Archive for 2009
The truth about this crisis – and it isn’t pretty!
The coincidence of events
Today started like most days in that after a breakfast with Jean it was time to switch on the PC and review the news that had come in over night and think about what material might be appropriate for the Blog. But that’s as far as it went for a normal day.
Because a number of items came together in a way that left me reeling. Not because it was necessarily new information but because together they represent the most compelling evidence as to why this economic crisis happened and, more importantly, the terrible likelihood that our leaders aren’t go to fix it and that the future will bring an even worse calamity.
The US personal savings rate.
What, You Think The Savings Rate Can’t Go Higher?
This Post is entirely indebted to others. It is too important a message not to warrant dissemination on this Blog. (But read to the end to see a valuable tutorial from our own Dr.Jarrell.)
So thanks: First to Naked Capitalism for providing the link (Yves does such an amazing job). Then to Business Insider for the actual article, which is the bulk of this Post, as follows. Finally to David Goldman who provides the data behind the chart.
The article starts thus:
This chart should give chills to anyone hoping that Americans will stop saving and start spending again.
Sunflowers in the desert
Stop doing what you are doing and watch Jacqueline Novogratz!
Small things add up to make larger things! This concept of “integration” is seen everywhere that we look.
The subject and content of this presentation are fundamental to the future of the world. And the presenter is showing what can be done.
I found this presentation particularly poignant.
By John Lewis
The Plain Truth about Government Spending
Core differences about how society spends that really need to be understood.
Government spending is fundamentally a different animal than private spending!
Private spending is the essence of the freedom of choice. When you mull over the decision to purchase an item, you are making a very personal decision based on your current income or resources, the prices of the other goods and services you currently purchase or may purchase, and your personal tastes, risk preferences, needs, and wants.
You make so many mental comparisons and tradeoffs when you consider a purchase that they truly cannot be listed. And then you live with the consequences of your choice, for better or worse. If bad, you learn. If good, you enjoy. And the process repeats itself every time you make a buying or investing decision, updated with new personal, private information on the circumstances, choices, and preferences of the individual.
Transformation
These are hard times for millions – transformation is the only practical option.
I’ve been working with most of my clients recently through painful transformation brought about by the recession.
An interesting metaphor really because, since the first wave of uncertainty in the UK banking system triggered panic, I 
have been picking up on that uncertainty.
That uncertainty feels like it’s stalking the globe at the moment; one has been aware of an underlying fear that was difficult to name and source in me. It has been rather like a deep river in that whilst the surface feels slow moving, currents are moving things powerfully below.
Read more of this Post
Hire the attitude, train the skill!
Alex Cheatle
How can we help you?
In a reversal of business models which are all too common, Ten UK sets out to help customers: what a novel idea!!
The following video describes the need to recruit and train staff who understand the real value and expectation behind asking:
What do you want in the context of … ?
Alex Cheatle describes what they do and how they do it.
Read the article on Real Business here.
By John Lewis
Remarkable people: Ann Daniels
Continuing the theme that extraordinary people are just ….. ordinary.
Another explorer …. who began polar exploration a little later than most of them, has a staggering story of “mind over matter”.
Ann Daniels is the only woman to have become a polar guide for groups walking to both the North and the South Poles. The stories on her web site are quite extraordinary and are told in such a disarmingly easy style that one needs to think 
carefully about what she is actually saying when recounting stories of:
- considerable pain and amazing stamina
- huddling for days beneath a tent which could not be pitched
- carbon monoxide poisoning
- winds lifting a person and 200lb sledge bodily from the ground and throwing them against a wall of ice.
Postscript on reasonable men
In praise of thoughtful, articulate people who reason their way through life.
Let me say that I know no more about the person who is Neptunus Lex than anyone else who takes the time to read his Blog. And after I justify the sub-heading of this Post I will give you those links to Mariner Lex.
If you have come into the topic just now, then you may want to read the two Posts on fate.
The first Post was published on October 6th, the second Post the next day. In a sense, these Posts connect with the Carrier series by PBS that you can link to here.
Remarkable people: Mary King
Mary King, another example of quiet achievement.
More on people who add up to something …
Through my young son’s school, we meet some of the other parents, as you might expect. As with any individuals, we are frequently learning of interesting aspects to their life stories. No doubt, there are many more private achievement and challenges which they have overcome; but then there are the public achievements.
Paul Handover
