Electra Blue

A Short Story by Alan Walsh

 

 Black ice brought on by fresh rain and freezing night air made driving conditions dangerous & tiring for the Deputy Sheriff making his mountain rounds; so he decided to stop at his favorite turnout for a rest & smoke. He lit up while gazing down into the valley at the village that was his next stop. The contrast of bright village lights against the dark valley floor, and the towering mountains all around, touched a part of his soul. The air was crisp, dead-still, and rain-sweet in the aftermath of the storm.

Long before his conscious mind kicked in, his subconscious detected a subtle change. Slowly the valley took on a blue hue that crept part-way up the surrounding mountainsides. It had an eerie “electric” quality about it, but there was no sound emitted and no detectable sparking or movement in the valley. It brightened in intensity to the point of being uncomfortable to watch. As he turned away and reached for his shades, the light suddenly blinked out; like someone had thrown a switch. The valley was immediately plunged into cave-black darkness. No blue hue.. no village lights.. no nothin’. Only faint moonlight painted the upper slopes of the surrounding mountains.

The Deputy assumed a power outage, and headed down the mountain to see if they needed assistance. The village was utterly pitch-black. Only his headlights provided illumination. Not a soul in sight. Given the time of night, this didn’t surprise him too much; but then a realization came to him. No light anywhere. Not even candlelight. Most people would be asleep and blissfully unaware, but every burg has it’s night crawlers; and they were nowhere to be seen. Cruising around, he searched out likely places for people to congregate. The local diner, which he knew stayed open for night workers, was dark and silent. The door was unlocked, and there were signs of recent activity, but no one was home. The tiny city hall, the school, the town auditorium.. all deserted. He found an unlocked car and tried the horn & headlights.. nothing. Not a soul to be seen anywhere. He stopped and banged on a couple of doors. He drove around cranking his siren and “Mickey Mouse” lights. No response. Everything looked perfectly in order; except for no light.. no power.. and no people. The hair on his neck & arms stood on end, and a creep settled into his soul.

Things were getting over his pay-grade fast, so he jumped on his radio to call in. No response. The repeater up-mountain apparently wasn’t working. At this point, there was only one thing to do. He headed out to the nearest Forest Service fire lookout station.

Relief at last.. lights and people! No one there knew a thing. A mountain sat between the village and their locale. A couple Rangers tried to call places they knew in the village, and got busy signals. Using their phone to call his headquarters, the Deputy reached a bored desk sergeant who listened to his story and then said “damn transformer probably blew.. would explain the weird blue light. These are tough mountain folk. They’ll be okay. Move on and finish your patrol. We’ll check on ‘em in the morning”.

The next day, a Ranger rolled into the village for an early breakfast.. and soon found himself rushing out to the lookout post with his skin crawling. A phone call later, Sheriffs were rushing up the mountain. They found the town intact and untouched.. with no one home. No bodies.. no indications of a mass exodus.. no nothin’. State and federal officials were called.. searches conducted.. tests done.. no answers.. not a single clue. The village was cordoned off, and everyone sat outside the newly-established “danger zone” scratching their heads in shock and disbelief. Drivers were rerouted by the excuse of a landslide, and the whole matter was hushed up tight.

A private pilot crossing the mountains next spotted an eerie blue light below that suddenly brightened and blinked out. It was broad daylight, so a light of that size & intensity had to be really significant; especially in the largely vacant mountains. A post-landing call was made, and he next found himself locked in an interrogation room at the regional Air Force base. The GPS position of the sighting was determined, and once again authorities descended on an uninhabited mountain village. At this point, the response escalated rapidly

An overall Area Army Commander was assigned, who set up shop at the sizeable regional Sheriff’s headquarters down in the flats overlooking the mountains; with connections to the Air Force, National Guard, Police, and other civic assets of surrounding towns. The entire mountain range was emptied and cordoned off. Every conceivable asset was utilized to observe and search for answers; intelligence satellites repositioned.. electronic assets scanning the skies.. aircraft, military, and police personnel scouring the mountains.

