If We're Recovering, Why the Record Use of Food Stamps?

What kind of situation do you have to be in to qualify for SNAP (food stamps)?
The household must have $5,000 or less in countable liquid assets combined with excess vehicle value. This includes cash, checking and savings accounts, stocks, and bonds. It does not include non-liquid assets such as land, minerals, and livestock. Prepaid burial insurance or funeral plans with a cash value exceeding $7,500 must be counted as a liquid asset.


Oh, SNAP, indeed.  I guess the suggestion by one wag that people are taking their food-budget savings and plowing them into tech flyers like AAPL sadly falls into the "there is no Santa" file.


In the Great Depression (soon to be called the Second Greatest Depression), we didn't have SNAP, we had soup lines.  It's so much easier to sweep our trouble under the rug when we can keep it off the street, no?


In other developments, Portugal is going to the PRIVATE MARKET to float bonds, because it really can't practically do it in public any more.  Rumor is China will step up to buy these fine investment-grade vehicles.   Well, when you have Ron Paul categorically promenading the Emperor's Clothes - THE USA IS BROKE AND CAN'T PAY IT'S BILLS - I guess risk diversification to Portugal isn't so crazy.


Just another day in Wonderland.

New Tech Stock Bubble?

Goldman Sachs' $450MM investment in Facebook says that big money would like to see another tech bubble.  With a $50B market valuation, Facebook may have to work for quite awhile to approach any kind of "fair" valuation.  But no matter.  The economics here are simple: GS puts in some chump change today, and in a year or less, flips that investment to the starry-eyed for a double or better, plus cleans up on the fees for the IPO.  And, if it works, the floodgates are open for a number of smaller follow-on deals.  There are a number of promising candidates for "valuation insanity" in the social media and web 2.0 arenas.

Timing of this is fairly urgent.  What other candidate schemes are there that could create this kind of money fountain?  Not too many.  Strong tech stocks like SalesForce.com already are showing signs of being a bit "bubbly" --> http://qr.ae/tIei  so the time to move is NOW.   Watch for more announcements like this soon, and for plenty of hoo-hah about coming "blockbuster IPOs".

Talk about history compression.  Have people already forgotten the last tech bubble and bust?  Not even ten years have passed since all manner of tech story companies were rushed to the public market, enriching the early investors and decimating the portfolios of many enthusiastic IPO buyers.   The NASDAQ stock market has had quite a run since March 2009.  Many may be tempted to think that it's safe to go back in the water.  And the big-money players will be working overtime seducing you.   Just sayin'.

Innovate Not Fade Away

The pace of innovation in technology continues at a hot pace all over the globe.  In contrast, innovation in practices, procedures, policies, laws, governance and statecraft is lagging behind badly in the USA.  Perhaps corollary, we've seen significant "innovation" in lawlessness and bullying by too-big-to-fail entities with complicity by government.

Innovation is another way of saying adaptation.  Our continued life and prosperity depend on it.

A brilliant business mentor offered this powerful observation:

RELATIVE INNOVATION is what matters.  As in evolution, rapid adaptation is a powerful success strategy.  Successful organizations innovate their products and services faster than their competitors.  A good way to measure this is with a "generation chart" that shows how much revenue/income comes from products and services that are a) less than a year old, b) one to two years old, c) two to three years old, and d) more than three years old.  After you make up one for your organization, make up one as best you can estimate for your competitors.  This can be quite powerful!

The root source of relative innovation is the rate at which you innovate your key assumptions, policies, procedures and practices.  If you don't innovate the HOW of your activity at a competitive rate, the WHAT (products, services) will surely suffer.  A good New Years' Resolution:  Take stock of your innovation profile.  Examine the core assumptions you rely on that shape your beliefs and actions.  Review your key practices and policies.  Plan to improve any of them that have been gathering dust.   Do the generation chart exercise and get those products and services moving forward!

Just imagine the power and potential of a large network committed to innovation!

What Recommendations Have You Given and Received Recently?

All of us give recommendations and referrals.  Who/what have you recommended or referred within the last month?  Referral is such an essential, automatic part of being human that we do it almost unconsciously.  I've moved recently, so maybe my referral activity level both  in and out is elevated.  But stopping to think about it, it almost traces my life.  Here are some (I can't remember all) of the referrals I've given and received in just the past month!

places to enjoy live music
off-leash dog park
dim sum
burritos
movies
books
bookstore
auto glass
bakery
dentist
gardening services
moving services
lighting store
land use attorney
land use expediter
architect/designer
historical preservation consultant
home security installer and monitoring service

What about you?  How much of your economic activity is significantly influenced by this automatic referral network we all live in?  I bet it's surprising when you think how much.

New Years' Resolution:  Give and Receive more recommentations and referrals!

Private Property Rights are Expensive in California

The story here  http://allenakin.com/405lincoln.html  will really sadden or anger you if you hold private property rights dear.

California's 1970 landmark legislation affectionately known as CEQA ("see-quah") was a backlash by citizens against brazen land-grabs and redevelopments that completely changed the quality of their surrounding areas.  Growing up in quiet La Jolla, California, I remember the hue and cry, and outrage, when two 'modern' high-rise apartment buildings (widely held to be nothing more than giant, ugly, boxlike concretions) shot up out of the ground in the 1960s, creating permanent skyline change and ruining the expensive views of their neighbors.  OK, if your development is in effect a re-zoning (e.g. low density to high density, residential to commercial, etc.), it's understandable that you may impact the Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness of others, sometimes many others.  Bring on the EIR(s).  Bring on CEQA...

But what about homeowners rights to the "quiet enjoyment" of their property?  Homeowners were supposed to have an automatic exemption from CEQA and the tedious, expensive EIR process for building or rebuilding a single family residence with any attendant outbuildings.  Unless the home is more than 50 years old.... if it is deemed a historic resource, then making changes can become tortuous.   The story linked here is of a Palo Alto couple that bought a house with the upfront understanding from the City that they'd be able to demolish and rebuild it to meet their needs.  What ensued was a change of mind by the City, and three+ years of torture that cost the couple more the $500,000 in legal, architectural, consulting and other fees.  Just recently, the Palo Alto City Council voted 8-1 to override the City's "Historical Preservation" department and permit demolition and rebuilding.

When is too far too far?  Why has common sense disappeared in cases like this?  CEQA is a vague set of guidelines, administered by multiple government groups with different agendas.  Private property rights are being trampled in the name of historic preservation.  I'm not a big fan of California's Proposition politics, but fixing CEQA might just be a worthwhile application.

A Great Article on Social Media and Selling by Joanne Black - please vote for it!

Joanne Black is a fantastic advocate for the power of personal relationships and referral based selling.  She's written a short, right-to-the point article here Joanne Black's Social Media & Sales Article... you'll see her smiling face top row, second from left.  Click on the thumbnail text and click on the yellow stars - worth 5, right? to vote.  Vote 12/13 to have your vote count. Thanks!

Income Distribution Disparity... Despair...ity... Increases

Are de wich wee-wee getting witcher?  Are de poo wee-wee getting poo-uh?

Unh-huh! Uhn-huh! YoU KNoW iT!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMdbS1VU5do

Check this fun-filled YouTube video to visualize the rise of Banana Republicdom in the United States of Mexico   (northern annex)...

You know in your heart and gut this jus' ain't right, and somethin's gonna hafta give.