Trade Secret Protection

The best way to protect trade secrets: Be sure your employees, customers or clients are not able to get at data that should not be made public.

This is never simple. It’s logical to use trade names and logos that are hard to duplicate. Example: A made-up name such as Kodak.

The best and cheapest way to protect your trademarks, aside from registering them, is to actively use them in commerce. The laws are friendly only to those who employ the names, marks or logos they want protected. Even registration is not an outright guarantee.

And stay out of courts if you possibly can, when you have disputes that concern trade secrets or trademarks. Those with the most money to litigate will win.

Unfortunately, patent and trademark litigation contests often are not examples of prevailing justice. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Proxy Change Attempts

Attempts have been underway for changes in the way proxy votes are permitted and counted.

Street name votes must now have consent of the share beneficiaries. There are now nonbinding shareholder votes on compensation-related issues. Governance changes and board of directors compensation committee changes were also enacted under Dodd-Frank.

Like other restrictions on business, they serve little purpose, other than a play to a voter block that feels the corporation’s primary care is not its product or service, jobs and profits that enable it to operate, but to seek secondary social goals, almost simultaneously.

This fine-tooth-comb meddling is actually unfair to most shareholders because many activist minority shareholders are not interested in genuine company matters. Their primary goals are societal concerns that ought to be rectified by federal, state and local government, not private corporations. And for union organizing.

For years, they have clamored for changes in corporate activity which the vast majority of shareholders would not want. Today, corporations are being nudged by government to actually submit much of the proposals into their proxies. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Bretton Woods and the Dollar Gold Link

From 1947 until 1967, when we had gold- dollar convertibility,

unemployment averaged only 4.7%, with economic growth about 4% annually. Plus, inflation remained relatively low.

In 1971, during the Nixon Administration, the Bretton Woods agreement set up a new system, including the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, part of the World Bank Group. The U.S. dollar became the world reserve currency for the member states. However, slower growth has followed from then; gold today appears to be the preferred reserve of many countries. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The Dodd-Frank Cure’s Failure

Risk was never overcome by regulation:

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were risky semi-government agencies who were instrumental players in our sub-prime crisis. There was no lack of regulation. But that financial meltdown has resulted in even more regulation with the Dodd-Frank legislation.

Too-big-to-fail banks have since grown bigger than ever. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The Rampant EPA

Congress has not been able to pass a Cap and Trade bill because the public realizes the proposed legislation is a device for powerful government taxation. The measure is more a means for imposing taxes on industry and consumers, than it is for environmental protection.

So what does the Obama Administration do, in its effort to help reduce emissions it claims the bill will reduce? Especially when global warming is not scientifically proven.

It imposes controls through unelected bureaucrats in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Only they can make CO2, which we exhale, and trees ingest, a poison. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Job Creation By Magic Wand

All jobs are not created equally. The government has its magic wand.

One: Theirs are often not permanent.

Two: Theirs are often part time.

If the work is for government, are they unionized with special pension programs? If the answers are that they are overwhelmingly government-oriented, you know they may be phony and costly. Particularly when so much of the Obama administration stimulus went to states which added government jobs.

Another important statistic: While economists may differ, spending for a government job is known to have an economic multiplier effect, at most, of 1.4 or 1.5, On the other hand, private jobs have an economic multiplier of close to 3.5.

So beware of job claims during a recession, especially when you get those politically-inspired varieties. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Unemployment Check Extension Gimmick

Studies show that most unemployed who are not desperate, put off looking for work until unemployment checks are ready to run out.

Thus, extended unemployment benefits have a negative impact on unemployment statistics. Extending benefits tends to make the unemployment rolls greater, as it’s generally a disincentive for seeking jobs.

But the media operates with just selective reportage. They find a small percentage who truly need more benefits and make it appear that all the unemployed require to be on a dole forever, or else they starve. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Realist Unemployment Numbers

The adjusted unemployment rate now is closer to 17%, not the close to 9% reported by the media and the government. The youngest job-seekers are suffering the most from the current recession.

Average unemployment numbers are what we get, covering all age groups. That average can consist of different classes, each of which is affected differently. Classifications contain teens up to age 25. Or all adults 25 and older Or high school graduates, or college graduates; skilled and unskilled. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The Unemployment Figure Scam

Here is a scam that will never be fully revealed because the media will continue to hide it from the public.

