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We train kids to deal with teachers in a certain way: Find out what they want, and do that, just barely, because there are other things to work on. Figure out how to say back exactly what they want to hear, with the least amount of effort, and you are a 'good student.'
We train employees to deal with bosses in a certain way: Find out what they want, and do that, just barely, because there are other things to do. Figure out how to do exactly what they want, with the least amount of effort, and the last risk of failure and you are a 'good worker.'
The attitude of minimize is a matter of self-preservation. Raise the bar, the thinking goes, and the boss will work you harder and harder. Take initiative and you might fail, leading to a reprimand or termination (think about that word for a second... pretty frightening).
The linchpin, of course, can't abide the attitude of minimize. It leaves no room for real growth and certainly doesn't permit an individual to become irreplaceable.
If your boss is seen as a librarian, she becomes a resource, not a limit. If you view the people you work with as coaches, and your job as a platform, it can transform what you do each day, starting right now. "My boss won't let me," doesn't deserve to be in your vocabulary. Instead, it can become, "I don't want to do that because it's not worth the time/resources." (Or better, it can become, "go!")
The opportunity of our age is to get out of this boss as teacher as taskmaster as limiter mindset. We need more from you than that.
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Ireland Caves in to Trichet; Backs of Irish Taxpayers Will be Broken Posted: 03 Apr 2011 07:29 PM PDT Costs to bail out bondholders of Irish banks has now soared to $142 billion. Worse yet, the new Irish government completely caved in to the EU and ECB and will attempt to balance the entire amount on the backs of taxpayers. Please consider Ireland Bows to Trichet on Bondholders as Bank Rescue Reaches $142 Billion Ireland yielded to the European Central Bank to protect bondholders even as its bailout bill for the region's worst banking crisis moved to as much as 100 billion euros ($142 billion) after stress tests.Backs of Irish Taxpayers Will be Broken What is the point of throwing the bums out in a massive repudiation of government policy if the new bums have the identical policies as those they replace? The Euro reacted positively to this turn of events and also to expected interest rate hikes by Trichet. Those hikes with further exacerbate the problems of Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain. I am sticking to my long-held position "what can't be paid back, won't." The timing is uncertain, and Roubini phrased it well: "Eventually, the back of the government will be broken." I might add, so will the backs of taxpayers. The pertinent question is how long the taxpayers put up with another set of politicians who cave in bankers. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific. |
Posted: 03 Apr 2011 12:57 PM PDT When it comes to budget battles, you haven't seen anything yet. Given the cat fight over $30 billion, less than 1% of the budget, it will be interesting to watch the spectacle of GOP attempts to get agreement over proposed $4 trillion in cuts. Let's pick this story up with a column from yesterday's New York Times: Budget Battle to Be Followed by an Even Bigger Fight Even as the two parties struggled over the weekend to reach a deal on federal spending for the next six months and avert a government shutdown at the end of the week, House Republicans were completing a budget proposal for next year and beyond. It is likely to spur an ideological showdown over the size of government and the role of entitlement programs like Medicaid and Medicare.Obama Not Leading I did no comment on the story yesterday because there are no specific proposals or specific amounts. However, one thing is for sure, and that is Obama is not leading any budget efforts. For more on leadership, please see Global Crisis in Leadership Nearly Everywhere You Look Today we still have no specifics, but we do have an amount. GOP Plans $4 Trillion in Budget Cuts Yahoo! News reports GOP 2012 budget to make $4 trillion-plus in cuts The House Republican chairman who's writing a 2012 budget says the GOP will propose cutting more than $4 trillion over the next decade.