Being Likable and Making Life Easier for Yourself

Hound Notes: Last week I relayed an article about 6 behaviors that push people away. Below are the links to two more articles of advice related to behavior. These articles are intended to help you make positive adjustments to the ruts of bad behavior that we all are vulnerable to.

The first article describes what people do that makes them likable.  This article defines 14 characteristics/habits of likable people. These would be people that we would define as charismatic and if you practice these habits, then you can become more likable.

The second article describes "10 Ways You’re Making Your Life Harder Than It Has To Be". This article centers around how people make life harder on themselves by thinking the world revolves around them. You get in your own way (preventing success) by personalizing everything in your life.  The author describes himself as a social media consultant who through the creation of his website looked to establish himself as a "thought leader." He eventually decided to just start writing what he felt like writing; now characterized as a "Fleeting Thought Leader."

In reading the first article, you will take notice of some bad habits that you might be practicing that can turn people off. You also will have some 'a-ha' moments that will help you put a finger on what some others have done that turns you off and makes you not like them.

Like I said in the previous article, there is an epidemic of bad behavior amongst today's professional workforce. This translates into behavior associated with many of the politicians and other leaders of the current generation. I believe that the mindset of many of our leaders today is having a deleterious effect and is a reason for the bad behavior of the workforce (and the public) in general; It rolls downhill folks.

I am providing the bullet points to both articles.

The first set is what the author Richard Feloni conveys based upon Napoleon Hill's book "Think and Grow Rich"and his essay "Develop A Pleasing Personality," published in his forthcoming collection "The Science of Success." Please, if interested, go read both articles at these gentlemen's sites.


14 Habits Of Exceptionally Likable People - Business Insider - Richard Feloni - May 22, 2014 - Here are Hill's 14 habits of people who are so likable that others go out of their way to help them:
1. They develop a positive mental attitude and let it be seen and felt by others.
2. They always speak in a carefully disciplined, friendly tone.
3. They pay close attention to someone speaking to them.
4. They are able to maintain their composure in all circumstances.
5. They are patient.
6. They keep an open mind.
7. They smile when speaking with others.
8. They know that not all their thoughts need to be expressed.
9. They don't procrastinate.
10. They engage in at least one good deed a day.
11. They find a lesson in failure rather than brood over it.
12. They act as if the person they are speaking to is the most important person in the world.
13. They praise others in a genuine way without being excessive.
14. They have someone they trust point out their flaws.


The second set of bullet points:

10 Roadblocks to Happiness - Tim Hoch - June 18, 2014

1. You ascribe intent. - You assign bad intent to innocuous actions. You take it as a personal affront, a slap in the face. Happy people do not do this. They don’t take things personally. They don’t ascribe intent to the unintentional actions of others.

2. You’re the star of your own movie. - You are the star of your own movie. You wrote the script. You know how you want it to unfold. You even know how you want it to end.                    Unfortunately you forgot to give your script to anyone else.                  Lose your script. Let someone else star once in awhile. Welcome new characters. Embrace plot twists.

3. You fast forward to apocalypse. - I have a bad habit of fast forwarding everything to its worst possible outcome and being pleasantly surprised when the result is marginally better than utter disaster or jail time.                        Negativity only breeds more negativity. It is a happiness riptide. It will carry you away from shore and if you don’t swim away from it, will pull you under.

4. You have unrealistic and/or uncommunicated expectations. - Among their many shortcomings of your family and friends is the harsh reality that they cannot read your mind or anticipate your whims.                   Unmet expectations will be at the root of most of your unhappiness in life. Minimize your expectations, maximize your joy.

5. You are waiting for a sign. -I have a friend who won’t make a decision without receiving a “sign.”                            I’m not disavowing that fate or a higher power plays a role in our lives. I’m just saying that it is better to help shape fate than be governed by it.

6. You don’t take risks. - Two words: Live boldly. Every single time you are offered a choice that involves greater risk, take it. You will lose on many of them but when you add them up at the end of your life you’ll be glad you did.


7. You constantly compare your life to others. - A few years ago I was invited to a nice party at a big warehouse downtown. I was enjoying the smooth jazz, box wine and crustless sandwiches. What more could a guy want? Later in the evening I noticed a steady parade of well-heeled people slide past and disappear into another room. I peeked and saw a large party with beautiful revelers dancing and carrying on like Bacchus. Suddenly my gig wasn’t as fun as it had been all because it didn’t appear to measure up to the party next door- a party I didn’t even know existed until just moments before...                     Always remember what Teddy Roosevelt said: “Comparison is the thief of joy.”

