BAIL OUT, RESCUE, GOVERNMENT, and COMMON SENSE
RONALD REAGAN: “Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.”
Bailout Definitions:
PRATT definitions of a bailout: “Tossing water out of a sinking ship without plugging the hole.”
PRATT definition of Government financial bailout: “Tossing my money into the sinking ship with a hole in it.”
WASHINGTON definition: “We allowed your ship to have a hole in it. Now we are keeping your ship from sinking by stuffing money in the leak. This is temporary. Together we can all row to shore while we decide who caused the leak. We think the money stuffing is good for the economy. Please agree with us, after all we are doing this for your own good.”
Football coaches reminded us when we wanted to give up: “No pain, no gain.” We were taught by those coaches that "performance excellence" required "practicing excellence." You can't "bailout" a game when "excellence" matters and no one can hand high performance to you. Bailouts sound mighty good when you can’t quickly assume responsibility for the the travesty of poor performance, and saving "hail Mary's" seldom come to the rescue.
Magic Wands for Fixing Ships?: Congress treats their check book privileges like a magic wand. No market responsibility, just demagoguery in hopes the market "responds." A billion here, a billion there in magic; but please no "responsibility." Wish I could wave financial "fix it wands" over the manuscripts my reviewers give "10's" to, but the market decision-makers (publishers) decide aren't quite worthy of the next 6 figure advance. If I goof in any given area of performance I don't have them to bail me out, nor do I want them to. I am “fixing” my ship in every port of call, before the next storm or dangerous tides. How? By editing my behaviors, and constant production of new value. Downturns are "my turn" to assess, fix, and course correct. This has been my constant focus for five years of writing against the currents. High quality products now appear to be gaining momentum and increased worth to buyers as a result.
Why? Struggle-inspired solutions... Patching the hole isn't the answer. Re-fitting the ship is. Perhaps the Wall Street paper manipulators should take struggle as a learning opportunity to improve future performance. Will the government let them? Ah well...who am I to lecture the financial genius dressed in degrees from Princeton, Yale, Harvard, et al, who created the mess they are eager for me to help clean up? Bet they won't have to "chip in" to save their sinking ship. Watch carefully, as they quietly row safely away from the Titantic...
"God help us all if this bailout fails.” Quote, Warren Buffet Sept. 25th 2008. One of the richest men to have ever lived on the planet owns Berkshire Hathaway, whose 'Class A' shares are valued at $143,000 per share. Yes, you read that right. What does this mean? The guy understands values. He’s smart. He’s patient. He follows the rules of investing. He buys real value and doesn’t invest in overinflated, hyped properties or worthless paper. He just personally “rescued” Goldman Sachs by buying a significant stake for 5 BILLION cash. (Seems the old axiom, “Buy when blood is running in the streets…” holds true. Buffett just made $783,000,000 in one day on that investment plus locked in guarantees on stock purchases for five years at fire-sale rates.)
Marketplace Rescue: "Mr. Buffet, excuse me? ‘God help us?’ You are suggesting we 'bailout' this disaster created by greed merchants? You’ll walk away with sweet deals either way. The market always corrects itself. You know that. Worried your $143,000 per share might take a hit? So, are you worried about us little guys too, or want us little guys to collectively offer 700 BILLION dollars to prop up financial industry big guys so that us little guys don’t feel so much pain?"
“God help 'US'?” I respect the talent of Mr. Buffett; his professional calculated risk taking. But isn't his asking us, the little guy to insure Wall Street through a taxpayer 'bailout" a mitigation for his risk? Sure, it really is about jobs and the loss of them and our income. We get the "big picture." We know it may result in tough times for the average guy...
IDEA and CONGRATULATIONS! What an opportunity. How many times does bargain-basement stock day opportunities come along in a life-time? Why don’t you put some buddies together and purchase Wall Street instead of asking us to? You guys take the risk and reward! It's a world economy. Take control and be men! Imagine what you could control...and the power! There have to be a few more billionaires milling around smelling the blood and with your combined skills, willing to take a risk.
If you lose then pull out your AARP discount card like the rest of us and tighten belts. A little painful to contemplate? You ever play football?
