Blog Archives

Edsel Ford

4/5/2016

Do you remember the marketing failure (still taught in marketing classes today), of the Ford vehicle called “The Edsel?” It was introduced in 1957 and named after Edsel Ford (Henry Ford’s son), fourteen years after he died from stomach cancer at the age of 49. This story isn’t about the ugly car (and I mean ugly), but instead about a very amazing person.

Edsel was the son and only child of Henry Ford and he was president of Ford Motor Company from 1919 up until his death. He worked closely with his father but was into developing cars more exciting, constantly arguing with his dad that they needed to expand their product line. Even as president, he had trouble persuading his father to allow any departure from his original Model T style.

He finally won out and founded the Mercury division and was responsible for the Lincoln Zephyr and Lincoln Continental offering features such as automatic engines and even air conditioning and the new car lines ended up being massive successes for the Ford Company.

Edsel was a huge humanitarian and the city of Detroit loved him for it. Something very few people know is that he financed Admiral Richard Byrd’s polar explorations as he himself was an adventurer. When he died in 1943, his father resumed running the company, before handing it over to Henry Ford II (Edsel’s oldest son).

Once again I chose someone to write about that I think deserves some attention. He was an innovator and a humanitarian who died way too young.

Don't Ask Don't Tell and Women In Combat

4/4/2016

President Obama is getting hammered over his military polices since he’s been in office and I’m going to discuss two of them. First of all, “Don’t ask don’t tell.” The Administration made it seem like it was as big as the Civil Rights Act when it pretty much did nothing. Most intelligent recruiters weren’t asking whether a potential recruit was gay or not because it made no sense. Their jobs are all about numbers and as long as someone appears healthy and intellectually sound enough to serve, they’d sign the recruit up in a heartbeat. The slogan means nothing.

Homosexuals have always served in all branches and in all divisions; I certainly knew this when I served in the Navy. Sexual orientation meant little to nothing, whether someone could do their job, now that mattered. One of the best sailors I’ve ever served with was gay (he was our commanding officer’s administrator…known in the Navy as a Yeoman). I’m not saying that “Don’t ask don’t tell” isn’t an issue I’m just saying that it’s not much of one and certainly not a Civil Rights legacy item the Obama camp is trying to sell.

Next, women serving in combat roles. In a recent survey 92% of the women serving in the military say they aren’t interested in a combat role. Why? Two primary reasons. One is they don’t have the desire to serve in a high-risk assignment. They enjoy what they’re doing now whether it’s performing as a sniper (which women do), or doing computer programming. Going door to door clearing hostile areas just doesn’t seem appealing to a lot of women…to me either.

The other area these women mentioned, are the physical requirements. Carrying 70 pounds of equipment for miles then digging bunkers isn’t an equality issue. Men have more muscle mass…that’s just the way it is. If they only had to carry let’s say 30 pounds then maybe it would work for women. If a woman can handle these physical requirements (I’m sure some could), then that’s great and she deserves the combat position.

I don’t mind combat roles being opened up for women like in the various Special Forces but I don’t believe the criteria should be lowered for them to qualify. This would only serve to water down our military strength. Most women wouldn’t pass the physical requirements of some of these units like the Delta Force or Navy Seals but the fact is most men wouldn’t either. It serves to weed out the weak regardless of gender.

I’ll wrap it up. “Don’t ask don’t tell” is a ridiculous slogan. The military would be idiots to not consider every viable candidate who meets physical and mental requirements. There has always been homosexuals serving honorably in the armed forces; no Obama slogan is necessary in an effort to try and create a civil rights legacy…it’s a fabrication. And quite simply, women in combat roles aren’t an issue as long as they qualify. Men and women are different in a variety of ways and one is physical strength; it’s the way God made us we can’t run from it. My two cents worth.

A Little Trivia

4/4/2016

What advanced technology company came up with the idea of a Black Box for the airline industry? Get ready for it...it was the maker of Cheerios and Wheaties. General Mills invented the device back in 1953. Also, in 1962 the Navy contracted with them to design and build one of the first deep sea diving small submarines for exploration. Who would've thought?
We might think the term "bug" in technology was coined in our age but Thomas Edison used it to describe problems he encountered with his inventions back in 1878.
You ever wonder how people who are blind (at least some of them), know how much money to give a cashier? The coins are easy to figure out as they're different sizes but what about dollar bills? How could a blind person know whether they're handing over a $1 or a $20? They fold the different bills in different ways. Meaning when they get the money from the bank the teller stacks the money by denomination then the blind person strategically folds the bills in different directions so he or she knows which ones to take out of their wallet. For example they might fold a $1 bill in half while they might fold a $20 vertically. For inquiring minds.

Economic Truth (Four Minutes of Critical Reading)

4/2/2016

Our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is around $18T dollars. GDP is basically the output in revenues from all of the products and services U.S. citizens generate. Countries who invest in the U.S. pay very close attention to this as it’s the best indicator as to whether or not we’re growing our economy. The fact is if we’re not growing we’re dying.

