POSITIVELY POWERFUL:

Our minds can justify anything
to be  right. People can break up relationships to be right. They can be dead wrong driving on the highway wanting to be right. They will deny themselves the riches they deserve in life, to be right about “how wrong they are.”

“Harriet Beecher Stowe.” Ohio Historical Center Archives Library. Call Number MSS0116 Box 106.

POSITIVELY POWERFUL: When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.

During the holidays “Slumdog Millionaire” was given national distribution, which means that I finally got to see it. I, like many others, endured the lines to get into the multiplex but most people were there to see the new Clint Eastwood film, Gran Torino or the many other Hollywood Christmas releases. Slumdog is a special film and I hope more people get to see it. It certainly has all the 2009 award buzz. There is lots to like about this movie, from the colorful scenes, the use of subtitles and the way the story is told. It is a world, unfamiliar to me, trapped inside a love story that is both entertaining and beautiful. It explores some of the history of this part of the world which has dominated the news recently. Made me curious and thankful for my own blessing. This is a big screen movie so don’t wait until DVD.

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Honda is cutting jobs in Great Britain and Japan because of plunging auto demand, Japan’s second-biggest automaker

That the Detroit manufactures products that are poorly made vs that of their Japanese counterparts.

Nissan Motor Co said Thursday it will recall nearly 430,000 vehicles worldwide, some with faulty braking lamps and others with ill-connected cables that could stall an engine.

That the problems stemmed from Detroit’s fascination with SUV and Pickups. However sales of new cars in the UK fell in November by 36.8% on the previous year, to 100,333 vehicles, the biggest monthly drop in 28 years.Not many SUV and Pickup sold over there.

German new car sales would drop in 2008 to “the weakest level since
reunification” of eastern and western Germany in 1990, the federation said. A total of 233,800 new cars were registered in November, the fourth month running of falling sales.

The truth may be more in line with that it is easy to point fingers once the unexpected happens. The CEO’s from Detroit on the other end of those pointed fingers, all looked like “Deer in Headlights”, they seem not to know what hit them. It was a look I remember seeing on Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling’s face once Enron began to crumble.

For certain there has been a lack of leadership in the auto industry-leaders anticipate the unexpected.

1. Our new leader(s) will need to explain clearly and honestly where we are and what’s next in terms of pain. It always helps if you know before hand if it is going to hurt.
2. “We the people”, need to consider what is really important to us.If we need to rebuild things, lets decide on what is worth while and serves the greater good.
3. We need to get to work and keep our heads up..

What will be the opportunity in 2009-2010?

“Green” focused businesses will not go away and manufacturing that can efficiently serve a local community should also do well, (reduced ecological footprint and local jobs). Infrastructure (bridges etc), new cars, healthy food, health care and services for the aging are just a few areas that will do well.

Every cloud has it’s Silver Lining, but the only way you can see it is to look up.

“The heart of the person before you is a mirror. See there your own form” Shinto

Health care is like air. It’s here, available and denying people access to it seems criminal. Has quality of life become a “redistribution of a wealth” issue?

What is significant about current world financial crisis is that wealth is made up and fragile. Not wanting to sound silly, but lets make up that everyone, and I mean everyone, can expect a reasonable quality of life, which would include but not be limited to:

1. Food and water that is free of poisons
2. Have medical services available-(WHO)
3. Means to contribute to family, community, country and world
4. Free of the fear of others’ ignorance

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander and there were no exceptions to the golden rule.

If we are experiencing a global financial crisis, where is the rest of the world?

Maybe what the G7 should do this weekend is to test their ideas on second life, before having a visible conversation with the rest of the world. (China, India, Russia, South Korea, Mexico & Gulf States)

Jacob Lawerence Migration

As we “Look for the Way Forward”, which is a phrase parroted by politicians and reporters that sounds better said out loud, focus needs to be on job creation in order to dampen the current economic woes. Not just any kind of job, but jobs that offer the opportunity for people to actually own something, like a house, in their life time. It’s estimated that even in this down housing market the median cost for a home in the US is approximately $215,000.

We are not economists but this approximation puts the average salaried employee some 17,000 short in annual gross income. In recent years there has been a net loss in manufacturing jobs, which usually pay better then the standard service sector jobs. So something will need to give, higher paying jobs and/or a lower cost of living, or possibly a mixture of the two.

Homes still too high for ‘average’ family

By Craig Guillot • Bankrate.com

The US government will look for ways to stimulate the economy and one area where it can guarantee that jobs will be created and not outsourced is in rebuilding the country’s infrastructure. If rebuilding the Infrastructure is part of the cure, which regions of the country will benefit most? We are interested in where people will go next. The three or four major migrations that we have had, have all altered the country’s culture some way.

Here is a short survey for  you to take. We would like to know what you think.

<a href=”http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/71889/86her” mce_href=”http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/71889/86her”>Please take my survey</a>

“Something you lost will soon turn up”

Apparently we are in the worst moments of lives, if you are listening to the people attempting to tell us what going on with our economy. There are all kinds of explanations, most contradictory and shaded in innuendo and secrecy . We wonder if they really know what they are talking about. It would help people understand better if they explained that what’s being called “our economy” is no longer ours, it kinda belongs to the rest of the world as well.

“After seven years of nonstop construction, skyrocketing rents and sales prices, and a seemingly endless appetite for luxury housing that transformed gritty and glamorous neighborhoods alike, the credit crisis and the turmoil on Wall Street are bringing New York’s real estate boom to an end.” NY Times by C. Bagli

Based on a recent article in the N.Y. Times, no one is immune. The deal to purchase Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village looked like a no-brain-er at the time, which goes to point out how no ones knows what going to happen. To fund this hopeful growth across the country came via  Sovereign wealth fund our  inflated (dream like) personal wealth.

“You will take a chance in something in the near future”

We don’t have a choice. For once we all agree that we have never been in this situation before. Even with this agreement to purchase 700 billion worth of assets to stave of disaster, we will find ways lay claim to our extremes and will find ourselves bent over a new a different problem some where down the road.

Part of what contributes to this problem is the belief  that there us vs them. There is Wall Street (named after a wall on a street or a prison fence) and Main Street, so generic it can be found anywhere. We divide our selves up into meaningless groups. 

• Liberals vs Conservatives
• Red vs Blue states
• White vs Black
• Young vs Old
• Rich vs Poor
• Democrat vs Republican
• Main Street vs Wall Street
• Legals vs Illegals

These make bitter sound bites but have little or no meaning. If we honestly examine the last 20 year the real division has been about “Work vs No Work”. It’s been “Wall-Main Street” trying to find a ways to survive, manipulating the only product that was available, the imaginable and the invisible. If no one can see it we can make as big as we want.

The first step to better times is to imagine them

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