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Help Wanted, No Private Sector Experience RequiredBy Nick Schulz November 25, 2009, 8:19 am A friend sends along the following chart from a J.P. Morgan research report. It examines the prior private sector experience of the cabinet officials since 1900 that one might expect a president to turn to in seeking advice about helping the economy. It includes secretaries of State, Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Energy, and Housing & Urban Development, and excludes Postmaster General, Navy, War, Health, Education & Welfare, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security—432 cabinet members in all. Rest of Article Here

So as Obama wants to turn the economy around, less than ten percent of the cabinet officials he would presumably turn to for advice have ever worked in the private sector. Not encouraging.

Everyone is familiar with the story of Noah. God was angry at the evil and wickedness of mankind. God instructed Noah to build an ark in order to save his family and two of each animal on earth from the coming flood. Noah could have ignored God’s warning and continued to live his life as before. By heeding God’s warning and building the ark, Noah was able to save himself, his family, and two of every animal from death and destruction. The warning signs regarding the current American Crisis have been discernible since the 1990’s. The un-sustainability of the government’s...

As a president of Krause Co., I have two primary responsibilities - a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders for best return on their capital, and the health and safety of our employees and families (approximately 600 in total). I have control over our financial performance and should be held accountable, and fortunately we are doing well. In regard to the safety of our direct employees, we too have control and accountability. Krause spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on safety training, equipment, process and procedures. I am proud of our people who take their safety and their peers'...

Satan, the great motivator The curious economic effects of religion By Michael Fitzgerald  |  November 15, 2009What makes economies grow? It’s a question that has occupied thinkers for centuries. Most of us would tick off things like education levels, openness to trade, natural resources, and political systems.Here’s one you might not have considered: hell. A pair of Harvard researchers recently examined 40 years of data from dozens of countries, trying to sort out the economic impact of religious beliefs or practices. They found that religion has a measurable effect on developing economies - and the most powerful influence relates to...

Washington, D.C. – While chairing part of today’s (Thursday, Nov. 19) Joint Economic Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar questioned U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner about the Administration’s plans to reform the financial regulatory system. “When Wall Street gets a cold, Main Street catches pneumonia,” said Klobuchar. “Small businesses are the engines that drive job creation in this country, and they need better access to credit. I want to make sure small businesses can keep their doors open and start hiring again. My number one priority is jobs, jobs, jobs.” Last month, Klobuchar and 32 other Senators wrote to President...

David Farr, CEO of Emerson Electric Co., said federal governmental policies are hurting U.S. manufacturing. He cited cap and trade, health care reform and labor rules as undermining the industry and its ability to expand and grow jobs domestically. He said that his company will continue to focus on growth overseas. Emerson, the maker of electrical equipment and InSinkErator garbage disposals with $20.9 billion in sales for the year ended September, will keep expanding in emerging markets, which represented 32 percent of revenue in 2009. About 36 percent of manufacturing is now in “best-cost countries” up from 21 percent in...

This hurts: The federal government is "doing everything in [its] manpower [and] capability to destroy U.S. manufacturing," says David Farr, chairman and CEO of Emerson Electric Co. Farr added that companies will continue adding jobs in China and India because they are "places where people want the products and where the governments welcome you to actually do something. I am not going to hire anybody in the United States. I'm moving. They are doing everything possible to destroy jobs."

Printer Friendly Format Nation Monks’ thriving coffee business helps attract young men to monastery By Sheila Archambault Posted: 11/16/2009 WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A small Carmelite monastery in Clark, Wyo., has seen its coffee sales take off in the last couple of years, and the growing awareness of its coffee business has brought an added benefit to the community -- more members. "In the past two years, the monks themselves have grown from six to 15 monks and all the new monks are under 25, some right out of high school," said Susie George, a neighbor of the monks who...

Nicole GelinasArguing the Economy A recent debate highlights the weaknesses of Obamanomics. 18 November 2009 “Obama’s economic policies are working effectively.” That was the motion that Intelligence Squared US put to its New York audience Monday night for a vote. One three-man team defended the president’s policies; another denounced them. Though the “anti” team ultimately lost the vote, it made the more compelling argument: the president’s economic-recovery policies are costly efforts to maintain a failed status quo, and the administration’s blueprint for financial-regulatory reform will only fund the same failed policies until that status quo collapses again. The pro-Obama...