Because we purchase so much more product from China than they do from us, there’s a $500B annual shortfall. Think about it, in five years we’d be in the hole $2.5 trillion. Right off of the bat our economy (GDP) shrinks by this amount. By shrink I mean that if the $500B stayed in the U.S. the money would keep going round and round in our own economic cycle. Meaning when I eat at a restaurant, the restaurant uses some of the money to pay their employees, the employees go out and buy clothes, food, gas, etc., and the places they spend their money keep it going on down the line as they pay their employees and their suppliers, etc. The fact is our economy is way better off when we buy services than products because too often we try to buy inexpensive things which often come from places like China and India.

Our money would keep going around taking care of everyone along the way but because we basically give $500 billion dollars to China a bunch of our money leaves the money cycle we’d been tapping into. Sometimes it takes a while before we begin feeling the pinch but it will happen. What’s even worse is that we continue sending money away every year so the pinch we feel today will turn into a punch down the road. We’d better hope we don’t end up getting knocked out!

Our government is $19 trillion in debt (and growing). Foreign investors are owed $6 trillion while the rest of it is owed to the taxpayers (i.e. Social Security Trust Fund, T-Bills, etc.). This means a few things. First of all there really isn’t money in our Social Security Fund even though politicians are saying there is. What they’re doing is crediting money to the fund that is actually borrowed cash. This would be like you or I trying to get a loan and the bank finds out that all of the money we said we have in savings is actually money we had borrowed. Good luck getting the loan and avoiding prison.

Secondly, just like a consumer gets upside down and can barely pay the interests on a loan, our federal government is in the same situation; this is why our debt is growing so quickly. A good place to see how much it is growing is to go to the website: www.UWSA.com. Make sure you take a Prozac before taking a look!

Our government collects around $4.6 trillion dollars in taxes which is 27% of our GDP. As consumers we wouldn’t survive if we owed four times what we made (and growing). Bottom line, we would have to file for bankruptcy which is exactly where the U.S. is headed.

To try and avoid the appearance of being broke and getting everyone scared, the government pumps money into our economy. This is exactly what Obama has done as he’s borrowed more money than all other Presidents combined. So some people might not think things are too bad but they don’t know the truth…but they will inevitably. This is a good parable as to why pumping borrowed money into the economy doesn’t work:

A businessman is traveling and he’s tired so he stops at the next town along his route. It’s a small town and it only has one hotel. He checks into the hotel and gives the manager $100 for a room. When the businessman heads up stairs the hotel manager goes across the street and gives the bakery owner the $100 because he owed her for bagels and muffins that he provided at his hotel. When he leaves, the bakery owner drives to the farmer’s house because she had been borrowing milk and eggs from him. So she gives him the $100 and heads back to her shop. The farmer sneaks off and goes to see a prostitute in town that he owed $100. The prostitute then takes the $100 to the hotel manager because she had been using a room on credit. A couple of minutes later the businessman comes back down stairs and says he wants his money back because the room was disgusting. So the hotel manager apologizes and gives the businessman his $100 back. The businessman then gets in his car and drives away with the cash.

Let’s take a look at what just happened; everyone thinks they’re out of debt yet the money left with the businessman. This is what borrowed money is all about and why what Obama has done in borrowing more money than all Presidents combined is going to tank our economy after he leaves office. The $100 people owed one another needs to come from their economy without outside interference. Meaning the $100 they thought they had is now gone and it will never come back. Their circle of money (their own GDP) shrunk by $100 and it’s no longer in the system to where they could make money off of it. Once again they might not feel it immediately, but they will feel it.

If the money was real and not temporarily borrowed the $100 would have kept going round and round within their community which is what sustains economies. So in the short-term everyone thinks they’re okay but eventually they’ll feel the pinch and not even know where it’s coming from. This is the game our politicians are playing on us. They just worry about the short-term because that’s what affects their jobs. They’re either naïve and should be kicked out of office or they’re unethical and should be kicked out of office. Our politicians are letting future generations suffer. The problem is that it’s reached a point where the future is now.

Another example of how our economy shrinks is when we outsource work. We often hire Hispanic labor because it’s less expensive and its hard work that many people don’t want to do anymore. The problem with this scenario is that a lot of the money we pay these workers leaves our economy for places like Mexico and never comes back. It’s the same problem that I mentioned above because even though everyone feels like it’s a good deal it will eventually destroy us.

I apologize if it seems like I’m beating a dead horse but a clear understanding of how our economy deteriorates and leads towards bankruptcy is too important a topic to not drill home. Consider the great Roman Empire. They had it all at least until the citizens of Rome began getting comfortable in their upgraded lifestyles. Much like we are today, the
work they were doing had evolved to a point where very few of them were willing to do the tough jobs. So they went outside of Rome to entice workers to come in and work for them. These workers had to live outside of the city because it was too expensive to live in Rome; plus Rome was over-crowded anyway.

These people were glad to get the work as their living standards were much worse than the citizens of Rome. So here we go again. These new workers were taking the money they made back to their communities and most of it never made it back to the city’s economy. Every dollar that seeped out eventually caught up to all of the Roman citizens and they never knew what hit them. Bottom line…the great Roman Empire fell. It wasn’t the only reason for their demise but it was a contributing factor.

