It's Time

It's Time We Suck It Up and Move Forward

was reading Joel Stein’s Time Magazine essay on the housing crisis. I listened and watched CNBC’s  Rick Santelli  rant and my first instinct is to agree with these folks. Yeah, I think its right that we shouldn’t bail out people who bought houses that they could no way afford, or bought houses as an investment, or were too unaware to read the fine print on the contract and know what was going to happen.  Yes, if I have a good loan, and I’m not selling during this downturn, I’m probably not going to have major issues and should be all right. Of course who knows what the future holds and we’ll see what’s going to happen.

The problem that I see with this approach is that it only looks at the housing crisis as an isolated segment of the economy, but that’s not the way it really comes out. The economists that talk about the financial crisis that we’re in, say it won’t be better until the housing crisis is solved. We can say, O.K., let the housing prices go down, let the market reach its natural level, then everything will be better. The problem with that is that the house mortgages were packaged up in to bonds and other financial instruments that were then sold to investors. The investors have walked away from the market because they have no idea what the final value of market instruments will be. This fear pulled the stock market down to levels not seen in years. The drop in the market has frozen investments in businesses, and it has frozen the loan market, because the banks have no idea what their real values are, they’re holding on to all the capital they can as they try to stay above water, that means business loans , real estate loans, construction loans, and consumer loans are almost nonexistent. That means that people aren’t making or building things, and they don’t need employees.

What all of this means is that my 401K is dropping day by day; my job went away because my customers were afraid to buy products for their stores, because their customers have closed their pockets and are hunkered down waiting for the next shoe to drop. So even though my house loan isn’t in trouble I’m in the soup with everyone else.

Let’s be honest, the correction of the housing market will probably take three to five years, at least ,to correct, and when prices  are dropping by 40-60% , my biggest asset, my house will probably be upside down for quite some time. This will have major effect on my retirement and my family’s future.

Taking all this in to account, I’m behind putting a floor under the housing market, I’m for the government clarifying the financial markets and getting the financial institutions on a stable footing, or closed down. If we can get these things done, people will begin to believe in the markets and will believe that the future makes sense again. We’ll all probably have less money than we had last year, but we’ll get it all back together and we’ll start again, as we have coming out of each correction in the past. So, while it galls me to help the irresponsible, greedy, and downright stupid, I have to swallow hard and agree to get things cleaned up. Of course, we could have avoided the whole thing, but that’s the subject for future blogs.

GOOD LUCK

It's time we Think about the Future

                I don’t understand. How can we continue to cut taxes? How can the Republican answer to everything be to cut taxes? They seem to believe, cut taxes, the economy rises and you get more tax revenues, it sounds good and so simple, but does it really work?

                The last economic slowdown that hit Japan led the Japanese government to drop their tax rate to an effective rate of zero on taxes. That move just seemed to lead to the Japanese having less tax revenue. It didn’t help to solve the problems.

                Obviously, we’ve cut taxes in the past, and yes the economy has grown and improved, but the downside of that has been that our infrastructure has suffered because we haven’t had the monies to keep our highways and bridges in shape. It seems obvious that we need to do something to change the dynamic and get things moving.

                The first answer is that, sure, the government spends all the money we give them, but we cut the amount of money that we give them and they still get to choose where the money is spent. Even though the infrastructure needs work, the work is deferred because the government decides that something else is more important. Government decides that they need to solve a problem that is in their face, and well, the infrastructure can wait until next year, who’ll notice the roads are a little bit worse. The schools are going to be all right, we’ll catch up later.  Apparently that hasn’t worked, so far.

                California has decided that we’re going to run the government based on referendums, in theory, that seems to be a great idea, but in practice, it doesn’t seem to be the way to go.  Let’s face it, if we all read the referendum, we all looked at the proposed law and could see how it fit in with the other laws that have been enacted in the past it might be good. But the way that it happens, in most cases, is that the proposition is written with a misleading title, the proposition is written so that no means yes, and then the advertisements are written to further confuse the issue. The vast majority of the public doesn’t ever read the proposition, they just watch or read the advertising, and they make a decision based on that. We then get a law that may or may not be right, passed by a majority of the small minority that actually votes in the elections.

