journalistic integrity

Can't sleep tonight due to a bad cough and felt a strong urge (after watching a great Bill Moyers show from Friday) to highlight my favorites in journalism today.  While newspapers are dying a slow death, strong, independent journalism is as strong as ever and will likely grow even stronger in the future due to the public appetite for independence and information, facts and figures that can easily be verified and cross-referenced with an endless supply of data via the Internet.  The following are my favorite journalists in the field today and it's no surprise that they share so much in common:  a strong voice of reason, a healthy dose of skepticism, respect and admiration from their peers, passionate about change and optimistic and hopeful for our country's future.   We need more like them.

1. Charlie Rose
2. Bill Moyers
3. Paul Krugman
4. Tom Friedman

the greatest week of the year!

There are three different events that make this (in my humble opinion) the greatest week of the year:

1. St. Patrick's Day - you don't need to be Irish to enjoy and celebrate one of our best holidays. Really, what's not to like about St. Patty's Day, other than the overly-crowded bars and too many drunk drivers on our roads.   I look forward to celebrating St. Patrick's Day by eating some corned beef hash and drinking an ice cold beer at Clancy's Irish Pub in Wheat Ridge, CO.  If I were still living in St. Paul, I would most likely be celebrating at O'Gara's Bar and Grill.  Irish Drinking Toast: Here's to our wives and girlfriends...may they never meet!   
2. My birthday - I don't selfishly look forward to my birthday every year for the presents, recognition and all, but rather for the simple fact that I get to celebrate another year of living....another year of being so blessed with great health, a wonderful wife, loving pets, a stable and steady career, a fabulous family and super friends.  In this crazy world, I feel more fortunate than ever to observe yet another birthday.  This year = #33.  Cheers!
3. March Madness - combine my favorite sport with three weeks of "win-or-go-home" game after game (tourney style) and the result is the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, more commonly known as March Madness.  With lots of upsets, bracket pools and illegal gambling, everybody loves the tourney and anxiously looks forward to the insane madness that consistently happens year after year.  Two of my favorite teams, Wisconsin and Arizona, were supposedly the last two bubble teams granted an invitation to the Big Dance, and I predict that both will win their 1st round games.  Other than that, I won't make any bold predictions, other than to guarantee that I'll enjoy every minute of the action.  So make sure to fill out your bracket, wager a few bucks and actively take part in the beginning of March Madness.  Go Badgers, Cats & Zags!

Although it's only one week of the year, I'm pretty sure that the other 51 throughout 2009 won't measure up to this week (March 15 - March 21).  Enjoy!  I know I will.  

obama, treasury & where's the bottom?

three things on my mind tonight and no doubt others are having similar thoughts lately:

1. Obama's speech to Congress last night - while officially registered as an Independent, I've actually voted Republican my entire life, at least until last fall when I anxiously and proudly submitted my vote for Barack Husein Obama.  This was primarily due to two main factors: a) the disastrous 8 years of Bush (with a Republican-controlled Congress for 6 of those 8 years) that saw us launch two foreign wars, extend a medicare drug benefit, all while cutting taxes and preaching the values of deregulation, the results of which was our national debt doubling from $5B+ to over $10B and an economic recession that certainly could turn into a depression at any time....and b) BHO leading a fresh and unique campaign of "change" that saw many people (many of whom had never participated in politics before) contribute small amounts of money and devote their time and energy to local campaign canvassing, etc.  While I certainly don't believe BHO is the "messiah" or anywhere near a faultless President, I do see someone who is very calm & steady, thoughtful, deliberate, engaging and inspirational.....and IMHO, this was no more evident than in his speech to Congress last night.  I thought the content and delivery were exceptional, especially for a President who has only been in the White House for just over 30 days.  And from the reviews that poured in today, there are many who strongly agree with me....and their names aren't Hannity & Limbaugh!    
   
