Cup-a-Joe

An article last week made mention that Wall Street’s banks had eased their credit terms to hedge funds and private-equity firms that borrow against securities and trade over-the-counter derivatives.  To quote the great Yogi — “It’s deja vu all over again.”  There is more cash sitting on the sidelines than there’s been in a long time, and these guys get more access to additional dollars so they can speculate.  Wow, what a country!

Elizabeth Warren, who leads the congressional panel overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program, said U.S. taxpayer bailouts helped Wall Street and not small banks.  TARP “worked really well for the Wall Street banks, but it didn’t work well for the rest of the banks in the system,” she recently said on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop with Betty Liu.”

I hate to say it, but I think that our financial system is out of sync.

Meanwhile, the folks who make this country great, our blue collar workers and small business men and women are getting the short end of the stick.   Our politicians are not willing to find creative ways to help businesses and people, get off the sidelines.  There’s talk of more money for education, job creation, and small business lending.  Why not just stop writing laws for a while and let the system move forward.  Get creative with finding ways to support small and medium size businesses to get the money they need to start producing and hiring — and don’t expect it to happen overnight!  Too many folks in our country don’t understand that business (and consumers) won’t start hiring/spending until they know what’s going to happen over the next 12-18 months.  As long as the Administration and Congress keep talking about more laws and more deficit spending, more the reason folks will stop, wait and see.  Not a good way to kick-start an economy.

Education it’s not what it used to be . . . or so goes the mantra uttered by many baby boomers and their parents.  And it’s true.  It’s not what it used to be especially when it comes to technical/vocational training.  As our society has become more complex and the demand for better educated individuals has been voiced over the past two decades, the solution has been a focus by our country’s educators to improve education in the United States. Yet, I’m concerned about the results. read more »

Several months ago I ran across commentary from individuals criticizing the industry for its lack of commitment in supporting educational institutions and training.  While I agree that we have some real issues facing us regarding workforce development, attempting to re-create the trade/vocational programs in the high schools to solve this problem may not be viable – for a whole host of reasons.  read more »

As I do many Sunday mornings, this past week I turned on the TV to watch “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”   I saw our former Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius and immediately realized this week’s topic was Health Care.  After listening to her interview and then The Roundtable discussion, which is comprised of various journalists and “opinionaters,” I agreed with George Will, which I don’t always do, that having the government create a competitive insurance program is blatantly wrong-headed. read more »

Reduction in force.  It’s become a phrase we are using too often, but it’s the reality of our economy.  But I’d like to look beyond the present layoffs, RIFs, right-sizing, etc. and ask the question, what’s going to happen when the economy starts turning around? read more »

This morning (Monday, June 1^st) it finally happened. General Motors declared bankruptcy.  What was totally unthinkable 24 months ago and  totally consumed the business and economic news for the past six-eight months, finally came about. 

Yet, the business markets seem to be sighing in a breath of relief (Dow was up 175 points prior to noon).  And from the macro economic perspective this could finally indicate that we’ve hit bottom and now it’s time to start the road back to “normal.”

But there’s a lot more pain to come on Main Street since the repercussions will not only be felt in Detroit but across the U.S.  read more »