[This commentary was published in The Salt Lake Tribune on February 17, 2011. It remembers the work ethic and fortitude of NBA hopeful Jerry Sloan in 1966, as seen through the eyes of a twelve year-old.] Thousands of men across America have had to make peace with their demon. With a little better luck or […]
Maryland’s Gambling Governors—lies, damned lies, and statistics [Published in Baltimore Citybizlist.com on November 1, 2010. See http://baltimore.citybizlist.com/1/2010/10/30/Maryland%E2%80%99s-Gambling-Governors%E2%80%94Lies-Damned-Lies-and-Statistics.aspx#] By Douglas M. Schmidt Years from today, if Marylanders are asked to cite Governor Martin O’Malley’s greatest achievement while in office, the first answer will be, “He was the governor who gave us slots.” The Governor’s ego and […]
Another promising Baltimore youngster has lost his life to violence; what are we going to do about it? [Published in The Baltimore Sun on July 20, 2010. See www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-crowder-20100720,0,307036.story] By Douglas M. Schmidt 5:17 PM EDT, July 20, 2010 John Crowder, playing for Our Lady of Mt. Carmel High School, was a special and feared […]
[This is the third commentary based on public filings concerning the proposed merger of The Stanley Works and Black & Decker Corporation as well as other publicly available information on the two companies.] When I first learned of the sale of Black & Decker Corporation (NYSE: BDK) to The Stanley Works (NYSE:SWK) in November of […]
The Death of Black & Decker [This commentary is based on public filings concerning the proposed merger of The Stanley Works and Black & Decker Corporation as well as other publicly available information on the two companies. It was first published by Citybizlist.com on December 18, 2009. A companion piece to this commentary entitled “Black […]
Black & Decker: How Our System Rewards Failure Black & Decker Corporation (NYSE: BDK), based in the Baltimore suburb of Towson, announced in early November that it was merging with The Stanley Works (NYSE:SWK) based in Connecticut. As per the usual script, this “merger” was hailed as a great step forward for Black & Decker. […]
Investment Bankers as Heroic Figures. You may have heard recently that the BBC Radio has produced a fictionalized dramatic account of the attempt to save Lehman Brothers with top actors playing former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Lehman CEO Richard Fuld. I had to laugh on several levels. I was a junior officer at Drexel […]