$4 Trillion is Not Enough $4 Trillion sounds like a hell of a lot of money. However, spread out over 10 years, the amount is $400 billion per year. The current budget deficit is $1.6 trillion. Thus the GOP proposal only covers one-fourth of what it takes to balance the budget. Moreover, until the budget is balanced the national debt grows as does interest on the national debt. Interest on the National Debt Exceeds $400 Billion Inquiring minds are interested in Interest Expense on the Debt Outstanding as provided by Treasury Direct. For 2010, interest on the national debt was $413.954 billion. Bear in mind interest rates on treasuries are historically very low, and rising. I do not know what Ryan figures into his analysis, but I bet the GOP is way too optimistic. Moreover, given the GOP is only addressing one-fourth the amount needed to balance the budget, the rest must come from increased taxes or increased revenues via growth. Tax Revenue Collection Analysis Making the rather safe assumption that the GOP will not propose $1.2 trillion per year in tax hikes, I am willing to go out on a very sturdy limb that says tax revenues will not rise enough to cover the difference (not even counting the issue of interest on the national debt). Thus, as significant as $4 trillion in cuts sounds, it is nowhere close to what needs to happen to balance the budget. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific. |
Avatar Support Comparison: Facebook, Gmail, OpenID, Yahoo!, AOL, Linked In Posted: 03 Apr 2011 11:46 AM PDT Many people have had trouble getting avatars to display when commenting on this blog. Some may have noticed similar problem on other sites. The issue is not within Echo or (JS-Kit) per se, but rather what information is provided through a widely used login interface called Janrain. Echo uses that interface. From my Web guy .... Hello MishOther than blocking some login IDs for violations of policy (racial or ethnic slurs, repeated disruptions, etc) , the only information I am interested in is a display name and an Avatar. I do not pass out or even capture other data and would not do so unless required by law for some legitimate reason such as personal threats. The goals are to ensure that someone is not masquerading as someone else and to be able to lock out those I do not want in. Some may be concerned to learn what data may be freely made available to third parties, but that issue is one of trust. Don't login to any site you don't trust. I had to go through some hoops to get access to the Janrain interface, proving I really am "Mike Shedlock" with credit card and phone callback procedures. With anonymous commenting or "home grown" login procedures, anyone can (and they have), pretend to be me or you or anyone else. Janrain verifies the identity. Notice that Google does not return a photo or a preferred nickname. I will send this post to the Google team as Gmail (or Blogger) has to be one of the more widely used sign-ins. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific. |
Ron Paul on Legal Tender Laws, Coin Shortages, Interest Rates, Municipal Bonds, the Gold Standard Posted: 03 Apr 2011 12:44 AM PDT Commodity Online News has an interesting article regarding a new bill introduced by Ron Paul to repeal legal tender laws, an investigation of the coin shortage, and Paul's positions on interest rates and a return to the gold standard. Please consider Ron Paul to probe US Mint Coin shortage Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, has one question for the U.S. Mint: why is there a coin shortage? He is aiming to get to the bottom of this during a scheduled April 7 hearing of his U.S. House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy to examine the bullion programs at the U.S. Mint.There is more in the article including a discussion on another run for president. I hope he does run even though he has little chance of winning. His issues are important ones and they merit adoption. The first step, however, is more awareness, and his running for president would do just that. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific. |
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Posted: 02 Apr 2011 07:05 AM PDT Today’s post is a question from Max Capener, who wants to know what’s the best way to handle old sites that you buy?
