Bolts of Thinking: rustyrueffblog

2011 Highlight Reel

2011-12-31T16:50:00.000-08:00

In 2011 I started recording in Evernote those events that I thought would belong on my annual "Highlight Reel" (I know, a reel is an antiquated term but it still works for me).

Enjoy.

-New Years Eve 2010/2011 @ midnight in Catania, Sicily watching the fireworks over the city - looked like Baghdad on CNN

-Attending the GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Awards seeing George Beverly Shea receive his award

-Spring Training in Phoenix - getting to go into the Reds Locker room, meeting Bronson Arroyo and talking with Johnny Bench

-National Theater Live screening of Frankenstein in San Francisco

-Dinner at The French Laundry with Tom, Liz and Patti

-St. Patricks's Day celebration with Patti at the White House

-Visit to the Kennicott Mine in Salt Lake City with Mark Newman and Chris Hollenbeck

-Seeing War Horse (the play) at the National Theater in London with "The Frepps"

-Hanging with Garry Maddox in his suite at the Phillies vs Red Sox game during our visit to see the Murabitos

-Patti and I Riding out Hurricane Irene and the Reynold's Pre-Hurricane Party @ their house aptly named, "Landfall"

-Patti and I attending the White House Holiday Reception with President and Mrs. Obama

2011 Reading List

2011-12-31T16:13:00.000-08:00

Well, 2011 turned out to not be my most productive year of reading, but here it is, with comments:

Book that I was glad I read even though I didn't expect I would say so: Decision Points by George W. Bush

Best written/best use of language:" Pacazo by Roy Kesey

Book I listened to, but wish I would have read instead:" Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson

Book that made me think the most about the future (tie); The Next 100 Years by George Friedman and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Most creative and I wanted more: How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive by Christopher Boucher

Book that has changed my life (at least for now): Eat to Live by Dr. Furhmann

Book I would like to see made a movie: Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell

Had I seen the size of the hardcover first, would I have read the digital copy?: Hero: The Life of Lawrence Arabia by Michael Korda

2011 Reading List:

(d) Decision Points - Bush
(d) The Next 100 Years - Friedman
(d) Room: The Novel - Donoghugh
The Company's Man - Battista
You Think That's Bad - Shepard
Deus Ex Machina - Altschul
Tales of the City - Maupin
(d) The Immortal Life of Henrietts Lacks - Skloot
(d) Hero: The Life of Lawrence of Arabia - Korda
Breakfast with Buddha - Merullo
The Edge of the World - Hamburg
Once Upon A River - Campbell
How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive - Boucher
The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastard - Boswell
Eat to Live - Furhman
Pacazo - Kesey
The Convert - Baker
Show Up, Look Good - Wisniewski
(a) Ten Thousand Saints - Henderson
The Orientation - Orozco

(d) = digital
(a) = audio

Another Good Reason To Go To Church On Sundays

2011-11-21T10:43:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Patti and I weren’t scheduled to teach Sunday School so we decided to go to church on Saturday night and spend Sunday morning reading the New York Times and watching the Sunday morning TV news programs.

I should have gone to church.

The Sunday morning talking heads were about the SuperCommittee and their lack of being able to find common ground to come up with a debt reduction deal.
What was most frustrating was that this was a group of people who were hand-selected to perform a task within a specified timeframe with a defined outcome. They knew what they had to do, and as of the writing of this have not done their job. But the representatives from the committee who were all but resigned to not having a deal come together, refused to call their inability to find a resolution as a failure. Where I come from, they have failed. I had a hard time believing that they were trying to pass their work off as anything else. With their failure they have once again told the American people, and the rest of the world, that our government no longer works.

I should have gone to church.

They also were saying that their failure would not affect the financial markets. Can they really be that out of touch? A few weeks ago I was invited to the White House for a Business Forward and White House Business Council session on job creation. One of the economists who spoke showed us the effect on our GDP when Congress was unable to reach agreement on the debt ceiling. The statistics shown were that the negative impact on GDP was greater than even 9/11. To think that such a visible indication that we cannot govern past our differences wouldn’t have an impact on the financial markets is beyond naïve, it shows how out of touch our representatives with the real world. As of this writing, the Dow is down 300+ points.

I really should have gone to church.

This morning the news headlines are now saying that Congress will try and repeal the law will automatically enact the $1.3 trillion in cuts that the SuperCommittee couldn’t handle. If that is the case then the Supercommittee should be known as the SuperDuperCommittee. I am appalled that we have let it come to this.

Next time I will definitely go to church!

I have tweeted or written to each of the SuperCommittee members to express my displeasure in their failure. If you are so inclined to do so, here they are for you to reach out to as well:

Democrats Republicans Senate members:

• Patty Murray, Washington, Co-Chair @PattyMurray
• Max Baucus, Montana
• John Kerry, Massachusetts
• Jon Kyl, Arizona @SenJonKyl
• Rob Portman, Ohio @robportman
• Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania @SenToomey

House members:

• Xavier Becerra, California @ RepBecerra
• Jim Clyburn, South Carolina
• Chris Van Hollen, Maryland @ChrisVanHollen
• Jeb Hensarling, Texas, Co-Chair @RepHensarling
• Fred Upton, Michigan @RepFredUpton
• Dave Camp, Michigan @RepDaveCamp

I'll definitely see you next Sunday in church!

Consumption vs. Reading

2011-10-28T06:31:00.000-07:00

This is a copy of an email that I sent to music and entertainment pundit, Bob Lefsetz:

A few months ago you wrote of the book, “Ten Thousand Saints” by Eleanor Henderson. After reading your positive review I put the book on my Evernote “Books to Read” list. (Yes, I am one of these guys who make lists of what I want to do, when I did it, and what I thought of it).

A few weeks ago I found myself having to drive from LA to San Francisco and decided that I would download Ten Thousand Saints from Audible/itunes onto my ipad and listen to the book on the drive home up I-5. When I went to itunes to download it, it looked perfect at 5 hours and 40 minutes (I later learned that was only part 1 and there was another 5 hours plus in Part 2).

After all these years of audio books being available, having friends who were investors and on the Board of Audible at their beginning, and having bought and disposed of plenty of devices to listen to them on, and having many instances where they would be great diversions and entertainment like marathon long training runs, I had never listened to an audio book and Ten Thousand Saints was to be my first.

After paying the same as what I would have paid for a first-run hardback version of the book, it took a while for the book to download. Not as long as movie or TV episode, but not the nearly instantaneous download that I have become to expect from an e-book on my Kindle or ipad. I was glad that I had downloaded the book from my hotel room the night before with high bandwidth and hadn’t waited until I was in the car on 3G.

After receiving the book, the first thing that told me I wasn’t reading a book was hearing that the book was going to be “performed” by Steven Kaplan, not “read”. That one small word changed the tone for what I expected. He said, “perform” so I expected a performance and of course, now a good one. Not having taken in an audio book before ( as you can read, I am struggling with what to call what I have done. I haven’t read the book but I have done more than listened. So, let’s say I have “consumed” the book) I can’t tell you whether or not is was a good performance or not. Let’s just say, he did what he was supposed to do and I got the story.

What I also don’t know is if my consumption was as good as your read. There were certainly many times that I had to “rewind” (scroll back) to listen over to what had been said. A traffic jam warning outside of Bakersfield messed up a chapter for example. Distractions had me re-listening at least a dozen, if not more times throughout the book.

I never felt like I got to know the characters like I would have if I had read the book. I never got my own picture and voice in my head of any of the characters like I think I would have if it had been my mind’s voice talking to me.

The other perplexing thing to me about the audio book is when do you consume them if not in your car? I ended up finishing part two while on multiple plane rides, but even then I found myself doing email on my laptop at the same time. I never multi-task when I read a book and if I do have music on at the same time, the book comes to the foreground and the rest fades away. With the audio book I found just the opposite. It was easier to not concentrate on the book and it too easily became the background.

I also don’t recommend trying to listen to an audio book before you go to sleep. When you wake up you have no idea where you fell asleep and the book is still talking to you. At least with a paper book or an e-reader it can’t turn the page on its’ own.

Bob, like you, I like to stretch myself with technology and was there at the Napster and BitTorrent moments, and still here (feeling better about respecting copyrights and creators) at the Spotify, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu times.

But call me now old fashioned, but to get the most from a book I think it’s about using my eyes and not my ears. But maybe, I am selling it short and before I give up on the multi-sense consumption I need to try adding the new scored soundtracks to my e-reader.

At the end of each year I publish on my blog the books that I read for the year (somewhere in the upper 20’s to low 30’s on average). The last few years I have put next to the titles, a “d” for those that I read digitally. This year, I will add the “c” for the consumption of an audio book. But, I predict that unless someone who I really respect tells me I have it all wrong, or I end up having to drive across America anytime soon, that this will be the only “c” on my list.

Thanks for the recommendation. I just hope I didn’t miss out on a good book that was actually great.

Rusty

Choice

2011-09-19T11:10:00.000-07:00

Choice is a very powerful tool. I just had to rent a car for a one-way driving trip from LA to San Francisco and National Rental had the best one-way drop-off deal. It had been a long time since I had rented from them and I expected the same old routine as any other car rental place, but when I got the to the counter in LA, I was very surprised. Within 30 seconds of me giving them my driver's license and credit card, they handed me back my rental sleeve and directed me to an area called, "The Aisle" and said I could choose any car that was parked under that awning. Around the corner and out the door, there was that section with at least 50 cars/SUVs, etc. to choose from. After asking a very nice attendant who was standing near the cars, which car got the best gas mileage, I was choosing from three different colors of a Honda Sonata. As I drove out of the lot, I was a satisfied customer and it was all about choice. I am sure I am not alone in having been assigned a rental car and being disappointed because I would have preferred the car style next to the one I was going to rent. Choice is a powerful force and in our businesses we should remember that giving the consumer a choice, even if not a big choice, can be the difference between satisfaction and not.

Tim Robbins Speaks Out for the NEA

2011-04-08T07:34:00.000-07:00

You go Tim!

An Open Letter to the United States Congress from Tim Robbins

Tim Robbins

In 1976, when I was 17 years old, I received a check for 50 dollars from the National Endowment for the Arts.

I was a member of a touring theater company that performed free shows in low-income neighborhoods throughout New York City. We rehearsed for five weeks and performed for eight so my per hour income was paltry if not pathetic but I remember a great sense of pride when I cashed that check.

I was being paid by my government for entertaining people. I was proud to live in a country where that could happen. It also gave me great confidence in my talent. I continued to pursue this profession.

Within ten years the investment by my government of fifty dollars in 1976 was returning hundreds of thousands of dollars back to them in taxes.

Within the next decade the government received an even sweeter bounty on their fifty-dollar investment. And I was proud to pay these taxes. As I have been proud to invest back into the arts with The Actors’ Gang, a 30-year-old organization that provides free educational programs to public school children and at risk teens and offers affordable and accessible theatrical and musical events to the citizens of Los Angeles.

I am one story amongst many Americans who have benefited greatly from the arts programs the NEA has supported over the 46 years of its existence.

But recently a reactionary voice has been amplified in this country that argues that arts funding is superfluous, inconsequential, an indulgent drain on the economy. Not only is this reactionary voice wholeheartedly misguided and deceptive but this voice threatens the future cultural and economic life of this country. The simple truth is that people spend money when they attend arts events. Think of the amount of money you have spent in malls on your trips there to see a movie.

Economic impact studies have shown that for every dollar invested by our government in arts programs an average of nine dollars of spending is generated in communities where these arts programs exist. The arts are an engine for economic growth.

Shops spring up near cultural centers. Where plays are performed restaurants and bars are packed. Some businesses near cultural centers report a 200% increase in revenue when events occur at the center. Property values skyrocket. Entire communities are reborn economically by the presence of music halls, theaters and art galleries.

Why would anyone in his or her right mind eliminate funding to a proven income generating economic engine?

The arts programs supported by the NEA are also an engine for inspiration.

From symphony orchestras to roots blues groups, from local theater companies to the grand stage of the opera, the mission of NEA artists is to culturally enrich the communities they perform in, to tell stories relevant to our collective experience as Americans and to create moments of entertainment that can lift our spirits and inspire us for many years to come.

These two reasons should be enough to justify the necessity of the National Endowment for the Arts. But there is so much more to the NEA than its function as an economic stimulus or its support of museums and orchestral performances and live theater.

I wonder if the politicians calling for the elimination of the NEA know how integral the organization is to educational programs for children throughout this country.

In an environment where government cuts in arts education funding have already diminished our children’s access to the visual arts, theater, and music education, NEA supported programs are, in some communities, the child’s last possibility of exposure to the arts.

Arts education is not superfluous. It is essential.

Children with access to arts programs are better students, higher achievers than those who do not have the benefit of arts education. At risk youth who are able to participate in arts programs are more likely to stay in school and continue into higher education than those deprived of that education. Why would any politician want to eliminate funding for a government program that leads to more competitive students and lower drop out rates?

The fact is that millions of our nation’s children rely on the NEA as a lifeline, as a source of inspiration, as an engine to forging a better future.

What is the end game here? What is the vision of those that would deprive children of the chance to see great paintings, or to hear the music of Mozart or experience the theater of Shakespeare? What kind of society are they imagining? And what are we saying about ourselves if we allow this to happen?

A small amount of narrow-minded people with a loud megaphone are calling for the elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts. They do not represent the majority of this country. They use incendiary language and are blindly ignorant of how essential the arts are to our country and its citizens.

I would like to believe that we can reach out to the reasonable, adult leaders of this country in both political parties that see the legitimacy and importance of the NEA.

I cannot believe that all Republicans support cuts to cultural programs. Certainly their hearts have been moved by great art as much as ours have. I would think that in this reactionary environment that politicians from both parties need our support to allow them the political will and the moral capital to vote their consciences. Perhaps if we can do that we can separate the real leaders of this country from the opportunistic headline grabbers trying to gain political points with the ignorant.

We are a great nation that has inspired groundbreaking changes in the arts throughout the world. Our freedom of expression, our unique creative voice, supported for 46 years by the NEA, has provided inspiration and hope to millions throughout the world and here at home.

We have the potential of encouraging future generations to even greater heights of creativity. But we cannot achieve these heights if we allow reactionary politicians to define who we are as a people. We mustn’t allow Philistine bullies to threaten our artistic institutions and the quality of our children’s future education.

We should be proud of the cultural achievements of our artists in the past forty-six years. Almost every town or municipality in this country has access to creative expression.

It would be terrible to imagine a United States of America without a vital, thriving and innovative cultural life. It would be tragic to give up on the idea that a nation’s support of innovative artistic expression is a necessary component to its future relevance and its ultimate brilliance.

We have defined ourselves in the world that way for years and have inspired millions around the globe towards free expression and artistic innovation. To give up on that is to redefine America, to imagine a lesser nation. Do we really want to be known from this point forward as the only advanced society in the world that completely disregards the importance of art?

Is this to be the legacy of the 112th Congress?

With hope,

Tim Robbins

Engineering vs. Liberal Arts

2011-03-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

Posted on TechCrunch this AM:

Engineering vs. Liberal Arts: Who’s Right—Bill or Steve?
Posted: 21 Mar 2011 05:40 AM PDT

When students asked what subjects they should major in to become a tech entrepreneur, I used to say engineering, mathematics, and science—because an education in these fields is the prerequisite for innovation, and because engineers make the best entrepreneurs.
That was several years ago.

I realized how much my views have changed when the The New York Times asked me to write a piece for its “Room for Debate” forum this week. The paper wanted me to comment on the divergence of opinion between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. In a speech before the National Governors Association on Feb 28, Gates had argued that we need to spend our limited education budget on disciplines that produce the most jobs. He implied that we should reduce our investment in the liberal arts because liberal-arts degrees don’t correlate well with job creation. Three days later, at the unveiling of the iPad 2, Steve Jobs said: “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing, and nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices”.

Because I am a professor at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, and given all the positive things I say about U.S. engineering education, The Times assumed that I would side with Bill Gates; that I would write a piece that endorsed his views. But, even though I believe that engineering is one of the most important professions, I have learned that the liberal arts are equally important. It takes artists, musicians, and psychologists working side by side with engineers to build products as elegant as the iPad. And anyone—with education in any field—can achieve success in Silicon Valley.
Here is what I wrote for The Times.

It’s commonly believed that engineers dominate Silicon Valley and that there is a correlation between the capacity for innovation and an education in mathematics and the sciences. Both assumptions are false.

My research team at Duke and Harvard surveyed 652 U.S.-born chief executive officers and heads of product engineering at 502 technology companies. We found that they tended to be highly educated: 92 percent held bachelor’s degrees, and 47 percent held higher degrees. But only 37 percent held degrees in engineering or computer technology, and just two percent held them in mathematics. The rest have degrees in fields as diverse as business, accounting, finance, health care, and arts and the humanities.

Gaining a degree made a big difference in the sales and employment of the company that a founder started. But the field that the degree was in and the school that it was obtained from were not a significant factor.

Over the past year, I have interviewed the founders of more than 200 Silicon Valley start-ups. The most common traits I have observed are a passion to change the world and the confidence to defy the odds and succeed.

It is the same in business. In the two companies I founded, I was involved in hiring more than 1000 workers over the years. I never observed a correlation between the school of graduation or field of study, on one hand, and success in the workplace, on the other. What make people successful are their motivation, drive, and ability to learn from mistakes, and how hard they work.

And then there is the matter of design. Steve Jobs taught the world that good engineering is important but that what matters the most is good design. You can teach artists how to use software and graphics tools, but it’s much harder to turn engineers into artists.

Our society needs liberal-arts majors as much as it does engineers and scientists.
But I need to acknowledge the difficult reality: that employment prospects are dim for liberal-arts majors. Graduates from top engineering schools such as Duke are always in high demand. But PhDs in English from even the most prestigious universities, such as UC-Berkeley, can’t get jobs. The data I presented above were on the background of tech-company founders—those who made the transition into entrepreneurship. Most don’t. And, as you can note from Bill Gates’ speech, there is a bias against liberal arts and humanities.

Angelika Blendstrup is an author and a lecturer who holds a PhD in Bilingual Bicultural Education from Stanford. She says that her liberal-arts background is “great for writing papers or PhDs, but it would be better to have studied engineering and have a choice of jobs”.

Charles River Venture Partner emeritus, Ted Dintersmith, on the other hand, received a PhD in Engineering from Stanford. But he also studied liberal arts. Ted says “It doesn’t have to be either/or—I double-majored in Physics and English, and never regretted combining two such different disciplines”.

So there is no black and white here. We need musicians, artists, and psychologists, as much as we need bio-medical engineers, computer programmers, and scientists.
My advice to my students—and to my own children—is to study what interests them the most; to excel in fields in which they have the most passion and ability; to change the world in their own way and on their own terms. Once they master their domain, they can find the path to entrepreneurship. They can then come up with creative ways of solving the problems that they have encountered, and apply their ideas to other fields where their knowledge adds value. Maybe they can team up with the hard-core engineers who develop the clunky, inelegant, over-engineered products that Bill is famous for; maybe work with Steve to create the next iPhone or iPad.

You can read more views and witness the lively debate on the New York Times web site.

Editor’s note: Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School, Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University, and Distinguished Visiting Scholar at The Halle Institute for Global Learning at Emory University. You can follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa and find his research at www.wadhwa.com.

2010 Reading List and Commentary

2011-01-03T14:19:00.000-08:00

In 2009 I read 38 books. In 2010, I read 22 books (less volume in 2010 partly because of one of the 22 being the Holy Bible from start to finish and also that I spent the first 5 months of the year trying to finish Wolf Hall before I finally just gave up).

Interesting fact for me was that in 2009, 42% of my books read were digital. In 2010, it was still only 45% that were digital. This may have been due to a number of the books in 2010 were loaned to me. The only books I bought in 2010 in hardback and why were:

The Road (on sale at Costco for cheaper than a digital copy)
The Glass Castle (same reason)
Racing Weight (not available digitally)
Blood Type A Diet (same)
What Technology Wants (I wanted Kevin Kelly, the author to sign it for me, which he did)

Here were my best reads of the year:

In It's Own Segment:

The Bible

Fiction:

1) Freedom
2) One Day
3) Tinkers
4) The Road
5) The Girl Who Played with Fire (favorite of the trilogy)

NonFiction:

1) What Technology Wants
2) The Glass Castle
3) Game Change

Books I Wish I Hadn't Read:

1) Wolf Hall (never finished)
2) Mastering the Marathon (nothing in the book I didn't already know)

Weirdest Juxtaposition of Reading:

Completed Freedom and went to start Decision Points by George Bush. Just couldn't do it so I had to put two books in between and carry Decision Points to 2011 (already done and I liked it a lot - surprisingly).

Best Page-turner:

The Girl Who Played with Fire

Most Challenging Read (outside of Wolf Hall):

Let the Great World Spin and What Technology Wants

Book Most Recommended to Others to Read:

What Technology Wants

Most Read Authors of 2010:

Laarson and McCarthy

2010 Reading List:

Game Change - Heilemann & Halperin

Let The Great World Spin - McCann

The Road - McCarthy

The Glass Castle - Walls

The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo - Laarson

(d) One Day - Nicholls

The End of Major Combat Operations - McDonell

The Girl Who Played With Fire - Laarson

(d) Mudbound - Jordan

(d) Await Your Reply - Chaon

(d) The Whiskey Rebels - Liss

(d) Tinkers - Harding (2009 Pulitzer Winner)

(d) Little Bee - Cleave

(d) Pearl Buck In China - Spurling

Racing Weight - Fitzgerald

The Sunset Limited - McCarthy

What Technology Wants - Kelly

Blood Type Diet A - Christiano

The Holy Bible -

(d) Freedom - Franzen

(d) Mastering the Marathon - Nix

(d) Blood Meridian - McCarthy

(d) digital version

Check Out My Weekly Posts on US News and World Report

2010-12-13T09:23:00.000-08:00

I am now writing weekly for the US News and World Report.

Please check out my latest posts here: http://money.usnews.com/topics/author/rusty_rueff

The Other Shoe is a EEE Size for President Obama

2010-11-02T20:07:00.000-07:00

A first shoe dropped tonight in America on President Obama with the sea change in the political environment as the House of Representatives majority moved to the GOP. Now the question is how to fill the other shoe so that is does not drop again in 2012. If I was the President I would be staring at the EEE shoe in front of me and ensure that I do nothing else over the next two years but focus on just that one shoe. The EEE size shoe is:

E = Economy
E = Education
E = Energy.

If the President could focus his staff, his party and those across the aisle on just ensuring that he can fill this large shoe over the next two years then I believe he has a chance to be reelected. If he and the administration waiver and confuse the topical and noisy for important, then we may watch in November of 2012 as to what happens with the other shoe. No one will argue about any of the EEE initiatives and certainly if the EEE's improve and then get better and better, then the President will be known as one who can fill a big shoe and that will allow Americans to give him four more years to show that yes, he can.

Incentives Need To Be Aligned To Work

2010-10-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

An article on Friday, October 22nd in the New York Times on page A14 described a number of Governors who are running for office, or are already incumbents, who are recommending or providing tax breaks to create jobs. Frank Caprio in Rhode Island (yes, the guy who told the President yesterday to "go shove it") is recommending a Business Finder Tax Credit that would provide $1000 for a company who brings a new business to Rhode Island and both companies would share a $10,000 reward if the new business hires 20 or more people. He also wants to waive the filing fees for any new corporation that creates a new job.

The Iowa Republican candidate wants to waive state income taxes for start-ups for their first three years (this is great, but I'm not sure there is a realization that most start-ups don't make a profit in their early years so there aren't any taxes due). the recommendation also wants to waive start-ups paying sales taxes up to $50K in their first three years. That could be good on their capital purchases. but, $50K in sales tax breaks would mean that the company would have to spend a lot to get the full benefit. Costco tables and chairs, a few PCs with a 5% sales tax takes a long way to get to $50K of savings.

Other candidates in Illinois, Florida and Maryland are trying to come up with their own ideas.

In 2006, in our book; Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business (can be found at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0131855239/qid=1136138630/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-1629927-8463150?s=books&v=glance&n=2 ) Hank Stringer and I called for "Free Talent Zones". This is where states could attract talent and therefore would want to relocate to these states. The incentives we recommended would not be about tax breaks to companies (which one side or another seems to have a problem), but instead provide incentives to workers directly. Give them a break on state income taxes, real-estate taxes, education fees, etc. Allow a company so many of these incentives for new hiring and believe me, the talent will come and the companies will will have incentives to hire. Imagine being able to recruit telling candidates about these types of incentives.

Rather than postulate on things that don't seem to make a difference or are so small in impact, I sure wish our politicians would be bold enough to think outside of the box and focus on those things that would really make behaviors and actions change. "Cash for Clunkers" was a success because the incentives went to the buyer, not the seller. Sellers finally picked up on it and then made it into an advertising bonanza and all parties got the benefit.

Let's try and think like this for talent, employment and rhe real creation of jobs!

Update - Why Does Someone Steal My Newspaper...And Who Is It?

2010-10-18T13:00:00.000-07:00

10/18/10 Update:

Since originally writing this post, I have done some more investigating and this week we had a breakthrough. The neighbor across the street cleared out and trimmed their bushes and these filled blue bags were found thrown deep into the bushes. As we can see, these are the quickly identifiable blue bags of the New York Times, the same paper that goes missing on any given day from my front gate. This morning's paper was stolen. It could be that any one of the bags from this picture could have been filled this morning. A better detective might have felt for the warmest of the bags, but I thought better of it. This update is to just let the culprit know that I am on to your M.O.. You steal my paper, give the dog the signal, he/she fills in close range to the house and then you walk home with Tom Friedman and All the News Fit To Print without a bag. We are circling in on you and one day, when you least expect it, you will be exposed!

Originally posted: 1/11/10

My wife and I live in an affluent neighborhood in the Bay Area of California. By virtue of this, we live in one of the more affluent neighborhoods in the country. We have a gate on our house. It's a nice place to live and one of those areas where crime is not something that is top of mind. Which makes it even more curious to me why and who steals my New York Times in the mornings? This has been occurring now for over a year and it has necessitated having the paper carrier (who has been a delight through this) to make sure the the paper gets slid under or thrown over the gate. I am befuddled as to who and why someone wants to steal my paper. So, this has me working to profile who the culprit might be:

-I think it is a man. I have no reason to know why I think this, other than I have always had a hard time seeing a woman committing crimes. I shouldn't really be so naive as I was recently conned by a woman outside of a hotel in Rochester, NY on a snowy night who needed money to buy gas to drive 50 miles. It was New Years Eve and snowing and blowing at 10 degrees. What was I supposed to do? The hotel receptionist said it is a common scam in their area. So, women do commit crimes, but would a woman really steal my newspaper? I don't think so, so for that thin reasoning, I think it is a man.

