

Business
The Coming Collapse of America
“Get it out of your mind that economic and political collapse can’t happen in this country”
In 1992, I read Bankruptcy 1995: The Coming Collapse of America and How To Stop It, by a captain of industry, Harry E. Figgie, published by Little Brown and Company. Now, 29 years later, as our national debt is soon to reach $30 trillion, we should re-consider many of Figgie’s observations. Here are the notes and excerpts that I extracted from the book:
Bankruptcy Looms
Harry Figgie, here and for all that follows: Within two to four years, the United States, for all practical purposes, will have spent itself into bankruptcy. Interest on the national debt will become the largest item on the federal budget, and the government will have to spend more to make its interest payments than it will collect in taxes.
The federal government’s deficit, will soon be an amount un-repayable or controllable.
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Suppose you earn $50,000 annually, and you are in debt for $450,000. “Are you broke at that point? Technically, no, but you sure have a serious problem, and so do your creditors, since you won’t be able to make your payments.” Soon, the U.S. won’t even be able to afford the annual interest payment on this debt.
Spending cuts that Are Obvious
The Grace Commission report outlined how the government could cut its spending by $424 billion a year between 1984 and 1987, however, the report was ignored.
Most of the recommendations were painfully obvious. One proposal called for closing a western army base that had been built in the 1800s for use as an outpost in the Indian wars. Another base in Virginia was so antiquated it had a moat around it but the state’s junior senator insisted that it “would not be closed on his watch.” It wasn’t.
Year after year, Congress and the Administration present a budget to the American public that shows the deficit being reduced by several million dollars, while the actual deficit at year’s end comes out much higher. Meanwhile, everyone manages or pretends to remain ignorant of our impending physical collapse.
Unable to Meet IMF Standards
Only one important difference separates the U.S. and many Eastern European and South American countries that we think of as being poor or economically distressed. These countries receive aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the U.S., ignoring reality, pretends that it is still rich enough to contribute money to the fund.
Countries receiving IMF aid must conform to spending controls. If the U.S. abided by these rules, it would literally be out of business. We do not qualify for an IMF loan.
When the Federal Reserve begins to buy substantial amounts of the governments debt, large private investors become overly concerned with inflation, interest rates begin to rise, and the process builds on itself. To protect yourself, watch for stories about bankers and economists fretting about the expanding money supply.
Decline in the Standard of Living
Some people believe that the debt hasn’t caused their standard of living to suffer, but there has been an actual fall in real family income, the percentage of Americans who own homes, and other vital indicators.
Moreover, personal bankruptcy is nearly triple what it was in the 1960s and 1970s, the cost of higher education exceeds the means of most families, a higher proportion of families require two parents bringing in income, and the age at which first homes are purchased is rising.
The solution involves unrelenting pressure on Congress. Call, write, visit. Be assertive but courteous. Convey your concerns clearly and forcefully. Demand that your elected leaders and officials be accountable to you.
The End of Modest Measures
The time for modest measures has passed. We are in an emergency situation.
The author admonishes: “Get it out of your mind that economic and political collapse can’t happen in this country, or that we can deal with it once it happens.”
Harry Figgie concludes: We must either take control, or suffer the consequences of losing control entirely.
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Business
Smart Move in a Rough Economy: Help Your Boss to Shine
Stay on top of your job, your department’s goals, and your company’s objectives
Making your boss look good can only reflect favorably on you. Both your boss and his or her supervisors will appreciate this.
The best way to make your boss look good is to handle your work efficiently and thoroughly. If your boss is fair, he or she will give you credit for the work, increasing your chances of promotion.
If your boss is not doing his or her share of the work, leaning on you unfairly without giving you the credit, it’s still likely that you’ll be promoted when your boss is promoted. That person knows you’ve been doing more than your share, and he or she won’t be able to take a new position without your help.