Transcript of remarks made by Leo Carrington (who doesn’t exist) to a mandatory meeting of all employees of Carrington Automotive Enterprises, Inc. (which doesn’t exist either) on August 17th, 2009 at the Royal Payne Hotel (a purely imaginary place) in Norfolk, Virginia (which does, in fact, exist). The Employee Meeting: I would like to start by thanking you for attending this meeting, though it's not like you had much of a choice. After all, attendance was mandatory. I'm also glad many of you accepted my invitation to your family members to be here as well. I have a few remarks...

Sarah Mohammad, 3rd Infantry Division Women's Initiative coordinator, demonstrates products that can be sold on U.S. Military installation during a Business Workshop for Iraqi women in Dujayl, Nov. 11. Photo by Capt. Rebecca Walsh, 1st Infantry Division. DUJAYL — A meeting room inside the library here was filled with lively conversations, Nov. 14, as Iraqi women discussed business opportunities available to them within the Salah ad-Din province. Women from Balad, Samarra, and Dujayl gathered together for a business workshop to exchange ideas about the possibilities of selling hand-made goods on Contingency Operating Base Speicher at the Iraqi Souq Bazaar.For Provincial...

Union ramps up efforts to organize T-Mobile Posted on November 18, 2009 at 11:37 AM Updated today at 12:05 PM WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. union officials are teaming up with their German counterparts in a bid to organize workers at wireless carrier T-Mobile USA.Leaders at the Communications Workers of America say the new arrangement with German union ver.di will help show a "double standard" between how European companies treat workers in their home countries compared with the United States.T-Mobile's parent company Deutsche Telekom AG is known as a union-friendly model in Germany, where cooperation with unions is encouraged by labor...

Have you seen this yet? It's a link to a time lapse, county by county unemployment map encompassing the past almost two years. Pretty cool, actually!

Many people have asked me what is so important about “tweeting” and would it be helpful for their business. I will provide you with some examples in terms of when it would be helpful. Here are some benefits of using twitter to generate business: 1. Bring traffic to your site. If you follow someone and they follow you back, they will most likely check out the link to your website which you have set on your profile. 2. Offer a special promotion. Commerce Casino occasionally sends out a tweet where if you respond within a certain period of time, you...

Golden, celebrity-endorsed shampoo for sale -- 13,000 bottles of it -- sits in the Ormond Beach garage of actor John Martino. Hollywood Movie Hair Products was his dream business, just coming into fruition when the venture was tarnished unexpectedly -- not of Martino's doing. Now he's hoping to polish the product with an image makeover. Martino -- most famous for his Godfather role of Paulie, a turncoat driver killed off in the first Godfather trilogy episode -- never expected part of his real life business to become involved in a new drama. But there he was on a sunny June...

Has the AIG CEO Robert Benmosche, just three months into the job, had enough? The Wall Street Journal scoops the field this morning with news from inside the AIG board room that Benmosche has informed the board "he is considering stepping down as chief executive of the government-controlled insurer." Benmosche dropped the bomb last week, saying he was "done." According to the Journal's sources, Benmosche "is chafing under constraints imposed by AIG's government overseers, particularly a recent compensation review by the Obama administration's pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg." He's not quite out the door yet, though. He agreed to think over...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers were found not guilty on all charges on Tuesday in the first major criminal trial stemming from the housing and financial meltdown. A jury in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., acquitted Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin. Both had worked as hedge fund managers at Bear Stearns, which went bankrupt in March 2008. Federal prosecutors had accused Cioffi and Tannin of falsely inflating the value of their portfolios, even as they knew that the mortgage-backed assets in the funds were at risk of collapse.

Excerpt:Master the soft sell. Intoxicating as rapid growth is, don't let the urge to sell to everyone, everywhere, every time get the best of you. Stan Steinreich, founder of Steinreich Communications, says 90% of his company's $10 million in revenue comes through networking and word of mouth--but that doesn't mean barging into a room and shaking as many hands as possible. "The over-aggressive guys are quickly labeled as creepy," says Steinreich. The best strategy: Let prospects do the most of the talking, and sprinkle in bits of relevant advice every so often. If they liked what you had to say,...

Senator Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat, is calling on the Obama administration to block the use of stimulus funds for a utility-scale wind farm in West Texas that would make use of turbines manufactured largely in China.

KPMG has released its annual global survey of corporate tax systems. For the 10th consecutive year, the average corporate tax rate fell, and it is now down to 25.5 percent — and just 23.2 percent in the European Union! In the United States, unfortunately, the corporate tax rates remains stuck at about 40 percent. Only one developed nation, Japan, has a more punitive regime. That’s something to keep in mind the next time a politician complains that jobs are going to China, where the corporate tax rate is 25 percent.