Raw government-announced unemployment figures are misleading. They must be carefully interpreted. They never fully are by the media, often for politically-slanted purposes.

Examples: Unemployment numbers don’t tell you how long the unemployed have been out of work. Or how many are not working full days or have permanent jobs. Nor how many have given up looking for work. Those out of work a long time may not even be looking for employment, and are not being counted as unemployed,

Moreover, the time of year reported is a factor. And weather conditions may have much to do with short-term implications of job statistics.

If the true number of those unemployed were counted today, the unemployed figure would be closer to 17% than the reported figure under 9%. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

CEO Techniques

Look at the management techniques used by CEOs, They are all the same. The same acronyms to describe managerial approaches. Those that worked in the past may not be working now. The ones that did not work in the past may be working today.

A lot of luck is involved and lots of persistence. You do need an earnest game plan Also an eye on protective management technique that actively avoids serious problems. That, for example, keep away from damaging lawsuits, especially employee harassment and EEOC complaints. Management has to consciously stick to employee manuals.

An executive must operate with the hand being dealt. If the business environment or the economy is poor, an excellent manager may do extremely well by just minimizing losses. But there are no real standards to go by. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The CEO Factor for Business Success

The financial media loves to trumpet a misconception that poor financial community analysts never fully have understood. That the role of the CEO is not what they believe it is.

Studies have looked at the effect of top management changes and have found they account for only about 10% of added profitability.

Often it is other circumstances that result in a company’s doing better or worse. The economy and business or general industrial conditions may have much to do with any company’s near-term fortune.

There are business cycles. Moreover, the bigger the company, the harder it is for a CEO to turn operations around on his or her own, The CEO is certainly important, but never to the extent the public, analysts, or the media, may believe. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Oratorical Education in School

There are lots of practical education courses our schools don’t teach.

Example: President Obama has much to do with the state of our business and financial climate because of his constant formal speeches. He appears to be vying with the status of ancient Roman senators who stood around in togas making speeches.

Interestingly, they did so without the use of teleprompters. He does it differently with his ever-ready teleprompter, even when addressing children.

I would think that schools today ought to include courses on orating and debating, in addition to their regular curricula. The ability to think on your feet without having something to read from in front of you, other than note outlines, would be a benefit to all. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Preventing as Well as Solving Bubble Crises

A long-term solution to a bubble-bust event often usually takes care of problems better than does a short-term panacea or band-aid.

Apart from those called in to do the short-term, patchwork remedies, If there has to be basic blame for recent bubbles in the U. S. it can be placed on the heads of the governors of the Federal Reserve. They are the guilty, who have made money too cheap. That is always the fuel for a bubble.

Bubbles can be dampened when the availability of currency is tightened. However, the opposite monetary policy has been the story in U. S. bubble experience. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Another MBA Marketing Ploy

There is sufficient evidence that the entire scientific effort behind global warming is suspect.

Environmental studies programs depend to a great extent on the premise of global warming. Cap and trade legislation is actually a ruse to create taxation, based on dubious global warming science.

So why start a career with a new MBA degree in this specialty? It’s either a marketing ruse to get a job that defies science or your own credibility; any degree has become tainted by scientific doubt.

Just another marketing scam our institutions of higher learning have developed. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Dodd-Frank Regulation and Prospective Bubbles

Politicians try to stop future financial bubbles with Dodd-Frank types of regulation which never work. But they keep trying because the effort makes good theater.

Bubbles are man-made, enforced by government policy and regulation. They breed on human psychological extremes. And they feed on panic.

The onus and guilt may be thrust on private parties for political purposes, but bubbles exist only if government agencies permit them to do so.

Actually, it’s far better that government does nothing as its cheaper and never causes Greece-like meltdowns we’re now witnessing. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Do Occupy Protesters Pay Income Tax?

America produces a daily harvest of polls. Pick any subject out of a hat and you have a poll to match.

In fact, the polls are produced by the media to generate and create news. Think of it; is there any day you haven’t seen the results of any survey?

So with the media’s attention on the Occupy Wall Street crowd, I would suggest a poll I haven’t as yet seen: “Do protesters pay income tax and what is their opinion of such imposts?”