8. You let other people steal from you. -  The one possession you have that is more important than money is time. But you don’t do anything to protect it.  Treat your time like Fort Knox. Guard it closely and give it only to those who deserve and respect it.

9. You can’t/won’t let go. - Sometimes you have to work at happiness. Some hurdles are too difficult to clear by simply adjusting your point of view or adopting a positive mindset.                    Do you need to forgive someone? Do you need to turn your back on a failed relationship? Do you need to come to terms with the death of a loved one?                          Life is full of loss. But, in a sense, real happiness would not be possible without it. It helps us appreciate and savor the things that really matter. It helps us grow. It can help us help others grow.                      Closure is a word for people who have never really suffered. There’s no such thing. Just try to “manage” your loss. Put it in perspective. You will always have some regret and doubt about your loss. You may always second guess yourself. If only you had said this, or tried that.                       You’re not alone. Find someone who understands and talk to that person. Reach out for support. If all else fails, try #10 below.

10. You don’t give back. - One way to deal with loss is to immerse yourself in doing good. Volunteer. Get involved in life.                         It doesn’t even have to be a big, structured thing. Say a kind word. Encourage someone. Pay a visit to someone who is alone. Get away from your self-absorption.                  

When it comes down to it, there are two types of people in this world. There are givers and there are takers. Givers are happy. Takers are miserable. What are you?

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- July 6, 2014

By 2045 'The Top Species Will No Longer Be Humans,' And That Could Be A Problem - Business Insider - Dylan Love - July 5, 2014 - "Today there's no legislation regarding how much intelligence a machine can have, how interconnected it can be. If that continues, look at the exponential trend. We will reach the singularity in the timeframe most experts predict. From that point on you're going to see that the top species will no longer be humans, but machines."                          These are the words of Louis Del Monte, physicist, entrepreneur, and author of "The Artificial Intelligence Revolution." Del Monte spoke to us over the phone about his thoughts surrounding artificial intelligence and the singularity, an indeterminate point in the future when machine intelligence will outmatch not only your own intelligence, but the world's combined human intelligence too.                      The average estimate for when this will happen is 2040, though Del Monte says it might be as late as 2045. Either way, it's a timeframe of within three decades.

17 Facts That Prove That The Quality Of Jobs In America Is Going Down The Drain - The End of The American Dream - Michael Snyder - June 30th, 2014 - Do you wish that you had a better job? If so, you are not alone. In fact, there are millions upon millions of Americans that get up every day and go to a job that they wish that they could afford to quit. Unfortunately, most Americans end up just desperately holding on to the jobs that they have because just about any job is valuable in this economic environment. Over the past decade, the long-term trends that are destroying jobs in America have accelerated. We have seen countless numbers of jobs shipped overseas, we have seen countless numbers of jobs replaced by technology, we have seen countless numbers of jobs taken by immigrants and we have seen countless numbers of jobs lost to the overall decline of the once great U.S. economy. Unfortunately, even though we can all see this happening, our “leaders” have failed to come up with any solutions. And since there are so many of us that are desperate for jobs these days, employers know that they don’t have to pay as much. The balance of supply and demand in the employment marketplace has radically shifted in their favor. So less workers are getting health insurance these days, less workers are getting retirement plans and once you adjust for inflation our paychecks have been getting smaller for years. Needless to say, all of this is absolutely eviscerating the middle class. The following are 17 facts that prove that the quality of jobs in America is going down the drain…

40% of unemployed workers are millennials - New research reveals the growing problem of youth unemployment - Wall Street Journal Market Watch - Quentin Fottrell - July 5, 2014 - The jobs market is improving, according to government data released Thursday, but millennials are still left out in the cold. They’re suffering more than any other age group, new research finds.                          Some 40% of unemployed workers are millennials, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce released to MarketWatch, greater than Generation X (37%) and baby boomers (23%). That equates to 4.6 million unemployed millennials — 2 million long-term — 4.2 million unemployed Xers and 2.5 million jobless baby boomers.