WASHINGTON --- President Obama has been rolling out the red carpet at the White House during his first term -- playing host to a who's who of business-world bigs and A-list celebs including George Clooney and Oprah Winfrey, newly released records reveal. Also among the Tinseltown drop-ins were megastars Brad Pitt and Denzel Washington, who paid a visit in May, according to visitors logs, which cover January to July. The administration posted the records on its Web site yesterday, two days after a report revealed that some of Obama's top financial backers had gotten White House tours and even use...

Steven MalangaFeral Detroit Nature is reclaiming the Motor City. Autumn 2009 We usually apply the word “feral,” which means “reverting to a wild state,” to domesticated animals that are abandoned and must survive on their own. But in rapidly shrinking Detroit, where tens of thousands of structures have sat empty for years, people are starting to describe houses and neighborhoods as feral—that is, as places where human activity ceased so long ago that nature has reclaimed them. Two Detroit residents writing for the blog Sweet Juniper describe these feral houses as places that “for a few beautiful months during...

NEW YORK (AP) -- YRC Worldwide said Friday it lost money in the third quarter, but the financially fragile trucking company is still working with lenders to stay out of bankruptcy. Despite a weak economy and competitors nipping at its heels, YRC CEO Bill Zollars said in a conference call with analysts that he's confident the company will be able to rightsize itself next year. But he expects the economy to remain weak through the first half of 2010. "I don't think there's anything that would make us think we can't be back there at some point," Zollars said. "The...

Played by veteran actor Chelcie Ross, Conrad Hilton is now advertising man Don Draper's new client on the AMC series, which is set in the early 1960s world of Madison Avenue. To many viewers Hilton may seem unusual—and he does represent a refreshing break from Hollywood's negative depictions of corporate businessmen. The Hilton character in the show, like the real-life man on whom he is based, was a Christian anticommunist who believed that America and capitalism were positive forces in the world. In one scene, Hilton expresses his outlook to Draper: "This country is a force of good because we...

The current debate over Social Security reform is reminiscent of the discussions that occurred in Galveston County, Texas, in 1980, when county workers were offered a retirement alternative to Social Security: At the time they reacted with keen interest and some knee-jerk fear of the unknown. But after 24 years, folks here can say unequivocally that when Galveston County pulled out of the Social Security system in 1981, we were on the road to providing our workers with a better deal than Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. The Problem with Social Security. Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system under which taxes...

Congress Repeals Ban on Perpetual Motion Machines Select messages from # through # FAQ [/[]\] The People's Cube -> The Daily Truth #1: Congress Repeals Ban on Perpetual Motion Machines Author: Opiate of the People, Location: People's Republic of NJ, USA, EarthPosted: 10/24/2009, 9:54 pm    — WASHINGTON - In a bold move to lessen our dependence on traditional fuels and decrease carbon emissions, Congress voted to repeal an old Republican ban on perpetual motion machines, clearing the way for the development of self-propelled water wheels, self-flowing flasks, float belts, zeromotors, and other environmentally-friendly industrial equipment. Director of the White House's Office of Science and...

We have previously discussed the dangers of increasing taxation in places like New York city. Now it appears that the city is facing a tax-version of the China Syndrome where over-taxation may be causing wealthier families to flee, which increases the need for higher taxes on those remaining. I remain concerned about the incredible spending in Congress and rising taxes in the states as politicians seem to have lost any sense of proportion or balance in buyouts, recovery bills, and public spending. Even the Washington Post is now warning of a “debt tsunami” as the Administration drives up the deficit...

Corporate CEO salaries have been a target of criticism for a long time, and that criticism increased during the mortgage banking collapse, when bank CEOs also became targeted for doing a lousy job. The heads of large companies do make huge salaries, as shown by this sample from the 2008 AFL-CIO CEO Pay Database: Robert A. Iger, The Walt Disney Company, $51 million; Lloyd C. Blankfein, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., $42.9 million; Mark V. Hurd, Hewlett-Packard Company, $34 million; and Rex W. Tillerson, Exxon-Mobil Corporation, $32 million. There are a few reasons for this criticism, including envy and not...