With all their complaints I’m sure very few pay into the system they appear to detest. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Crony Capitalism

Liberals argue that super financial regulation, such as Dodd-Frank, is the answer to stopping bubbles and financial risk. More regulation, they say, will reduce financial meltdowns. That same financial risk that past regulation failed to catch.

And if large companies “too big to fail” look ready to do so, the U. S. ought to be the employer of last resort, to bail such companies out. While government, in effect, operates them. In the past, the bankruptcy laws remedied the problem without political input.

Well, that is corporate statism, pure and simple. And it leads to political favors and crony capitalism.

Not just with banks, but automobiles, energy companies, and so on. That has now become a permanent fixture of our government.

There were alternatives.. Actions that would have been better solutions and less destructive to our long-term economy. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

College is Shorting Student’s Tuition Value

According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, the percentage of college graduates’ ability in literacy had declined from 40% to 31% in the past decade. About 20% of college seniors did not have the ability to estimate whether their car had enough fuel to get to a gas station.

But too many kids and parents can show only fancy diplomas to friends and relatives for all the cost invested in diploma pursuit.

There is a disconnect somewhere. More kids going to college are getting into debt. More of their parents are going broke financing their education. Results are poor. And the jobs are few. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Useless Degrees

A prejudice we must overcome. Some people look down on vocational schools. A degree from a four-year college is considered first class in social circles. A vocational-school degree isn’t.

Those who have employable skills will earn top dollar at jobs that employers want, even in deep recessions. Others, with their fancy-school diplomas sit around for the lack of opportunity, despite all their effort toward those impressive but impractical and useless degrees. It’s rough spending a fortune to get through college, to earn a degree that doesn’t enable you to find a decent job.

It is worse when that a career puts you in extreme debt. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Good Earning Without College Degrees

That going-to-college myth is slowly shrinking with our recession.

You don't need a four-year college degree to be successful. Vocational education does pay off for many who have lost jobs or are seeking entry-level positions in trades.

Even lower-level electricians today make on average $48,000 a year. Plumbers make $47,000. That's much more than the average American earns. And those jobs may be more plentiful.

According to a Wall Street Journal survey, accountants and engineers thought that the schools played an important role in employer consideration but the numbers were not that overwhelming. For business and marketing majors, the survey appeared to show that the schools were not that important, especially when cost was considered. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Future Events Markets?

Some businesses have created a futures market on subjects of importance to their companies. They feel that certain points of view, though a gamble, can be anticipated or predicted, if the gamblers or speculators have no inherent bias in their choices.

Future projections on business concerns always are difficult to estimate. If any can be predicted with more independent accuracy, they would be immensely practical.

However, for such markets to have value, they must have lots of independent input. Sampling should be efficient and unbiased.

I find that is almost impractical in most business projections. However, futures markets may have their place in foretelling political outcomes and general marketing concepts. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Italy’s Poor Economic Outlook

Whenever highly restrictive business restraints are imposed in this country, our liberal politicians are forced under pressure to “go easy” because such action eventually destroys business growth and jobs.

As a result, the left only grudgingly may exempt business with fewer employees or sales volume from the onerous restrictions.

Liberal politicians are very fond in their thinking of this European Model of regulation. Or they use other fine-sounding euphemisms such as Social Democracy to define their worthy intentions.

The result is, they come up with failures. Italy is but one of several perfect examples. It has little growth prospects. Companies are intentionally kept small so the legal straitjackets are not enforced on them.

The country will never grow to meet its debts when bemired in such a regulatory, high tax system. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Occupy Wall Street and Joseph Schumpeter

Members of the Occupy Movements in the American cities ought to learn about the economist Joseph Schumpeter and many like him, before expounding their unfounded theories they have unearthed from their dubious past endeavors.

Those who know the least about capitalism rant the most about its negatives and never appreciate its overwhelming positives. To those I would suggest a review of the life and work of Joseph Schumpeter, the Austrian-German-American economist. He died in 1950 and has been since overlooked in academic circles and the media.

His view of “creative destruction,” how the demise of established companies led to a growing economy has been the foundation of the American dream for so many.

Personal incomes have doubled every fifty or sixty years in America, when entrepreneurial zeal is permitted to operate.

