Photoshop Foreign Policy

It's amazing what can be done with Photoshop. Actresses whose faces haven't aged since they were twenty are grateful to have their brows relieved of the weight of the years, and Botox.

Yet must one have realistic expectations. The U.S. government has used it for years on foreign policy with mixed results. No matter how many filters and color pallets are layered upon nation-building, the human element always bleeds through.

You Get What You Pay For

Corporate executives get paid the big bucks to manage the complex intricacies of large companies' operations. It doesn't matter what their product is: medical care, consumer goods, or food. The well-being of the economy rests with these stewards. Political stability precariously balances on the consequences of their actions. Regardless of their products, they all share a common root of starting small and growing large.

Corporate boards are being paid to manage healthcare costs that continue to spiral out of control and out of reach of the very people who work to support the economy. In other businesses, such as manufacturing and service, these same boards' sole product has been off-shoring goods and services.

Are investors really getting their moneys worth?

The United States of America

The United States of America.

In just what state are Americans united?

Is it the United States of Amnesia, as Gore Vidal once suggested, in the way Americans forget the morass their government gets us into when it meddles in the affairs of other countries patronizingly referred to as "third world"? Third world being code for having either resources, strategic location, or cheap labor we covet.

Is it the United States of Attention Deficit, as in multi-tasking has us too distracted doing everything at once to be able to pay attention to any one thing? The futility of it all keeps us frustrated and overwhelmed.

Is it the United States of Apathy, as in votes cast by us don't matter? It's business as usual so long as the credit and bling keeps flowing to us. Why resolve today what can be procrastinated for someone else to resolve tomorrow?

Is it the United States of Arrogance, as in we know what's best for the world because we are American? After all, America created Manifest Destiny.

Is it the United States of Agenda, as in getting whatever is entitled to us that preserves self esteem whatever the cost to the other guy? Self esteem justifies the means.

Is it the United States of Angst as in are others doing enough for us to preserve self esteem?

Is it the United States of Anger, as in the world doesn't like us anymore and our self esteem just can't handle not being number one anymore?

It is a curious state of the Union.

Golden Rules

If something you weren't told about, because you didn't want to hear about it, becomes a problem; you own the problem - which is you didn't listen. You can't know if you need to hear something if you haven't listened to it. You won't know if something is important if you don't shut up and listen.

There are dumb questions. They're the ones you ask then don't listen to the answer. Don't waste other peoples' time by not listening to their answer to your question - all of it.

Don't rush. It makes you look even farther behind than you already are from correcting what you missed from being in a hurry to begin with. Expedience exudes confidence. Haste exudes incompetence.

Discern delegating from buck-passing. Your job tasks don't belong to someone else. Keep your job tasks off other peoples' plates. If you delegate what you are capable of doing yourself, for what does the company need you?

Responsible people don't need to be reminded of what they need to do.

Speak to others through your own mouth.

Thou shalt not denigrate.

Consider the cost of putting in your two cents worth. Words are currency. Dispensed sparingly, they are valuable; too many in circulation, they devaluate.

Finance on the Ponzi Installment Plan

The budgeting process in America has evolved into a legalized Ponzi scheme. Federal and State Congresses, County Boards of Supervisors, City Councils all rob Peter to pay Paul without a sincere thought of reducing their deficits.

The citizenry has even gotten in on the game. They buy a McMansion on the gamble it can be flipped before the next mortgage payment is due. Without means to repay, they assume sub prime mortgages in the sheep’s clothing of Adjustable Rate Mortgages on the hope of re-financing before payments at higher interest rates come due. Re-fi sub prime ARM is the prayer uttered at the moneychangers’ tables throughout temples of finance.

They apply the same logic to credit card balances. Whatever is worth having is worth having now - until the next gotta-have-it hype comes along. It’s one thing to stand out from the crowd by being the first to own it. A far worse fate is to stand out by not being like everyone else who owns one. Far worse is humiliation from waking up to find oneself in possession of the latest hype rendered passé overnight by a new version of gotta-have-it. Self-esteem is just too big to be allowed to fail. The lifestyles of the rich and famous are but a card swipe away. The credit-challenged are now faced with the task of living with what they couldn’t live without. Instead of the check, it is the new card that is in the mail.

Wall Street is no stranger to the financial feeding frenzy. Along side venerable pork bellies appeared hot Cinderella commodities: the CDO and the credit default swap. Banks that made these loans ended up finding themselves trading pigs in pokes containing no bacon. The credit default swaps they created to minimize their exposure to risk eventually became ineffective once the toxicity of their assets reached near fatal levels in 2007. Still, their risk is minimal; these financial houses are too big for Congress to allow to fail. Wall Street has made sure of this through heavily investing in campaign contributions.

        People may wonder how Congressmen, Supervisors, and Councilmen, blind sighted as well as complicit, manage to look at themselves in the mirror each morning. They don’t have to. Make-up artists are but a line item in their campaign ad budgets.

So what do you do with a dog that won't hunt?

Like the hunter with the dog that won’t hunt, America is stuck with a congress that won’t govern. Voters, including non-voters, have only themselves to blame. Instead of checking out its dame and sire, they have bought a hybrid,  a Repubmocrat, sired by special interests of questionable lineage.

It’s not that congress can’t govern; they simply won’t. This opinion depends upon the point of view from which their performance is seen. The wealthy give high marks to those who have contributed so much to the recent astronomical increase of their personal fortunes. For them, it’s been a sound business venture; a profitable return on their political contributions. The majority of people -- the middle class along with the poor increasing in numbers from the dwindling middle class, -- give low marks to those who have contributed so much to their unemployment, declining quality of life, and declining standard of living.

Yet, these are the very people who continue to feed their dog who won’t hunt. And why should the dog hunt when he’s being kept fat being fed scraps from special interests’ table? The question has been asked: what do we need HMOs for when they can’t provide affordable healthcare? Now the question is: what need have we of a congress that won’t govern? Can we afford to keep paying into the Ponzi scheme they now refer to as the federal budget process?