Robert J. Sherwood - Writer.

Employee Policies

2012-02-11T17:15:00.000-08:00

I am releasing this week another guide in the Basic Guide series. If you do not have an employee manual, it is a great guide, so they tell me, to get started. Here is what my editor wrote after reviewing the guide.
You have a choice: a productive work environment, or one full of miscommunication and distracting personnel issues.

A clear, concise employee manual stops many problems before they even start. Maybe you're a business owner faced with managing a new team of employees. Or perhaps you've been in business for a while, and your policies were informally enforced with your staff. While casualness may have worked when you only had one or two people to deal with, now it seems that you spend more time untangling human resource problems than actually getting the work of your company accomplished.

Regardless of size, a business needs a document to lay out expectations, rules and guidance for employees. Even a small business should establish standards such as dress code, performance appraisals and operating procedures for customer relations.

This Basic Guide To Employee Policies is designed to give you a template for customizing your own manual, specific to your business.

It will be available at kindle.com, pubit.com and the iBookstore in the next few days. It looks good on your iPad.

Send my book to Romney.

2012-02-10T08:54:00.000-08:00

I am not enamored with the political landscape these days. There is nothing new on the horizon and everything that can be said or written has already been said or written. Unless there is a smoking gun hidden in someone's resume or the economy dives further south, Romney will be the republican POTUS candidate and he will lose to Obama.

There will be little governmental change with Romney anyway. Romney's policies are too much like Obama's, but Obama explains these policies with oratorical skill. Romney does not. His delivery, although better of late, is still drab with visibly forced emotion. Frankly, Romney appears to me to lack a commitment "to wanting to be president." He impresses me with more an attitude of, "Hey, I made $300 million in business what else can I do? My dad tried it in 1968 so me too. It's a family thing." By the way, Romney's dad lost the republican nomination to Nixon. In case you did not know, Mitt Romney's dad was president of American Motors, which built cars no one has even heard of today. The company was sold to Chrysler in 1987, which was sold to Italy a few years ago.

Mitt Romney promises to end Obama care and lower income taxes. Most people that I ask do not even know what Obama care is except in very general terms. As for taxes, I understand that most people pay some taxes, such as payroll or sales tax, but approximately 50% of Americans pay no income tax. Income tax is a non-starter for the masses.

Apple will disrupt the phone business-again and again

2012-02-09T07:38:00.000-08:00

Apple is a marketing strategy.

I have been into Sprint for several years. It has not been a good experience. So today I exited with out much fanfare. No one noticed except me and and perhaps now, you, my loyal blog readers. While Sprint languished with every weak pronouncement from Dan Hesse, Sprint's CEO, Apple charged up the value chain to reach a price of $485 today.

According to one report that I read, the annual sales of the iPhone are now greater than the total sales of Microsoft. Read that last sentence again and let it sink in.

Further, Apple now has approximately $100 billion in cash. The impact of the iPhone on the telecoms is staggering. At one time, I anticipated that Apple would just buy a phone company then I realized they own them all already. In the case of Sprint for example, if Sprint makes its goal of purchasing 30 million iPhones, Apple gets $18 Billion from Sprint. But that is only the tip of the iceberg. Apple gets the money, but it also gets another 30 million users of its products that purchase stuff from all the associated Apple sources like iTunes. Apple will eventually own its own airwaves and then the telecoms will be in the Smithsonian and in hundreds of case studies at the nation's business schools where students will be using Apple products to study its success amidst the demise of firms like Sprint. Kodak never saw it coming either.

Once Sprint becomes dependent on the iPhone for its success, then Apple can go the next step and demand a share in the continuing revenue stream from iPhone contract sales. There is no way to stop it and investors are recognizing that fact, hence Apple shares reach new highs every day. Yes, and hindsight is perfect and humbling because I sold my Apple shares at $156.

No doubt, the federal government will soon start a formal investigation of Apple. They investigated Microsoft in the 90s. Why? Envy. Apple has more cash than congress.

Stay in touch and watch Apple.

Crowd Sourcing

2012-02-08T15:10:00.000-08:00

The newest old development technique is now called crowdsourcing. Here is the military initiative.

UAVForge is a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic (SSC Atlantic) collaborative initiative to design, build and manufacture advanced small unmanned air vehicle (UAV) systems. Their goal is to facilitate the exchange of ideas among a loosely connected international community united through common interests and inspired by innovation and creative thought.

This challenge is guided by crowdsourcing. UAVForge provides the virtual environment and tools necessary to collaborate independent of geographic location, education, profession, or experience. Individuals, ad hoc teams or any other formative organizations are encouraged to submit innovative ideas, designs, algorithms, materials, etc. where other members of the crowd can respond, vote, comment and contribute.

A picture of the possible winner for unmanned aerial vehicles is shown above. DARPA is often credited with the development of the Internet and a host of other technologies. you should take a look. Why? Because often what they develop comes into the consumer world in other forms.

DARPA's crowdsourced UAV competition heats up, takes off (video) -- Engadget

Obama and the super Pacs.

2012-02-07T23:18:00.000-08:00

Obama dissed the supreme court for failing to kill the super PACs power. Now, he is thanking them because Obama is an expert at climbing out of a hole.

Political Action Committees are organizations that people from anywhere can give millions of dollars to anonymously, as long as the PAC is not directed by the candidate that the PAC supports. I suspect it is just a coincidence that the PACs are always in perfect political sync with their candidate of choice. And after holding out for several months, Obama has joined the pack of the PACs. He blamed his decision on the republicans.

According to reports, he is encouraging his donors to give to his PACs, which are run by two former Obama assistants. His campaign manager has said that Obama will not be involved in how the PACs spend their money running negative ads against the republican candidates. Further, the democrats have only reluctantly agreed to take this dastardly and immoral route because the republicans have forced their hand with the republican PACs. Obama's campaign manager reportedly said, it would be unfair for Obama to allow the republican PACs to raise all the anonymous money even though Obama is staunchly against it. Hence, Obama is now for it.

Further, Obama's manager reported that although senior officials from the Obama administration will be attending these Obama PAC fund raisers, the officials will not ask for money. Wow what a relief. They will only attend. The republicans keep making Obama recast his principles in order to get reelected.

How can I make this stuff up? Impossible.

Judgment at Nuremberg

2012-02-07T22:50:00.000-08:00

You must watch this powerful film immediately. Spencer Tracey and several other great film actors starred in the 1961 film. It was based on the 1946 Nuremberg trials in which 4 German judges are accused of crimes against humanity during the Nazi regime.

I am not a professional movie critique. Hence, I can not describe the movie in terms of plot, character development or acting. However, I can attest to this. Watch the movie and you will be mesmerized by a slice of history sandwiched between legal and political issues that are at the heart of democracy in America today. Issues such as do judges make the law or are they only responsible for enforcing it? When do citizens stand up for what is right when it is easier to sit down and watch what is wrong? If citizens float along in a sea of apathy overshadowed by a cloud of indifference, then a few elitists can genuinely rule the majority at the expense of the minority. Further, does survival at any cost trump rational thought and moral principle? The film addresses these contemporary issues amidst the end of World War II and the beginning of the conflict with Russia. It is a piece of history that is unforgettable.

I am going to say more about this movie. But first watch it.

Of course it is only my opinion.

State Food Stamp policies

2012-01-30T20:23:00.000-08:00

I am gnawing my way into food stamp policies, and you will not believe what I am finding. For example, let's look at Kansas. For the last decade, in Kansas if you declined to provide proof of legal presence, then only a portion of your income was counted against your qualification for food stamps. However, if you were an American citizen, then all your income was counted. That is right. The food stamp program discriminated against US citizens. And it has been going on for 10 years. I wonder what the other states are doing. No accountability. No transparency.

But guess what? The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services have recently revised the way they calculate eligibility. They have agreed to stop discriminating against US citizens. What a relief? I know you must think I make these things up so just Google Kansas food stamp policy and you should be able to verify what I say.

Now under the new guidelines, all household income whether from US citizens or non-citizens will be counted toward qualification for food stamps. By the way, 296,542 people in Kansas receive food stamps an increase of 58% from 2008.

Gingrich may have a point about the food stamp president.

2012-01-30T14:04:00.000-08:00

Congress has agreed that representative Gifford's light plane penalty smuggling bill is needed. They passed it last week. If you missed this event in the news because you were looking for work, applying for food stamps or tied up in red tape trying to get your mortgage refinanced, then you may not be aware that congress finally passed legislation that imposes the same penalty for smuggling drugs with a light plane as a heavy plane or a car-- There goes the demand for light plane pilots.

And why was this legislation needed? Because single seat planes that can fly low enough to be undetected by radar are not classified as aircraft under existing federal law. Hence, prior to this legislation, if you smuggle drugs by low flying airplanes, you receive a lesser penalty than a person smuggling drugs by car. I wonder what the penalty is for smuggling by bike, hot air balloon, or just fast jogging. My guess is that legislation will come up next year.

It may be me, but I believe the operative penalty word should be "Smuggle" not what transportation you use to do it.

Is SNAP snitching my contact info?

2012-01-30T10:13:00.000-08:00

Today, I filed a complaint with the consumer protection bureau against SNAP- the federal food stamp program. You may recall that in an earlier blog, I disclosed that in the interest to discover the truth about Gingrich's claims about the food stamp president, I applied. My worst fears have been realized.

I have reason to believe that the Feds have sold my contact information to a private firm that is inundating me with useless email spam offers. Hence I filed my complaint.

The emails come from such addresses as yourfundingchoice via bluehornet.com, or cardbestoffer@paydaycashshop.com. I receive daily offers from paydaycashshop. I get on the average 6 emails a day and 4 phone calls from Florida or Massachusetts. I also have been offered a free phone, free credit reports and a $25,000 loan for a new car. Of course none of it is free.

I wonder what will happen now.

Second screening and Gooching.

2012-01-28T07:50:00.000-08:00

There is a new trend afoot and you should take notice. Many people are TV watching today with their iPad, portable computer or iPhone (smartphone) in their lap. If you were watching the POTUS republican debates, then you might have been fact checking with Google as you watch. If your were watching Obama's state of the union address, you may have been "Gooching" (Google Searching) how many times Obama had said the same thing before. Additionally, experienced sitcom watchers are Gooching the back stories of their favorite sitcom characters as they watch. The trend is accelerating and now has a name. It is called second screening.

Second screening engages viewers. You should take notice because this trend is an opportunity for TV producers to switch TV from passive to active with the right dialogue. I believe it is capable of making TV a fascinating media by recognizing second screeners and producing programs that encourage it. TV has always secretly wished to engage viewers with more than simple sound and interesting images. It now has an opportunity to engage the viewer's minds in more than just mind numbing domestic or fantasy situations.

If TV does not act, then I predict second screeners may develop their own games that are played in conjunction with watching a TV program. You may even see an iPhone app released that is accessed and played while watching your favorite sitcom. More than likely the NFL will do it first. If you have ever watched a football game with a fantasy football enthusiast, then you understand the NFL is close.

Add second screening and Gooching to your vocabulary. You heard it here.

Powerful ideas are at stake.

2012-01-26T10:27:00.000-08:00

Next week is a big week. It will confirm or disavow, for me, America's capability to vote for ideas or against empty promises. Why? Because next week is the Florida primary and it is likely the winner will become the republican POTUS nominee. Gingrich is the candidate of ideas. Grandiose maybe, but so was Kennedy when he announced that America would land a man on the moon and return him to earth before the end of he decade. It is hard to remember how grandiose that must have sounded, now that we accomplished it. It was only a subject for science fiction movies 50 years ago.

Here is a conversation heard many-many years ago too. "What shall we do? The British are becoming unbearable. We need to start our own country, with our own constitution." Now that was a grandiose idea.

Gingrich announced that if elected he would restore America's capability to launch our own communication satellites. You may remember that Obama killed our programs and now America must use Russian or Chinese firms to launch satellites. Satellites are what we use to transmit confidential data from place to place.

Gingrich also announced a renewed commitment to space - A colony on the moon within 8 years. He also announced he would initiate government funded prizes for critical innovations. Bendix established a prize of $15,000 for an airplane race in 1931. Doolittle won it. Doolittle was a pioneer in the development of flying on instruments-called blind flying in the early days.

Lindbergh won $25,000 for the first trans-Atlantic flight. Aviation was accelerated by daring people eager to prove new innovations. Gingrich suggested America could ignite the spirit of innovation again. How about $100 million for a cancer cure? It would be a bargain and save billions of dollars in medical expenses. $100 million for a diabetes cure?

You get the idea. Gingrich is about ideas. I like it.

You need to see this video to understand.

2012-01-25T11:19:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDDRiGIUYQo&feature=youtu.be

Obama's State of the Union

2012-01-24T21:05:00.000-08:00

The man has read my book. 0bama is spell binding. If I did not know better, I would think he was just elected President and this was his first term. It is not. He is at the end of his term, not the beginning. The issue is not that he caused all of the nation's problems because he did not, cause all of them, that is. The issue is - he has had three years to solve them and he has failed.

Frankly considering his lack of accomplishments, I would have expected a more contrite and apologetic speech for a three year president. I received the opposite. I observed a president that claimed he could not solve the nation's problems because Washington is broken. He boisterously took credit for saving the automobile industry and proudly exclaimed that GM is again the world's largest car manufacturer. Further, as I understand it GM, GMAC and Chrysler took $80 billion of bail out money. There was no mention of how much was paid back or how much was sent to Italy to Fiat. In the same breath, he mentioned that Ford is investing billions in new manufacturing plants. By the way, according to FactCheck.org Ford did get some Fed assistance, but took none of the bail out money.

Obama offered that the CEO of MasterLock, a union shop in Milwaukee told Obama, it now made sense to bring jobs back home. Obama failed to tell us why they left in the first place and why it is better now. And of course if it now makes sense in this anecdotal example, then why do we need all the changes Obama mentioned. I suspect the facts behind the example would dilute Obama's ability to take credit for those MasterLock jobs.

I loved Obama's announcement that the states must require students to stay in school until they graduate or reach the age of 18. Sure the states can require it, but who is going to enforce it. The students that drop out typically do not listen to reason.

By the way, I feel so much better now that Obama announced we now have Richard Cordray to look out for us consumers, or American citizens, as I often refer to us. I expect Cordray's first assignment will be to protect us from Obama care, unfair taxes and a strangled economy. He is going to be busy? You may know that Cordray's first priority is to get the important parts of your credit card agreement published in large print. Wow!

And finally, Obama told congress to send him a bill that bans "insider trading" by members of congress. Is it legal now? Martha Stewart, sent to jail for versions of insider trading, must be crying over spilt milk, on that one. Mr. Obama there is already a law against insider trading and it includes all Americans even congress.

There is so much more to write, but so little time. Again the man is spell binding in delivery, magical in oratorical presence, but is clearly not a subject matter expert. Some men can teach, some men can talk and some men can do. We need a doer.

Keystone cops- Obama and Hillary Clinton - are back.

2012-01-24T17:26:00.000-08:00

The Keystone cops are back. They were incompetent fictional policemen in silent movies abut 100 years ago. They have been replaced by Obama and Clinton. Obama's and Clinton's body language gave their real position away. It was disingenuine. I am sure even they knew, it was not the republican's fault.

Obama killed the Keystone pipeline and blamed it on republicans. Hogwash. All Obama had to do was sign the legislation and the pipeline was alive. He killed it. For Obama to say, the republicans prevented me from approving the pipeline is an insult to an American's intelligence.

And who will benefit from this falling rain? Mr. tax-me-I-am rich himself, Warren Buffet, will. According to Investor's Business Daily, the crude oil will be shipped by Buffets rail line. And more than likely now shipped to the west coast and then to China. If it was not that the pipeline was beneficial to all America now, I would be ecstatic about this edible entree for Gingrich to serve to Obama in the presidential debates later this year. I hope Gingrich makes him choke on it.

Hillary Clinton's state department recommended the pipeline be killed and Obama agreed. It was killed as they say, not on the merits, but because the republicans did not give the state department enough time to review the application. And Obama asks why we can not make the iPhones in America? Or why the jobs go overseas? Adaptability. Flexibility. If the state department knew enough about Keystone to agree with the merits of the pipeline, then they had enough time to review it, otherwise they could not have agreed with the merits. Understand?