Yet, left-leaning observers and anarchists will never guess there is any economic opportunity without government being the instrument of largess. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Teaching at College Reality

This comment is worth repeating: College has become a huge growth industry. However, the industry has changed and mutated negatively, with far too little oversight of quality.

Consider the dismal teaching quality of colleges. Over 4,000 colleges and universities now enroll over 17 million students. But colleges appear to be primarily in the business of acquiring students, differing to a degree only in their approach to marketing.

Some do so as research centers. They may boast professors with science awards and Nobel Prizes. These are very appealing marketing devices. Such esteemed faculty also attract grants and endowments, as well as students.

But even that’s a façade and not an institution to attend. Nobelists teach few classes. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Inept Colleges

Many colleges market their wares by appealing to the baser instincts of prospective students.

The idea is to make it easier to attend. As a result, graduates, if they get that far, are unable to find real, practical jobs.

It also explains why we have so many with easy-to-get law degrees, while few are doctors and scientists.

Affirmative action is practiced, not just for conventional minorities. It is there for any group that is not equally represented on attendance roles.

The truth is, few undergraduate students have the vaunted, celebrity professors. They often are taught, instead, by graduate students.

In fact, Colleges and universities engage in "bait and switch;" confer what are actually deficient degrees, and engage in other practices that would bring legal sanctions if done in any other business.

Parents and taxpayers pay billions of dollars to colleges and universities. Schools make money no matter what students learn, whether students graduate, and whether students are able to get good jobs after leaving school. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Be Careful of Mark-to-Market Bank Accounting

You keep hearing about banks having to beef up capital to ward off problems in the world economy. Looming in the background is always this question of a potential lack of bank stability.

Banks are being forced to add capital. However, the more they do, the less they have with which to do business; the idea is to make loans so that industry can thrive, not primarily that banks can remain alive and do nothing else.

What is never really addressed is the decision to determine bank values in an emergency. If that is done on a daily fictitious basis as in the U.S. in 2008/2009, the banking problem will persist. You cannot determine asset values if many of the assets have limited markets and their values are not easy to determine.

Such mark-to-market evaluations of subprime assets were a major cause of much of the banking meltdown at that time. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

College Debt

Avoid heavy student loans. Tuition, room and board charges that total $100,000 and more in many instances can be an enormous impediment for any student or for parents. For those with several children to put through school, it can be the major obstacle for a comfortable retirement.

Defaulting on college-induced debt can be a dilemma. You will have to get a grip on the type of debt, whether federal or private, and its terms. Contact the National Student Loan Data System, at www.nslds.ed.gov

There may be some forgiveness programs for government workers and teachers, along with AmeriCorp volunteers and similar programs. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Business Management Styles

The public is not generally conversant with the difference in business management styles.

There are two different types of styles:

One, centralized, where the CEO is in complete control of the company’s daily operations. Many executives prefer this approach.

Two, decentralized, where more local control is allowed. It’s usually in different companies within varying industries on a decentralized basis.

I prefer centralized, hands-on oversight, which I believe is better from the operational standpoint. On the other hand, if your goals are primarily that of an investor, you never have the time, the ability, or inclination, to cope with daily administrative duties. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Female Pay Discrimination

There is no doubt women had been discriminated against in the past with regard to earnings they receive.

The question is whether they still are, when anti-discrimination laws have been on the books for years and penalties are severe. Yet, women still tend to earn less.

But there can be valid reasons. Because many women leave jobs in mid-career for maternity reasons. That distorts statistical averages. Others prefer to spend more time with family.

Still, there are more variations in certain professions than others, which makes household concerns not the sole explanation for income variation. Hostile environment may often be possible. The discrepancy varies by profession.

Women’s needs may vary within those jobs, especially where measures of hostility may actually exist. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Don’t Believe Everything About College Value

Are you really college material and worth the sacrifice of cost and effort? Does this question apply to any of your children?

Be realistic about yourself or any of your children going to college. It’s a major budget-busting factor that has been tossed about for years.

College ought to be for scholars, not for those ready to waste four years of their youth.

Remember, you’re receiving lots of misinformation from the media. The facts about education, especially college, are about as corrupted as those that surround investing.