                It seems everything comes back to the fact that we need to find legislators who doing what is right for the country. Legislators need to stop being committed to a party, they need to be committed to doing the right thing.

 

               

               

It's Time for Politicians to Forget Parties

   

We have sat and watched the wars that have gone on in Congress and the State legislature as they fight over the economy. It seems that all politicians’ first allegiance is to their party and positioning their party to be clear of any fall out that the legislation may cause in the public.  

                In the U.S. Congress, the House Republicans are proud of the fact that no Republican voted for the stimulus package. Do you really believe that if this vote hadn’t been mandated by Party leadership, the legislators would still have voted No? By the same token, without the pressure of the Party would all the Democrats have voted yes? Do you really believe that these politicians were voting their conscience or the wishes of their constituents? Do you think that they really tried to negotiate to improve the package to meet their concerns? It was apparent what was going to happen when the Republicans stated they weren’t voting for the package before they had even met with the President or debated the measure on the floor. The Senate logjam was only broken by three Republicans who were elected in Areas where the Democrats had carried the day in the last election. These Senators saw the handwriting on the wall and realized if they were to have any chance of being reelected next election, they would need to work with the Democrats.

                In the State legislature, the same thing happened. The lawmakers were tied to their party philosophy and they weren’t going to budge. It didn’t matter that the State had to lay off employees, defund programs, and give IOU’s for tax returns. They refused to negotiate or try to reach any agreements. Over 100 days of debate with no movement. Finally, after brazen shows of holding the citizens of California hostage, the legislature finally collected their pound of flesh, signed a budget, and then threw it to the electorate to vote yes or no down the road, when we will be in the middle of a new budget cycle, and new issues. Kick the can down the road and hope no one notices how cowardly their legislation was.

                I’ve never been a proponent of term limits; I’ve always thought that was a lazy way out for the voters. If the politician was doing a good job, he should stay in forever, if not they should be gone. But I’ve come to realize that politicians have cut and pasted together a cloak that protects them from the electorate. They apportion their District, they cut deals with the predominant special interest groups in the area, and they then pledge allegiance to the party elders above all else. They don’t need to listen to us individually, they have the power.

                Governor Arnold is termed out, and has no real interest in being a Republican elder after his term of office, so he is willing to work with the parties to make things happen. This has opened my eyes to the fact that politicians only work for the public interest when they see the end of their career coming over the horizon.

It's Time for a New Career

                Yesterday I became part of the unemployment statistics. At 8 A.M. I got the phone call. My sales territory had been dissolved, and my services were no longer needed. Thanks for your hard work, the check is in the mail, see you.

                Well. I’ve never been unemployed before, so this was quite a shock to the system, 58 years old. And out of work, what to do? I’m guessing this is something that many others have faced, and others out there will face as the economy continues to readjust. I’m no expert; I haven’t even slept at a Holiday Inn Express, but here is what I plan to do

                I could spend the next few days doing the self pity routine, but what does that get me?  I need to go to Employment Development and file for unemployment, even though I hope not to need it. I sat down polished up my resume; reading through my history and achievements made me feel better about myself. I’m really not such a bad guy. I hit all the Job Boards on the Internet. Thank goodness for the Internet for the unemployed. There are a great many sites out there, all the way from Craigslist, to Careerbuilder, etc. There are specialized sites for almost any job category, sales, accounting, nurses and others. I got on the sites, posted my resume, my bio and a cover letter. I’ve gotten some replies and I even have several interviews scheduled.  Now is the time for research on the companies and getting ready to face the inquisitors. You need to think through possible questions and answers. It’s a lot like a trial, you want to answer the questions, but not give them too much info. Many of the people who do interviews, don’t interview for a living, so they really don’t know what to ask, they’re just looking for a “feeling” or vibe from the candidate. So remain positive and keep punching.

                This economy is a challenge, and it looks like it will remain a challenge for a while. We all need to remain positive and look for the positives. We need to be prudent and not do stupid things. This Nation’s economy is based, in large part, on consumer confidence. The thing that’s going to bring the economy around is the consumer having enough confidence in the banks to save money with them, and to seek loans from them. We need to buy things that we need, want, and can afford. This will help us all to see things get better.