I wish I could watch Obama respond to Gingrich on this topic.

Clearly, I am not a subject matter expert on the Keystone pipeline, but common sense tells me Clinton's rational for killing the project, "we did not have enough time to review it," lacks credibility on the merits.

Kodak is the same old large corporation story.

2012-01-23T16:01:00.000-08:00

Innovation is done by individuals working in small focused groups. Big groups commercialize, manufacture and distribute. Small groups innovate breakthrough technology applications -"BTAs."

There are so many examples of these facts that I am always puzzled by the latest academic research on innovation that proves facts "already known." However, the quantity of academic research on the subject is not half as mysterious as the question of why companies do not organize to take advantage of these facts. Despite a preponderance of evidence to the contrary, large companies still believe they can innovate, or refuse to acknowledge the innovations of others that threaten their own business.

If big companies with smart people, and huge budgets, with numerous PhD degrees and numerous MBA degrees from Ivy colleges were the answer, IBM and General Motors would control the world. They don't.

Apple in contrast has found the model. Let your executives innovate with a small teams of select people.

What is the point? Tweet---message to large company CEOs. Identify 100 of your best vision-thinkers and developers. Divide them into 5 groups of 20. Do not specify who is in charge. No hierarchy. Send them to a far away place for six months. Greece. Cyprus. India. China. Colorado. Leave them alone. No monthly reporting. Ask them to develop a detailed plan with BTAs to obsolete your current product line? Have them report only to you the CEO. In other words, create your own suite of small companies. It is more economical than acquiring them, or worse yet getting beat up by them.

What did I learn from Steve Jobs and others? Obsolete your own products before someone else does?

Take the fight to Obama.

2012-01-23T08:27:00.000-08:00

Gingrich knows Pause, Inflection and Repetition. He also showed Romney a trick or two about political messaging in South Carolina.

Obama's claims about the economic recovery and reckless accusations about republicans, for now, go unchallenged. And the breadth of his claims are expanding. Obama seems to enjoy listening to his own oratorical skills, which are impressive, much more than using his "do something" skills which are not impressive at all.

Meanwhile, Romney refuses to counter Obama's claims at all. It may be that the only candidate that has the vision to see through Obama's conclusions to Obama's faulty premises is Gingrich.

I, for one, am looking forward to the Gingrich-Obama debates. And Gingrich will not allow the questioners to ask silly, divisive or argumentative questions. It is about time a candidate demanded relevant questions.

Thousands of programs to stimulate job growth.

2012-01-22T09:01:00.000-08:00

As you know from my last blog, I applied for SNAP- the Federal Government's, Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, popularly known as Food Stamps.

Today, I received an email acknowledging my SNAP application and asking me to apply for one of the thousands of jobs created by the Federal government in their stimulus program. The email read, "Additionally, the Federal government has created thousands of programs to help stimulate job growth. The Feds have created not just a few programs, not just hundreds of programs, but thousands of programs. I would like to get a job creating the programs, that is where the job growth is.

The Website continued to state, "We can help you find new recovery jobs that meet your career goals. Click here to find a job in your area." It even offered me the possibility of $5,500 PELL grant. I had to answer a few questions such as the date I graduated from high school, which was 1960. Unfortunately, the application form would not allow me to enter a date before 1962.

What is the point? The Feds are paying someone, somewhere, some money to operate and design this website. It is a waste of money. It may make for good press relations and a soundbite on a new Fed program, but it is not good for anything else. At the end, there were no stimulus jobs, but there was an advertisement to go to Phoenix University.

It was a website to nowhere. A promise unfilled. I bet I receive a lot more emails now with more websites to nowhere.

I would not be surprised if I get a job offer in the next email and a food stamp debit card in the regular mail. Stay tuned.

Do you have a right to work?

2012-01-21T17:38:00.000-08:00

According to many reports, when Obama visited Silicon Valley last year he asked Steve Jobs, "What would it take to have the iPhone manufactured in America?" As I understand it, Jobs replied, "Those jobs are not coming back." Obama's inquiry demonstrates his lack of understanding of business. The manufacture of electronic products require flexibility and adaptability. Product designs often change at the last minute and the workers who assemble these products must be able to adapt and change quickly to meet shipping schedules.

Adaptability and flexibility are not characteristics of American unions. I have had to have products built in Holland rather than Pennsylvania because the unions in Pennsylvania would not allow a union painter to do a bit of light assembly. The union worker could pick up a brush, but not a wrench without violation of the union work rules. A worker in Holland could paint, assemble and box without a separate union agreement and separate pay scales for each different work activity. By the way that firm in Pennsylvania, Bethlehem Steel is defunct.

Obama and Santorum have the same problem. At the southern debates, Rick Santorum proffered that a new 'Buy American Act" would bring those jobs home. Any person that has been in an international business, as I have, scoffs at the insanity of a forced "Buy American Act." Have you ever heard of Wal-Mart? Also, IBM is one of the largest supplier of data services to the Federal Government and has most its employees in other countries, India for example.

Santorum also claimed that Apple had 500,000 employees in Asia, which they do not. These are employees of an Asian company, not Apple employees. Santorum is over his head. It discredits the entire political system that he is even in the debates. He is smart enough just inexperienced. As a Senator from Pennsylvania, his state does not have a right to work law, which means you can be compelled to join a union to work. You remember Pennsylvania. It used to be the steel manufacturing capital of the world.

There are only 22 states that have a right to work law. Most of us in the other 28 states do not have a right to work. And to put vinegar on the sore, you may not have to join a union to work, however, you may be required to pay union dues. Read it again. I wrote it correctly. The issue really is why do we need a "right to work law" at all?

Obama could have answered his own question that he posed to Steve Jobs by looking at the unions that are among his biggest supporters. I do not have the answer to the lost manufacturing jobs problem, but I am sure the unions do not either.

SNAP -- It's better than food stamps.

2012-01-21T11:36:00.000-08:00

Gingrich has a point. Everyone is talking about it. I had to look it up. Here is what I found. Food stamps have been replaced by debit cards. I have no proof, but I suspect Goldman Sachs is in charge of the debit card program.

The old food stamp program has been changed. It is now called SNAP- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Anyone can apply and currently 46 million people qualify. They each have a debit card that is electronically reloaded with taxpayer funds each week. You can apply on-line. I applied. As near as I could tell, there is no means test. I could have one million dollars of equity in my home and qualify. By the way, a legitimate question to ask about any entitlement program is - is there a means test? I am for means testing. It makes no sense to me that if you have $10 million of equity in real estate and no earned income, you can qualify for a variety of entitlement programs including social security.

There was a reference in the application to a requirement that the recipients must be actively job hunting, but I was unable to discover what this meant. Now in all fairness, you are not allowed to purchase alcohol, tobacco or lottery tickets with your SNAP card; but you can trade for these items with your porterhouse steak.

The application is not difficult, but does require a degree of computer literacy. Apparently, people who apply for SNAP have computers and are computer literate. They also need a phone and a credit report. Why?

Because as soon as I completed my application form, I was forwarded to a place where I could get a free phone and 250 free minutes. Unfortunately, the free phones are not available to Kansas residents. Before I could get out of the system, I was sent to a place where I could get a free credit report if I would give them my credit card information. I declined. At this point, I was confused. It looked like the SNAP program was selling ads to make an extra buck.

The number of people on food stamps is steadily increasing. It is funded with $80 billion and provides extra income to approximately 25 million households. President Johnson launched his war on poverty program by creating programs that create adult dependency on Federal programs. I am not against SNAP, but if you are able to work, then you should be working at something while you receive your SNAP funds. Gingrich has a point. Your SNAP funds should be earned by working at the library or the local school.

Look around your city there is plenty to do.

A Basic Guide to Making Money on Your Idea.

2012-01-20T14:34:00.000-08:00

I am almost finished with my next guide. It covers websites, pay-for-click ads, licenses, idea protection strategies, trademarks, social networks, confidentiality, copyrights, patents, trade secrets, selling options and affiliate programs. I also have a chapter on digital publishing. Anyone have any stories or thoughts on content for the guide before I shut the door?

If I use your material, I will send you a check for $100.

RSVP to webtalkwithbob@gmail.com

BIg thing small stage.

2012-01-20T08:34:00.000-08:00

Speaking of public speaking, a big thing happened on a small stage last evening. When asked, what he would do differently in his campaign, Mitt Romney replied, he would spend less time criticizing his colleagues and more time criticizing Obama. I could be wrong, but it seemed he looked directly at Gingrich when he spoke. It was in my opinion a public apology, but it could also be characterized as a simple acknowledgement of fact. Romney's reply was thoughtful and presidential.

In response to the same question, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul said, they would do nothing differently. Their replies were a failure to reply responsively. It was a softball opportunity and they struck out. Gingrich replied, he would never have hired professional political consultants that he eventually had to fire. Gingrich said, he found that the Internet was an effective tool to reach out to the voters.

Last evening, the POTUS republican candidates sitcom was on TV again. Unfortunately, there is not much new being said in these debates. Not that what they have had to say is not important, it is just that the questions and the answers have all been asked and answered before. The candidate answers have all plateaued. The questions are flat too. The lack of new questions favors Romney who now has streamlined his responses to fit the old questions. Romney is reading my public speaking book. His smile is disarming and deflects the listener from his message. Santorum still appears to be a candidate in training and now that he has retroactively won Iowa, he appears affirmed that his positions on many issues are resonating with Americans, at least Iowans.

Ron Paul adds common sense to the debate. He responds rhetorically to every other candidates proposal with the remark, these are all good ideas, but how are we going to pay for them. He offers the same solution which appeals to many young people and me too. He asserts that America can not pay to police the world. America has military bases in numerous countries. It is expensive and essentially is a cash subsidy to the economy of the other country. How many countries have military bases in America? None. His suggestion. Close down all military bases in other countries. Bring the military home and save the money. In today's GPS world, where you can hit a small bus in Iran from a base in Missouri, there is no genuine reason for hundreds of military bases in other countries.

Ron Paul has a point.

It was a harbinger.

2012-01-19T09:15:00.000-08:00

Call your friends and let them know what happened yesterday.

A harbinger pierced the belly of congress yesterday like Ahab’s harpoon pierced the belly of the great white whale. Congress will not die, however, but it will have been abruptly awakened from a deep sleep. Both Google and Wikipedia shut down yesterday to protest the passage of congressional legislation that in their opinion would have dampened free speech on the Internet.

It was a harbinger, by any other name. If you visited Wikipedia and inserted your zip code, then you had the opportunity to submit your objection to the legislation. Thousands of people did and in 24 hours the legislation went from passing to failed. A few TV stations covered it last night in rudimentary fashion.

It was a double edged harpoon. It caught people’s attention because their favorite websites were temporarily redacted. The second edge was the ease at which you could voice your objection directly at your own congressional legislation.

Two large take aways. Websites with high visitor traffic have tremendous power. What if Apple shut down iTunes because of legislation that restricted iTunes in some fashion? I love iTunes. I would click on the objection button and my congressman would receive an electronic communication from me expressing my dissatisfaction.

And the even more powerful takeaway - it worked. It signaled the ratification of a new way to influence congress. Software allows your zip code to be matched with your congressman’s email address, then a simple click expresses your opinion. Apathy could be replaced by active participation in politics.

Do not be fooled. What happened yesterday is a harbinger of a substantive game changer for politicians.

And it’s about time.

What is a textbook?

2012-01-18T20:40:00.000-08:00

No doubt Apple's announcement tomorrow will spur new start-ups gunning to take advantage of the new publishing tools Apple is said to release. You may have an opportunity to invest in one of these new start-ups. I would encourage it. Look around you may find some private companies to invest in that will be changing the way we read forever.

Most prominent publishers will show up at work tomorrow in a business as usual fashion. Kodak acted in similar fashion when digital cameras were introduced. Remember Kodak, they made camera film. Or like Xerox, the struggling copier company that invented the Apple graphic user interface, but gave it away for free because they sold copiers not computers.

The textbook publishing companies have been feasting for years selling college textbooks that cost several hundred dollars. The colleges will also be effected because they have been revenue sharing in the soak the student textbook enterprise. With the iPad in service and new publishing tools in place, the colleges and the large publishers will be pushed into the digital world.

Every state simply does not need, can not afford, multiple colleges in a business that is scaler except for local politics. Venture capital saw the writing on the wall and they have invested heavily in this new field. Chegg has raised over $150 million and threatens to be the digital textbook publisher for all students. Watch out for names like Cramster, CourseRank and Notehall. Education is finally going to be hit with the disruptive bullet it deserves.

The next decade will be an exciting one for American education. I just hope our teachers can keep up with the students. Once courses become truly digital from textbooks to notes; perhaps one good teacher and a team of questioning/sharing/curious students accessing digital content from multiple data sources, instantly reformatted and repurposed in a media form that suits each students unique learning style is all the classroom needs.

The opportunities are staggering.

Hampo, Harpo and Obamo

2012-01-18T09:13:00.000-08:00

The three stooges, Hampo, Harpo and Obamo, set out to cure the housing crisis. Obamo told Hampo and Harpo to get busy and fix the problem. Hampo remarked, I will fix it by lowering borrowers interest rates. But lenders lost applicants' documents and people who had lost their jobs could not qualify for loans.

Then, Obamo sent Harpo in to solve the housing crisis problem. Harpo said, I will fix it by allowing owners to refinance their loans, but alas Harpo failed also.

If you are watching CNN, then you may know that HAMP and HARP are acronyms for initiatives created by Obama to solve the housing crisis. Some analysts agree that Obama focused on the wrong target. I agree. The only positive way is to simply have Fannie and Freddie write down the principal balance on the loans, a step that would have forced large losses on banks and government controlled mortgage companies.

The stooges preferred to soak the consumer rather than soak the banks. Now where is that consumer advocate fellow when we need him? He is making sure the banks rewrite credit card agreements in large print. He is focusing on the wrong target too.

Who are hypocrisites?

2012-01-16T08:28:00.000-08:00

The administration is staffed with Hypocrisites- a word I invented, I believe, that correctly describes a person, or persons who practice hypocrisy.

The latest hypocrisite is the person who is blasting Ron Paul for wasting tax payer money by flying first class. Air force one reportedly costs $56,518 per hour to operate in February of 2009. In 2011, the Air Forces reports it now costs $181,757 per hour to operate. Obama's trip to Hawaii reportedly cost approximately $4 million. How can an administration have such lavish vacation costs to transport the president around yet blast Ron Paul for flying first class?

Yuri, a character from Doctor Zhivago, says, "Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel, if you grovel before what you dislike.. Our nervous system isn't just fiction, it's part of our physical body, and it can't be forever violated with impunity."

Don't be surprised if Obama, Geithner or Clinton get a touch of the flu. If they do not, it is because Boris Pasternak did not consider the existence of hypocrisites that genuinely feel their moral position is righteous.

I wrote a novel about hypocrisy in the medical field. Some will find it fascinating reading, at least that is what I am told.

Here is an 2012 idea for you.

2012-01-15T19:41:00.000-08:00

It is said that Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States of America and Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe in WW II, required that all memorandum submitted to him be on no more than a single sheet of paper. I believe he had a point.

For example, at one time in my business career, which still continues albeit modestly, I took Eisenhower's notion at heart and required that all goals, mission statements and to-do lists were written on small sheets of paper. The smaller the better.

Flying out to Palm Springs this past week, I tried to wrote my 2012 goals on a gum receipt that was no more than 1" by 2" in size. It is much harder to write concisely than it is to write unconcisely. My experience is that typically people, who make long to-do lists or long wordy mission statements, get nothing done from their list and excite no one with their lengthy mission statements. After several attempts, I was finally able to write my 2012 goals succinctly.

It was a challenging exercise. You should try it.

Kill or maim the enemy, but do not pee on them.

2012-01-15T17:51:00.000-08:00

Now listen carefully to the rules of engagement.

You will kill the enemy. You have been trained to kill the enemy.

You have permission to kill, wound and or permanently maim the enemy with rockets, grenades, automatic weapons, bombs, knives, bayonets, strangulation, strafing with 50 caliber ammunition from low flying fighter aircraft and powerful bombs. Please remember these weapons have been deliberately designed, tested and manufactured to kill the enemy and further you have been trained at huge tax payer expense to learn how use these weapons to effectively kill the enemy. That is your mission.

