The Consumer Vs Anti-Trust Laws

The Sherman Antitrust Act has been relatively timid for well over 120 years.
There always is a debate about what actually is a monopoly. Many on the left consider size alone as the deciding factor, when in the past, the competitive effect on the consumer was always important.

The bottom line, whether there is a monopoly, should be the effect on the consumer. If the corporate situation being investigated helps the consumer, then there is no monopoly. The whole intent of the Act was in the interest of the public.

What is telling is the administration’s position and its support of lawyers, who are always ready to sue. But such plaintiffs do not always have the consumers’ interest at heart

What about jobs? Any effects of strict leftward trusts' action will be jobs-negative as a result. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.)

Business Management Risks

There are four basic types of business management risks:

1- Knowing what the possible risks are.
2- The size, types and pitfalls of accounts receivables.
3- Salary excesses, their fringe costs and how they can be controlled.
4- Existing and potential production problems and where they can be regulated.
 
What compounds these problems in many companies, large or small, is the inability to adequately recognize them early on. And to monitor them, while  managing their potential risks on an ongoing basis. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.)

Huge College-Imposed Debt

What about college-imposed debt? The numbers received on this subject from the College Board have a disturbing lesson for us.

What college-debt estimates do not take into account are a list of important factors. Student debts racked up when going to college ought to include those of their parents; they weigh down college advantages. Interest on the debts are huge and add to problems associated with those debts. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.)

Is a College Education Worthwhile?

Estimates of a college education are being stated these days from about $800,000 to as much as $1 million. However, I find it’s more likely a fictitious figure, comparing what someone can earn over a lifetime with a college degree, as opposed to earnings of a laborer working at minimum wage for his or her whole life.

An assumption is made that all non-college jobs are non-skilled. Many skilled jobs that do not call for a college degree, such as electricians and plumbers, pay far better than college-bred positions.

Eliminate janitor-type jobs from the conventional comparisons, and the comparisons get completely skewed; college’s worth is over-valued.  (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter ).

For-Profit Vs Non-Profit Companies

 
The public usually seems to get the impression that non-profit companies are good and for-profits somehow are not. That non-profits are there to be helpful; the others may be greedy, seeking nothing for the public or consumer, but gain only for themselves.

The public have been taught by populist politicians and the media, that somehow profit is a dirty word. Unless, of course, a member of the public loses a job. In which case the boss has no profits with which to pay salaries.

But then again, for-profits must have cheated to get their earnings, if you listen to the populist media expositions. However for-profits have an upside, in that they are seen as more competent. Too many folks have had run-ins with post office and motor vehicle personnel. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.

Global Warming Talk is Deceiving

Rethink the expensive global warming laws that have been based on what we are now learning are, simply, global warming hoaxes.

What about ethanol production? It is expensive because the fuel is not efficient. And it is the product of a source of food that is becoming more expensive world-wide because of its diversion to energy use.

The outlawing of incandescent bulbs, and the buying of costly compact fluorescent light bulbs instead, is another instance of the need for rethinking some of the global warming nonsense.

What about green car manufacturing and the plans of companies who are going "carbon neutral." Lots of talk, and huge expense. Really over nothing.

When will schools stop teaching the kids the cataclysmic effects of climate change? (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.)

Future Job Opportunities

Getting to know what jobs will be plentiful in the future is not easy to predict. In these difficult times it’s tougher. Consultants hired to make predictions are often wrong; yet they prognosticate and get clients, despite only rarely winning any accuracy prizes.

We know that economic trends are hard to change overnight. The health care services industry appears destined to continue its growth. There will be some bumps, however, depending on legislation and unionization activity.

Some aspects that require delicate skills, doctors, for instance, may be adversely affected, by past legislation or continued lack of tort reform by government. Technology skills will be sought. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.)

It’s Really Easy to Develop New Jobs

Getting the unemployment rate down from where it hovers at the official 8% or so rate, to a more normal 5% and below, is not going to be easy with just meaningless gestures from the administration.

The unemployment rate is actually about 15% when you consider the truly unemployed. Not only those who still haven’t given up seeking a worthwhile job or are on unemployment income while it lasts. The truth is, the official unemployment rate is misleading.

To get job creations going, the economy must improve. That means psychology must get rosier. More money has to get into households. That situation is not improving.