They also impact the family's net worth, and deserve full family thought, discussion and proper planning. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

French Ideas of GDP

GDP or Gross Domestic Product is a measure of a country’s economic output, and the value of all its goods and services produced. It represents the country’s standard of living.

The French GDP is falling. The French can do something about it; they can try free markets instead of their brand of European social society.

So they want to substitute their vacation time and other assumed “joie de vivre.” It can be embarrassing for the French to compare their left-oriented economy to those more attuned to capitalism.

They have suggested arbitrary adjustments that assumes their way of living is superior to others. That would take care of the month of August for holidays; about the lack of services during August. And those constant, paralyzing public union strikes. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

College Education Deficiencies

College administrators and politicians should drop their promotional hype. Higher college enrollment and government loan programs and subsidies may be good for the college marketers, but they don’t produce the training needed to fill real, paying jobs in industry.

This becomes more evident by the day.

Too many degrees, especially from four-year institutions, offer graduates little skills but a resume, when they go looking for a job in the real world. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Sarbanes-Oxley’s Unintended Consequences

Sarbanes-Oxley was passed in 2002, as a reaction to media-enhanced investor-debacles.

The law of unintended consequences was an ultimate result. And negatives by far outweigh any positives.

Sarbanes-Oxley has been a great profit center for accounting firms. It’s also a good talking and campaigning point for populist politicians, but an expensive headache for companies.

Lots of smaller corporations no longer seek public funds because it has become too expensive for them to be publicly owned. Audits are too expensive. That does special havoc with small business which cannot afford the added costs..

What is more, the legislation helps little in preventing fraud, the intended purpose. Moreover, this keeps foreign corporations, even giants, out of the U.S. or has existing ones reconsider their American status.

If any corporate executive wants to commit fraud, Sarbanes-Oxley will not prevent collusion to do so. On the other hand, anyone with corporate experience (that leaves out most in Congress) knows that Sarbanes-Oxley makes running a business more like a steeplechase or handicap than it should be. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

“Fair” Labor Union Wages and the American Social and Cultural Contract

A worker gets what he or she produces in a “fair” productive society, Labor has to be productive. If it is not, there is an eventual disconnect.

The perfect example is the downfall of the American automobile industry which priced itself out of business because of its labor costs. You can talk style and product non-competitiveness, But management was coerced into giving catastrophic labor contracts, in order to avoid immediate costly union walkouts.

The breakdown in schools can be attributed to the same cause. Here it is the avoidance of competition in the form of breaking the public-school-only monopoly of unionized teachers. A choice of vouchers would make for better productivity of teachers, and better schools.

Unfortunately, labor unions and real wage conflict have grown into the American social and cultural contract. They have been highly politicized by union campaign funding, so it will be almost impossible to rectify in the foreseeable future. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Patents for Business Methods

Patents are being issued not only for actual products and things, but for general ideas and business solutions. Or the method by which payments are made online.

Patents were originally intended for pure inventions. They contributed to the U.S. becoming the industrial leader of the world.

Courts now are looking at cases in dispute, to see if clarification of patent law is necessary and whether interpretation of the law is to be more limited. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Cheapening College Marks

Inflated college marks are now the norm around the country. Pay the tuition and pass with flying colors. What used to be called a "Gentlemen’s C” grade for the class dummy is now the “Gentlemen’s A” for all.

It’s hard for today’s students to believe but the following is fact you will never, never get from a current college manual:

At the College of the City of New York during World War II, students were admitted only if they had the highest grades in New York City schools.

If they were getting war-service deferments because they were science and engineering majors, they had many of their classes marked on a “curve.” This was comparable to having to make the cut in PGA professional golf. The lowest 10% or so of each class flunked, no matter what mark they got. Classmates competed against each other.

In the toughest college in perhaps the U. S., open only to the top high school graduates, a student with one class “failure” immediately lost an armed service deferment. Compare that to the Ivy League standards of today!

Students go to Ivy League schools because of the aura about them, and the contacts they afford. The overrated Ivies are not tough once you are admitted. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Essential U. S. Global Trade and Smoot-Hawley

Smoot-Hawley protectionist import duties in the U.S. set off the world-wide trade protectionism whereby industry was stifled and the Great Depression became global. That mistake, along with Franklin Roosevelt’s high taxation policy and government spending, induced by pump-priming Keynesian philosophy. It was a similar stimulus theory that the Obama Administration is advocating.