No one observed a thing.. until the night a satellite sensed simultaneous blue lights across three mountain locales. There had been police and military observers in those three villages. No one heard from them, and they were gone along with all the villagers. Their equipment sat where they left it; lifeless.

There was no hiding the events from the press anymore. The Area Commander put out a public call for help from anyone who might have observed anything even remotely useful. Hours & hours were wasted taking calls from nut-cases. Front page headlines screamed for answers. Politicians pressured. Family & friends of the missing congregated and held vigils; when not pressuring the authorities. National media pitched camp and interviewed everyone in sight. Self-proclaimed experts put out “end-of-the-world” warnings. UFO nuts held signs up to the sky inviting “ET” down. A wide array of personnel, equipment, and weapons sat on alert. Nerves were heavily frayed.

Two weeks passed without event, so tensions eased a bit. The alert level was lowered. Assets were slowly pulled off for other needs. Politicians complained about the cost. Searches wound down. Local leaders commiserated about the pressure they were under, and their utter inability to provide any answers whatsoever. Everyone held their breath, praying that the bizarre horror was over.

The Area Commander made his daily update call to the President. “No, Mr. President, I’m sorry but we have no answers. Not a clue. Every conceivable asset has been brought to bear, and we’re no further ahead than we were at the beginning..” As he spoke, the Commander’s aid was pulling on his arm. At first he ignored it, but it was getting rougher and he eventually covered the phone receiver with his hand to deliver a sharp rebuke. His eyes turned to the aid, and he saw the man looking out the window.. white as a ghost. His eyes followed to where the aid was looking.. out the window.. toward the mountains.. and after a momentary pause for recognition, he dropped the phone.

The entire mountain range was bathed in blue light. It was brightening, and expanding rapidly.. spilling over the local foothills.. down into the flatlands.. straight toward them.

Article Has Gone Hot on LinkedIn: “Thoughts on Starting a Business”

 

See the Article here on WordPress

http://walshal.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/thoughts-on-starting-a-business/

Article Goes Hot on LinkedIn: “A Critical Attribute to Look For When Hiring”

See the article on WordPress:

http://walshal.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/a-critical-attribute-to-look-for-when-hiring/

A Critical Attribute to Look For When Hiring

By: Alan Walsh, Owner, Huntington Consultancy

www.huntingtonconsultancy.com

info@huntingtonconsultancy.com

(714) 465-2749

I’ve hired a lot of people in my career. My success rate has improved substantially over time. There’s much to be said for learning and seasoning from experience.

Of course one must evaluate the candidate’s specific skill & talent sets, and background checks will sometimes (not always) reveal useful information, but then we get down to the qualitative factors – those elements of a candidate’s makeup that signal a likely winner.

Much has been written about this, and employers look for many different things. Interviewers ask a variety of questions to draw people out. Tests abound for the same purpose. But over the years, when taking into account all available input, I’ve found that one factor rises to the top as a strong signal of a candidate’s suitability.

For me, a candidate’s CURIOSITY has been a very telling personal attribute which has served me well in separating the “wheat from the stalks”.

I always look for people who are naturally curious. A wonderful set of traits usually comes along as a package deal.

Many humans aren’t very curious. They move through their lives in a rather mechanical manner, doing the things required to survive and not spending a great deal of time observing or assessing the world around them. Their work tends to reflect this posture.

Then, there are the curious. It seems to be built into their DNA. They’re forever looking around and questioning the world they observe. It seems to be so ingrained in them that they’re not even aware of their differentiation from the rest of humanity. It’s not that they’re cynical and forever challenging the world. On the contrary, they tend to be very positive and eager to learn.