If your best friend has just been turned into a sack of blood and guts with his bowels pouring out over his uniform, you may kill the enemy that did this horrible deed with any means possible, including shooting him with high caliber weapons that will blow his head clean off.

In the unlikely event that you are unable to kill the enemy with the weapons you carry with you, then you may call in a bombing mission of F15s and request the aircraft deploy deadly AIM-7f/M Sparrow missiles combined with M61A1 20 MM Gatling gun fire designed to cut a man in half, or you may request an airdrop of agent orange. This herbicide was used by the military in the Vietnam war from 1961 to 1971 credited by some reporters with killing or maiming more than 400,000 people and reportedly causing more than 500,000 children to be born with birth defects. It is not as effective as shooting, but will likely put the enemy in a hospital where he will experience excruciating pain for the rest of his life. That is acceptable.

Please follow these rules of engagement in achieving your mission of killing or maiming the enemy, but you may not pee on them that is disrespectful.

If you have followed the administration's climb to the moral high ground on this pee matter, then you get my point. Kill them. Chop their heads off with automatic weapon fire. Blow the enemy to smithereens, but do not pee on them.

Ron Paul has a point.

2012-01-12T08:03:00.000-08:00

Does anyone know what the Department of Energy does? My gas prices go up every year. Oil prices go up at the whim of OPEC. We still have heavy restrictions on domestic oil exploration. Solar power goes where the tax benefits are highest. So What does DOE do? Have they acted to keep gas prices down? No. The 2009 Recovery Act gave DOE $16.8 billion to promote energy efficiency. I have turned my home thermostat down to 69 and they have not sent me a check. The solar power companies, in the bankruptcy news, may have received at least a $billion.

What does the department of education do? It still takes eight years for grade school and four years for high school. No progress there. College still takes four years and there is not a single college graduate I know that does not agree that at least two years are wasted. And colleges still grant degrees for which there are no jobs. A little trick that we play on students. "Congratulations, you have graduated with a degree that is of no value to securing yourself a job in today's job market. Have you considered graduate school?" Government regulations compel parents to send their children to schools that provide no education. Next time you get your tax bill, try not paying the education component. The Federal Government discourages homeschooling as if parental teaching could be worse than a teacher paid regardless of performance.

What does the fed do? The federal reserve has provided billions to foreign banks. They can not be audited by congress and the Fed chairman refuses to disclose who it provides money too. As Americans we are powerless to stop them and we have a president and most POTUS candidates who can not do any better.

Spencer Tracy starred in a 1948 movie, State of the Union, where he ran for president on the republican ticket. His cigar-smoking political advisor was asked,"What is the difference between democrats and republicans?" The advisor replied, "They are in power and we are not."

I fear that 64 years later, the response is still valid.

Ron Paul has a point. We could do away with many government departments and life would go on anyway. A sure acid test for the unessential.

A Basic Guide to Entrepreneurial Common Sense

2012-01-10T12:25:00.000-08:00

I blogged on these principles a few years ago. I read them again this morning and they sill make sense. I was president of a venture capital firm for seven years. The VC firm was primarily funded by Ewing Kauffman, the billionaire owner of the Kansas City Royals, founder of Marion Labs and founder of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation - an organization dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship. Here are “11” principles from the “CEO 50” that I developed regarding a balanced business.

The money pie. Don’t worry about the size of your slice. Your job is to make sure everyone has a slice and then to focus on making the pie bigger.

Education. From time to time, have your staff take a class at a local college. It will stimulate new thinking. Our minds, just like our stomachs, need some new foods periodically. Feed both. Make a list of things you would like to do, then take a class in one of them. You grow by your decisions and your actions; you atrophy by indecision and inaction.

Encourage all. Become an encourager in your business. Forget the petty jealousies, perceived sleights’ and rise above everyone’s imperfections, including your own. The high road is the road less taken; it is clearly steeper, but it has the best view. Encourage your partners to be the best they can be, and to play the hand they are dealt.

Time. Don’t waste it. It is an indeterminate gift. You do not know how much you are given. “Tempus fugit” is not a random Latin phrase with no basis in fact. Do work on those things you can control. The future always arrives. I founded a VC funded business more than 30 years ago with the initials EDC, “Every Day Counts.” We won awards from Fortune and Business Week magazines. The initials still resonate.

Responsibility. Take it. It’s your business. Once you are past 12, you need to own your failures; you already take full credit for your successes. There is no one in your way, but you.

Pride. Get rid of it. It’s useless. It gets in the way of success. It sucks the life out of you because it can never be satisfied. Pride has an insatiable appetite for wanting things that are destructive. Pride generally originates from a personal success that we have given ourselves too much individual credit for. It was really just a lucky bounce not a great shot. And if we are taller and have seen more, it is because we stood on someone else’s shoulders.

Spirituality. Find it. It takes some faith. Listen, when you are alone and quiet, and you will hear the answer.

Thank you. Thank someone every day. It will make your day better. You say you are too busy. Nonsense! You have time. It takes about a minute. Do not kid yourself; you have plenty of people to thank. When was the last time you took the time to write an employee a thank you card? Not for a birthday, but just a simple thank you. If you write one thank you card a day, I guarantee you; your life will change in a month. You will feel better.

No one appreciates your efforts to build the business. Forget it. Who do you appreciate? Do you tell them? Do you show them? Do you want to be appreciated? Then, you must appreciate someone else? Appreciate your staff and you will be appreciated.

Advice. Get some. Take it. Most people don’t.

Criticism. Get some. Ask for it. Beg for it. It is such a precious commodity that most people will not freely give it to you. Yet, you simply can not become better at anything without it. Hold your criticizer close to your heart because it is the only way to improve. From your marriage to your business, to your relationship with your friends, criticism is the basis for improvement. If you are so happy with yourself that you believe you can not become better, then reject all forms of criticism. Most ordinary people do. Extraordinary people never do.

The Pummeled PACs will survive.

2012-01-10T07:36:00.000-08:00

Pummeling the PACs is popular. There is a cry for fairness and a crusader’s criticism hurled at the Supreme Court for a ruling that enabled the embryonic super PACs to hatch. The PACs have money, which by many standards is the root of all evil. The pummelers’ theme is that money, or those who have it, should not be able to buy votes. Money does not buy votes of course, but it does buy advertising-accurate and inaccurate, factual and non-factual, half-lies and half-truths, depending on the point of view.

There is another side of the story. For example, Alan Smithson is an American citizen. Alan is a successful entrepreneur and he wishes to give $100 million to a candidate that espouses the principles he believes in. Why should he be denied this option? Why should he be penalized, albeit not allowed to promote the principles that made him successful, just because he made it big? He should not.

Far be it from me to affirm a Supreme Court ruling, as if I had the legal acumen to understand the ruling language anyway; however, I do have a fundamental belief in capitalism. If you make a few bucks, then you should be able to invest your winnings to sustain the principles that allowed you to be successful in the first place.

My fear is that a few idealists will give up the fight to control the PAC expenditures and begin new efforts to regulate the content of the message. I fear they would like to establish a pre-fact finding regulatory authority that rates ads for accuracy or content, such as, “This ad is suitable for adults between the ages of 35-50, with a college education, with a full time job and the ability to recognize various forms of logic and flawed reasoning.” Not possible? Read the medical drug disclaimers. Read the movie disclaimers. And lest you have forgotten, the terrorist threat rating colors. The problem is no one ever rates the raters.

Gingrich. Economics. Will. George. Wealth.

2012-01-09T08:12:00.000-08:00

My editorial hero is George Will. He writes for the Washington Post. His editorial is an education in understanding the major differences between liberal and conservative thought. For example, he recently opined that the liberal’s century old mission is to “decrease inequality by increasing government’s redistributive activities.” This mission is contrary to a preferred conservative view of “distribution of wealth by consensual market activities.”

I agree.

Contrary to the liberal view, these definitions do not characterize conservatives as dispassionate and do not preclude a conservative view that society still retains a responsibility for the disabled, sick, and elderly. However, this view does beg for common sense in discharging these responsibilities. For example, liberals support state operated nursing homes at an annual cost of $60,000 per elderly person rather than paying $20,000 to a caring family to take care of an elderly person at home. Gingrich lays these choices out like ducks in a row, only to be shot down by non-thinking conservative super-pacs and gangs of liberals. As the liberals promote a redistributive government, they promote a more powerful government bent on its own personal survival, rather than more economic ways of discharging its societal responsibilities.

There is great risk in accepting consensual market wealth distribution – There is a risk we might not get our earned share. There is also a risk, and it is much greater in my view, however, associated with assigning the government the wealth redistribution responsibility. To accomplish this complex redistributive activity, liberals must promote a stronger more powerful government. The conservatives, on the other hand, want to shrink government and let a consensual market operate. With these opposing notions in mind, it is easy to understand the chasm that exists between liberals and conservatives.

This chasm makes the Grand Canyon look like a pothole.

Red Wine Study is Absurd.

2012-01-06T20:20:00.000-08:00

If you take notes, like I do, the evening news can be as funny as watching blue collar comedy. For example, I just finished watching the local evening news on channel five. The head newscaster abruptly woke me from a modest head-nodding by saying,"A recent study concluded that red wine inhibits breast cancer in women." Tell me more. Tell me more. Does it really work? (paraphrased from Summer Fun lyrics for you millennials)

I listened closely. The newscaster continued to explain the facts of the study: The study lasted two months. There were 36 women in the study. They drank red wine for one month, then white wine for another month. The head wine researcher came on in a short video clip and said there will need to be further studies done to confirm this study. The newscaster continued unabashedly, "The researchers do not know how much red wine helps and they do not know for sure if it helps at all." Whoa Nellie! Did you not begin, Mr. Bigtime newscaster by saying, the study concluded red wine inhibits breast cancer. I grabbed my iPhone determined to send him a text message, but it was too late.

He never heard me ask my question because he was off to a gripping story about a family in Missouri that locked their five children in a wood shed while the family partied in the main house. I do not know what his point was on that story. All he showed me was a picture of the woodshed. No children. No parents. No party. Wait did you interview the parents? Nope. No time, he was off to another story. He began with the words, "And five years ago..." Back to the Cotton bowl.

And the newscaster, gathered his crackerjack team of investigative reporters and said, "Hey team we have a news show to do. It lasts 30 minutes, Let's dig up some news. We can only repeat the temperature forecast so many times. Let's go with the wine and the wood shed for openers."

Why it costs $900 million to be elected POTUS.

2012-01-05T20:58:00.000-08:00

I am told that the candidate who spends the most money wins the election 95% of the time. I am surprised. However, my surprise is why is it not 100%? In the spirit of the "Dumb and Dumber famous - one in a million line," it means the candidate who does not have the most money has a better chance of winning than Harry (Jim Carrey) had of getting a date with Mary. Harry never gave up either. The POTUS candidates only give up when the money runs out not when their principles give out. Hence money trumps principles in an election.

It is not that money buys votes. It is that you can not begin to consider a candidate unless you are exposed to him. Exposes are linked to advertising impressions which are linked to money. Typically, it costs about $5 for 1,000 impressions. If you need 60,000,000 votes and you need to have each person see an impression 100 times they believe your message, then a candidate needs to purchase 100X60 million or 6 billion impressions, which at $5 per 1,000 is $30 million.

Now the problem is that no matter how often you run an ad, people do not see every ad so each candidate must run 30 ads to get a genuine single impression, hence the final cost for a POTUS candidate is 30X30 million or $900 million. A candidate can save $100 million with good media coverage. And that is why Iowa is important, not its measly 28 electoral votes.

Now we know that advertising works. Or why else would we buy bottled water for a $1 a bottle when you can make 1,000 gallons (8,000 bottles) for 25 cents? Why would we be buying things we do not need at prices we can not afford? Come on be realistic, a Coach purse for $500? A Rolex watch for $30,000? With these items in mind, for some reason, many of us are still surprised when we link money to POTUS candidates. We believe that POTUS candidates are marketed to us differently than a Rolex watch, a Coach purse or a Mission Impossible movie. They are not. It is all about purchasing impressions. For example, Google was built on selling impressions. They are called ads and Google sells billions and billions of them.

Now while many of you are busy checking my impression calculations, I need a bottle of AquaPure. It is the best. I am going to relax with one of my books and see if I can learn something. I have forgotten so much already.

Publish your short story, report, novel and make a few dollars.

2012-01-04T08:27:00.000-08:00

I have now digitally published 12 books.

I can help you publish yours. I can convert your Word doc into the ePub format, manage the technical conversion and upload the completed digital file to the iBookstore, Amazon and Barnes and Noble for use on the iPhone, iPad, Nook, Kindle and any Android device.

I can provide you with daily sales reports, manage your digital marketing and send you monthly checks for your sales. It's not free, but it is reasonable. Contact me.

Obama. Romney. Gingrich. Santorum. Ron Paul.

2012-01-02T10:40:00.000-08:00

Obama follows all my Public Speaking rules except one. He fails to deliver a substantive "take-away" from his oratory. He uses cadence, tone, silence, pause, summary and repetition, but at the end his oratory leaves the listener with nothing to take-away. Hope pays no bills nor does it get a paycheck.

A few weeks ago, I blogged that the republicans would push Gingrich from the foreground into the background. They have done it. Rick Santorum, in training for the future, and Ron Paul's last presidential race hurrah, are simply side bars to a fait accompli for Romney. In my opinion, Romney will prove to be an excellent fund raiser, but poor competitor for Obama.

And with the imminent departure of Gingrich, there is no one left to match the skilled oratory of Obama. Romney's fund raising ability trumps Gingrich's leadership ability. That is not to say that should the unlikely event occur that Romney should win next November, Romney would not make a thoughtful albeit cautious president. He will. But Romney lacks a set of intractable principles for slicing the government and dicing the budget into a manageable situation.

My advice. Hunker down for a horizontal growth economy, volatile stock market and a political race that is much ado about nothing. It will make great survivor TV.

Challenge Your Assumptions.

2011-12-31T10:52:00.000-08:00

The waitress saw me fumbling with the 12 page breakfast menu and she asked me, "Are you looking for the "senior" section. I quickly replied, " No."

I was offended by her question, but I refrained from retaliating with a quid pro quo on her senior waitress position with iHop.

After reflecting on the issue, I concluded that I was offended because she must have assumed that I was a senior either because I looked my age or my bumbling-fumbling with the menu gave me away. In either case, her assumption bothered me. I do not mind declaring I am a Senior to get less expensive tickets at the movies, but I resent the assumption by another person that I am a senior.

On another occasion, I was in a store checkout line with a close friend. We both saw a lady in the same line that appeared to be in a family way. My friend casually asked, "When is your baby due?" The lady replied, " I am not pregnant." This conversation exchange was followed by the proverbial pregnant pause.

Time and time again assumptions get us into situations from which escaping is not an option. If you have acted inappropriately on your assumptions, email me the details. I may include your story in my new book called Challenge Your Assumptions.

This year I vow to challenge all my assumptions before I act on them.

www.webtalkwithbob.com

Our Leadership Has Lost Touch With Americans.

2011-12-29T20:35:00.000-08:00

This week the Kennedy’s series was on television again. It’s a three or four part series that takes the viewer through Joe Kennedy’s death, JFK’s presidency, Bobby Kennedy’s run for the presidency, and a bit about Ted Kennedy’s life. According to the way the Kennedy family was depicted, they spent most of their time debating which Kennedy was going to be president, when the next party was going to be, and who was going on the next trip to Europe.

It occurred to me while I watched and later when I reflected on the series that few families could be more disconnected with a typical American family than the Kennedy’s. For example, I never saw a single Kennedy go to work. They were usually just running for office or getting chauffeured to their next activity. I never saw a single Kennedy talk about having to pay their taxes each year, pay for a college tuition, shop for food, get a mortgage, or where they were going to get the money to do any of these things.. Other than Rose Kennedy’s depiction of a pseudo-minimalist by turning off the porch lights on their megamillion dollar home, there was never any indication that the Kennedy’s were ever concerned about how much they spent, how much they earned, or their financial future. No family could be more unlike an American family.

Maybe that’s the real problem with politics. As we continue to elect people who are simply no reflection of the American family, we wind up with a total disconnect between our representatives and Americans. In fact, the only real connect with Americans that our congressional representatives have is the surveys and polls that allegedly report what Americans are currently thinking.