New report: Low wage jobs continue to hold North Carolina families back

Posted by : Rob Schofield Monday, June 9, 2014

- See more at: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2014/06/09/new-report-low-wage-jobs-continue-to-hold-north-carolina-families-back/#sthash.YUB2r5iz.dpuf

Student loan forgiveness may be coming in the future - CNBC - Sharon Epperson - July 6, 2014 - For many members of the class of 2014 who borrowed money to attend college, the clock is ticking on what is likely to be their biggest expense after graduation.                          They'll have to start paying back their federal student loans in November or December—as the six-month grace period that lenders give new grads comes to an end. But depending on their income—or lack of income, if they're still looking for work—some borrowers may be eligible for much lower payments than they'd anticipated...                           The Consumer Financial Protection bureau estimates that one out of four American workers may be eligible for income-driven repayment or loan-forgiveness programs, but many graduates still are not aware of their options.                        The "Pay As You Earn" plan introduced by the Obama Administration caps a federal student loan borrower's payments at 10 percent of their income, and the balance will be forgiven after 20 years of on-time payments.                      Borrowers who opt for careers in the nonprofit or public sector could have loans forgiven in 10 years. However, this payment plan is only available to borrowers whose loans were disbursed on or after Oct. 1, 2007.                           Borrowers with older loans may be eligible for an income-based repayment plan, which caps monthly payments at 15 percent of your income. Payments change as your income changes, but may be forgiven after 25 years. Or they may qualify for income-contingent repayment plans, where payments are calculated each year based on your adjusted gross income, family size and the total amount of your federal loans.


Illegal immigrants already being released to neighborhood near you - Fox News - Watchdog.org - Tori Richards - July 1, 2014 - Tens of thousands of immigrants who illegally crossed the Mexico border into Texas are in the process of being released into communities throughout the nation rather than being indefinitely detained or immediately deported, a congressman told Watchdog.org.                          The releases have already started and the Border Patrol did not disclose how many. At least 60,000 Central Americans have entered the country illegally this year, though some news reports say the figure is as high as 170,000. An effort is under way to place children in foster homes or with relatives already living in the U.S., said Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.                       The adults are being given a “notice to appear,” something like to a traffic ticket that requires they show up for a deportation hearing. Following that notice, they are simply being released. Those who return for the hearing will face a federal immigration judge to determine their fate...

Medical staff warned: Keep your mouths shut about illegal immigrants or face arrest - Fox News - Todd Starnes - July 2, 2014

Foodflation - Since QE3, Breakfast Is Up Over 24% - Zero Hedge - Tyler Durden - July 6,2014 - Having pointed out the 'surges' in the cost of your 4th of July burger at the behest of Greenspan and Bernanke, we thought a reflection on the soaring costs of 'the most important meal of the day' were in order. As the following chart illustrates in words and pictures even a PhD Fed economist or CNBC pretend-economist could understand - food-flation is here from breakfast through dinner (no matter how many iPads we try and eat).


North Carolina returns to CNBC's Top States for Business, claiming No. 5 spot - Charlotte Business Journal - Jen Wilson - June 24, 2014 - Call it a "Carolina Comeback," if you will. CNBC counted down its annual Top States for Business ranking throughout the day Tuesday, and North Carolina has reclaimed its place among the best.                    In fact, the Tar Heel State landed at No. 5 in the 2014 overall ranking, after falling out of the top 10 for the first time ever to rank No. 12 last year.                    "A year later, the state made a charge like one of its Panthers, pushing its way up to No. 5 — scoring a total of 1,569 points out of 2,500," an entry on the countdown post says. "North Carolina posted some powerful numbers, having the fourth-best economy as well as workforce — which is mostly nonunion. Last year, the Old North State's economy was 13th."                             CNBC credits the state's rise in part to "some substantial fiscal policy changes that have been made, such as a reduction in individual income and corporate tax."

New report: Low wage jobs continue to hold North Carolina families back - Progressive Pulse - Rob Schofield  - June 9, 2014 -

One in five North Carolina families earn too little to afford life’s essentials and move up the economic ladder. A North Carolina family of two adults and two children must earn $52,275 annually to afford housing, food, child care, health care, transportation, taxes and other necessities, based on the Budget & Tax Center’s Living Income Standard (LIS) for 2014.
More than a third of two-adult, two-children families in North Carolina earn less than that, and more than three-fourths of families with one adult and two children fall below the standard, which varies by family size.
People in families with incomes below the LIS are more likely to be women (59 percent), working age (56 percent), and have a high school degree or less (63 percent). Moreover, white North Carolinians are less likely to live under the LIS than North Carolinians of color. Nine percent of the total white population lives below the LIS while 23 percent of the total Latino population does and 14 percent of the African-American population does.
- See more at: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2014/06/09/new-report-low-wage-jobs-continue-to-hold-north-carolina-families-back/#sthash.YUB2r5iz.dpuf

 The Chart that Foretells the Future of Humanity - Warren Pollock - June 30, 2014 - A single chart provides insight into the future and it also governs the very basis of all my analysis and thinking. In this presentation I share with you this universal chart, show you what to look for, and what to ignore and discount as something unimportant.





