THE ENTERPRISE--Why is it so obvious to some and not to others?
GIVE THE UAW (& GM) A GUN AND THEY WILL SHOOT EACH OTHER (OR THEIR OWN FEET)
The Chevy Malibu and Buick Enclave are two of the most praised vehicles of this year. Handsome, functional, good quality at decent prices. Both are (or were) made by GM--until the fools in the UAW shut down both GM and suppliers' plants. I don't know all of the details, or even whether it is the UAWs fault or GM's fault. But, 43 years of marriage has taught me one thing: it takes two to have a fight. That means they are both to blame. After Bob Lutz heroic efforts to get GM to design and build great cars, these idiots screw it up. Neither Lou Dobbs' rants nor the Democratic hopefuls can overcome that kind of stupidity costing American workers jobs.
DEMOCRAT CONTROL OF THE NLRB = DEVASTATION TO AMERICAN WORKERS
Worse yet, a big part of the coming Democratic influence will be to take away to right to a secret ballot in a Union election, which opens the door to decades old tactics--coercion, intimidation, etc. This effort started 12 years ago, and fell short then. Now the Congressional Democrats--in spots bought and paid for by organized labor--are taking another run at going back to days of "mob rule" of union elections. If they can pass the law they want, the simple act of signing union "interest" cards, under intense pressure, scrutiny, coercion and threats (the company can't threaten, but Union organizers can), will designate a union to take over and represent workers in a non-union plant. No secret ballot election. No election at all. That's the surest way to send those jobs down the street (to a more efficient, more cost competitive non-union plant ... or more likely across border ... or across the ocean. And the fools don't see it (I meant the politicians). The unions know exactly what they are doing. The workers fear for their future, and pay in the process. 2 hours of each employees pay goes to pad the comfy lifestyle of the union bosses, and support for their political "servants." Prediction: if that happens, a massive job loss disaster will follow in a few years, followed by more cries for protectionism and all the rest. Watch and weep--or vote and stop it.
JACK WELCH WOULDN'T BE SO "GOLDEN" THESE DAYS
With the accounting regulations in effect post-Enron, the old days of manipulating earnings quarter to quarter to always match the estimates given Wall Street are long gone. Jack Welch wouldn't have looked so invincible in this environment. He'd have ranted and raved and fired people but he couldn't have hoarded the money and manipulated the transactions like he did during his "flawless" run of always making GE's earning estimates. Jack shot off his mouth this time, too. He realized that he should have shut up as soon as he blurted out his ill-advised statements. Now he need to keep his opinions to himself--and if he's as smart as I think he is, he will.
SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ARE VIRAL ... OR CANCEROUS
I got a couple more of these messages this past week. It looked like emails from people I knew, asking me to sign up on yet another site. Except if you looked close, when you hit "reply," the reply didn't go to them. It went to the social network's site, along with an unknown number of addresses from your email address book, who would get similar bogus messages. What a scam. Now there are concerns about how to protect kids who populate MySpace and FaceBook from sexual predators. You can't, unless you can convince them that these sites are incredibly dangerous and to stay off them. Tough duty. But once you give them your info, your picture, etc., there's no way to take them back. No way to erase them. They are "out there" for anyone to see, find and misuse.
THE PLAGUE--21ST CENTURY VERSION
Isn't YouTube wonderful, I get asked. That always makes me pause, before I say, "I don't think so." With the ubiquitous cell phone cameras, an instant of foolishness or indiscretion can be captured and shipped off to YouTube to be immortalized forever. And there isn't a damn thing you can do once it's out there. If this doesn't concern you, IT SHOULD. Treat these sites like the viral, cancerous, diseases they are. Anything that makes "personal networking" so "impersonal and dangerous" should be avoided like the plague. It's no wonder that two of newer porn sites are named after parts of YouTube: YouPorn and PornTube. What next? Access in the schools?
STALLED DEALS ABOUND--WHAT TO DO?
There are many deals that were negotiated last year in the 3Q or 4Q that are now stalled or falling apart. The characteristics are almost all similar. Sales drop off in Dec., Jan., Feb., etc. and the buyer has second thoughts about the price--and tries to renegotiate. The seller, thinking it was deal resists. Then the buyer discovers that his financing is also changing. The lender will no longer extend financing at as high a multiple of earnings, thus requiring the buyer to put in more equity to do the deal. That is what usually stops--or kills--the deal. Earnings are lower making the price look too high, equity requirements are higher making the buyer'e leverage lower, and the financing terms are much more restrictive. it's happening all over the place.
Some deals are getting done, but only those where the sales and earnings are still growing. Bottom line: if you are in the middle of being bought/sold, don't stop running the business. The best thing you can do is run the company well, and make the numbers better--more sales, more profits, less working capital required, and so forth. Then, whether the deal gets done or not, you have a better, stronger company.
CAUSE & EFFECT? --PART 1
Remember the election in 2006? Everyone was blaming George Bush and the Republican controlled Congress for all of our problems. After all, little over one year ago:
1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2) Oil prices were "moderate" at about $60/bbl.and regular gasoline sold for $2.20 a gallon;
3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.
Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:
1) Consumer confidence plummet;
2) Oil is at $120/bbl., the cost of regular gasoline is up to almost $4 a gallon;
3) Unemployment has gone up;
4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses) and their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars;
5) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
After years of "blaming it on Bush," Americans voted for change in 2006, and we got it! God forbid American voters do it again in 2008. No telling how bad things could get with the wrong person/party in the White House as well as in Congress. Remember it's Congress that makes laws—not the President. He has to work with what's handed to him. Soon we'll get to decide on this again. I hope we do something smarter.
QUOTE OF THE DAY OR A FRIGHTENING PROMISE
"My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it.' -- Barack Obama (But in what direction, Barack?)