-He is either an insomniac or he goes to bed early at night. I know this because the New York Times is delivered to us between 4:30AM and 5:00AM. I go out and retrieve the paper around 5:30AM and it is already gone by then. To be out on the streets before 5AM, he must go to bed by 8:30AM to get his eight hours of sleep.

-He knows axioms and may repeat these to others. I know this because he is an early riser and he must be following the axiom that the early bird gets the worm...or in this case the stolen paper.

-He's at least a little if not well overweight. I think I know this because it doesn't happen every day. There is no rhyme or reason to the days, which tells me that he doesn't work out every day and is not consistent in his exercise routine.

-He's a walker, not a runner. Runners don't like to carry things while they are running, so unless he lives within a few hundred yards, carrying the New York Times any further is a pain.

-He's not an early technology adopter. If he was, he would already have a Kindle or some type of e-reader and be downloading the New York Times Daily.

-He's a political liberal or left-leaning moderate. I know this because, why else would he want the New York Times? Otherwise, he would be seeking out someone where he could steal the Wall Street Journal.

-He's literate. I know that because he never steals our San Francisco Chronicle that is lying right next to the New York Times.

-He doesn't do crossword puzzles. If he did, he would steal the paper everyday and he would for sure take the Sunday paper, which he never does.

-Finally, he has a clean lawn. I know this because everything we are told is that people don't read newsprint anymore and that it is a dying medium. So, if that is the case, then he must have a dog and he has a poop-free lawn. You know, those blue bags are the best!

These are the clues I have so far. If you have any ideas for us on who it might be, please pass them along to me. They don't think this is an important enough crime for that COPS or that America's Most Wanted Show, but we all watch enough CSI, NCIS, Law and Order, and Cold Case that we ought to be able to figure out this very, very serious crime.

Thank You for your help.

Is President Obama A Three Envelope Leader?

2010-10-11T10:42:00.000-07:00

There is a story about the CEO who loses his job. On the way out of the office as the new CEO is moving in, the new CEO asks, "Do you have any advice for me?"

The departing CEO says to him, "I left you three sealed and numbered envelopes in the upper left hand corner of the desk. Use them only when you need them and use them wisely. That is the only advice I have for you".

The terminated CEO then leaves. The new CEO registers the comment and goes about settling into his new job. All is going well for him for the first few weeks but in a few short months he finds himself all alone at his desk on a Friday night at midnight staring at his management reports and realizing that things are not going well at all. All the numbers are down and the Board is starting to ask questions and customers and employees are losing faith in him. He is at wits end and doesn't know where to turn. It is then that he remembers the words of the departing CEO and he opens up the top left hand drawer of his desk and there in in the back are the three envelopes, just as he had been told they would be. Not knowing what else to do with the business, he decides to open envelope number one and he reads inside this statement, "Blame your predecessor."

The sitting CEO takes the advice and begins pointing out all of the failings of the prior CEO and claims that the mess the business is in is really all because of the prior leader and administration. This sentiment resonates with customers, employees and his Board and for a few more months the heat comes off of him and all looks good. But, again on a late Friday night a number of months later, he finds himself once again under fire and he has now been in the job long enough that he just can't blame anyone else now but himself. The business is tanking and everyone is now pointing at him. Not knowing what else to do, he reaches for envelope number two and inside he reads, "Reorganize".

This seems like a brilliant suggestion so starting the next morning the CEO begins removing his team of managers and replacing them with new people. This seems to be a terrific piece of advice as for almost the next year there is lots of energy and activity with people changing jobs and bringing in new ideas and as the CEO he spends a lot of time introducing new people to the team and explaining how the new people will be the ones to lead the company to new levels of success, etc. But, just as before, now a year after the reorganization has settled in and he doesn't have anyone left to replace, the business begins to fail again and all eyes are on him to either improve the business results or he will be the next one to be replaced. As he comes out of his most contentious Board meeting, he rushes to his office to do the only thing he knows to do and he grabs the third and final envelope and rips it open looking for the advice to save him and he reads inside, "Make three envelopes".

We are nearing the midterm of President Obama's first term and these past few weeks I have not been able to think of much else other than the story of the three envelopes. For the first year plus, the President spent much of his political time and capital blaming the Bush Administration for the mess of the country and the mess he was inheriting. There was some truth in it, but after a while it began to tire and we looked to him to not tell us the problems of the past, but give us solutions for the future. We did get some of those but not without bitter partisanship that has left a sour taste in everyone's mouth and a feeling that our government is working more poorly than before. The press began to call for the changes at the top of the President's administration to try and recover the hope of Washington working differently. There was not much movement until the announcement that Rahm Emanuel, the President's Chief of Staff would step down, then Lawrence Summers, his senior economic advisor quickly followed suit, and then last week General James Jones, his head of National Security resigned. Leaks were coming from the White House that even a change with Vice-President Biden might be in the works to make room for Hillary Clinton to move out of the Secretary of State role to be Vice President. From the outside looking in, it looks like a concerted and deliberate reorganization is taking place.

Could it be that the President has reached for the first two envelopes and he is still only half way through his first term?

I am one American who certainly hopes not, but it is hard to not think that this might be the case. Soon we will know how the American people are responding to the agenda that has been set forth for us over the last two years. Much will ride on the November elections. Whether or not the President will need to reach for the third envelope, still resides with his ability to focus and deliver on the hopes, dreams and agenda that he laid out to the American people in 2008.

I still can still be optimistic and more than anything hope that he is not a three envelope leader.

"Yes, We Might!"

2010-09-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

I am hopeful, optimistic and sometimes too forgiving. My wife, Patti, says I have too short of a memory and that because of that, I probably am too trusting and that once bitten I allow myself to get bitten again and sometimes, again. I believe, in the long run, that a positive attitude causes less stress and consternation. So, as I write this, I remain hopeful for America, for our government to work and for our President to bring about the change on which he campaigned and won. But, I may be naïve, overly optimistic and not in touch with political reality. Only time will tell, but what I feel could work would be a new approach that starts with a plain honest and non-political assessment of what is reality and then a real plan to move us from where we are now to a defined point that can be measured. From there we need a consistent message that does not drift but instead enlists each of us to the cause and makes requests of each of us that, while we may not like them, we each can contribute and feel as though we are making a difference. If we can begin to see positive changes at the granular level where we live, then we will be able to begin to feel the momentum shift and some wind at our backs. The President is out on the road now trying to bring forward the message of hope to disillusioned constituents. The message of “Yes, We Can” is falling flat because it has started to sound like hyperbole. What we need now is the honest assessment of, “Yes, We Might”, but it is going to take more than what we are doing now, and more importantly that we each get better as fellow Americans who are open, positive and willing to engage to make America work again. This starts at the top and if it does, then “Yes, We Might”, can!

A Bigger Responsibility

2010-09-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

I am troubled by those who accept and step into leadership roles, like CEO positions, who don't feel or understand the larger responsibility they are taking. While no person is enslaved to a job in America, the role of a CEO is one where if you are going to take it, you have to understand that you have to subordinate your own desires and wants and make a sacrifice for the team and your company. When you accept the role of a leader, you take on the livelihoods, morale and to some extent, the self esteem of the employees of your company. To not recognize this is to be naive and at the worst, selfish and not suited for the position. CEO's can't just decide on Monday that they want to resign in two weeks. Of course, they can, but they really can't. They have a larger responsibility and accountability than that. That accountability is to the employees in their company who have entrusted their own jobs and family stability in the CEO's hands and are counting on her/him to be there for the company and for them. This is why the decision of Mark Hurd to take the Oracle role is so bothersome for me. Mr. Hurd may have proven in his hurried move that he is actually better as a number 2 in a company than as a CEO. After his abrupt departure at HP he could have let the emotions cool down and resurfaced a few months later and done whatever he wanted without much judgment or evaluation. Well, sure there would be evaluation, but in a few months the emotion would have been taken out of his decision. Instead, he chose to bolt up 101 to join up with Oracle and put a stick in the eye of HP's Board. The stick in the eye of the Board is damaging, but what is most hurtful is the conversation that is left around the water-coolers all over the HP world. The conversation about whether or not Hurd was ever loyal to the company or not and why would he join the competition if he ever really believed the things he said for the past five years to rally the troops and fight vigorously against Oracle and others, this is the conversation that has people wondering who really is Mark Hurd? CEO's have a bigger responsibility in that they are influencing and shaping the decisions, the values and the perceptions of corporate America and executives for the next generation. Their actions speak louder than their words and they shoulder that accountability just by virtue of the job title. Those who don't understand this and who watch out for themselves first and their company (collectively) second should think long and hard before they take the job as the ramifications of their actions are just too important to miss.

Who Jacked My Baseball Team?

2010-08-20T06:11:00.000-07:00

I am a Cincinnati Reds fan. I have always been a Reds fan since I grew up in Southern Indiana. For the past year, I have been astounded at the number of new Reds fans all over the country. Everywhere I turn it seems someone has on a Cincinnati Reds hat. Well, not everyone, actually it is mostly kids who have the 59Fifty flat brimmed hats, are wearing tee shirts with writing on them that are too big for them or over-sized flannel shirts, with blue jeans that are falling off their hips and a foot longer than they should be, and are wearing Timberland boots that are untied. I was recently on the subway in NYC coming out of the city and heading to the Bronx. On the train with me were three guys in their teens or early twenties. One was white, the other two were African-American. All three had on their "uniform" topped off with the Cincinnati Reds hat. My first inclination was to slide down the subway car to them and start talking about the good old days of the "Big Red Machine" and wax on about Dave Concepcion, George Foster, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, and Sparky Anderson. Or maybe they wouldn't know much of 1973, but surely they would know something about the 1990 World Series Sweep and how exciting it was to win the big one that way and hear Marty Brennaman say, "And this one belongs to the Reds...". Or I wondered how they thought Dusty Baker was doing as a Manager and could they pull out a post season appearance this year? But, I hesitated because they just didn't look like they were in the mood to talk baseball. Yesterday in San Francisco, on Market Street I saw a few Reds fans too. It seems like we are all over and we are taking over from where the Yankees once were America's Team! Truth be told, sadly, none of these guys are really Reds fans, but somewhere there are some marketing people who are trying to capitalize on the fashion that the Reds have become. I had to laugh because in Olympia Sports in Westerly, Rhode Island, in the clearance bin are a bunch of gray colored Cincinnati Reds hats that never sold. That marketing person clearly doesn't understand and thinks like, the naive person I would like to be, that everyone has become a Reds fan! I will tell you that I will be glad when the fad fades, so I can get back to wearing my own Reds hats and not worry about someone thinking I am treading on their turf.

The Most Un-American Statement...

2010-08-16T10:39:00.000-07:00

Warning, this post is a bit of a rant but because the topic has bothered me deeply since I read about it yesterday morning in the New York Times, woke me in the middle of the night and has had me tied up inside all morning, I felt I needed to get it out of me.

First of all, I don't want or need to get into why anyone wants to build a mosque in the area of the former World Trade Center. I actually don't care about that any more than if a shopping mall or a condo complex was being built there. It has been confirmed that the mosque meets all zoning and legal requirements of the city of New York and that is all that matters to me.

What I am troubled by are the statements that came specifically from former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. There was a time when I was a Newt Gingrich supporter and while my political views have moved one way, while his have moved in a different direction, I always felt that Mr. Gingrich has the best for the country in his heart and that his opinions were rooted in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But yesterday, Mr. Gingrich crossed a line that has me befuddled, bothered and made me a little afraid for what is happening to our country. These were Mr. Ginrich's statements as reported by the New York times and not refuted by Mr. Gingrich:

"Mr. Gingrich said the proposed mosque would be a symbol of Muslim “triumphalism” and that building the mosque near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks “would be like putting a Nazi sign next to the Holocaust Museum.”

“It’s profoundly and terribly wrong,” he said."

What I am appalled by is the small minded thinking that would cause Mr. Gingrich to associate a world-wide religion with the political Nazi party and think that it okay, under our Constitution to limit the rights for Americans to worship in whatever law-abiding way they choose. I have to ask, does Mr. Gingrich really think that all people who practice Islam were involved and support the terrorist acts of 9/11? Timothy McVeigh was Catholic. Should we also restrict the building of a Catholic Church in Oklahoma City?

The only appropriate reference and comparison to Nazi Germany that I can think of in this situation is that it was this type of segregationist, closed-minded thinking that Mr. Gingrich espouses that gave Adolph Hitler the platform to single out and eradicate the Jewish population of Germany and Eastern Europe. We are also not innocent as a country as this same type of thinking put Japanese-Americans in internment camps during World War II.

We have vowed as a country to never allow ourselves to return to that type of thinking, so please Mr. Gingrich, do not try and use your platform to sway people to return to a place where any American's religious beliefs, color of their skin or national origin, in any way restricts their American rights and their pursuit of happiness.

Values 2.0?

2010-08-13T08:16:00.001-07:00

This past seven days have been intriguing if you are interested or follow how CEOs are acting as they face challenges where values and principles are put in dialogue and consideration. A week ago today the news broke that Mark Hurd was resigning from his position as CEO of HP for issues relating to a sexual harassment charge and expense reporting violations. Since we learned that he resigned, or was asked to leave, over the expense report irregularities that totaled no more, by reports, of $20,000. Later in the week, Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, came out with his own statement that the HP Board had made the wrong decision in firing Hurd over this infraction. I was quite curious when I read his statements, as I wondered where he was coming from. The best I could garner was that in his mind, that the results and performance of HP, which have been stellar over Hurd's five year CEO tenure, outweighed the infraction and that HP was putting the wrong emphasis on values and integrity over performance. As I read this, I wondered if anyone at Oracle has ever been fired for falsifying expense reports and if they have, then maybe they should reapply for a job as the CEO doesn't see anything wrong with irregularities, at least up to $20,000. The two of them, Ellison and Hurd are titans of technology and this would have been enough, but then to see the news regarding Michael Dell and how apparently, Dell and his team knew of the 11.8 millions bad PCS that were sold to businesses and decided to not make their customers aware of the problems. Bundle these three examples together and it makes me wonder about what happened to the models left behind by Andy Groves, David Packard and Bill Hewlett's of the technology world? There are still many great leaders in the Tech world and more coming, but let's hope that we aren't entering an age of Values 2.0 where we turn our head to what is right and what is wrong.

Seeing and Describing the Bigger Picture with a Moonshot

2010-08-06T05:45:00.000-07:00

As part of being a voter for the Emmy's, this past week I watched the movie Moonshot about Apollo 11's historic landing and Neil Armstrong's first walk on the moon. It is a story that any of us over 40 years old know well but what gets lost in the story of man going to the moon is the ability of our country, in that generation, to see and describe a bigger picture. As the movie depicts at the beginning, we see President Kennedy stating in the start of the 1960's that before the end of the decade we will put a man on the moon and we do so "Not because we choose to do what is easy, but because we choose to do what is hard". Those are inspiring words (and I must say that I long for the same inspiration from our current leaders). President Kennedy didn't launch the Apollo efforts just to put a man on the moon, he led this as a bigger picture response to both the nation's psyche of the cold war with the Soviet Union and the lagging of our countries ability to educate and produce students in science, technology, engineering and mathmatics. With one bold description of what the future could hold with a measurable outcome such as putting a man on the moon before the end of the decade, President Kennedy solved two bigger picture challenges for our country. BTW, we shouldn't forget that even after he was dead and an opposing party President was in office that President Kennedy's goal was still achieved. The bigger picture can transcend political barriers and divides if only that bigger picture can be seen and described. After 9/11, our past President may have had the moment to truly unite our country around service to others and to the country. For a fleeting moment it was there and then it flickered because of the lack of a tangible and compelling goal or "moonshot" type of vision. The same, I believe can be said about what could have been, or still could be, about how we have handled the Great Recession and the BP Gulf oil spill. One could argue that these both are rallying points crying out for the bigger picture and each with their distinct opportunities to reshape our country into something better and stronger. I am still optimistic that with the right bigger picture that there is a another "moonshot" of improvement and political unity in our future, but it will take a boldness that comes from being able to see and describe the bigger picture.

Inspirational Words After A Loss From Allen Alley

2010-06-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, Allen Alley, a Republican candidate for Governor of Oregon, lost in the primary. Allen and I sit on the Purdue Foundation Board together. He ran what appeared from afar a superb grassroots campaign as he covered the state meeting people face to face. After he lost he sent a note out and what struck me was the closing statement that is inspirational and applicable to all of us.

"My final message is to dream big. Think not about where we are but where we can be. Embrace our wonderful state and our assets. Don’t just think outside the box, shatter it. Lead. Remember that our lives will be spent turning dreams into memories and, in the end, we will audit our lives based on the memories we make. We’ve already made some great ones in 2010. Go make some more."

I suspect we will be hearing more from Allen in the future.

Kristen Madsen from The GRAMMY Foundation delivered...

2010-02-03T14:42:00.000-08:00

...a most beautiful and eloquent speech about the importance of the arts, creativity and the wholeness that comes from digging and seeking for the full human experience.

From The GRAMMY Foundation's "CUE THE MUSIC" Event in LA on January 28, 2010:

At the 1939 Worlds Fair, when David Sarnoff, the founder of NBC introduced television, he clearly recognized the impact this new technology was poised to leverage. He said, “It is an art which shines like a torch of hope in a troubled world. It is a creative force which we must learn to utilize for the benefit of all mankind.”

In its public debut, this fledgling medium was introduced as an art form, a creative force. In that moment, it was bound together with its sister arts – endowed with a power that we in this room inherently understand, but to which so many others remain stubbornly tone-deaf.

The first people who truly understood the power of the arts were the ancient Greeks. They believed that the arts and astronomy were two sides of the same coin. Astronomy was the tool to understand the relationships between observable, external objects. The arts, on the other hand, could decipher the relationships between invisible, interior forces.

The arts can burrow into our hearts and unlock the puzzles they find there – in our interior selves. That exploration of what is life-sustaining inside all of us, while incredibly rewarding, requires great discipline and patience.

Today, we are surrounded by evidence that we are maddeningly willing to surrender to the seduction of sound bites and headlines.

Our capacity to dig deep is at risk of atrophying in a world where finding an opinion that matches our own is as simple as the click of a mouse.

We’ve allowed ourselves to become so mesmerized by the shiny penny of the mass quantities of everything available at any time, that we’ve forgotten that the volume itself is of no consequence – it’s merely a distraction.

Consider the very stark contrast between a carefully curated collection vs. the accumulations of a compulsive hoarder.

A single day spent diving deep is worth a lifetime skimming the surface.

And the velocity of change in our external environment – more relentless now than ever previously – also seem to be having an impact on our memories. Our ability to recall even our most immediate history – particularly if it is inconvenient or boring -- is itself becoming a thing of the past.

But of course, change will be our constant, if sometimes unwelcome, companion. In the words of my favorite tv character of the past decade, the philosopher/saloon owner Al Swearengen on HBO’s Deadwood, “Change aint’ lookin’ for friends. Change calls the tune we dance to.”

As we are being propelled along this journey, where the need to speed-communicate is apparently so urgent that we can’t even take time to type complete words much less sentences, remember that the arts are our best antidote to a “path of least resistance” life.

We may not be able to call our own tune. We can choose our favorite choreography. We should recalibrate our values to champion depth over breadth. We must celebrate the arts’ ability to give anchor to our memories and flight to our imaginations. Let’s all drink deep from that rich and nourishing well.

-Kristen Madsen
January 28, 2010

In Defense of Liberal Arts...A Must Read

2010-01-28T15:02:00.000-08:00

Jon Meacham's latest article in Newsweek.

In Defense of the Liberal Arts
Published Jan 9, 2010

From the magazine issue dated Jan 18, 2010

At noon last Wednesday in Sewanee, Tenn., in a 19th-century Gothic hall dominated by a sandstone fireplace and decorated with portraits of somber bishops, the University of the South—my alma mater—elected a new leader, John M. McCardell Jr., the former president of Middlebury College. (We refer to our president as vice chancellor, in the English tradition. If the fates had ever brought Anthony Trollope and Tennessee Williams together to collaborate, Sewanee might have been the result.) Those of you who share an affinity for small institutions know the power of sentiment at such moments—how the old rooftops remind us of when we were young, and all of that. Arguing the interests of Dartmouth before the Supreme Court, Daniel Webster captured this feeling well: "It is, sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet there are those who love it."

I love Sewanee, an Episcopal university tucked away on 13,000 rural acres of the Cumberland Plateau. It is a place where students and faculty wear academic gowns to class, where the vice chancellor also serves as mayor, and where I spent four years without having a key to my room, much less locking it. Modernity intrudes with a single full-time traffic light on campus, but for years that incursion was ameliorated by the sight of a professor of religion's cat taking a daily nap on the street directly beneath the light. People knew to steer clear.

Belief in liberal-arts colleges like Sewanee, however, is about more than sentiment. As I sat listening to McCardell accept his election, I thought, not for the first time, about the difficulty of making the case for something so expensive and so seemingly archaic—an undergraduate liberal education—in an economic and cultural climate that favors efficiency and tangibility. It is inarguably hard to monetize a familiarity with Homer or an intimacy with Shakespeare.

It is just possible, though, that the traditional understanding of the liberal arts may help us in our search for new innovation and new competitiveness. The next chapter of the nation's economic life could well be written not only by engineers but by entrepreneurs who, as products of an apparently disparate education, have formed a habit of mind that enables them to connect ideas that might otherwise have gone unconnected. As Alan Brinkley, the historian and former provost of Columbia, has argued in our pages, liberal education is a crucial element in the creation of wealth, jobs, and, one hopes, a fairer and more just nation.

Barack Obama started out at such a school (Occidental in Los Angeles) before moving to Columbia, where the core curriculum requires undergraduates to be grounded in canonical literature, philosophy, and history. Steve Jobs, who dropped out of Oregon's Reed College, nevertheless credits a calligraphy class he attended there with providing part of the inspiration for the Macintosh. Employers say all the time that they value clarity of writing and verbal expression, and that they often find liberal-arts graduates expert in both.

We need to make sure that the liberal arts prepare people for a good life, not just the good life. For too long private colleges like mine have been seen, with more than a little justice, as provinces of the already affluent. Such institutions devote a lot of resources to remedying this, but educations at the more elite private schools are prohibitively expensive, and always will be.

Which is why the state universities that underwrite liberal-arts programs, including newish public honors colleges within large research institutions (Michigan and Georgia are two examples), should continue that good work. There is never enough money—or at least it seems as though there is never enough—but cutting the liberal arts is a false economy.

The other emerging market is the world of online education, which is one of the great democratizing stories of recent years. Like NEWSWEEK, Kaplan Inc. is a part of The Washington Post Company, so I am unapologetically prejudiced. Yet the fact remains that digital educational enterprises are to the 21st century what public universities were in previous generations: accessible and more affordable means for people to better their minds and their lives.

For some the future will be shaped by a Sewanee, for others by a business course taught online. The unifying theme that connected my own musings among the bishops (living and dead) was straightforward: if the country is to prosper—economically, culturally, morally—we have to trust in the institutions, old and new, that nurture creativity, and then hope for the best.

Jon Meacham is editor of NEWSWEEK and author of American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House and American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation.

He's Just What I Expected...A First-Time CEO

2010-01-08T06:38:00.000-08:00

It must be because I was, and continue to be, open about my political views and the switch I made from being a person who always voted with the Republicans, to becoming a person who votes for who I believe will be the best at the job at the time and that being now a Democratic President, that I get asked a lot openly, and privately; "What do you think of the job President Obama is doing?" From my Republican friends they are looking for ways for me to defend what they disagree with and trying to get a few, "I told you so's in". I am cool with that and I totally get where they are coming from. From the staunch Democrats, they don't ask the question. But, mostly,the question comes from people like me who made the switch and are now wondering if they made the right decision. They see the popular opinion moving away from the President, they see an aggressive and overwhelming agenda, they see worse than ever partisanship and arrogance from those on the winning and losing side of an argument, they see retiring Senators and Congressmen switching parties causing a loss in the power seats necessary to make change, they see unprecedented levels of spending and debt. And, they wonder, did I make the right choice? Let me be honest and open about it, "I wonder too".

However, I also believe that we are seeing the results of exactly what I expected President Obama to be. We are seeing the actions and results of a first time CEO. Long ago I wrote that a Senator becoming President is like asking the General Counsel to be CEO. They have a sense of what the job could be and they have been around CEOs a long time, but they have never sat in the chair and when they do, as a first time CEO, they will make first time CEO mistakes. That doesn't make them bad and it doesn't mean that they won't become great CEOs, but they need time to learn. The same is true of President Obama. The man I voted for to be President I knew did not have the experience to do the job. Instead I voted for him because I believed he had the vision, the conviction, the work-ethic and the potential to be great and I still believe that. However, the rookie CEO moves are evident:

Taking on to many things at once: The hardest thing to do as a CEO is to say no to an idea or an objective. You have to be willing to let somethings go to focus on the most important. The President said his agenda would be the economy, education, alternative energy and the war. He needs to get back to doing one significant thing in each area and let the rest go by the wayside.

Not knowing who the right people are on your team: This happens to first time CEO's...every time. The people you put on your team the first go around are not as good as they need to be and you default into what you know and don't know how to hire those who can do things that you don't know. There are different people for different stages of a company and the people who got your there are seldom the people who can get you to the next level. That is why first time CEOs need a great board or venture capitalist who can fill in around them. It feels like the President has not surrounded himself with the right people for the job and he is depending on the people who got him there, not the people who can take him to the next level.

Getting ahead of yourself: A little success and momentum is a dangerous things for a first-time CEO because you tend to get up on that wave and ride it like there is no tomorrow and if there are some accolades that come with it, you lean into that wave to try and go even faster. Unfortunately, waves ridden too long end up on the beach. Using the 60 vote power in the Senate as the leverage versus finding real consensus among the parties is not a good thing and I think the President may be riding that wave too long because the wave is going to go away next year and he will need then to have a different way of getting things done. If he doesn't start that now, then nothing will get done after the 60 votes are gone. This goes back to needing change in leadership around him. He needs to think long and hard about whether the speaker of the house and the Senate leader can lead in a way that gets things done without having all the leverage.

