Global Warming doesn't always mean warmer

I know that the term global warming makes it sound like we are all going to warm up, but in fact this climate change doesn't always mean warmer, it just means more extreme. It's probably why it took an extra 2 days to get from Boston to Central Oregon for my holiday break, snow and ice on both coasts.

These extremes are coming at a time when cities and counties are already strapped for cash and the inability to clean up after these storms means only more federal aide requests. It's a cycle this global warming/climate change thing, and as much as our soon to be previous leaders wanted to believe it wouldn't affect their country, they were wrong... and now, we pay...

I hope we learned from the lessons of the past and learn not to turn a blind eye when very smart people come to the table with really difficult news, we should listen. Just because it's hard doesn't mean it shouldn't be talked about or researched more. With the new administration I hope there will be a pile of money available to help with the research and possible innovation that might have prevented the continual increase in greenhouse gasses. And maybe that pile of money will also help local governments when they can't help after some of this extreme weather reeks havoc across the country.

How ironic would it be if the bailout went unaccounted for

I was at the gym yesterday and I was watching CNBC or something like that and they were talking about how they contacted all the banks that got more than $2m from the bailout money and asked where it went. The guy at the bank basically said, they lent some, they kept some and that no one had told them to keep track of it. I find it highly entertaining and even more highly disturbing that with all the talk about how de-regulation was the cause of all these problems in the first place, it seems to me that the first thing that should have happened when we started handing out some of our hard earned tax dollars was that we actually learned from our mistakes and asked where it was going... doesn't look like that happened.

This is why making a hasty decision like the bailout wasn't and isn't right. If those banks were so far in the hole that they were going to go out of business in less than a month then they deserved to go out of business and we would be better off without them. But, I am guessing that most of them could have figured out a few ways to un-burden themselves long enough to give the Congress, House of Reps and even our President a month to figure out a constructive way to help them out, that might not have cost the tax payers as much, only to have no account as to where things are...

I struggle with my need as an American to get everything the minute that I need it. That's why so many people have made so much money on fad diet pills and, pyramid schemes in this country, because even though history tells us different, we want to believe that it's just that easy.

And if there's one thing that I've learned unless you are a billion dollar bank who begs the government for money and cries wolf the minute the interest rates drop, it's not that easy...

40 year old mouse?

Today is the 40th anniversary of the computer mouse. I would venture to say that 20 years ago upper middle class people had regular access to computers, 10 years ago I sat in my college dorm room and logged onto the internet via AOL. Today I store all my docs on google docs, I use facebook to keep in touch with friends, I do all my shopping online and spend more time emailing than I do on the phone.

I don't know about you, but I am a little scared but very excited about the next 40 years.

The status of our environment in 1961 via Steinbeck

Being unemployed, I am getting through some of the books that have been on my shelf for quite sometime and am uncovering things I never knew I would find. Last night for instance I started Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck. One passage I found quite insightful about the status of American consumption and what it does to the earth comes within the first 30 pages of the book.

"American cities are like badger holes, ringed with trash- all of them- surrounded by piles of wrecked and rusting automobiles, and almost smothered with rubbish. Everything we use comes in boxes, cartons, bins, the so-called packaging we love so much. The mountains of things we throw away are much greater than the things we use. In this, if in no other way, we can see the wild and reckless exuberance of our production, and waste seems to be the index...I do wonder whether there will come a time when we can no longer afford our wastefulness-chemical wastes in the rivers, metal wastes everywhere, and atomic wastes buried deep in the earth or sunk in sea."

Steinbeck wrote this book in 1961 and even then he knew what we were destined to become. I believe that we are probably better at hiding our trash, but it doesn't mean it's not there and it's not doing the same damage it was doing 40 years ago.

I need a bailout

I was joking with a girlfriend last night that we should be able to apply for the middle-class white girl bail out. I have been part of this plighted group since I was born, and after 29 years I am unemployed, overly-educated, and clearly not going to make it another day. ;-) I need someone to bail me out! But wait! I am competitive, I am agile, I like to learn new things, I always have fun new ideas, I have tons of business plans just waiting to be funded, I am able to support myself and I know that my highly expensive education won't go to waste... This is where "The Big Three" and I are different.

