Category: Economics

Oct 19 2009

De-Automate Accounts Payable

Most of us run businesses considerably smaller than Bank of America - or even Exxon. A good way for us "mere mortals" to keep track of things is to enlist more of our coworkers to review expenditures - by signing or approving checks. I know that check generation and bill paying can be automated, but the time saved sometimes deprives us of valuable oversight and coworker education. Few things help coworkers appreciate the business more than reviewing a month's checks, and understanding - in very concrete terms - the real costs of doing business.

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Categories: Corporate Culture | Management Skills | Entrepreneurialism | Finance | Economics

2 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 10:57 PM

Aug 20 2009

Contemplating the Thinkable

Many people over forty did not believe the Berlin Wall would come down in their lifetime. Of course, many people did not believe CDs would replace vinyl LPs, or that Arizona would ever go to the Super Bowl. Not only do these unthinkable things happen - they seem to happen suddenly.

For sixty years, almost no one has believed there can be peace in the Middle East, but the wheel of history is gaining momentum. As we saw with the Iron Curtain, when enough people demand change, change comes.

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Categories: Leadership | Economics | Optimism

1 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 11:22 AM

Aug 5 2009

The Nuclear Family Option

During the twentieth century, society focused ever more attention on the nuclear family - one group of parents and children. Here and abroad, government pensions had the unintended consequence of separating extended families and reducing our individual sense of responsibility for our elders. Ironically, our attempts to make older citizens more independent have made many of them completely dependent on the government.

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Categories: Education | Economics | Family

2 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 1:13 PM

Jul 29 2009

The Most Important Thing to Learn Before You Graduate

In a best-case scenario, we learn both career skills and money skills before leaving school, but most schools do not offer much in the way of financial education. The evidence is all around us in this recession: even people who excel in academics are at risk of life-long insecurity if they do not learn how to manage their money.

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Categories: Education | Management Skills | Finance | Economics | Optimism

8 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 4:44 PM

Jul 14 2009

The Healthcare Questions We're NOT Asking

From the White House to the Wall Street Journal to the table next to you at Starbuck's, everyone seems to be talking about healthcare. Except that they're not. What people are debating right now is how to pay for healthcare. That's a tough enough question, but society might be better served by asking some tougher questions first.

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Categories: Education | Nutrition | Finance | Leadership | Economics | Ethics | Environment

7 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 9:44 PM

Jul 8 2009

The Deficit Tightrope

This New York Times article does a great job explaining the very tricky path our government must navigate, incurring deficits big enough to stimulate a recovery without spending so much we scare off creditors or trigger massive inflation. 

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Categories: Finance | Leadership | Economics

1 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 1:28 PM

Jun 22 2009

What if Rampant Consumerism Isn't the Answer?

by Dean Zatkowsky

I happened to be visiting Yellowstone National Park on my 51st birthday, and noticed that I was wearing the same black sweater I wore in Yosemite on my 18th birthday.  Before the sweater was mine, it had been my brother-in-law's letterman sweater in the late 1960s.

When I reminded my sister that my favorite sweater for thirty-three years had been her husband's for who knows how long before I got it, she said, "They don't make sweaters like they used to."

Her son corrected her: "No, they don't make consumers like they used to."

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Categories: Economics | Ethics | Environment

2 comments - Posted by Dean Zatkowsky at 11:52 AM

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