You simply have to get more funds into the hands of the consumer. What will do that? Lower income taxes, fast. And productive private industry jobs, fast.

To produce jobs you must get small business starts going by cutting their taxes. And you have to cut government debt. Servicing that debt makes it impossible to keep taxes low or to make a dent in their reduction.

It’s really simple. The White House says it is doing it. But saving 1% as it actually proposes multi-trillion dollar deficit budgets is impossible.  (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.

Writing Your Job Resume

Books and pamphlets tell you how to write a job resume. But remember the importance of the covering letter. It’s just as essential as the resume itself.

Place upfront on to the covering letter what is most important about your skills. Outline very quickly your professional assets. Tune the theme to what that skill is; technical, leadership, or academic.

The covering letter ought to quickly reprise what you are really selling about yourself. That will make it easier for a prospective employer to scan your’s from, perhaps, hundreds of other job requests. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.)

The U.S. Fails to Provide Free Market Capitalism

According to the annual Index of Economic Freedom reports from the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, the U. S. remains far behind countries such Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore, in terms of economic freedom.
  
In economic and bureaucratic terms, there is much improvement we can make to eliminate business red tape and restrictions. Unfortunately, we have been heading away even more from free economic principles.

This, at a time when we desperately need to formulate new private industry jobs. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.)

Why Sell a Franchise?

Why bother to sell a franchise if you own an interesting business?

First question to ask yourself if you are thinking of franchising your business:
If you have a successful operation, it’s easy to think it can be franchised. But why should someone pay for the company name and your expertise when they can probably duplicate the same entity at no additional franchising cost?

There are some questions you can ask yourself about the possibility and logic of franchising. 

You cannot successfully franchise your operation if:
1: It is easily duplicated or entered into by a competitor.
2: You don’t have a highly recognized brand name.
3: You don’t have special management expertise to offer.
4: It’s hard to service or manage operations, from your site.

You must realize, too, that the usual upfront fees and the royalty you take on sales, that cover whatever management training and materials you may offer, will probably represent about half a franchisee’s net earnings. That fact is bound to eventually infuriate him, assuming he becomes successful. There is no telling what the fury may be if he fails after investing in your advice.
So he may eventually cheat you or form groups with any other franchisees you may have, to sue you over contract terms.

Question: If you want to franchise your business, can you finance and constantly control the finances of your franchisees? That is most important, should you do decide to franchise. It is the most important binding link you can have to the prospective franchisee. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.)

Guaranteed Government Fraud

We often learn about business fraud. However, there are checks and balances in business by boards of directors and independent audits. When an Enron occurs, the publicity and media extravaganzas, along with government finger-pointing and publicity, make up for smaller, relative numbers.

Government fraud is taken for granted but is far more prevalent where politicians and bureaucrats take it as a given because they are so “underpaid” on the job.

An example: There is a formula for how government grants are used. There always is a euphemistic allowance made for “waste.” And there is always an understatement of projected cost. It’s a rare government project that ever meets its original cost estimates.Then there is usually some figure allotted to account for missing funds. Or at least a few percentage points devoted for investigation of fraud.

That is because of the psychological nature of government jobs. You don’t have the same checks and balances than in private industry, despite the public image the media provides.

Government projects are always ramped up. Very few are ever terminated. Sunshine laws are passed from time to time but appear ineffectual. Once on the books, laws and agencies they breed have a life of their own. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.)

Planning for Venture Capital

Getting venture capital is not easy as it’s often a case of being lucky, or knowing the right people. However, you need basic planning to get into the game. 

To ask for funds, a game plan or budgeting proposal is essential.
Incubators were a fad for a time, for very early stage venture funding. They proved a flop in the past. Incubators required lots of hand-holding for entrepreneurs. The problem: There were too many students and teachers often had no ability at the required levels. The eventual dot com bubble showed how futile that effort was.

Angel capital is now used for early-stage startups, Classic venture capital is for the level after you generally have some vestige of business operations.
Getting VC funds is usually a kind of lottery, should you have no connections. Those who get funds generally have gotten funds for earlier ventures.

There is a good reason why VC funding is so haphazard. Most VC “experts” actually haven’t the foggiest idea of which entrepreneurs to select and fund. Those VCs who have made big money were often merely lucky; they also picked lots of losers.

The payoff for VCs is generally the ability to sell stock in the venture to others, even when there are no profits to be made. Some deals have been referred to as legalized Ponzi schemes. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.)