Hanging on to the wrong people too long: If you were the one that hired 'em, it's really hard to get rid of them and first time CEOs hang on too long to people who need to go. We can see this in the President's cabinet. It's time for some to go. Mistakes are mistakes but lack of results can't be ignored and in his case with only four years to govern, he can't afford to hesitate. Great CEOs are always upgrading their teams. I have ideas on who should be replaced, if anyone is interested.

You spend too much money: It's predictable like the sun coming up; first time CEOs when given a pot of money, spend it and because it is there, it gets gobbled up quickly. I like to tell first time CEOs who are raising money that the smartest thing they can do is only take the money they need, not the money they want. I remind them that we are Americans. We eat all the food that is put on the plate in front of us. First time, and lots of other CEOs, do the same with their budgets. The President is eating all of the food and more right now and needs to show that he can also enforce fiscal discipline. If he doesn't do this, I think this will be the Achilles heel for him in 2012.

All this said, I believe we have a leader who is doing the good things that you want a first-time CEO to do as well;

He is visionary.

He is working extremely hard.

He is great with externals...in his case other leaders around the world.

He takes accountability.

He is learning.

He is smart. I am impressed by the way that he allows things to start to the left and then through time and conversation they come back more to the middle. I'm not sure how he does this, or if it is really him, but this continues to happen and that is good for him and the country.

So, we have three more years to find out just how good of a CEO he can be. For all of the people who would throw him out now, I only ask you to think about the first time you were in a new job that was above you and you were learning your way...aren't you glad that someone else helped you along and saw your potential, versus just getting rid of you immediately?

My hope and daily prayer for our President is that he matures, learns and wises faster than humanly possible to become the great leader and CEO of our country that we need. And by the way, that will be my same hope and prayer for the next President, whoever he/she may be.

My Decade of Reading

2010-01-07T09:37:00.000-08:00

Keeping a list of what you read (I have been doing it since 1993) and then being able to go back and review it is very interesting. Here is what I learned from my 10 year review of the 206 books I read in one decade:

*Most read Authors:

1. James Patterson (16)
2. John Grisham (11)
3. Nelson DeMille (10)
4. Michael Crichton (8)
5. Ken Follett (7)
6. JK Rowling (7)
7. Ann Rice (7)
8. Patricia Cornwall (6)
9. Tom Clancy (5)

*Book that I have no clue today what it was about: Winter’s Tale (Helprin)

*Book that I read twice but didn’t realize it until now: 1776

*Book that I told more people about than any other: Celestine Prophecy

*Book that stayed with me more than any other other than The Bible: Chasing Daylight

*Author that I fell in love with in the 2000’s: Michael Chabon

*Book that was the most wasted time: Charlotte Simmons (Tom Wolfe)

*Best Running Book: Once a Runner (John Parker)

*Heath Book that made a difference: The Antioxident Revolution (Kenneth Cooper)

*Page Turner of the Decade: The Day After Tomorrow (Hammer)

*Best New Authors for me: (tie) Jonathan Krakauer and Jodi Piccoult

*Best Business Book: (tie) The Living Company (De Geus) and The Tipping Point (Gladwell)

*Most eye opening Book: The World is Flat (Freidman)

*Book that had the least measurable impact for me: Triathlon Swimming Made Easy (Laughlin)

Top Books of the decade for me:

* Bridges of Madison County (Waller)
* Celestine Prophecy (Redfield)
* A World Lit Only By Fire (Mancehster)
* The Horse Whisperer (Evans)
* All the Pretty Horses (McCarthy)
* Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Berendt)
* Into Thin Air (Krakauer)
* Cold Mountain (Frazier)
* God of Small Things (Roy)
* She’s Come Undone (Lamb)
* A Perfect Storm (Jager)
* Snowcrash (Stephenson)
* House of Sand and Fog (Dubus)
* Seabiscuit (Hillenbrand)
* The Pact (Piccoult)
* The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Chabon)
* John Adams (McCullogh)
* The Corrections (Franzen)
* Summerland (Chabon)
* Life of Pi (Martel)
* The Kite Runner (Hosseini)
* Devin in the White City (Larson)
* The World is Flat (Friedman)
* Chasing Daylight (O’Kelley)
* Audacity of Hope (Obama)
* Talk Talk (Boyle)
* Team of Rivals (Goodwin)
* Water for Elephants (Gruen)
* The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Diaz)
* Old Men at Midnight (Potok)
* Once a Runner (Parker)
* People of the Book (Brooks)
* Change by Design (Brown)

Here is what I read over the first decade of the ‘oo’s:

2000 (24):

Black Notice: Cornwall

Saving Faith: Baldacci

Harry Potter and the Scorcer’s Stone: Rowling

Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets: Rowling

Harry Potter and the Prisoner Azbakan: Rowling

Above Black: Sherman

Timeline: Crichton

The Lion’s Game: Demille

Pop Goes the Weasel: Patterson

When the Wind Blows: Patterson

The Brethren: Grisham

Horse Heavenv Smiley

The Barbarians are Coming: Louie

Cradle and All: Patterson

Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire: Rowling

Memoirs of a Geisha: Golden

October Sky: Hickam, Jr.

It’s Not About the Bike: Armstrong

Beowulf: Harvey

The Bear and the Dragon: Clancy

Ender’s Game: Card

Snowcrash: Stephenson

On Ice: Ramus

2001 (22):

The Invisible Continent: Ohmae

King of the World: Remnick

Roses Are Red: Patterson

Code to Zero: Follett

Net Gain: Hagel

Orvis Guide to Saltwater Fishing: Curcione

House of Sand and Fog: Dubus

Waiting: Jin

Tuscan Childhood: Beevor

The Tipping Point: Gladwell

1st to Die: Patterson

Seabiscuit: Hillenbrand

The Pact: Picoult

Race Horse Training: Collins

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay: Chabon

Derby Dreams: Bolus

The Hobbit: Tolkien

Fade: Cormier

P is for Peril: Grafton

The Fellowship of the Ring: Tolkien

Proof: Francis

John Adams:McCullough

2002 (27)

Indiana Gothic: Brock

Violets are Blue: Patterson

The Prometheus Deception: Ludlum

Half Time: Buford

The Fourth Hand: Irving

Investing in Thoroughbreds: Kirkpatrick

Last Man Standing: Baldacci

Stud: Conley

Good to Great: Collins

The Summons: Grisham

2nd Chance: Patterson

The Holy Grail: The Derby: Haskins

The Corrections: Franzen

Whistle While You Work: Leider/Shapiro

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh: Chabon

Connecting: Crabb

Mabel Dodge Luhan: Rudnick

Red Rabbit: Clancy

Runner’s Blood: Fischer

Clear Body…Clear Mind: Hubbard

Carter Beats the Devil: Gold

Difficult Conversations: Stone, Patton, Heen

Nights in Rodanthe: Sparks

A New Brand World: Bedbury

Summerland: Chabon

The Lovely Bones: Seybold

Doing Well when Doing Good: Guinness

2003 (16)

Up Country: DeMille

Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Twain

The Key to Rebecca: Follett

How Firm a Foundation: Grodi

Four Blind Mice: Patterson

Life of Pi: Martel

Prey: Crichton

Catch Me If You Can: Abergnale

The Greatest Generation: Brokaw

Harry Potter,Order of the Phoenix: Rowling

King of Torts: Grisham

The DaVinci Code: Brown

Dark Horse: Hoag

The Bible: Inspired by God

Oracle Night: Austere

Mere Christianity: Lewis

Moneyball: Lewis

2004 (8)

Ruthless Trust: Manning

Purpose Driven Life: Warren

Under the Banner of Heaven: Krakauer

Big Bad Wolf: Patterson

Endurance: Alexander

Prayer: Foster

Ordering Your Private World: MacDonald

Kite Runner: Hosseini

2005 (13)

Angels & Demons: Brown

Night Fall: DeMille

The White City: Larson

Chi Running: Dreyer

Wild at Heart: Eldridge

Life Together: Bonhoeffer

Trace: Cornwell

Heaven: Alcorn

The World is Flat: Friedman

The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe: Lewis

The Magician’s Nephew: Lewis

The Spirit of the Disciplines: Willard

Code to Zero: Follett

2006 (9)

Our Endangered Values: Carter

Freakonomics: Levitt/Dubner

Ultramarathon Man: Karnarez

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Rowling

1776: McCollough

Adventure Capitalist: Rogers

Search: Battelle

Christ in the Feast of Tabernacles: Brickner

The Bible:

2007 (19)

The Kitchen Boy: Alexander

Pope Joan: Cross

Chasing Daylight: O’Kelley

Growing Wise Slowly: Roper

The Tenth Circle: Piccoult

Making Your Childrens Ministry The Best Hour Of The Week: Miller/Stahl

Triathlon Swimming Made Easy: Laughlin

The Gospel According To John: Campbell

Audacity of Hope: Obama

A Year at the Races: Smiley

Winter’s Tale: Helprin

Harry Potter: Rowling

The Soul of Money: Twist

A Thousand Splendid Suns: Hosseini

The Bourne Betrayal: Van Bluster

The Life God Blesses: MacDonald

A World Without End: Follett

Cat's Cradle: Vonnegut

The Lost: Mendelsohn

2008 (30)

Talk Talk: Boyle

Cane River: Tademy

Red River: Tademy

Why Pray?: Wilhite

Thunderstruck: Larson

Thirteen Moons: Frazier

1776: McCullough

Ship of Gold: Kinder

Jesus, CEO: Jones

What is the What?: Egger

The Yiddish Policeman’s Union: Chabon

The Dante Club: Pearl

I am Charlotte Simmons: Wolfe

Pioneers: Cooper

Christian Spirituality: McGrath

Team of Rivals: Goodwin

Twilight: Meyer

The Shack: Young

New Moon: Meyer

Water for Elephants: Gruen

Eclipse: Meyer

New Dawn: Meyer

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao: Diaz

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: Wroblewski

Stone Cold: Baldacci

House of Mondavi: Siler

The Hour That Changes The World: Eastman

The Bible: (New Living Testament)

Experiencing God: Blackaby

The Historian: Kostova

2009 (38)

Three Cups of Tea: Mortenson

All Things Are Possible Through Prayer: Allen

American Lion: Andrew Jackson In the White House Meachem

The Power of Positive Praying: Bisagno

Not For Sale: Batstone

Revolution: Barna

The Screwtape Letters: Lewis

Run for your life: Patterson/Ledwidge

The subtle power of spiritual Abuse: Johnson/Vonderen

Old Men at Midnight: Potok

Celebration of the Disciplines: Foster

The Art of the Turnaround: Kaiser

Wild Fire: DeMille

Slaughterhouse 5: Vonnegut

Once A Runner: Parker

Searching for Dad: Ricks

American Pastoral: Roth

Born to Run: McDougall

The Janson Directive: Ludlum

People of the Book: Brooks

Olive Kittredge: Stout

Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling: Crouch

The Machievelli Covenant: Follsom

The Help: Stockett

Master and Commander: O’Brian

Artemis Fowl: Golfer

Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident: Colfer

Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code: Colfer

The Way: Escriva

Change By Design: Brown

A Gate At The Stairs: Moore

Brave New World: Huxley

Thomas Jefferson: Hitchens

Outliers: Gladwell

Underworld DeDillo

Gilead: Robinson

The Lost Symbol: Brown

The Power of Half: Salwen

Fast Forgiveness For Failure...

2010-01-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

David Brook's article on New Year's Day titled "The God That Fails" felt like one of the more "practical" ways of looking at our government's successes and failures. The gist of the article was that our government does a lot of good things, but it is not a perfect system and it is filled with human beings so there will be times where the system fails. But, then most importantly is that Brooks says that when this happens we, as the citizens of the government, should not expect perfection each time, but instead, go with the flow and understand that it is impossible for government to be infallible. Those of you who know me, know that I fervently believe that there is only One that is infallible so I carry with me maybe a more tolerant attitude towards failures of others than I should. My wife Patti has always said that I forget and forgive too quickly. She considers it constructive criticism. I consider it a compliment. I know too many people who look for the hole in the doughnut. These are the same people who don't think the glass is half-empty, they think the glass is out to kill them. They take hard stances to the left or the right when it comes to the government and they are quick to criticize when something doesn't go perfectly. This happened this last week with the Nigerian who tried to blow up the flight in Detroit. When I read about what happened, I didn't like it either. I could see why someone should be held accountable and I don't have any issue with someone losing their job over not doing their job to the standards set for them. But, what I can't accept is those that say the whole system is wrong and failing because of one mistake. As I have pointed out before, the TSA has lots and lots of problems and Janet Napiltano has not done anything that I can see to make any improvements, but the entire system is not a failure and nor would it be right to think that we won't have other issues in the future. Government can't be perfect. As long as there are people involved, it is impossible for it to be perfect. Let's try this year to be a little more forgiving and understanding as a country. Maybe if we did, we would find common solutions versus staying so opposed to each other.

Where Does The Buck Stop in California?

2010-01-03T13:30:00.000-08:00

I read with great interest the ruling of Judge Frank Roesch regarding Governor Schwarzenegger's decision to furlough state employees to try and get control of the states over running expenses. Judge Roesch's decision overruled the Governor on multiple grounds including that the Governor "overstepped his authority by claiming the furloughs were necessary to deal with the budget emergency". As I read this, the newsprint nearly slipped from my hands, which as we all know is hard to have happen. Here is what I don't understand; there is no place in California for the buck to stop. When I elect a Governor, I do so on the basis of who I believe will be the best chief executive officer. I look at the skill set to establish a vision, determine how to establish, maintain and where necessary to raise revenue, and most importantly how to manage the business of the state so that our expenses don't outstrip our revenue. I vote for the person who I believe is the best at having the buck stop with them. But, in California it seems that the buck doesn't stop anywhere. Each time a decision is made that others don't agree with we get a judge to rule on it, we get proposition on the next ballet, or we get a special election to more quickly overturn the decision. And then we wonder why this state doesn't work. What California is missing is a lack of practical thinking. If there was practical thinking then there wouldn't be a lawsuit filed on the behalf of the service employee unions that they should be treated differently from all other employees. If the Governor has decided that furloughs are the best way to deal with our issues, then everyone needs to participate. It is not right for one group to be treated differently than others. I fear that if California doesn't reshape how it governs so that the buck has someplace to stop, there won't be any bucks to be stopped.

TSA - Please Rethink or Think!

2010-01-01T09:24:00.000-08:00

I flew through the new T5 terminal at JFK this morning and as we started a new decade I was quickly reminded at how little distance we have covered in our ability to manage the security lines in our airports. Yes, the government is up in arms this day because of the Nigerian flier who made it to Detroit and nearly set off his explosives on that Northwestern flight, but the TSA that we experienced today was no different, or any better than they were when established in 2001. In fact, I would say because there has not been any systemic learning or standardization across airports and we have not shared and gotten better collectively, it proves that that in fact we have not gotten any better at all. Long airport security lines are a constant reminder that our government fails to figure out how to become more productive and more efficient. Why is it that this so visible symbol of a government administration isn’t given the attention necessary to improve? What holds this back? Our airports are unfriendly and have added hours to inefficiencies to our business community. The wasted productivity alone should be enough to warrant the attention of other arms of the administration. Maybe the Secretary of Commerce should weigh in and get involved! We should be embarrassed that we have minimum wage employees, who act and work like they have been salvaged from the streets, standing around, doing nothing and not adding anything to the security of the airports. Had you been with me this morning, you would have seen x-ray screeners who weren’t looking at the screens, employees standing around chatting and filing their nails while the lines were backed up for nearly an hour wait. Department of Homeland Security, please start improving something so that we can understand the value of you as overhead expense to our country, who doesn't need more expenses!

60-40...The Rope-A-Dope Vote

2009-12-21T06:58:00.000-08:00

I stayed up with C-Span last night to watch the closing arguments and the Senate vote on cloture for the Healthcare Reform Bill. I was not surprised, but once again disappointed with the 60-40 vote. I listened to both sides say why the vote had to be 58 Democrats - 2 Independents For and 40 Republicans Against. As best I can tell from my citizen caring and citizen involved vantage point, the Republicans wanted to stall the vote because they believe that most Americans don't want this bill. What is disappointing is that they don't refute or fight on the point that in the entire time the bill has been moving they have offered only four amendments. I am sure there is some good reason for this, but from this vantage point it feels like they are so afraid that if they make contact with the bill that they are going to catch something that makes them sick. I can understand that, I just don't respect it. When in any other part of life you believe in something that strongly, then you are willing to do anything to take care of something you care about. When your child is sick and you can't get a straight answer from the doctor you don't just stop asking, you go get a second opinion and you keep going until you have the answer, even if that means you may get sick yourself. I feel like the Republicans, were afraid of what they were going to catch and gave up on this one and are now wanting to sit in the corner and say, "I told you so.". If that is the case, then what Senator McConnell said last night about this bill changing the course of our nation forever, is correct. If the 40 votes of no last night were being passive aggressive and wanting to sit back and arm-chair quarterback, then this vote may have been the end of the Republican party as we know it. What it seems has failed to dawn on the R's is that the party that I grew up with were Republicans who came with smart, well-thought out, responsible solutions. But even when they didn't have the best solutions, they always brought their ideas to the table, no matter the obstacles, the public ridicule. They were not known for sitting back and letting someone else tell them what to do. Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater didn't know the meaning of sitting back. Something has gone terribly wrong with American politics when the men and women who go to Washington choose to sit back versus fight for what they believe is right. Mr. McConnell, a man I have admired since I was growing up across the river from Louisville, Kentucky took a trick from his and my fellow Kentuckian, Muhammad Ali, and fought this fight with the rope-a-dope, hoping that he and his party have enough stomach strength to take all the punches and wear the other guy out. The problem with this tactic on healthcare is that no matter the cost of the bill, no matter the problems with the pork that resides in the 2000+ pages, no matter the issues that will come up down the road, in the short term it is going to feel like to working people, regular people, that they are feeling the effect of change in Washington and getting much needed healthcare coverage reform. And while, I do agree with the Republicans that there is too much spending, too many side-deals, federal spending on abortion, etc. that are hard to live with, let's also not forget that the bill does not have a public option plan in it and many other concessions that if they had been at the table, instead of under it, they could be talking about what they influenced and what they could still influence going forward. I am afraid, Mr. McConnell, that the 40 Rope-A-Dope Vote this time just won't work for the whole fight.

Grounded By Perception

2009-12-12T16:40:00.000-08:00

I was talking to a friend the other day who knows a venture capitalist who did well for himself and is now investing in the clean-technology/renewable energy/green space. He has a problem though in that with where he now focuses and the companies and people he works with, he has to be very careful with how he manages his own carbon footprint. That means that the private jet that he and his family used has been grounded. I always felt weird about flying on a corporate or private jet from the money side, but I can certainly see now how the use of a private jet just doesn't fit with being environmentally friendly. I suspect that Al Gore had to rethink his flying choices a long time ago. Most of us don't have to worry about this problem, but the idea that we will have to change our lifestyles due to the perception and the reality of our carbon footprints, I believe will become a real issue in the future. Already we read about the neighbors who look down their noses and nearly shun those in the 'hood who over do it with the holiday lights. When I was investigating going solar for our house one of the selling features was that if we went into negative power usage for the year that we could share our "extras" with the neighbors for community holiday lighting. I actually thought that defeated the purpose, but none the less, I guess it could be a way to be a good neighbor. Sometime in the near future someone is going to challenge each one of us about the car we drive, the light bulbs we use, the windows that need to be replaced, the amount of times we have the grass cut, etc. Of course if you already have kids, you have likely already heard the lecture. Don't fret on that one though, as you now have a much better reason to make sure they turn off the lights when they leave the room and if they don't then you can just ground them. See, we all might get grounded by how we use our energy sometime soon.

Two "Practical" Healthcare Fixes

2009-12-10T08:20:00.000-08:00

Here are two "Practical" ways to fix healthcare.

There is nothing wrong with a public option as long we as taxpayers are not burdened with the cost running the public healthcare. We have a good analogy on how to set up a government agency that is run by the government; everyone uses it, and no taxpayer dollars are used to fund it. It has competition from the private sector and it has been around longer than any of us have been alive. It is called the United States Postal Service. No taxpayer dollars go to fund or run the Postal Service. They make it work on a $0.41 minimum unit price. It is a large infrastructure, that while it may not be the most sophisticated, runs, works, is dependable and is a good alternative choice to FedEx, UPS, etc. It employs lots of people and we all have come to depend on them. So, create a public healthcare program where it pays for itself, is provided and used by government employees, and give me the choice to participate. Create the United Stated Healthcare Insurance Service.

Secondly, make healthcare mandatory for all people. In every state in the U.S. if you are going to drive a car you have to carry car insurance. Of course, there are some people who drive without car insurance, but these are the same people who drive without licenses. When they have an accident, they are penalized, fined and sometimes jailed. It is a law to have car insurance and the same can happen with healthcare insurance. The reason that there is affordable car insurance options is because the insurers have a market where everyone has to have it so it invites competition of service, coverage and price. The same would happen with healthcare insurance. If everyone had to have it then good business people would stratify the market and come up with the minimum coverage required at a price point where those who could afford more would get more and those who can only afford the minimum would be able to buy the minimum coverage affordably. Up and down the supply and service chain, costs would come in line and we would get past all of this arguing.

These are two "practical" ways to think about the problems. We need more "practical" thinking and more "practical" solutions. This plea is directed to all us, including President Obama, Mr. Reid, Mrs. Pelosi, and Mr.McConnell.

Where does The TARP Money Go?

2009-12-05T16:25:00.000-08:00

I am amazed and pleased to see that the financial institutions who took the TARP money are paying it back, with interest. The moment I saw the executive pay restrictions added to the loans, I knew that they would somehow magically find a way to pay back the money real soon. Lo and behold, here comes Bank of America ready to wire the money back. But, my question is, where does that money go when it gets repaid? I was listening carefully to the President yesterday as he spoke in Allentown, PA and was answering questions from the town hall audience. When talking about the TARP money he said that we might be surprised that it didn't take all of the money approved to have the program work and that the money being repaid would, after an ahem, "go back to pay off deficits". He said this at 12:25PM EST on 12/4. So, I expect that is what happens, or does it? When Bank of America wires over their $45B next week, we should expect that all of that money will go back and be sent out to some creditor to buy down the debt? Well, not really, he said that it would go back to pay off the deficit, not debt. The deficit is the amount that we keep racking up every year beyond our budget, so the TARP monies will go back into some general account fund to be spent on something else that is over spent. I find it depressing to think that the monies that come from each of us with our hard-earned tax dollars, just continue to fall back into a bucket filled with holes. Just once it would be nice to see someone take the accountability for the use of our money and when something does go right, that it can turn into something better, versus just funding more of the same...

Be The Hero...

2009-11-18T06:33:00.000-08:00

Original Post on my Tuesday column on www.glassdoor.com

All stories that we hear are basically the same three act structure, so there is no reason that the interview stories that we are used to hearing or telling should not come in the same three acts:

* Act 1 is the story of the protagonist.
* Act 2 is the story of the barriers/challenges.
* Act 3 is the story of the achievement of the goal.

For the past two weeks we have been exploring how you can get the best attention by being able to tell the “story of you” in the most compelling and unique way so that an interviewer/recruiter walks away with her/his own story to tell about you. As a long time talent recruiter the ones who got the job were the ones where I could sit with a hiring manager and say, “you gotta hear the story of this person.” If I was excited about telling their story to someone else the chances of their getting hired went up exponentially.

Last week we discussed six mini-plots about you that you should have prepared and are ready to go. Have you gotten those down on a piece of paper yet? If not, take the time to do so. Once that is done, then you can wrap those together to create you as the protagonist in the story of your career and you. What makes a protagonist interesting is that we gain just enough detail that offers insights into that person’s history or motivation.

When you think about how you describe yourself when asked, what are those elements of you that are unique and interesting that have propelled your career and the decisions you have made to this point? I typically cringe when I hear, “I was born….”, but many times there is something right there that is the catalyst that creates the story arc of someone very interesting. Without doubt, my interests, goals and overall career have been significantly shaped by the fact that my Father was a radio disc jockey when I was born and did radio, TV and theater while I was growing up. And because, at least at one time, radio and TV people were interesting and intriguing to most people, I have always been able to catch the interest of an interviewer by starting the story of me with “I was born with a Father who was a radio and television personality”. Everyone has their own unique traits that can set a story in motion. Think about yours. Find those unique details that when you string them together give someone else a good picture of who you are and what makes up you. If you need help here, go back through your six mini-plots from last week and make a list of the five to 10 unique attributes of you and start working with that list to create the character that is you.

Some other traits you might want to consider in the ‘Story of You’ include:

* Overachiever
* Ambitious
* Athletic
* Well-educated
* Unique family
* Dreamer
* Entrepreneurial
* Gifted
* Listener
* Reader
* Outgoing
* Driven

Whatever the traits are that make up you, figure out what makes you the protagonist in the ‘Story of You’ and find a way to express them in a unique and interesting way that gives the listener just enough detail to catch their attention and set the story of you into motion.

Next week, we’ll discuss Act II – the Barriers in telling the ‘Story of You’.

The Reality of Theater

2009-11-15T06:28:00.000-08:00

One night last month, Thursday, October 17th, San Francisco was marking just another night of theater being performed on stages throughout the city and the Bay Area.

On this night the A.C.T. was in an extend run of full houses for the Knee High Theater’s production of Noel Cowards’ “A Brief Encounter”. This fusion piece set in England during World War II told us of unfulfilled love and escape in a tumultuous time. Next door at the Curran Theater the touring company of “RENT” with Anthony Rapp (original Mark) and Adam Pascal (original Roger) was sold out with a raucous crowd to see the La Boehme story told through Jonathon Larson’s characters of the poor, HIV/AIDs infected, starving artists of New York City. They sung of the hope of dying in dignity with others caring about their plight. Across town another war-themed show was turning away people who wanted to see the Lincoln Center Production of “South Pacific”. Another love story set in the islands of the south pacific with war raging all around them. On the other side of the Bay, Berkeley Rep was extended with standing-room-only audiences to see the rock opera; “American Idiot”. Green Day’s musical rant of anti-war, government oppression, big-government mismanagement and societal pressures caught fire and enraptured an audience for 90 minutes of non-stop push. Back in San Francisco, the A.C.T. MFA students, under the direction of Jon Moscone, Artistic Director of Cal Shakes, were presenting the play, “Naked Skin”, about women’s rights and the struggle of suffrage in the United Kingdom. This play was the first by a woman playwright to be presented on London’s National Theater’s Olivier Stage. This moving work reminded us that human rights advancement is a contemporary issue and we still have a long way to go until all are treated equally. Another of the National Theater’s productions was in town this night as well. There was a simulcast screening of their “All’s Well That Ends Well” at the AMC Kabuki film theater. On top of all of the live theater in town on this night, a few hundred people were taking in Shakespeare through the cinema screen, in an effort for the NT to build better relations with the American audience.