• The curious are alert, attentive, and observant.
• They think for themselves, and accept little at face value.
• They’re self-confident and independent; which is not to say that they’re poor social fits. That has nothing to do with it.
• Because of their eagerness to learn, they’re usually brighter and more knowledgeable than their less curious peers.
• Their work reflects a tendency to select the paths and methodologies that make the most sense and produce the best results.
• They tend to communicate along clear, rational lines.
• They find weaknesses and fix them.
• They identify opportunities others can’t see.
• They usually require less motivation or direction than their peers.
• They want to expand their minds and grow.
• They tend to be fun and interesting to be around.

There are exceptions to any situation, and certainly not all curious people possess this entire kit-bag of personal attributes; but the trend has been so strong in my hiring experience that it stands out as my most reliable single qualitative measure.

Of course, I’m not referring to those who are forever annoyingly asking “Why”, like a two-year old. Those people just have maturity issues and should be avoided.

When I think of the quintessential curious person, I think of Michelangelo. He was raised in the home of a minor bureaucrat of no particular note, and he spent most of his life living on the financial & political edge at the fickle mercies of the Church, and yet his curiosity led him in directions that culminated in his being recognized along with Leonardo Da Vinci as a consummate Renaissance man; with accomplishments that span the ages.

We can’t all rise to the level of Michelangelo, but I’ve observed that the curious tend to have the same “fire in their bellies” that drove him. They tend to surprise pleasantly.

The curious don’t fit in everywhere. Many entrenched bureaucrats want “drones”, and consider the curious to be annoying or threatening. I’m not one of those managers. Of course, the curious find such bureaucracies choking, and usually don’t stay for very long.

If you’re a hiring manager who shares my vision of what constitutes a valuable employee, I highly recommend that you include a “curiosity assessment” in your portfolio of interviewing tools. You won’t be sorry.

Thoughts on Starting a Business

Prepared by:  Alan Walsh, Owner, Huntington Consultancy

(714) 465-2749

http://www.huntingtonconsultancy.com

info@huntingtonconsultancy.com

There’s great interest these days in becoming an independent entrepreneur.  I get a lot of questions from people seeking advice or help. I’ve written on this topic before, but once in a while I like to update my thoughts and suggestions. Here are some I hope you’ll find useful and pertinent.

PLANNING:

Before you spend a penny:

• Slow Down
• Think
• Research

Unless you have the “hot new widget” that the world can’t live without for another second, you’ll have to work at building a business. No problem. Good businesses have been built on such mundane activities as plumbing or retail.  But you don’t want to go in half-cocked to any new venture.

There has to be a need.

An old saying goes: “Find a need and fill it”. In plain English, you must have demand for your products or services to be successful. Sometimes you can “create” that demand with clever marketing, but in most cases you must seek it out the old-fashioned way; and the clever marketing usually has a short shelf-life.

You won’t be operating in a vacuum.

In addition, you’ll probably have competitors for that demand; some of which have been in business a long time and who have honed their competitive skills. They may have skill and experience taking on and defeating other competitors. You don’t want to be their next victim.

Understand the environment you’re walking into.

Don’t go into a new venture without having some comprehension of the demand, your competitors, and what your strategy will be to win the market share you want. There’s a lot of info out there for the taking if you take the time to seek it out. For instance, the federal government tracks a great deal of data on products, industries, regions, demographics, prices, and other pertinent info. It’s free to the public. Go get it. A little internet surfing can uncover other useful data. All it takes is time. Much better to invest time doing things correctly up front than spending it, plus your money, trying to fix a mess later.

Learn before committing.

Understand your demand, your competitors, your operating regions, and any other data that will play significantly into your success or failure. In other words, grasp the business environment around you before jumping into it.

Let the research guide your thinking.

Something else to think about is how well suited you are to the enterprise you’re considering. You don’t want to be doing something you hate; especially if it takes a while for the business to get fired up. You’ll become your own worst enemy. Pick something you love, or can at least tolerate. The experience will be more meaningful. Don’t you want to have fun with your new business? No matter what you choose, there will be tasks you don’t like. For instance, there will be back office administration to be done. You may hate that kind of work. It has to be done, and done correctly. Who will do it? Consider this before committing. Don’t deliver nasty surprises to yourself for lack of foresight.