It seems almost ludicrous that in the current American situation, we must have a survey that reports that the American people are concerned about the loss of equity in their homes and their current jobs. The very fact that Congress needs a survey to quote from or to read on these important issues clearly shows the tremendous disconnect between Congress and the American people.

And I fear we are going to do it again hoping for different results. In other words, we can not even pass the ubiquitous sanity test. Where is Harry Truman when we need him?

New idea

2011-12-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

Dan Snell, of Digital PR, placed my latest book cover on an iPhone for promotional purposes. He can also do it for iPads and a host of other devices.

Pretty cool don't you think?

Thank you Steve Jobs

2011-12-25T13:05:00.000-08:00

Today, millions of families around the world will celebrate the holidays with facetime. This invention is patented by Apple computer. Sure there may be other ways of doing this sharing, but the iPhone made it easy, efficient and inexpensive.

My wife and I had iPhone facetime this Christmas morning with our son and our 4 grandchildren in Valencia, California. We said merry Christmas and saw our grandchildren open a few presents. It was much better than the old-time traditional Christmas phone-call that we did only a few years ago. We did the same facetime with another son in St. Louis and later had a short video sent to us of our granddaughter playing with the video game we sent her.

Steve Jobs brought families closer this Christmas and made sharing important moments easier, more accessible and faster. He helped us all be better connected.

Thank you Steve Jobs.

Sure I know he did not do it alone, but without him, it would never have happened. Next year we will be doing facetime with multiple people displayed on giant iPads hung on our living room walls.

I can hardly wait.

China. Motorola.DOJ. Trade secrets. Litigation.

2011-12-22T09:33:00.000-08:00

Jan Wolfe of IP Insider provides the following information on two court cases: "The first is the criminal espionage prosecution of software engineer Hanjuan Jin. When she quit her job at Motorola, Inc.'s offices outside Chicago in 2007, Jin took with her two bags full of confidential company documents, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The second is Motorola's drawn-out trade secrets fight with Lemko Corp., a small crosstown rival founded by former Motorola employees. Motorola sued Lemko's founders in 2008, claiming that they assisted Jin in her ill-fated caper."

The issue is not which country gets the trade secrets, or that there are evil people in the world who try and profit from stealing trade secrets, it is that companies do so little to stop it. The courts won't stop it and at best someone gets fined, several years later. Relying on litigation to stem the flow of trade secrets outside America is like suing the fox after he has eaten all the chickens. Trade secret litigation is a growing business, and there is no evidence that litigation will stop or even slow down trade secret misappropriation.

The protection of trade secrets must start with diligence by the company. For example, if Jin took "Two bags full of confidential company documents," then the person who discharged Jin must be incompetent. Two bags of documents are hardly easily concealable. Many Americans believe that the governments of the other countries are at fault. This belief is absurd. If our government can not stop trade secrets from getting out, why do we believe another government can stop it getting in. Often, China gets fingered as the culprit. What a waste of useless finger pointing.

I have been involved in a several trade secret disputes and I am familiar with the precautions some firms take to protect what they believe is important. The legal system is a post-crime remedy with punishments typically too late and too inadequate and not prohibitive for other trade secret thieves. When the judge hammers his gavel court in session, the fox has already feasted.

The only solution is that companies need to build better fences around their trade secrets. Fences are likely less expensive and more effective than the price of litigation and the price of giving the competition a leg-up in the market place.

My advice to Motorola. Build a better fence.

When is a loss an asset?

2011-12-20T11:06:00.000-08:00

The Banks are now lobbying against corporate tax cuts. Why?

Follow this: The banks lost billions in the financial scandal. Citibank lost $50 billion. The other large banks lost $20-$30 billion. Because the banks can use these past losses to offset future income tax payments, they list these losses as "Assets" on their balance sheets.

The losses are based on assuming a corporate tax rate of 35%. If the tax rate is reduced to 20%, the banks would have to decrease the value of these assets proportionately. For example, CitiBanks $50 billion asset would now be worth only approximately $28 billion - an asset decrease of $22 billion. Of course their profits/shareholders would benefit from a smaller corporate tax rate, but their ability to borrow from the Fed is dependent on their assets on their balance sheet so a reduction in a corporate tax rate, which decreases their balance sheet assets, actually reduces their Fed borrowing ability. Go figure that one.

Hence, they are effectively lobbying against a corporate reduction in tax rate or a friendly change in the associated rules that would allow them to have their cake, ice cream and cookies too.

Banks are amazing institutions of the American system. I wish I owned one.

2011-12-18T15:58:00.000-08:00

Two former CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (FMs) were charged with fraud in connection with the 2008 financial crisis. It was an action initiated by the Securities Exchange Commission. It is my understanding that before the SEC charged these two executives it reached an agreement with Fannie and Freddie not to charge them in exchange for their cooperation with the SEC in the cases against the CEOs. The investigation has been on-going for several years and has been rumored to have been settled several times.

Coincidentally, the SEC charges have risen to the top of the heap just at the precise time Gingrich has reached the top of the republican POTUS candidates. Further, the attacks on him questioning his legitimate consulting with the two FMs lead by Michele Bachman have reached the top of the heap also. The convergence of these events seem to me to be more than a mere twist of fate.

Gingrich needs to be prepared. Why? Because in my opinion, the media, random republicans and many democrats will increase their efforts to characterize Gingrich’s association with the two FMs as dangerous. The accusations will somehow stretch the association, like an elastic band, to capture Gingrich in the middle, and squeeze him out of his front runner position. And they will succeed.

If this approach is successful, it will catapult Romney to the front of the dwindling pack. However, I am betting that Gingrich will not go quietly into the night and may not go at all, but this latest SEC endeavor will surely put Romney in the front. In my opinion, if the republicans are not aggressive with their defense of Gingrich, their passivity may give Obama 4 more years to rest his feet on the Oval office desk. A rush to judgement about Gingrich and the FMs is exactly what the democrats want.

Romney has been doing better in the debates. However, once the FM debacle is resurrected and Gingrich is loosely associated with them, Romney should leap to defend Gingrich. Romney will need all the help he can get to beat Obama. Without Gingrich’s help, it is unlikely Romney can beat Obama in any sort of election battle.

Romney looks good in a debate, and Obama is a skilled debater, but Gingrich is just much better than either of them. He may not be as handsome as Romney or have Obama's oratorical cadence skills, but Gingrich has the facts.

Follow me.

The truth is hidden in the assumptions.

2011-12-13T18:55:00.000-08:00

I have prepared more than 100 financial plans and taught financial planning in graduate business school at two universities. I learned and I taught that the key to unlocking the secret to any financial forecast is reading the assumptions.

For example, today, an independent organization analyzed Gingrich's tax cut plan. What was their financial forecast? The Gingrich plan would add $1.5 trillion to the deficit. I am sure the MSNBC pundits will quote the conclusion and overlook the financial forecast assumptions.

The flaw is -- the financial forecast assumed no economic growth spurred by the tax cuts. But of course that is contrary to the basic concept that a cut in taxes will spur economic growth. Now you may disagree with this concept at some level, but does anyone believe that an increase in taxes spurs economic growth? I hope not. If so, we could just send all our money to Washington and wait for the gravy train.

The liberal commentators will shoutcast the $1.5 trillion deficit headline. Gingrich will be compelled to invest hours explaining the connection between a forecast and the assumptions. It is sad.

Readers when you read these financial forecasts by independent organizations, always keep reading until you read the assumptions.

The assumptions do not make the headlines, but they do make the truth.

Patented medical procedures.

2011-12-11T11:14:00.000-08:00

The Supreme Court is ready to rule on the patentability of medical procedures. It is pretty obvious what would happen if medical procedures are patentable. It could happen. Drug formulations are patentable. Gene splicing is patentable. It is a reach but medical procedures are not a lot different from business methods and software, which are both patentable to an extent.

Generally I do not provide links on my blog, but this subject is so powerful, I want you to read a brief that has been filed with the Supreme Court. It is an eye opener.

Take a look.

Mr. Ed is a horse, of course. Gingrich is not.

2011-12-09T12:02:00.000-08:00

Last night I watched MSNBC, specifically the Ed Show. It was appalling to believe that advertisers pay to support such a biased individual. I understand it was not a news show, and not subject to even the slimmest scrap of editorial integrity, but many people who watch it likely believe it is unbiased reporting.

During Mr. Ed's TV tirade, he proceeded to label Gingrich everything, but a crook. At one point, he said Gingrich was in favor of child slave labor. He called Gingrich a racist for his comments about putting people on entitlement programs to work. Mr. Ed gave a whole new meaning to the term "out of context." The only accurate thing about the Ed show was the spelling of Gingrich's name.

As I recall, Mr. Ed was originally a 1964 TV show that featured a talking horse. The theme song went something like, "A horse is a horse of course, of course, of course. And no one can talk to a horse of course, unless of course, you are another horse." Even with such a limited audience of horses, the Ed Show acted like the end of the original Mr. Ed.

The Ed Show's license to recklessly, rave, rant and ride should be revoked by his sponsors. If not, then the show should be called a political SuperPac because it spends millions of misguided advertising dollars supporting Obama.

Romney looks good, but Gingrich can win a debate with Obama. The question is can Obama and Gingrich ever agree on a moderator?

Obama's claims go unchallenged, except by Gingrich.

2011-12-07T22:13:00.000-08:00

We have a serious problem and it is getting worse.

Obama is now blaming the republicans for failing to approve his nominee for the consumer protection bureau. Obama claims that we need more oversight. The question is oversight of whom? Who oversees the overseer? Isn't congress and the president and the hundreds of other committees enough o protect us consumers, otherwise known as American citizens.

The republican objection, to Obama's nominee, has nothing to do with the capabilities of the nominee, it is the underlying premise that we need another federal agency overseeing what the administration is already getting paid to do now. Another federal agency is another mountain of misguided tax dollars. By the way, the last oversight committee, on the TARP funds, admitted they still do not know where the $185 billion went that was sent to AIG. The outrage on this issue has been ground down by Obama and swept under the rug with the supercommittee and the solar power investments by the DOE.

And Obama infers that if we had the consumer protection bureau, we would not have had the mortgage crisis. Obama also claims that a failure by the republicans to extend the payroll tax deduction is taxing the middle class in favor of the rich. I disagree. A genuine tax on the middle class is when the value of your home equity - retirement money - is taken from you and Obama bails out the takers, and does nothing for the Takees, that is you an me. Could Obama stop it from going any farther? Sure. Place a moratorium for two years on all foreclosures.

The problem is that Obama's claims and reckless accusations go unchallenged. And the breadth of his claims are expanding. Obama seems to enjoy listening to his own oratorical skills, which are impressive, much more than using his "do something" skills which are not impressive at all.

Meanwhile, Romney refuses to counter Obama's claims at all. It may be that the only candidate that has the vision to see through Obama's conclusions to his faulty premises is Gingrich.

I, for one, am looking forward to the Gingrich-Obama debates. It will make the survivor shows look like vanilla ice cream.

The question is king.

2011-12-02T09:44:00.000-08:00

If most content is digitized, then the answer to most every question is somewhere on the web.

We had a part wear-out on our TV. A Google search confirmed the problem including instructions on how to replace the part, and a place to order the part. The part cost about $150. We watched a short, but complete video on the part replacement and "whoa nellie," we were back in TV business. A house call for this type of activity would probably have cost $700.

Last week, two switches broke on my clothes washer. I headed for Google. I saw a video on how to replace the switches. I purchased two switches and with a simple screwdriver I replaced the switches. I probably saved $200 by doing it myself.

I am sure you have your own examples.

Google search is not just about ads and search returns. Content, how to fix something, how to do something, is available to all of us. Digitized content made available to everyone is a life changer.

The answer is available for the right question. The right question is now king. There are several different ways to ask for Google to search things and understanding the right away to request that search is important.

Congratulations to any school that offers classes in understanding search technology and how to ask the right question so that the power of digitized content is at your finger tips. Google search should be a mandatory course in high school if not earlier.

Do you know of any schools that offer courses in Google search?

Giant iPads are coming.

2011-12-01T09:01:00.000-08:00

Apple needs two things to dominate consumer electronics: a TV set and a phone company. The TV set is coming. I forecast it several months ago. I used the term, "A giant iPad," - lightweight with gorilla glass, battery operated and portable. Of course you can plug it in to recharge, but it will be light enough that you can easily move it from your desk to your bedroom or hang it on a wall like a picture.

How do I know they are developing this product? I do not.

However, my intuition tells me this is the next Apple product. And I noticed this morning another commentator has forecast an Apple TV set for next year. The iPad by the way is just a small TV set, but it creates a new category of consumer devices once it replaces the TV in the home.

The second thing they need - a phone company - they may already have several, but the phone companies do not know it yet. As the phone companies depend more and more on Apple products, Apple gets more and more control over distribution. It will not be long before Apple demands and gets a share of all downstream revenues for the iPhone, iPad and iTV contracts. It's called leverage, and they have it.

Apple does not go away. They just keep coming back with the next product that we all want.

And the TV will have facetime video for conferencing with other people. It is what I would want. Next Christmas, 2012, while I am opening my presents, I will be watching a giant iPad on the wall showing my grandchildren opening their presents in multiple locations.

Wow.

Harry Houdini's Inner Voice.

2011-11-23T11:44:00.000-08:00

Yes, we do have an inner voice.

Last night, I watched an old Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh movie on Houdini's life. I suspect it was reasonably accurate, but dramatized a bit. I liked the movie and Janet Leigh was an attractive part. It occurred to me while watching the movie that no matter what Houdini did, he always came back to follow his inner voice, which told him to be a magician.

I am not suggesting that if you listen to your inner voice you will magically become famous like Houdini. Certainly, I am aware of people who have listened to their voices and are now in prison. I suspect there are competing voices speaking inside most of us.

More to the point, I am suggesting that every time Houdini strayed from the path, his inner voice brought him back to his real love-Magic. For example, he stopped his magician's career for awhile. He worked in a factory that made locks for vaults. His inner voice could not keep Houdini quiet and he leveraged this knowledge into his capability to escape from vaults. He learned, what most of us do not know, it is easier to break out of a vault from the inside than break into a vault from the outside. That singular piece of information helped him launch his career. No matter what Houdini learned, he was able to adapt new knowledge to becoming a better magician.

His inner voice always had the microphone on. If we can learn to listen to it and act accordingly, I am convinced ours has the mic on too.

Is google an active enabler? Nope.

2011-11-23T10:07:00.000-08:00

A criminal investigation is underway into the mortgage swindlers that placed ads with Google. Further, consumer organizations are asking for penalties against Google because they allege that Google executives were "active enablers" of these fraudulent scams against vulnerable homeowners.

These organizations claim that Google "can not be allowed to benefit from these ill-gotten gains." Is there no end to the stretch some organizations will go to just to reach into Google's deep pockets? Apparently not.

The swindlers advertise they can help forestall home foreclosures and ask the unsuspecting victims, who respond to these ads, to send their mortgage payment directly to the swindlers. And people do just that. And that is your first clue who is really responsible.

Are Google executives active enablers of the swindlers? Perhaps the ad executives are responsible. Perhaps the people who manage the Internet are responsible. Perhaps the investors who breathed financial life into Google are responsible. Perhaps the organization that manages Internet protocols are responsible. I call this faulty logic liability creep. Liability creep, creeps and creeps until it finds a deep pocket, like a Google. And so on.

Google's only issue in this situation is they have deep pockets. Google runs millions of ads, that is its business. A claim that Google executives are active enablers of the swindlers' ads is ludicrous. Under this proposed interpretation of liability, if I purchase a computer from a Google ad, and it is found to be faulty, I could hold Google responsible.

Follow this criminal investigation with me because it is a precedent setting investigation.

An Independent Opinion - Gingrich v media

2011-11-22T10:08:00.000-08:00

Is it possible to get an independent opinion? And what is a genuine independent opinion worth. For example, my independent opinion on Paul Krugman was met with a reader accusing me of being a pseudo intellectual and associating me with neo-Nazis-whatever that means?