I know I have missed at least another half dozen to a dozen other plays that were running on this night as well. There is always much theater in our town on any given night.

But on this night the theater became reality as at the same time that curtains were rising across the Bay Area, just over in Union Square, at the St. Francis Hotel, the first sitting U.S. President to visit San Francisco in nearly a decade was speaking live. President Obama had turned out thousands of supporters to hear him update them on the issues of our time. Issues that were all around him that night in the theaters of the Bay Area; war, healthcare, human rights, the social-class divide, international relations, the economy in context of the financial crisis, and government’s role in all of this. President Obama didn’t need to look much further than the scripts and librettos of the theaters around him that night to find relevant substance for his speeches.

We go to the theater to suspend our disbelief and to experience the stories of others so we can connect and feel. We use the theater to wrestle with the issues that are our own. We sometimes find what is true reality being no further away than just on the stage before us.

On this one night in San Francisco in October of 2009, the theater was as real as it gets.

How to get real productivity? Do it right the first time!

2009-09-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

This past week, I just took notice of the amount of time that my wife and I spend following up, chasing down mistakes and trying to have them corrected, listening on the phone to on-hold music as we waited for a customer service representative, or their supervisor when we couldn't get the issue resolved. My wife talks about how she loses hours and hours a week just correcting what other people haven't done right in their jobs, and when watching her, she is right. This past week, I took on some of these items and I found a pool guy who didn't come this week, but unless we report it, we will get charged for the visit, which means a preemptive phone call from me and us watching the bill next month. A waiting for a repairman who never showed and then called three days later to schedule something this week instead of last. Dealing with UPS who decided to not deliver a package on time that I needed and having to chase that down, and now wait for the refund and if I don't get it then have to follow up in ten days to ensure that it goes through. Chase down, figure out what is wrong, find out that someone didn't do their job right or thoroughly and take our time to get it all right. I imagine a world where everyone did their work right the first time, there was a belief that customer service was not perfect unless they never had to be called. How different things would be! I suspect that if we could attack this level of productivity loss that we would not only see a big pick up in our ability to manufacture more efficiently, but we would also return to a place where consumers trusted and believed in products. That in itself could impact consumer confidence. It is time to look at this problem. It starts with CEO's and Boards honoring their consumers and customers with a commitment to get it right the first time!

What Has Happened to U.S.?

2009-09-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

In the past two weeks we have seen two instances that has made we wonder, "what has happened to us?" First, the President of the United States takes time out of his schedule to speak directly to he kids in our schools about the importance of education, hard work, and focus. And what do we get? We get school districts and parents who politicize the issue and deny their children the opportunity to hear the President deliver a message that could be the one that shapes and motivates their education and eventual career decisions. Don't we want every child in America to sit at their first grade desk knowing with all of their heart that they could someday be the President of they put their hearts and mind to it? So, what is the message we are sending when we keep our children from being exposed to the President? I don't care if you agree with the politics of the President or not, he is the President of the United States and he is owed and has earned, if only through obtaining the office, the respect that when he speaks, we should stop what we are doing and listen. I am far from being a person who has agreed with any President on all things but regardless of their foibles and positions, if my President speaks and/or calls on me, then I listen and respond. A week later we have an elected Congressman, Joe Wilson, from South Carolina, yelling out "You Lie!" in the middle of the President's joint session of Congress. When I heard it live, I thought I had misheard. I rolled back the TIVO and there it was. In that moment, I felt sorry for our country and was just as embarrassed and ashamed for Mr. Wilson. To hear people later support his outburst only hurt more. We are not a government where we call for lack of confidence votes. We have a President, like him/her or not, for four years and it is our responsibility to not always agree, but to support and do what we can to make things better. Calling our President a liar, or denying him access to children, is not constructive in any shape or form. So, tonight I wonder what has happened to us, what has happened to our U.S.?

Where The Jobs Are...

2009-07-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the percent of labor change from December 2007 through June of 2009. The problem with the numbers are the trends and the messages inside the data. The shrinking sectors are dominated by loss of jobs in manufacturing, building and production. All the areas where we "make" anything have been decimated and my belief is that those jobs are gone and not coming back. The auto industry has lost 35% of their jobs from the production of auto vehicles and parts. Do any of us believe those jobs are going to come back? When we start building cars again, the hope is that we will do so with greater efficiency and productivity, which in itself will keep the jobs from coming back. The bigger alarm in the data is the growing sectors being led by home and health care services (+8.6%), oil and gas extraction (+8.6%), Federal Government, except the US Postal Service (+6.5%), Ambulatory health care services (+4.8%), and offices of physicians (+4.1%). This just can't be right. We are gaining and creating jobs in the areas that are the ones that we are already bloated and trying to get back under control; health care, non-renewable energy, and government (read deficit and out of control budgets). This seems to be the worst of the worst, losing jobs where we need to be competitive and creating GNP and instead adding jobs into service and sectors where the cost of doing business is already strangling us. Add more healthcare jobs without understanding efficiencies and it will only take longer to dismantle the problems. I have supported larger government where I felt it was important to meet the needs of those who cannot (truly) take care of themselves. But, an inability to manage costs is not a good enough excuse to add more wood on the woodpile. We better hope that we we see the BLS chart flip upside down in the next 5 years or what was bad will become catastrophic.

When There Were Three..

2009-07-20T11:14:00.001-07:00

Last night I watched CBS' tribute to Walter Cronkite. Not only did it remind me of how fast time and technology has moved but it also brought back many emotions from when I was a boy and my Father would gather my brother and me around the TV each night to watch the news together. My Father was in radio and television and we not only got the lessons of what was happening in current affairs but also we were instructed on how to ensure that our southern Indiana twang was eliminated so that we had the same accent as Mr. Cronkite. He represented the middle of the country without having to say that he was from there. With no accent at all he made everyone feel comfortable. It became ritual in our house to be at the TV when he broadcasted. Long before he retired we would handicap who would take his place; which seemed at that time nearly impossible to imagine. Would it be Eric Severeid (too old), Roger Mudd (too stiff), Dan Rather (too much of a field reporter, not an anchor). These were our conversations as we as listened for the nightly body count coming back from Vietnam and wrestled with the messages coming from the anti-war movement and later the Watergate trials. It seemed that we could not trust government so we trusted the media. There were only three people to trust after all and one of them garnered the most trust of all. This was when journalism had a code and you had to report, discern, write and justify to be able to say something. And so, Walter Cronkite became the one person we all could trust. It will never be that way again. There are too many talking heads and anyone can write anything they want and countermand enough to cast doubt on what anyone says. I am sure that there are those now who trust the government more than they trust the media. Scary. Walter Cronkite set a standard to gain his trust. He did this on the shoulders of Edgar R. Murrow and others before him. Today, few have a reason to stand on the shoulders of Walter. The nightly news is not watched by many and the soundbites that we receive are so far from the whole truth that we believe little of what we hear anyway. When there were three I know we didn't get the whole story and I know we didn't see the whole picture. But when there were three we sat at our televisions together and watched and discussed the news as a family and those memories will always make me have positive memories of Walter Cronkite.

Nice To Do's Have To Stop

2009-07-16T05:32:00.000-07:00

Late last year and earlier this year we read many accounts of the financial institutions who had received TARP funding, then sending their employees off on what appeared to be unnecessary boondoggle trips. In particular, AIG got slaughtered in the public perception because of an incentive reward trip for their salespeople who exceeded plan. As we all know, perception is reality for many so these things must be managed. But, I do find it curious that from the President on down we point our fingers at what we perceive to be frivolous private sector spending while we spend the taxpayer’s money on all kinds of programs that don’t seem to make sense. When you work inside of a company and you aren’t going to meet your financial plan, you begin cutting costs quickly and you kill unnecessary spending and expenditures. The government doesn’t do this. Today I read about the problems with recent space launch. Since we have gone into this recession I have watched multiple space shuttle launches occur. Can someone please tell me why when we are hemorrhaging money and reaching a trillion dollar deficit that we are continuing to launch the space shuttle? Is it because these space missions are instrumental in solving our priority problems; the economy, education, energy and healthcare? The government needs to start being practical and making some practical decisions that any of us would make if we were running our own business or household finances. We have to be willing to have the courage and resolve to tell the kids that we can’t go to Space Mountain this year, because we just can’t afford it. C’mon Congress. C’mon Mr. President. Let’s be practical for once and put away the impracticalities of launching space missions when we don’t have the money to do so. It’s a nice to do, not a have to do and we can’t afford the nice to do’s….at least not right now.

In Our Time...1933, 1954, or 2009?

2009-06-23T05:12:00.001-07:00

As we were going through some of my Father-in-Law, Aldo Preti's belongings, I ran across his college yearbook from Fordham University; "The Maroon", circa 1954. For fun I thought I would read what the college aged editors had to say about what was happening in the world at that time and how they saw themselves fitting into society. These were the children born in the 1920's growing up in the Great Depression and they wrote about what they had seen in their lifetimes...so far. I quote from, "In Our Time" by Maurice R. Berube and John J. Oldfield:

"In the land where the business of government was business, the failure at Wall Street cut short the the wildest spree upon which America had embarked. The boom had busted, flaming youth flickered out and the Great Depression ushered in the Big Hangover. 'For the first time in history', Will Rogers, remarked, 'a nation had the distinction of going to the poorhouse in an automobile'.

-Roosevelt Inaugurated-

The year 1933 marked the beginning of a new era in the growing up of America. The nation for the past four years had suffered the worst peace time catastrophe in its history. The soup line saw the demise of the Republican Party's twelve year rule and the Democrats installed their first President since Wilson. In March 4, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated 32nd President of the United States, and he boldly announced that the only thin America need fear was fear itself.

The soaring rate of unemployment was met by the new Administration with rapid and drastic measures. Forty-eight hours after Roosevelt's inauguration, Congress enacted in its famous 'hundred-day' session to enact far-reaching social and economic reforms. Countless relief agencies and statutes were created to offset the dark shadow of of peril and panic...the W.P.A...P.W.A....T.V.A....C.C.C....A.A.A....N.R.A....gave rise to a new type of 'alphabetical government'.

-The New Deal-

Roosevelt's regime undertook a program of economic planning which it preferred not to call a revolution but a new deal. As Mark Twain had pointed out in the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, 'When six men out of a thousand crack the whip over the other fellows' backs, then what the other nine hundred and ninety-four dupes need is a new deal."

Roosevelt's three 'R's", Relief, Recovery and Reform, took the form of subsidies, guaranties, public works, encouragement of labor unions, and deficit spending. In the planned economy was a new concept which superseded the Jacksonian principle of governmental non-intervention in business. Highly experimental, the New Deal was bound to be controversial. Its harsher critics confused it with Socialism.

About the only thing that drew no fire was the repeal of prohibition. The progression of the New Deal met with with the violent opposition of such extreme programs as the Townsend Plan and Upton Sinclair's Epic Plan.

Amidst the horde of new prophets, the raucous voice of Huey Long was the loudest, with his "Share the Wealth: plan. The immense popularity that the dictator-like Long commanded indicated the desperation of the American people....The Louisiana Kingfish was removed as a threat to democracy by an assassin's bullet on September 8, 1935.

-Returned by a Landslide-

The New Deal retained the public's approval as evidenced by the resounding Rooseveltian victory of 1936 over the Republican's colorless Alf Landon of Kansas. 'Life, Liberty, and Landon' won only two states in the election, prompting James Farley's celebrated comment, 'As Maine goes, so goes Vermont.'

The severest critics of Roosevelt reform work were 'the nine old men in the ivory tower of the Supreme Court', as the president saw them, who systematically nullified the liberal legislation of the New Deal's first phase. Believing he had a mandate from the people in the election of 1936, Roosevelt promptly set about to countermand the court's behavior by championing his famed and most controversial proposal to date...'the court-packing plan.' The proposal lacked Congressional support. The court, nevertheless, was to heed political tradewinds and reverse its stand. The NRA was perhaps the most important law junked by the Court, but it reappeared substantially in the Wagner Act of 1935, which protected the worker's right to organize. Encouraged by the government and stimulated by hard times, the stock of organized labor prospered both in membership and influence. under the leadership of a bushy-browed Pennsylvanian, John L. Lewis, the C.I.O. was created for unskilled workers in mass production industries. It rivaled its parent, the A.F. of L. in membership.

-Social Consciousness-

It was only natural then, for the flavor of the American life in the thirties to be hued with a deep-felt social consciousness...the legitimate offspring of the depression. The credo of such rising young intellectuals as William Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell, John Steinbeck, James T. Ferrell, and Clifford Odets embodied this acute social sense. Steinbeck's, 'Grapes of Wrath', dealing with the 'Okies' hard-hit by the Dust Bowl, produced a tremor which paved the way for relief. Caldwell's 'Tobacco Road', a novel concerning the depravity and squalor that characterized poor economic conditions, was so popular that its dramatization smashed the previous record for long engagements set by 'Abie's Irish Rose' in the twenties. Even Tin Pan Alley was impressed by the 'forgotten' man's burden and spoofed depression blues with such tunes as 'Brother, Can You Spare a Dime, In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town, and Hallelujah, I'm a Bum."

- Economic Security a Goal -

Hollywood mass produced the gangster film which implied that crime as a by-product of slum conditions. The depression brought home the fact that, in a complex interdependent society, there was need for economic effort. 'No man can go it alone' says Ernest Hemingway's hero in 'To Have and Have Not.'

There was no corner of life in America that did not feel the ramifications of economic wretchedness. Our generation, not yet of the age of reason, saw our parents stamp in our minds the moral that the bluebird of happiness was to be found in economic security.

Although our parents were somber, Hollywood diverted then with Greta Garbo and Clark Gable, while we discovered pert little Shirley Temple, the new edition of America's sweetheart....

...The Great Depression considerably altered the pattern of American life bu forging an indelible imprint on the American psyche. Everyone was socially conscious, and more significantly placed economic security as the Holy Grail to be sought. The instability of our economy ingrained in young America's mind the idea that the only thing to be feared was not fear but future economic collapse."

If you read this far, you should have been struck by the similarities of their time and our time. Does history truly repeat itself? It sure appears to do so.

Post script: Maurice R Berube went on to be a Professor at Old Dominion and an author of nine books. John J. Oldfield became the Vicar of St. John's Church in the Bronx and authored one book.

Look Down...The Moving Sidewalk Is About To End

2009-06-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

These past few months have been about spending time with my wife's family as her Father, Aldo Preti, went through a nearly year-long terminal illness and died this past Saturday morning. We bury him today in St. Raymond's cemetery within 10 blocks of the same place he was born, raised, lived his entire life and died. In this day and age, it is a remarkable thing to see this level of consistency and continuity in their lives. As I reach the age where grandparents are gone, some long gone, and parents are now dying, I am reminded of my own mortality and the precious moments that I have that can so easily be taken from me. As I was flying back to NYC this past week after a quick flight home to SFO, I was on a moving sidewalk at JFK and I heard the words of the automated voice speaking to me; "Look down, the moving sidewalk is about to end". As I slowed my step and made sure that I was balanced, I looked down and found that the moving sidewalk was not really ending, but it was surely ending for me. The metaphor of life and death was right there in front of me, and of all places at JFK. I was reminded how important it is to take the time and look down to be sure that relationships are secure and strong, that commitments are steadfast, that friendships are consistent and dependable, that loved ones know that they are loved, that hugs and kisses are plentiful and come with ease, that God is never more than my silent prayer away, that moments, actions and words are deliberate and thought through before taken or spoken, that my mind is open enough for the recognition of beauty, art and emotions of the moment. That today I am making the most of the time I have left on the moving sidewalk of life before it ends for me.

It's Been Awhile...thanks for your patience

2009-06-22T09:22:00.000-07:00

I've neglected Bolts of Thinking as I have been focused on my Purposed worKING blog; http://purposedworking.blogspot.com.

But, it is time to revive Bolts of Thinking. Thanks for your patience as I bring it back more regularly. Rusty

Producing for Results

2009-04-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

Reprint of a post that I was ask to write for the American Conservatory Theater blog:

American Conservatory Theater Blog - http://blog.act-sf.org/

My wife, Patti, and I have produced or executive produced six A.C.T. productions (A Mother, A Number, The Voysey Inheritance, The Imaginary Invalid, The Rainmaker, and the upcoming Boleros for the Disenchanted). When we were first invited to participate at this level I was not sure what to expect. In the film world, lots of people invest to have their name associated with a movie as a producer or executive producer with no expectations of ever being included in the making the movie. And yes, in most cases, it’s wise not to have people who are neither skilled nor experienced messing around with the creative process. That being said and recognized, the experience of producing at A.C.T. has far exceeded our expectations. Regardless of the medium—whether it be visual or performing arts—for Patti and me, our “thing” is to see the creative process unfold and come to life. What I have learned over the years is that what happens throughout the process—from the first reading of a play by the cast and director (and sometimes in the presence of the playwright, like when we were in the room with David Mamet the first time he heard the reading of his adaptation for A.C.T. of Harley Granville-Barker’s The Voysey Inheritance), to the technical rehearsals, through studio rehearsals, into previews and opening night, and sitting in the booth to hear the stage manager “call the show”—is the creation of magic. What starts as something so rough and raw that it seems unimaginable that it will ever make it successfully to “the big stage” ultimately comes alive and pulls together on opening night, and real magic is created. And as producers we can bask in being a part of that process.

At the annual A.C.T. gala last week someone asked me, “What do you get out of executive producing?” The answer came easy. What we get out of producing is that we receive the intrinsic reward of being “noncreatives” who can, through our contribution to A.C.T., be a part of bringing to life, through the creative process, a production that is unique and special for the audience and the actors. The pride I feel when “it all comes together” is many times overwhelming. But just as important has been the gratification that two people (who are products of the corporate world) feel when we see tangible results from our contributions. When we see the highest level of quality and excellence on the stage, perfection in the acting, and passion in the audience response—from tears to laughter—then we know that we have produced real results. And in this time, when the contribution dollars don’t come as easily and we each are having to evaluate with greater scrutiny where we direct our donations, with A.C.T. we rest assured that real results can be produced.

It's Lonely At The Top!

2009-04-09T09:18:00.001-07:00

This is a blog I wrote that was posted on Glassdoor.com, where I regularly contribute:

It’s Lonely At The Top: What Can We Do About Executive Bonuses?
Posted on April 1st, 2009 by Guest Contributor

Bashing the compensation and bonuses of executives has become a household conversation. Seems like everyone has an opinion on the AIG bonuses that were paid last week and the debate over “who and what was right” will rage on for a few more news cycles.

But from it all, there are some lessons in those payments - and the contracts that allowed them — that would be good for all executives to learn about and carry forward:

Everyone is watching. Sumner Redstone of Viacom is well-quoted saying that, “the further the gorilla climbs up the tree the more you can see of his a**“. Welcome to the life of being a senior executive. With the title and perks, there comes a responsibility to act and respond like a leader. That means that everyone is watching what you do and what you receive. Becoming finely tuned to what the rest of the company, including what your shareholders, think has always been part of the business, but it’s more important now than ever. If the rewards don’t match the performance, then you should question whether or not the payments are the right payments and the bonus plan is the right bonus plan.

Delayed gratification. Sometimes it’s better to have a bonus deferred and just wait for “better timing.” Part of the issue with the bonus payments at AIG was that no matter how legal or rationale at this time when the nerves of taxpayers who funded those bonuses are raw, no matter what they paid was going to be scrutinized. The same happens in other corporations where one division of the company may succeed but the overall company is failing. That would be the time to look at deferring payments to some other time. You can’t tell me that in hindsight if AIG had it all over to do again that every one of those executives who are being hounded and hunted in Connecticut wouldn’t have taken a deferred payment versus go through what they have gone through.

One size fits one may be wrong. For too long we have come up with bonus programs that sweep across a job category or group of people by level and title and then we apply a multiplier to a salary and that is the cash bonus payment - paid out on a schedule that everyone follows. It may be time to rethink those one size fits all programs and instead go back to the days of the personalized bonuses that don’t always have to be cash. For example, additional vacation time might be many multiples of value more than cash for some while for others offering equity might be a great incentive. A myriad of things could replace cash compensation that could still recognize performance while not as onerous as large cash payouts in this market.

100% top to bottom buy-in required. Whatever you do, now is the time to ensure that there is true buy-in with the payments and the plan to be delivered. That means the Board, all of Senior Management, the HR team, the external compensation consultants and — in this day and age — your corporate communications/PR team. You need 100% consensus in the program to make sure the right thing is being done. If there are any questions or concerns among your internal stakeholders about the plan, payments or, people then it may be time to totally rethink what you are doing.
Don’t lower the bar - ever! Remember the genesis of bonuses - rewards for performance and work that is “above and beyond.” Too many companies allowed for their bonus payments — or portions of it — to be considered as secure in being paid from year to year, regardless of the results. When bonuses start to become thought of as delayed annual income for people, they become more relied on and people begin to feel entitled to the payment each year. Management - and the Compensation Committee - need to avoid temptation, in the tougher times, to lower the performance bar to make some payments. While good for short term morale, the underlying credibility of the bonus plan is corrupted.

It’s a new era and it requires new thinking - and likely new programs. And, Boards, management and employees at all levels should work to keep the bonus programs open and transparent to ensure the incentives accomplish their objectives.

Supply vs. Demand -The AIG misnomer

2009-03-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

Why isn't anyone asking the relevant and pertinent question about the AIG bonuses? Why isn't someone asking what the turnover rate is inside of AIG and what the supply of talent there is to fill the open positions if someone was to leave AIG? The answers would likely tell us that there is no reason to provide these bonus payments right now. If you work in the financial industry and you have a job, you are not giving it up easily. As Mayo said in Officer and a Gentlemen: "I got no where else to go!" Our representatives in government show how much they don't know about business when these types of decisions are made. In that backroom with Senator Dodd cutting the deal for one of his largest contributors (excuse me, don't I remember campaign promises saying that the backroom decisions wouldn't happen anymore?) someone should have piped up and said, "What does it matter if someone threatens to leave, there aren't other jobs for them to go to, and if they do, there is so much financial industry talent available that we could pay for the recruiting fees 50X times and still not scratch the surface on the amount of payments for the bonuses". The other thing that I just don't understand is why if these payments were really about retention that they didn't create deferred income bonuses that each of these people would have had to stick around to a defined time in the future to receive. Those are real retention bonuses. Paying someone $1MM now to stay, makes no sense. Even if they created these 6 months ago, it still doesn't make any sense in that the CEO of AIG is talking about the need to keep people long-term. It is times like these that I cringe at the credentials of the people who are our representatives and I am astounded by the lack of their reaching out to those who could help them understand the issues so they can ask the right questions to get the right answers.

Staying Competitive

2009-03-19T11:45:00.000-07:00

This blog of mine was posted today on Glassdoor.com where I regularly contribute:

Staying Competitive: Tips for Interviewing in Today’s Market
Posted on March 19th, 2009 by Guest Contributor

It doesn’t take a PhD economist to know that supply and demand create all kinds of different outcomes. The job market is no different. We are now in the stage of what I call an “arrogance of supply” - meaning companies are more often looking for “the perfect fit” rather than hiring “the best athlete” who can be trained to become the right fit. When unemployment is low, companies embrace the “best athlete” model of hiring where they will take a chance on a person who is smart, ambitious, accomplished and shares the values of the corporation. Best athletes are people who employers would say, “have all the right stuff, now let’s train them to do what we need them to do.” In times like these with oversupply, companies often lose their progressive thinking and adopt an attitude that each and every person must be “the perfect fit.” This means it is more important than ever to stand out and be unique in a job interviews because if you aren’t a “perfect fit” you aren’t going to get the job.

Here are five ideas for you, beyond the standard advice, that can make you stand out from the rest:

* Come prepared with a solution to a problem. You are a smart person, you can use your functional area of expertise and evaluate the problems of a company and come ready with a plan to help them solve the issues. Example, if you are in marketing and you read from the news or the company website that their customer base is eroding, then you should come with a one page PowerPoint that provides the five ideas you have to stop the erosion. Even if you are wrong, or you misread the problem, you will have done something others won’t.
* Offer to start on a probationary period. Let’s face it; if you are already on the inside, then you have a better chance than someone else on the outside. So offer to work on a temporary/probationary period and allow your confidence in your own abilities and your belief in performance-based rewards to be seen. Offer to start on Monday and sign whatever they would like to be signed that you will leave voluntarily and positively at any time during the “try-out” period for any reason that they ask. This approach might be just what the hiring manager and the HR person needs to get the job filled quickly at a lower risk.
* Use the language of the company. Every company has a lexicon of buzzwords and acronyms that are unique to them. Before the interview, read the company website thoroughly, use sites like Glassdoor to read what employees talk about and how they say it, talk to someone/anyone who has worked at the company before or now and ask them for some of the buzzwords and “language” of the company. We all like people who we think know us and act and sound like us. Knowing and using those buzzwords can create confidence in the interviewer that you are a perfect fit for the culture.
* Know something that the interviewer cares about and then apply yourself to that interest. Most everyone you interview with these days has a LinkedIn profile or some type of web presence. Find just one thing about the interviewer that you can apply your skills/talents to. It could be that you are talking in the interview about how to adapt the company’s offering to Gen Y. You could say, well, imagine if we were to go back to your alma mater, (insert University name here) and do focus groups. These focus groups….” You get the point. It might be that you find that the person coaches AYSO soccer, is involved in their church, reads books like crazy, and does Tai-Chi. It doesn’t matter; just get one conversation thread going that connects you to them in some way.
* Give examples of how you make other people better. In an interview we get plenty of time to talk about ourselves and detail our accomplishments but rarely is there enough time for the interviewer to ask about how well you play in the sandbox. Come prepared with a story to tell her/him on how you have made others better on your team, on other teams, for the company as a whole, whatever it is, but something that leaves them with the impression that you will be a great teammate.

Keep at it. Just because you don’t get one job, doesn’t mean that there isn’t another right one out there for you. And always remember, you are talented!