GOD HELP US... God will help us when we learn integrity, grit, values, and honor. I understand real bailouts. I've done it. Left school and my dreams; paid for by the US Army, to stand with struggling parents in their recession-hit business 6 days a week for four years in my prime education years. Learned alot about real economy, the marketplace, and from suffering, Mr. Buffett...
SO... Should I insure your investments for my own good? Congress and President Bush think so.
Real bailouts come from people working shoulder to shoulder with respect for each's value, through tough times, and not capitalizing on their positions of trust hurting the shareholders of a common dream. God help us, indeed, to learn and not ask for dollars from heaven to rain on the results of poor choices, or greed, power-mongering, and mis-management of resources he already gave us!
Financial Value and bureaucrats: “Value” means an increase from a subjective monetary worth to an objective point of view governed by what the market says something I produce is worth. If government sets the value, rescues my dream, the market goes away. It (the marketplace) doesn’t want to pay for a product where price is determined through bureaucrats. (Socialism)
Government “Public Servants” to the rescue: “Hey public servants… thanks for being ‘on time.’ Thanks for seeing the early warning signs of this problem and rescuing us as the ship sinks! All you wizards at “serving the people” are doing just that; “serving” us up on a ‘golden platter’ filled with financial parachutes for those who failed shareholders through fraud, deceit, and incompetence.
Punish Theft: I’m not sure I can improve on those two words. This much is true. Theft of value, real money, and trust of shareholders was a combination of greed, manufacturing bogus values, and incompetence. Will it go unpunished?
Who gets punished: Some of us little people are not stupid. We chose our common everyday lifestyles and who we are, often because we don’t want to live a life of lies, false pretense, and thievery. Seems like the guilty get “life rafts,” freeing them to sail away from the sinking ship with government help to some eternal pina colada party while we the shareholders of our government and national interest find the hole, fix the hole, and sail their ship to port.
These rantings feel really good. I encourage everyone to write to get their anger out, and if you do, share with others. If you've read this far, you and I share something in common; an understanding of what the word "value" really means.
“Thanks Coach Paris, Mears, Cratty, Mieke. ‘No pain no gain…’ You taught us average boys well. We’ll get through this.”
Finally leave it to "the Gipper" to make sense: RONALD REAGAN
“Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.”
MORE COMING SOON... JMP www.jmpratt.com and www.powerthink.com.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
LIPSTICK ON A PIG and LOVING IT
“Lipstick on a Pig,” My Wife, Atom Smashers, and Black Holes
"JUST WORDS"
It is the heat of the battle for the Presidency and Congressional seats…less than 50 days to go and the beautiful Governor from Alaska used the term of “lipstick on a pit bull” as being “…the only difference between a Pit Bull and a Hockey Mom.” That endeared me to her automatically as it did millions of others I presume.
This week Presidential candidate Barack Obama used the words, “like lipstick on a pig,” to describe some differences in points of view with McCain and Palin. Outrage overflowed from the Republican defenders, and yes, it was an obvious poor tactic and choice for Mr. Obama, when the attempt at humor back-fired. But then Mr. Obama has no idea what “lipstick on a pig” really looks like.
ADORABLE WOMEN
I don't care much for either political party... Let me state that up front. But, being introduced to Sarah Palin, I esteem Mr. Palin a lucky guy and both a class-act; maybe because she seems so much like "us," and that I would never have considered McCain a strong candidate until she came along. Both Presidential candidates are too much "same old" stuff. Back to Mrs. Palin... Yes, she has good looks, a great brain, and nice legs, BUT my wife beats her in two of three categories and matches her closely in the other; well unless you consider her considerable capacity for consumption of edibles in a way that would be embarrassing if you didn’t know “the rest of the story.”
PETITE VS. PORKER
I thought I was all alone in my awe of the petite wife of over thirty years, with looks that still turn heads; I mean in awe with regards to her considerable appetite. But her brother Tim took a trip to Lamar Colorado to celebrate the 100th birthday of Grandma Best who, it was assumed wouldn’t be with us much longer. (Still alive and ‘kickin’ today.) I’ll get back to his reaction after I “set up” the story a bit. See…
It's not fair, but Jeanne weighs no more than her high of her teen years and still is regarded as “wonder woman” at 54 years old at the elementary school where she multi-tasks from PE teacher, to self-defense instructor, to teacher aide, and part time custodial helper (when needed.) Jeanne is no ordinary woman. She keeps “going and going and going.” ...
