Where is the US economy headed?

The Okie economic "plan." More corporate welfare. Rape the planet. Unreal!

Not corporate welfare at all of course. My plan simply lessens the robbery of private enterprise by the government so that private enterprise can compete with businesses offshore.

okie, Your solutions are national in nature; what will you do as a businessman to survive this downturn? Be specific such as "type of retail" or "type of service."

You cannnot control what local and national goverments will do; you must apply your management skills to your persoal business in the legal and business environment system now in place.

Quote:

Not corporate welfare at all of course. My plan simply lessens the robbery of private enterprise by the government so that private enterprise can compete with businesses offshore.

Amazing that you could write such a thing, as regulation is pretty much at it's lowest level in decades.

Cycloptichorn

cicerone imposter wrote:

okie, Your solutions are national in nature; what will you do as a businessman to survive this downturn? Be specific such as "type of retail" or "type of service."

You cannot control what local and national governments will do; you must apply your management skills to your personal business in the legal and business environment system now in place.

Trim fat and waste, economize, but only in areas where it does not directly affect my ability to sell my product or service in terms of quality or service. I might have to delay expenditures on longer term expansion of product line or capital improvements. I may need to delay upgrade of equipment that might be more of an internal luxury than a direct effect upon my immediate bottom line. I might have to lay off employees that are working on longer term or peripheral projects that do not affect my core business. I might have to lay off employees that have been marginal, but I will need to make sure my most valuable employees are taken care of. I might also have to step up service and communication with my core business clients to make sure my core business remains sound. Depending on the size of business, but if there is too much overhead in terms of expensive management, I would need to take a good hard look at that. I would cut down on jetsetting around to useless conferences and seminars that have more playing golf than actually learning anything or accomplishing anything.

Raising prices in a time of downturn in an effort to raise revenues could be the kiss of death for my business. In fact lowering prices might enable me to gain customers and sell more product, so this should be looked at. This decision would have to be made after looking at what the competition was doing.

Some of those things would be a start, ci. Of course, the exact situation would have to be analyzed to come up with specific solutions, but these are good ones to look at in general, whether it is retail, wholesale, manufacturing, or service.

okie, You're finally answering the core question, but have you ever been responsible for a) laying off workers, b) trimming fat, and c) how you apply your "marginal employees" rule for termination?

cicerone imposter wrote:

okie, You're finally answering the core question, but have you ever been responsible for a) laying off workers, b) trimming fat, and c) how you apply your "marginal employees" rule for termination?

Yes, but on a very limited basis. I have never managed a large business, but I have small ones, and successfully.

It is my belief also that managing a business is not totally unlike managing a household, a government, whatever. In a household, you constantly make decisions to maximize the product that meets your approval. That product is your standard of living or style of living. If you choose to spend your budget on stuff that does not increase the quality of the product, or standard of living that you desire both short term and long term, you are a lousy manager. I think the world is full of lousy managers.

okie, Wrong conclusion. Some times through no fault of their own, a crisis may hit a family such as death of the breadwinner, costly health care, destruction of their home, or other crisis.

The real success of a manager is the ability to understand the micro and macro economics of their community, state, and country, and prepare for that rainy day while providing security to their employees.

Too often in today's world, CEOs and officers who perform badly are still rewarded with obscene pay packages and golden handshakes. Their pay and bonus package are not based on merit.

If you think you are a successful business manager, what have you done or are going to do in this business climate? What have you done to prepare for this downturn in our economy? When did you start planning for this economic downturn? What percentage of the employees in your company will you be firing? How did you rate your employees performance? If you had mediocre employees, why did you not fire them earlier?

What were your short-term and long-term plans for the company?

cicerone imposter wrote:

okie, Wrong conclusion. Some times through no fault of their own, a crisis may hit a family such as death of the breadwinner, costly health care, destruction of their home, or other crisis.

Sometimes no fault of their own, but the majority of the time it is. There is such a thing as insurance and government programs available for most mis-fortunes. But most people that suffer financial problems got there by personal irresponsible spending and living habits.

okie, You live in a cloistered environment; many middle-class families did the right thing to advance their jobs and careers. It's not a matter of having "insurance" or relying on "government programs." When their salaries do not keep up with the inflation rate, but the cost of energy, food, and college continues to sky-rocket, you can't keep blaiming the middle-class families for "their" failures.

Quote:

The real success of a manager is the ability to understand the micro and macro economics of their community, state, and country, and prepare for that rainy day while providing security to their employees.

Too often in today's world, CEOs and officers who perform badly are still rewarded with obscene pay packages and golden handshakes. Their pay and bonus package are not based on merit.

I agree on the golden handshakes and obcene pay packages, which are a case of irresponsible oversight by boards of directors and managers. But the fact remains that companies that indulge in mismanagement usually go broke eventually, but agreed, we need to look into this area of business as a country. Tax policies could be changed to improve that situation, or possibly other measures.

I believe in conservative management, pay as you go, reasonable expansion, and not over reaching by any business. People and businesses are mostly operating too close to the margins of economic stability, example loan companies and people acquiring loans.

What "we believe" about conservative management has no bearing on the real world. We can only to some limited degree influence what we do at the companies we work for, own, or manage. Some have good management skills and others do not; probably the majority do not. If we are responsible for employees, it behooves us to make the right kind of planning for now and the future, and have enough flexibility to change when the environment changes.

Quote:

If you think you are a successful business manager, what have you done or are going to do in this business climate? What have you done to prepare for this downturn in our economy? When did you start planning for this economic downturn? What percentage of the employees in your company will you be firing? How did you rate your employees performance? If you had mediocre employees, why did you not fire them earlier?

What were your short-term and long-term plans for the company?

I am in a small business, I won't tell you what it is, but it is successful, and our business plan is basically do well what we do best, don't get greedy, provide a first class product at a very competitive price, treat your customers first class, and just keep doing it in any economic climate, and it seems to work. Have enough margin of economic stability that a downturn can be weathered, and it works. I don't have enough employees to contemplate firing, they are all productive and valuable, so that is not my first area to consider economizing.

Bush has done a yeoman's job in destroying our economy and our once good reputation around the world.

I wonder which historian will give Bush good marks? After all, Bush reduced taxes for the wealthy while promising the creation of jobs.