Never forget: We are primarily an export country. Playing games with protectionism to save a relatively small number of jobs, compared to the whole jobs picture, can be deadly for our economy. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Small Business and Recession-Lost Jobs

Small business accounts for more than half of our work force and is a solution to the employment question. Unfortunately, most bureaucrats and influential politicians are not in sync to small business interests. The heavy lobbying and influence comes from big business and labor unions.

Ever-higher minimum wages, hidden taxes and insurance costs will guarantee that small business can not fulfill its conventional role of creating new jobs. Unless Washington’s political elite relent.

It will take years for lost jobs to come back. In fact, many may never be available. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Recessions are Made by Poor Handiwork

Folks are constantly misled by the media and by politicians.

An economics lesson: Economic cycles are normal, but excesses have man-made causes.

The current financial meltdown started as a result of a concerted government policy of making home mortgages available to those who could not afford to have those mortgages.

Government pressure, and threats of law suits from “do-gooders,” in addition to the opportunity for profit by banks, who collateralized the mortgage obligations (CDOs) facilitated mortgage sales the world over.

Government-licensed rating agencies gave these CDOs the AAA ratings that assured the global sale of the securities.

A bubble resulted from this man-made series of pressures, until, like all bubbles, it burst.

To add to the bad psychology that accompanies any bust, the government came in with a series of disastrous man-made steps. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Effective Business Management

Good business management is hard to evaluate. It’s not as easy as evaluating an athlete who wins or loses events, or has measurable statistics.

The sports media have experts who make lots of senseless noise, comparable to locker room or bar room chatter.

While business sales can be measured, as well as profit and loss, it’s not that simple to evaluate executives who may not be solely responsible for the bottom line.

A good executive may still lose money for his or her company. But less than a poor manager or executive would have lost under similar conditions. More complex yardsticks must be employed, depending on the type of business.

Moreover, what incentives do you give to get results? What is good pay? Or options? Do more and more money inducements really make a difference?

The definition of a good manager is difficult when the evaluation is equally hard to make. On-the-job experience may accomplish it, not text book explanations and suggestions. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Public Pension Fund Illusions

The illusion continues: Problems persist with pension fund allocations, particularly those funded for public state employees.

They’re still being based on assumptions that securities will continue to earn about 8% a year. So less funds go into the kitty than is needed.

These funds averaged that much in the distant past, but they have been earning much less in recent years. Unfortunately, pension funds will be lucky to get 3% net or so in the future.

This under-funding for public state employees is running in the trillions and is bankrupting many state budgets. But the illusion persists. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Poor Schools and Discontent

The public cannot evaluate the bombardment of news and the headlines that apply to finance and business topics.

Don’t expect schools to provide an adequate understanding of information, so students can comprehend economics and finance in the real world.

That’s also why the retailers of America would be lost if cash registers didn’t automatically make change for everyday purchases.

Most younger clerks could not figure dollars and cents transactions as our parents and grandparents did before America started spending a fortune on schooling.

Or why so many of our youth are protesting they cannot find work. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The Youthful Protesters

If American youth were truly aware of the effects of the monetary inflation set for them and future generations by our government, they would be shouting from the roof tops for the government to stop the economic mess. And forget about the “rich” and the “bankers” they detest.

Instead, most are really more concerned with the latest entertainment fads and entertainers. Or how much more it may cost most of them to get an ineffectual education, particularly should they go to college.

The ones demonstrating have learned poor economics. Our youth have no idea of what budgetary deficits have done to them so far and certainly what they will do in the future. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Tips for Job Resumes

Make a job application simple and current and keep it up-to-date as the right job resume is essential..

Employment dates are important, as is your formal education, college or technical schooling. In fact, the latter appears to count importantly on a resume.

Yet, much of what you learn in school is useless for a practical job. Therefore, be sure you are explicit about what you have done to make money for your past employers or how you have been able to help them save money.