A Sad Third Place...Perfect For Staring

2009-03-03T21:14:00.000-08:00

Back in the day, Howard Shultz founded Starbucks and created what he called the "the third place". Starbucks was not to be work or home. It was to be the place in between. For a very long time that worked perfectly, although a lot of people made it their work place like salespeople and free-agents. But, yesterday, I would say that Starbucks has returned to the third place, but it's not the place it once was. In the heyday Starbucks hustled and bustled. It was full of vibrant conversations, business meetings, rendezvous, small groups, etc. It was a great place. No one cared that the coffee was too expensive or the smell of roasted beans was replaced and gone. The place was about the place to hang out. A few days ago I was in a Starbucks in downtown San Francisco, in the financial district. I was between meetings and had about 90 minutes to kill so I went into Starbucks, grabbed one of their pre-made lunch assortments and a Berry-Chai and sat down with my laptop and did some work. After a few minutes, I noticed that something was different. First of all, the store was not as crowded as it would have been a year or a few months ago (or any Starbucks would have been). That is to be expected. The price of a cup of coffee is more discretionary now than ever so less people are paying up. Understandable. But that was not the change. The change was in the spirit and feel of the people who were there. Those who were there together were not the usual "up talkers" where you could normally overhear about "this deal" or that "opportunity" or "the next new thing". Instead, conversations seemed muted and softly spoken. But the real difference I saw were the, and I counted them, five "starers" who were there. They were four men and one woman, all who looked to be in their late 40's to late 50's. These five people, all dressed nicely, each had a cup of coffee or drink in their hand, a briefcase or knapsack with them placed on the floor or in the other seat. Nothing was out of the their packs on the tables, only their drinks were on the the table or in their hands. Each was alone not waiting on anyone else. All five of them sat at their table, with their drinks and just stared into space. This had been going on since before I got there and continued for the 90 minutes I was there. For a moment, as I observed this, I thought maybe this was some sort of psychology experiment that was going on, but after a while, it was clear to me that this was not a test, this was the real thing. What I was watching were people who didn't have anything else to do. These were people who didn't have work to do and didn't have any work that they could find to do. As I projected their stories, I saw men and women who had spent their day trying to network into a new job, had done all they could do for the day, didn't want to go home and instead headed back to the place that they could be most comfortable, their third place. We all migrate back to where we think is comfortable when we feel lost. The third place may not be the hustle and bustle of before, but for some, it looks to have become a refuge. It is a sign of our times.

Start Putting Our Mouth Where Our Money Is...

2009-03-02T09:01:00.000-08:00

Anyone who makes an investment, whether personally or professionally, will usually, at least at the onset of the investment, be very positive about the company receiving the investment and the prospects for the future. Now that the U.S. Government has become an investor in the financial, automobile and insurance industries it is time to start hearing that these are good investments and build some confidence that those of us who have paid for those investments will see a return. It seems totally nonsensical to me that we will on one day send taxpayer dollars into an institution and the next day publicly slam those who are receiving the investment. What is going on? If Washington wants to make a difference then they need to go into these investments wholeheartedly and with the same excitement and vigor that any one of who writes a check would do. Let's put our best minds and people to help the banks, the car companies and the insurance companies to not just survive but to grow and prosper. Let's start publicizing the good things that these institutions do and can do and celebrate wins and successes, no matter how small those would be. Let's have the CEO's of bailed out companies post a monthly report on Rescue.gov detailing the successes that they are seeing. Let's start putting our mouth where we put our money and talk the same talk out of both sides of our mouths. President Obama is a great motivator and could bring about the confidence change we need. But, he won't do that if he thinks that it is better to bring Congress to their feet by continually beating down the companies and people where he just invested our dollars. I want to hear that we are with them win, lose or tie...not just win or tie. If we aren't then we are wasting precious taxpayer money and our projection of failure will become a reality.

Labor Confidence First

2009-02-11T06:11:00.000-08:00

I have listened and read with great interest the debate on the Economic Recovery Act. It seems to me that we have missed the point once again. The Act started as a job stimulus plan and then morphed into lots of other things and now it has so much in it that no one feels good about supporting it. Seems that pragmatism gets lost in bill writing doesn't it? If we would stop for a moment and recognize that consumer confidence actually lags Labor Confidence (the confidence that I will have a secure job over the next 12 months with a wage that meets my expectations) then we would be spending our time and money on creating Labor Confidence first and consumer confidence second. Creating jobs is like motherhood and apple pie. It can't be argued against. We all would support, without a blink of an eye, a plan that for every dollar spent a dollar of wages was created. We might even support that for every three dollars spent a dollar of wage was created. What we have done is lost the line of sight to the issues at hand and then nothing gets done. I am more convinced than ever that we have to solve the labor and jobs issue first and the rest can follow. We can still get infrastructure built, etc. but only through the filter of jobs created. BTW, 4MM jobs created isn't enough. That only brings us up to parity with what we have lost. Our economy demands that we create an additional 1MM plus jobs a year on top of what we had before. We need a serious refocus on the issues. Let TARP monies clean up the bad assets and bad debt. Let's pass a true Job program that creates real jobs. There was a reason that FDR called it the "Works Progress Administration". It started with work that created works. That is how we create Labor confidence....giving us Consumer Confidence as the outcome.

The Smell Test

2009-02-03T07:33:00.000-08:00

I worked for a CEO who didn't always know exactly what the right thing to always do was, but when in that situation he would ask of himself and all of us on his team, to conduct the "Smell Test". The "Smell Test" was the test that if someone who didn't know why we had made a decision would hear of or see that decision, that person wouldn't say, "I smell something funny going on there". The "Smell Test" was 100% right, every time. This is what President Obama needs to do right now with the decisions he is making with the "exceptions" he is making with his cabinet appointments and the rules that he laid forth for himself and his team. I am disappointed that he feels, in these early, early days that he has to go back on the strictness of the rules he set for himself in the campaign and in his first week. to go back on those now, unfortunately, impedes his credibility as one who "wants to change Washington". These are tough Chief Executive decisions that he has to make. I have been there when I wanted to hire someone who I thought was just great, but in their reference check, there was a "catch" or something that was not right. Faced with the decision of "go forward and I am sure it will all work out" or "make the tough call now and cut bait", the right thing to do is to not go forward. If you do, the others on the team question your credibility and values. If you make the tough call and decline a person's candidacy, then you have raised the bar and set a new standard for everyone else going forward. I am afraid that President Obama is setting himself up for hurting his credibility as a leader. If the Senate has to make the call, then he gets doubly whacked as not being able to get one of his people through the Senate. President Obama, please use the "Smell Test"! From out here, it doesn't smell good on what you are getting ready to do. Of course Tom Daschle is a good guy, but he didn't pay his taxes on something that he should have known better. I can actually give a pass to TG as his tax issues were because of a funky overseas assignment, but for Daschle, these are things that every person who has services performed for them knows. And the people who were lobbyists, don't bend the rules. We are 300 million Americans strong, I suspect that there is someone else out there if you look a little harder to fill these positions who meet your high standards. Please President Obama, stand tall, make the tough call and don't add a new smell to your Presidency.

United We Stand, Divided We...

2009-01-28T17:00:00.000-08:00

Can we really be this divided? The stimulus bill passed the House this afternoon nearly split right down the aisle. Does this sound familiar? Has nothing changed? I watched yesterday as President Obama went to Capitol Hill to rally support for the bill and take time to meet with Republican leaders. Each Republican praised him for making the effort and trying to help bring the bill around to something they may not like, but that they could support. And then today they voted in a block and 100% of them voted "Nay". Let's see, tell me why the next time the President should leave the Oval Office to meet and discuss something before a vote? He did it because he told us in the campaign he would. He did it because maybe he is as tired as we are of the rest of the world seeing us divided on such critical issues. There is an argument that says, "well, there were some Democrats who also voted no, so it wasn't a pure partisan vote". That would be true, but the answer doesn't stop the real question in my mind; "why all the partisan posturing?" This division is far too ingrained in our politics. Even the visible fact that we split the seating in the House and Senate to have sides across an aisle bothers me. Why not seat them alphabetically, or by state so states can work together, or by tenure, or by age so they oldest (and hardest of hearing) can all sit up front? All of this posturing reminds me of that Gilligan's Island episode where the Skipper is trying to get Gilligan to do something and he crosses his arms in front of him and says three times, "You can't make me, you can't make me!, you can't make me!!!" I think I heard that same phrase today on C-Span coming from one side of the aisle. Elected officials, please, please, please remember the words of Aesop, "United we stand, divided we fall"!

Less Is More...Is It?

2009-01-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

It is official; not spending has become the hip thing to do. I knew it before, but last week I heard the best one so far. A friend of mine and his wife have a New Year’s Resolution; “No New Clothes in 2009”. I laughed at first when I heard it but as he explained it, it started to make sense. Enough sense that I have been thinking the same. He said that when he looked at his closet and did an inventory of what he had he had enough shirts to not wear the same one twice in 30 days. Enough pants, enough socks, enough tee-shirts, and more than enough shoes. Enough of everything to make it through a year, maybe even more. Unless your wardrobe is all Old Navy (that I swear is manufactured to wear out in one season) most of us could probably say we also have enough current clothes to make it through a year without anything new. Sure, the fashion magazines and runways will tell us that we are out of style but unless you are really vain about it, 12 months is not that far out of style to start with. And if you are me; I have flared jeans, straight leg jeans, and skinny leg jeans in my closet. I have striped shirts, plain shirts and patterned shirts. I have wide belts, thin belts and in between. Net, I have enough of everything. And the question is just how much all of us have already that lots of people will be doing the same and not buying in 2009. Retail has suffered already but I can see more hurt coming. It is clearly becoming harder and harder to find an attitude of spending to just help out. The more we look around at ourselves (in our house) the more we can see that discretionary consumption got ahead of need. And now when the economy needs just the opposite we are feeling that less is more.

Finally...No Excuses

2009-01-26T20:15:00.000-08:00

Back in the day, when I was a radio disc-jockey, if someone was having a dispute about a song, a TV show jingle, an actor in a movie, or who was alive or dead, what would happen is that my phone in the studio would ring and the person on the other end of the phone would be in the middle of argument and I would become the definitive source to end the argument or settle the bet. These days, since Google and Wikipedia, there aren't any reasons for those calls to be made (we never knew the answers anyway). But in politics those arguments still happen all the time and what happens is a half-bit of the truth gets spewed out and there had been no good source to defend what really was said or what was written. On January 20th at 12:01PM EST that changed. Have you been to http://www.whitehouse.gov yet? There it is. One place for everything President Obama says, writes, declares, appoints and signs. There is never another reason for any of us to be ill-informed or ignorant of the facts and issues. President Obama has us to take responsbility. The first step in being responsible is being informed. There is now no excuses! Go to the site now. Put in your email address and receive an email each time there is an update. And the next time someone is misinformed don't let them put the monkey on your back...pass it right back over to them and ask them if they read Whitehouse.gov?

January 20th, 2009...The Closing of a Circle

2009-01-19T20:32:00.000-08:00

Today marks what would have been the 80th birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. Tomorrow marks the first inauguration of an African-American President of the United States. While this is an important day for many people in America and around the world it is remarkable for me personally too. You see, I was born in Kentucky and grew up in Southern Indiana during the 60’s and 70’s. Living five minutes from Louisville, Kentucky, I remember my father having a gun permit so he could travel across the Ohio River to work into Louisville as a radio disc jockey during the 70’s race riots. I remember well that busing in Kentucky, when implemented, saw families from both races flocking to Southern Indiana. It was a difficult time for everyone. I grew up around it all and have vivid memories of the hatred and unrest. What I did not know until later in life is that those racial sentiments permeated my household and family. My father would not let me wear blue jeans because Martin Luther King wore blue jeans. That should have been pretty obvious for me, even back then. But, I didn’t realize until years later when I grew up and learned political science stuff that when someone was a supporter of George Wallace and the John Birch Society that those far right ideologies at the time included racial segregation and racist attitudes. I also remember my grandparents using the “n” word freely in public and private and hearing that word in my house from time to time. I grew up with all of this around me and from the earliest days, I knew it was not me to inherit these small and close-minded thoughts. I refused to fall into the pattern. I just refused. And now, 40 years later, I have watched many things come full-circle. I happen to go to church with the son of James Meredith, the man who George Wallace ordered to not be able to attend the University of Mississippi in 1962. And, tomorrow, I will watch Barack Obama be sworn in as the President of the United States, a man I supported for election and will support wholeheartedly as the 44th President of the United States. Tomorrow, I can feel that the circle for many will be completed; the circle of all men created equal. Tomorrow for me sets so much right.

Loss

2009-01-10T06:30:00.000-08:00

I’ve been hit hard by the death of Jett Travolta. I don’t know anything about him really other than he was not well and that the diagnosis of what was wrong with him was something I had never heard of before him. I probably couldn’t have told you before this past week what his name was and how old he was. I did know that John Travolta and Kelly Preston had two children but I couldn’t have told you their names. Now, in this past week, I have hurt (and cried) for their family. I don’t have children of my own, but when I try and empathize with what it must be like to lose a child, I begin to think I can feel some of their pain. And what a pain it must be. Celebrities get tagged with either being able to not handle it all or being above it all. John Travolta has been a guy who has been able to burst onto the scene and have wild success, disappear for awhile, then come back into the spotlight and find another gear. He did all of this and stayed grounded in his family and his religion. And this past week, he lost some of that grounding. There is nothing I can do for them but I offer my condolences and my prayers to them. What little I can imagine as the pain they are in, I know is only a prick to what the open wound that they must feel right now. May their pain be replaced with happy memories of the time they had with their son.

Spectacle is the Real Deal

2009-01-04T14:24:00.000-08:00

I've now watched three of Elvis Costello's Spectacle on the Sundance Channel. I thought the first one with Elton John was brilliant. The second one with Lou Reed not as good until Julian Schnable showing up (listening to him quote Lou was pretty cool). But, the 12/17 episode with Bill Clinton was really something special. President Clinton has always had the ability to talk like a real person, but to listen to him speak about the influence of music on his life and is depth of knowledge about Jazz was extraordinary. I also thought his summary of the four things that a President does was telling. He said the four things are: 1) Following up and trying to keep campaign promises, 2) Dealing with incoming fire and crisis', 3) Listening and dealing with Congress, and 4) Organizing how the White House works. The last one was the one that was most telling. Just like business, who you sit at the table is who/what will get attention. The White House works the same way. He described the people who were in charge of native American affairs and Faith-based organizations. As a consequence of having these senior positions and people, their issues got more attention. Thank you to Elvis Costello, Sundance and the Exec Producers of Spectacle for providing a forum where we can listen, learn and appreciate.

Scrub your Facebook and LinkedIn Friends!

2008-12-22T09:32:00.000-08:00

I just got around to reading Bill Ayers' (you know, William Ayers, the supposed terrorist friend of Barack Obama) NY Times, December 6th, Op-Ed article. In his article he details his lack of relationship with President-Elect Obama and goes on to say, "President-Elect Obama and I sat on a board together; we lived in the same diverse and yet close-knit community; we sometimes passed in the bookstore. We didn't pal around, and I had nothing to do with his positions. I knew him as well as thousands of others did, and like millions of others, I wish I knew him better". As I read his piece and heard him say, "Demonization, guilt by association and the politics of fear did not triumph, not this time", it made me think about the associations that we make throughout our lives that could come back to haunt us, even though they were innocent at the time. What is different than the past and if we fast forward to the future will be the scouring of our Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networks of the future to see who our "friends" are and trying to use that against us? Will the next Presidential candidate have to account for all of the millions of friends that they have accumulated or do we need to now start thinking about who we let in our friend networks or not? I casually accept just about everyone who asks to be my friend on Facebook and LinkedIn. I don't pay attention to my MySpace page anymore as it got too cumbersome rejecting one named women who were significantly younger than me. But for Facebook and LinkedIn, who are both better controlled for spam, I tend to trust that because someone knows someone else or I might have tangentially known them in the past that I let them in. But, I have no way of knowing that someone I went to college with hasn't turned into a subversive type. How would I know what secret clubs and societies they belong? And, especially I would have no idea what activities they have financed overseas on those annual vacation trips out of the country. I just accepted a friend on Facebook who I worked with early on a Frito-Lay back in 1986. He was a little wild and crazy back then but it is hard to tell now. His profile picture has him surrounded by five children who all look like him, but how am I to know that these aren't genetically engineered offspring to throw me off and never have me suspect that he is a spy for a terrorist faction? It really is hard to tell these days. Now, that Bill Ayers guy, are we really sure that when they passed in the bookstores they weren't passing secret code books between he and President-Elect Obama? Sounds like we all should just accept that we are guilty by association until proven innocent and just go ahead and have as many friends as we want because it is going to come up some time no matter what.

“Recession” or a “Compression”?

2008-12-09T09:48:00.000-08:00

One of the first things I ever learned about taking care of myself or someone else in a medical emergency was to apply pressure and try to compress the wound. I remember hearing as a kid growing up for all kinds of hurts, “put a compress on it”. Lately, I have been thinking that this is exactly what is happening in our economic situation. While the government is trying to get its act together on what it should do, we, the American consumers, are taking the only action we know to do when something is hemorrhaging. That is, to compress the wound. It is what we are doing with locking down our spending, sewing our pockets shut on investments, and pushing down hard on anything that seems frivolous or not necessary. And we are very, very afraid to take the pressure off for fear that the spurting will start all over again and we certainly can’t afford to lose any more of anything. So, I would put forward that we are in a Compression and that unless the government comes out and starts talking to each of us on how to manage during these times of uncertainty that we will not take the pressure off and consumer spending will continue to wither. When we said we were in a Recession, the powers to be failed to give us our instructions on how to manage through a Recession. Left to our own devices and thinking we are all only doing what we know and falling back on the little we know on how to manage. I don’t know about you, but I would be glad to see a First-Aid kit as soon as possible because I don’t like this pressured feeling and I wonder what happens if I keep this pressure on like this too long. I seem to remember something about too much pressure too long on a wound that doesn’t want to heal on its own will get worse and worse without blood flow. The similarities are just too frightening for me.

Oh, Those Names and Acronyms We Choose

2008-11-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

Those who know me know that I love nothing more than a joke or a one-liner that turns a word or a sentence into something else funny. My college friend Todd got so accustomed to it, that he could see them coming a mile away. As such, I am a cynic and many times a critic of naming conventions and acronyms. I go back to the days when Chevy released the Nova into Latin America. It was heard as "no go" (Should we have not seen GM’s problems even then?)I also cringed when I heard a United Airlines flight attendant say that their low-cost airline “Ted” was just “United without the U and I”. It also seems everything has to have an acronym or somebody doesn’t feel like they have done their job. American politics and programs are littered with acronyms and made up names, Fannies, Freddies, PACs, ACORNs, etc, etc. The most recent example that makes me giggle is T.A.R.P. Did the Treasury Department really need to come up with this and do they think that it makes me as a consumer feel any better about the program? I could argue that once again, someone wasn’t thinking. What does a tarp represent to most people? Yes, it is a temporary cover or shelter, which I can see where they were going with this, but for me a tarp is vulnerable and susceptible to strong winds and other flying foreign objects. It is only as effective as the stakes or lines that secure it in place and more often than not when we have to use a tarp we are worried about it blowing away and it does nothing but cause us more problems because we can't, or choose not to, fix the root problem. Maybe that is what TARP is supposed to do, but I know that its connotation has held up already that when the winds starting blowing differently about how to use the bailout monies, that Secretary Paulson was quick to change directions and stop buying loans and debt and instead focus on purchasing bank equities. Personally, I would have preferred not a TARP but rather a ROOF (Restructuring Of Opportunistic Financials) or a FLOOR (Federal Legislation Offering Opportunity & Restructuring) or maybe even some OOMPHS (Organization Offering Orderly Permanent Housing Solutions), and even better than a TARP would be the HAIL MARY! (Housing And Ill-Fated Loan Management And Restructuring, Yes-sir!). For the time being though, we have a TARP and as the USS TODAY said in last week's editorial, “Give TARP a Chance”. Sagging and blowing, hopefully not leaking, yes give TARP a chance.

An Area of Growth!

2008-11-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

It seems everywhere I turn I am hearing and seeing the shrinking of people who are leaving their homes to go to the theater, museums, ballets, operas, concerts, movies, sporting events, etc. It seems like leaving the house, and the associated costs of that trip, has become beyond discretionary, it has become prohibitive to many, if not most.

I sit on a number of non-profit arts and entertainment Boards and support other non-profit organizations so I see it first-hand. The thing call “subscribing” seems to be becoming a relic activity. And, getting people out to attend events, even when they are free, has become such a chore that organizations are shuttering these events and venues to save the productivity and overhead costs. So, it looks like an overall shrinking of audience, except in one place that I see. That is our church. For the past month plus, we have been seeing record number of attendees. These past couple of weekends, we have had people sitting everywhere we could find to be able and accommodate the crowds. Nothing has changed at the church. We haven’t changed the music or the message. What has changed, I believe, is that people are looking for more meaning in life and that the uncertain economic and world fundamentals are driving people back to their own fundamentals; the baseline quest for, and questioning of meaning and purpose. President-Elect Obama got slaughtered for his comments in San Francisco about what people do when they lose faith in their government and cling to their church and guns. I don’t know about the guns part, but he is more right than wrong about the first part and what is wrong with that? I like to say, “That when the going gets tough, the tough drop to their knees”. I personally, look to God and my faith to carry me in the bad times and I know I am not alone. I suspect that we are on the verge of a spiritual reawakening in America. We saw a short-lived one after 9/11 when people returned to their faith to cope and allay their fears. The same is happening again. I would also suggest that those non-profits and corporations who are looking for how to bring back their consumers find a way to delve and probe into what they can provide to help people feel meaningful and purposeful. At least until we are through the crisis, this will be top of mind.

Stimulus Plan II To Bring Back Consumer Confidence

2008-11-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

This surely looks like it is in the works. Stimulus One didn’t work, so let’s try again? In my opinion, if we feel that we need to put the power of stimulus in the hands of the consumer, which seems ill-fated since the first package didn’t work, then we need to provide the consumer with the tools to help right the ship. The two best ideas I have heard of to date, is first to let the consumer help shore up and fix the bank’s liquidity issues so that they will lend again more freely. This could be done by allowing consumers to buy short-term tax-free certificate of deposits from the banks and let the banks compete on what interest rates they will pay. All of those people who pulled their money out of the stock market need a better place than their mattresses to put the money, so give them 3-6-9-12 month tax-free CDs and when those mature the money made from those CDs will roll back into the consumers pocket and will be money to be spent. Part of the consumer confidence issue right now is that I won’t spend because we don’t know what is going to happen with our ability to make any money from our savings and investments. Bang, go remove that worry. Second, to set everything right with the housing market, the government can offer across the board 4% 30-year fixed mortgage rates. Making the interest rate low enough that those who are upside down can refinance and hold onto their homes and know that they are locked into a 30 year low rate mortgage will go further to return consumer confidence than anything else I know. If we no longer have to worry about the roof over our heads, then we may spend again. And, these should be offered to everyone at all levels. Those with wealth can refinance and that extra monthly money freed up will flow back into the economy to buy a car or take a vacation again. And for sure, the banks and lenders should get leeway to charge up on origination fees, etc. This would be a windfall for consumers, so why not let the banks and lending institutions also gain a bit from this. So, Congress, please consider these ideas. Don’t send another $1500 check out. It will only end up sitting in a pass book savings account to pay for heating or pay down credit card debt. Give the American people what they need, a way to regain their confidence. FYI, these ideas are not nearly as big of an idea as putting America back to work with planned infrastructure improvement projects, but since that is trying to eat the elephant/donkey all at once, let’s make some forward steps while we can to at least get true stimulus.

Did Mitt Romney just apply for the “Car Czar” job?

2008-11-19T14:56:00.000-08:00

I read with interest this morning’s NY Times editorial from Mitt Romney regarding the auto industry bailout. I must admit that I share many of his sentiments and concerns. The most foundational is the fear that putting more money into the same old system would only result in the same old output. GM’s open letter advertisement, saying, “People don’t think GM has done enough” (which they go on to try and refute) is absolutely true. GM, Chrysler and Ford have not done enough. The people are correct. Romney’s cry that there needs to be more innovation in R&D, Marketing and Labor Relations is dead on. I have always been fascinated with the Labor Relations approach and attitude of Detroit on both the company and union sides. Growing up professionally and learning labor relations strategies and tactics and having negotiated a Teamster’s contract, I can tell you that if Labor and Capital see themselves, as Detroit has for too many years, as adversaries or at the least, mistrusting co-workers, then there will be no innovation or progress to be made. The trigger word “concessions” is what we continue to hear that workers must make. What is lost is where are the “concessions” that the automakers are making on the other side of the equation? It appears that the years of lack of concessions from the automakers to change their ways and thinking, has finally caught up with them. And now they want to be “bailed out”. I like what Mitt had to say. His open professed love of cars, being from Detroit, his history with his father as the CEO of American Motors, and his broad view of corporate structuring and restructuring, makes him the ideal candidate to shake things up. I somehow think that Chrysler might have been in a better place had they hired Mitt away from the campaign trail vs. Bob Nardelli from his unsuccessful run at Home Depot. So, if we put government money into Detroit, which I believe we will end up doing, then let’s be sure and have a caretaker over that money and let’s put Mitt’s hat in the ring to be that person. How about it Mitt? Could you take $25B and turn it into $250B and set the course for an American car industry resurgence that returns to be an international powerhouse? You’d get my, if we could choose, vote.

Wal-Mart Needs A Government Bailout?

2008-11-14T17:43:00.000-08:00

Now, what if Wal-mart was going under and asked for a bailout, what would we do? They employ more people in America than anyone else and if they went under, what would we do? We might have to return to the mom and pop hardware, grocery stores, local pharmacies, pet shops, record/CD stores, department stores? You mean, if Wal-Mart went under we might have to fill all of those Main Street store fronts again with real businesses? Naw, we wouldn't bail out Wal-Mart would we? But, we are going to bail out car manufacturers who are in a world of hurt because the cars they designed, built and marketed like crazy, no one wants? Of course there is the argument that people want and need to buy cars but because they can't get credit, they are driving their current cars longer and fixing them up versus trading them in. So, if that is true, then heal the wound of the credit market, not put a band-aid on the car industry. if there are only two US car manufacturers left, will I be harmed any more when I go to buy my Toyota Prius, my Mercedes SmartCar, my Honda Hybrid, my Lexus Hybrid, or my BMW Mini Cooper? This is a war that was lost back when Halberstam wrote "The Reckoning". Let's not waste our hard-earned tax payer dollars bailing out a car manufacturer who has rested on their manifest destiny laurels since the energy crisis of the 70's. We have better things to spend our money on! If car workers need to be helped, then let's pass along the bail out money to retrain and move them to become wind engineers or solar panel manufacturers. Retool those defunct manufaturing lines for wind turbines. I'm all for helping those who can't help themselves or bailing out institutions that if they go down, we all suffer directly like what was needed for the financial industry. In fact, that said, if Wal-Mart was going under, I might support that bail out. At least they continue to use their heft and leverage to keep prices down and influence the rest of the world. Detroit stopped doing that the day the foreign car manufacturers started manufacturing their cars in Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana and other places and brought real change to the American roadways and Detroit ignored the warning signs.