They, for the past 30 years, have tried so hard not to be competitive. Instead they have continued to pay lobbyists in order to make sure that they didn't have to spend R&D money on environmentally friendly, globally competitive cars. They continued to pay ridiculous pensions, which if I was getting one, I would be super happy about but most private companies did away with pensions decades ago. They were mis-guided, they took their eye off the ball, they "went with the status quo because that's what they know." (Great quote, heard from Kendra).

Our country should not bailout corporations like the "big three" who clearly don't want to help us grow. I think I have said it in this blog before, but we are a country that invents, we create, we develop, we figure out better ways to do old things. The big three don't do that. They need to go. We need to get another industry up in Detroit, and I know there are smart people up there who have great ideas probably like me, tons of business plans who can't get funded because they are surrounded by people who have tunnel vision that they need the auto industry to support them in everything they want...

What the American Economy needs

I just read a great article by Michael Porter, a Harvard Business school Professor. He talks about the seven competitive strengths, and then discusses what we need to do as a country in order to get ourselves back on track and to help regain our position as a world power. If I were an incoming President I would take his suggestions to heart.

Some of the better points that I completely agree with are that:
1. We have ignored our educational institutions and this is critical if we want to regain our global economic position
2. We have over-regulated in some industries and under-regulated in others and the imbalance has left us without the advantage that was once the "American Way."

There are many more great points in this article that resonated with me. Please read it and tell your friends to read it...

Tired

I have just started Ultimate Bootcamp, and I am tired. I was reading two other blog posts today that talked about tired in a slightly different light and I think they are both relevant and pretty illustrative of where we are headed as a country and a culture.

The first, by Seth Godin, who I read at least three times a week. He is a straight shooter the way our politicians dream they could be. He calls it like it is and most of the time has some really interesting insight about how you can make your business better. Today, his post was titled, "Is Effort a Myth?" He talked about how people tend to cling to being lucky and just talented and claim that's the reason they haven't gotten ahead. He challenges that theory by suggesting that it's up to each of us to do something new everyday in order to learn and grow, actually put some effort in. We can't do that if we are tired.

In another blog that I follow: Dave Taylor from the Business Blog at Intuitive writes about sloppy PR pitches. He wrote about one from Bloomingdales and another from Disney most recently. PR gets a bad wrap because I know some really great PR people out there that develop relationships with journalists and clients and are able to clearly communicate stories that are relevant. They don't blast pitch every journalist in New England when only one of those journalists cares about the story. They search and search for that one person and read what they have been writing and make sure that the journalist knows about their story. They pitch it to the one most relevant person. It's not a job for the weak or tired.

Basically, the way I see it, it's coming down to work. I feel like our country was super excited about the computer because it allowed them to do things so much faster. Then came Email, the Internet, Web Conferencing, iPhones, etc. Now it's easy, but it requires more work. We have to be more diligent. We have to find what we love and do it well and completely and that's the only way we will make it. As the politicians said in the debate tonight, our country is full of smart inventive people, now we need to actually work at it. It's no longer about luck but about hard work. A little Protestant Ethic that hopefully will remind us it's not about being at the right place at the right time, but about making your own right place and right time with hard work, there is no place for tired here.

A logical response to all that is the " crazy state of the economy"

Uncle Tom is a huge Dave Ramsey fan. And after reading his book I am a fan as well, I don't know why I didn't look for Dave's perspective earlier, but Uncle Tom came through again! Here is a link to what Dave thinks we should do, and below you will find the text from his assessment!

The Common Sense Fix

Years of bad decisions and stupid mistakes have created an economic nightmare in this country,
but $700 billion in new debt is not the answer. As a tax-paying American citizen, I will not support any congressperson who votes to implement such a policy. Instead, I submit the following three stepCommon Sense Plan.

I. INSURANCE
a. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance.
Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity.
b. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things:
1. Rewrite any mortgage that is more than three months delinquent to a 6% fixed-rate mortgage.
a. Roll all back payments with no late fees or legal costs into the balance. This brings homeowners current and allows them a chance to keep their homes.
b. Cancel all prepayment penalties to encourage refinancing or the sale of the property to pay off the bad loan. In the event of foreclosure or short sale, the borrower will not be held liable for any deficit balance. FHA does this now, and that encourages mortgage companies to go the extra mile while working with the borrower—again limiting foreclosures and ruined lives.
2. Cancel ALL golden parachutes of EXISTING and FUTURE CEOs and executive team members as long as the company holds these government-insured bonds/mortgages. This keeps underperforming executives from being paid when they don’t do their jobs.
c. This backstop will cost less than $50 billion—a small fraction of the current proposal.