Don’t create a partnership you’ll regret later, or experience pain getting out of.

If you’re thinking about partnering with a friend or family member; think very carefully about it. I highly discourage it. Such partnerships have a nasty habit of going bad for a variety of reasons. If you just have to do it, draw up a partnership agreement that allows for a friendly (or at least minimally non-hostile) breakup without destroying the business. The bad breakup of a business partnership can be worse than divorce; and a lot more expensive. It can turn family against family, and kill friendships.

Draw on your expertise, or buy someone else’s.

What knowledge do you have that’s applicable to your business? Most people pick something they have some expertise in. If you have no particular specialty, you might want to consider a franchise where you will receive basic training. You’ll have to buy in, and you’ll have to surrender some profit & freedom, but you’ll get support and it works for many.

Knowledge is power.

These and many other thoughts should be considered and addressed before you spend a single dime on your new venture; otherwise you’ll probably just be throwing your time and money away. Starting a business is not a game. Treat it seriously out of respect for yourself and your immediate family.

FINANCING:

Now we get down to the part where most people hit a wall:  MONEY!

Most of the people who contact me need investment money for their business ideas. Many think I’m going to wave a magic wand and hand it to them. I always ask them three questions up front:

1. Do you have any money of your own to put in?
2. Do you have a business plan?
3. What will you live on until the business becomes profitable enough to support you?

Really? You want someone else to fund your entire venture? Good Luck with that!

If the answer to question 1. is “No”, you’ll have a hard time getting anyone else to invest. Investors like to see you taking risk right alongside them. Why should they take all the risk? Project yourself into their shoes. Would you give someone money for a venture that they won’t even invest in themselves? It always amazes me how many people don’t grasp this basic fact of human nature.

Your desperation is no motive for an investor to give you their money.

Let’s say you’ve started a venture and already invested all your money.  If you have no positive track record to show yet, it’s as if you’re starting from scratch with no money. In fact, questions will be raised about your failure to-date. Not a great situation in which to be asking for someone else’s money.  Again, put yourself in their shoes. Where’s the investor’s motivation?  They don’t care about how desperate you might be. They only care about protecting their own money; and making more money.

No Business Plan..  No Money.

If the answer to question 2. is “No”, you’ll have virtually no luck raising money; and in this economic climate, even if you have a business plan, it had better be really good. You’ll be competing with a lot of people for a very limited supply of investment money; and only the sharpest, who have done their homework and preparation, will succeed.

You’ve gotta’ eat!

If you have no answer to question 3., don’t even think of starting a business. You’re just dreaming. Most businesses take time to become profitable. Without an outside income source, you’ll just eat up your own business – literally –  and fail.

This stuff is important. Don’t try to half-ass it.

If you’re serious about starting a business, but your expertise in these matters is weak, seek professional help. The huge bone-pile of aborted and failed ventures is filled with people who tried to “muck it through”.

STARTUP:

Okay, so you’ve done your research, carefully thought out your business, written your business plan, raised your money, and lined up your temporary living income – and now you’re ready to actually get your business fired up & running:

• Start small
• Pace yourself

As a new business owner, you’re going to make mistakes. I virtually guarantee it. Do you want them to be small, inexpensive mistakes?.. or large, costly ones? Start small and give yourself a chance to grow with your business. Make your initial decisions & commitments deliberately and with thoughtfulness. If you rush in, you will likely rush to failure.

Operate mean & lean.

Don’t throw a lot of money at the business initially. Start with the absolute minimum investment required. Squeeze every penny and make your investment work as hard as possible for you. Grow the business from it’s own profits. If you build a decent track record, investors will seek you out. By then, you’ll probably be knowledgeable & seasoned enough to expand.

• Don’t buy where you can rent or lease
• Don’t acquire anything you don’t absolutely need
• Conserve cash for unexpected challenges, or new opportunities that arise
• Don’t succumb to frivolous temptations
• Make your money generate money

If you have an outside investor, they’ll be watching carefully to see what you do with their money. If you don’t have an outside investor, act as if you do.

