promote his greatest hits album. Springsteen feels Wal-Mart doesn't treat its employees well.

First off, where does someone nicknamed "The Boss" get off talking about employee conditions? The boss never knows what's really going on.

Second, there are some people Springsteen should talk to before chiding the working conditions at Wal-Mart. The first is Jason Furman, a key economic advisor to President Obama, who wrote a paper calling Wal-Mart "A Progressive Success Story" for providing low-income workers with affordable goods.

The other is Charles Platt, a blogger who gave an insider's account of life behind the smiley face as an actual Wal-Mart employee. I think it's been a while since Springsteen found himself inside a Wal-Mart, so I'll take Platt's word on what the working conditions are like.

Most of the criticisms about Wal-Mart come from unions - who would love to siphon off union dues from the paychecks of Wal-Mart's millions of employees. The bad news for them is that Wal-Mart and its employees have a good thing going - even if the Boss doesn't know it.

The choice of a new generation?

Sure, Congressional Democrats continues to work on a giant spending bill even with the economy in the doldrums. But luckily, President Obama seems to have instituted his own stimulus plan to help our struggling businesses create more jobs - companies like Pepsi are capitalizing on the themes of the Obama campaign to move more of their own project.

As this Metro billboard suggests, Pepsi has adopted the mantra of hope and change. It's more appropriate than they know - Pepsi has been claiming to be the "choice of a new generation" for decades - probably long enough to be the choice of the next generation that came along after the original new generation. It's a message based more on positioning a brand than on any kind of substance.

T-shirts: saving the internet?

There is money to be made in online content - just not by making online content. So writes Wired.com's Clive Thompson, who observes that through the use of do-it-yourself sites like Cafepress, people who make web comics or online video series can monetize their art without charging a subscription fee. (Which is good because, by and large, subscriptions don't work so well.)

In other words, making money online follows the same concept as any other activity online: you have to think a bit resourcefully and differently.

Yahoo! CEO! Steps! Down!

Jerry Yang announced he is stepping down as CEO of Yahoo! today. Yang's year-and-a-half long tenure as CEO was marked by him railing against a Microsoft takeover and failing to complete an advertising agreement with Google that probably would have been blocked by the Justice Department anyway.

Yang understood what his company isn't: it isn't an arm of Microsoft, the Gibralter of computing that makes up for its lack of innovation with its largess. Though he did express some willingness to negotiate, surely Yang's heart had something to do with his resistance. As the first search engine to acheive mainstream appeal and recognition back in the late 1990s, perhaps Yang felt it would be unfair for the once-cutting-edge Yahoo! to be swallowed by Microsoft's corporate establishment.

The problem is that Yang can't answer what his company is - and, more importantly in the online world, what it will be. Google fills so many niches in the online world, how does Yahoo! compete? Yang saw this and attempted an ill-fated search advertising deal that, in the end, went nowhere. Clearly, Yang loves Yahoo!, but the company - whose stock price has fallen from a 2008 high of jsut over $30 per share to a low of just over $10 per share - clearly needs a direction and vision.

Hopefully for Yahoo!, Yang's replacement will match his passion for the company with a vision for how it fits into the modern web world.

Content is king

Radiohead's last album, In Rainbows, went triple platinum and made more money than their previous album. This is big because they "sold" their album online before its official release - and set their price at "whatever you'd like to pay."

This is a good thing to pay attention to if you're a creator of content. Now more than ever, you have to produce quality to break through the noise that comes from consumers having so many media options and choices. But Radiohead also demonstrates that if your product is good, the money will follow.

Coming soon: SNL joins the 21st Century

This weekend, my brother and I were remembering of our favorite SNL sketches. I wanted to watch it, so I dialed up Hulu, the free video site that includes content from NBC. Nothing. I had to go to Google Video to find "Sabra Price is Right."

Funny enough, Mashable today reports that a new SNL website is in the works. The site would feature (legally uploaded) clips to watch.

Lorne Michaels and company are apparently still working out a revenue model for the site - which means they view this as a separate business venture from their TV show. But beyond their recent election-related ratings boost, SNL has spent the past few seasons struggling to find the relevance it once had as a source of cutting-edge comedy.

What better way to create a buzz and excitement about the show than to release their sketches online for the viral email-forwarding crowd? And what better way to track which three minute sketches (buried in a 90-minute show) generate audience reaction? To be on the cutting edge of comedy, SNL must join the cutting edge of technology (beyond Andy Samberg's Digital Shorts).

Entertainment 2.0

I just found this article about an online variety show to promote the band Tally Hall. Warner Brothers’ offbeat promotion is an attempt to match modern media and the spirit of the Monkees. And good for them, because it seems like in today’s media environment, the bigger the company or cause is, the less likely they are to try new marketing and – more importantly – revenue models.

During my college days around the turn of the century, music downloads took off, and record companies attacked Napster. They should have realized that the black market sprang up because of some important consumer trends: sometimes people wanted to buy singles, rather than 13-song albums, and they wanted their media digitally. This was a new revenue model and a new market that iTunes eventually capitalized on; and now legal music downloading and internet radio sites exist. How badly do you think Sony, Universal, and other major labels wish they had thought of a download-based business model ten years ago?

The trend is starting to continue to video. Studios and television networks are quick to scour YouTube and pull unauthorized copies; anyone who has tried to share a Saturday Night Live sketch on Monday afternoon can attest to this. But now NBC and other networks and studios have been delivering web content though their own sites and through other sites like Hulu.

The beauty of capitalism is that factors such as the delivery of goods and services are ultimately dictated by the customer. Smart companies analyze those trends and find ways to take advantage of them.