Chinese Democracy

2008-11-10T15:03:00.000-08:00

No, this is not about the elusive Guns ‘n Roses album, although I do wish Axel would get the darn thing out and let’s be done with it. No, this posting is about the $586B Chinese Stimulus Plan that was detailed today in the news. The Chinese government is starting their version of the Works Progress Administration. They are putting their talent to work to build things that last; infrastructure, dams, transport systems, buildings, etc. Hmmm, wonder where they got this idea from? I tend to think that they are on the right path. We have learned over the last few months that putting money in the pockets of Americans doesn’t translate to the economy being stimulated. What has occurred is that we have taken our fear and uncertainties and let those force the stimulus money into savings accounts and mattress stuffing. And, why wouldn’t any of us do this if we were worried about our job being lost tomorrow? It’s actually quite rationale and I’m surprised that the economists didn’t think that this is exactly what was going to happen. So, here we sit wondering what would stimulate our lagging economy and the Chinese reached the economic moon before we did. Of course, stimulus starts with job security and job creation. This really isn’t that hard is it? And, as we drive on crumbling roads and bridges, send our children to antiquated school buildings, drive our cars because there is no viable national transit system, we are arguing over the next check amount that should be handed out. How about we take that money and we create jobs to lead us to energy independence? Last week we passed in California Proposition 1A to fund $10B of development for a west coast high speed rail system. Now we find out that the project needs another $10B injection from the Federal government (yes, those are earmark funds and depending upon how they are structured, pork) and the project won’t even start until 2020. That’s 12 years from now. Our roads will be long over-crowded and we will be that much further in the hole with our dependence on oil for travel. Come on, let’s take this project and start creating jobs to clear the way for the rail program. Let’s put people to work now and shorten the time frame to build the railway. Let’s get people excited and galvanized around progress programs. Let’s get people off of the streets and worried about where they will work tomorrow and let’s really stimulate America. If the Chinese can get the joke, so can we! It’s just a shame that we have to follow versus lead.

There’s Time To Be Sad Later…

2008-11-07T14:54:00.000-08:00

Last week, Patti and I received the call that we all dread as children of aging parents. Patti’s father has been diagnosed with kidney cancer. With that one phone call, we were snapped back into the real perspective of life. That is, that the fragile nature of our lives, we once again were taking for granted. One day, things are smooth and the next day they are choppy and potentially spinning out of our control. And we are so not alone in this. Here we sit in the middle years of our lives with the expectations that tomorrow will be just like yesterday. Nothing will change, right? It can go on forever like this can’t it? Duh. Why is it that we allow this fragility to sneak up on us? It seems that each and every time we get to this point we stand a this place with regrets and “ifs”. How do we in our human nature wake up ourselves earlier in life when we are invited to make the most of every moment, instead of waiting for the situation to snap us into the reality? Are we not just built this way? I wonder. Last week, I got dragged into another of Patti’s Oprah programs. On the program was the couple who created, “99 Baloons" on YouTube. ( I guarantee you will cry like a baby if you watch this so be forewarned - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th6Njr-qkq0). On the show, after Oprah collected herself, she asked the couple how they made it through. The mother of Eliot said something that was so profound that I don’t think it will ever leave me. She said, “we just knew that we had time to be sad later”. Right then, she and her husband were in the moment with Elliot and each other. They were celebrating life every day and making the very best of it. While they were also snapped into a reality that they hadn’t bargained for, their attitude was the right one. So, as I write this, Patti’s father is a few days from surgery and then we will know what comes next after that. In the meantime, there is time to pray now and to be sad later and today we celebrate a life and what has been given to us through him and we live in the moment, savoring each as we pass through each of them.

Why yesterday I voted for Barack Obama

2008-10-31T16:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Patti and I voted. We went to our local early voting office and couldn’t find a parking spot, stood in lines and had to wait to get to the voting booth. There was something that was palpable in the air. You could feel the importance and criticality of what each person knew they were doing. There was also a sense of nervousness. People were being extra careful with their ballots and wanted to be assured that their vote would be counted.

I voted for Barack Obama for President and I wanted to share with you why.

First, let me come clean that I have never voted for a President who was not a Republican. I was a staunch Republican growing up and subscribed to the principles of the party of fiscal control, low taxes and small government. I always struggled with what to do with social issues that would lean me more liberal, but I allowed the commitment to a balanced budget and financial controls to work all that out, and in most cases, for many years, it all did work out. I was proud to be a Republican.

When George W. Bush first ran for President, I subscribed to “compassionate conservatism”. I felt that it defined where I stood and I liked even more the idea that we could be conservative in nature but open to the needs of all and show compassion to those less fortunate. Even after all those Ayn Rand books, I still feel for those who have been marginalized and I want to be sure that they get their chance even if it means a little more giving from the rest of us. So, I supported George W. Bush. The first term was, like most, hard to define the results but after September 11th and the state of the world, I thought a change of leadership for the country would be worse than what we knew. So, I voted for him in a second term as well.

It was obvious to me shortly into his second term, that President Bush was not governing to the principles of the Republican Party that I had grown up with and that he and a small band of people were proving the power of the Executive Branch and going in their own direction and there was no agenda other than their own. To this day, it is hard for me to understand what it was that they were setting out to prove, but it doesn’t take a Phd in Political Science to know that things have not gone well.

So, about two years ago, I decided that I would break with the Republican Party and look for new direction in our government leadership. This was very hard for me as I was in a place where neither party represented to me 100% of what I believe in from values, principles, policies, programs, etc. All I knew was that we needed a new direction and I was open to listening and learning.

Because of my work and other activities I got a chance to meet Hillary Clinton on two occasions and be with her in small settings. I found her in those settings to be very Presidential but what was lacking from her was a sense of vision and inspiration that I felt that myself and the rest of the country needs. I may have prematurely turned my back on all of the Republican candidates, but I couldn’t see sending another Republican back to the White House.

And then Barack Obama came onto the Presidential scene. I had been in a live setting with him only once before, when I was in Washington, DC and was able to say hello to him as he passed me. I remember being struck even in that passing moment, with a sense of charisma and that unique “drawn to someone” personality quality that few people have. Patti and I later paid up for one of his big fund raisers as I wanted to hear him up close and personal (as personal as one could get in those settings). We ended up having the opportunity to shake hands and trade a few words about a friend we have in common. And then he spoke for 40 minutes, with no tele-prompters and no note cards. Those 40 minutes were awe inspiring. Patti and I both had chills as we felt like we had been in the presence of someone who could truly lead and bring about change and yes, bring hope back to America.

Since then, I have been challenged many times by my closest of friends, family, those I attend church with, and others in our social circle. Each have their own challenges to me, whether it be tax policies, supreme courts appointee consequences, Senator Obama’s background, his ability to lead, on and on.

I don’t dismiss the advice and counsel of friends lightly. We are to keep close confidants and counselors around us who share our same values and principles, so to be breaking with these people I trust and love, was of a great burden and weight.

But here is where I netted out.

I am just not a single issue voter. I don’t believe that the world can be boiled down to one single political issue. Maybe some day that might be true if I felt like one of the Bill of Rights was being directly challenged, but I don’t see anything in this election that puts those at threat in the next four years.

There are lots of issues in front of us that have to be dealt with; the economy, the war(s), international relations, energy independence, etc.

But, I am most worried how all of these things cut across the middle class of our country and what I perceive as a growing class-divide. I have been fortunate that it has been a long time since I had to worry about my future financially, but I remember what that was like growing up where new cars, second homes, or first class airfare, were not something that was even known about. Saving and being cautious about spending was what I learned, because it was a necessity. College was provided through loans, parental support, and working multiple jobs all the way through school. Today, we have too many hard-working people in America who live from paycheck to days before the next paycheck planning on everything going right because they cannot afford for anything to go wrong. We have working Americans who hold down multiple part-time jobs without health care coverage for themselves and their families, hoping and praying that everyone can stay healthy. And, we have productive American workers who without any fault of their own, are laid-off and put on the streets because the worker in India or China is cheaper. While this last point is a reality of capitalism that a company is going to find the greatest leverage and cost advantages it can, there is a missing compassion and understanding of the consequences on our American worker. It is the middle-class that suffers.

Our schools are a mess and no wonder that those who can afford to send their children to private schools do so. I was the product of public schooling but that was in the days when the best teachers could make a living teaching in public schools. The middle class having to send their children to sub-par schools today is only exacerbating the problem. We need real change in our education system for the middle-class.

There is a fair amount of things that Senator Obama has done or hasn’t done that I don’t like. He really upset me when he went back on his word on public campaign financing. I wondered after that if he could be trusted. I didn’t like the way his campaign slipped down the slope to negative ads and campaigning. He was supposed to be above that type of old-school politicking. His initial naïveté on international affairs concerned me. And, I am not wild about Joe Biden. I wasn’t crazy about Hillary as vice-president, but in hindsight, I think she would have been a good choice and maybe we wouldn’t have had to spend $1B dollars on this campaign and that money could have gone to better uses.

At the end of the day though, I decided to stick with Senator Obama as my choice as our next President.

I also understand that with my vote for Senator Obama that I will see my taxes increase and I will have less money to spend, invest and save and potentially less money to give away to charities. But, for me it is worth it. It is worth it so that the largest part of our population, the working middle class of America can have hope and a chance to progress.

Yes, our country needs hope. We need to put away our single issues and open our minds to what is best overall for our country in this complex time. We need to bring a renewed sense of inspiration to our next generation and instill back a belief that government is of and for the people.

So, whatever you decide to do with your vote, what is most important is that you do vote and exercise your constitutional right and privilege. And after the votes are counted, that we not stay one-sided and divided but unite behind our new President whether it be Senator Obama, Senator McCain or Ralph Nader (well not if it is Ralph Nader :)). It is time for us to put, as John McCain says, our country first, and unite in support of our leadership, so we can we tackle the problems and the future in front of us.

Thanks for reading my rant.

Rusty

PS: I have attached the New York Times endorsement of Senator Obama if you are interested. They are much more articulate than me.

NY Times Editorial
Barack Obama for President
Published: October 23, 2008
The United States is battered and drifting after eight years of President Bush’s failed leadership. He is saddling his successor with two wars, a scarred global image and a government systematically stripped of its ability to protect and help its citizens — whether they are fleeing a hurricane’s floodwaters, searching for affordable health care or struggling to hold on to their homes, jobs, savings and pensions in the midst of a financial crisis that was foretold and preventable.
As tough as the times are, the selection of a new president is easy. After nearly two years of a grueling and ugly campaign, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has proved that he is the right choice to be the 44th president of the United States.
Mr. Obama has met challenge after challenge, growing as a leader and putting real flesh on his early promises of hope and change. He has shown a cool head and sound judgment. We believe he has the will and the ability to forge the broad political consensus that is essential to finding solutions to this nation’s problems.
In the same time, Senator John McCain of Arizona has retreated farther and farther to the fringe of American politics, running a campaign on partisan division, class warfare and even hints of racism. His policies and worldview are mired in the past. His choice of a running mate so evidently unfit for the office was a final act of opportunism and bad judgment that eclipsed the accomplishments of 26 years in Congress.
Given the particularly ugly nature of Mr. McCain’s campaign, the urge to choose on the basis of raw emotion is strong. But there is a greater value in looking closely at the facts of life in America today and at the prescriptions the candidates offer. The differences are profound.
Mr. McCain offers more of the Republican every-man-for-himself ideology, now lying in shards on Wall Street and in Americans’ bank accounts. Mr. Obama has another vision of government’s role and responsibilities.
In his convention speech in Denver, Mr. Obama said, “Government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves: protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology.”
Since the financial crisis, he has correctly identified the abject failure of government regulation that has brought the markets to the brink of collapse.
The Economy
The American financial system is the victim of decades of Republican deregulatory and anti-tax policies. Those ideas have been proved wrong at an unfathomable price, but Mr. McCain — a self-proclaimed “foot soldier in the Reagan revolution” — is still a believer.
Mr. Obama sees that far-reaching reforms will be needed to protect Americans and American business.
Mr. McCain talks about reform a lot, but his vision is pinched. His answer to any economic question is to eliminate pork-barrel spending — about $18 billion in a $3 trillion budget — cut taxes and wait for unfettered markets to solve the problem.
Mr. Obama is clear that the nation’s tax structure must be changed to make it fairer. That means the well-off Americans who have benefited disproportionately from Mr. Bush’s tax cuts will have to pay some more. Working Americans, who have seen their standard of living fall and their children’s options narrow, will benefit. Mr. Obama wants to raise the minimum wage and tie it to inflation, restore a climate in which workers are able to organize unions if they wish and expand educational opportunities.
Mr. McCain, who once opposed President Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy as fiscally irresponsible, now wants to make them permanent. And while he talks about keeping taxes low for everyone, his proposed cuts would overwhelmingly benefit the top 1 percent of Americans while digging the country into a deeper fiscal hole.
National Security
The American military — its people and equipment — is dangerously overstretched. Mr. Bush has neglected the necessary war in Afghanistan, which now threatens to spiral into defeat. The unnecessary and staggeringly costly war in Iraq must be ended as quickly and responsibly as possible.
While Iraq’s leaders insist on a swift drawdown of American troops and a deadline for the end of the occupation, Mr. McCain is still talking about some ill-defined “victory.” As a result, he has offered no real plan for extracting American troops and limiting any further damage to Iraq and its neighbors.
Mr. Obama was an early and thoughtful opponent of the war in Iraq, and he has presented a military and diplomatic plan for withdrawing American forces. Mr. Obama also has correctly warned that until the Pentagon starts pulling troops out of Iraq, there will not be enough troops to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
Mr. McCain, like Mr. Bush, has only belatedly focused on Afghanistan’s dangerous unraveling and the threat that neighboring Pakistan may quickly follow.
Mr. Obama would have a learning curve on foreign affairs, but he has already showed sounder judgment than his opponent on these critical issues. His choice of Senator Joseph Biden — who has deep foreign-policy expertise — as his running mate is another sign of that sound judgment. Mr. McCain’s long interest in foreign policy and the many dangers this country now faces make his choice of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska more irresponsible.
Both presidential candidates talk about strengthening alliances in Europe and Asia, including NATO, and strongly support Israel. Both candidates talk about repairing America’s image in the world. But it seems clear to us that Mr. Obama is far more likely to do that — and not just because the first black president would present a new American face to the world.
Mr. Obama wants to reform the United Nations, while Mr. McCain wants to create a new entity, the League of Democracies — a move that would incite even fiercer anti-American furies around the world.
Unfortunately, Mr. McCain, like Mr. Bush, sees the world as divided into friends (like Georgia) and adversaries (like Russia). He proposed kicking Russia out of the Group of 8 industrialized nations even before the invasion of Georgia. We have no sympathy for Moscow’s bullying, but we also have no desire to replay the cold war. The United States must find a way to constrain the Russians’ worst impulses, while preserving the ability to work with them on arms control and other vital initiatives.
Both candidates talk tough on terrorism, and neither has ruled out military action to end Iran’s nuclear weapons program. But Mr. Obama has called for a serious effort to try to wean Tehran from its nuclear ambitions with more credible diplomatic overtures and tougher sanctions. Mr. McCain’s willingness to joke about bombing Iran was frightening.
The Constitution and the Rule of Law
Under Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the justice system and the separation of powers have come under relentless attack. Mr. Bush chose to exploit the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, the moment in which he looked like the president of a unified nation, to try to place himself above the law.
Mr. Bush has arrogated the power to imprison men without charges and browbeat Congress into granting an unfettered authority to spy on Americans. He has created untold numbers of “black” programs, including secret prisons and outsourced torture. The president has issued hundreds, if not thousands, of secret orders. We fear it will take years of forensic research to discover how many basic rights have been violated.
Both candidates have renounced torture and are committed to closing the prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
But Mr. Obama has gone beyond that, promising to identify and correct Mr. Bush’s attacks on the democratic system. Mr. McCain has been silent on the subject.
Mr. McCain improved protections for detainees. But then he helped the White House push through the appalling Military Commissions Act of 2006, which denied detainees the right to a hearing in a real court and put Washington in conflict with the Geneva Conventions, greatly increasing the risk to American troops.
The next president will have the chance to appoint one or more justices to a Supreme Court that is on the brink of being dominated by a radical right wing. Mr. Obama may appoint less liberal judges than some of his followers might like, but Mr. McCain is certain to pick rigid ideologues. He has said he would never appoint a judge who believes in women’s reproductive rights.
The Candidates
It will be an enormous challenge just to get the nation back to where it was before Mr. Bush, to begin to mend its image in the world and to restore its self-confidence and its self-respect. Doing all of that, and leading America forward, will require strength of will, character and intellect, sober judgment and a cool, steady hand.
Mr. Obama has those qualities in abundance. Watching him being tested in the campaign has long since erased the reservations that led us to endorse Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primaries. He has drawn in legions of new voters with powerful messages of hope and possibility and calls for shared sacrifice and social responsibility.
Mr. McCain, whom we chose as the best Republican nominee in the primaries, has spent the last coins of his reputation for principle and sound judgment to placate the limitless demands and narrow vision of the far-right wing. His righteous fury at being driven out of the 2000 primaries on a racist tide aimed at his adopted daughter has been replaced by a zealous embrace of those same win-at-all-costs tactics and tacticians.
He surrendered his standing as an independent thinker in his rush to embrace Mr. Bush’s misbegotten tax policies and to abandon his leadership position on climate change and immigration reform.
Mr. McCain could have seized the high ground on energy and the environment. Earlier in his career, he offered the first plausible bill to control America’s emissions of greenhouse gases. Now his positions are a caricature of that record: think Ms. Palin leading chants of “drill, baby, drill.”
Mr. Obama has endorsed some offshore drilling, but as part of a comprehensive strategy including big investments in new, clean technologies.
Mr. Obama has withstood some of the toughest campaign attacks ever mounted against a candidate. He’s been called un-American and accused of hiding a secret Islamic faith. The Republicans have linked him to domestic terrorists and questioned his wife’s love of her country. Ms. Palin has also questioned millions of Americans’ patriotism, calling Republican-leaning states “pro-America.”
This politics of fear, division and character assassination helped Mr. Bush drive Mr. McCain from the 2000 Republican primaries and defeat Senator John Kerry in 2004. It has been the dominant theme of his failed presidency.
The nation’s problems are simply too grave to be reduced to slashing “robo-calls” and negative ads. This country needs sensible leadership, compassionate leadership, honest leadership and strong leadership. Barack Obama has shown that he has all of those qualities.

Kindling a new fire

2008-10-27T12:26:00.000-07:00

I don't watch Oprah. That is, I don't watch Oprah other than when Patti says I have to and I get forced through TIVO to do so. Last Friday, Oprah revealed her "new technology find". She went on a rave about the Amazon Kindle and had Jeff Bezos on the show. Jeff didn't have to talk at all as Oprah laid out every feature and she was so positive about the device that Jeff couldn't get a work in edge-wise. He did offer $50 off of a purchase if you go to Oprah.com by Friday 10/31. That's a pretty good deal. I had already decided that the Kindle was my Christmas gift request for this year so this just reinforced what I already knew. It just makes sense to me; convenience, cheaper books, greening by not buying paper, no more room in the house for books, data and history files, cool factor, etc. But, that is not what amazed me. What amazed me was that even before the show was over, Patti said, "that is what I want for my birthday". See, Patti is not one who adopts new technology easily. She still uses a 2-year paper Hallmark calendar for her scheduling, a Casio address device for her contacts, a cell phone without a camera, she just moved from AOL email to Outlook finally, and she fought me and told me she would never use TIVO when we bought the TIVO Series One way back when (of course like everyone she quickly adopted and adapted to time-shifting). To have Patti, in an instant, say, "I want one" demonstrates either the power of Oprah or the power of a simple but dead-easy to use piece of technology. I think it was both, but like the i-pod, Amazon may have nailed it. The market may not be quite ready for mass market penetration for e-books, but by V.2 of the Kindle (word has it that V2 is coming already), Amazon may have won the electronic book reader war. And, it doesn't hurt that Oprah is there too. The fire has been stoked with a Kindle. Let's see how big and fast this fire can burn.

A response from Jim H

2008-10-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

I received this note from Jim H and thought it worth sharing:

I took special note of our thoughts on the economy, especially the "Disposable Nation" and the "Greater than 11,000 and less than $3" articles. I've always considered myself somewhat of a closet economist, I took several economics classes while in MBA school, so I try and pay attention to these things. There are a few paradoxes in the current economy, you touch on a few. One is the recession/not-recession topic. All the economic indicators we've used for 100 years say not-recession, yet the vast majority of Americans (including me) say yes-recession. I think that as a nation we have become much more economically aware in the last 30 or so years and we see it coming. I think this explains the paradox, we are not technically in a recession today but we expect that we will be. Thus the opinion of the American public is - obviously - a forward indicator. It is a self-fulfilling indicator as well. As an economist then, I would say that "all things remaining the same" then we will soon be in a recession of the classical sense. Unless something changes, and that something may be energy costs. People said we were in a recession when they saw $4 gas going to $5. Now we are at $3 gas going to ... who knows? I've believed that what set us off economically was the double whammy of the housing collapse and energy costs. I think our economy is very resilient for many reasons, and no single thing can really set it back. It took the two punches to knock it back. If we are at bottom on the housing crisis (questionable) and if energy has stabilized, maybe people will sense a turn and we will change the mass-psychological-forward-indicator.

This may not be enough to overcome the don't-spend mentality that has gripped us all. The paradox here is that what is good for us financially as individuals is bad for us collectively as an economy. Spending drives the economy, and durable goods replacement is a big part of it. We've stopped outfitting our homes, and stopped buying cars. That's the bulk of it. We can't buy enough clothes, lattes, or iPhones to make up for that. I worry that this trend - both economically and socially driven - could ultimately be a devastating structural change to our economy and standard of living. We as Americans spend a lot, most folks in other western nations have decried this over the last few decades, we've been somewhat demonized for our consumption. But that's an old story, I've heard it since I was a kid, and by and large the American standard of living continues to outstrip the rest of the world. I see a totally different psyche in the UK where my wife's family is from. We go visit them often, I've spent probably two months there in the last three or four years. Her relatives are considered UK middle class, but here they would be struggling-lower-middle class. They don't buy things on a whim. A couple of years ago while on a visit my wife bought her grandmother a new TV. She was surprised at the reaction from the family - it was a huge deal. They just don't consume like we do because they have a perception - mostly correctly - that their financial and economic status is locked and won't change over the coming year or the coming decade or their working lives. The upward social mobility isn't part of their core cultural belief. On the other hand, we as Americans are confident that we will do better next year and next decade, and that gives us a comfort level in spending. The spending drives the economy which drives the upward mobility. In essence, I believe that our core beliefs as Americans drive the upward spiral. Most European countries are stuck in a slow downward spiral. I would hate to see a confluence of events here in the US that could disrupt our upward spiral.

Decent and True

2008-10-21T14:47:00.000-07:00

I write another blog called, "Purposed Working", (www.purposedworking.blogspot.com) and it is a business day blog that uses the Bible as a reference guide to find purpose in our work. A couple of weeks ago I made an entry there that can be also referenced here, regardless of your faith or belief. There is a verse in the book of Romans (Romans 13:13) that says, "We should be decent and true in everything, so that everyone can approve of our behavior". I like this verse a lot because it not only tells you what you should do but also the outcome if you demonstrate these behaviors. Like I said, regardless of your beliefs it is hard to argue that being decent and truthful in all you do is not the right way to live. But, that seems really hard for our political leaders. The same political leaders that we look up to and should aspire. I have rambled on and on about their lack of decency and civility with each other, but I have to say that the most troubling is their flat-out lack of truthfulness and such, their lack of integrity. How easy they make it for someone to walk up to them and say, "sir, I can't vote for you since you don't tell the truth and lack integrity". I can only imagine the smooth responses back but at the end of the conversation the person who questions the integrity of someone who lied, wins the argument. Both candidates have recent examples. Senator Obama went back on his signed statement about what he would do about public campaign financing. He decided he wouldn't take it after he said he would and he failed to negotiate the clauses that he said he would before he decided to not accept and keep his campaign funding juggernaut going. He lied. And as someone said the other day to me, "but he he is better off because he did", tells the whole story of why he shouldn't have. Someone I respect and admire thinks it was okay for him to go back on his word. They think the lie justified the result. Why does it mean anything to me? Well, because when I was making my decision on how much to give to the campaign and was trying to raise money through others, I was told that we needed to dig deep now and fill the coffers because after the primary the Senator would be limited to public financing. so, I was lied to as well when he changed his mind. Senator McCain is not innocent either. I was appalled that he could sit on the David Letterman show and be caught red-handed in a lie about why he cancelled on Letterman at the last minute and he laughed it off saying, "I screwed up". Not what he should have said, and what our Mother's would have required; "I am sorry that I didn't tell you the truth. That is not right and I ask you to please accept my apology". To throw out a cliche of "I screwed up" and try and laugh it off, is just silly. Some would say, it happens all the time in TV, but I see it differently. I see not following up on a commitment, leaving another person holding the bag, and that person (in this case David Letterman and CBS) trying to explain to advertisers and viewers what happened and then passing on the lie that they were told. This is not America. We don't lie. We are supposed to tell the truth and Presidents who lie leave office or are ashamed of their behavior, and remembered with an asterisk into history. Look guys, all you have to do is be decent and truthful and you will win everyones' approval. You may not win the election because of this, but your loss won't be because you lose a vote over whether someone can trust you and/or trust that you will be a decent human being to others. Can't we just do better?

We, The Savers

2008-10-18T11:55:00.000-07:00

ING's CEO of Savings put this declaration out on Tuesday September 30th, in the New York Times and other newspapers. Patti and I were both impressed enough with the content that it has been hanging around the house. After rereading it this week, I thought it worth sharing for those who haven't see it.

www.ingdirect.com/wethesavers/

Take a look at the Declaration of Financial Independence, it could be meaningful for you.