Ok so that’s a question that has a lot of different aspects, and I’ll try to go over a few of them. First, let’s talk about why you bought the website. Was it the competition? Were you looking to re-purpose/redirect some link equity? Or is it just a good domain name? If it’s the competition, you have few options you can leave it in place and try and secure two spots in the SERP’s. If that’s your plan I’d try and keep as much the same as possible: hosting, design, architecture, whois, etc. I’d only change each piece one at a time and very slowly. Changing a lot of things at once is never a good SEO strategy, even if you aren’t buying a new website. Another option is to target a different segment of the market (higher end or lower end). Again, change as little as possible at a time–and do it slowly. Let’s say you want to re-purpose/redirect the link equity. In that case, you want to do a one to one 301 redirect for each of the URL’s. Try to redirect to individual pages. Don’t send everything to the home page or a single page; it’s important to keep the users’ goals in mind. I wouldn’t let anything 404 if possible, because it just flushes link equity right down the toilet. If it’s a good domain name (better than the one you currently have) you could move all of your content to the newly purchased domain and redirect your old domain. This is a bit tricky: you have to do it all at once and it violates the advice I gave above for changing as little as possible and doing it slowly over time. But you don’t want the search engines to see the same content in two spots any longer than necessary. Sometimes the right answer depends on the situation. I will warn you not to buy domains to re-purpose the link equity if they aren’t related to your website. Buying car websites and then pointing them to your dance websites is a practice Google frowns upon. The further you go, and the more it looks like you are trying to trick Google, the worse the penalty may be. If you buy lots of charity domains and repoint them at your commercial domains, you may find yourself the proud owner of a page rank zero website. Related posts:
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We either ignore your brand or we judge it, usually with too little information. And when we judge it, we judge it based on the actions of the loudest, meanest, most selfish member of your tribe.
When a zealot advocates violence, outsiders see all members of his tribe as advocates of violence.
When a doctor rips off Medicare, all doctors are seen as less trustworthy.
When a fundamentalist advocates destruction of outsiders, all members of that organization are seen as intolerant.
When a soldier commits freelance violence, all citizens of his nation are seen as violent.
When a car rental franchise rips off a customer, all outlets of the franchise suffer.
Seems obvious, no? I wonder, then, why loyal and earnest members of the tribe hesitate to discipline, ostracize or expel the negative outliers.
"You're hurting us, this is wrong, we are expelling you."
What do you stand for?
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Half Moon Bay to Outsource Entire Police Department Posted: 02 Apr 2011 02:18 PM PDT To reduce expenses, the city of Half Moon Bay, California will Outsource its Police Services Today marks the beginning of the end of the Half Moon Bay Police Department.What Took So Long? Half Moon Bay can save $510,000 a year, $42,500 per yer, per officer and the city council did not want to make this decision. Pray tell what was is the city losing by this maneuver? The answer is nothing. All 12 officers will be retained although it appears there will be some additional rotation between officers. More importantly, arrests went up and response times stayed the same for San Carlos when that city outsourced. The article did not say where the savings comes from but it can only come from two places, lower salaries or lower benefits. I suspect much of it is from the latter. It is a waste of taxpayer money to blow up $510,000 just for the "prestige" of cities having their own police force. $510,000 is a lot of money to a town of $13,300. And there is no reason for larger towns to needlessly waste money either. I am still waiting for some large city to do the same thing. Several Cincinnati council member wanted to outsource police work but Cincinnati's mayor, a former police chief, remains beholden to the police union, and not the citizens who elected him. For more on the Cincinnati story please see Cincinnati Threatens to Outsource Entire Police Department Every city in the country ought to be looking to reduce costs. Outsourcing police work to the sheriffs' association appears to be a good way to do it. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Men vs. Women: Digging into the BLS Jobs Data Posted: 02 Apr 2011 12:21 AM PDT Inquiring minds are taking a closer look at Friday's job numbers, specifically household data employment trends of men vs. women. Household Data Numbers in Thousands
The unemployment rate among men 20 years and older dropped only because the male labor force dropped by 31,000. Those employed barely rose by 4,000. Contrast with stats for women 20 years and older below.
The labor pool for women rose by 96,000. The number of employed women rose by 247,000 vs. 4,000 for men. Thus, improvement in Friday's jobs numbers came entirely from women, at least according to the household survey. I will watch this statistic going forward. 93,000 jobs were part-time jobs as shown in the following table. Part Time Status click on chart for sharper image For more on Friday's job numbers, please see BLS Jobs Report: Nonfarm Payroll +216,000, Unemployment Rate 8.8%; Thoughts on the Jobs Report Please note that the headline number +216,000 is from establishment survey (payroll data), while the unemployment rate and demographic breakdowns are from the household survey (phone survey). Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific. |
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