THE ATOM SMASHER
I get accused of winding the Energizer Bunny up every morning. No one in public sees her wind down. The energy just never stops. She has that petite Asian hurry for places; a rapid walk and pace that means, she takes two steps for every one of my strides; I call it a “…nervous atom smashing move where she is everywhere at once and then back at your side as if she never left” sort of thing. Kind of like that Hadron atom smasher-thing that just this week in Geneva, Switzerland conducted its first experiment. It is 17 miles long and under ground trying to see if it can duplicate the effects of the “Big Bang” seconds after it happened.* That’s what living with Jeanne is like. Many scientist opposed to the experiment claimed that the effects could cause “dark matter” or “black holes to appear inside the earth and gradually four years from now could cause the earth to collapse under its intense gravity. That’s also kind of like… Well let’s not go there.
Anyway, back to Jeanne’s capacity for five course meals, mid-meal snacks, and sneaking a bite off other people’s donuts when they aren’t looking.
Tim took his sister on that three day vacation to Colorado and had no idea what he was in for. Jeanne took enough money with her, but it ran out by the time they got into the return trip. From the beginning of the trip and frequent stops at the fast food dollar menus to the buffet tables at the birthday bash for Grandma Best, the after social eating, the next day leftovers, (including all of the left-over B-Day cake)and all consumed between rushing around setting up, taking down, cleaning up and accommodating everyone the way Jeanne is famous and known for, her calorie burn rate was maintained at about 10 for every one of yours or mine. That’s how she gets away with it.
Being the Energizer Bunny creates an insatiable hunger, and does not pack pounds. But the actual snorting up food can only lead an observer to conclude, that the person they are observing is, what I called my wife today at a Sizzlers,’ as I waited for her to finish her ice cream sundae. With extreme determination though she struggled with intense pain from constant brain freeze… Well, you would have had to been there to watch the struggle of spoon meeting mouth but stopped in mid-stream between bowl and lips as she considered on one hand, the pleasure of the hot fudge verses the sure pain of adding more cold ice cream to an already intense stabbing going on in one eyeball. Literally "frozen" in indecision, whether another bite was a wise move, she asked, “What are you starring at?" I answered:
“LIPSTICK ON A PIG!”
Back to her brother Tim. A two hour layover in Denver Airport had Jeanne begging her surprised brother for spare change when she realized that the Swedish Fish staring back at her would not get consumed unless mercy outweighed common sense. He too saw beauty, though a hungry kind. It is the beauty of service to others, a zest for life, and the ability to burn calories at somewhat the speed of light.
Well…Mr. Obama, if you understood the beauty of lipstick on pigs you’d enjoy a picture of Jeanne. (Photo below)
“I’m Jeanne Pratt, and I approve this message.” ...
www.jmpratt.com
*Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile-long doughnut-shaped tunnel that will smash sub-atomic particles together at nearly the speed of light. But a handful of scientists believe that the experiment could create a shower of unstable black holes that could ‘eat’ the planet from within, and they are launching last-ditch efforts to halt it in the courts.
"JUST WORDS"
It is the heat of the battle for the Presidency and Congressional seats…less than 50 days to go and the beautiful Governor from Alaska used the term of “lipstick on a pit bull” as being “…the only difference between a Pit Bull and a Hockey Mom.” That endeared me to her automatically as it did millions of others I presume.
This week Presidential candidate Barack Obama used the words, “like lipstick on a pig,” to describe some differences in points of view with McCain and Palin. Outrage overflowed from the Republican defenders, and yes, it was an obvious poor tactic and choice for Mr. Obama, when the attempt at humor back-fired. But then Mr. Obama has no idea what “lipstick on a pig” really looks like.