II. MARK TO MARKET
a. Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III bonds/mortgages. This keeps companies from being forced to artificially mark down bonds/mortgages below the value of the underlying mortgages and real estate.
b. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing.

III. CAPITAL GAINS TAX
a. Remove the capital gains tax completely. Investors will flood the real estate and stock
market in search of tax-free profits, creating tremendous—and immediate—liquidity in the markets. Again, this costs the taxpayer nothing.
b. This move will be seen as a lightning rod politically because many will say it is helping the rich. The truth is the rich will benefit, but it will be their money that stimulates the economy. This will enable all Americans to have more stable jobs and retirement investments that go up instead of down.

This is not a time for envy, and it’s not a time for politics. It’s time for all of us, as Americans, to stand up, speak out, and fix this mess.

Economist: Why Bankruptcy is Better than Wall Street Bailout

This is the kind of smart economist I was talking about... "Congress has balked at the Bush administration's proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. Under this plan, the Treasury would have bought the "troubled assets" of financial institutions in an attempt to avoid economic meltdown. This bailout was a terrible idea. Here's why."

read more | digg story

Bailout = Rescue? Really?

Overnight the former "Bailout" Plan is now referred to as a "Rescue" Plan. I find that this slight change, clearly brought on by strategic PR players might really confuse your average Joe. So I have decided to make sure that definitions of Bailout and Rescue are clear.

Bailout:
Definition 1
Excessive selling of a firm's stock by its stockholders, perceived as a lack of their confidence in the profitability or viability of the firm.
Definition 2
To provide emergency financial help to keep a firm afloat.

Rescue:
1. to free or deliver from confinement, violence, danger, or evil.
2. Law. to liberate or take by forcible or illegal means from lawful custody. –noun
3. the act of rescuing.

That's a great spin from the Government Leaders and PR folks who really want this plan passed! GREAT! How else do we get people motivated to take action- good old FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt)? Marketers have been trying this for years, and as most good marketers are seeing, it doesn't work. But, leave it to the government and their PR firms to put it to the test again.

It's almost funny to watch people who will not buy a consumer good with the FUD motivation, but they will elect a government or put bad policies into place...

I charge people to be as critical of your government leaders as you are of corporations that you purchase you goods from. THINK PEOPLE!!!

It didn't pass...

and I have to say "thank god." I swear if the tax payers have to pay for some really stupid decisions on the part of other Americans we might as well become socialists. I work my tail off most days and I have been working my tail off since I was in high school. I still have school loans, I don't own my car, I don't own a house. I am trying to take care of my debt before I get a bunch more. And this day in age, with all of the uncertainty in the market, I am not going to be able to get a loan for a house, because some people made some REALLY DUMB decisions. And now they are telling me that not only do I not qualify for a home loan anymore because I don't have 20% down, (even with excellent credit) but on top of that, those tax dollars you pay, those are going to bail out these greedy people who were at one point living the American Dream. It's not fair.

And if there is one thing I get after working in the corporate world for the past 10 years, is that life is not fair. But do we need the government to say it now too?!?!? I am an optimist. I am always looking for the situation that will please everyone. But I really feel like we are missing something big here. There HAS to be a way for us to prevent the failing of more large banks and financial institutions but also doesn't stop our entire economy from growing. And I should note that it should also not further separate the elitist upper class and the quickly booming lower income class.

I studied Economics, and I KNOW that there are some REALLY smart Economists out there that we could really use to shake some sense into our leaders. When Corporations attempt to break into a new market. The first thing they do is RESEARCH. They find the smartest people in the field and they get them in-house to help break into that new market. Now, all the sudden the government is setting economic policy that will help or hinder our nations ability to grow for decades to come and they clearly haven't talked to anyone with any real intelligence on the matter.

Maybe they need to poll some creative economics students... Get the people who haven't fallen victim to the "system" yet and can still think outside of the box.