Don’t let your business enslave you.

The next piece of advice is hard to follow when your business is new..  but try to avoid getting involved in something that makes you its slave. You’re going to become stale. You’re going to wear yourself out. Once in a while you need to walk away and let someone take charge for a short time. Besides, if you spend your whole life at the business, what was the point of starting it in the first place? What will your quality of life be like? Do you want to just work your life away and drop dead on the job?

AS THE BUSINESS GROWS:

Assuming you’ve got your business up & running, and have experienced some initial success, you’ll now face a new set of challenges.  You’ll hit new plateaus.  New problems & obstacles will present themselves.  Situations will develop requiring new knowledge & expertise.  This is where a lot of entrepreneurs get into trouble.

Ego is one of the biggest killers of new businesses.

It takes a certain amount of self-confidence, ego, and risk-taking tolerance to start a new business.  This is good.  But no one knows everything. I virtually guarantee you’ll run into challenges you’re not properly armed for. Don’t let your ego get in the way. Seek help. A small investment in professional help now can save you tons of money down the road, or help build profits exponentially. Likewise, keep an open mind to those around you.  Your employees, customers, vendors, and others will impact upon your business. They might offer you “better mousetraps” if you’re receptive enough to see them. In my opinion, ego is the biggest killer of young businesses. People will stick with their stubborn perceptions right up to the day they are forced to close their doors; and then wonder why they failed. Turnaround experts make tons of money by taking control of your business away from you to do what is required; then they hand it back to you to screw up all over again. Don’t get caught up in that self-destructive trap.

The day will come when you must let go and delegate.

Finally, the day will come when your business has grown to the point where you can’t micro-manage it alone anymore. This is another area where entrepreneurs often get into trouble. When you feel yourself getting pulled in too many directions, it’s time to let go and delegate some of it to others. Many just can’t bring themselves to do it. Hire wisely, delegate, let them do their job, and manage by results. If  a hire doesn’t work out, deal with it promptly. Don’t let the problem fester. Those businesses where the owner can’t make this transition usually fail.

Don’t take my word for any of this.  Lots of studies have been done on this topic, and there’s plenty of data out there to support my opinions. This is not “rocket science”, and my perspectives are not unique.

I can go into a lot more, but these are the key thoughts that come to mind. I have a great deal of respect for entrepreneurs, and wish you all well. If I can help, give me a call or send me an email. I’ve built four successful businesses myself, and have helped many others with theirs.

Why the U.S. Government Hates -and Fears- Gold

By Alan Walsh

The U.S. Government hates Gold because it serves as a clear, unambiguous, and constant sign of their fiscal irresponsibility.

U.S. currency used to be issued by the U.S. Government, and was backed by Gold. You could literally trade-in your dollars for Gold. Then, the Federal Reserve system was created, the dollar was disconnected from Gold, and the U.S. government stopped issuing currency. To really “seal the deal”, the government even outlawed individual ownership of Gold for awhile and forced citizens to sell it to them at a fixed price they set; then they raised the “official” price of Gold, devaluing every dollar citizens held by about 40%.

The Federal Reserve (also referred to as the U.S. central banking system, or central bank) is not a government agency; it’s a private bank, owned by other big banks, and run by people from those banks. When the U.S. Government wants additional money to spend, it buys it at face value ($100 for a $100 bill, for instance) from the Federal Reserve; which creates the currency. That’s why your dollars say “Federal Reserve Note” on them. In order to buy the currency, the U.S. government goes into debt  via Treasury Notes & Bills, etc. The government then spends that money.