However, the reader carefully sandwiched his name calling between lovely liberal slices of saying, I was a good writer and that he liked my book "The Brain Brokers." It was a puzzling array of complimentary criticism. Oh yes, he also called me a Rush Limbaugh want-a-be. It is hard to argue with so many conflicting accusations. For me, I am just happy to have someone take the time to comment pro or con, that is how pure my free speech view is.

Now back to the issue of whether or not it is possible to get an independent opinion? Consider what is happening to Gingrich right now. The media and others want to label him a lobbyist. By definition, a lobbyist does not have an independent opinion. They are paid to assert and promote a specific opinion on an issue. They must also register with a Senate Office in accordance with the Lobbyist Disclosure Act. Of course that is the media's endgame. If they can assert often enough that Gingrich was a lobbyist, then they can ultimately shift the argument to asserting that Gingrich violated the rules by not registering with the senate office in accordance with the Lobbyist Disclosure Act. Gingrich is a smart fellow, but even he has trouble digging out of an avalanche of reckless media assertions.

Gingrich insists he was a consultant. There is a significant difference between a lobbyist and a consultant that Gingrich's accusers gloss over. Lobbyists are paid to express and promote "Someone else's opinion" - The milk prices are too high, republicans are evil, the merger will hurt the consumer, we need lower wheat prices, and so on. Some media writers should be compelled to register as a lobbyist because they are paid, by their media owners, to express a specific opinion.

In contrast, consultants are paid to express their own opinion, "Not someone else's opinion," on the matter at issue. The value of the consultant is embedded in the issue of independence. If the company that engaged the consultant did not want an independent opinion, they could, in all likelihood, ask someone in their own company to provide an affirmative stance. This option would be more cost effective than hiring a consultant.

In my expert witness and other engagements, I am a consultant. Clients pay me to provide "my" opinion, but clients can not pay me to provide "the client's" opinion.

An independent opinion is valuable.

Krugman, New York Times, Obama, Supercommittee, POTUS.

2011-11-19T17:11:00.000-08:00

Paul Krugman, the one in the grey shirt, has been accused of being overly partisan in his editorial writing. His recent editorial in the New York Times titled "Failure is Good" did not fail to diminish these accusations. Krugman asserted that the Supercommittee's imminent failure is good. You may recall that the SC was charged with developing a series of deficit reduction recommendations by Thanksgiving. Krugman does not offer a single reason why such failure is good, but he does point out it is the republicans fault.

In the editorial, Krugman claims that republicans have broken every deal, squandered our surplus on tax cuts and unfunded wars, and then he suggests that the voters should decide on deficit reduction matters. Historically, economists are released from the rigor of supporting claims with evidence and Krugman uses this free pass to his advantage. The absolute absurdity that voters could understand 70,000 pages of tax code and then vote on changes is a striking example of Krugman's lack of understanding. Harry Truman's futile search for the one handed economist continues.

Krugman's view on anything would not matter to me, except that the printed word is sacrosanct and the New York Times, for many people, is a reputed source of educational material. In my view, the NYT should have header that they must print in 60 point type on the front page of every edition. It should say,"The information in this paper is partisan. It supports a liberal point of view and the opinions expressed herein have not been checked for accuracy, reasonableness or logic."

I can forgive Krugman for being short. That is not his fault. I can not forgive him for being short on intelligence and woefully short on logic, signified by his editorial. However, he is smart enough to know that he does not have to support any of his opinions, as long as the NYT will print what ever he writes. Krugman's resume is impressive. He is a worldwide academic in the field of economics. His book on the Conscience of a Liberal is a left hook to Barry Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative. As I understand it, Krugman's interest in economics began with his reading of Issac Asimov's science fiction novels. In these novels, social scientists use psychohistory to save the world. Since that field did not exist, Krugman became an economist.

In my view, the length of Krugman's resume and the icons of his successes, do not auto-release him from a duty to write with logic and an obligation to provide constructive thought. His editorial, which accuses all republicans of evil and celebrates the failure of our congressional leaders, is not excusable.

Krugman's credentials are impressive. He is a Nobel prize winner. Obama won one of those prizes before he was president. Nobel prize winners have a mixed history. Norman Shockley, a Nobel prize winner that I am familiar with, spent the last few decades of his life trying to get congress to limit the number of children that minorities could sire because he believed that it lowered the intelligence of the nation.

Newspapers have blamed their demise on the rise of the digital world. Not true. Newspapers have lost their readership, particularly with recent college graduates, because discerning readers can not trust newspaper content for constructive reporting or thoughtful editorials. Krugman's NYT article is a perfect example of a thoughtless, non-constructive editorial.

Gingrich, Romney, Perry, Huntsman, Cain.

2011-11-18T07:19:00.000-08:00

My most fervid reader insists that I make a comparison of all the GOP POTUS candidates. It is not an easy task because it is nye on to the impossible to make a reasonable list of comparison features.

For example, each candidate has a strong resume. At one time, I believed that Huntsman's China experience was significant. It is, but even Babe Ruth has to be at bat to hit a home run. Huntsman simply can not get in the game. Additionally, Perry and Romney have both been governors so they are not political neophytes. Gingrich was House Speaker so he too has political savvy. Lest I forget, Cain has no genuine political experience, which may be an advantage in the corporate world, but a genuine disadvantage in the world of twisted interview questions.

I would love to make a comparison based on their individual platforms. However, I can not discover all the details of the platforms. Gingrich is the most transparent in disclosing what he would do as POTUS. Currently, he has the best sound bite. He asks,"Who would you like to see debate Obama?" Obama would crucify all the GOP candidates except Gingrich. I must admit it would be a memorable debate. It would pit Gingrich's intelligence and knowledge versus Obama's smile and clever phrasing. Unfortunately, Gingrich could win, but no one would know it.

It happened in a recent debate. Gingrich was asked a stupid question with a false premise by the interviewer. Gingrich rejected the false premise and proceeded to correct the interviewer's premise and answer the appropriate question. I am not sure if the viewers understood who had won in this verbal exchange or lost.

Sometimes it is hard to recognize true intelligence when it is so much different than we are used too.

Profit share trumps market share.

2011-11-16T16:41:00.000-08:00

You may have read an earlier blog where I explained the significance of the HHI. To briefly reiterate, the HHI is, according to the DOJ complaint against ATT, a commonly accepted measure of market concentration. The HHI is calculated by squaring the market share of each firm in the market and then summing the resulting numbers. For example, in a market with four firms with shares of 30, 30, 20 and 20 percent, the HHI is 2600 (900 + 900 + 400 + 400).

The HHI misses the point. The presumed presence of market power because a few firms have market share percents that when squared and summed are more than 2,500 is poppycock. Real market power is when you can compel the phone companies to pay you $600 for something they sell for $200. Ok. Ok. I understand the long term contract notion. However, Apple, according to all the smartphone pundits, does not even have a controlling market share. The winner in that department goes to Android. Moreover, Apple takes home the dollars and allows the other smartphone makers to divide up the pennies from their large market shares.

The real measure of market domination is the concentration of industry profits. And as you may have guessed, Apple with a 20% smartphone market share takes home 80% of the smartphone industry profits. Profit share trumps market share.

Let's see now if I squared the market share, then cubed the profit share, then summed the totals and subtracted 4,600 and added back the difference between the price earnings ratio of the three dominant companies, and finally added the market valuation of each firm in the industry, I would have a new guideline for presumed antitrust violations.

Frankly, I can not resist pointing out that profit share is true market dominance, not market share. For example, if ATT reduced their phone plan price to unlimited usage for $10 per month and then gave away the iPhone for free, they would have a 80% market share. According to the HHI scale, this equals 6400 which is a presumed high likelihood of market power. And that would be true except ATT would also be bankrupt.

Phone Plan Chaos

2011-11-16T15:49:00.000-08:00

I decided to change my phone plan today. After selecting a new password, logging in and navigating among more than 60 different upgrade-cross-sell-special-of-the-day-advertising plan options that flashed like blinking "Save Jesus" signs across the web page, I eventually found the page that enabled a competent computer user to change his phone plan.

It all seemed so simple at first. Then, I had to decide among 26 different service features some of which were mired between merely vague to plain downright ambiguous explanations. I was going to call a representative on the phone except I noticed a small message in the lower right corner that mentioned a fee if I did not use the Internet to make the plan change.

Perhaps, my situation is more complex than the single phone user. I have 4 phones for my family. I was just about to accept a new plan when a message popped up and read, "Caution! If you change your current plan, then decide to go back to your old plan, your old plan may not be available." I was too paralyzed with fear to proceed.

Now that I am a humbled not-so-competent computer user, I will have to pay the fee and talk to a representative who can walk me through the phone plan decision tree. We need an expedia.com for phone plan selection.

The administration cost of complex plans surely must outweigh the economic savings associated with administering simple plans. Use your phone all you want. $70 per month. No contract. No restrictions.

It will not be long before some protest group will assert the position that phone usage is a constitutional right and it should be provided free by the government. I will work on changing my plan again tomorrow.

Herfindahl-Hirschman Index or HHI 101

2011-11-16T10:04:00.000-08:00

We have come along way from the old black telephones.

The blog title is referred to as the HHI. It is, according to the DOJ complaint against ATT, a commonly accepted measure of market concentration. The HHI is calculated by squaring the market share of each firm in the market and then summing the resulting numbers. For example, in a market with four firms with shares of 30, 30, 20 and 20 percent, the HHI is 2600 (900 + 900 + 400 + 400).

Markets in which the HHI is between 1,500 and 2,500 points are considered to be moderately concentrated, and markets in which the HHI is in excess of 2,500 are considered to be highly concentrated. The DOJ has issued a series of horizontal merger guidelines. For example, mergers that increase the HHI more than 200 points are presumed to enhance market power. According to the complaint, the ATT purchase of T-mobile increases the HHI more than 700 points. These numbers substantially increase the thresholds at which mergers are presumed to be likely to enhance market power. Ergo, the core of the DOJ suit.

My estimate is that millions of dollars, billions from the point of view of ATT, are hinged on the squaring of market shares and summing these numbers to determine a violation of the HHI guidelines. In the DOJ complaint, the HHI is calculated for 100 different markets. I live in the Kansas City market, the HHI skyrockets post merger. I am in trouble. Out of hundred markets, it appears that Cincinnati and Milwaukee are safe.

I find this market share squaring notion fascinating. But remember, I like reading the tax code.

Chiming in on Steve Jobs' genius

2011-11-10T09:23:00.000-08:00

Commentators and writers everywhere are all searching for the definitive answer to the question, "What was Steve Jobs' real genius?" No one until now, until me, has come up with the real McCoy answer. But first here is an excerpt from the New Yorker.

The New Yorker's offering was, "Jobs, we learn, was a bully. He had the uncanny capacity to know exactly what your weak point is, know what will make you feel small, to make you cringe. A friend of his tells Isaacson. He screams at subordinates. He cries like a small child when he does not get his way. He gets stopped for driving a hundred miles an hour, honks angrily at the officer for taking too long to write up the ticket, and then resumes his journey at a hundred miles an hour. He sits in a restaurant and sends his food back three times."

Does not sound like much genius stuff does it?

I am going to go way out on a limb here and say, "it does."

The genius of Jobs was his ability to exhibit his real feelings, unrestrained, the type of feelings that most of us are too frightened to do. And more than that, he accepted the consequences of his actions. He said what he felt. He could do it because he was rich," you quickly retort. No, he was like that when he was raising money in bare feet. Most of us are afraid to cry for fear of being embarrassed. We eat the food even though it was not what we ordered because we do not want to make a fuss. In other words, we settle. We compromise because it is easier and less risky. We believe that compromise is the route to happiness to success. In fact, compromise is the route to mediocrity. When you settle for less, guess what you get? Less.

Jobs' genius was being who he was. Uncompromising. Not willing to settle for less.

Like a stream, most Americans meander along taking the path of least resistance, recognizing but not truly understanding, that the journey is everything. Wow. We put up with a government that strangles our economy because it is too much work to effect a change. And so on.

Genius is uncompromising. And that is what Jobs' real genius was.

To be or what to be, that is the question.

2011-11-08T06:50:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking a lot lately about what I want to be when I grow up. It’s probably because I have a birthday coming up and it is about time I made up my mind - about what I want - “to be." I started to research the question.

I called my older brother, Norman, and asked, “Norman what do you want to be when you grow up?” He replied, “An airline pilot.” I asked, “What is holding you up?” He replied,” I am 83.” Age does get in the way of some dreams.

I asked my son, David, the same question. He replied, “A doctor.” David is 24. I asked my grandson, Ryan, the same question. He replied,” A superstar soccer player.” Ryan is 14. I asked myself the same question. I replied,” I do not know.” I will be 69 soon. There is a wonderful warm and secure feeling about knowing what you want to be.

Unfortunately, at some stage in life, we stop dreaming of what we want to be and that is a crying shame. However, despite a reduced set of "to be" options with age, there is, or at least there should be, a wiser selection process. Years ago, the "to be" options included fireman, airline pilot, football player, but now with wisdom, we can add, helpful, generous, better father, better husband and a few others that did not come up as often as possible, earlier. Before concluding my "to be" research, I asked a parent what he wanted his children to be? The parent replied, “ to be happy.”

I am going to spend some quality time today contemplating what I want be when I grow up. What do you want to be?

Disappointed in ATT

2011-11-07T14:47:00.000-08:00

ATT is airing an ad that states their proposed merger with T-Mobile will create 96,000 new jobs.

For the record, ATT has approximately 126,000 employees and T-Mobile has approximately 38,000. Post merger, if it goes through, they would have approximately 164,000 jobs together.

Do I need to go into more detail? Does anyone believe that post merger, they will hire 96,000 new employees? Next year? Or the next 10 years? Ever? Maybe they mean that the merger will create a booming industry and the industry will hire 96,000 new jobs. If yes, it will be jobs for lawyers not telecommunications people.

If I were the FCC, I would ask ATT to submit their new 96,000 jobs calculations in writing for all to see. Post it on the Internet so we can all have a good laugh. Maybe, if we allow ATT to purchase T-Mobile. Sprint and Verizon too, then they could create several million new jobs and solve the whole employment problem with one giant merger.

When was the last time a merger or an acquisition, created new jobs? Hmm? T-Mobile employees according to what I read are worried about "layoffs," as they should be, not new job creation.

I am disappointed that these ads, aired by such a high profile company as ATT, stretch the imagination of the rational.

Sure.

Cain and Gingrich debate v LSU and Alabama

2011-11-06T08:43:00.000-08:00

I watched a 90 minute debate between friends last night. No, it was not the LSU v Alabama game, which by the way provided plenty of time to switch channels between scoring. It was Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain squaring off in Texas. It was hardly a debate because they agreed on most everything, except who would be vice president on the ticket. It was hardly fair either because together they make so much sense. One debate subject was energy.

Two years ago, March 26, 2009, Gingrich wrote, “A truly sustainable American energy policy is one that dramatically increases domestic energy supplies while lowering energy prices and protecting the environment.” Of course, America does not have such a policy, we have just the opposite. We also have the DOE scandals. The latest, on Solyndra, is that the bankruptcy documents reveal that senior executives at Solyndra collected hefty bonuses -- ranging from $37,000 to $60,000 apiece -- as the company bled cash and careened toward bankruptcy this summer.

I have already mentioned in earlier blogs that more than a dozen executives received enormous salaries from tax payer money ranging from, Karen Alter, Solyndra's vice president of marketing at $275,000 to Ben Bierman, Solyndra's executive vice president operations at $300,000. This bonus and salary information came from bankruptcy filings. It's a shame that these situations go virtually unreported by the "left-of-stream" media. But here is the proverbial rub. Despite more than 100 criminal investigations into DOE funding, Secretary Chu keeps his job.

When the DOE scandal surfaced, Gingrich stated that he would have fired Secretary Chu for grossly mismanaging tax payer money. I agree. Gingrich also said he would abolish the DOE because they have spent $billions and accomplished nothing. If you wish to follow Gingrich, then read the dailycaller.com. Obama on the other hand, pledged support for Chu. I guess losing $700 million could happen to anybody - in his administration.

Cain and Gingrich had a field day at the debate discussing social security and entitlement programs. Cain pointed out what we all know that 99 weeks of unemployment compensation is not a strong incentive to look for work. Gingrich added that unemployment compensation should be linked to career training.