How to Fold A Fitted Sheet - Most of us have, at one time or another, given up frustrated after the terrible ordeal of trying to fold a fitted sheet! LOL! Jill Cooper from http://www.livingonadime.com shows you a step by step method to make this process easier in How to Fold A Fitted Sheet. BTW, If you're offended by the "one of the biggest challenges" joke in the beginning, you obviously need to lighten up... :-)

238th Birthday - Let's take back our country

The Reaffirmation of Independence of the United States of America - July 8, 2010

Economic Relevance - Harry Dent: The Crash Is Coming

Hound Notes: from Alex Jones Radio Show: Like Alex says here; It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. This is from Charles Dickens novel "A Tale of Two Cities".

Look at all of the hypocrisy. We are told that we should be crapping our pants in fear every time we enter an airport to take a flight, "cause dim moo slims gonna gitcha," but it's just fine to have our borders wide open with political clowns smiling and saying come on in. We've got money for the Pet Projects of Politicians, Bureaucrats, and Corporatists; but we demonize the poor and middle class who have been hurt by Ponzi Economics. We're paying billions to take care of people who aren't even citizens of the U.S., but we aren't taking care of our military and veterans.

Politicians and Bureaucrats have a real hard time dealing with real world economics. Look at the world they live in compared to the one they have created for the rest of us. I could live like a multimillionaire off of the salaries and benefits they are receiving. Would they want to trade places? Where is the compassion and empathy for real people?





Get Harry Dent’s Unpublished Chapter, FREE! Chapter 10: The China Disaster Ahead



Hound Notes:
1) Stimulus is like drugs. A quick fix. We have kicked the can down the road.
2) Each subsequent fix brings less of a buzz and a bigger crash/hangover.
3) The Stock Market gains are correlated to the QE stimulus.
4) A Debt Deleveraging is coming. A Debt Detox. Detox like a Drug addict - Crash.
5) All of this phony economics is destroying our liberty.
6) Indentured = Contracted to Debt
7) Citizens didn't create this debt, but the government is signing us on to Service it. (Servitude)
8) Indentured Servitude for whom???
9) Cronyism = Mafia Structure. We're enabling Mafia like structures to thrive in the U.S.
10) Free Markets = Simple Rules and Real penalties for Cheaters.
11) Arbitrary Justice is destroying the fabric of our Republic.
12) At some point you have to deal with the problems. There is going to be a reckoning.
13) Which side of the reckoning are you going to be on?

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- June 29, 2014

The theme of this week's stories is DESTABILIZATION.

Report: Immigrant Job Growth Outstrips Natives – 5.7 Million Jobs Since 2000 - CNSNews - Penny Starr - June 27, 2014 - A new report by the Center for Immigration Studies shows that legal and illegal immigrants had the greatest job growth since 2000, with 5.7 million jobs going to non-native working-age (16-65) people.                             “Although there has been some recovery from the Great Recession, fewer working-age natives held a job in the first quarter of 2014 than in 2000, while the number of immigrants with a job rose 5.7 million above the 2000 level,” CIS announced.
The impetus for the report is S.744, sponsored by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and passed by the Senate.                            If Schumer-Rubio becomes law, according to Congressional Budget Office projections, the number of new legal immigrants allowed into the country will roughly double to 20 million over the next decade, adding to the 40 million immigrants (legal and illegal) already here.                               Rubio and Schumer said the law was needed to prevent “labor shortages” in the U.S.                              “With 58 million working-age natives not working, the Schumer-Rubio bill and similar House measures, which would substantially increase the number of foreign workers allowed in the country, seem entirely disconnected from the realities of the U.S. labor market,” Steven Camarota, co-author of the report and the Center's director of research, said in a statement.                             These statistics are particularly remarkable, the report states, given that native-born Americans account for two-thirds of the growth rate of the working-age population.                             CIS drew three conclusions from the data it studied and analyzed:
• The long-term decline in the employment for natives across age and education levels is a clear indication that there is no general labor shortage, a primary justification for the large increases in immigration (skilled and unskilled) in the Schumer-Rubio bill and similar House proposals.                      • The decline in work among the native-born over the last 14 years of high immigration is consistent with research showing that immigration reduces employment for natives.
• The trends since 2000 challenge the argument that immigration on balance increases job opportunities for natives. Over 17 million immigrants arrived in the country in the last 14 years, a time period in which native employment has deteriorated significantly.                        CIS describes its methodology for the report as follows:
“This analysis is based on the ‘household survey’ collected by the Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The survey, officially known as the Current Population Survey (CPS), is the nation’s primary source of information on the U.S. labor market.
“The CPS survey does not include those in institutions such as prisons. We concentrate in this analysis on the first quarter of each year 2000 to 2014 because comparing the same quarter over time controls for seasonality and the first quarter of 2014 is the most recent quarterly data available. We also emphasize the economic peaks in 2000 and 2007 as important points of comparison.
“We primarily focus on the share of working-age people holding a job, referred to by economists as the employment rate. The employment rate is a straightforward measure of who has a job and who does not. To a lesser extent we examine labor force participation, which is the share of people working or looking for work. Labor force participation and the employment rate are measures of labor force attachment that are less sensitive to the business cycle than the often-cited unemployment rate, which we also report.”