The Importance of Incentives and Scientific Progress

Even in the consumer area, indifference towards the obvious was the rule even during the scientific revolution in Europe of the 17th to 19th centuries, particularly its center, Great Britain.

Example: The properties of the highly combustible powder, phosphorus, were known, but neutralizing the danger with a matchstick was not invented in England until 1829. Until then, you struck a spark with a cumbersome combination of flint on steel, in order to ignite tinder, or a small rag.

In short, in Great Britain and Europe, and eventually the United States, potential awards for solving a variety of problems would have paid outstanding commercial as well as medical benefits sooner and faster.
(See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole tweets.)

Health Care Variations Among Countries

In a U.N. World Health Organization WHO ranking of countries, the U.S. did poorly. This has been used as an argument for a massive overhaul of the U.S. health insurance industry.

However, look at the report closely because of the terms used. The latter represents what has become a typical U.N. report; an anti-American bias whenever possible.

Read carefully and you note the study points up only the difference between universal coverage and actual care.

It thus becomes easy to see the difference the terms signify. Look at health care in Canada, Great Britain and France with universal coverage. A law on the books or government promise to cover a citizen with health benefits does not mean everyone will get timely or sufficient personal attention when necessary.

The U. S. still has the best health care in the world, though it can be tweaked to be made better. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.)

The Corporate State in Today’s America

There is a major lesson to be learned that is not being taught in our schools. Not in elementary classes nor high schools, and certainly not in those of so-called higher learning.

It has to do with the true nature of the corporate state. In this regard, a study of Benito Mussolini’s Italy is essential. Starting in the 1920s. Mussolini was a Socialist who advocated what we know as the corporate state.

The government has now taken over General Motors, GMAC and Chrysler. It also controls banks to a greater extent than they have ever been, having dictated salaries, and thus hiring policy.

The government already controls the giant entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose collapse really were one of the bases of our financial meltdown.
Then you have the takeover of AIG, a completely unnecessary step for several reasons I have discussed before.

Banking industry bailouts and resultant government influence are yet another example of the government’s meddling in the underpinnings of our economy.

The attempt to nationalize the entire health care industry, about one sixth of the economy, is yet another flagrant example of a parallel picture of what happened at another, not so distant time. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.)

Business Management Control

Business management control has become more a matter of fashion and less what it’s intended to be. The idea is constantly marketed by consultants as business management break-through.

Well-known more recent ones were known and are still referred to as Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma systems. They are simply just old-fashioned quality control procedures.

Everyone believes in production or process improvement or quality control. Whatever label you put on them.  A good business manager inherently knows this without the labeling.

The trick is in implementation. Motivation is essential in sticking to such programs on an ongoing basis. Boredom always is the fly in the ointment, so periodic appraisals are essential. Furthermore, management needs to employ in-house or outside experts to check on processes and results. Forget the titles that you assign your project.  (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.)

Boards of Directors Responsibility

I’m assuming the reader is running a small or medium size business, but the following advice can apply to the biggest companies.

Many corporations are guilty of using friends, relations and acquaintances to fill open spots on the board. But ability is strongly needed.

The board of directors has the actual legal responsibility for the proper function of the corporation. Moreover, each director has joint and several liability for any sins of omission or commission, in this pursuit. That means he or she can be sued individually for neglect of responsibility of the entire board, in the event of any board errors or conceived fraud by board members. In other words, the board member with the deepest pockets or most to lose may get the brunt of a lawsuit.

Do you choose by race, by gender, or by culture? Definitely not, but these days, societal pressure and anti-discrimination laws may, and do enter into consideration. To the detriment of many corporations who still discriminate by quotas despite laws on the books.

Most important, business experience ought to be the number one requirement for board membership. However, that too often gets short shrift.  (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.)

Why Past European Society Failed Science

 

A society less concerned with class distinction, classics finery and bon mots, in the 18th and 19th centuries, in the form of by-rote memorization of rhetorical history may have well succeeded to resolve other, perhaps more urgent problems. 

Perhaps, the poets, writers and philosophers who sat around spouting their classical knowledge would have enjoyed better personal health and added longevity, had their thought and energy been re-directed to a grand plan for improving medicine. 
 
