Steve Ballmer, Economist

The wizard of Microsoft (whose performance as CEO has included such stunning successes as the former operating system Vista and the non-selling music player the Zune) offered commentary on the state of the economy. Ballmer compared the economy of 2008-9 to the downturns in 1839, 1873 and 1929. ""This is a once-in-a-lifetime economic crisis," said Ballmer, " (whose stock price based on total return has offered investors -46.6% for one year, -36.4% for three years and -26.9% for five years. That compares to -33.4% for one year, +19.4% for three years and +699% for five years for Apple.) It is interesting that not one member of his audience wondered with a record like that whether he could offer any insight on economic matters.

"In my view, what we now have will be a fundamental economic reset," he said. "The economy is going to have to re-establish itself at a level of spending that reflects the real value of underlying assets before we can all start growing again at a healthy rate." (Gee, thanks Steve. You done so well as understanding what consumers want and how to price your products, your advice will certainly be helpful to the democrats in the House, who actually solicited your comments.) One wonders whether the up to $20 million bonus structure that was announced for Ballmer in September continues to apply.

"PC sales (are) discretionary in most home budgets, the second, the third PC," (That has certainly been true about computers with the Microsoft operating system as well as phones with Mobile MSFT - consumers seem to increasingly be making the choices to move away from that platform.)

Ballmer distinguished between the effects of public debt and private debt. He described this as "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to think about our priorities again and make the investments that put us on the right foot." (from the press story on CNET it is not clear whether Ballmer was talking about his company or the country.)