I do not know if Cain or Gingrich have a real chance, apart or together, but they have innovative ideas, which they are not afraid to express in clear understandable terms. It is a refreshing change compared to the incessant ambiguity that permeates the other POTUS candidates’ speeches, and compared to the “It’s not my fault” finger-pointing that permeates the speeches of the current POTUS.

I am going to pull out my credit card and kick-in again to Cain’s fund.

Who cares about Greece? I do.

2011-11-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

Greece is approximately 1/2 the size of Colorado with a population less than the city of Los Angeles. Yet, it drives the USA stock market crazy and occupies most of the financial news. Greece is important because it owes the US Treasury, American banks and financial firms a pot-full of money. According to one report, Greece owes the US Treasury a large slice of the $2 trillion the treasury loaned to Europe.

The same report states that no one truly knows where the whole $2 trillion went, but a large slice went to Greece. The money was loaned to Greece because financial firms and the Treasury could make a killing on high Greece interest rates. While you and I were making 1.5% interest on our bank CDs, the financial movers and shakers were making up to 20% interest on Greece bonds. However, the principal on these loans is at risk and if Greece defaults, then these large swinging financial firms would take a loss.

The point is that Greece, small as it is and located 6,000 miles from the center of America, effects the shares I own. It also effects 75 million other Americans who own shares in American companies. From pension funds to social security payments, it is all indelibly linked to Greece. But it is not linked because Greece has special mineral deposits, manufacturing or technology, it is linked because money typically flows to the highest potential returns and that is where the risk is too.

One American firm has felt this link already. A large swinging investment firm, MF Global, filed for bankruptcy yesterday. The Company's website described the Company "As well-capitalized with more than $1 billion in revenues." I suspect they are changing the website description as I write.

Greece is a financial mouse that roared. Do not think that Greece does not effect the price of a cheese-burger. As inscrutable as it seems, it does.

On-line protesting is a powerful tool.

2011-11-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

The sweet smell of success. It is intoxicating, is it not? On September 29, 2011 I wrote ------------- "Sometime next year the banks will charge you a monthly fee of approximately $5 to use your debit card. To be fair, you will be charged that fee only if you use your debt card. And who do think we can thank for this auspicious additional hole in our wallet? Congress. Thanks to the efforts of the federal reserve and your congress, you will pay the price for a congress that does not understand." Consumers revolted at the notion.

Guess what? The banks have all rescinded this debit charge. Bank of America made its announcement yesterday. Some protesters got more than 300,000 on-line signatures threatening to change banks if the debit card charge was not revoked. It worked. The banks backed down. It was a genuine victory for consumers and also for the use of the Internet to harness consumer interests to achieve a common goal. The elections are next.

The most interesting aspect of this situation to me is the failure of the administration to kill this prospective debit card charge before it even reached embryonic stage. And where was Obama's new consumer protection bureau with its $100 million budget? Good question.

On-line protesting is a powerful tool.

Congratulations to the wealthy.

2011-10-31T10:38:00.000-07:00

An IRS report states that 18% more people made a million dollars last year than the year before. Obama uses this statistic to prove that the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. Nothing could be further from the truth.

For me, I believe the IRS report is wonderful. It is wonderful to learn that in this terrible economy, we can have an increase in the number of people that made a million dollars last year. Who knows what these people made the year before? They may have made $30,000 or $40,000. So hats off to you new people in that 18% category that made a million dollars last year because that’s what America is all about. It's not just the money, but it's the fact that America is still the land of opportunity.

Contrary to Obama's position, the IRS report illustrates that some people are managing to struggle through the economy, and are doing exceptionally well. Good for them! That is the American way.

I might also add that a million dollars is like the old grey mare. It's not what is used to be.

Social security payments are not your money.

2011-10-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

If you are 21 or 71, you need to be an active participant in the Social Security discussion. Why? Let me begin by clarifying the most common misunderstanding about SS. Americans believe it is their money. It is not.

Court cases in 1937 and 1960, Landmark Supreme court cases, concluded that the SS payments are not yours. SS payments are just like income tax payments. "The proceeds of both the employee and employer taxes are to be paid into the Treasury like internal-revenue generally and are not earmarked in anyway." Get it. SS, referred to as FICA on your pay stub, is income tax by another name.

Translation-SS payments are not your money. If it was, for example, the money could be passed to your heirs, which it can not. You have no legal right to receive the money you paid in, and your SS benefits are always subject to the whims of the politicians in Washington.

Wake-up recent college graduates, the FICA money that is deducted from your check each month is not your money. For us older college graduates, who are receiving SS benefits now, we lose SS benefits if we work. In other words, if we get paid for work, up to 85% of the social security payment we receive is taxable. For young people who have just entered the workforce, retirement seems a long way off. It is not. The future arrives with cruel certainty.

The Cato institute has written a position paper on converting the SS system to personal accounts. In this system, your SS payments would be your money in your account and would be earmarked for you, your heirs and your retirement. It makes sense. Google it, or Siri it, but take a look.

The Dodo Government-Ineptogracy

2011-10-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

Ineptocracy - a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers. The tax code has been the instrument of wealth redistribution. It has worked silently with surgical precision.

If Will Rogers or Mark Twain were alive today, they could each make a fortune by a comedy routine based on reading from the 72,000 pages of tax code. No one in the audience would believe it. I do not, and I am reading a few hundred pages this week. There are so many exceptions to the rule that eventually there will be no rules because each of us will be an exception. As much as I am in favor of any “simplification,” from Cain to Perry, I am not sure if congress or any august body can simplify it.

Perry’s proposed tax modification is clearly not a simplification. A taxpayer would compute his taxes under both the old method and Perry’s new method to determine which method to use. Cain’s tax method has the possibility of simplification. If Cain can abolish the old tax code completely, Cain’s tax proposal would have one singular advantage. A typical taxpayer can understand it.

It is hard to genuinely digest the current tax code because it is a hodgepodge salad made from unknown ingredients. Most of us get our tax bill and try to swallow without choking.

What is the point? I am complaining because I can not afford to hire my own personal lobbyist. I want a depletion allowance for extracting words from beneath the surface to use to create energy for readers.

Jobs, Obama, Unions, Education.

2011-10-27T08:28:00.000-07:00

By now, everyone has heard that Steve Jobs told Obama that the unions were killing our educational system. He suggested the principals be given the right to hire and fire teachers based on merit, just like the business world, just like he did at Apple.

Hiring and firing based on performance works. It shouldn’t be any surprise that he would suggest that to Obama as a way to fix the educational system.

There simply is no long term incentive for a teacher to perform at the highest level. But more than that, there is no basis for our best and brightest students to want to become great teachers because they know that they may work side by side with a teacher who has poorly performed and still earns the same amount of money. Regardless of how altruistic a person is, it’s difficult, if not impossible for the best and brightest, to want to join a system that does not reward performance and discourage failure.

The federal and state governments have the power of the checkbook to change this system anytime they have the will to do it. All they have to do is withhold money from schools that hire teachers who are members of the teacher’s union. Give the power to the principal to hire and fire school employees based on performance, and the system would change overnight. The poor teachers would be weeded out of the system. The good teachers would be rewarded and feel proud of their profession. The best and brightest of our students might even become teachers and leaders of our children.

The new cycle would continue upward toward excellence. The old cycle continues now, but it is directed downward toward mediocrity.

The death of the keyboard

2011-10-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are keeping current on the iPhone 4S, then by now you know the term Siri. It allows you to ask it questions and it replies. On the surface, not only is this a cool activity, but it makes it a lot easier to search for answers. However, underneath the Siri surface lies the slow, but sure death of the of the keyboard.

Let me make sure I’m making myself clear. Here is what I do now. I’m a writer. I dictate into a portable transcriber, I send the electronic file to my transcriber who keypunches in the words and sends me back a printed document. That whole process has numbered days.

Here is what I will do with future versions of Siri. I will dictate my stories into my iPhone. The stories will be emailed back to me in a printed document from a wireless printer located anywhere in the world. It is an incredible development, and one I have been waiting on for several years. If I were a keyboard, I would be searching for another job, or purchasing A Basic Guide to Job Hunting by this blogger.

The iPhone 4S commentators missed the most powerful aspect of what’s going on with the iPhone. Siri is the proverbial writing on the wall because it eliminates the one thing that slows down most people using a computer; the one thing that occupies the most space, and the one thing that has limited the size of the computer for many years – the keyboard.

"Siri, what is a keyboard?"

"It is device that was used at one time to enter data into a computer," replied Siri.

"And Siri, who will replace you?"

"That is confidential," replied Siri.

Sprint and the iPhone.

2011-10-26T09:50:00.000-07:00

Sprint shares are down. The Sprint executives can not explain a simple message to the media. I have read 20 different Sprint messages today. None of these messages in the aggregate make sense.

Media hear this: Sprint will sell 30 million iPhones in the next 3 years. Each iPhone adds $1,000 to annual revenues, creating $30 billion in new revenues, which will effectively double the current sales of Sprint.

I am long on Sprint, but short on patience with their officers.

Herman Cain Donation

2011-10-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

I supported Huntsman for awhile, but I never donated to the Huntsman campaign. I was waiting for Huntsman to say something and when he finally did, I realized he had nothing to say. But today, I donated to the Herman Cain campaign.

Not a big donation mind you, but enough to demonstrate that I am voting with my wallet not just my voice. Interestingly enough, it is a good feeling to support a POTUS candidate in an age where apathy has permeated the under 30 demographic. They are convinced that the over 60 crowd has made a mess of things that can not be fixed so why vote in the first place. It is a shame.

However, I must say I did not make this decision on my own. I had help from my friends. Last week, I was having lunch with Kelley and Paul, two desert golfing buddies of mine, and they said they had both kicked into Cain’s war-chest. I had blogged on the POTUS candidates, but I was a bit embarrassed to admit that I had not done something more tangible. Now I have.

Take a look at Herman Cain and perhaps you will do the same..

What is the difference between a liberal and a conservative?

2011-10-25T06:09:00.000-07:00

It is not difficult to understand the difference between liberals and conservatives. The key difference is how each of them view the economic pie.

Liberals believe the pie is a fixed size. Therefore, the debate is over who gets the biggest slice. Conservatives, on the other hand, believe the best way to increase the size of each slice is to increase the size of the pie.

Hence, conservatives focus on legislation that will make a bigger pie, and liberals focus on legislation that will increase the size of their own slice.

When you hear a Washington official talk, listen carefully. Does the speaker want to make a bigger pie, or take more from your slice?

Which would you prefer?

Data.gov

2011-10-23T09:08:00.000-07:00

On my 25 hour drive back from the desert to Kansas City, I listened to Tina Seelig, Executive Director, Stanford Technology Ventures Program, introduce several speakers in the STVP 10 week long speaker series. One speaker caught my attention.

His name is Aneesh Chopra, the nations first Chief Technology Officer. He reports directly to the president. He spoke for more than two hours on a site - data.gov. He said his mission was to encourage entrepreneurs and innovators to go to the site and use the data to launch new businesses.

I explored the site this morning. It is powerful and revealing. The site includes raw data that each federal department collects. It includes data from which toy causes the most problems for infants to which hospital has the best health performance. The data sets on hospitals include data on bad debts for both inpatient and outpatient services by hospital. I can not review all the numerous data sets at this site. The government has data on many things.

Chopra listed several new businesses that had been started, using the data at data.gov, including several that had mobile apps. It was impressive.

I encourage you to take a look at data.gov and keep an open mind.

The regulators are asleep.

2011-10-19T10:11:00.000-07:00

An experienced reader writes:

Um, I think we should all stop paying taxes now. I am going to withdraw my consent to be taxed by the Federal Government. Bank of America is exposed on Over-The-Counter forward contracts to the tune of $75 TRILLION, which is more than FIVE TIMES the total economic output of the United States in one year.

They are now moving contracts from a segregated trading division within the Bank Holding Company which operates under the venerable name "Merrill Lynch" to their retail banking division alongside their customer deposits in order to get these contracts under the umbrella of the FDIC.

It is known that Merrill Lynch had OTC exposure of $22 Trillion. So, in shifting these contracts from Merrill to Bank of America, they are making YOU, THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER the de facto guarantor of these contracts. Where does the FDIC get its money? From the United States Treasury. Bank of America just illegally dumped tens of TRILLIONS of dollars of OTC contracts on YOU.

There needs to be a tax strike. And I'm not joking. This has to end. “The concern is that there is always an enormous temptation to dump the losers on the insured institution,” said William Black, professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a former bank regulator. “We should have fairly tight restrictions on that.”

Ya think?

_____________________________

You may have to be a financial executive to understand the whole ploy, but it is easy to understand that, according to published reports, the BOA is taking risking assets and placing them under protection of the FDIC, that's us.

2011-10-19T07:25:00.000-07:00

A Basic Guide to Job Hunting is available on the iPad, Galaxy, Kindle and the Nook, as well as the other Basic Guide books.

Herman Cain

2011-10-16T17:59:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday and the desert is quiet.

I spent part of the day watching several Herman Cain interview videos and researching the details of his 999 plan. At one point, an interviewer asked him about China. He responded. "The solution to the China problem is to outgrow them." He explained that his 999 plan would help because it allows a corporation to deduct expenses for tax purposes, only if the expenses, "the cost of goods sold" if you will, are from American firms. If the expenses are for goods purchased from China, they are not deductible and the corporation taxes would increase. For practical purposes, this is similar to imposing a 9% surcharge on goods purchased from China.

Cain speaks and acts like a main street executive rather than a wall street executive. His appearance includes a visible dose of strong self-confidence mixed with a, "I swept the floors in a Burger King franchise," flavor that is ingratiating. I watched him adroitly field questions from a crowd of approximately 20 media people on his tax program and his other ideas. I was impressed. He was very "matter of fact" in his responses, never condescending, but made his points clear. He does not respond like a politician with an attempt to keep one foot on both sides of the track, eyes looking in both directions.

He reminded me of Harry Truman. I watched one commentator try to challenge him on his programs. He responded with numbers and explanations that made sense and were easy to understand. Cain may have Obama's oratorical skills coupled with Gingrich's excellent debate skills all wrapped up in a blanket of innovative ideas developed from years working real jobs to make a living.. Truman was a tailor.

A few months ago, I liked Huntsman's resume too. Unfortunately, Huntsman has been unable to launch any genuine program that has any traction. Cain has. Cain's plan is easy to understand. Romney criticized it because he said it was too simple. Cain defended it on the basis that Americans could understand it. He further explained that what is the point of a tax code that is riddled with sneak-a-tax exceptions. And I may add, Americans will never understand the 72,000 pages of current tax code.

As an example of issues I have with the tax code, consider the following situation. I am 68. I receive social security and medicare benefits based on my contributions to these funds or the last 48 years. I am also self employed and still have to pay 15.2% of my self employment income for social security and medicare, as well as reduce my social security benefits for still working. The logic is a mystery.

Back to Cain for closing, the 9% is not paid on the sale of used homes or used cars. Also, the 15.2% self employment tax and the 15.2% social security and medicare tax paid 50% by corporations and 50% by employees will go away.

Cain and the 9-9-9 tax plan.

2011-10-15T15:44:00.000-07:00

GOP POTUS candidate Herman Cain has caught the attention of the media with his 9/9/9 plan- Nine percent corporate business flat tax, nine percent income flat tax and a nine percent national sales tax. It was a sunny day in the desert so I downloaded a copy of IRS pub 17 to read the tax code in an effort to understand Cain's proposal.

Want to have some fun? Read the IRS tax code that is what I have been doing for the last few days. It is 72,000 pages long, ergo I will not be playing much golf.

In the beginning, a tax payer paid 1% on net personal incomes greater than $3,000 and a surtax of 6% on net income greater than $500,000. When it started in 1913, it was a 3 page form with 1 page of instructions. It has involved into a gigantic industry employing tens of thousands of people.

Reading the tax code is a fascinating, but sad experience. Why? Because it reflects conflicting societal attempts to redistribute wealth and to spurr business investment. For wealth redistribution, the IRS code has the earned income credit, the child tax credit and the additional child tax credit. For business investment, there is a the bonus capital depreciation, which allows a business to purchase a $100,000 computer system and expense it the same year. There are other examples.