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Becoming a Mentor to Others
Maybe you’re only 27 years old, or perhaps you’ve only been with your present firm for a year and a half. Yet, with your previous experience and achievements, you may already be in a position to serve as a mentor to junior members of your organization. This can be accomplished on an informal, ad hoc basis, and you can literally choose the amount of energy you’re willing to commit. Helping junior members always looks good to those above you, especially at performance review time.
Stay on top of your job, your department’s goals, and your company’s objectives. This three-way strategy includes reviewing your job description, deciding precisely what your department’s goals are, and determining your company’s objectives:
Your Job Description
First, knowing your job description and honoring it, or amending it if necessary, protect you from any misunderstandings. It will also give you an idea of the part you play in the total picture of the organization, an important factor in your work satisfaction and chance of promotion.
Your job description ideally contains all the important activities of your position, the knowledge you need to have or acquire to perform those activities, and some sense of your overall role. If your job description does not adequately detail the information you need to know and the responsibilities you have, now is the time to change it.
Company Goals
Second, learn and understand the goals of your part of the company. By whatever method your organization is broken into groups — department, division, project team — your group has objectives.
Goals are important to guide actions as well as to mark milestones. Knowing your group’s goals will help you to set priorities for your own work and make wise decisions concerning how jobs can best be done.
What is the Mission?
Finally, be aware of your organization’s mission. Any organization, from the smallest business to the multibillion-dollar corporation, has a mission. If you don’t already know it, find out. Your organization’s brochure, annual report, promotional literature, or employee handbook will have the mission spelled out.
The mission will unify and give meaning to all the division or department goals. Although conflicts among divisions will occur because of the nature of different responsibilities, a solid base can be produced when all employees realize the overall mission of the organization.
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Business
Lessons of the 2020s: Unanticipated Events Happen
Unforeseen tasks that arise represent intrusions on our mental and emotional state of being as well as on our time
By now, nearly everyone has mentally marked the first few years of this decade as strange and, for those on the right, entirely upsetting. While we can’t guard against the unknown, or anticipate radical moves emanating from Washington DC, we can seek to do our best with what we have and what we know.
Each day when you compose your to-do list and begin proceeding merrily down it, do you take into account what is likely to occur in the course of a day? No matter how well we organize our lists and how productive we are in handling the products and tasks unexpected obligations, interruptions, and other developments arise that are going to throw us off.
How do you react when you are humming along, and all of a sudden, you get an assignment from out of left field? Perhaps your boss has asked you to jump on something immediately. Maybe a client calls. Maybe something gets returned to you that you thought was complete.
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To Be Flustered No More
If you are like most professionals, you immediately will become flustered. The intrusion on your time and your progress means that you are not going to accomplish all that you set out to before the end of the day. Is there a way to proceed and still feel good about all that you accomplish?
I believe there is, and it involves first making a miniature, supplemental to-do list that accurately encapsulates the new task that you need to handle. Why create this supplemental to-do list? It gives you focus and direction, reduces anxiety, and increases the probability that you will remain buoyant at the time of its completion and be able to turn back to what you were doing before the task was assigned.
If you don’t compose such a list, and simply plow headlong into the unexpected challenge that has come your way, you might not proceed effectively, and you might never get back to the to-do list on which you were working.
Anticipating the Unexpected
Unforeseen tasks that arise represent more than intrusions on our time; they represent intrusions on our mental and emotional state of being. Some people are naturally good at handling unexpected situations. Most of us, however, are not wired like this. Interruptions and intrusions on our workday take us off the path that we wanted to follow, and tend to be at least momentarily upsetting.
So… when executing the items on your to-do list, proceed ‘knowing’ that there will be an interruption of some sort. You don’t know when it is coming or how large it will be, but it will pull you off course. The key question for you is: can you develop the capacity to maintain balance and equanimity in the face of such disruptions?
The good news is that you can, and it all starts with acknowledging that the situation is likely to happen, devising a supplemental checklist to handle the new task, and as deftly as possible, returning to what you were doing.
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