R = Recession = Reality

2008-10-17T08:26:00.001-07:00

There is too much uncertainty right now as we grapple with what is reality and what is not in the financial markets. What would be wrong with right now, Secretary Paulson and Fed Chief Bernanke just coming out and facing reality and addressing that we are in a recession and then start giving us the antidotes for moving through and out of a recession. Seems like each time someone pushes them this way they come back with macro statistics that prove that we are not in a recession, thus not wanting to face the reality that it is not the macro that matters, it is the micro. One of my running buddies nailed this on one of our long Saturday runs last month. He was talking about the micro implications of the economic breakdown long before the politicians dubbed the micro as "Main Street". At the micro level, I believe we are in a recession. How do I know, well when eBay is slowing down and struggling with revenue, then that is all the indication that I need that the working-class American has begun to pinch the penny and stop spending. And when that dries up, then we know what happens to our GDP. Reality shouldn't be this hard to address. Anyone who can't address reality, whether it be a parent, a CEO, a worker, or our government, has a significant problem. Maybe on November 5th we will hear the R-word spoken about more clearly and plainly. Once we are honest with where we are then we can begin to take the steps to move to a better place...until then expect more irrational behavior and uncertainty in the markets. A good dose of reality may be just what the doctor needs to keep ordering.

Greater than 11,000 and less than $3

2008-10-14T05:24:00.000-07:00

Could it be that November 4th is only three weeks away? I have been in the Midwest (Ohio and Indiana) since last Thursday night. I now understand what it means to be in a battle ground state. In Columbus, Ohio the city looks like the political sign capital of the country. It is pretty clear who your neighbors are voting for because they have a sign in their front yard letting you and everyone else know about it. I should have taken pictures. There is no greening of political campaigns for sure...it is all about cardboard, red and blue ink and wire posts in Ohio. Indiana is not much different. And in both places the television advertising is dominated by political ads. Every commercial break has one, if not more inserted. What happens to the ad market after November 4th? But most interesting in the Midwest this week has been the (precipitous?) drop in gas prices. Regular unleaded has dropped .25 cents since last Thursday night when we landed here (I am glad I didn't take the refueling option from Hertz). All of sudden, the gas prices look reasonable again and you can almost palpably feel that at the pump. And then the Dow makes a rally yesterday of nearly 1000 points and you begin to wonder if the Washington powers are not moving us to a muffled or muzzled economy issue by November 3rd. It's hard to believe that could happen, but if we are sitting at our dinner tables on November 3rd with regular unleaded below $3 and the Dow at 11K or knocking on the door of it, then let's all just consider how things can be changed for the powers and/or the powers to be....

Screeching Halt

2008-10-07T06:37:00.001-07:00

I wondered when it would happen. I listened carefully and watched with a close eye. I monitored my own feelings and actions to see when it would happen to me. I think it happened last Friday. Last Friday after the Bailout Bill was signed and the market said, "thanks, but not good enough". And then it was reinforced yesterday when the picture was taken of the Big Board with the Dow being down 800 points. I heard it then. It was a slow building sound but as the pressure increased on the brakes the tires started to seize and as they did the friction on the road reached the breaking point and the screeching sound started. The screeching sound is the stop of spending. Since last Friday it is all anyone has talked about. It's in every conversation about how they have "quit spending", have put themselves "on a moratorium", "locked up the credit cards", etc. And the interesting thing is that once it would have been awkward or maybe even a little shameful to say, "I really can't afford that right now", now it is almost with a bit of pride that I heard a woman in a conversation say yesterday, "it's just not right to be spending now like I usually do". I shouldn't be surprised because I feel it too. I am waiting for the set of envelopes that come in at the end of each quarter. None of them will be opened with any expectation other than they carry numbers in the red which is bad news. I am stitching closed my pants pockets as I write this. A friend of Patti's who worked for over 30 years and retired from the same company, got the call from her financial planner yesterday telling her that she may want to start looking for a part-time job and if the market slide continues, to plan on going back to work full-time. In the meantime, she was told, stop all but necessary spending. And the screeching continues. What will this do to the economy that just 90 days ago was wanting to feel the effects of a spending stimulus? It seems that whatever turn or action that is taken has a bad side-effect. In the meantime, it appears the prudent thing to do is to keep the pressure on the spending brakes and put up with the screeching noise. One of these days we will be able to afford anti-skid spending brakes but for now, let 'em screech.

Politics of Personal Destruction

2008-10-06T07:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning on this "This Week with George Stephanapolous", the Governor of Pennsylvania said we have now entered into "politics of personal destruction". I am sure he was not the first one to coin this phrase, but it stuck with me, as I spent the rest of the day, more concerned than ever that the example we are setting as leaders to our children and future leaders continues to erode and worsen. At the risk of being sexist, I think this is even heightened with Governor Palin than the others. During this election cycle we have seen two extremely smart and capable women leaders emerge. They have broken a ceiling. I am proud that this has happened. It reflects well on our country. What is not good is the example we see our future women leaders seeing and thinking what they should emulate. Governor Palin has an even larger responsibility as she casts herself as the person who is most like the typical American. She is, more than any of the other candidates, carrying an even larger responsibility to be a role and character model for other young women and men to follow. But why does she, and all the others, feel that they can only win if they are mean and degrading of others? Can we not find one politician, man or woman, who will rise above the fray and bring a spirit of decency to what they do? It is not right to try and degrade and demean other human beings. Can we not see this and call each other out when it occurs? I realize what the holy grail is to a politician; it is to be approved by as many people as possible. There is a Bible verse in the book of Romans that tells them what to do to gain that approval. Romans Chapter 13, verse 13: "We should be decent and true in everything we do, so that everyone can approve of our behavior". It's that simple. So, please, Senator Obama, Senator McCain, Senator Biden, Governor Palin, please be decent for the next month so we can not only be proud of our leaders but feel confidence without reservation that you are the leaders our children and next generation of leaders can emulate! If you are really in touch with the American psyche, you will know we need this even more than we need you to win.

Disposable Nation

2008-10-02T06:55:00.000-07:00

Twice this last week I have heard younger people say something very interesting. Each mentioned, in different contexts, the idea that buying something new was a bad thing. One said this in the course of talking about managing of their finances and how they are cutting back. The other person said it in the context of the "greening" of the world. He went as far as to say that in the neighborhood he lives in that it's just not "cool" to buy or drive a new car anymore. I have sat with this for a few days and wondered what it means to our economy if we were to broadly adopt this philosophy. We the country where durable goods (like cars) get traded in for new ones well before they expire. It is, to use Senator Obama's words, "well above my pay grade" to understand this, but in my naivete, I would say that if we were to move away from our current disposable attitude (about just about everything) it might be good for mother earth, but our economy would certainly stall. This whole thing has me thinking and even starting my own little revolution. I found myself wanting to walk out of Peets yesterday with my large cup and put it in my car to bring back in the next time. I looked in my closet and said, I can wear those clothes another year, even though the style has changed slightly. I talked to my buddy and said, "why buy a new car, get a used one, you will save a few bucks and won't chew up some more of that carbon footprint stuff". Hmmm, those kids might be onto something, again. I don't know what it means in the long run, but I can tell you that it's not that hard to start thinking this way and I can certainly see why many will. I hope the economists have this in one of their models.

What about Elm Street?

2008-10-01T19:37:00.000-07:00

All we hear about now is Wall Street and Main Street and the impact of the economy and the bailout on these two now all important streets of America. I don't know about you, but in the small and big towns that I know, not that many people live on a Main Street. Main Street is usually downtown and has more businesses on it than homes. I'm not being precise, but you get the gist. What I want to talk about is Elm Street and the nightmare that is about to hit there. That's where people live. The ordinary American that both candidates are trying to reach. The nightmare coming to Elm Street will be when the credit markets contract to the level when someone won't be able to obtain a new credit card, their current credit card limit gets cut in half (imagine trying to buy a $3000 couch when your credit card limit is at $2500 or $2000), your interest rate on credit card debt doubles or beyond. There is a scary wind that is beginning to blow down Elm Street. I can hear the creaking of the wooden siding and the slamming back and forth of the shutters. If the Congress doesn't Bailout, Rescue, or whatever you want to call it, in this next vote (thank you Senators for being more level-headed tonight), then those who live on Elm Street, who work on Main Street and invest through Wall Street, should set their vote in place now for the next congressional election with the spirit of cleaning house and out with the old and in with the new. We can't have any more of this lack of putting the country ahead of their own political agendas. We didn't send you there for that. We sent you there to lead and represent those who fear and want to avoid the nightmare that is being conjured. Please remember that it is Elm Street that votes for you to go back to Washington or to stay home next time!

Purposed Working Blog Launched: http://purposedworking.blogspot.com/

2008-10-01T06:17:00.000-07:00

Hi there. Just wanted to pass along that along with continued Bolts of Thinking posts, I have launched a new daily blog called: Purposed worKING.

You can check it out at: http://purposedworking.blogspot.com/

I hope it is something you enjoy and if you do, please let others know as well.

Thanks.

More Bolts of Thinking to come, so don't go away.

Rusty

Only in New York City - The Big (but shrinking?) Apple

2008-09-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

I happen to be in New York City this week. It is not particulary hot here for September but there is a meltdown happening. 10%+ lost in the market in the last two days. It's not good. It is worse here than elsewhere being that the financial industry represents 5% of all employment in the city but 25% of all NYC payroll. That's a big number and this week's problems will have some real ramifications here in the city. But, only in NYC do you hear stories like this: When I am here on business and don't have dinners planned (which I don't like to do anyway), I like to find a local sports bar/pub, saddle up to the bar with my laptop, watch the local sports (Yankees losing this time of year) and catch up on email, etc. Tonight I was in a restaurant on 50th Street and while sitting here I overhear two guys who work in the financial industry. One of the guys was talking about what a terrible week he has had already. He stated that it started on Saturday with Ohio State being beat, then the Cleveland Browns got beat, then they broke in on TV and said that Lehman Brothers had filed for bankruptcy and then Monday through Wednesday market downturn. It was not a good week for this fellow. He then went on to say that the only good thing that happened to him this week was that his Ferrari won a gold medal in some car show in New Jersey on Sunday. What's wrong with this picture? It only happens in New York City.

The Unemployment Spike

2008-09-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

We learned that last month's unemployment rate in the US spiked to over 6%. While this is not good we should be happy about this number because while it represents the overall unemployment rate in the US (made up mostly of the manufacturing and construction industry) it does not represent the whole picture. If this was 25 years ago, pre-outsourcing and offshoring, the unemployment number might be 9 or 10%. You see, when Mattel, or Revlon, or Nike has to cut back on production, they don't walk out in their backyard and layoff their workers, they send emails and long distance phone calls to China, India, southeast Asia and plants cut back on their schedule or shut down. Who loses their jobs are the workers in these countries. While not good for those workers, it masks what is really happening and the impact here is not as bad. So, there is a silver-lining in offshoring? Maybe. Although when it comes time to create jobs, productivity, efficiency, etc. what will we do? We can't produce any longer. The phones and emails will go off around the globe and workers will be put on the payroll in the far flung parts of the world. Potentially this global labor arbitrage creates a better leverage with these countries that depend on us to buy our debt and to import to us. That could be, but I can't figure those numbers out. What I do know is that things might be worse than they look and no one seems to be reporting or writing about how bad things might be right now. If I can see a rock that is uncovered then I suspect there are many more that I certainly can't see.

The Big Divide

2008-09-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

This week we learned that our housekeeper has been evicted from her house after the house was foreclosed. My first question was, "how could this happen to her and her husband, they both work hard and are good at what they do?". She is a housekeeper and is limited in salary by the number of hours in a day and houses she can clean during a week. Her salary is capped. Her husband is a painter. He is in the same boat. You can only paint so many houses in one day and the market sets the rates for painters. Anyone who works with their hands, produces or serves based on their physical/hourly limitation, has the same cap on them. This is the problem with us having become a service industry country. We are capping ourselves just like our housekeeper and her husband. What really bothers me is that she and her husband got caught in the sub prime mortgage fiasco. They tool an adjustable loan three years ago and now three years later their mortgage more than doubled and they can't pay. I feel terrible for them. They are not freeloaders of the system. They were not real estate speculators. They were me coming out of school buying my first house. I remember it well sitting with the mortgage broker when I took out an adjustable loan. They loaned me the money based on my future earnings potential and the loan could change 2% per year with a 6% cap increase over the life of the loan. The broker told me that there was the risk that the rates could go up, but "when did that last happen...it was back in the 70's". I am sure my housekeeper and her husband heard the same story. But this time, it happened. And what are we to do about it? I worry about the haves vs. the have nots. We may lose our housekeeper because to raise her children, send her oldest to college, they have to move and rent another 30 miles away from us. Will we be able to keep her? Can she afford the gas to come this far? And if she can't can she get the same number of houses at the same rate in the area she will now live? I think the answer to all the above is no. They should not be "have nots", but the way things are going is forcing them into this category. Everyone talks about the divide being the class of living and spending. That is not what I worry about, I worry about that the divide will become so great that those who want to work won't be able and those who want to employ can't because there is no one available. It seems preposterous in a free market system but I can see a real life example staring us in the face and I don't like it.

Reentry

2008-09-05T14:44:00.000-07:00

I returned from the east coast earlier this week. What was supposed to have been an easy reentry with lots of time open to come back up to pace easily. Instead, it turned out to be a a wild week with calls, meetings, events, etc. It made me think that I need to be sure I get the angle of reentry right so I don't 1) skip off the atmosphere, or 2) and worse, burn up on reentry. I could imagine that either could happen easily if one doesn't watch it and be aware. I found myself a few times this week wishing I had made my 100 Business Days Out, to 200 Days. :) Doesn't mean I can't it there just isn't a construct around that for me to live within for awhile longer. I will need to learn better to put boundaries and constraints around my time....much better than I have done in the past. As I write this I am readying to go into the mountains for a few days and come off the grid all together...the first time I think I have ever done this. So, the time for reentry is not totally upon me yet, but it will be soon. It will be all about the angle.

Ugly Americans

2008-09-04T09:23:00.000-07:00

I'm disheartened by what I am seeing from the political process and this election cycle. The amount of pure cynicism and personal attacking and demeaning of the value of someones work and contributions to society is appalling. It's happening on both sides and it should stop. It's not right to look down on someones work experience and belittle it. What someone does with their time to serve our country and others whether it be as a Senator, a Governor, a Soldier, a Mayor, or a Community Organizer is special and should be celebrated and not demeaned. To listen to those who are supposed to be the leaders and role models to our country, the world, and most importantly to the leaders of tomorrow (who are looking for role models on how to behave), mock and belittle each other is nothing short of shameful. I get that it is politics but nothing absolves decency to each other. I have been in some heated discussions recently about the differences between the two parties and the leaders on both sides, but I ensure that I stop short of making a mockery of someones work. It's just not right. This political season was supposed to be about bringing out the best in us, to show the world and ourselves that we can operate differently and be better than we have been, and to bring in a new generation of voters who could look to their government and their leaders as positive influences on their lives. But, we are failing and sliding back into the ways of the past and we continue to earn that term "ugly Americans" from the rest of the world. Yesterday I was challenged on what political party was the party who welcomed in those of faith and moral values and which one was about trying to eliminate religion and moral values in our society. What I see is that that is not the core issue right now. That's a higher level of authenticity that we haven't even reached yet. It's still baseline fundamentals that need to be worked on first. What I see is that we need to make sure that both parties are living, talking and acting to the values they espouse. What I would like to see first and foremost from the candidates is that they treat each other like the way they want to be treated and start being decent and graceful in how they speak and act. Start with just being grateful of each other's service and work for the country. From there, I will accept whether or not they are being the person, or the party that they say they are. Until that happens, we can expect it to get worse and worse. We shouldn't stand for it and we should, with our vote, just make it stop.

100 Business Days Out: Day 100 - PURPOSE.. (#1 Lesson)

2008-08-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

And so it is, I am here. Day 100 of my 100 Business Days Out (in all honesty, I writing this two days later because it took me the extra time to really settle on this last post of this series. After 100 Business Days Out (which on some days seems an eternity and other days seems a blink of an eye), I have listened, talked, watched, experienced, and learned much. I started this journey as a way mush through what it is like to stop working cold turkey and figure out what to do next. Along the way there have been a lot of you have helped as you read the blog, dropped me a note of encouragement or said that something I have written resonated with you. I appreciate all of those comments. They helped a lot. I also during this 100 Business Days Out got to know myself again and to borrow Senator Clinton's line, "you helped me find my voice". Over the last 10 days I have tried and sum up the things I have learned during this period. That might have been more of a challenge than I was up to, but I hope the 10 lessons haven't been too trite. And on this last day, this last lesson, I don't want to stop the learning but rather transition from these 100 Business Days Out to another topic that has been the true lesson learned for me since April 3rd. I sincerely have no more clue what I should do next with myself than I did on April 3rd when I started this. It's too bad as I really wanted to have it nailed and be able to articulate it clearly on this 100th day. But, not to be and that's okay. It's okay with me because I went into this exercise time wanting to decide what I "should" be doing next. That "should" thing meant it would not be my own decision, it would be a decision informed by what is needed from me, what I could best contribute to make things better and what was important to be done. In summary, what was going to be my purpose going forward? And that is where I still am. I am listening and waiting for that call of purpose. Where does that call come from? For me, that call comes from God and no it doesn't come in a note in the mailbox like in the book "The Shack". God has never spoken to me that I could hear Him audibly. I believe He could if He wanted to and maybe He has tried and I wasn't willing or able to hear Him, but not likely. Instead, I believe God speaks to us through the Bible, through the intuitions we feel when we pray, through others who are like-minded, and through the circumstances of our lives. What I know to be true is that God does have a purpose for all of us. Whether or not, in our free-will that we are given, we choose to seek that purpose, find it, and live it, that is a different story. Where I am on this 100th Business Day Out is convinced that the lesson I was to learn during this period is that what I should be doing next is not within my own power but instead within the power beyond me and that it will not reveal itself to me until it is the right time and place that I am ready and willing to follow. It is the lesson of patience, faith and obedience.

In the meantime, the idea of purpose in what we do with our work is something I have long been passionate. We spend so much time in our work and it consumes, yes consumes like fire consumes wood and oxygen, all aspects of our lives, that we MUST seek our life purpose within our work if we are to ever be truly satisfied and fulfilled in what we do. I have many life experiences and have been blessed to have seen and done much within a short time that I want to give as much of that back as I can with the time left to do so. I don't know just yet the best way to do so, but I have come to how I should start. Beginning October 1, 2008, you can log into http://www.purposedworking.blogspot.com to find a daily business reflection of how to help make your working life more purposeful. I will be creating these for 365 days of work so that someone can drop in and check out as many as they would like, or follow along day to day. 365 small lessons to make the work life go a little better.

As for Bolts of Thinking, it will also continue and along the way with my random thoughts, I will keep you up to date with where I am seeing that purpose call coming from. And, when I answer it, I will be sure and let you know what it is that I decide to do next.

For now, thank you for being a part of my 100 Business Days Out travels. It has been my pleasure to give you a peak inside of me and I hope, that something along the way helped you too.

Thanks,
Rusty

100 Business Days Out: Day 99 - FINISH LINES .. (#2 Lesson)

2008-08-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

Funny, how it is for me when I come to the end of anything, I always feel like the finish line is the biggest let down vs. the moment of peaking. I am amazed by athletes who can so tune their bodies and their attitudes to be ready for just that moment of competition. We just finished seeing that in the Summer Olympic Games. Imagining the readiness of four years of hard work either being completed or shattered within a two-week period is hard for me to fathom. I went into this 100 Business Days Out expecting to have peaked right about now. For me the peak would be that I would have figured out everything that needed to be figured out, done what needed to have been done, worked through whatever emotions were to be worked through, etc. For the most part, the only part I really got done was to work through the emotions thing. I can say that I have successfully worked through these and feel pretty comfortable now in my own skin so that I can flex and move in a number of directions without the worry of my self-esteem cracking. What finally got me over that finish line was the realization that everyone wants to be in this position and I just got to it earlier than most and that I shouldn't feel guilty or weird about it. And no, I am not wasting my potential by taking the needed time to figure out what it is I should do next. That said, I do believe that I (nor anyone) should just fold up their talents and take them to the beach. Talents are different than potential. Talents can go away if not used and exercised. It's a whole different topic (and one I will write on soon in another forum) but an important one to recognize in life. But for me, right now, I am good with where I am mentally. So, the learning of the finish line is one that I can see and understand more clearly now than before. Arbitrary finish lines that we create in life are just that, they are arbitrary. But, I, and many others I know make these finish lines seem so real that when we complete them we are let down because we have given so much to get to one place not recognizing that there is another mile beyond that has to be traveled. And worse yet, we build up these finish lines to be so monumental that if we miss them, we are devastated by the incompleteness and we struggle to get back up and try again. I have been there myself and I have seen way too many people in their work lives reach for these artificial finish lines whether it be promotions, new jobs, financial attainments, or retirement dates. Each time, if a year, month, week or even a day off from what was expected there is a sense of failure that exceeds the accomplishment of how far they have come or the recognition of how close they are to achievement. For me, I have come to realize that there are no finish lines. All things I strive for and goals I set are just mile markers along the way, along the path to something bigger in my life that I may or may not ever know what it is. None of this means that I will stop setting goals and objectives (this is way too ingrained in me to stop now) but it does mean that I will think differently about the definition of finish lines going forward. If I can remove the need to create these finish lines within my life and instead move forward in a steady progress, I believe I will be happier because of this lesson learned.

100 Business Days Out: Day 98 - LIFE TAKES A BIT OF TIME... (#3 Lesson)

2008-08-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

...AND A LOT OF RELATIONSHIP. I sure wish this was my quote. It's not. It comes from page 92 of the book, The Shack, written by William P. Young. It does not matter what you think of the content of the book, the quote is one that I felt was telling as a lesson for me during these 100 Business Days Out. I went into these 100Business Days Out pretty sure that within 100 Business Days (which is many more calendar days with holidays and weekends) I would have the answer as to what I should do next with my life. I mean, come on, of course I could have the answer within this frame time, this is a lot of time, right? Well, I would like to say that on Day 98 I have the answer, but I don't. And, what I have learned is that you can't push these things. The time frame is not really my time time frame, it's a time frame that is bigger than me and I just must adjust and fall in line with what I hear and and feel that I am being asked to do next. The quote in the book as it relates to "a lot of relationship" is a reference to the need of relationship with God. That is for me, a truth, but it also means to me that in order to work through life in the way we are supposed to, it takes "a lot of relationship" with others as well. A great lesson during these 100 Business Days Out has been the power of relationships in life, but also for me, the need I have for strong and healthy relationships with Patti, my family, and my friends. And, where life is usually filled with all the things that put in front of relationship building and nurturing, it should be the other way around. If the days we spend, at work, or not, we were to start with the relationship first and then back into the rest of life with the patience of time letting things work out then that would be a better path. This inward out approach is the approach I hope to carry with me through the rest of my life. I expect this to be a lesson that I will carry with me forward. While I would have hoped that I could have come to this realization while I was working my 60-70 hours a week, I don't think I would have been able to internalize and make the lesson real and actionable. As the quote says, life takes a bit of time. The same is true for me and my learning...it takes a bit of time for me too.

100 Business Days Out: Day 97 - VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION (#4 Lesson)

2008-08-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

During these 100 Business Days Out I spent a number of blog entries on the validation one receives from their work and how that affects self-esteem and self-worth. There is no doubt that had I fallen way more victim to the coupling of what I do/did to who I am than I ever thought I would. I beleive it must have snuck up on me over the years and with each and every time that I would describe myself first by my job title and company that I was subconsciously reinforcing the welding together of work and self-worth in my life. Once removed (which took the same force that it takes a torch to cut through a weld) I have become more comfortable in who I am and how I verfify who I am with others. I now don't start with what I do. I can't since I don't have that crutch. I am more discplined to be thoughtful in the description of who I am trying to "become". The learning that has been of the mostimpact for me is that the verfication of who you are by who you are working to become is what people really care about anyway. Sure, it is always immediately gratifying to see the eyebrows of someone go up when they hear that you work at a company they admire or your job position is one that they admire or aspire to achieve. But, like instant gratification, that is fleeting. What people really care about, if they will talk honestly and openly, is who you are a character filled and purposed human being. Even in the work world we are not drawn to emulate those who solely just do. We instead look up to those who do in a way we know is the right way; with integrity, caring, excellence and quality of the action. Isn't that what we want in our personal lives as well? So, I have come to learn (not easily) that the verification of who I am with others (who I know or may be meeting for the first time) is for them to see a human being who is working to become (I don't know that the journey ever ends) a quality, trustworthy, caring and positive human being. From that platform, I can then receive whatever validation I may need to hold up self-esteem and self-worth. Try the next time to answer the question, "what do you do?" with an answer that starts with, "well...what I am doing is working on becoming a better person by (fill in your own blank)...." It is in this answer to the everyday question that I have come to find more about how I verify and validate who I truly am.

100 Business Days Out: Day 96 - THE MIND AND SPIRIT ARE MUSCLES TOO (#5 Lesson)

2008-08-20T22:00:00.000-07:00

It's been great to exercise so much during these 100 Business Days Out. I am reminded daily of the price of age with my physical workouts whether it be a run, a bike, a swim or other activities. But, I am also reminded that both my mind and my spirit are like muscles as well that must be exercised to keep from atrophying. I have used the time away to read a whole bunch. Since June 25th I have read six books and will knock off another two or three before the end of the summer. Some of them, like James Fenimore Cooper's Pioneers, McGrath's Christian Spirituality, and Doris Kearn Goodwins' Team of Rivals, were honestly difficult reads. The others less so, but without a doubt I have been reminded that to keep up, the mind must be exercised as as diligently as the body. Also the discipline of this blog and other things I do for my mind have been great. Writing for myself and others is a great exercise of the mind for me. But just as important, if not more important, is the exercising of the spirit. What I mean by this is the spirit that is faith in God and love for one another. Just because one has faith in God does mot mean that this shouldn't be exercised as rigorously as the exercise of body and mind. I have found that the moments in my life that I have needed my faith to make it from point A to point B has each and every time been because my faith was strong enough already to get me there when needed. For me, I exercise this part of my spirit through a daily devotional time, prayer and time with other like minded people. But even harder is keeping the muscles of spirit around love for others strong. I'm not talking about the love we have for those in our families or love life, but I am talking about the love for the not so nice neighbor, the love for the fellow co-worker, the love for the person who doesn't expect the extra attention or care from you. I have lots of people like this every day in my life that if I am not careful and conscientious, I miss the opportunity to ask how they are or offer my assistance when they have a need. This summer I was challenged a number of times with this either through the finishing of the construction project here and the hassles that came from others during that time, or the uncertain times with Louie and seemingly uncaring doctors, etc. Each and every time I am faced with those moments, I have a choice to either respond in a loving and caring way or to take the easy way out and fight back or internalize a response that festers. We all know the heart is a muscle. I believe that the love that comes from our hearts can harden and atrophy, if not exercised, just like the physical heart that does not get enough exercise to keep it pumping the blood like it should. For me, it stands to reason that the mind and the spirit are two critical muscles that I must continuously exercise, like I do my body to ensure that I am living and becoming the person that I am supposed to be. Having the time to focus on this has been great and I anticipate continuing to build these muscles to their maximum strength and longevity for a lifetime of mental and spiritual health.