2. The Fed/Treasury/et. al Capital Assessment Program details were finally released today, and many were disappointed that the "worst case" downside scenario (10.3% unemployment, GDP down 3.3% in 2009, etc.) wasn't nearly as bad as some forecasters are predicting.  Despite increasing calls for nationalization of the banks, the CAP will open up the Treasury's coffers for additional bank capital investment, in the form of preferred stock with a 9% dividend.  While many banks are certainly being saved from the brink of disaster with the government's help, this is far from the bail-out gift that many think it is.  This country cannot afford to let our biggest banks (yes, many are now "too big to fail") collapse due to the systematic risk that this would cause throughout the entire financial system.  And who wouldn't want to earn a nice 9% dividend on their investments?  
3. So how bad can it get?  Businesses aren't hiring (most, in fact, are laying off employees); household wealth has been absolutely destroyed through home equity erosion and the stock market collapse; consumers aren't spending any money (especially on any discretionary items); consumer and business confidence polls are at multi-decade lows.....and really where we go from here, nobody knows...by any number of measurements (gdp, unemployment, confidence polls), the economy is truly as bad as it's been since the Great Depression (haven't heard that reference in the media lately, have you?) and likely to get much worse.  While I would never attempt to call a "bottom", I do think we'll see a 10%+ unemployment rate by early 2010, along with continued home equity erosion and more losses in the stock market.  To me, the bigger and more important question than "where's the bottom", is are we facing a potential "lost decade" (see Japan in the 90's)?  While scary to think about, more and more economists/prognosticators are starting to believe this is a real, distinct possibility.....so we all need to start thinking how we'll adapt if such a situation were to become reality.   Now is the time to think clearly about what's most important to you and your family and start (or continue) building a life around these core values and interests.   Please read this article (and many others like it by Alexander Green) for some help on the tough questions and for some additional perspective on what really matters in life.  Best of luck and please let me know if I can help.  Carpe Diem!   

Give first and then you shall receive

I received a nice little surprise this morning when a local business association mentioned (without any solicitation on our part) my wife's new business in their weekly e-zine. I sent the author a quick email to thank her for the support and she responded with a "my pleasure, I really like the concept and appreciate that you didn't ask me to do it." She continued by saying that she usually won't promote member businesses, especially those that "bug her week after week" to do so. Her "bug me" comment reminded me of the large number of letters we've received from a local real estate agent, who is a member of another business association that we recently joined. This "professional" got our name and address from said association's new member mailing list and proceeded to overwhelm us with marketing letter after marketing letter, week after week, for about two straight months. It became a running joke in our house whereby my wife would call me excitedly to share details of the "new" letter we had received that day from Mr. RE. Every letter (each of which said basically the same thing) we received only caused us to be more annoyed and frustrated, which I'm pretty sure was the exact opposite reaction that Mr. RE was trying to generate.

In different ways, these two examples are wonderful reminders of the power of the golden rule - treat others the way you would like to be treated! To me, this includes asking for favors, business referrals and/or gifts. At it's most basic level, the ethic of reciprocity requires an investment of time and energy on your part to first get to know someone, their likes/dislikes, their job/business, their hopes/desires, etc. before asking them for help. By failing to really get to know someone before you ask for a referral, you just come across as desperate and greedy. To reinforce the importance of this rule, just remember that slightly uncomfortable feeling you get the next time someone you barely know asks you to recommend his/her business to your friends and neighbors. Ugh.

government accountability & transparency

While this is a good start, it's only a start.  With 40,000+ lobbyists in DC, our entire federal government (and local and state governments, for that matter) should take a cue from http://www.recovery.gov/ and move to make all departments, offices, meetings, bills, etc. completely transparent.  Quite simply, as citizens and taxpayers, we should be able to search, find and analyze any government information (budgets, taxes, politicians' schedules, meetings with which lobbyists and about what, etc, etc, etc) that does not compromise our national security, which is probably 98% of the data available.  Bill Moyers' Journal on Friday (http://bit.ly/tzZv7) had a great interview with Robert Kaiser about this serious problem and what it means for our country.  As citizens, we must continue to reach out to our elected officials and let them know how important this issue is to the future of our country.  We should expect and demand an open, honest, ethical and fully transparent government!   

look who's blogging now

linkedin, google, wikipedia, facebook, yelp, youtube....the evolution of the internet since my graduation from college in 1998 has been nothing short of remarkable....it still is crazy to think that when I entered college in the fall of 1994, we used "dos-like" email that consisted of green letters and numbers on a black screen; this was digital communication at its most basic and simplest level. 15 years later and there really isn't anything one can't do on the internet: movies, travel, music, sports, dating, sex, politics, etc. And although we're getting closer and closer all the time, I believe we've yet to fully capture the true essence of what the internet can deliver in the way of honesty, transparency and equality for all citizens. I intend to use this blog as a means for personal reflection, questioning the status quo, truth seeking, daily insights, etc. One post might be all about business and the banking industry, while the next one reflects on politics and history in America, the next on family, friends and societal expectations, the next on music and movies. Eventually, I will probably settle into a groove with one or two consistent topics, but for now we'll just let things roll and see what happens....