Stone Cold Proof That Government Economic Numbers Are Being Highly Manipulated - The Economic Collapse Blog - Michael Snyder - June 25th, 2014 - How in the world does the government expect us to trust the economic numbers that they give us anymore?  For a long time, many have suspected that they were being manipulated, and as you will see below we now have stone cold proof that this is indeed the case.  But first, let's talk about the revised GDP number for the first quarter of 2014 that was just released.  Initially, they told us that the U.S. economy only shrank by 0.1 percent in Q1.  Then that was revised down to a 1.0 percent contraction, and now we are being informed that the economy actually contracted by a whopping 2.9 percent during the first quarter.  So what are we actually supposed to believe?  Sometimes I almost get the feeling that government bureaucrats are just throwing darts at a dartboard in order to get these numbers.  Of course that is not actually true, but how do we know that we can actually trust the numbers that they give to us?
Over at shadowstats.com, John Williams publishes alternative economic statistics that he believes are much more realistic than the government numbers.  According to his figures, the U.S. economy has actually been continually contracting since 2005.  That would mean that we have been in a recession for the last nine years.                           Could it be possible that he is right and the bureaucrats in Washington D.C. are wrong?                    Before you answer that question, read the rest of this article.
It just might change your thinking a bit.                         Another number that many have accused of being highly manipulated is the inflation rate.                      But we don't have to sit around and wonder if that figure is being manipulated.  The truth is that even those that work inside the Federal Reserve admit that it is being manipulated.                         As Robert Wenzel recently pointed out, Mike Bryan, a vice president and senior economist in the Atlanta Fed's research department, has been very open about the fact that the way inflation is calculated has been changed almost every month at times...


Dr. Paul Craig Roberts -  King World News - June 28, 2014 - Former US Treasury Official, Co-Founder of Reaganomics, Economist & Acclaimed Author - King World News Interview - June 28, 2014 - Listen to the Interview Here

(Brief Summary) - Dr. Roberts gets fully into the fraud of the reported Government Statistics. We are going to have a negative second quarter ( a technical recession). It was not due to cold weather, because that would be offset by energy use -- heating. QE has not revived the economy. The deflator used to deflate Nominal GDP is the Consumer Price Index (CPI) - Inflation. The CPI (Inflation) has been understated for a long time. Reporting higher inflation means a lower GDP number. A reliable measure shows the current GDP is much lower than reported. The debt to GDP number is much higher. The consequences of this revenue means lower tax revenues and larger budget deficits and means the actual debt is rising more than has been reported. "An amazing crisis awaiting to happen.

Mr. King asks about the German Gold situation. The U.S. does not have the gold and Germany has to come to terms with this. Behind the scenes, the U.S. and Federal reserve have made a deal to get the Germans to stop asking for their gold. He goes further into the fraud involving naked shorts and how the Fed has manipulated Gold prices to protect the dollar.

Mr. King asks about Iraq? Problems created by artificial borders by the British and French in the Middle East. The United States has destroyed the secular governments that kept control. The new regimes are redrawing religious (Islamic) boundaries.

Gerald Celente - King World News - June 29, 2014 - Founder & Director, Publisher, the Trends Journal® - Gerald Celente will show you the future. Forecasting trends since 1980, Mr. Celente, Founder & Director of the Trends Research Institute, is author of the highly acclaimed and best selling books, Trend Tracking and Trends 2000 (Warner Books) and publisher of the Trends Journal®. - Listen to the Interview Here

(Brief Summary) - GDP revision downward... it was the worst winter of Celente's life... he does believe it was bad weather to a certain extent, but not to the extent reported. Fed's downgrading the second quarter. Consumer spending is flat. Very weak numbers. Growth at slowest pace in five years. Greatest revision in GDP since 1976. James Bullard of the Fed says expect a rise in interest rates. They are average person of their future with these artificially low interest rates (QE)... Benefitting the people lying about the statistics. Mergers and Acquisitions are at all time highs comparable to 2007, before the crash. We have seen an interest rate recovery.