100 Business Days Out: Day 95 - LIFE IS WHAT HAPPENS... (#6 Lesson)

2008-08-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

...WHILE YOU ARE PLANNING IT. How true is this? I think back to how I got to these first 100 Business Days Out and if I could rewind time nine months prior to April 3rd (the beginning of this free time)I would not have been able to tell you that I would have ended up with the company sold and me having all of this time to figure out what I should do next. It's a long story, which I am glad to tell anyone who is interested, but I will never forget the Friday afternoon about a year ago when I was standing in Penn Station getting ready to board a train and my cell phone rang from the investor who was going to lead the next investment round for SNOCAP. What I heard on the other end of the digital transmission was that because of this "issue" coming that had something to do with some problems with sub-prime mortgages (this was a few weeks before we read it in the papers)that this investor's hedge fund could not now make the investment in SNOCAP. That was the beginning of what ended up a decision a few months later to sell the company. I could not have known this was coming and was not planning for it, but it hit me out of the blue and it was real. That's a real life esample, but not a disastrous one like the deaths of Tim Russert and Randy Pausch were. I have written about both of them a couple of times during these 100 Business Days Out. They both hit me hard. The lesson that comes from these examples is that we just don't know what is going to come next. Change or tragedy, they both can come from left field as we are planning what tomorrow will bring. I am a planner. I always have been and I suspect always will be. I like to be able to see what is coming around the corner and be ready for it. And in many cases, that is what makes life run better for me, but that's not the way life always work. And because of that I know I can spend too much time looking to the future versus living in the present. These 100 Business Days Out have been really good for me on this front. I have found myself living more in the moment, perhaps because there is nothing to plan for the future, but I would like to believe it is because I am listening more to the heeding of others who for one reason or another have missed days and opportunities in their lives. Once a day is lost, it can't be taken back and beleive me, they go faster and faster each year. So, I know now more than ever that life is just what happens, reagardless of what you plan and how you plan for it. And with this lesson, it is more imperative than ever that I make the most of each and every precious day I am given.

100 Business Days Out: Day 94 - BOREDOM IS A CHOICE (#7Lesson)

2008-08-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid I would get punished when I used the word "bored" or said, "I was bored". I was taught that there are too many things to do in life to ever become bored. It didn't make sense to me at the time, but it sure does now. There is never a reason to be bored. I marvel at the people I know who have retired and come back to work because they got bored. What I have learned over these nearly 100 Business Days Out is that becoming bored is a choice that one makes or not. I personally can't imagine that I would ever get bored, what with all that I want to do but haven't even been able to get to yet. What I think happens is that people misinterpret doing what they have always done (as the easy and known way) and trying and learning new things (the harder and more unknown) and when the new is too hard or they aren't good at it the first time, they stop. Then, they run out of things to do and consequently, they choose to become bored. I have seen some of that in me too. There are things which I want to learn to be good. They are new and different to me. They are hard and take time...maybe even the rest of my life to become good at them. They use different physical or mental muscles and because I know the things I am good at already (and like doing them and when I did them because I was good at them I got praised or rewarded) I want to continue to do them over and over. That would be a good reason to go back to work. But what an interesting and difficult cycle life can become. We take and change jobs because the work seems boring. We go back to work because we are getting bored out of work. The lesson to me is that boredom is clearly nothing but a choice of attitude and approach to life. There is no shortage of things for me to do, whether I am good at them or not. And, maybe this isn't the point in the first place. It's not whether I am good at them or not, it's what I am trying and doing to become good at something or to do good with what I do. My parents were right, and how much better we might all be if we felt punished or felt guilty every time we throught we were bored. Imagine the possibilities of the new things we would try and do if we all thought this way.

100 Business Days Out: Day 93 - YOU ARE WHO YOU ARE...(#8 Lesson)

2008-08-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

...WHEN NO ONE ELSE IS LOOKING. It is true, you are who you are when no one else is looking. I knew this going into the 100 Business Days Out, but I did not comprehend it as fully as I know it now. What I know now, after this time of no one else looking is that there is a "me" that becomes the default for the things I will do and not do when left to my own time, demands and constraints. I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago who is a recruiter and he says that he sees a lot of executives who go to take time off and they end up in a bad place with bad behaviors, etc. I guess I can see that happening to people too as their default mode would be that when no one is looking. For me, I have found that when no one is looking I have come back to the basics: spirituality, relationships, physical conditioning, and doing my best within those three areas. It's not really true that I never have anyone looking, as there is family and friends and they each set their own level of accountability with me, but when I remove all others (work and outside influences) I find a life baseline that is more me than not. What I have also found to be true is when I remove these other "eyes" that I am driven more on fundamental principles of human nature. For example, I have found that bad habits are easy to establish and hard to break and good habits are hard to establish and easy to break. That is why, when all is said and done, I need others to be looking. I need others; family , friends, and yes, the outside influences to help me be accountable and be stronger than what I would be without them. I think of just the simple things that I do for myself that are good. I am a runner. I like to run and when I don't, I get irritable and don't feel good about myself. So, I will run, with or without others watching. But, to run a little further, push myself a little harder and add a stronger base for the future, I need other influences to push me. Signing up for a race and then letting others know I am going to do it helps me get pushed to train harder and complete the race as best I can. I can take this philosophy into my spiritual and relationship categories of my life as well. So, I have learned that I am who I am, regardless, but to think that life can be lived in a cocoon and still become the best I can be, is a fallacy. I need to have others watching to be the best I can be.

100 Business Days Out: Day 92 - REAL FRIENDS (#9 Lesson)

2008-08-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

As hard as it is to realize, your "real friends" are those that call and reach out to you when they don't need anything from you. During this 100 Business Days Out, I have seen both sides of this. Early in the time away there was a flurry of people who reached out to "help and assist". They were well intentioned and they would have done what I needed if there was something to be done. And, I want to believe that they would have done it because they wanted to, not because they knew if they did something for me, I would be there to return the deed in the future. Then there were those who knew I had time on my hands and they reached out for me to assist them. This ranged from taking meetings, reviewing businesses, giving career advice, making connections and introductions, etc. I did a lot of this. It felt (superficially I have since learned) connected and "in the game". These were the most disappointing interactions as some of them became very deep and elongated and at the end of what the other person needed, they disappeared. In fact, with two long time friends who were going through job changes I spent a whole bunch of hours on the phone with them and then never heard anything since. In fact, one of them, after giving references, talking to the headhunter to help build his development plan in the new company, etc. I can't even get an email response back from him to see how things turned out. What I have determined is that while these are people who I would call good friends, they are not "real friends". What I have learned is that "real friends" are the ones who care about you and reach out to help when there is no return need, or no need at all other than to be there for you. During these 100 Days Out for me, there have been six people who fit into this category. These are the people who have been checking in by email or phone calls to just "see how you are". You know who you are, and I thank you. What this lesson as taught me is that as I build this next phase of life that the time I have to spend should be spent with those that meet the criteria of "real friends". With so little time left, it is more important than ever to recognize that this is where it should be spent. The lesson also tells me that I need to do my own soul-searching and decide who I can be a "real friend" to as well. I am just as guilty as the others and I am sure there are people who feel the same about me as I might feel about them when I don't call or write. The lesson goes both ways and it is a real lesson to learn; the lesson of how to be a real friend.

100 Business Days Out: Day 91 - EXPERIENCE (#10 Lesson)

2008-08-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

I can't find out who exactly said it first (lots of people take credit for it) but the quote "a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument" is a lesson from these 100 Business Days Out that I will cerainly take with me. It can be said in many other ways, like walk 100 miles in the shoes of another man, etc. but the point is the same, in order to talk about someting with authority it is better to have experience vs. just talk about doing it. I always felt that way in my business life and for those who I managed, I always told them that they needed to be in the middle of the fray to understand what was really going on and to be able to speak from a position of credibility. Without this, you were just an observer. These 100 Business Days out for me have allowed me to walk in the shoes of those who have been out of work, either by choice or had the rug pulled out from under them. I have a new language that I can speak with others who have gone or are going through the same thing. It's like speaking a foreign language. You think you can do it but it's not until you become fluent in the language through immersion that you understand the nuances and messages behind the words. It is now, through these 100 Business Days out that I have come to an experience that wins out over any argument. This is a lesson that I take with me and encourage you to think the same when you are up against an issue or dealing with something that someone else is going through. Take a walk in the experience and shoes of others and on the backside of it, you will see a different side of you and a credible side will be seen by others.

100 Business Days Out: Day 90 - What I Have Learned About Myself in 100 Days

2008-08-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

It's now 90 business days since SNOCAP was sold to imeem and I found myself not working, or knowing what the next job would be, for the first time since I was 15 years old. 15 years old was a looong time ago. Today we had a visit from my god daughter Kristin and her family. She's 20 now and going to be a junior in college. She's 5 years older than when I was 15 and when she was talking about what to do after college and the summer job that she has now, I was reminded of the work ethic that was instilled in me at that age and before, and why I have been such a work-aholic all of these years. The 90 days out have been good for me. What I don't know is what happens after the first 100, but I am sure I will figure that out as it comes. What I am going to do, starting tomorrow, to finish out this series, is take each day and share the 10 things I think I have learned within this 100 days. I don't know if any of them will be earth-shattering, but they are me and I want to share back with others what this blessing of time has meant to me. So, stay tuned and thanks to everyone who has reached out in support, care and concern. Each of you are appreciated. The first of ten lessons/learning come tomorrow...

100 Business Days Out: Day 89 - Relative Jacques

2008-08-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

Regardless of what I have done in my career, I have always been fascinated with who is doing what as it relates to work, where and when. Back in the days when I was on the radio I would religiously read Radio & Records every week and I could tell you what disc jockey had moved from what staion to where down to the smallest market. It was just my thing. And then I ended up a "talent guy" in the corporate world and even wrote about book about it. Even at SNOCAP it was about what band was doing what, etc. So, the talent/employment thing has always been ingrained in me. Well, today I am reading some things online and I came across this article about a distant relative, Jacques Rueff, who was an economist and the father of the modern French Franc. As I reflect on this day, I think and wonder how much of who we are is already inside of us, ready to be revealed if we only let it come out? Reading this made me wonder what else could be inside of me that I just don't know yet. However if I spent time checking in on where the rest of the Rueff DNA ended up, then I would even know more about myself. A random thought I know. In the meantime, I give you my relative, Jacques Rueff:

Our dollar-based financial system is like a loaded pistol...

Today, we take a summer rest and let a dead man do the talking. Jacques Rueff died 30 years ago. But in a couple of articles written for Le Monde in February 1976, this economic advisor to Charles de Gaulle, explained today’s monetary system and what was likely to become of it. His articles were unusual, in several respects. It is rare for an economist to have any idea what is going on - especially a French one. And on the subject of economics, Le Monde has things worth reading about as often as Leap Years.

To fully appreciate Rueff’s insight - and how it applies to the macro-economic circus circa 2008 - you have to begin by understanding the problem of unemployment. In the world of the ‘30s, the triumph of capitalism was no sure thing. Communism, for all its faults, at least put people to work. Capitalism often left them ‘sittin’ on the dock of the bay.’ And here we have our first measure of how far we have come since the ‘70s; the average post-Mitterand Frenchman now believes that there are worse things than not working. Such as working, for example. Today, he is eager to pass laws to prevent it.

The real cause of joblessness is obvious, even to an economist. People don’t have jobs when it costs more to employ them than employers can get out of them. And in an economic downturn, the unemployment rate goes up. Because, in a slump, prices for ‘things’ fall quickly. But labor rates tend to be sticky. Workers have contracts. And rights! Employers’ profit margins are soon squeezed between slippery revenue...and stubborn costs for labor. Result: output falls and fewer workers can earn their keep.

In a free market, wages eventually ease their way down to levels that allow capitalists to exploit workers again. Always have. But for some reason, in Britain in the 1920s, this didn’t happen. Rueff identified the culprit even before Milton Friedman did:

"Since 1911, there existed in England a system of unemployment insurance that gave an indemnity to jobless workers, known as the "dole." The consequence of this regime was to establish a minimum salary level, at which workers would prefer to ask for the dole rather than work for less. It appears that in the beginning of 1923 salaries, which had been declining with other prices in England, suddenly hit this new minimum. There, they stopped falling, and since then, they practically ceased to move."

That’s why France runs such high unemployment rates today; its dole is bountiful. When you add up the costs of "charges sociales," paperwork, and the minimum wage, more than one in ten potential workers is not worth the money. But no right thinking politician is about to suggest the obvious solution: get rid of the dole. So, Keynes came up with a subterfuge. The central bank should cause price inflation during a slump, he proposed. Rising prices for ‘things’ meant that salaries - in real terms - would go down. That was the greasy scam behind Keynes’ General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money: inflation robbed the working class of their wages without them realizing it. The poor schmucks even thank the politicians for picking their pockets: "salary cuts without tears," Rueff called them.

"Full employment" was soon no longer a wish, but an obligation. In France, the Constitution of 1946 obliged the government to present an annual economic plan that achieves the goal of full employment. In the same year, Harry Truman pushed an Employment Act through the US Congress. And today the central bank of the USA has a "dual mission" - to preserve the value of the dollar while assuring full employment.

"No religion spread as fast as the belief in full employment," wrote Rueff.

"...and in this roundabout way, allowed governments that had exhausted their tax and borrowing resources to ressort to the phony delights of monetary inflation »

This is where the post-’71, dollar-based monetary system comes in. It allowed the US to issue dollars - and never have to redeem them in gold. At first, the inflation caused by the build up of dollars was moderate and agreeable, said Rueff. It reduced the cost of labor. Then, when the tether with gold was hacked off in the early ‘70s, inflation began "galloping away." Readers may remember that inflation got the bit between its teeth in the ‘70s, racing along at a record speed of 14.8% in the US in March, 1980, and even faster in Britain. The US government was forced to borrow at 15% yields. Britain could barely borrow at all.

Rueff died in 1978. Had he lived, he probably would have been as surprised as we have been by the stamina of the monetary horses. Except for a brief rest while Paul Volcker was managing the stables, they have run from bubble to bubble...delivering more liquidity wherever it would do the most damage. All the while, inflation continued to cut the price of labor. Between ’74 and ’84, real wages fell as much as 30%. Then, more moderate levels of inflation held them down for the next 24 years.

But Rueff’s insight comes with a warning. The faith-based, dollar-dependent monetary system is like a loaded pistol in front of a depressed man. It is too easy for the US to end its financial troubles, Rueff pointed out, just by printing more dollars. Eventually, this "exorbitant privilege" will be "suicidal" for the western economies, he predicted.

Paul Volcker put the pistol in the drawer. Ben Bernanke has found it. And Jacques .Rueff must look on in amusement to see what happens next.

100 Business Days Out: Day 88 - Made in China

2008-08-08T23:59:00.000-07:00

Okay...it's day 88...on 8/08/08...so how could today not be about the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics? First of all, if you didn't watch the entire opening ceremony, then find someone who has a DVR and invite yourself over for four hours. For me, events like the Opening Ceremonies are a must see. I figure that over a lifetime of watching these and comparing them to one another that you not only get to experience a significant event, but you also become a small part of that history yourself. This must go back to my parents waking me in the middle of the night to watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. So, I don't miss these kinds of things and I usually like to make a party or something special of them. Tonight, we (along with the Newtons and Sue's sister's family) ate Chinese food for dinner, dressed in our red, white and blue and sat down to watch the ceremony. I also have learned over the years that not everyone is "in to" these kinds of things like me so I usually get a little frustrated over everyone talking and going about their own business, etc.. So, I did like I usually do and go home (in this case go next door) to watch the rest of it on my own. And, wow was I glad I did. As Bob Costas said late in the night, "just retire the opening ceremony trophy". What I was most impressed with in the ceremony was the power of the people and the masses that they demonstrated. At one time during the opening drumming event, there was a feeling that was like when we were kids watching Russia and China exhibit their military strength on May Day marching through Red Square or Tienanmen Square. The might of the people, the power of the masses, the ability to marshall and synchronize thousands of people at one time, were all demonstrations to me why "Made in China" has gotten to be the three most household words in America. I was impressed. I was a little frightened. But more than anything I was a little sad. There was a time when our country could not be outshined. Tonight's events and what I believe these games will show (from the pomp and circumstance, the architecture, the competition) is that there is more being made in China than we realize. What is being made there now is the future. When you get to that DVR realize that you are not seeing science fiction, you are seeing the future realized right in front of your eyes; the next 100 years, will be made in China.

100 Business Days Out: Day 87 - Awakenings

2008-08-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

It must be that vacation season is over for most people as this week (and today in particular) my inbox became filled with inquiries, requests, introductions and invites. A series of request for meetings, conversations, advice and one very cool job offer (not one that I am going to do, but one that at one time would have been a dream job and beyond). All of this in a matter of days and hours. I was reflecting on this today and trying to get at the feelings that I felt as I saw all of this happening and I must admit that I felt an awakening kind of feeling nudging inside of me. Maybe it was coincidental with the beginning of the feeling that there is a season change coming here with cooler nights and mornings and change of light. Yes, it was a nudge of awakening. I am not sure it was enough to spring me into full action, but I did feel a stirring inside of me. I did decide that I have put off a number of things long enough and I have scheduled Monday for a lot of phone calls. It will be interesting to see how I feel come Monday morning. The stirring of an awakening has me both intrigued as to where it might go and also frightened as to where it might go. Up until this point I have been able to provide a blanket pause as to activities and interests, but coming soon I will have to pick and choose and master the art of closing (and locking) doors and just saying no. That in itself will be a new awakening.

100 Business Days Out: Day 86 - Window Panes

2008-08-06T06:30:00.000-07:00

Back on Day 9 of this (maybe overly exhausted set of blogs on one topic?) 100 Business Day out journey, I talked about the return of dreaming into my life. Over the many weeks since that post, my dreaming has continued and in fact expanded into a much more creative set of dreams and recurrences. In the last month, each night there are people in my dreams who I have not thought of or remembered since I was a child or in many years. Names and faces of people who I might have met once or twice have come back to me and I can see and hear them as if they are here with me now. It's really been amazing. What my dreams have also consisted of have been every abstract thoughts on many random topics. Where in the past, while working, my dreams would revolve around work and things that took place in the day, or were to just become extended meetings in my head to work out problems or anticipate conversations and situations that might be coming the next day. But now, I find that the dreams are less catalyzed by daily events or things that happen but instead more deeply instigated from somewhere else. For example, I had a dream the other night, and again last night, about the window panes of our lives. That is, that our lives are like a six paned window where each pane represents an important aspect of our lives that we want to keep intact and clean. What the dream said to me is that the broken window theory is true in our own lives as well. The theory is that when one pane of glass in a window is broken and not repaired that it becomes an easy target for someone to pick up a stone and knock out another until they are all shattered. And the same is true in our lives. If we have a pane that is cracked or gone all together the others (and the inside of our lives) stand to be so much more vulnerable thus it becomes imperative to ensure that we are constantly doing preventative maintenance to ensure that the panes in our lives are strong and intact. What I saw in my dream were the panes of my life being: Spiritual, Physical, Relationships, Vocational, Mental and Financial. What was interesting to me was that when (in my dream) there were cracks in any one of the ones above, that they all became targets to be the next one to be put out. Not your ordinary dream and a dream that I got to, I believe because my mind is clearer and less cluttered than any other time I can remember. This journey is turning out to be one of interesting revelations and if I get it right, then maybe my window panes are not only triple-pane strength but also clean and clear to see right through to the other side.

100 Business Days Out: Day 85 - Home Lunch

2008-08-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

It is our week of venturing out. Today, Patti, Louie and I took the ferry over to Block Island to have lunch and spend the afternoon with Jerry and Jenny Noonan. The Noonans, friends since our days at Frito-Lay/PepsiCo in the 80's, have been summering out on Block Island for nearly 20 years now and a few years ago moved to a spectacular home on the southeast side of the Island. The view is panoramic of the ocean and the backyard setting and view off of the porch is one that would make any postcard photographer covet. Jenny made a fantastic lunch and what transpired was, as we reflected on the way home, the lost art of the long afternoon lunch at someones home. Sure, we occasionally do lunch over business in a restaurant(usually because no one wants to go back to work) but when was the last time that you had someone over for a lunch at home in the middle of the afternoon to share a meal, a glass of tea or a glass of wine and just talk with no hard stop but just until there is no more to talk about? That's what we did (although there was still more to talk about...we didn't want to totally overstay our welcome). And it was just an ideal afternoon. No other way to say it other than it was perfect. Mark Twain once said that the best way to mark the passing of a perfect summer afternoon was in a ballpark with nine innings of baseball. While, he may be more right than wrong, I would argue that good friends, good food, good drink, on a porch overlooking the ocean with a slight breeze and good conversation might just be better than extra innings. I can also imagine how nice it would be to take an afternoon from the office and go home, with colleagues, and have the same kind of lunch. If you think about the intimacy of opening up your home for this, then you also can imagine the level of conversation and potential productivity that could stem from one get together. The afternoon lunch at home is a lost occasion of a time before us. After yesterday, I intend to bring back that tradition in our household.

100 Business Days Out: Day 84 - Honest Talk

2008-08-04T05:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we ventured away from Quonnie. This was the first time I have traveled more than 30 miles since I have been here (other than for the emergency trips to the animal hospital for Louie). But this was also momentous as it was the first time that I have had a pair of long pants on, not to mention dress shoes in over a month. Okay, let's just cut through it, the Jimmy Buffett lifestyle is not bad! But, there has to be those times when even Jimmy gets dressed up. We did so yesterday as we attended a reception and fundraiser for West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller, put on by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, at the home of Senator Clairborne Pell. The event was great in many aspects, which I will write about, but first of all, it was very special to be in the presence of Senator Pell, who authored the Pell Education Grants, which I received while going through college. It was an honor to be in his home. It was also an extraordinary event as Senator Rockefeller gave, from what I have witnessed, the most honest talks of any politician I have ever heard. He hit on all of the hot topics but in summary what he said was that he holds the same trepidations and concerns that most of us have about the future. He talked about the next 30-40 years being "years of sacrifice" if we want to leave behind a better country for the next generations. His genuine concern and words about the inability to get things done in today's government were not said to inspire or bring about hope. They were to ground us in the reality that we are a country in trouble. We do not have the financial strength or capabilities to do all that is needed. We are in tough times and a difficult situation and we aren't going to get through all of this without having to make significant changes and sacrifices. Patti and I didn't go home excited or buoyant, but we did go home feeling like we had been spoken to honestly, plainly and bluntly. That is a rarity in today's age. I continue to believe, and while it does cost money, that the best way to gauge our political representatives is to spend time with them face to face in small groups. For this one it took two Californians to be across the country and available (another blessing of this time away), invited by a Rhode Island Senator, to meet a West Virginian Senator. But, for a few words of honesty, it was all well worth it.

100 Business Days Out: Day 83 - New Faces

2008-08-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

Fig and Sue brought friends up from Columbus for the weekend. Bryan, Harrah, Scott and Shelly. They got in late last night (later than they expected because of mechanical plane problems) and we met them this morning for a run and walk. We than added them into our routine of the day: the workout, some piddling time, off to beach around noon, hang out there until 3 or 4, back to the house for shower and happy hour, and then dinner, and then time in the fire pit talking, and then off to bed. What I now take for granted as a routine was for them, (and others who come visit), a great vacation day. Oh the things we take for granted if we are not careful. Fig and Sue's friends are great. That should not be surprising when you think about it. Leaves don't fall far from the tree, birds of a feather, etc. They all apply. It does make me stop and think on why when we work we aren't surrounded with our best friends and family. The family stuff is an easy answer. We have spent the last 50 years trying to get rid of families in business with anti-nepotism policies. I have to come to think that this is actually antiquated thinking. Family-oriented businesses have for a long time thrived and grown (and might even last longer than other businesses) and they are built on the foundation of people who want to be with each other and have a true vested interest in the continued success of the business. I think we should be trying to return to the family model and make work again a place where it would not be out of the ordinary to be in a meeting with your brother or daughter. And as to friends, we need to figure out how to work with the best of our friends if we are to make work the enjoyable experience it should be. After today hanging with Fig's friends (two of them work with him), I could see myself wanting to work with them and I can imagine how they get along at the office. That's the way it is supposed to work. I am just glad I get a few days with them to enjoy the new company and make friends of the new faces.

100 Business Days Out: Day 82 - Small Things

2008-07-31T22:43:00.000-07:00

I remain amazed at how when your brain has room in it (like when you aren't stressed, aren't up against a deadline, or aren't all-consumed with one thing) that you can see the small things in life. Of course they are there all the time but the perspective is different when the foreground never lets you see in to the background. What brought me to this today was the realization that tonight at 9:00pm that it was dark. How could that be when just yesterday, it seemed, it was still light at 9:30pm. The days are getting shorter already which means that the summer is passing and that we will be heading home in less than a month. Even the light is starting to change with the mornings becoming a little crisper. It's hard to see the small changes in life when we let them speed past us. When we slow it down, we can start to see the increments that make up the bigger picture. And when we can do that, then we can start to appreciate and make the most of the here and now. How many times do we blink and the day is gone? We say, where did the day go? Meetings blend from one to another and conversations we had in the morning seem like distant memories by the end of the day. If I learn anything from this time away and out, is that turnning down the speed of a day by a notch or two is well worth it. Taking a moment or two from the day to stop and reflect makes the day much more clear. Marking time by things we want to remember and appreciate is just a better way. I mark this day as a bit shorter than yesterday and a little longer than tomorrow, which means I have to make even more of tomorrow than today, one small thing after another.