Keep in mind one very crucial point that I haven’t mentioned yet regarding these cause and effect scenarios and that is even though the outsourced workers benefited from the arrangement on a short-term basis the money eventually dried up as Roman citizens couldn’t afford the outsourced labor so even the communities outside of Rome fell.

Our economy is in big trouble but our government knows that most Americans don’t understand gross domestic product, how our economy works, how much our trade deficit is, how we don’t have money in our social security fund, etc. As a matter of fact they think we’re so stupid that we couldn’t eventually figure out there’s no way we can save our economy without radical changes because it’s declining at too fast of a rate (i.e. size of our government, interest rates on debt, trade deficits, etc.).

Another real problem we have but unfortunately no easy solution to is the wage disparity that exists between how much an average American makes compared to salaries in other countries. It’s the reason people buy goods from places like China and Taiwan because the labor factor allows them to offer much lower prices than we can. One solution to this is to reduce our salaries to where the price of our goods and services would become more competitive. I’d better move on to another possible solution as I don’t see this idea catching on!

We could tack on large import fees on foreign goods but this isn’t good for trade relations and they could end up doing the same to us which negates what we’d be trying to accomplish. So although Unions bring this up a lot, I personally think it would hurt us in the long run by not gaining anything in increased trade, just jacked-up prices going both directions and bad feelings all around.

Another idea that might be more realistic (and that you and I have control over), is to change our buying habits. If we buy goods and services from American companies we’ll get money back into our economy. I realize we would be paying more for products so we couldn’t buy as many things but the result from this isn’t as bad as the alternative. I don’t know about you but I have too much stuff. I look around at what I have and know that at one point I was glad I bought it but now I hardly notice the items anymore; this reminds me that everything loses its luster. We need to focus on the fact there is a difference between wants and needs.

I also think we need to do our best to purchase from our own communities even if it means we pay more. Even though places like Costco and Wal-Mart provide jobs at their stores, in the end the profits go back to their headquarters. Plus, especially in Wal-Mart’s case, billions of dollars make their way to China as that is where they source most of their goods. If we purchased from local businesses we’d increase our local economy which is the best way to secure our livelihood and the livelihoods of those in our communities.

Let me wrap up with this, unless we do something drastic, we will be bankrupt within seven years sooner if China decides we are no longer worth investing in. Fortunately we have a little leverage with them right now because we are their best trade partner.

My recommendation for you is to figure out how to prepare your family to survive a depression because it's coming unless we purse radical reforms very soon. We can’t count on the Federal Government to do the right things so It’s up to us to do everything we have control over, to help our economy and the lives of those who are our family and friends.

Is an Economic Depression All That Bad

4/2/2016

Sounds like a crazy question but let’s take a look at what a depression would mean to our country. A depression can be viewed best as a sustained recession. The demand for goods and services declines mostly due to fear as people start saving their money instead of spending it like they usually do.

Essential products are still purchased like groceries; as a matter of fact grocery stores’ sales would go up because people would start eating out less. The value of goods drops (i.e. cars, food, homes, stocks, etc.) because retailers have to do something to turn inventory. But the bottom line is that money gets tight so non-essential products take a big hit which leads to downsizing of some companies which in turn hurts our economy even more.

This certainly doesn’t sound good but let’s look at the flip side to this scenario. Because we are now dealing with a global economy the prices of our goods and services directly competes with the rest of the world. As we all know countries like China, India, and Taiwan, are by far outperforming us directly due to their much lower prices for their goods. The fact is, when the value of our dollar is depressed the cost of producing our products goes down.

What this means is that a company who sells a million units of a particular product for $1 and makes $.20 cents a unit would make $200,000 off of the product. Now let’s say they take a 10% hit because they have to sell their product for $.90 cents and now are making $.10 cents off of each unit sold. The lower price could make them more competitive in the marketplace so they would sell more volume and hopefully make at least as much profit overall as they made before. This isn’t a guarantee but most manufactures will tell you that price reductions increase sales and the key is to keep product moving.

Americans would have less money because the value of our dollar drops in a depression but keep in mind prices on some goods and services go down as well so there’s a chance that in the scheme of things it could become a wash. Now if an individual was doing business with another country (or even travelling to another country) he or she would take a hit because our dollar would be worth less than their dollar. A U.S. investor who invests $5MM dollars in another country might have their investment devalued to $4.5MM meaning it might not be a good investment just because of the dollar exchange. The bottom line is that a depressed dollar has a good side to it and a bad. I’d certainly be more afraid of a depression if there wasn’t a positive spin to it.

Let’s face it anytime our economy slows down it negatively impacts us in certain ways but we need to keep in mind that for those who have a job they might not lose much ground in buying power; plus people often realize during tough economic times that they can live with less…this isn’t all bad.

Edsel Ford

Don't Ask Don't Tell and Women In Combat

A Little Trivia

Economic Truth (Four Minutes of Critical Reading)

Is an Economic Depression All That Bad

Author: John Mann

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