THE ENTERPRISE--FROM THE INFORMATIONAL TO THE OUTRAGEOUS
There will be some sections of this edition designed to get readers upset. Let's see if it works.
TO THOSE WHO WONDER HOW CURRENT EVENTS AND POLITICS RELATE TO BUSINESS
Just look around at all the government agencies, laws and regulations you have to comply with. Then look at how current events affect consumers, the economy, our outlook, etc. It is all inter-related. The challenge is to understand how.
CBS NEWS & KATIE COURIC ARE LIKELY TO PART WAYS—HOORAY
Or at least that is what the WSJ headline said. One possible job being mentioned for the "perky" Ms. Couric is to replace the avuncular Larry King (age 74) when his contract expires in 2009. All I can say, is goodbye, good riddance to another "pretender" journalist.
DONOR MAKES READING "ATLAS SHRUGGED" A CONDITION OF LARGESSE—HOORAY
A large donor (17 universities, $1 million) made the gift with strings attached: That Ayn Rand's book "Atlas Shrugged" be required reading in a class on capitalism from a moral perspective.
SEVERAL SOURCES PREDICT COMMODITY PRICES SOFTENING--BUT NOT QUITE YET.
Gas was just under $3.50/gal. when I went to fill up today. Steel is outa sight. Copper is too--you can tell that when the thieves start stripping wiring out of houses to sell the copper. Wheat is way up, and so are many other food products, because out pandering politicians want to subsidize making Ethanol from corn (which doesn't use less energy, or pollute less than gasoline) so they can pound their chest with their farm constituents when they are up for reelection. Oil shouldn't be as high as it is. Neither should gold, platinum, etc. But all cycles overshoot before they settle back. Late this year, assuming this soggy demand continues, there will be less needed, and then prices will sag back to a lower (but probably not the previous level.) CONCLUSION: Put off taking price increases as long as possible and get yours through as fast as possible. It will be tough in the meanwhile.
STATE TAX REVENUES WILL DROP LIKE A ROCK--AND THAT AIN'T GOOD
This recession--if that is what we are in--will knock down state tax revenues by a bunch.
Real estate taxes will plummet--those many foreclosed homeowners, won't have any money left to pay their taxes either. Many states were reeling after the 2001 dip, and the same ones will go right back into deficits again. The solution, of course, is either raise taxes or cut services or both. Seventeen states are already working on this, and the others should be, if they're not. One notable example, "Ahnold's" state, "Culifornia", has a $16 billion budget shortfall and "Culifornians" are noted to dislike tax increases (don't we all?). There is no quick easy fix for this one, either--just like Social Security and Medicare--either pay more taxes or collect less benefits.
INDIA, CHINA AND RUSSIA ARE POISONING THEIR WATER—AND THEIR PEOPLE's FOOD
There is a huge rice shortage in India because many areas that were once rice paddies are now contaminated with pollution. Vietnam and Cambodia are affected too. Several of Russia's major rivers are "nearly dead" with little hope of recovery. China's water table is being drawn down at an alarming rate. While weather has been a factor, there seems to be agreement that pollution is the primary cause. Draw your own conclusions about what this says about these "low-cost-labor" societies--but it doesn't say anything good--and if you go there, "don't drink the water!"
MUSLIMS OUTNUMBER CATHOLICS NOW--WHAT NEXT?
The latest estimate from the Vatican is that Catholics now number about 17.4% of the world's population and that figure is dropping due to very low birth rates in heavily Catholic countries (like most of southern Europe). Muslim birth rates are high, and Muslims now number 19.2% of the earth's population. Mohammed is already the most popular boy's name for babies in several European countries, too. Once again, form your own conclusions, but I can assure you, the world we have known in our lifetime is not going to be the same in our children and grandchildren's lifetime.
HANGINGS, BEHEADINGS, ATROCITIES VS. ABU GHRAIB--ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
I guess I still can't get the relationship of how wrong some things are compared to others. Iraqi insurgents (or whatever you want to call them) can brutally behead prisoners on video, even if those prisoners did as little as report on what was going on over there (Like Daniel Pearl!). Contractors and soldiers can be murdered and hung from bridges or have their bodies dragged through the streets as a demonstration by the insurgents. But if the good old USA "abuses" some of the prisoners captured and involved in these atrocities--oh, my--is that awful--at least according to some BHL's (see below for def.).
IT'S HARD TO KEEP YOUR PERSPECTIVE AFTER WATCHING BEHEADINGS ON TV AND IEDS BLOWING UP YOUR FELLOW SOLDIERS.
Why those awful soldiers taunted them, stripped and embarrassed them, and even threatened to torture them. How awful--NOT. I am not sure how prisoners captured in the process of mass murder and atrocities should be treated. Perhaps we should feed them 3 meals a day, let them watch all the al Jazeera TV they want and bring in the local Iraqi newspapers so they have something to read with their coffee and breakfast. Are you kidding me?