Why did the U.S. government do this? So politicians could avoid accountability, buy votes, get reelected, increase their power, and transfer the effect of their spending to the future. This is how the federal government got to be the monster it is today. Under the old system, the government could only spend as much as it held in gold-backed dollars. If they wanted to spend more, they had to tax citizens. Citizens don’t like higher taxes, and get upset. Politicians lose jobs. Government was held accountable. The new Federal Reserve system removes this nasty inconvenience by letting the politicians just go buy currency from the Federal Reserve, creating new debt in the process; and government debt is a claim on the productivity of the nation – therefore it is your debt. Government doesn’t produce; it only consumes – your wealth. The income tax was created at the same time as the Federal Reserve system to pay for this debt.

As government buys more dollars from the Federal Reserve (and creates more debt in the process), it increases the number of dollars in circulation; thus creating inflation – plus damaging boom & bust cycles in the economy – plus interest expense on the debt. This is where Gold becomes very annoying to them. Gold, like any other commodity, adjusts in price with inflation and glaringly points it out. As the number of dollars in circulation goes up, the price of Gold rises.  People see their purchasing power in dollars go down, so they trade them for Gold; which holds its purchasing power in times of inflation and serves as alternative money. Government doesn’t want you to notice their little shell game, and they don’t want you to stop using and holding their inflationary dollars, so they hate Gold.

Our government, and other governments who play the same shell game, try to control the price of Gold and hold it artificially down through surreptitious trading activity in league with major financial firms. They try to send you false signals about their inflationary borrow & spend activity by artificially holding the cost of Gold down. If the price of Gold is low, everything must be okay, right? Wrong! Very, very wrong!

We’ve now reached a point where government borrowing and spending is so extreme that they can’t artificially hold Gold down to the price level they would like anymore.  Thus, Gold is trading near $1,700.00 per ounce. Many experts argue that if the government wasn’t surreptitiously intervening in the market to hold the price of Gold down, it would be trading for $3,000 or more.  Regardless, the rise in the price of Gold is a clear and unambiguous signal that government spending is out of control. The effect of this is to undermine peoples’ faith in the dollar and our government.  That makes it hard for government to keep up their shell game. Their borrowing & spending has also created a debt that the income tax can’t begin to cover – plus those nasty and growing interest obligations.

Sober people have also questioned how much of the Gold the government holds it actually owns anymore. They suspect that the government’s secret Gold sales to flood the market and hold the market price of Gold down have been so extensive that very little of the Gold they hold is actually owned by them anymore. Large Gold sales usually don’t involve physical transfer. An electronic record is created to note the new ownership. Therefore the government may be sitting on a large cache of Gold that “we the people” don’t own anymore. Perhaps this is partly why the price of Gold has risen despite government’s best efforts to hold it down. Maybe they’ve run out of Gold to sell. We can’t know for sure, because the government hides this activity behind a thick wall of secrecy. But bits and pieces of info leak out now and then, and they paint a dismal picture. Investigators have even uncovered documents created by central bankers for central bankers on how to execute market intervention between each other to hold the Gold price down.

As the government shell game grows, people start paying attention, and realizing how they’re being hosed by the government’s inflationary, destructive borrow and spend policy. If more Americans understood how our monetary policy works, and what government’s doing to them, they’d be screaming. Government does everything it can to keep us in ignorance.

Faith in the U.S. Dollar has been so severely undermined that other nations, who are not so naive in these matters, are seriously talking about abandoning the dollar as the “world currency”, a beneficial status which the U.S. has enjoyed since the end of World War II. If that happens, investment coming into the U.S. will decline and government will find it increasingly difficult to sell or roll-over their debt; China being our largest current creditor. Then the U.S. will hit a “fiscal cliff” that makes the current one look like a ride in the park.

The U.S. national debt is now over $16 Trillion dollars; over $52,000 per person, and approx. 125% of gross domestic product (gross domestic product being our productivity as a nation – your productivity – the productivity our government taxes you on) – a new record by far. The current government’s policies alone added $8 Trillion to that debt in the last four years. Then there’s the interest on all that debt. Budget projections indicate that the national debt could hit $20 Trillion in the next couple years if we keep going the way we are. Other nations are starting to look at the U.S. like Greece; a bankrupt financial disaster. We’re mortgaging our nation to entities like China, who are not exactly our friends. The current administration’s indebted the nation to a greater extent than any other, but they’re not the only perpetrators. This has been going for decades since the new system was created. It’s not a Democrat or Republican problem – it’s a national tragedy.