I did just read this quote on another blog and fell in love:
"Capitalism will always survive in the United States as long as the government is willing to use socialism to bail it out." - Nathra Nader, Ralph Nader's father

Bail Out Schmail Out

If one more private company gets a government bailout I am going to scream!!! This is ridiculous! These companies have approved bad loans, they have made investments in people that didn't meet certain standards. Now things have finally started to really crumble because the foundation that rocketed Bear Sterns, Freddie and Fannie Mac, Lehman, AIG, Merrill Lynch, and soon to see WaMu wasn't a true foundation. It's like having an unlicensed contractor pour your concrete. You don't know what you are going to get, and yet, these companies got greedy. They thought, we can get this huge house built on this super cheap foundation! GENIUS!

WRONG! It was not genius, it was greedy. And now the Government, who clearly doesn't believe in, or understand basic Economics, is bailing out everyone and their mother. And guess what? It's not even real money. The Government hasn't had it's own money since 1938. Our debt has spiraled out of control and today we wonder why offering private companies BILLIONS of dollars isn't enough. Has anyone checked how much a US Dollar is actually worth lately? It's because a US Dollar isn't worth what it used to be worth. And it's all because it's not real money. It's all fake. Where does this "bailout" come from? It comes from an existing debt of $9 TRILLION.

So, let's re-cap:

1. Advertising/Marketing sells the American Dream,
2. People make poor financial decisions in the hopes of attaining the American Dream,
3. Un-educated mortgage brokers find loop-holes in the systems and get these less than desirable people approved for loans they can't afford,
4. Banks approve these loans because they are greedy for the money, because of an increase in competition in the banking industry
5. Greedy private companies look outside the US for backing for these loans
6. Everyone lives happily for about 5 years, until the ARM's actually adjust their rates... opps!
7. People can't make new rate payments
8. People start losing jobs and can't make payments
9. Banks/ Investment Firms start working with some people and selling off more of their "bad loans" to overseas investors
10. Banks/Investment Firms wake up and realize they are doomed and try to sell to the competition or even better- beg for government funding!
11. The government bails out the first 4 large investment firms claiming that if they let them go down, it would hurt the economy. (I don't know if they live in my neighborhood, but the economy is already hurt) Even though the government just bailed them out with fake money, that's not going to hurt the economy at all!

And now we have a chose your own adventure story on our hands

Option 1:

1. Suddenly what used to be a highly competitive industry is run by the government
2. It becomes impossible to get a loan for a house, a new business, or school because requirements for these are so high because of the fear of more defaults.
3. Growth stops, we continue to lose jobs, people continue to lose their houses, people can't afford to educate themselves beyond the free high school level, no one has medical coverage because it too has become too expensive and without a shelter or health, we have lost the first two levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
4. The gap between those that have and those that don't grows significantly and we see poverty levels higher than the great depression.

Option 2:

1. The government stops helping companies, lets economics take hold of the system and there will be lawsuits.
2. No one wins, just the lawyers

Option 3:

1. The government stops bailing out large investment companies, forcing them to be sold at pennies on the dollar or go bankrupt.
2. People who have their money protected under FDIC regulations get their money back
3. Greedy CEO's and management teams lose their salaries, and possibly their houses- wow, now they really know what they have done.
4. Regulations are put in place about who can become a mortgage broker (more than a 6 week course this time)
5. There are less regulations on who can get money. The standards we have today are sufficient, but they should not get any tighter.
6. Responsible people with good credit ratings are able to get loans and help to rebuild the economy because as Americans, that's what we do, we man-up and get back to work
7. There are some government funded community building projects that help the economy grow
8. The debt still grows, but hopefully we have some economic growth to back it up.

Are voters smart?

My brother is a bright guy. He was always getting better grades than me in school. He is an architect, so he has this ability to understand numbers and be creative at the same time.

Today we were discussing Sarah Palin and the voters in this country. In the past few days there have been a few reports of McCain winning over white female voters in this country because of Sarah Palin. I don't get it. I don't understand choosing a book based on its cover, especially in this case. Palin might actually become president. McCain is the oldest presidential nominee we have ever had, and he's not dying now, but 4 years at his age is a LONG time. Palin is a good looking, young, female Republican. But she is also a supporter of aerial hunting of wolves in Alaska. She believes that getting oil from ANWR will benefit the country and won't impact the environment, or at least she's willing to forgo the environment for what is BELIEVED to be "about a year and a half worth of U.S. oil consumption and many months of natural gas."

