As I was cleaning out files the other day, I got to wondering if folks around the country are cleaning out their files like I am right now. A long-time friend of mine in the consulting business is reducing her number of offices from 7 to 3 and was cleaning out files over the past couple of weeks. My wife and I recently witnessed a miracle; the sale of our Scottsdale home. In downsizing, we are cleaning out files, too. It is happening everywhere in America, I suspect. It would interesting to see if the recycling centers around the country are seeing a surge in paper.

During the course of the day, I will often print out articles I read with every intention of writing a blog later. This blog is my file cleaning post with only the bare essential pearls for each of the items on which I would have written paragraphs…

“Online Personal Finance Traffic Soars” netbanker 2/9/09 Wesabe, Mint, Geezo and others are seeing volume soar. The implication is that everyone wants to more tightly manage their finances in this tight economy. Well, everyone wants to control their waistlines in this obese society, too. How many times can you look at the aggregated totals of your dwindling bank accounts before you flip over to Facebook and start looking at pretty faces? About as many times as you get on the treadmill after the New Year.

“Slate Throws Apple a $100 B idea, suggests bank” The Unofficial Apple Weblog 1/23/09 Kim Bardeesy of Slate Magazine suggested that with its trusted and respected brand name, Apple should consider getting into the banking business. They have cash to lend, after-all. Apple has better ways to invest available cash than lending it out to folks at measly margins with major downside risk. There is a reason that banks trade at much lower earnings multiples than technology companies. It’s because the return on capital is a lot higher when you have creative products consumers want and don’t expect to get for free. Until Apple runs out of ideas, they ought to stick to what they’re good at. People think banking is easy. Are they not reading the business sections?

“Mobile NFC Payment Services; The Collaborative Forum” Hard to tell exactly who is hosting this, but the brochure about this April 28-29 event in London states “Finally!..join key players in the Mobile NFC Payments arena…with a single goal…..to break down barriers and make real progress towards agreeing on models and timescales for commercialization”. Maybe they should invite some consumers since their lack of enthusiasm and interest are the biggest “barriers” to “commercialization”. Standards don’t drive adoption. Adoption drives standards.

My recycling bin is full. Now for the cobwebs in my head.