Or if you feel you have talents as an organizer, describe what you have accomplished in this type of effort. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Private and Government Job Differences

Private industry jobs are created in response to economic demand, incurred for a need. A businessman knows that expenses should be kept to a minimum. Jobs are thus genuine. Real job growth requires business optimism. With no tax and iffy economics. Training along with payroll expenses make human resources a long-term investment.

The government can employ people and achieve full employment by drafting every unemployed person. Especially, high-cost, make-work jobs. Federal “stimulus” spending is promoted for its job creation, but that obviously does not “create” jobs. It usually has a political purpose or helps party fund raising.

Government work also absorbs tax money, that could have been used for economically useful job growth. The government uses tax dollars as “stimulus” funds only as it sees fit.

The government can help create jobs by cutting taxes. That would make it easier to create business. They can help also by limiting restrictions on terminating employees. The latter would, therefore, more easily get hired by private industry. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Employee/Contractor Regulations

Many newly hired employees want to escape employee payroll taxes just as much as employers do; they prefer being contractors. That is, until they are no longer working and are then seeking unemployment insurance. So they complain they never were independent contractors but really employees.

When former “contractors” file for unemployment insurance, the ex-employer has the difficult job proving the employer/employee relationship.

If the employer owns the tools or equipment and directs the work involved, there is usually an employer/employee connection. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Wind Power’s Toll on Birds

The Obama administration has plans for wind power to supply 20% of our energy by 2020. Unreported, is the toll it does to the bird population.

The project calls for 186,000 50-story wind turbines to be built in California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico, along with 19000 high-voltage transmission lines.

With the probable killing of tremendous numbers of birds as a result, to go along with the outlay of huge taxpayer subsidies. All this according to the Nature Conservancy.

Effective energy policy is attainable with a minimal number of atomic energy facilities. And at much lower ongoing cost.

Without the eyesores that will beset the Southwest of the U.S. if the Administration planning comes to fruition. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Piling Up on Credit Card Companies

Bad debts incurred by credit card companies generally run close to 10%. The companies must make up for this, so they are attempting to earn fees where they can. If they cannot get repaid by the deadbeats, they will receive it from the many customers who pay their bills on time.

If the business is so great, why aren’t so many more banks running to get into it? Something politicians in Washington who pick on credit card companies, or the media, never address. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Solar Panels and the Environment

Covering the desert landscape with solar panels is really not the way to make the environment “green.”

When solar panels get covered with desert dust and dirt they don’t accomplish their goal. They have to be washed down with water every month. Yet, precious water is not available in the desert.

The Wildlife Conservancy and other clear-minded environmentalists are against solar panels in the desert. That, in addition to the fact the process still has to be subsidized by taxpayers. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Imposing Unwanted Cap and Trade

Left-leaning politicians never give up trying to impose cap and trade legislation. Those who still believe in global warming science are true religionists whose God is over-powerful government controls.

Added to entrenched environmental co-religionists are practical leftists who realize that cap and trade is an instrument for enforcing control and taxation on the population without designating the effort for what it essentially is.

The main problem is the economic damage that will be exacted, though the vast majority of Americans do not want such job-killing legislation.

However, the government is enacting many of these steps without the approval of the electorate, by stealth. It’s weapon is the almost unrestricted use of the Environmental Protection Agency. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Corporations Are Legally Individuals

The status of the corporation as a legal person has been considered valid, as far back as Chief Justice John Marshall’s decision in 1819.

Equal protection laws always applied to corporations in the past. And occurred recently during the nomination and approval of Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor.

In a hearing prior to her approval, Justice Sotomayor remarked that corporations were not people. However the Supreme Court has always held that corporations also had similar broad First Amendment rights. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Strict Independent Contractor Rules

Independent contractor rules are as strict as ever. Whether or not you’re an employee or a contractor is a long running question for many small business individuals.

The subject has become trickier, as the courts are vague and tort lawyers have been given more leeway by judges and juries who know little about business.

The rule of thumb for employers is this: If you control how a worker performs, he or she is an employee, not a contractor. Tell the hired person how and when to report to work and you have an employee, not a contractor. Also, when you provide tools for work, you have an employee. Tricky vagueness comes about when a question arises how important the job is to an employer’s business.

You can be a genuine contractor by all conventional definitions and still be considered by some courts an employee of a business. Sharp lawyers come in to help make a complaint against the boss and trouble starts. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)