The tax code needs some serious simplification. However, there is nothing inherently wrong with a complex tax code that a simpler tax code corrects. It is merely that our current tax code does not make much sense. It does not seem to spur investment nor help the people who need financial help. The problem is that the tax code is a poor method of accomplishing either of the purposes that it seems to have been relegated.

Cain's tax plan may have some merit, but no one can be sure. I call his plan the McDonald's happy meal tax code plan. It may still not be healthy eating, but it is easy to order. And the simplicity of the ordering process eludes the necessity to check the details. I like the Cain concept, but it will never be able to fly. In his plan, some people will pay more, some people will pay less, but no one will be sure which side they will be on because the details of the plan are yet to be written. Until that time, it is still a happy meal. It is easy to order, but we can not be sure it is healthy.

A Basic Guide to Marketing Strategies

2011-10-14T22:55:00.000-07:00

Excuse my sales pitch, but I must make a living. Thanks to all my readers who support my writing addiction by purchasing books in the-- A Basic Guide series-published in digital format only. Sales are brisk and 30% of the book sales are coming from the UK. I am as surprised as anyone. Further, eighty percent of all the sales are coming from iPad owners at the Apple iBookstore.

A Basic Guide to Marketing Strategies is my number one seller. It is an upscale gorilla marketing book. The digital edition sells for $1.99 at the iBookstore. It is also available for the Galaxy, Nook and the Kindle at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. A note to you marketing gurus, this book is not a textbook, but for $2, you get at least $50 worth of suggestions. You can not afford not to afford it. Pass this pitch along to your friends. They will thank you for it, eventually.

Apple says it all.

2011-10-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

If you are following my rambling rants from Sprint's stumbling stock price to Obama's eclectic economic programs, then you will not be surprised to read my comments on the Apple v Samsung litigation. Summarily speaking, Apple and Samsung are both giant corporations with thousands of patents, hundreds of attorneys and billions of dollars. So here is what happened recently in court and remember Samsung's core defense is that the Samsung Galaxy is easily distinguishable from the Apple iPad.

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U.S. district judge Lucy Koh has ruled that Samsung’s tablets infringe on Apple patents. The product won’t be banned in the States, but it means more hassles for Samsung. Worse, the company’s lawyers made a huge blunder in court.

Reuters reports that at one point during the hearing, Koh held both an iPad and a Galaxy Tab 10.1 above her head and asked Samsung’s lawyers if they could tell which was which at a distance of only 10 feet.

“Not at this distance your honor,” said Kathleen Sullivan, a Samsung attorney.

The judge asked the question again, this time of the entire Samsung legal team. “Can any of Samsung’s lawyers tell me which one is Samsung and which one is Apple?” she asked. After a moment or two, one of the team got the right answer.

“It took a long time to make that distinction,” Judge Koh said.
__________________________

I am just guessing that the legal fees on this case are in the tens of millions of dollars. And legal language aside with no doubt dozens of depositions, tens of thousands of pages of carefully worded artfully written legal briefs, numerous expert witnesses and the trump question was - If they are so easily distinguishable, can any one here tell the difference? Guess not. Next case. Anyone for a drink?

There is nothing as profound as the right question.

Protesters

2011-10-14T13:11:00.000-07:00

As I sit in my cozy office in the desert, it's hard to get too excited about the protesters. Lunch seems more important. But to not recognize the underlying current of the protesters is to risk being swept away with the tide. And there is a riptide hidden beneath this sea of young people who are taking a stand against "something." Wall street is certainly not the real target, but it will do for now until the protesters get a real mission. And I believe they will.

Right now they are searching for a mission and for a leader that can force change. It might very well be one of the GOP POTUS candidates, who can force that change. Some groups are protesting the war. Some are protesting for more jobs. Some are protesting the protesters. In Boston, the police arrested some of the protesters. But in Kansas City, San Diego, Chicago and New York, the protests continue unabated. Just this morning, I received an invitation to join the movement on-line. There have been some successful grass roots movements in the past, the Vietnam war was one and there have been others that fizzled out. For example, the million man march on Washington DC is a faded memory. No one that I know even remembers what the million men were marching for.

This time, however, the protests in my opinion will not stop. They are going to get organized and the Internet is the tool that will allow this protest to gain traction for change. Make no mistake about it, the majority of these protesters are not your run-of-the-mill liberals looking for more handouts from the Fed. And that what makes this movement dangerous to the current administration. These protesters have hybrid political affiliations and are not going to be sidetracked by petulant promises and tepid teleprompter rhetoric. The GOP POTUS candidate who can mobilize their energy into a force for change will chase Obama out of Washington before the election even begins. It has happened to other presidents.

I know that many of my conservative friends will characterize this protest movement as left wing motivated. And that may have been its origin. However, to discount what is happening now is to look back on its effect in two years and have to say that you never knew it would be successful. The movie forecast it all.

THEY ARE MAD AS HELL, AND THEY ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!

McCain speaks softly, but has a big idea.

2011-10-12T18:30:00.000-07:00

It seems the game of running for POTUS is more oriented toward who can raise the most money rather than who can propose the best solution to a broken economy. Recently, John McCain emerged from the shadows to point out that until we do something for the millions of homeowners who; through no fault of their own, owe more than their home is worth, the economy will be dismal. Is anyone listening?

McCain proposed that the Fed buy the underwater mortgages from the current lenders and allow the homeowner to refinance their home at a value closer to what it is worth. As usual, I put some numbers on his suggestion. If the Fed purchased the mortgages on 10,000,000 homes and swallowed $50,000 per home, it would cost $500 billion, which is less than any of the "stimulus" packages, and significantly less than the funds arbitrarily thrown at the banks to save their skins. And it would do more than any of the stimulus packages to put equity back into people's lives and to show Americans that Washington is still a main street supporter, not just a wall street stooge.

The most innovative ideas seem to come from the people who have no chance of being elected - John McCain for one. The GOP POTUS candidates are too busy slicing up each other than than to cut to the chase with some creative initiatives.

America needs leaders with audacious ideas and the courage to propose them to the American people.

Sprint and the iPhone.

2011-10-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

In New York last week, Sprint executives were demolished for not disclosing the impact of the iPhone on the company.

It is not that complicated. Sprint will purchase 30 Million iPhones over 4 years. Sprint will pay Apple $18 billion and change for the iPhones. Each iPhone user will pay Sprint $200 for the iPhone, which is $6 billion. Each iPhone user will also pay Sprint about $1000 per year to use the iPhone, which is 4 X $1,000 X 30,000,000 which is $120 billion. Summarily, Sprint pays Apple $18 billion and gets $126 billion in return from users. And that is just in the next 4 years. iPhone users do not switch. They upgrade.

Let me put it in perspective. Sprint which has sales of approximately $30 billion in 2010 will have sales of $60 billion or more in 2014. Sure, I can warm up my Excel and get cute and go wild with consumer behavior formulas with the forecasts, but there is no evidence that complexity is more accurate than simplicity.

Sprint was criticized and their stock was dumped because the analysts said they could not understand the iPhone impact on Sprint. Take out your calculators. It is just arithmetic.

America needs a wireless communication highway.

2011-10-12T13:13:00.000-07:00

In my omnipotent opinion, the country with the fastest, most reliable, and least expensive wireless communication technology will be the economic victor in the next decade. From medical records to books, "all content" is being rapidly digitized. Access to content from anywhere, at anytime, by anyone is the new millennium criteria for a country's economic success. America developed much of the wireless technology, ergo one would reasonably conclude that America would be first in implementing the best access. However, this conclusion is likely inaccurate. Why?

Because capitalism does have a few problems. In the spirit of promoting competition, America has competing wireless implementation visions, which significantly increases the cost of implementation. China, on the other hand and other non-capitalist countries, can implement a single wireless communication technology with military efficiency. There are arguments for the advantage of implementing competing visions, but it is inarguable that a single vision, or wireless method, is much easier to put in place.

We do not have a highway system for each model car. A Mercedes and a Ford can both run nicely on I-70 coast to coast. We do not need multiple wireless systems either. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and others have spent, more than $80 billion on competing wireless methodologies, and each plan to spend $billions more. And none of these systems work perfectly. Everyone I know gets dropped calls somewhere, sometime. The FCC could solve this problem in a heartbeat because all these systems operate under license form the FCC. The FCC should buy the physical wireless assets from each of these firms and establish a national wireless technology highway just like I-70. Then, the FCC should declare a mission to make America's wireless communication the best in the world with access by anyone, at anytime, from anywhere. Otherwise, we will be second to China, Japan and the rest of the world too.

We need leaders with audacious ideas.

A Basic Guide to Job Hunting

2011-10-11T19:49:00.000-07:00

I just published guide number 7 in the "A Basic Guide" series. They are only $1.99 on Kindle and the Nook and will be out for the iPad at the iBookstore in a few days. These books are available in digital editions only. They are each 60-70 pages long and packed with a new idea or two. Here is the pitch on Job Hunting.

__________________

This is not your father’s job hunting book. It is a basic guide with new ideas, concepts, and ways of looking for and finding a job. Whether you are 21 or 71, there is something here that will make your job hunt more successful. I guarantee it.

It is likely that most people in a career today will have to change jobs and perhaps even careers several times throughout their working life. We are living, working and job hunting longer--which will be the norm rather than the exception. This Basic Guide book is written with the current employment situation and future employment directions with that in mind.

This guide takes you into the strategy of a good job search, and beyond that, to an effective career-seeking plan that could change the way you look for work forever. Designed for the person who is motivated to change his or her circumstances, to use existing resources to the fullest, and to cultivate new ways to achieve career goals, this quick reference provides tips and thought provoking insights.

Read on to discover:

Plenty of resources already exist to tell you how to craft a resume—but do you know why you should have one for each of your highest skill sets?

Most experts tell you to network—but do you know why traditional networking doesn't work and how to do it differently?

You're focused on the job you do want—but do you know why applying for a job you don't want might pay off?

A job search is lonely work—but do you know how accessing someone else's mindshare will help you?

Your resume looks like hundreds of others out there—how can you market yourself better than any of your competition…with a good story?

The Self Employed Pay The Bill.

2011-10-11T19:29:00.000-07:00

Millions of Americans are self employed: Artists, plumbers, landscapers, financial advisors, carpenters, restaurant owners, consultants, tax preparers, bloggers, software developers and others. There are more than 20 million small businesses and most of them are sole proprietors. They pay a self employment tax equal to 15.3% of the net profit of their business. However, the sole proprietor's net profit is not the same as net profit for a corporation.

In the net profit for a corporation, officers salaries are deducted before computing the business net profit. Further the business pays, as a business expense, 50% of the 15.3% and the employees pays the other 50%. However, in a sole proprietorship, the net profit excludes any monies paid to the owners. If a tax payer is a sole proprietorship, and the business has a profit of $100,000 after deducting business expenses, the owner pays a SE tax of 15.3% less some complicated corrections.

It has been 15.3% since 1990, however in 1990 the social security income limit was $51,300. While the 15.3% percentage has stayed the same for more than 20 years, the limit, which is now $106,800, has more than doubled. For example, a self employed person who earned $100,000 incurred a SE tax liability of $7,650 in 1990 and a SE tax liability of $15,300 in 2010. Now it is a bit more complex. The federal government in the interest of equity for the self employed allows the self employed to deduct 7.65% before computing the actual tax liability, which knocks off about $1,200 off the $15,300. The IRS then allows the self employed person to deduct 1/2 of the SE tax liability, before calculating the person's taxable income, then adds back the full SE tax to the taxpayers final tax bill. Get it. The arithmetic, of calculating, then subtracting, then computing, then subtracting, then adding back again, masks the original tax rational.

For the record, the 15.3% includes 2.9% for medicare tax and 12.4 % for social security tax. The social security tax currently stops at $106,800, but the 2.9% medicare tax has no upper limit, The more you earn the more you pay.

If a tax payer is a sole proprietor and makes $100,000 per year after expenses, the TP will pay $15,300 to the FG for self employment tax, plus a chunk of change for federal taxes too.

If you have followed all this explanation and understand it, then you are a tax professional. If you understand why the IRS has such a complicated tax code, then you must be in congress. If you pay the SE tax as well as pay your tax professional to complete all the forms, but really do not understand it, then you are a sole proprietor working most of the year for the federal government.

Now there is a rational for the tax code, but not for the complexities. And because of these complexities, sole proprietorships, the foundation of American business, are motivated to earn less and expense more.

Digitize the content of an industry-change the industry.

2011-10-11T15:28:00.000-07:00

If you are like me at all, then you are fed up with answering the same questions about your medical history every time you go to a doctor.

I do not recall every medicine I ever took, every sickness I ever had, even if I was in the hospital, every allergy I do have or have had, every disease my family has had plus my blood pressure for the last 40 years. But this information is in my hospital and doctor records in Paris, France; Los Altos Hills, California; Rancho Mirage, California; Kansas City, Missouri; Leawood, Kansas and a dozen other cities. You get the idea.

The medical records exist. Further, I am sure that if the next time I go to the doctor, the doctor has access to all my medical history, the doctor's ability to treat me will increase dramatically. And that is Cerner's mission - digitized health records. They are not alone on this mission and the government is sending money to the medical professionals who get on board. It does not take much insight to understand this mission will change health insurance, medical litigation, hospital management, medical education and medical research and every other part of the health industry. Nothing will go untouched by this initiative. It may have more impact on our lives than a mission to the moon.

By way of disclosure, I have owned Cerner (CERN:NASDAQ) shares for time to time. I have always believed in the industry and understood Cerner's leadership role in it. Also, I have spent some time with Cliff Illig co-founder of Cerner. With this background, and after reading an article on Cerner, I developed a new insight into the company's future.

Cerner's co-founder Patterson said today,"Digitize the content of an industry, and a lot is going to change."According to the report, Patterson raised an iPad in a overhead salute and said iPad/iPhone access is coming and Cerner is leading the way.

Can you imagine? The doctor asks me my medical history for the last 15 years, and I display it on my iPhone including medicines, doctor's names, x-rays, diagnosis and treatment recommendations.

Another solar gamble

2011-10-11T12:41:00.000-07:00

DOE just guaranteed $737 million for a solar energy project. This project use molten salt as the primary heat transfer medium. The loan guarantee is made to the Tonopah Solar Energy, LLC. TSE is a wholly owned subsidiary of SolarReserve, LLC.

Technically speaking, the project includes 17,500 heliostats (mirror assemblies) that collect and focus the sun's thermal energy to heat molten salt flowing through an approximately 640-foot tall solar power tower. The high temperature molten salt circulates from the tower to a storage tank, where it is then used to produce steam and generate electricity.

You need to watch this DOE deal unfold? Why? First, although there are many investment partners listed on their website, including Citigroup, there is no indication that any of the investment partners have any cash at risk. Second, the board and the management team are all bluebloods from the power industry with close government ties.

The issue is - if the project is successful, the partners in the LLC get the benefit with apparently none of their own cash at risk. I will be reporting on this latest DOE project. The tax payers takes the risk and the owners take none.

Remember the last DOE solar power loan guarantee ended in a fiasco. Deja Vu perhaps.

Dinosaur tracks in Arkansas.

2011-10-06T16:46:00.000-07:00

I am a reasonably opened-minded fellow. I can objectively listen to the other person’s narrow point of view. People, who know me well, would likely violently disagree with this self analysis, but so be it.

In my open-minded self, I understand that science must research arcane concepts that on the face make no sense to a non-intellectual like me. I reluctantly accept my own limitations. However, I recently read an urgent report from the Associated Press that researchers at the University of Arkansas had discovered dinosaur tracks in Arkansas.

For an instant, I became genuinely excited. I envisioned a 5 story, 3 toed behemoth crashing through Wal-Mart warehouses and wrecking havoc on all those Chinese made products. I came to my senses, however, because as I continued to read, I learned the tracks were probably made more than 120 million years ago. Yawn! The research was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. A university researcher said,”Through tracks we can learn all sorts of things about dinosaur biomechanics and behavior.”

I read on. The article said that the post-doctoral research team, “Used traditional tools, including hammers, chisels and brooms, but also cutting edge technology to take images and make measurements at the site.” Do you find this detailed explanation on the powerful research tools as funny as I do? In my itsy bitsy menial mind, I imagined a research team composed of several people with multi-disciplined doctorate degrees representing thousands and thousands of dollars of tuition money and dozens upon dozens of years of academic studies, hammering on a rock, gently digging with a chisel, carefully sweeping the dust away with tiny brooms left over from an old Indiana Jones movie, then taking a picture with their iPhone for their office.

