Quote of the day:

Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.

George Orwell

U. S. Economic (Forecast)

Reasons for Optimism:

Today, most economists are not talking about a double-dip recession, instead saying the U.S. economy will grow at 3 percent or more in 2011. Some experts say that gross domestic product will return to the level of 2007 because of increasingly better job opportunities. Unemployment could drop to 8.5 percent,

Consumers have spent more than expected, and increases in industrial production have strengthened growth. Congress extended unemployment benefits and extended tax cuts,

Stock market rally encouraged people with jobs to spend money. Dow Jones climbed 10.6 percent in 2010, up 76 percent since 2009.

Reasons for Pessimism:

Seventeen percent of Americans are unemployed or underemployed. U. S. economy must create 150,000 jobs a month in order to reduce unemployment.

Excessive debt in the U.S. and Europe. China is planning to to fight inflation by excessive slowing of its economy.

State and local governments that provide more than 10 percent of the nation's GDP, face tough budget choices.

Property taxes fell along with real estate values, causing governments to cut payrolls and spending.

Some economists say retail sales cannot keep rising at their current pace because people are not getting pay increases, although disposable income is rising by 0.2 percent per month,

These mixed messages along with government continually fiddling with the free market with subsidies, make forecasting an insurmountable task. Sonny thinks George Orwell is standing at the elbow of Mr. Obama….

Economic Indicators

Analysts are busy pouring over the recently released US Census data. Optimists will look at the data and say, we must have hit bottom, while pessimists will extrapolate the data and say there is no bottom, and realists will say what can we learn from this data. Alarmists see, median household income fell 3%, income gap between rich and poor got wider, and the poverty level is highest in 51 years.

Pundits are comparing today’s economic downturn with the Great Depression, predicting this recession is so deep; its impact may alter the first several decades of this century, the recession, according to experts, that began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009

If you had been working for General motors, taking home a union negotiated $75 dollars an hour (plus insurance benefits and pension) and read in one of the business magazines that Toyota paid only $45 dollars an hour for similar work, what were you thinking? At the same time, profitable Toyota’s U.S. sales caught up with America’s unprofitable number one carmaker. Would you, everything else being equal, under these circumstances quit GM and go to work for Toyota?

I told Sonny that I did that once in my life. He chuckled and said, “You’re not that crazy, or are you?” It was worse than that Sonny boy, I didn’t even have a job. I quit because I was in a dead end job with a big company that was missing the best opportunity of that era. It was the right thing to do, as it turned out.

Your next job should be a targeted job. No Sonny, not a job at Target. Spend some time looking into the future to list some businesses that have a future and then look for companies that are doing well in their market.

There is an abundance of online Resources, for instance, the Wall Street Journal’s auto sales data.
http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-autosales.html


To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

Thomas Jefferson

Everyone said, if you’ve money to invest,

Give it all to Bernie, he’s the best.

He can make us all Wealthy,

Keep our portfolios Healthy,

That is until he was put under Arrest.

Your Next Job

In Washington on Wednesday, September 8, 2010, in a speech given by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, she said, "mounting U.S. debt threatens the United States' ability to chart its own course in the world." In the last presidential election, voters, having fallen on hard times, elected an anti-business president who together with a self-indulgent congress is about to bankrupt the country. If you are amongst the 19 million job seekers in America, we have some tips you will not get anywhere else.


In the post 2008 crunch period, everything is going to change, and not all for the better, Competition will greatly increase. What we used to call “Third World” countries, China, India, for example are catching up with the western world. Obama’s world, ideally, would ensure a college degree to every high school graduate. President Obama’s desire to increase government interference in how business is taxed and regulated will shift economic growth from the US to venues that are more accommodating.

We don’t have to look back too many years to see how the advent of the personal computer has changed all of our lives. Sonny and I don’t read the newspaper much anymore, the internet, or TV is easier and more relevant. You can now read popular books without wasting paper.

Sonny says, the job you had may never come back and if you are collecting unemployment, now is an excellent time to dust off your crystal ball to see what is in your future.

Start with some self-evaluation. Ask yourself:
Is the company you worked for still in business?
Does somebody have your old job?
Are you approaching or over fifty?

If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” you may have fallen victim to the Peter Principle, which states: "In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." An example would be when the top salesman is rewarded by naming him Sales Manager. In this case, the company lost some sales and acquirers an unskilled manager.

Take the Triple A test to score your job potentiality:
ATTITUDE: a state of mind.
APTITUDE: inherent ability;
AMBITION: a strong desire to achieve.

Rank yourself high for a particular job in the triple A, and you probably have a job.

Subscribe to Sonny’s Beagle Bugle for this continuing series, it is free, and he intends to show what you need to write resumes that get attention, the real value of intern programs, and a whole lot more. In return, he asks for your comments.
 

Ms Nancy our congressional elective,

Has a memory quite defective.

The right says she lies,

And the left says she tries

With her lies to be more effective.


Words to live by:


Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Groucho Marx

Bureaucracy is a circle from which no one can escape.
Karl Marx