CAUSE AND EFFECT?--PART 2:
You think the war in Iraq is costing us too much? We have been hammered with the information that the Iraq war and the war on terror is bankrupting America. The cost of the Iraq War has been high, but compared to surrendering to Islamic Terrorists, that cost doesn't seem all that high. War is costly; the alternatives might be far more costly. But that isn't the point here.
Our government wastes American taxpayers money many ways, some of them far more foolish than war against Islamic radicals. Consider the cost of not managing our own borders and Immigration; letting illegal immigrants flood into our country. The consider the plans of certain candidates (like Obama) to "take are of them all." Here's a taste of what that costs now (with sites where you can verity it). Who knows what those costs will be from here on if no action is taken.
$11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments.
Verify at: <http://tinyurl.com/zob77>http://tinyurl.com/zob77
$2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
Verify at: <http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html>http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
$2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens;
Verify at: <http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html>http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
$12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally--and they cannot speak a word of English!
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html
$17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as "anchor babies."
Verify at <http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01%0d%0a/ldt.01.html>http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
$3 Million Dollars a DAY ($1 Billion per year) is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
$90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.
Verify at: <http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/061%0d%0a0/29/ldt.01.html>http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html
The illegal aliens U. S. crime rate is two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html
WOW--I never thought I'd be citing Lou Dobbs/CNN twice in the same issue of THE ENTERPRISE. I guess that's the price for being "fair and balanced." The total "direct" cost due to illegal immigrants is estimated to be over $ 100 BILLION DOLLARS EVERY YEAR--NOW--and that doesn't consider job loss effects, wage compression, etc.
Maybe the War in Iraq isn't the only thing that's costing us too much. What to do in Iraq is complicated by the fact that we can't get the Iraqi government to 'get its act together' and pass the right laws--and then enforce them. I've got news for you. We get socked with this $100 Billion plus tax bill because we can't get the American government to 'get its act together' and pass the right laws--and then enforce them. Maybe we should start by fixing our own problems, and saving a lot of taxpayers money here at home. John McCain gets this (finally).
Unfortunately our Congress can't agree on much these days, and the President disagrees with what they do send to him. Our system of checks and balances is working--but in some cases--creating gridlock. The partisan polarization has overcome the old method of reaching compromises and consensus on solutions.
TALK IS EASY--ACTION IS HARDER--SUCCESS IS HARDER YET
Obama talks a good game, but during his brief tenure in Washington was the most liberal, left-voting member of the Senate. And his idea of seeking compromise was to "talk about it." John McCain did it--to the chagrin of more conservative parts of the GOP, but he realized that adversary gridlock did no good. We change all right. We need different people and a different party in control of Congress, but the prospects of getting there are not so good. That's why we need someone in the White House who understands how to bring about positive compromise in the White House (the current occupant certainly doesn't). And lofty words don't get it done. Some old fashioned "horse trading," built on integrity, determination and courage (not hubris) might.
WE NEED TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT LEADERSHIP--DECISIVE & COURAGEOUS
We can only hope that the next President we elect is one that has a proven track record of bringing Congress together on issues, and reaching some kind of agreement --even if it is a compromise--to improve America. One of the candidates has that kind of record (John McCain). Often, such compromises don't please everyone, and thus many of them criticize the outcome--and McCain. But at least they guy is taking on the tough issues and trying to make progress.
The other candidate just talks about what he'd do, but his record shows that in fact, he's done nothing of the sort during his tenure in Congress. In fact, Barack Obama's been conveniently absent when tough issues have to be voted on. That's one way to make sure you never get caught voting the wrong way, or making any really tough calls--just abdicate the responsibility. If that's the kind of change he plans for America--count me out. And Hillary--her hopes now are to build herself a new power base to run in 2012.
NO DECISION IS ALSO A DECISION--USUALLY THE WRONG ONE
As I finished writing the preceding paragraphs, I realized that the choice to "be absent" or to "not decide" is a popular refuge of those who are inexperienced, under-qualified and lack the conviction to take decisive positions in unpopular matters. As I wrote this, my mind was dwelling on business settings—not politics. A common situation, one that I still encounter today, is procrastination in important decision-making. In business it almost always costs money in the form of lost profits or unrealized savings. In government, I fear the costs can be far greater than "mere money" and could be loss of life, grave damage to the country, or merely a legacy of indecision. With this cautionary reflection, I'll close with these words: (Sent to me and attributed to Abe Lincoln, but that is unverified--although they are in keeping with Abe's beliefs.)
IT'S SO OBVIOUS TO SOME--BUT NOT TO OTHERS
A story told to me:
One of my friend's daughters told me that she wanted to be President one day.
Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there with us and I asked Catherine - 'If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?'
Catherine replied - 'I would give houses to all the homeless people. Then they would have a place of their own to live'
'Wow - what a worthy goal you have there, Catherine.' I told her, 'But you know, you don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and clean up all the dog poop in the back yard and I will pay you $5. Then we can go over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out and you can give him the $5 to use for a new house.'
Catherine (who was about 4) thought that over for a second, while her mom looked at me, seething. Then Catherine replied, 'Well, why doesn't the homeless guy come over and clean up the dog poop and you can pay HIM the $5 ?'
Yes, it's SO obvious, even to a four-year-old, but not to many in the U.S. Congress!
Welcome to the Republican Party, Catherine.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
During this political season let's be reminded of these wise words.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves
OK, I've gone on too long again. Once I get rolling on this the rightness and wrongness of some concepts is just too staggering not to point out. It's amazing how the principles that lead to success in the private sector also can lead to success in the public sector--if only we have the right people in place. Please feel free to spread the word far and wide. Our future depends on it.
Best, John
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