I apologize for my narrow minded view, but I believe this is an outrageous waste of tax payer money. Let me save the NSF and taxpayers some money. Dinosaurs were big. They were ornery. They lived 100 million years ago. They are gone.

My suggestion to the National Science Foundation is develop a cure for cancer and a few other diseases, provide food for the foodless, build homes for the homeless, and if there is any money left over, spend it on anything, but dinosaur behavior research.

The inner voice. Steve Jobs said we all have it.

2011-10-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

Two years ago, I did a segment for my radio show on the iPhone. With the passing of Steve Jobs today, a close friend of mine sent me a link to the original broadcast. It is a small, almost inconsequential tribute to the memory of Steve Jobs, but it is my memory and it is all I can do.

Better commentators than I will wax his eulogy with memorable text, video and song. Jobs was 56. I am 68, but I have said many times that I would work for him for nothing just for the privilege. To think that a person with his extraordinary gifts is gone and I am still here is an enigma. I must not be finished yet.

There was a time in the late 80's when I had the good fortune to work closely with Apple on the launch of several products. I never met Steve Jobs. I did not have too. His stamp of brilliance was branded beautifully on all the Apple products and its culture. A walk through the halls of Apple was to feel his brilliance from the paint to the excitement on the faces of the people. They knew then they were part of something special at Apple. I did too. And I loved it.

If you wish, listen to the radio segment and feel the energy that a Job's product created in me. And two years later, it has spread to the rest of the world! A person like him is never gone.

Click to listen.

Robo-calling trumps the economy.

2011-10-04T15:20:00.000-07:00

While the market mauls consumers, Obama meticulously mines legislative support for cell phone robo-calling. It is not enough that nothing is happening with the debt reduction super committee or Solar-gate n California, the Debt Collectors of America have persuaded Obama that they should be able to robo-call your cell phone. Obama has some "free" time because the economy is in such great health.

I understand that Obama believes that these dead beats who owe money to the government or on their student loans should be legally harassed on their cell phone until they pay up. I say that if you have a student loan and you can not find a job, the loan should be forgiven, not offloaded to a deadbeat debt collector who makes a legal living having your cell phone called every 10 minutes by a computer with "This is an important message for John Doe." And further if you owe money to the government, let them deduct it from the money they owe you on your General Motors stock or your AIG stock.

Right now DCA members can robo-call your land line until you can not sleep at night, but they are forbidden to robo-call your cell phone. But if Obama has his way or the way of his backers, DCA members will be able to call your car while you are driving or call your mobile while you are fishing.

Members of congress are not in favor of this Obama backed legislation. However, it seems that Obama is reacting to some favorable economic support for his reelection campaign. Why else would Obama unilaterally support such legislation that leading democrats do not, and also why would Obama give this legislation a policy priority at the expense of consumers?

The issue to me is that at a time when American consumer needs should go first, Obama places them last. And where is that person Obama hired to watch out for consumers? Remember the Obama launch of the Consumer Protection Agency? What was his name again?

Homeowners are hurting and Obama helps the DCA robo-call us. I wish we could robo-call Obama. "Please hold the phone, this is an important message for President Obama. When you purchased our vote several years ago. you promised to make regular payments to our well being. You have failed to make your payments on time or not at all. This is an attempt to collect a debt due."

Newt Gingrich

2011-10-02T19:43:00.000-07:00

People that I talk with say, "Gingrich is the smartest. most experienced and most knowledgeable of all the GOP POTUS candidates, but he is not electable." Do you find that statement as puzzling as I do?

In the debates, he always seems to make sense. However, he seems to lack Romney's handsome appearance, Perry's charming can-do-it-all Texas attitude, and Bachmann's ability to cheer lead, and of course Newt has no money.

Here is a brief excerpt from his contract with America 2012- Repeal major business and financial reforms such as the bipartisan Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Dodd-Frank, partial privatization of entitlement programs, border control and making English the official national language, and requiring unemployment insurance recipients to enter training programs at private companies. Google his contract with America and read it all. It makes sense because he focuses on the roadblocks that keep us from continuing the growth of America. He is concerned less with which party built the roadblocks and more concerned with removing them, which is the mark of a great leader.

He nails the media to a wall when they go for memorializing the trivial, or when they create disruptive notions while failing to report objectively on the real problems. The debates and the media questions are absurd. It is an insult to the viewer, except that the media know that the wildest, most insane survival shows dominate the TVscape. It is hard to face economic reality. That is why we need leaders who can help us understand what needs to be done and get started doing it.

I have been supporting Huntsman. However, the emails asking for money are now burying any message that Huntsman may have outlining what he plans to do. That message will never come because it will get vetoed by the "old" election consultants in Huntsman's camp. In contrast, Gingrich has no money to lead with, but he leads with his ideas. I feel a switch coming.

Why can't Gingrich be elected?

When does $15 of food cost $20? Next year.

2011-09-29T20:56:00.000-07:00

Sometime next year banks will charge you a monthly fee of approximately $5 to use your debit card. To be fair, you will be charged that fee only if you use your debt card. And who do think we can thank for this auspicious additional hole in our wallet? Congress. Thanks to the efforts of the federal reserve and your congress, you will pay the price for a congress that does not understand.

Typically, today if you use your debit card, the bank charges the merchant, not you, $0.44 to use your debit card for a single transaction. There is no monthly fee. Congress thought that $0.44 was too much so they have regulated the banks so they can only charge the merchant $0.24 for each transaction. It is called a cap. Of course this cap will save the merchants $millions. But the banks in response to this innovative congressional regulation have indicated they will start charging the consumer a monthly use fee of $5.

Now let me put this in perspective. You will go to the store next January and buy $15 of food with your debit card. This year the bank charges $0.44 on this transaction from the merchant. Next year, the bank will take $.24 from the merchant, but will charge you $5 that month for using your debt card. In other words, the bank has gone from making $.44 for a single transaction to $5.24 or the same transaction, 12 times more than they made before, and they say Banks do not like regulations.

Isn't congress wonderful? The feds are greasing the path to working for the banks come retirement time. Why else would they sock it to consumers like a professional boxer fighting a new amateur? The fed has spent numerous hours negotiating with the banks, taking the hard negotiating line in the name of their constituents, and they have won a hard-fought battle and compelled the banks to charge the merchants less. It was a resounding victory for someone, but not the American citizen.

The banks responded to the new restriction with a simple email memo saying next year, we will charge consumers $5 a month to use their debit card. The banks could care less about giving up the $0.20 per transaction. To be fair again, for the second time in this blog, the $5 monthly fee allows you to use your debit card many times, but use it only once and you pay $20 for that $15 bag of groceries.

The banks understand the many ways you can skin a cat.

Guess who I met? The president's red phone installer.

2011-09-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

Sunrise Country Club is more than just a tennis and golf club. It is the home to a thousand great American stories. It is a slice of American history, layered between corporate and international intrigue, and all rolled into one wonderfully tasting sandwich. And I took a bite of this sandwich recently.

I was at a tennis gathering that included CIA operatives, automobile executives, electronics executives and one man who was an expert in red phones. The gathering was hosted at the beautiful home of Bill and Karen Yoder. Their story will come later. For now, the Red Phone is on my plate.

I cornered Don Richardson and asked in a playful manner, “Don what is your story?” We were sitting on the patio of the Yoder’s’ home, with a sparking pool in the background, with hamburgers on the grill American style, and with wine bottles piling up like a recycling yard. It was the American dream and we were living it.

That is a picture of Don. Always in charge of something. Always with a smile. He walks and talks in Sunrise Country Club style. Now back to the red phone.

Don sat on the ground and talked and I, sat in a soft chair, listened. As it turned out, Don was a red phone expert. He was a specialized transmission engineer that was responsible for providing the “Red Phone” to president’s Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson. I asked Don how he addressed each of them. Don replied, “I called each of them sir.”

The Red Phone as you may know is the phone that technically must be within 6’ of the president at all times, no matter where they are. It is the phone that enabled Khrushchev or any head of a foreign nation to call a president directly and discuss anything from a nuclear attack to the weather. When a president would land at Palm Springs airport for a little relaxation or private visit, Don would meet them on the tarmac as they walked off the plane and hand them the Red Phone. When the president was ensconced in his hotel, like the Rivera in Palm Springs or at one his friend’s homes in the Valley, Don would arrange for the Red Phone to be at the president’s side. Only Don knew how to make the Red Phone work in the Valley. That was his speciality. Fascinating.

I asked Don how he would characterize the presidents he knew. Don replied with an example. “I would say, sir how do you want your phone hooked up and where do you want it?” Eisenhower would reply, “Anywhere is satisfactory for me, you are the expert.” Kennedy would reply, “What are my options?”And then pick one. Johnson said, “I can not talk to you;” and he would point Don to a Johnson staffer who would then demand that Don provide 16 different lines to 16 different phones where only one line was possible. Eisenhower acquiesced, Kennedy analyzed and Johnson demanded.

As the sun descended behind the mountains, Don continued the story of the Red Phone. He explained that with his handset and his phone tools on his belt, he had access to anywhere including the press rooms where they always had the best food. No, Don was never screened by the FBI or vetted by the chief of staff. He was accepted as the expert with no security ever performed.

And that is the red phone story and I am sticking to it.

PARC A Xerox Blunder.

2011-09-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

Palo Alto, California is the home of what used to be a powerful brain trust. It now sits silently in the corner of the city tucked away behind a forest of tall eucalyptus trees. It would while away the hours, conferring with the California flowers, except for the fact, it was the birthplace of awesome technology from the Ethernet, to laser printing to the iconic computer interface we use today. The old PARC employee list reads like a "Who is Who" of Silicon Valley.

Any book on Apple includes a visit by Steve Jobs to PARC. It was an historic event.

PARC is The Palo Alto Research Corporation. It is owned by Xerox. There is a true story called "Dealers of Lightening" written by a columnist for the Los Angeles times that tells the PARC saga. If you have the slightest interest in technology, Silicon Valley style, then this book is your ticket to a techno-readers paradise.

The irony is that several of the people who worked at PARC could buy Xerox today. Xerox never knew what it had. It still does not.

The PARC story is a case study at business schools on how not to manage technology. It should be must reading for anyone in the tech business.

Get the book. You will not be disappointed.

Back to Jobs

2011-09-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

Cisco lays off 6,500. Borders files bankruptcy and 15,000 employees must go look for other jobs. HSBC, a large bank, cuts 30,000 jobs worldwide, and forecasts another 25,000 job reduction by 2013. Those HSBC cuts represent 19% of its 296,000 employees worldwide. HP is next, I forecast, with job reductions in the thousands, most by early retirement, they may say. The banks are shedding people like wool from sheep. And BMWs are now being made in the USA.

I have looked up and the sky is falling, or at least we are all starting to feel it. A close friend of mine is now paying $20,000 a year for medical insurance for a family of 3. He is a small business person that can hardly afford to pay more taxes, should they increase.

Meanwhile, Obama has not given up his pilgrimage to the tax increase mecca. On his way to mecca, he preaches the James Carvelle flawed mantra that "The wealthy should pay their fair share.” I told you Carvelle was dangerous. If you disagree with him/Obama, then you are subject to being accused of being un-American. Carvelle sets the conversation with a flawed premise, then repeats it until it appears true from self-dealing. He quotes himself as a source for his own statements. Unfortunately, it seems to work and the media loves him. He stirs the pot. Although it is contrary to and grates on my belief in American idealism, I wish the GOP had a Carvelle. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.

A Bit of Everything

2011-09-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

Page 1. It seems like the solar power company scandal in California has been sent to the back media burner. The stock market is still a virtual roller coaster. The GOP POTUS candidates are busy shooting each other with meaningless barbs while Obama still snares millions of dollars for his bid to extend his presidency. And the rich, well, they are prepared to pay more to fund entitlement programs for the not-so-rich. Social security is still going to eventually run out of money and college graduates can not find a job. Me? I got my social security check last month on time, ergo everything must be "hunky dory," as my mom used to say. If you have a few minutes today, have some fun and look up the etymology of that phrase.

Page 2. Baseball, are they still playing? Basketball players are resting. Football fantasy players have been turned upside down by injuries. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie protests he is still not running for president like so many other GOP candidates who are already in the race. Me? I have stopped fighting the world is a smaller place syndrome. It is. When a financial crisis in Greece effects jobs in Hays, Kansas, the world is indeed a smaller place. In my defense, however, the world is still roughly the same size. It is the people that get smaller as they debate genuine issues of who receives the larger slice of the world's economic pie. There is a limited amount of goods and services and each person feels compelled to want their fare share, earned or not.

Page 3. And with all that turmoil, Apple will sell more than 150 million iPhones next year. Can you use
food stamps to buy an iPhone? I understand there is a secret movement in Congress to modify the tax code to allow people who can not afford an iPhone to get a special tax credit to offset the purchase price. Isn't the world great?

"Don't even try to understand, just pick a place to make your stand."

Hail to the task forces

2011-09-27T21:56:00.000-07:00

Where does the budget go? Social Security consumes 20%. Medicare and Medicaid consume 21%. Other mandatory spending on entitlements consumes 17%. Interest on the debt consumes 6%. Hand any politician, Republican or Democrat, a budget knife and ask him to cut into one of those categories and he’ll drop the knife and run for cover. That is why the Fed selects pedigree laden task forces to make recommendations on spending cuts and taxes.

These task forces usually focus on proposed tax increases on income earners, but ignore the deterring effect escalating taxes have on the economy. Common sense dictates that if you tax something, you discourage it. The bipartisan Dept Reduction Task Force has issued its proposal for reducing the debt, and it is worth examining some of the interesting recommendations.

The Task Force addressed social Security. It would raise the amount of income subject to payroll taxes over 38 years until it’s paid by 90 percent of all wages. I absolutely hate this idea. Social Security taxes, when added to the 27% proposed by the deficit reduction commission, plus state taxes, will result in an effective rate of over 50% for many small businesses and high income earners. A net tax burden of over 50% is simply crazy and unfair for anyone. I don’t care how “rich” the payer is. The Task Force proposes to basically leave the benefit structure of social security intact and expand the program to state workers not currently in the program.

The social security program’s sole source of “security” is the current generation’s ability to produce a sufficiently large tax base in the next generation. Yet the program acts as a disincentive to potential parents by collectivizing the economic benefit of having children while further burdening the ability of young parents to pay for the development of the next generation. This phenomenon has put more “advanced” welfare states such as

Greece

into population death spirals as I’ve discussed in earlier pieces.

The current recession could be viewed as earners going on strike. Companies are keeping lean payrolls and workers are finding alternatives to breaking their backs for more money in part because the economic climate is very hostile to earners and savers. So I applaud the Task Force for recognizing that earners need to be coaxed back into earning. While there is still much to not like about the plan, at least somebody finally realized that punishing earners and savers is not the way back to prosperity.

The Internal Revenue Service

2011-09-27T21:48:00.000-07:00

How long will it be before the IRS computes your taxes for you and sends you the bill. Not long for many people. The impact will be enormous. The IRS has all the data. The same data that you pay H&R Block, or Intuit or your local tax person to compute. In fact the IRS records are better. Why?

Every interest payment you made, wage, dividend, and interest payment you have received, as well as, all your deductions that have been reported to the IRS and are associated with your social security number, the IRS has on file. The paper interest reports from your bank that you lost, or forgot about, the IRS has. You can get a list of all these financial data reported against your social security number by merely calling the IRS and asking for it.

The IRS has your data on their computers. If you ask for it, it will be sent to you in a neat computer print-out and you can use this information to file your taxes. In other words, you would take the data they have, hire a tax person who enters the data into a computer software program that calculates your taxes. You can also do it yourself like millions of Americans do now on-line. Or the IRS could simply transfer the data electronically into a software program, send the results to you and you could click either accept or decline.

I have no proof of what I predict other than my innate omnipotent clairvoyance, but I believe they are working on this now. Want some proof? When they send you a bill for underpayment of your taxes; that is what they have done, they have calculated your taxes due and their totals do not agree with your totals. Ergo, they calculated your taxes didn’t they? It is up to you to show they calculated incorrectly.