I wonder why we are talking about sucking more from our environment when we don't even know if we will have a planet and safe ground to live on 20 years from now. Shouldn't we be focused on creating new energy sources. I am not smart enough to tell you which one, but I do know that the one that we have been using for the past century isn't working- it's killing the environment and it's not sustainable, because for some reason, we keep going to war over it.

So, back to the part about voters being smart. Why is it that all the sudden all of these women are flocking to Sarah Palin? Who are these women, why don't they care about her disregard for the environment? Or is it because she's not pro-choice? I wonder if it's because people don't educate themselves. So, as a woman, I ask that these women at least read the following two articles and you decide what's best for your country, for your earth, for your family...
Article 1
Article 2

My education sculpted me

The title is an obvious statement. Who's education doesn't sculpt them. I went back to St. Mary's last week when I made it back to the bay area. I was walking through one of the buildings full of classrooms. On all of the walls there were quotes from Dante, Socrates, Plato, etc. St. Mary's is a Christian Brothers school and probably one of the reasons I am who I am today.
I learned at St. Mary's the importance of asking questions, and listening to others opinions. I learned that even though you think you are always right, there are other people who feel the same way and you have to listen in order to understand. I remember being in seminar class (a required and invaluable part of a Christian Brothers education) and being forced to listen. It wasn't just about the smartest, nerdiest kids taking over with a 1:1 discussion with the professor. It was a professor who wanted EVERYONE to share their opinion.
There is something to be said for silence and listening and as I walked down the hallway and drank in all the quotes on the walls, it made me think, and I relished the silence and my thoughts. I felt alive, I felt challenged, I felt lucky. As I was 1/2 way down the hallway a lone professor came out of her office and said "that's exactly what we intended, people to drink in the quotes and think." And that's just one more reason I loved St. Mary's. People get it, they understand the value in thoughts, active participation, and listening to yourself and to others.
I fell in love with the Christian Brothers style of education my junior year in high school, and I am so grateful that I was able to attend La Salle High School, which drove me to choose St. Mary's, another Christian Brothers school, for college. It's not just about sitting through lectures and turning out machines that will help the economy. It's about producing real people, who will give, listen, continue to learn and act to make the world better.

Disappearing adverbs

This weekend, my Aunt Gail, brought to my attention the plight of the disappearing adverb. I hadn't noticed and I could possibly be the worst offender. Here are a couple of my most often mis-used phrases:

• Fly safe
• Drive slow

The disappearing adverb reminded me of an article I just read about how the capital letter at the beginning of sentences might be a thing of the past. I have searched again for this article and can't find it, but it makes sense to me. As I type this post, my fingers have to work extra hard just to get the capital letters at the beginning of sentences. why not just keep typing? why reach for that "shift" key? I think in general it will be at least two generations before we completely lose the capital letter, but don't say I didn't warn you...

So, the question on the table is: who's job is it to change grammar and writing? It's the job of the people. If we hadn't taken it into our own hands centuries ago, we would still be speaking old English and the language of Shakespeare. Would not thoughst be difficult to comprehend?

The Supreme Court disappoints

The Supreme Court has let Exxon Mobil off the hook with their recent ruling. According to the Boston.com article, "The Supreme Court on Wednesday cut the $2.5 billion punitive damages award in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster to $500 million." The court divided 5-3. I don't know why at this time in Exxon's history- recording record profits, why they would be dismissed for their part in a disaster that dumped 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound and led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of seabirds and marine animals. Having just been to Alaska for the first time, I am deeply saddened to learn that our highest court doesn't believe in holding people responsible for their environmental impact. I can see why we are where we are...

Is inefficency contageous

I am on a plane at least once a month. And it stresses me out. I will be the first to admit, I am not the person who gets to the airport 2 hours ahead of time. I am the one who rolls in about 45-60 minutes before my flight takes off. I never check bags and I pride myself on being quick through security. I limit my exposure to most airline personnel as a general practice. I am sure these people are perfectly kind, but why bother. I don't need their help and they certainly don't need to deal with another customer.

But, why is it that other people don't do this? Why isn't everything more automated? If I did need to check luggage, why can't I just have a luggage drop-off line. I don't want to stand with all the people that have missed their last two flights and need to update their address and airline reward numbers... I just need to drop off my bags. I planned ahead, I got to a computer, checked-in, printed the boarding pass, and just need you to put a little sticker on this bag. Heck, I will put the sticker on myself, I just need you to give me the printer. I do it at the grocery store in the produce section...