Chinese Gold missing... Real story is the paper squeeze coming comparable to 1968 and 1971 when Nixon was forced to take us off the dollar. No way to cover the paper gold. When interest rates go up the economy will go down. China - the money flowing out of Hong Kong and into the International markets. There isn't any physical gold to make delivery with. The Central Banks know that the gold isn't there. There are a lot of investors in the market compared to back in the 1980 run up. The physical gold does not exist to cover all the paper on the market.

Something will happen to take/keep people's minds off of this. All things are connected. Tension will not defuse in Ukraine, Iraq... Destabilization. Perfect recipe for economic panic and war.

Food prices + gas prices = Stressed consumers - CNBC - Jackie DeAngelis and Max Gorden - June 27, 2014 - At the grocery store, meat, dairy and fruit prices are all up substantially. People are even paying more for lattes at their local coffee shops. And it's not just food—gas prices have jumped sharply on geopolitical unrest, and at the moment there's no relief in sight.                         As demand for beef, poultry and pork increases globally, prices have risen nearly 4 percent since February, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The futures market has reflected the strong demand, as live cattle futures are up more than 11 percent in the last month alone, while lean hogs have seen a 10 percent spike in the same time period...                           Beef and pork supplies—the latter especially—have been hit by disease, and alternatives have been unable to fill the gap.                   
It's even trickling down the filter to that cup of morning Joe. Starbucks raised its prices on coffee drinks this week by between 5 and 20 cents, while prices of its packaged coffee at the grocery store will increase by $1. The fast-coffee chain passed on its higher costs to consumers after coffee futures spiked more than 60 percent year-to-date.                           If it's not tough enough at the grocery store, there's also plenty of pain at the pump. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is now up to $3.68, according to AAA. That's up 14 cents from the same time a year ago, a jump of roughly 4 percent.                      Retail gas prices are rising as crude oil prices rise due to tensions in global hot spots like Russia, Ukraine and Iraq. Brent crude, the international benchmark, has risen almost 6 percent in the last three months, while West Texas Intermediate, the domestic product, is up about 5 percent in the same period...                      Traders are cautiously reading the headlines out of the Middle East, and crude prices have dipped slightly the last few days, but the real concern is that a supply disruption out of Iraq will send prices sharply higher...                        But in a struggling economy, every penny counts. Deutsche Bank says that every 1 cent increase in retail gas prices represents an additional $1 billion in energy consumption. The fear is that at a certain point, consumers will not be able to absorb the additional cost, and will spend less elsewhere in the economy.                           To make matters worse, there is a link between fuel prices and food...
                    

Corporate Empire Created Failed Global Economic System-John Perkins - USA Watchdog - Greg Hunter - June 23, 2014 - John Perkins, best-selling author of “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” says corporations, not governments, run the world.  Perkins explains, “We are in a world situation unlike anybody has ever known before.  We have a global corporate empire.  It’s a corporate empire and not a United States empire.  It’s the first time in history it’s really not a national empire.  It’s the corporatocracy, the heads of corporations, which control everything in the world.  This is not a conspiracy theory.  The corporations don’t get together and confer with each other secretly, but they are all driven by one motive, which is to maximize profits regardless of the social and environmental costs.  Let’s face it, the economy of China, the economy of Russia and the economy of the United States is very dependent on these big corporations.  China has done a lot to create its own economic growth, but it could not have happened without the big multinationals.  So, they play an incredibly important roll today; and, in fact, this has created a failed global economic system.  Just one statistic that is really telling is less than 5% of us live in the United States and we consume almost 30% of the world’s resources, while half the world is starving or on the verge of starvation.  That is not a model.  China can’t do that.  Russia can’t do that.  Africa can’t do that.  You can’t repeat that, but they are trying to repeat it . . . but they can’t.”...

Economic Relevance - I've been Right and what do I get for it?

GDP decline - The Economy shrunk by 2.9% 
U.S. Economy Shrinks by Most in Five Years - Final Revision for First-Quarter GDP Shows 2.9% Contraction - Wall Street Journal - Jonathan House

Hound Notes: 2 months ago they said it was .1% growth, a month ago it was revised to down 1%, and today they revised the first quarter number down 2.9%. We are in a techincal recession that is truly a Depression. We never recovered from the 2007 bust. The only growth has come from money printing. The people at the top of the food chain received that money

Consumer Spending trending downward
Consumer Spending Fell Well Short of Expectations in May - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS through the New York Times - JUNE 26, 2014 - American consumers increased their spending only modestly in May, a disappointment to economists who said the weaker-than-expected gain would most likely mean a lesser economic rebound in the April-June quarter than many had envisioned.                              Spending rose just 0.2 percent last month after no gain in April, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. The two months followed a robust spending surge of 0.8 percent in March.                            Income rose a solid 0.4 percent in May after a 0.3 percent increase in April.                              Last month’s 0.2 percent gain in spending was just half the increase that analysts had been expecting.                       Some said that unless June brought a big increase, spending may not provide as much support to the economy in the second half of the year as they had been forecasting.

