Economic Threats

There are always outside threats which can come from anywhere. Things like Terrorism, and terrorists with all of their terroristic acts and bombing buildings because they want more money for their oil and we cannot pay because we already owe them too many trillions of dollars. So if some of the ideas discussed here, or something similar to them, are not implemented soon, then the only alternative is to be the host country of a war. Maybe we should call it the war on terror, and get everybody scared of terrorists. We can demolish another old building, because it needed to be upgraded anyways and call it an act of war. Sound good? No, here’s the real story:
Alan Greenspan called the financial crisis of 2008 “a once in a century credit tsunami”, and referred to it as something that nobody could see coming (Greenspan, A., 2008). This caused many people who work in macroeconomic fields to take a different look at fiscal and monetary policies. The thing that is most troubling is that nobody claims to have seen this tsunami coming towards them. If you are not familiar with what a tsunami is, then just think of it as a big wall coming towards you, ready to destroy everything in its path and try to tell me you couldn’t see it coming.

Economic Crisis Prevention

People say we need to step up foreign investment, but our economy is such an upside down situation because of irresponsible actions taken by our leaders. Policies that were meant to give good short term returns, did not turn out as well as expected, which made things even worse in the long term. Again, the comment published in the London Times in 1865 (link below), should have been taken as a compliment, and therefore given our citizens more reason to protect it even more. We have never been free from England.
How well fiscal and monetary policies work together, towards making the citizens of the United States live more comfortably is reflected in GDP. Our country is taking steps in the right direction as of 2011. After looking at the GDP charts, you can also see that our government has done a pretty good job in getting us out of the hole, and growing again. However there is still a long way to go.
As they say, “Hindsight is 20/20”, and there are some things that I would have done differently. However the people with the tools, the knowledge to use them efficiently, and the ability to use them effectively were either sleeping on their desks, working towards greedy goals, simply under-qualified for their jobs. If I were to say that I would have done anything differently, I would have taken the advice given in the London Times in 1865, and given the control of my people’s money back to them.

HR Management: Business Leadership

The business leadership discipline focuses on leading the business. They are in charge of things like: innovation; intellectual property, mergers and acquisitions; finances; budgeting; benchmarking; audits; quality control; marketing; insurance; project management; outsourcing; proposals; vender selection, and contracts. This discipline uses data from areas of the company like sales, marketing, IT, and finance in order to come up with strategic plans to lead the company toward its specific goals.

If you were looking for a job in the Business Leadership discipline, then you would likely be working on or very closely with a board of directors. As far as knowledge and experience, to get a job in Marketing takes a minimum of Bachelor degree and several years of experience. In the position of marketing manager for World Wrestling Entertainment some of the responsibilities are to be able to co-brand other products with the WWE. As you can imagine, there are quite a bit of education and responsibilities involved with something like that.

Someone could safely assume that it takes a good education to get a job under any responsibility in the Business Leadership discipline. Certifications are also good to have, but there is a bright outlook for jobs in this discipline. While certifications are good to have, you should keep in mind that many companies have placed people with no human resource management experience as the head of the entire human resources department. Of course, if you already know this stuff, then it will show in your work ethic and you will not necessarily need to be certified.

Managers should be aware of the strategic human resources management discipline of business leadership, because leading the business is part of their job description in some form. You would be climbing the corporate ladder, if you worked in the business leadership discipline.

The object of this series is to explain Strategic Human Resource Management as well as Strategic Human Resource Planning in an easy to follow way. You can become familiar with reading Strategic Human Resources Management Disciplines Overview. If you are a manager or want to be a good manager, then you should be familiar with each of these disciplines: Benefits; Business Leadership; Compensation; Consulting; Diversity; Employee Relations; Ethics & Sustainability; Global HR; Labor Relations; Organizational & Employee Development; Safety & Security; Staffing Management; and Technology. Then everything is put together in the final conclusion, where you are shown how to use Strategic Management Skills in order to put it all together and become a successful manager for any business.

SOPA: Kill the Internet

Two days ago, ten thousand websites protested against the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, known as SOPA, which seeks to control and stop piracy on the Internet. In an unusual fact, some covered their owners, others "hung" messages to declare their opposition to the project and others, like Wikipedia, suspended their services for 24 hours.

The main idea of the act is that, which was exhibited in the United States Congress aims to, among other things, investigate, prosecute and disconnect from the world wide web pages or companies that are accused of uploading content without permission, which is subject to copyright laws within and outside the country.

Many people do recognize the need for legislation in this respect and are aware that there are private individuals and companies who profit from the pirated content they get from the web, while ignoring the issue of legal implications: respect copyright and intellectual property. And, no doubt, deeply hurt the original work of video, musical, and literary products.

We believe that the investigation, prosecution, and trial of suspected cases of piracy and violation of copyright is the responsibility of each individual Government in accordance with the laws of each country, or based on agreements previously signed between various nations.

The digital switch was visibly an issue that goes beyond the voluntary suspension of services on the web. Raised, from our point of view, two questions: What law prevails in Internet issues: freedom of expression or copyright? And where interference begins and ends each government to protect these rights?

Both are civil rights, and as such implied duties, but from there to the U.S. Congress to decide which is the best policy beyond its geographic boundaries, there is still much to discuss and evaluate. Just think of the consequences that this rule could lead to businesses who are legitimately constituted.

Hence the strong opposition of digital empires like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, which would take the brunt of the possible adoption of SOPA, would have to verify the accuracy of its users who share links across the web, or blocked in any country, on behalf of an order issued by the Department of Justice of the United States.

This raises another concern: an initiative such as SOPA does not break with the essence of the spirit of the Internet and its purpose of sharing information? Of course, without infringing intellectual property or gaining compensation for sharing pirated files, the Internet is mainly recognized for that use.

