News Roundup: Intel Hits More Turbulence, Texas’ Rise, Amy “Shutdown Ohio” Acton Wants To Be Governor, and Clips from Guest Hosting The Bruce Hooley Show
The only interesting thing about Acton running would be facing off against fellow shutdown zealot Husted. Maybe they can run together as a unity ticket:-)
Intel’s Recovery Hits Even More Turbulence
As noted by a top analyst in the Kiplinger article “Intel Braces for an Even Tougher Road Ahead":
The problem was summed up by Morningstar analyst Brian Colello in a recent post:
Even though Intel is doing the proper work to focus on leading-edge chip manufacturing, it appears that many of its customers in various end markets might be leaving Intel behind. The frenzied AI investment from Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and others took off faster and will last longer than Intel and others expected. Intel was already losing market share in traditional data center chips. Now the AI boom has crowded out Intel even more, and there’s little sign that will change, as Nvidia’s must-have AI chips continue to gain steam.
Most ominously for Ohio was this blurb:
This isn’t the last shoe to drop at Intel. The current round of cost-cutting affects all divisions, but it’s likely that Intel will have to make harder choices, including potentially dropping bigger projects. CEO Gelsinger likens this recent decision, and the overall Intel turnaround plan, to the company’s painful decision to exit the memory chip business 40 years ago. Amid unrelenting competition, the hefty cost cuts risk axing R&D projects that might yield the next big thing for Intel.
If that news wasn’t bad enough, Intel shareholders have sued the “chipmaker after job, dividend cuts cause stock plunge.” Shareholders allege the "chipmaker fraudulently concealed problems that led it to post weak results, slash jobs and suspend its dividend, and caused its market value to sink more than $32 billion in a single day. The proposed class action against Intel, Chief Executive Patrick Gelsinger and Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner was filed in San Francisco federal court.”
The only "saving graces” for Intel just might be the threat from China and its “too big to fail” status. See the Wall Street Journal article below on why Gelsinger’s genius just might be that he made Intel so dependent on taxpayers funds for his turnaround that the federal government, like it always does, might throw more good cash after the bad cash it already gave Intel.
Texas Continues to Rise
The real money is moving South and West. In just four years, the number of people working in finance in Texas has jumped 12.8%, with Texas attracting Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan. As the WSJ reported, Ross Perot, Jr., is working with Goldman Sachs to build a $500 million tower to contain over 5,000 bankers and investors in Dallas. Only New York City will possess more Goldman Sachs money people. Wells Fargo is nearly done building its two finance towers in Dallas. Charles Schwab similarly is building a finance building, as it is moving its headquarters from California to Dallas. Dallas now ranks second “among metro areas in the number of workers employed in finance.”
As I wrote about in "The Rise of Texas,”:
The rise of Texas isn’t just due to population and political power. As of 2023, Texas has become the top state for Fortune 500 companies with fifty-five. If not for the continual birth of public companies out of Silicon Valley, Texas would have eclipsed California as the top state for corporations years ago. In 2021, sixty-two companies relocated to Texas from other states. Tesla, of course, is the most famous Fortune 500 transplant. The Greater Houston Area has the second most (twenty-five) Fortune 500 companies, with the Greater Dallas Area in third place (twenty-four) and rising rapidly. Houston and Dallas each now have more Fortune 500 companies than all of Ohio.
In the two months since I wrote that column, Elon Musk announced he was moving both SpaceX and Twitter headquarters from California to Texas and Chevron decided to also leave California for Texas. Ohio politicians always love to claim that Ohio just can’t compete with a warm weather state like Texas, but they conveniently ignore that Texas’ summers are as hot as Ohio’s winters are cold. It’s not the weather. It is the policies that Texas enacts that Ohio policymakers refuse to adopt.
Amy “Shutdown Ohio” Acton Thinks Ohioans Have Very Short Memories
Remember Ohio health czar Amy Acton who partnered with Mike DeWine and Jon Husted to shutdown Ohio? Apparently, she told the media while attending the Democrat National Convention (DNC) that she is exploring a run for Ohio Governor in 2026. Acton had DeWine and Husted spellbound as she helped shutdown businesses and schools causing enormous damage from which we haven’t recovered; prevented relatives from seeing elderly or sick parents and kids, especially those dying alone in hospitals; stopped us from holding religious services with fellow believers; and even prohibited us from embracing each other at funerals.
Our kids’ educational attainment remains retarded because of the shutdown and many people died due to not getting preventative medicine or from suicide. Acton, DeWine, and Husted made Ohio one of the worst shutdown states, with a private sector recovery ranking of 37th in America. It is clear Acton thinks Ohioans who have twice voted for Donald Trump by 8% in 2016 and 2020 are too dumb to remember what she, DeWine, and Husted did to us. She’ll be in for a very rude awakening.
The only interesting thing about Acton running would be facing off against fellow shutdown zealot Husted. Maybe they can run together as a unity ticket:-)
In case you missed my guest hosting of The Bruce Hooley Show yesterday, here are the clips covering the hour segment.
Enjoy!!!