American soldiers didn't behead or dismember any of them--at least not that I know about--and if they had, the (BHLs) bleeding heart liberals who are wringing their hands over the Abu Grhaib atrocities would surely have fed it to Keith Olberman's ridiculous rant on CNN. The soldiers may have been a bit too rough with prisoners, but when people are trying to blow you up, behead and/or dismember you, I think you have a right to get upset about it--and maybe even lose perspective for a little while. Read one of Vince Flynn's novels and then ask "What would Mitch Rapp do?"
WHOOPS, I FORGOT--EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS IS SOMEHOW GEORGE BUSH'S FAULT
I wonder what the people who blame everything on Bush will do once he's out of office. I guess they can still blame him until his successor either makes things better--or worse--or until the miscreants in control of Congress screw it up so bad, that it doesn't matter who's in the White House. Wait, here's one case of a business screw-up that is probably not Bush's fault, or the fault of Congress either.
HOW PROMOTIONS BACKFIRE--CREATE COMPLEXITY--AND DISINCENTIVES
I just received, on consecutive days, two pieces of mail from Discover Card. Here's how they added complexity to my life. This happens to be one of my older credit cards, and I have used the number so often, that I recall it by memory--thus I use it even more often (no need to look in my wallet.) I also use it on Internet purchases, because I "know it by memory." One small problem: as Discover reissued by card (the old one was expiring), the number was changed. The net effect will be that I will have to update not only the expiration date, but the entire credit card number on many Internet accounts. That's probably good for security, but it's bad for Discover Card, and here's why. I won't use it as my "default" credit card any more, because I no longer know the number by memory.
The other piece of mail boldly announced 5% Cashback bonus--but with one of those asterisks that means I'd better read the fine print. The fine print says that the 5% only applies until I spend $400--but on what? Well, that is another bit of complexity. From April to the end of June it is only in Home Improvements, Lawn & Garden, Department Stores and Clothing Stores. If you've been shopping lately, you know that $400 will go fast--IF I can recall which stores it accrues in and which ones it doesn't--and in which months. Then from July to Sept., which is vacation season, it applies to Gas and Hotels. IF I can recall that, the first couple of nights at a mid-level hotel in most American cities will also use up the $400.
But who is going to remember all that. Grab this card and use it in this time frame, at these kind of stores, but only up to this amount of purchases. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Even a penny-pinching, detail hog like me won't remember all that. That means those creative marketing types will get a bunch of the headline readers who take the flyers at face value and many will never know that they got screwed because they didn't read the fine print. So what?
HERE'S WHAT!
AMERICANS ARE SICK AND TIRED OF BEING LIED TO...BY PROMOTERS OR BY POLITICIANS...
Lots of people already hate Bush, and call him a liar. Maybe he is, maybe not. But Hillary Clinton is certainly a blatant liar--see if on YouTube. There is no other way to say it. "She didn't "misspoke, or made a misstatement." That's so much B.S. She made up stories--not one, but lots of them--and they were lies. Now some readers may still favor her, but I have to ask why. They may retort that Bush lied about Iraq and WMD, but even that doesn't wash. First, he may or may not have lied--even if the CIA, Tenet, Cheney and/or Rumsfeld lied to him. But that doesn't matter either. The fact that one person is a liar does not justify that another should be able to lie too.
OBAMA REMAINS "UNAPPREHENDED"...SO FAR, ANYWAY
There is also an article circulating on the Internet claiming that Obama lied in a Selma speech, talking about something "Kennedy" did that influenced his parents, when the dates make that impossible. That so called "say what?" article about Obama is not so clearly a lie, as Hillary's "sniper fire" story and some of her claimed "peace initiatives." Bottom line, Hillary lies. Obama carefully manages the truth to serve his purpose (IF you believe his statement that he never heard any of those inflammatory sermons by his Pastor Wright.)
SOONER OR LATER, THEY ALL SCREW UP
Let's be honest. Any politician that stumps for years is going to occasionally say something that they "got wrong." I don't care which party, or for which office. Before Nov. they'll find something McCain said too, that wasn't right or true, etc.--they probably already have. However, like Al Gore in his 2000 campaign, Hillary seems to prefer making up stories that place her in the most heroic and favorable light. She just needs to make sure there were no witnesses with video cameras in the future.
"Does a tree falling in the forest make a sound if there is no one to hear it?" "Does a lie being told when there are no witnesses to contradict it become the truth?" I don't think so (in either case); the tree makes a sound, and a lie is a lie--not a "misspoke" or a "misstatement."
I'M SORRY--I JUST HAVE TO GET THIS STUFF OUT OF MY CRAW ONCE IN A WHILE.
I'll go back to being (more) civil next week. Meanwhile, if you feel the same way, email me and tell me so. If you don't, just delete this edition ... and keep on believing whatever you want to believe--I will.
Best, John
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