Last June, General Mills raised the price of its cereal, but decreased the size of the box, so that the price per box went down. Apparently, this confused some analysts. Here’s the transcript:

Analyst: So let me see if I understand this. The price of your cereal is going up?

General Mills Spokesperson: That’s correct.

Analyst: But the price per box is actually going down?

General Mills Spokesperson: Correct.

Analyst: So then how is the price going up?

General Mills Spokesperson: Because we’re making the box smaller.

Analyst: Ok, but you just said the price of each box is going to be less.

General Mills Spokesperson: Yes, that’s true.

Analyst: So then you’re actually lowering prices.

General Mills Spokesperson: No, we’re raising prices.

Analyst: How?

General Mills Spokesperson: Look, you’re an analyst, you work with numbers.

Analyst: Right. Ok. I got it.

General Mills Spokesperson: Next question.

Analyst: Uh, actually, I don’t get it. How can you raise the price by lowering the price?

General Mills Spokesperson: Because we’re decreasing the size of the box.

Analyst: Ok, but you’re charging less for each box.

General Mills Spokesperson: Yes. Because we’re decreasing the size.

Analyst: Ah, I get it. So then the price is really the same, you’re just making the box smaller which makes the price look lower.

General Mills Spokesperson: No, no, no! Listen. We’re raising the price of our cereal.

Analyst: But –

General Mills Spokesperson: Shut up! Now listen, we’re raising the price of our cereal.

Analyst: (Silence).

General Mills Spokesperson: Say it.

Analyst: We’re raising the price of our cereal.

General Mills Spokesperson: Good. We’re raising the price of our cereal… while simultaneously making the box smaller. Go on, say it.

Analyst: While simultaneously making the box smaller…

General Mills Spokesperson: But… and this is the important part… but we’re raising the price more than we’re decreasing the size of the box… go on…

Analyst: But we’re raising the price more than we’re decreasing the size of the box.

General Mills Spokesperson: So…

Analyst: So…

General Mills Spokesperson: That…

Analyst: That…

General Mills Spokesperson: Come on…

Analyst: Come –

General Mills Spokesperson: No, I mean, come on and follow the thought. So that…

Analyst: Oh. So that…

General Mills Spokesperson: The…

Analyst: The… price is lower?

General Mills Spokesperson: No! So that the customer…

Analyst: So that the customer…

General Mills Spokesperson: Will.

Analyst: Will.

General Mills Spokesperson: Oh good Lord. So that the customer will think the price has gone down when it’s really gone up!

Analyst: Oh.

General Mills Spokesperson: See? Price increase. Smaller box. Larger price increase than smaller box.

Analyst: Right. I still don’t get it.

General Mills Spokesperson: You know what? Just forget it.

Analyst: I’m going to have to downgrade your stock, you know.

General Mills Spokesperson: Good. Good. You do that.

Analyst: I will.

General Mills Spokesperson: I don’t even want you to rate our stock positive.

Analyst: Good, because I won’t.

General Mills Spokesperson: It would be an insult to the company for you to rate it positive.

See more analyst fun here.

Check out this story in The Sun (yeh, I know that it’s not the most credible source, but they have video). According to the story, fifty drunken santas ran amok in a cinema smashing stuff up and swearing at customers! The manager of the cinema is quoted as saying:

“As they ran through the complex they wrecked everything they could, the Christmas tree – they bowled everything over … (they were) just absolute fools.”

That’s the spirit of Christmas for you!

If you want to know why Ron Paul is the best candidate in the race today, just read “Pimp My Ride” by Tucker Carlson. Tucker spent a couple of days on the road with Ron, and liked what he saw.

So, it looks like Circuit City is going down the tubes. All I can say, is that it couldn’t happen to a better company. When I first saw the story earlier this year that Circuit City was firing higher paid employees to replace them with lower paid ones, I immediately stopped going there. It appears I wasn’t alone in making this choice. Now, Circuit City seems set to reap what it has sown. Good.

Ron Paul is the Cato of our time: a man who favors principles over political success. That alone is enough to give him my support. I could give a lot more reasons, though, but Andrew Sullivan has done it far more eloquently than I can in this post.

Cleveland has managed to keep winning. It was only 8-0, but the important thing was that they are still in the playoff hunt. Even better, Pittsburgh lost. So, Cleveland has a realistic chance of winning the division. For more on the win, see Bitter Fans.

Robert Scoble has a post on preparing for the coming recession in 2008. My take is that a recession has been likely since early in 2007, and it became inevitable with the credit crunch of late August, 2007. In any event, I think his advice is coming a little late. In particular, his suggestion to make sure that you are in the top 10% of employees to avoid a lay-off. If you aren’t in the top 10% already, I doubt you are capable of just turning it on now. The truth is, the people who are going to be ready for a coming recession are already prepared. Last minute changes of lifestyle aren’t going to be enough.

If you wonder where the economy is going in 2008, you can start here: Too Much Like 1929. It’s going to be a cruel year.

Articles like this one in the New York Times continue to make me nervous about where the food I eat is coming from. It’s like an Asian version of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. The real problem I face in avoiding food like this, though, is when I eat at cheap restaurants. The workers often have no idea where the food comes from, but you can be sure it is somewhere cheap. It’s almost enough to start making me bring lunch to work.

So, the Browns lost to Arizona. They should have tied the game on a last hail-mary, but the referees jobbed them. In the end, though, it was the turnovers that killed them. Since, it looks like the Bengals can’t beat the Steelers, the Browns will end up two games back in the division with four games to go. That’s not a good place to be. For more reaction see bitter fans