TAOS, N.M. – Larry Whitten marched into this northern New Mexico town in late July on a mission: resurrect a failing hotel. The tough-talking former Marine immediately laid down some new rules. Among them, he forbade the Hispanic workers at the run-down, Southwestern adobe-style hotel from speaking Spanish in his presence

Economics for Catholics… Exposing the Dangerous Premises of Economic Liberals Brian McCall REMNANT COLUMNIST, Oklahoma (Posted 10/19/09 www.RemnantNewspaper.com) The central assumption underlying all of Liberal Economic Thought (in contrast to Catholic Economic Thought) is greed. Now Economic Liberals (“E Libs”) do not always use that word; they may call it “profit motive” or “self-interest” or “wealth maximization,” but all of these terms boil down to the same thing.  More clever E Libs will mask this principle by saying that it is only valid within the economic “framework.” Once wealth is generated morality may have something to say about what...

Okay, it’s time to finally admit it: Barack Obama hates businessmen. Not just certain businessmen, mind you, but the entire profession. Of course President Obama will deny this. He told Businessweek magazine in a recent interview that he is not anti-business and that he believes in the private sector. But the evidence is overwhelming, and it helps explain why he is pursuing kamakazi-like economic policies that will damage the private sector in America. Obama has demonized just about every business sector in America. Through the 2008 campaign to the present, he has gone after credit card companies, the coal industry,...

I hope you all are paying attention, because if the dollar is no longer the world reserve currency, then we will have no bargaining chips in the diplomatic world. Robert Fisk at the UK Independent opened his article, "the Demise of the Dollar" like this:

In the October 2, 2009 Virginia Attorney General’s debate, my opponent and I had the opportunity to ask each other one question regarding our top priorities. His top priority - “global warming,” which of course comes along with a raft of legislative and regulatory burdens and taxes. At the federal level, this legislation is called “cap and trade.” The (so-called) “Cap and Trade” legislation is meant to restrict greenhouse gas emissions from industry, mainly carbon dioxide from the combustion of coal, oil, and natural gas. A better name for this legislation would be “Ration and Tax.” This is because under...

First Dupage Bank, Westmont, IL Riverview Community Bank, Otsego, MN Bank of Elmwood, Racine, WI Hillcrest Bank Florida, Naples, FL Flagship National Bank, Bradenton, FL American United Bank, Lawrenceville, GA Partners Bank, Naples, FL

Nouriel Roubini: Big Crash Coming Written by Dave Nadig October 23, 2009 00:00 AM Dr. Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics and international business at the Stern School of Business at NYU and chairman of RGE Monitor, is perhaps best known for his prescient predictions of the financial market collapse in 2005.Dr. Roubini will be the keynote speaker at IndexUniverse’s upcoming “Inside Commodities” conference on Nov. 4 at the New York Stock Exchange. We sat down with Dr. Roubini ahead of the conference to take his temperature on global markets, the role of oil (NYSEArca: USO) and gold (NYSEArca: GLD) and...

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) lead analyst covering US debt said that the Amercan goverment could lose its “AAA” rating if it cannot cut the deficit and budget gaps in the next three to four years. Steven Hess told Reuters: “The Aaa rating of the U.S. is not guaranteed.” The current rating should be stable for at least 18 months.It was only earlier this year that the UK government got a similar warning from credit agencies.China expressed concern to Secretary Geithner that it does not have an unending appetite for US Treasury paper. At some point the People’s Republic will not be willing to...

Damballa - Small Botnets Pose Big Problems to Enterprises A research by security firm 'Damballa' indicates that it isn't necessary the largest sized botnets, which are responsible for the greatest threat, pose great threat to corporate data. During an analysis of 600 or more active botents, the firm's research experts found that often small sized infected networks were employed for the more targeted and dangerous attacks. Damballa states that although massive botnets like Conficker and Rustock are frequently in seen in the news, its study paper released during September 2009 indicates that many organizations become targets of attacks from even...

After reported currency intervention by Asian economies and Brazil, Europe today reiterated its desire for a strong dollar as well. Bloomberg: French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s counselor, Henri Guaino, said today in Paris that the U.S. is “flooding the world” with dollars and that the currency’s weakness may become “unbearable.” Eric Woerth, France’s budget minister, said the euro’s gains are hurting the region’s competitiveness.“We all note with considerable attention the statements made by American authorities as regards their support in favor of a strong dollar,” Trichet said in Luxembourg yesterday....“We want a strong dollar; we need a strong dollar,” French Finance...

Experts Warn Of 'Deluge' Of Insolvencies To Come In The UKInsolvency experts have warned that there will be a "deluge" of business failures next year. Begbies Traynor said 134,000 business are currently showing "material signs of distress", although this is a fall on the 149,500 in the previous quarter. It said the UK was at the "midpoint of a 'W'- shaped recession, with a deluge of business failures likely in 2010". By Rupert Neate Published: 5:39PM BST 20 Oct 2009 Ric Traynor, executive chairman of Begbies Traynor, said: "The UK may be in the eye of the storm. The well-intentioned...