GOOD LUCK

               

It's Time For Obama To Step Up

Yes, the Democrats won the election, but they don’t need to try to put all of the things that they’ve wanted for the last eight years in to one bill. Let’s face it, the economy in this Country is too important to be held hostage while the Democrats try to remake the face of government. We all realize that the government needs to spend money to get the economy off its back. There are a group of economists who believe that it needs to be government spending, and there is another group who believes that you cut taxes and let the free market sort it all out. We’ve never had this situation before, so it is all new territory. No matter what, we know that spending money on contraceptives, NASA programs and other special interest groups certainly isn’t the best use of our resources.

                Obama needs to take the mandate for change that was his election, and he needs to set everyone down and pound out a recovery plan that is the best use of the money that needs to be borrowed to make a stimulus possible.

                Let’s remember that this will be borrowed money, it will be an expense that our children and grandchildren will have to pay back. A deficit will weaken our economy in the future. It’s a delicate balancing act between the money needed to get the economy back on track, while not selling away the future. We need to demand that this be done as well as possible.

                As we watch the opening days of the Obama Administration, I think that we’re seeing a great many politicians in a situation that they don’t understand. Obama is going to Congress, talking with them and listening to what they have to say. He’s also saying what he thinks, not making a decision and then going straight forward without listening to anyone. He appears to be confident in his beliefs, but willing to listen to what others have to say.

                I am disturbed that Obama is making rules and then demanding exceptions, for instance his appointment of a former lobbyist to Defense. I’m also concerned that his Treasury Secretary has tax issues, which he clearly knew and didn’t handle. Obama ran on making government transparent, yet he has clear issues which he is asking Congress to overlook in the name of the economy. We all have to believe that there are enough qualified people available that we don’t need to give positions to people of questionable ethics. Let’s make sure that we get people who know their jobs, perform them well, and have ethics we can believe in.

                Part of what will bring this economy out of the ditch that it has driven in to is for the public to have confidence that the government has the ability to make things better, and get us back on track. Obama is a clean slate, a new start, and has a mandate to make changes that will chart the course for the future. He needs to take this power in hand and use it wisely.

GOOD LUCK

It's Time To Fix Our Community College

     It’s time that this community stands up and takes control of the situation at Solano Community College. A Community College is an asset of great value to any area. This Community College provides a low cost alternative to a traditional four year education for the students of our community. This College provides technical and vocational training for those students who want to transition directly in to the work world. It also provides upgrades and training opportunities for those who have lost their job in the current slowdown, as well as those who want to improve their skills so that they can get a better job. Having access to this College is a great economic asset to our community.

                The students and staff who work at the College also provide a boost to the Cordelia area economy; they shop in those stores, eat in those restaurants, and buy gas at those service stations. There are also students who rent homes in the area to attend the College. All of these acts help our local economy and sales tax revenues.

                We as the taxpayers of Solano County have a huge investment in that College. Through taxes and bond measures through the years we have poured a lot of money in to building and improving that facility. If the College loses its accreditation, all of those investments will be for naught.

                Accreditation is the all important factor for any Community College. The credits that are earned by students who go to these facilities must be transferrable to other Colleges if that student is to acquire a four year degree. In light of the recent cutbacks in the number of students being admitted to California four year schools, Community Colleges have become a way for graduates to continue their education and then transfer to the four year schools in the future. Also, any licenses or certificates that the College gives to students must be recognized by industries to be of any use to the student.

                Apparently, the Board of the College has a history of micromanagement, and poor decision making. They have forced out, or had quit, a number of good administrators; this has led to the Accreditation authorities threatening to pull the certificates of the College. If this were a company faced with this level of malfeasance, there would be changes made. We need to demand the same level of accountability from this Board. They need to face up to their responsibilities and they need to allow people who have the ability to correct the problems faced by the institution. We as a community have too much to lose financially and too much to lose culturally to let this bad situation continue.

