I spent the last two weeks freelancing in Boston on two shows the first at a Health care show at the Four Seasons Hotel and then at a the Intercontinental Hotel with Bank of America.

The Health care show was by Thomas Weisel Partners group ( the Forrester of Health care) and they had money to burn. The Show was very well done, organized and the AV support group I worked with was hi end or at least their drapery was. The speakers gave presentations about how well they are doing but many presentations included mentioning hundreds of millions in debt as if this was a good thing? I also wondered why none of the presenters seemed concerned that Health care is in the process of being overhauled.

Maybe they were being cocky, but they didn’t seem to think the reality of health care reform was genuine. I think I heard one mention Obama in 20 presentations. Also I have come to learn that you can leverage your million dollar debt to get more money, yes you heard that right. If you are millions in debt you can get loans to pay down that debt. Go figure and I thought carrying a 200.00 credit debt was risky.

The Second Show was for Mid Cap companies that showcased their performance for Bank of America and their investors. I was again surprised to hear about debt on the books in the Millions. There were companies that drill oil that were making money of course, why wouldn’t they? What about the lesser need for oil and gasoline as more hybrids, and EV’s hit the highways? What them worry? I just didn’t see any anticipation that anything is changing really. Debt is debt, we need oil so we drill for it and we will always need it.

Back in the 70’s we should have weened ourselves off oil imports and started making EV cars then. We didn’t do it then …. It seems to me that the companies with all the money also have all the debt, and if they need to pay their debt off we all lose. I am no financial analyst mind you but common sense tells me this economy hasn’t hit rock bottom yet.