ADORABLE WOMEN
I don't care much for either political party... Let me state that up front. But, being introduced to Sarah Palin, I esteem Mr. Palin a lucky guy and both a class-act; maybe because she seems so much like "us," and that I would never have considered McCain a strong candidate until she came along. Both Presidential candidates are too much "same old" stuff. Back to Mrs. Palin... Yes, she has good looks, a great brain, and nice legs, BUT my wife beats her in two of three categories and matches her closely in the other; well unless you consider her considerable capacity for consumption of edibles in a way that would be embarrassing if you didn’t know “the rest of the story.”
PETITE VS. PORKER
I thought I was all alone in my awe of the petite wife of over thirty years, with looks that still turn heads; I mean in awe with regards to her considerable appetite. But her brother Tim took a trip to Lamar Colorado to celebrate the 100th birthday of Grandma Best who, it was assumed wouldn’t be with us much longer. (Still alive and ‘kickin’ today.) I’ll get back to his reaction after I “set up” the story a bit. See…
It's not fair, but Jeanne weighs no more than her high of her teen years and still is regarded as “wonder woman” at 54 years old at the elementary school where she multi-tasks from PE teacher, to self-defense instructor, to teacher aide, and part time custodial helper (when needed.) Jeanne is no ordinary woman. She keeps “going and going and going.” ...
THE ATOM SMASHER
I get accused of winding the Energizer Bunny up every morning. No one in public sees her wind down. The energy just never stops. She has that petite Asian hurry for places; a rapid walk and pace that means, she takes two steps for every one of my strides; I call it a “…nervous atom smashing move where she is everywhere at once and then back at your side as if she never left” sort of thing. Kind of like that Hadron atom smasher-thing that just this week in Geneva, Switzerland conducted its first experiment. It is 17 miles long and under ground trying to see if it can duplicate the effects of the “Big Bang” seconds after it happened.* That’s what living with Jeanne is like. Many scientist opposed to the experiment claimed that the effects could cause “dark matter” or “black holes to appear inside the earth and gradually four years from now could cause the earth to collapse under its intense gravity. That’s also kind of like… Well let’s not go there.
Anyway, back to Jeanne’s capacity for five course meals, mid-meal snacks, and sneaking a bite off other people’s donuts when they aren’t looking.
Tim took his sister on that three day vacation to Colorado and had no idea what he was in for. Jeanne took enough money with her, but it ran out by the time they got into the return trip. From the beginning of the trip and frequent stops at the fast food dollar menus to the buffet tables at the birthday bash for Grandma Best, the after social eating, the next day leftovers, (including all of the left-over B-Day cake)and all consumed between rushing around setting up, taking down, cleaning up and accommodating everyone the way Jeanne is famous and known for, her calorie burn rate was maintained at about 10 for every one of yours or mine. That’s how she gets away with it.
Being the Energizer Bunny creates an insatiable hunger, and does not pack pounds. But the actual snorting up food can only lead an observer to conclude, that the person they are observing is, what I called my wife today at a Sizzlers,’ as I waited for her to finish her ice cream sundae. With extreme determination though she struggled with intense pain from constant brain freeze… Well, you would have had to been there to watch the struggle of spoon meeting mouth but stopped in mid-stream between bowl and lips as she considered on one hand, the pleasure of the hot fudge verses the sure pain of adding more cold ice cream to an already intense stabbing going on in one eyeball. Literally "frozen" in indecision, whether another bite was a wise move, she asked, “What are you starring at?" I answered:
“LIPSTICK ON A PIG!”
Back to her brother Tim. A two hour layover in Denver Airport had Jeanne begging her surprised brother for spare change when she realized that the Swedish Fish staring back at her would not get consumed unless mercy outweighed common sense. He too saw beauty, though a hungry kind. It is the beauty of service to others, a zest for life, and the ability to burn calories at somewhat the speed of light.
Well…Mr. Obama, if you understood the beauty of lipstick on pigs you’d enjoy a picture of Jeanne. (Photo below)
“I’m Jeanne Pratt, and I approve this message.” ...
www.jmpratt.com
*Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile-long doughnut-shaped tunnel that will smash sub-atomic particles together at nearly the speed of light. But a handful of scientists believe that the experiment could create a shower of unstable black holes that could ‘eat’ the planet from within, and they are launching last-ditch efforts to halt it in the courts.
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