Questions were rampant for alert citizens to ask. Considerations about potential grand plans and achievement prizes for societal improvements could have been formulated. They were easily discernible for all to ponder. Especially with serious health issues and their so-obvious concern


A number of prospective inquiries could have been developed in those years. Some of the question that needed solutions included the following: 
 
1: Religious restrictions curtailed the investigative uses of autopsies, as a means of evaluating medical practice. Still, by 1761, Giovanni Morgagni's publication described results of over 700 autopsies, which disputed humor and energy theories. As bodies were becoming legally available, why didn't the medical profession adjust stale, centuries-old thinking with new objectives?
2: Perhaps, the over-riding problem of society would have been a solution to the scourge of venereal disease. This had created an entire industry of medical quacks in Britain by the 1700s, where one in five London women were estimated to be prostitutes, catering to upper and lower-class clientele. The remedies were poor and often dangerous, but legitimate inquiries could have achieved more worthwhile progress.
3: In many respects, midwives appeared to know more about disease-preventing cleanliness than did doctors of those days. In fact, they did a better job at reducing the incidence of widespread childbirth (puerperal) infection. Why did it take so long to determine that midwives provided more sanitary conditions than hospital physicians who were attending diseased patients and also dissecting cadavers while delivering children?
4: Why did so many simple limb amputees suffer from gangrene, when it became clear that the persistent use of filthy surgical tools were probably the reason? There was more than ample evidence to get medical surgeons.

There was plenty of evidence during the American Civil War that the unsanitary conditions under which surgeons operated had much to do with the mortal infections suffered by wounded soldiers. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole tweets.)

Measuring Risk Odds

Most folks have no idea of risk, as they apply to business, or finance, or health.

Risk numbers cover too many areas to be covered in this report. I would suggest you go to an internet search engine just to get a hint of the vast range of risk possibilities in all your areas of interest.

List a subject in which you may be interested. Add the word or a phrase with he questioned risk. Google the phrase health risk odds and you will get over 7 million web pages to search. Google the phrase risk odds calculations and you get the same approximate number to browse.

The results can be enlightening. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.)

Failure to Properly Advance the Microscope Discovery

The microscope was already discovered a few recent centuries ago.. It could have been further improved, with each improvement opening new viewpoints, ideas, questions, and fresh discoveries. 

There should have been large, attractive monetary prizes offered, as in the British Longitude program I noted in a past blog. This would have been indispensable in getting at the question of venereal disease which touched the British upper classes as much as it did prostitutes. Instead, syphilis and gonorrhea were both categorized as the “secret disease.” A major curative industry fostered by charlatans did thrive in Britain, but it undoubtedly led to more deaths than any promised cures. 
 
The bacterium cause involved with venereal disease, as with the longitude quandary, may have had solutions found earlier. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole tweets.)

Influences by Governments in the Past

My recent blogs had to do with major failings of government and influential members of the public of the past, in not understanding the need of grand programs to achieve urgent goals. Something comparable to our contemporary “landing-on-the-moon” project. 
 
There were occasional bright advances. Example: By the early 1700s it was clear that accurate position measurements at sea were essential. The British Board of Longitude brilliantly offered a then-gigantic prize of 20,000 pounds to anyone who could devise an instrument to measure longitude at sea. An English clockmaker was able to do this after much diligent effort and enterprise.  

An obvious lesson when government spends more on questionable entitlements and less on space opportunities. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole tweets.)

The Early Scientific Revolution

The scientific revolution had some emphasis on science, starting its advances with the French Revolution's end and the coming 19th century. Religious authority also had reduced, rigid control over science. 
 
There were also individuals with scientific training and viewpoints, who were able to tread into new fields that enlightened knowledge for progress. Isaac Newton, Edmund Halley, Daniel Bernoulli, Henry Cavendish, Joseph Priestley, James Watt, Antoine Lavoisier, and the inquisitive American Benjamin Franklin, all dating as far back as the early 1700s, started the trend. 
 
Nevertheless, science never expanded to where consumer needs were fully addressed as they could have been. No genuine, concerted effort was ever made by the powers-that-be to expand scientific knowledge, particularly with regard to health. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole tweets.)

Medical Malpractice of the Past in Great Britain

  
Great Britain's influence had significant but poor effect on America's medical treatment. America, after all, was pioneered by the English; there were strong ties from the early 1600s and the Plymouth Rock landing, until the American Revolution and consequent severance from the parent country. 
 
