So, I was at the outlet mall here in Orlando tonight and I stumbled upon the Converse Factory Store. If you know me, you will know that I do now own a pair of Converse shoes. I do not have anything against them, just do not own a pair.

If you look closely at the history of the company, you can see some similarities of some major issues today. Foreshadowing?

Perhaps. The Converse shoes (or "Chucks") were widely popular in the 1950's and 60's. After that, the company hit some bumps along the way, because of the uprising of popularity of their competitors of Nike, Adidas and others. Finally, they were not known as the number one shoe used for basketball players. Reebok took that title.

I know you may be wondering "What is this guy getting at??" Ha. Hang tight. Almost there, a little bit more history. The company filed for bankruptcy on January 22, 2001. Their main factory which was in the United States closed, but they continued their production from the China, Indonesia and Italy factories. The company was bought by what was a competitor, Nike in 2003. The unique "converse" design looked the same, but some wearers of the shoes have complained about a change in the material the shoes were made with.

This is a little interesting scenario to show that things go through cycles. For instance, GM. What was an auto-giant was bailed out of bankruptcy by the Government. Does this mean that the company is going to be run by the Government? Changes in their line-up and design of automobiles? Well...according to the Governmental Administration, they "say" no, but I have said it many-MANY times, they have no intention of letting go. When they see how much funding and control they can get out of it, they will just pass excuses as to why they can't get out now. I also predict there will be a major change in their automobile design. I can kiss my little dream of owning a GMC Sierra out the window. The quality will more than likely be not up to the standards the old GM had.

If you look at the Presidents of the past, you will see that it goes through cycles. Conservative...then Liberal. Big Government back to Small Government. I would say it typically helps the general consensus to have that cycle in Governmental leadership, but I think there are limits. This current monsoon is out of control. By far. We have reached a 1-Trillion dollar deficit. That is something that is going to take years to get under control.

Look at the weather cycles. Some would say that "Gobal Warming is real! Go GREEN!" Calm down. If you look at the history of the weather, it goes through cycles, it takes about 100 years for a cycle to complete, in that you will see that it gets warmer...then cooler. It is all part of how God created the universe to function. Just as our bodies have the ability to take care of themselves when we get an injury, He has created the world with the same type of system. For goodness sake. It is mother nature! She is capable of making the most beautiful plants. She is a big girl. She can take care of herself.

Thanks for reading.

-Ken

Labels: bankrupcy, converse, cycles, foreshadowing, global warming, gmail, God, government, history, leaders, mall, Obama, presidents, rant, shopping, trends, universe