Gold at $1,700 an ounce sends this signal clearly – which government fears and hates.

The government wants you to hold their inflationary dollars. The Federal Reserve does too; and bad-mouths Gold. The finance houses who surreptitiously work with the government to control the price of Gold tell you that Gold is an unproductive asset, and you should hold dollars instead; while they quietly buy it for their own accounts. They’re all propagandizing you to keep their shell game going. I remember one time a couple of years ago when one of the major financial houses (JP Morgan I believe) was publicly telling it’s clients to sell Gold, while privately buying it for their own account.

The national tragedy goes even deeper. The Federal Reserve holds secret meetings where it shares inside information with the finance houses who help it; information that they use to make millions and billions on the markets from you unknowing investors. If you think the equity & debt markets are free and open, think again. It’s all manipulated.

Let’s talk about one of the many ways in which your government shafts you with this shell game – Social Security. You are required to make tax payments into Social Security. These payments are made with post-income tax dollars (you’re first income-taxed on the income you pay the social security tax with). The government spends the social security revenues (money) and replaces them in the social security trust fund with government debt instruments; thus, the government spends your social security contributions as it sees fit, and replaces them with new government debt. Of course, government debt is a claim on the productivity of the country – your productivity – and therefore represents a new debt you as citizens take on. This is important to note, because government spends your social security contributions, and creates a new debt owed by you as a citizen (another tax) for payment of benefits to you. Then, when you receive your benefits, up to 85% of them are subject to income tax depending on your filing status and how much income from other sources you have coming in.

To recap, the government first taxes the income you pay social security taxes with (income tax), then taxes you for social security (social security tax), then spends the money and replaces it with new debt (a new claim on your productivity, or tax), and then taxes you on your benefits (income tax). That’s three taxes on the money you put into social security, plus the social security tax itself. Of course, the government must pay interest on the new debt they created (another claim on your productivity, or tax), so really you pay five taxes; and your contributions are spent now for anything the government wants. Most citizens think the government is taking their money and putting it into a social security trust fund (savings account) to pay your benefits. Nope! That money’s gone. They spent it and replaced it with debt – debt that you owe as citizens.

The government says that your benefits money is safe because it’s invested in instruments guaranteed by the U.S. government. What they really mean is that your benefit claims are backed by their ability to tax you; or create new debt that you owe as a citizen; and that’s the only way those benefits are going to be paid. They just keep spending the tax money as it comes in, and pass the buck for social security obligations to future generations. Neat trick huh?

Additionally, “people retiring today are part of the first generation of workers who have paid more in Social Security taxes during their careers than they will receive in benefits after they retire. It’s a historic shift that will only get worse for future retirees, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.”  The government absorbed all the money you put in, plus the employer contributions, and you won’t even get back what you alone put in; let alone all the interest you could have earned on that money over the years. This is what your government has done for you. Isn’t it great? What a deal!

Your wealth, purchasing power, and financial stability are being undermined every day by the government’s borrow & spend shell game, the underhanded dealings of the Federal Reserve and it’s finance house cronies, and very likely the sale of our nation’s Gold reserves (your Gold reserves) to manipulate the markets and fool you. Even your most basic “protections” are being undermined by government subterfuge. Gold serves as a clear warning, and an alternative.

That’s why the U.S. government hates -and fears- Gold.

Be informed.

Learn More About the U.S. Government Monetary Policy:

http://walshal.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/monetary-policy-a-primer/

Other Suggested Reading:

America Has Become a Pinata

http://walshal.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/america-has-become-a-pinata/

Cashflow is King

New article from Alan Walsh: Cashflow is King.