Open debate is valuable and necessary, but as such scenarios require time, reflection, and analysis. This is a soup that still needs to be cooked, and if collective, it will turn out to be much better.

Steve Jobs: Super Marketer

Steve Jobs changed the world with great determination and vision, and his leadership as CEO of Apple was synonymous with great success. In other words, from the beginning, maintaining the functionality and aesthetics as pillars, Apple grew enormously. Not only were refined as the iMac computers and laptops rethought as the Macbook and MacBook Air, but also broke down paradigms and restructured the world and the way we consume information and digital content, thanks to devices like the iPhone, the iPhone and the iPad.

With the launch of the iPod and the presentation of the iTunes music store, Steve Jobs and Apple managed to revolutionize (and reviving) the music industry, which was left unstable from conflicts such as the famous case of Napster. Applying this same idea, and the same formula, Apple managed to move the world of development and software with the introduction of the iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, and the App Store. In other words, the way we know, multi-touch, mobile devices and tablets, is largely thanks to him.

As for her personal life, we all remember that Steve Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and has since died. Originally an immediate death sentence, after a series of medical studies was found to be a very rare type of cancer that could be operated. This surgery was carried out and Steve was "born again". But it was not long before his health condition was characterized as unstable and uncertain. Jobs had to step aside and take medical leave to give his body a break. Closely related to this, in a few months prior, Jobs presented his resignation as CEO of Apple. Tim Cook took his place, at the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors.

The last 48 hours of Steve Jobs’ life seem to have been really chaotic and overwhelming. As many know, the day before his death, a company based in Cupertino announced, among other things, the launch of the iPhone 4S, icloud service, and iOS 5. A day later, his website published the picture of Steve, revealing that the father of Apple is dead. This was an unexpected blow for everyone.

Economics: Positive vs. Normative

The United States tax system is our government’s budget, which is used to fund different programs and pay down on the debts that have been acquired by our country. The main word to be taken from that statement is “budget”. Anybody who has had to set a budget knows that one of the most important pieces of information that is needed is the total amount of money that is being contributed to the budget. There are so many variables and loopholes in the tax system which make coming up with an accurate number nearly impossible, and the main people who are able to take advantage of these things are the rich.

Looking at this situation from a positive economical point of view, one would realize how unfair this system actually is. The highest earning twenty percent of our population holds about 50% of the money, while the lowest earning twenty percent holds about 3% of the money. At the same time, households which earn over one million dollars only pay about 14% of their money in taxes, while the families that make about 13,000 a year pay close to 30% of their money in taxes. The biggest loophole for the rich is with dividends and capital gains, which are taxed at less than half of normal income.

The view of how things should be when it comes to the economy is called normative economics. Normative economics says that the poor should pay less, and the rich should pay more. It is only right to pay your fair share. That is how many households work, and should be how the government works, but our government is run like a business, and a business is designed to give most of the profits to only a select few, while everybody else is stuck pulling the weight of those few. The way the tax system currently operates discriminates against the poor so the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.

In order to make the tax system fairer, each dollar that is in the country should be taxed at the exact same rate. After all, the government has the final word over how businesses can be run, so they are in control of everything. If there was a flat rate tax system at the national level like there is for things like sales tax, property tax, and vehicle registration fees then the system would be more efficient and give our leaders a better idea of the actual health of the economy that they control.

Charging different tax rates based on who is being taxed, and how the money was earned is only one way the government discriminates against the poor. Charging a flat rate tax on every dollar earned is the only fair way to look at this issue. If a business was to charge different prices to different people for something like a gallon of gas, then the owner of that business would surely be brought up on criminal charges. Taking the current tax system into consideration from this point of view, what makes our (elected?) government any different than the type of criminal who charges different rates to their customers? Tax reform will change a lot of things like this, and give our economy a chance to get out of the red, simply because everybody will pay their fair share automatically without being discriminated against.

Presidents get elected based on what they say, not on what they do. This has been proven on hundreds of different situations, and the tax system is a big part of it. Obama said: “If you make more than $1 million a year, you should pay at least the same percentage of your income in taxes as middle class families do. On the other hand, if you make under $250,000 a year – like 98 percent of American families do – your taxes shouldn’t go up. You’re the ones struggling with the rising cost of everything from college tuition to groceries. You’re the ones who deserve a break”. Unfortunately, there have been no actions taken in this direction, nor do there appear to be any plans for actions to be taken. Instead, we get slapped with something like the mandatory health insurance laws, which make the poor even poorer.

PPF Curve: Production Possibility Frontier Basics

Our country makes food and clothing, and is currently operating at maximum efficiency, given the availability of exhaustible (scarce) resources like, land, labor, and technology. The PPF curve shows the economic choices a country can make about production given scarce resources, a given technology. If foreign economies start investing in our country, then we will have to make a choice between making more food or clothing.

We could apply that investment money to purchase more scarce resources in order to become more efficient and produce more, of the certain product. Of course if we make more food, then we cannot make as much clothing, which lasts longer and makes our people happy to look good. That is an example of opportunity cost in this situation.

On a chart, the PPF curve can shift to the left or the right. Scarce resources are what keep the chart from shifting out to the right, which means more production. If the country has investors, it can shift to the right. Of course a shift to the left can be done at any time, because this means the country is not working at its maximum efficiency.

If you have a country that makes 2 things, and wants to produce more of one of those things, then there will be costs. The PPF curve also shows what those costs are, the main one being being able to produce less of the other thing. This is just a simple explanation of the PPF, and how it works. Now you should be a little more familiar with the production possibility frontier (PPF) of an economy.