Let's see how this influence persisted: Negative effects of the British class system affected all education and vocational aspirations of its society. Learning classics, including Greek and Latin, were the chief curricula of manor-born and would-be “fine gentlemen” Add to this factor the results of primogeniture, whereby the oldest inherit property and titles, to the exclusion of other children. And you have the inevitable end-results.
 
There were thus almost automatic careers set forth for able young men in the army, navy and ministry. Women were mindlessly relegated to home, nursery and blackboards. For Britain, this helped assure a strong military for world empire, and a vast religion network that accommodated that worthwhile environment. (Though, with an over-abundance of poor local parsons.) Nevertheless, this societal template helped reduce the supply of qualified prospects as math and science careerists and investigators. 
 
To add to the problem, the best universities Britain had to offer, at Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Dublin, staffed professors and teachers who were poorly paid and mostly incapable of satisfactory, worldly instructive performance. Moreover, the schools were never fully attuned to teaching sciences or math. 
 
British health procedures and accomplishments a few hundred years ago were similar to those found in other European countries with comparable economies and where governments were conducive to some scientific advancement.

Example: In advanced Britain, apothecaries far outnumbered doctors who merely lurked in the background. The apothecaries worked as “magicians” with wine, herbs, and spices and were so popular they organized their Society


By 1775, apothecaries overwhelmingly outnumbered physicians; an advanced university education for the specialty was not deemed necessary.
As for physicians, it's interesting to note that full-time poet-authors Oliver Goldsmith and Tobias Smollet, offered part-time medical services, to add to their meager literary earnings. despite their preparatory study of questionable caliber by today's standards 
  
Doctors then had to show authority with formal hat and suit attire, while sporting a walking stick. Proper appearance made a doctor, not extensive medical knowledge. To impose further insult, they had to compete with apothecaries, in order to get and retain patients. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole tweets.)

Medical Malpractice of the Past in the U.S.

The U.S. medical picture was influenced in its past by British parentage. As a consequence, at the start of the 1800s in the U.S., fewer than 100 basic medicines existed. Medical practice was centered on what had been for centuries the pillars of medicine, the four Humors, none scientific (black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood). “Vitalism”, incorporating body energy principles, and other pet theories of various universities around the world had their pet convictions. 
 
Doctors were assisted by midwives who did more than deliver babies. However, the level of midwife non-medical knowledge was never advanced;. they were taught by family and other close acquaintances, rather than formal teaching institutions.
 
Blood-letting, cupping, poultices, sweating, along with “purges” were the then modernized versions of such century-old humor-related therapy. All of which apparently did not work well. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole tweets.)

A Public Employee Budgeting Solution

I have written about problems of government paying over-market wages and pensions to public employees, amounts bankrupting government and taxpayers alike.

There is a solution. As a starter, publish wage and pension scales, along with fringe benefits of all unionized government workers. List only job description, for the public to see. Let voters know how private earnings and pensions compare to public earnings and benefits, that tax-paying voters earn for comparable work.

If there is to be open government, why hide a major cost of government? Yet, this part of the budget is always hidden from voters. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.)

Teacher Unions

The powerful teachers’ unions have a particular influence; they always have a good marketing ploy. Who wants to turn down funding when “it’s for the kids.”
 
But a good portion of that cost does not go to kids, it’s for teachers. And those costs can be budget-busting. Yes, the public probably knows how much is spent per student. But how about salaries and pensions? All for a part-time, nine months of actual total work?

I’m not picking on teachers. The same holds for other government employees. Especially the ones who retire well before age 65, and are double dippers on grandiose government pensions. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole tweets.)

Phony Social Security Promises And Political Threats

Can Social Security checks be truly considered a government “pension” fund? Can Social Security checks be delayed if Congress ever fails to increase the government's borrowing authority? 

The 2012 Social Security trustees report says that  assets in Social Security's trust funds totaled $2.7 trillion, and Social Security expenditures totaled $773 billion. Therefore, no matter what Congress does about debt limits, Social Security recipients are guaranteed their checks. Just take the money from the $2.7 trillion assets being held. Payments can still be made despite Congressional action.
     
But note: There is no Social Security lock box; funds are used by government as received in Social Security taxes. So-called Social Security trust funds are actually IOUs, of no market value.  (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at twitter.)