Click to go to article on Slideshare

The Great Paradox of the Digital Age: Finding Wisdom

Ron Rosenbaum, in a recent Smithsonian Magazine article, captured the essence of the topic eloquently.

To paraphrase:

“All the great thinkers of all the civilizations past and present are one or two clicks away. The great library of Alexandria, nexus of all the learning of the ancient world – that burned to the ground – has risen from the ashes online.  And yet - here is the paradox – the wisdom of the ages is in some ways more distant and difficult to find than ever, buried like lost treasure beneath a fathomless ocean of online ignorance and trivia that makes what is worthy and timeless more inaccessible than ever.”

“The historically illiterate, internet intellectuals, and hucksters of the purportedly utopian digital future are decapitating our culture, trading in the ideas of some 3,000 years of civilization for … Buzz Feed.”

Quoting Goethe … “”He who cannot draw on 3,000 years [of learning] is living hand-to-mouth.”

An endless choking mass of “info” spews forth from every digital device; simultaneously presenting unparalleled opportunity and challenge.

Hordes of the mentally hungry prowl the net, seeking instant gratification.

“Instant experts” pop up everywhere.

In all this swirling mass lie the snippets that separate the informed from the deluded.

As has been the case since time immemorial, the hope and opportunity of each individual lies in sorting through the “noise”, seeking the pearls, assessing, and thinking.

As always, this is a challenging but worthy enterprise with the reward of rising above the uninformed mass.

As always, knowledge is built upon knowledge and must be taken in steps.

Of course, one man’s wisdom is another man’s folly; which is where our individual discriminating judgement comes into play. Even the great library of Alexandria probably contained it’s fair share of ancient BuzzFeed.

Don’t let yourself be lulled and mentally dulled by the ever-growing mass of digital noise that increasingly invades our lives. Despite our best efforts to develop artificial progeny, the human mind is still the most powerful tool we possess. Use it as your “Alexandria Librarian”. Don’t “live hand-to-mouth”.

Good Hunting,

Alan Walsh, Owner, Huntington Consultancy

A Primer for the Fledgling Entrepreneur on Selecting the Right Business Venture

If you’re considering starting a business venture, you might want to take a look at this primer on selecting the right business.

 

https://docs.google.com/a/huntingtonconsultancy.com/document/d/1Ux-hRaFsLB8ybIZLG0nqrqs2YDbocROYwzyyBGopWN8/edit

Can You Define Your Business in One.. Two.. or Even Three Sentences?

Can You Define Your Business in One.. Two.. or Even Three Sentences?

By: Alan Walsh

Recently I asked the owner of an affiliated business to provide a one -to- three sentence statement defining his business.  He responded with about five or six paragraphs of information.  The man’s no dummy, and he’s quite competent at what he does, but he serves to illustrate the plight of many business leaders.  How are you going to “sell” your business to the many parties you must interact with (customers, investors, bankers, etc.) if you can’t clearly and succinctly define it in a brief opening statement?  If you can’t come up with such a statement, then clearly your business strategy needs to be revisited. The two go hand -in- hand.

Most of us are guilty of being too verbose in our communications.  Communicating succinctly is a learned skill.  Listeners and readers rapidly lose interest if we can’t get to the point quickly.

If you have doubts about your defining business statement, sit down with what you have and start playing with it to take out needless verbage and roll together like-statements.  Pare it down until you have clearly defined the purpose of your company in no more than three sentences; preferably fewer.

For example:

Let’s take the example of a business that provides software for home, business, and gaming purposes. Their offerings range from low-cost -to- complex, expensive products. Their product listing might be 100 pages long.

The business statement might read:  ”Provider of diverse software for budget home, home-office productivity, major enterprise,  and gaming applications”.

This brief one-sentence statement defines what they sell and what their products are for.  It informs that they offer a variety of software (“diverse software”). It stresses the positive word “budget” while only alluding to the more “expensive” offerings without using the dreaded “e” word.

Can you come up with a similar statement to define your business?