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  • Aligning Marketing Vision and Management - When marketing messages are not congruent with your management systems you disrespect your customers and your employees (they have to deal with customers that are not provided what they were told to expect).
  • Paying Back Direct Cash from Taxpayers Does not Excuse Bank Misdeeds - Pretending they are not bad guys because after ruining the economy, costing millions of people their jobs and savings, getting many benefits from the government and then paying back the direct cash payments is not something that should be accepted.
  • Government Debt as Percentage of GDP 1990-2008 - USA, Japan, Germany... - The USA debt stood at 64% in 1990, 71% in 1995, 55% in 2000, 61% in 2005 and 70% in 2008. Most countries are expected to see significant increases in 2009. The IMF sees the USA going to 85% in 2009 and 100% in 2012.
  • In the USA 43% Have Less Than $10,000 in Retirement Savings - something in the neighborhood of 15-25 times your desired retirement income is in the ballpark of what most experts recommend. So if you want $50,000 in income you need $750,000 - $1,250,000.
  • Preaching False Ideas to Men Known to be Idiots - "Saying people don't pay taxes when they often pay much higher proportional taxes than the rich is very misleading. Pretending that income taxes are the only taxes is just not true. When people try to say a small percentage of people pay taxes, usually they mean there is a significant portion that don't pay federal income taxes"
  • Buffett Calls on Bank CEOs and Boards to be Held Responsible - The lack of accountability or ethics from those risking the economy so they can take huge payments (and paying off politicians to allow those risks) has hugely damaged the USA and the economic future of the country. The longer we allow such unethical leadership to continue to the more we will suffer.
  • USA State Governments Have $1,000,000,000,000 in Unfunded Retirement Obligations - There was a $1 trillion gap at the end of fiscal year 2008 between the $2.35 trillion states had set aside to pay for employees' retirement benefits and the $3.35 trillion price tag of those promises.
  • USA, China and Japan Lead Manufacturing Output in 2008 - The percentage of manufacturing output by the USA (excluding output from China) was 29.3% in 1990 and 29.6% in 2008.
  • Understanding Psychology: Slogans Are Risky Tools - If the slogan emphasizes what is being practiced every day, it can be a helpful reinforcer. If it conflicts with what is done every day it breeds cynicism and shows disrespect for people. This which is a huge problem. And managers have to know it is very easy for people to see the lack of cloths on the emperor slogan. Dilbert does a great job showing the risks of using slogans.
  • The Trouble with Incentives is That They Work - "Incentives will motivate actions, but those actions often are not what is needed to improve the results of a system."
  • Toyota Stops Lots of Lines - "It is not ok to continue business as usually when problems have not been addressed in the Toyota Production System. Toyota is capable of failing to live up to the principles of lean manufacturing. But they also seem to understand this risk and continue to strive to improve."
  • Electric Wind - William built his own windmill, largely out of materials he found in the junk yard, using hard work, reading, experimenting and learning. It is great what people can do when they try.
  • USA Spends Record $2.3 trillion ($7,681 Per Person) on Health Care in 2008 - "The huge amount being spent continues to grow to an even larger percentage of GDP every year. The damage to the economy of the dysfunctional health care system in the USA is huge."
  • Systemic Health Care Failure: Small Business Coverage - There are many significant problems with the medical care system in the USA. It makes sense that a system that costs over 50% more than other countries and has no better outcomes, from all that extra spending, suffers from many failures. Coverage for small business is one of the many problems we face now.
  • The CEO is Only One Person - CEOs like to think they are royalty and take huge amounts of money from the company's treasury, as a way, they hope, of providing evidence of this false belief. Don't be fooled.