Is it a control issue? Are their regulations around me putting a sticker on my bag and dropping it on the conveyer belt? If so, I have a few suggestions for that.

I will also mention at this point there are different airlines and different airports that run more efficiently than others. I love the Delta terminal at Logan. I get to chose how I want to go through security- with the families and crying children, as a casual traveler, or as an uptight huffy puffy business traveler. It's great to seperate people, b/c families don't want to be stuck in front of a late business exec as much as the business exec doesn't want to listen to crying children longer than she has to.

I might suggest at this point that any corporation that is so closely linked with the government is doomed. Airlines, Energy, Waste Management, etc. If a corporation has to work with government agencies too closely they will never be able to realize or institue efficient business practices, because that would just be too easy...

What people will give up for important information

I was reading an LA Times article about how teens are willing to give out their cell phone numbers to mobile advertisers in exchange for relevant content.

"It may all seem a little bothersome, but teens don't mind receiving messages
about products on their phones, says Nic Covey, director of insights at
research firm Nielsen Mobile. Nielsen said teens were nearly twice more
likely than adults to trust and respond to advertising and pitches on mobile
phones."

This goes back to the question of would you rather be served information or would you rather go find it when you are ready? Based on research in my own industry, people don't make decisions about their ERP system when a vendor tells them it's time to do that, unless the vendor happens to be their best friend. But, I think the fact that I am selling a very expensive B2B product versus a consumer good limits my marketing abilities...

People who are purchasing for work, want to hear about it at work, not on their mobile phones. People that purchase for personal use want to hear about it when it's convenient to them, and where it's convenient, which might be their phones.

I would be interested to see a study about how many of these teens ended up actually making purchases. I am not completely convinced of the ROI...

Walking versus Public Transit

Today I am lucky enough to live within a 35 minute walk of my office. But, because I live in Boston, and I would prefer not to be sick 6 months out of the year, I typically take the bus at least when it's below 50 degrees or rainy. I have a love/hate relationship with the bus. I love that it continues to expose me to the GP (general public). I hear the latest tunes out of other people's iPod's, and I know all about my neighbor's son's hockey tournament this next weekend. I hate the bus because- like all forms of transportation, other than our feet, it is polluting the environment. But, my justification for riding the bus is that it would be going with or without me. It doesn't matter if I am on it or not. At least I am not driving into the office. I might as well enjoy the comforts of the bus, relish in the goings on of my neighbors, etc... But, on day's like today- when it's above 50 degrees and sunny to boot, you will see me on foot, sparing the air and listening to the sounds of birds and passing cars...

Airline Woes...

Does anyone else wonder if maybe these recent "grounding" of flights due to "maintenance" issues might just be a way to curb the soaring operational costs in the airline industry today? For those of us that might just need to hop on a quick day trip for a meeting, we might just host those meetings via WebEx.

I wonder if these costs will lead companies to start outsourcing their sales calls to sales consultants. Example: let's say you live in Ohio, and you can easily get to: Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, Kentucky and even upstate New York. If you are skilled in one industry or target market you might be employed by multiple companies because they can't afford to keep flying people everywhere...

It's not going to happen tomorrow, but it might just happen.

A recession, really? More like finally...

I understand something my old boss used to say more clearly now than ever, "perception is reality." Bernanke is finally admitting that a recession is looming. It makes sense that the Fed Chairman would hesitate to say something about a recession because of what it would do to the markets. But that's the general problem with the study of economics. We study what happened, not what's going to happen. Economists are some of the most conservative people I know, never wanting to tip the scales in any certain direction because they to understand the phrase "perception is reality." They know the value of letting the market balance itself out, so they keep their comments to a minimum- at least the good ones. But I have to laugh when the Fed Chairman finally says something about it- months after all the minions have been living it...

The last thing the economy needs is to be shoved off this cliff that we stand on with no sense of protection against the fall- I think... The government is working on protections, and it seems that regulations and some corporate/banking process changes have been made, so that we will gently fall to the ground with a "parachute" of sorts. But maybe what we need is to be shoved off the cliff, and fall and see what the disaster looks like at the bottom. Maybe we need to really understand what kind of situation our greed and need to "keep up with the Jones'" has done to our system and our people. We might not be able to understand if we don't just let the bottom fall out.