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut the price targets of federally controlled mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to zero today, saying the government needs to recapitalize the two and wipe out shareholders. Interesting theory, but I think they underestimate the government's willingness to continue throwing good money after bad. Here are more specifics of what KBW says, via the Bloomberg article: "The only viable option to limit taxpayer expense and recapitalize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is to set up a Bad Fannie and Bad Freddie," analysts wrote in a research note today. The plan would wipe out existing...

Morton Sloan feels besieged. Over the last several years, the Bronx-based entrepreneur has watched the property taxes on the ten Morton Williams supermarkets he runs in the city swell by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Increasingly aggressive city inspectors now linger in those stores for hours, writing costly citations for items that clerks accidentally mislabel. Some of Sloan’s suppliers say they’ll no longer deliver to New York City because of the Department of Transportation’s frequent parking-ticket blitzes. It gets worse: a new Bloomberg-administration program that encourages fruit and vegetable vendors to set up on street corners has left him scrambling...

Nobel Prize economist Paul Krugman - of Princeton and the New York Times - wrote a noteworthy piece this week: "Misguided Monetary Mentalities", published in the New York Times on October 12. "One lesson from the Great Depression is that you should never underestimate the destructive power of bad ideas. And some of the bad ideas that helped cause the Depression have, alas, proved all too durable: in modified form, they continue to influence economic debate today. What ideas am I talking about? The economic historian Peter Temin has argued that a key cause of the Depression was what he...

Warning: Mildly rough language contained herein. Don't gripe, you were warned in advance not to read this if you'll be offended! You have to be kidding me..... From Larry Summers: "Financial institutions that have benefited from government support can, should and must use this moment to think about what they can do for their country -- by accepting the necessary regulation to protect the American people," Summers said in remarks prepared for delivery at the Economist's Buttonwood Gathering in New York. "There is no financial institution that exists today that is not the direct or indirect beneficiary of trillions of...

For most retail stores, staying in business for only a few days would be considered a major flop. But a growing number of merchants are opening shops and abruptly shutting them down soon after -- on purpose. These quickie retail operations -- known as pop-ups -- are showing up throughout Southern California and around the nation, filling in the gaps at recession-battered shopping centers for a fraction of the regular rents. Once limited to seasonal shops and dusty liquidation centers, pop-up stores are now being opened by some of the nation's biggest retailers. It's a trend that could reshape the...

Study Backs Open Access to Broadband Networks Stephen Lawson, IDG News ServiceWednesday, October 14, 2009 5:50 PM PDT Almost all of the most successful countries in broadband deployment have opened up the networks of their main carriers to competing service providers, according to a draft report put out for comment on Wednesday by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.The report (PDF) by Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society analyzes findings from a range of market-oriented democracies in an effort to understand what approaches have worked best in making sure citizens have adequate high-speed Internet access. The FCC is seeking...

Reason Foundation http://reason.org http://reason.org/news/show/three-guiding-principles-for-r Three Guiding Principles for Reforming Wall Street Cure the problems, don't create new ones Anthony Randazzo October 12, 2009 In the wake of the massive bank bailouts, nearly everyone is calling for some kind of financial regulatory system overhaul. The Obama administration has outlined what it would like to see and Congress is currently holding hearings on how to best reform the regulatory structure. But the lobbying began long ago. Big banks are squaring off against smaller banks in the debate over consolidating national banking regulatory powers. All banks are lining up against financial institutions like...

One of Big Labor's priorities in Washington is to place allies in key government jobs where they can overturn existing labor policy without battles in Congress. This is a very good reason for the Senate to hold a hearing on the nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Mr. Becker is associate general counsel at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is most recently in the news for its close ties to Acorn, the disgraced housing shakedown operation. President Obama nominated Mr. Becker in April to the five-member NLRB, which has the critical job of...

THE worst may be over for America’s financial markets, but they are still abnormal. Bill Dudley, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, captured the mood in a recent speech, bluntly titled “A bit better, but very far from best”. In a survey released this week, members of the National Association of Business Economics said markets would continue to drag on economic growth until at least mid-2010. For many the big question is whether a lack of credit is holding back America’s nascent recovery. In a sign of easing conditions, usage of the Fed’s special liquidity facilities has...

NEW YORK – Bruce Wasserstein, the CEO of Lazard Ltd., has died, according to a Wall Street Journal report Wednesday, which cited sources familiar with the matter