False (Interest Rate) Recovery
Interest Rates are set to rise - Bullard Predicts Fed Rate Increase in First Quarter of 2015 - Bloomberg - Steve Matthews and Jeff Kearns - Jun 26, 2014 -Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard predicted the central bank will raise interest rates starting in the first quarter of 2015, sooner than most of his colleagues think, as unemployment falls and inflation quickens.                                Asked about his forecast for the timing of the first interest-rate increase since 2006, he said: “I’ve left mine at the end of the first quarter of next year.”                     “The Fed (FDTR) is closer to its goal than many people appreciate,” Bullard said today in an interview with Fox Business Network. “We’re really pretty close to normal.”                          The Federal Open Market Committee is debating how long to keep the benchmark interest rate near zero after completing a bond-purchase program that’s set to end late this year. The committee repeated on June 18 that it expects the rate to remain near zero for a “considerable time” after the purchases end.                                 U.S. stocks fell after a report showed consumer spending grew less than forecast and extended declines following Bullard’s comments. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slid 0.4 percent to 1,951.10 at 11:41 a.m. in New York. The 10-year Treasury yield fell four basis points, or 0.04 percentage point, to 2.52 percent.                              Mergers and Acquisitions are ar heights not seen since the 2007 crash

Home ownership trending down 
Obstacles abound for first-time homebuyers - Herald Tribune (Sarasota , Florida) - Josh Salman - June 16, 2014 - First-time buyers have accounted for fewer home purchases this year than any other time since the depth of the Great Recession in 2008, the result of new mortgage regulations that make it tougher for borrowers to qualify, higher home prices and swelling student-loan debt.                              If sustained, some analysts fear the decline could hamper so-called “move-up” buyers for decades to come and stymie the long-term health of the region's housing market.                         “A first-time homebuyer could have purchased a $100,000 home a few years ago," said Mickey Schweitzer, a 14-year Coldwell Banker veteran who specializes in first-time buyers. “Today that same house is $150,000, and they don't qualify for the loan. On top of that, there's a bunch of cash offers they have to compete with.”

U.S. citizens are in sad shape

Obesity Is Undercounted in Children, Study Finds - Common measure may miss up to 25% of young people - Wall Street Journal - June 23, 2014 - Childhood obesity might be a bigger problem than we thought. A new study finds that the commonly used body-mass-index measure may fail to identify as many as 25% of children, age 4 to 18 years, who have excess body fat. The meta-analysis, scheduled for publication online in the journal Pediatric Obesity on Tuesday, reviewed 37 separate studies involving a combined 53,521 participants.                                          "BMI is not capturing everybody who needs to be labeled as obese," said Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, director of preventive cardiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who headed the study with Asma Javed, a pediatric endocrinology fellow.                         Measuring body-mass index is a relatively easy and inexpensive way to screen for obesity among large groups of people, such as children in a school setting. A problem is that BMI, a calculation based on a person's height and weight, isn't well suited to children because their height and weight don't proportionally increase as they grow, said Ruth Loos, a professor of preventive medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, who wasn't involved with the Mayo study.

Shocking Facts Behind Obesity - Huffington Post - Caroline J. Cederquist, M.D. - June 25, 2014 - From the CDC, the term obesity is a label for a range of weight that is greater than what is generally considered healthy for a given height. The World Health Organization's definition for obesity is a medical condition in which abnormal or excessive fat accumulation has occurred to the extent that it may have a negative effect on health. Regardless of the source, all reputable definitions of obesity include the warning that it can lead to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems.

