Here's a contribution from another blogger Satz (I like the humor, so I'm adding it to the post) =D ...




1. How bad are things? It is just beginning to get bad.

2. With wage expectations and costs of living/healthcare prohibitive to lower wages, double the amount of existing American dollars will need to be printed. This means the value of money will be decreased and people will need to work harder to be able to afford the same. This move will create a unique effect on solving the cost of labor. By devaluing the currency, everyone will be forced to accept lowered wages.

3. Of course, there is the constant witch hunt for 'who did it' and the Bank of America subpeona is a prime example of more to come. It is interesting how many millionaires were created during the financial fallout. What has the world come to?

4. Thoughts? Worried at work? Maybe you should fire yourself and get an early start. At least your in control of who is getting fired. This is what some experts have suggested: Some of the best companies have resulted from founders deciding to fire themselves before they were axed.

Today, I was reviewing various songs to use as breakpoints for the radio show. I paused during Aquarius by 5th Dimension. The year was 1969. I wondered how things were so I took a peak at unemployment rates, population rates and the average home price. Wow, times have really changed in 2009. Today, we are approaching 10% unemployment in certain areas, have about 30% more people and the average home is 10 times more expensive.




























Take a look at the song's lyrics ...

------------------------------------
When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius!
Aquarius!

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revalation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius!
Aquarius!

When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius!
Aquarius!
------------------------------------
Perhaps we need to add these concepts back into our livelihood:
1. harmony
2. understanding
3. sympathy
4. trust
5. peace

Well we used to call them hippies, treehuggers crazies ...
Today, they are respected as green leaders, forethinkers, the only few who can solve the
greed crisis and rebuild trust.

How times have changed!!

Since 2004, there's been a non-profit called The Watering Seeds Organization. Like many 501(c)(3) nonprofits there can be a need for leadership and direction. And so I received an appointment on 22 January 2009 as follows:

The mission: To help casualty victims (physically challenged) soldiers who suffer from postwar trauma. Conceptually this is a sound goal and they even got recognition from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger but fundraising has been below average.

I was puzzled when I heard this.

Often times soldiers (who are also people) are called to action without full knowledge of the details: 'whether the war was necessary'. No one wins after a war. Caring for the casualities from war will be needed until we all agree to have world peace. These injuries are very real and beyond your standard medical care due to the life long needs of the physically challenged. Sometimes the victims life can be one of destitution, pain and agony.

While I am honored to be an advisor, under the advice of my attorney, all past activities would be signed under a HOLD HARMLESS CLAUSE. Going forward, the organization needed to move in a direction of growth with integrity and with transparency. Giving is a two way street and I look forward to lead the organization to better days. My letter states my feelings on a few things with the founder and I hope readers can also add their inputs. The best way to evolve an organization is to open source it! =D

I am very critical of nonprofits because unless I feel they are up to par, I won't ask someone else to donate to the cause. Given today's financial turmoils, there is just an unfortunate level of spending.

A certain amount of cleansing will need to take place. The following events were all based on charity but the amount raised were not proportional to the resources used. From now on, this kind of low conversion will not be happening (not under my watch). The pictures below are various events with high profiled names (so work was done) but even lower profiled returns (poor results).

Never forget: The purpose is to raise monies for those in need. 

Now that the parties/events are over, the founder who has gotten a little older and wiser realizes that change and cleansing needs to happen.

Anyone reading this please send your suggestions and advice to: dr.chiu@wateringseeds.org or include them as comments below.

Charity Event with Steven Seagal:

Charity Event with John Travolta:

Charity Event with April Scott:

Charity Event with Deal or No Deal Models:

Charity Event with Jason Alexander:

Many people sit-at-home and think leadership is fine in the Cabinet & White House. Most people are not seeing the news that has already raced across the pages in January regarding the 'knuckle incident' (read below).

Well, leadership seems a little lacking these days especially since many don't quite know what the future will bring. The financial turmoil has few signs of ending and some have decided to bailout or at least hedge their position.

Who should we really support? If the people decided to put someone in by the name of President Obama and he collectively wins, we need to support him all the way. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The damages that will be done midstream to bailout is catastrophic.

Unfortunately, Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire has already chosen his decision to bailout and walk their separate ways. Some take it that all is not well in the White House and the difficulties associated with the current crisis.

Only last month, did knuckle cracking occur for Obama who asked to have some quiet during his meeting. Surprisingly, Chief of Staff Rahm Israel Emanuel walks over and cracks his knuckles in Mr. President's ears just to show who is really calling the shots. Once again, the Press got a hold of this and the our United States President appears to having a really hard time.

Link: Article on Knuckle Cracking into President Obama's Ears

Public writeup on Emanuel, Freddie Mac, & the housing markets.

Any thoughts on Senator Gregg and Emanuel's actions? How does the world view President Obama?

Meanwhile a dangerous bubble is being formed. It the US. Treasuries (see yield curve):

With the federal government balance sheet worsening by the day, Treasury fundamentals stand on shaky ground. General macroeconomic conditions stand at odds with bond market action over the last few months. With global asset values crumbling, institutional investors engaging in forced mass liquidations, and foreign governments picking up USD and short-term Treasuries to offset reserve losses, our currency reversed a six year slide and government bond yields dropped to shockingly low levels.

Perhaps, Obama and his team need to be more focused collectively on the problems at hand and not each other.

 

Lately it has not been easy. The world's largest supporter of a free government is under critical bailout conditions showing to need at least 2 Trillion USD in financing. This would mean since government = the people in free government standards, 'the people' = 'the tax payers' = owe 2 Trillion USD just to get back to normal (full article).

Even President Obama stated that he would resign if the problem could not be fixed!! If Obama did resign, we'd be in worse shape than ever. A world power without a leader. Anything is possible in these days and this may explain the severity of the problem that has been built up all these years without anyone really knowing it. Something will be passed but will it be enough to fix the problem at hand! 

Any sensible bailout would definitey need to be focused heavily on infrastructure. This will lead to health improvements, better conditions and consumption of basic and raw materials. Of course, you can see the price of gold taking off consistently due to a perfect storm environment when it comes to turmoil + instability + increased bets on basic raw material consumption.

Thoughts?

President's Day weekend is coming up, how will you be celebrating?

Here is a free coloring book for kids. =D