GOOD LUCK

 

It's Time For NASCAR To Reconsider

    Here it is 2009 and Petty Enterprises is about to disappear. This is indicative of the trouble that NASCAR is facing. Most of the top teams have sold their souls to “businessmen” to raise funds to improve these teams. The problem seems to be that these business people don’t have racing in their blood. This is a business to them, and it needs to pay its way, racers that build teams do it because they want to race and win, they live for the race, not for the check. Now that the economy is starting to tank, and sponsorships are starting to disappear, the businessmen do what businessmen do when times are tough, they pull back because they’re not going to put their own money on the line. The racers will pull in their horns, sell something, do anything to avoid having to hurt their race team.

                Look at Petty Enterprises as an example, they have a history as long as NASCAR, and up until the last ten years, they’ve been consistent winners. Petty was family owned, and the team garages and offices were on the Petty home site. Everyone in the family had a job on the team, fathers, sons, cousins, and others all worked with the team. In the first decade of the 2000’s Petty started to drop behind, as other teams began hiring engineers, scientists, and building wind tunnels, and computerized simulators. The Petty’s thought they could just work harder and keep up, that didn’t happen and they further behind, they stopped winning, the sponsors started falling by the wayside, which made development tougher, they fell further behind, and the spiral continued. Petty had to infuse capital to catch up, and the only source was Boston Ventures. They knew nothing about racing and didn’t care to learn, they thought they could make money on racing. They might have, except for the recession. Now they want out, and that leaves Petty with no choice but to sell out. It’s got to be very painful. He’s had to fire his own son as a driver, and manager of the company, all that’s left of the Petty’s is their name. Now it looks as though they’ll have to sell that to another team to save themselves.

                 Most of the teams who have brought on business partners from outside racing are running in to problems. The teams are being run by the business people and they don’t have racing in their blood. This is frustrating the racing people who make the teams work, and they are starting to bail out. Look at Ray Evernham, he was the crew chief who made Jeff Gordon who he is today. Ray opened his own team and brought Dodge back to NASCAR, but he too sold out, in this case to George Gillet, and now Ray has sold out and left the team. He’s starting to look around to go back to being a crew chief for someone else, and his team will continue to go downhill as the business people are in charge.

                Racing has always been a passion, not a business. No racing team in the 70’s ever raced to get rich; they raced to prove they were the smartest and the fastest. NASCAR will need to go back to that, or they’re headed for disaster.

IT'S TIME TO SUPPORT THE LOCAL MERCHANTS

Its New Years and time to make resolutions, I’ve decided on one resolution that I think everyone should join with me in adopting. My resolution is to buy locally, and to buy from local independent merchants whenever possible. There are several reasons for this decision on my part, I’ve been a small business owner myself, and I know how important every customer is to the small business’s survival. Many small businesses are shoestring operations trying to extract a living for the owner and his family, they aren’t getting rich, and they’re just surviving.  Another reason is that small business people have a passion for what they do, go to any local restaurant and eat a meal, the flavors are better, the food is more authentic. These folks opened a restaurant because they love to cook, they didn’t do a demographic study or have tastings to decide what’s going on the menu, they just did it. I’ve become very disappointed with the loss of local white tablecloth restaurants. Yes, Outback is dependable, but they just don’t have any soul to the food. I remember when there were great local dinner houses, where you could get a great meal, and meet the guy who designed and cooked it.

Yes, if you know exactly what you’re doing and what you need , one of the big box hardware stores is the cheapest place to buy what I need, but, I rarely know what I’m doing, something around the house has broken, I take the piece, and head to the store , hoping to find a replacement. I tend to go to the local hardware store where somebody knows what I’ve got in my hand, and how to reinstall it and make the piece whole again. It ends up being cheaper in the long run, because I don’t have to keep buying things until I get the right part. The local merchants also have the unusual parts that Hoffman or whoever chose to put in to the houses that they built in this area. The big boxes don’t know or care about the unusual; they make money by buying the biggest quantity at the lowest price.

I would even love to see the local butcher come back, they knew what a side of beef was, and where every cut came from, you went in and told them what you wanted to do, and they would give you the right cut for the job. The guys in today’s meat department only know how to open a box, and stack trays of meat in the counter.  I love the local produce stands where I can pick and choose what I want, even go out in the field and pick what I want, that’s great.