Unfortunately, many people who are labeled obese, especially outside of a medical setting, develop a negative experience of self. This is partly due to the way that modern society has twisted the definition of obesity. People often associate the term with personal traits such as being lazy, sloppy, unintelligent, and none of these terms are, of course, in the medical definition. They are also completely unfair and unjust assumptions that lead to a diminished experience of self for those to whom the label is applied. I think that is why, in the graphic below, which was compiled from survey data, up to one-third of the respondents could not identify the first two test examples as obese, and why 10 percent of people who meet the medical definition of obese do not consider themselves to be.
 Center for Disease Control - On Obesity


Economic Relevance - the Middle Class Squeeze - May 30, 2014

Economic Relevance - Retail Deathtrap -  May 27, 2014

Economic Relevance - Inflation in commodities + Deflation in property = the Great Reset - May 23, 2014

The Mayor and Council's record on economic development. - Harry Hipps

The Mayor and Council's record on economic development. - authored by Harry Hipps - June 25, 2014

If you were going to invest $40,000,000 would you not check out the fund manager? If you were going to put 40 million into a business venture would you not want a proven, experienced manager for that business? Of course you would. And that is part of what the issue of the proposed bonds for Hickory is about. There are more issues of course and I will address those in succeeding posts.

The Mayor and Council have long touted their conservative, frugal management of Hickory’s finances. Now, apparently they are prepared to abandon that in favor of an Obama style stimulus plan. Leaving aside for now the merit and prospects for the success of the plan, which is designed for economic development, what has the past record of the Mayor and Council been? Bear in mind that Council votes almost in total lockstep with little dissent and as Alder Patton once said “We are all of one mind.”

Hickory was hit hard in 2000 by globalization which drastically shrunk the furniture, textile, and fiber optic businesses that had been long term pillars of the local economy. It wasn’t our fault and we weren’t the only city or area to experience this. We couldn’t control a large structural change like this, but we can control our response to it. Data provided by Thom in this blog in past articles showed that after that point when the national economy went up, Hickory went up less, and when the country turned down, Hickory declined farther. For about 7 years, Mayor Wright failed to comprehend the nature of the problem. Years of public statements like, “I think this will be Hickory’s year... Hickory is turning around... People tell me things are getting better...’’ Showed a total lack of awareness of what had happened to the economy. We lost years because of the lack of understanding, and having too much pride to admit we had a problem.

Then our local leadership decided that Hickory should become a retirement village. Despite the fact that the US is aging and locally we were destined to have more older folks anyway, the City actively pursued “active seniors” despite warnings from many that this was a losing strategy. God bless old folks, but medical care, cheap cost of living, and close proximity to the mountains and beaches has proven to be no panacea for us. I personally asked who would buy my house when I retire? A 75 year old person? We need younger people, working and raising families to have a vibrant community and now the Mayor and Council have flip flopped and belatedly come to the right conclusion after years of pursuing a failed strategy that has cost us time, momentum, and money.

Then came the assault on nightclubs and entertainment. Club owners came under the scrutiny and ire of the local government and ordinances were made more stringent. The Mayor even said on the radio that he didn’t want big clubs that would bring young people to Hickory from miles around. Only small local clubs would be tolerated. Why we wouldn’t want acts that come to Charlotte (like comedians such as Jon Lovitts, Damon Wayans and others as well as more popular musical acts) in Hickory is beyond me. But the strategy has worked, few big acts come here and our young people go to Charlotte in droves rather than stay here and spend their money here. And retail outlets and restaurants in Charlotte are getting a bigger share of Hickory’s younger dollars and eventually, why not just move and save the drive?

The Mayor and Council do not control everything but their misunderstanding, heavy handed management, and lack of understanding and vision is a big part of the problem. People want an open climate to pursue THEIR dreams and build the life THEY want, not be dictated to from above. Council’s actions and attitudes have really hurt the culture and driven people off. And I for one, do not believe that a few out of town trips have made them sages and seers of the future. Do you really believe a few sightseeing trips and discussions really taught them what made the other cities tick? I mean if someone spent a day in Hickory, looking around and talking to City leaders would they really know what makes Hickory Hickory? I doubt it. And I’m not willing to bet 40 million on it.

Finally I would note that, as Steve Ivester pointed out at a recent Council meeting, the Sails on the Square went 70% over budget (if we have accurate figures which is in doubt because City government has not been forthcoming on the actual expenses and has actually harassed people who would like to know). These, I assume, would be the same people that would be overseeing these "Inspiring Spaces" projects. Can you picture a 70% cost overrun on the sidewalk to downtown (linear park)? That project in particular is grossly overpriced for any perceived benefit as it is, but a 60 or 70 million final pricetag is a costly boondoggle we can’t afford.

The bottom line is this: the Council and Mayor’s past record on economic development and executing projects has been poor and now they are asking the voters to put faith and trust in their vision for the future, that these projects will be effectively done and will lead to economic revival. With the record they have on economic development, I wouldn’t bet the farm. There are solutions for Hickory, I don’t think a $40 million open-ended credit card is the right solution.