We Shall See...

I want to "go green" but can't!

This article came at the perfect time as I look to purchase a hybrid SUV and I haven't found anything that I like, that's in my price range. I have even extended my price range because I understand that going green costs more... but, it looks like I am not the only one.

According to a recent study by University of Maryland many consumers want to go green but can't...

"But while 83 percent of adults said they wanted to protect the environment, and 59 percent said they like trying new technologies to help the environment, about 42 percent said such technologies were hard to find. "

XM and Sirius- Monopoly, of course not!

Big surprise, someone else is merging... In the satellite radio industry it only makes sense. Being that the growth is hardly noticeable and they were fighting over the same partner agreements pricing themselves into non-existence...

Sirius and XM- I wish you both luck. With people spending less and less time in their cars and hopefully more time on public transportation (this is me being hopeful here people!) there will be no radio listening. People will just grab their iPods and go... make your own radio...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080324/bs_nm/xm_sirius_antitrust_dc_8

Poor Salmon

I knew that the Salmon runs in Oregon had been on a decline, and I guess it would make sense that the same would be happening in California, but the numbers are staggering:

"Five years ago, the peak was 872,700 returning spawners. Roughly 90,000 were
counted in 2007, and only 63,900 are expected to return to spawn in fall 2008."

It's a sad thing to imagine not being able to grill salmon in the summer- that doesn't mean that we all deserve to eat salmon every day, but like many fish, they are good for you, and it would be a shame to not be able to receive those healthy benefits. And without some serious action like:

• dam removal or adjustment
• decrease in pesticide usage
• decrease in fishing off the coast in order for the salmon to feed

But, that means that we would have to make a lot of sacrifices. Less irrigation support, less fishing for other seafood that salmon need to survive and a decrease in pesticides. All of these things come at a sacrifice of another, but isn't the point to keep everything in balance. Just a few changes in these areas could bring our salmon runs back into a middle range. We might not be able to eat salmon every day, but we would spare ourselves the reality of never being able to eat it again.

Rates, oil costs, Bear Stearns, oh my!

The theme song for the economy right now should be something like: the theme from Jaws: da-dunt, da-dunt da-dunt, da-dunt. You get the idea...

I love that Bernanke has decided once again to lower interest rates. (Insert sarcastic, sly smile here). I was an economics minor and the first thing they teach you is to let the economy balance itself out. We all remember the supply and demand graph. And yet, we aren't doing that here. Understanding that the US could fall into a SERIOUS depression if we actually did just let the economy balance itself out. It might be just what we need.

Because if you ask me, we have all been making some pretty silly decisions lately:

• Giving loans to people that couldn't afford them
• Racking up crazy amounts of national and personal debt
• Polluting the earth beyond recognition
• Scaring ourselves into believing that a war will somehow make us more secure

It's pretty old school- but it's almost like a life- changing heart attack. We need something to shock us back to reality. Because, where we are with all these safety nets and free passes, is not safe, and certainly not real.

Education and Economics

It was only a matter of time before the Subprime crisis hit the people that really need loans- college kids. In this article in the Boston Globe it's a sad statement of our society when we can't even afford college anymore becuase no one will give you a loan.

I would never have made it through undergrad if I didn't have private loans available to me. St. Mary's was a great school, but it was not inexpensive. And there are so many middle-class kids like me who won't be allowed the same opportunities if we continue on this path.

I don't have kids yet, but if I did I would be scared to imagine paying for my kids' education, my own college debt, my mortgage, life, etc. It's scary! Makes me want to move to Sweden where they pay outrageous taxes, but their health care is free, and their education is free through a college degree. But... that means that there is no chance to pay for a better education or a better surgeon, you get what the government supports.

There is no easy answer, but I wonder if we might be better off if we just take the government out of all of the equations. Privately fund everything from: health care to education to the road maintenance crew.

What are the 3 E's?

The three subjects I am most passionate about are:

• Education
• Economics
• the Environment

I thought about putting Politics on the list, but sadly, I don't have enough faith in our politicians to actually do anything useful or worth mentioning.

I am not going to put any parameters around what exactly will be covered on any of these, because I am interested in most everything. But, these three areas will be the focus.

Hope you enjoy!