If we all shopped and supported these local small business people, we would keep the community vibrant and growing, we would have choices and we would increase local tax revenues. There is a place for the mass merchant or the chain restaurant, I realize that, but I think we sometimes get lazy and lose our sense of adventure and settle for what they have to offer rather than going out and trying new things, and making friends with our neighbors.

GOOD LUCK

 

 

IT's TIME TO THINK ABOUT CHRISTMAS

I know times are tough and people are rethinking their Christmas plans, but in a way I think it may be healthy. Let’s face it, we’ve all let our Christmas card lists get to long, we send cards to people we don’t even know, because they sent us a card last year. We send gifts to people we don’t really know, just to extend our circle of friends. It just seems to get out of control, step by step, and it seems that now that we’re all aware of the economy, and a little worried about the future, we’re reviewing our Christmas and actually thinking about what we’re doing, we’re realizing who and what is important to us.

                In our family, we’ve cut back on the presents to extended family, let’s face it, a lot of the time, you give and get things that don’t make any sense. You have no idea what the other person has or needs, and they’re in the same position with you. We made a pact with these people to donate in their names to Habitat for Humanity. It serves two purposes, it helps the needy and it lessens our guilt. My wife has been baking cakes and cookies to share with her friends, and work mates. They all seem to enjoy that more than some little trinket.

                We talked with our grown kids and asked them to make us something, and we’ve given them gift cards to use. All three are out of the house, and working to make it on their own, so hopefully, the cards will help them with their needs. Also, asking for something home -made challenges them, and will also keep their credit card balances under control. I think every parent worries about our children’s financial situation, so again less Holiday guilt.

                We went through the Christmas card list and if we don’ feel like we have a connection with them, they’re gone. I think that this will delete about a third of the Christmas card list.

                My wife and I decided on filling Christmas Stockings for each other, and we decided on a group gift, a new Blu-Ray DVD player. Again, it was something we wanted, and Christmas was a great excuse to get it, I’m one of those guys that hold out on buying gadgets until they have been thoroughly debugged. I’d have waited until 2025 if I had my way, waiting for the last improvement. Of course, I’m still using a pager, I’m waiting for the cell phone, computer, TV combo to be perfected.

                The outcome of all these changes are that we have a lot less stress this year. I feel like we’ve actually taken the time to realize the real meaning of Christmas, and we’ve helped others in the process. Of course, I hope the retailers are able to survive.

GOOD LUCK

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

IT'S TIME TO CHANGE POLITICS

                I can’t believe it has happened again. Another politician is indicted for malfeasance in office. Another Governor goes to jail. Isn’t it time that we stop standing and accepting the fact that we expect politicians to be on the edge of being crooked. Why does this happen?
                It seems that as politicians climb the ladder of office, they have to raise more money to campaign, and that means that they have to make deals to get the money. They get in to office and people are coming to them with requests for things that they need for themselves or for people they represent. They can’t give the politician money directly, but they can come up with creative ways to funnel money to them. They can give family or friends a job; they can give money to foundations that the politician has set up or many other ways to get money to them.  The politicians have written the laws in such a way that these schemes are barely legal.

                I think the first thing that needs to happen is that political campaigns need to be publically financed. The campaigns need to be shortened to 4-6 weeks so expenses can be cut. I realize this will cost media outlets millions of dollars, well too bad. We need to take the money out of politics and this would certainly help.

                We need to have our legislators stop trying to find ways to skirt the issues and they need to put hard and fast rules on what is right and wrong in office. If a legislator is indicted, they need to be put on leave and lose any control over lawmaking until their case is closed.  We aren’t finding guilt, they just sit it out until they are cleared, or convicted.

                I’ve never been a proponent of term limits because I’ve always felt that it was our responsibility as voters to decide, good people shouldn’t be kept out of office just because they’ve reached a certain amount of time in office, but I’m beginning to change my mind. We have people who go in to politics right out of school, and never get out of the system. These people move from office to office never having an outside job, they depend on friends and supporters to help them stay in office and to help them pay their bills. I realize we don’t pay politicians enough, but then we don’t expect them to steal to stay in office.

                We need to solve these problems and we need to do it quickly. People have little respect for government as of now, and it isn’t going to get better until we make it better ourselves. We need to stop complaining and make the changes we need. We can’t accept this level of service from our politicians.

GOOD LUCK