John Faraci, International Paper chairman/CEO, gives insight on why he and many other employers are not hiring.
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From the category archives:
Economy
Every day we partake in a seamless economic system. We go into the market place and apply for home loans, invest in stocks and bonds, make deposits into our checking and savings along with partaking in a host of other financial services. But have you ever stopped and asked yourself why is the financial system structured the way it is, or when did this system come about? Well if so here is a bit of history of our financial system from investopedia, check it out:
The roots of what are now commonplace activities - such as buying stocks, bonds, and even things like applying for a loan or balancing a portfolio - is the “evolution” of the various economic systems that have supported them. The development of economics across time and continents is neither uniform, nor complete. This article will focus on the systems that have led to our current Wall Street arrangement.
Tooth, Nail and Plants
In the black hole known as pre-history, humans established a complex system of community that includes elements of labor, reward and trade. This eventually included the domestication of plants and livestock, furthering the scope of tradeable goods as well as tying people to the land so economies could develop. The uneven development of ancient economies suggests that many systems were attempted, but the profusion of empires suggests that the rule of powerful elite was the most successful in the early going.
The Spaces Between Empires
The most telling fact about humanity in the ancient world is that when the external controls of a ruler were removed, people reverted to subsistence farming. Although there is only one official dark age in the history text, the disconnected ancient world used to go through dark ages much like the blackouts and brownouts that ripple across energy hungry states. In these dark areas, the people went back to securing enough food for themselves and surviving until the next powerful figure came along to claim them as his own.
Feudalism
Up until the twelfth century, less than 5% of the population of Europe lived in towns. Skilled workers lived in the city but received their keep from feudal lords rather than a real wage, and the farmers were essentially serfs for landed nobles. It took the Black Plague, one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, to shake up the system significantly. By killing scores of people in both town and countryside, the various plagues of the dark ages actually created a labor shortage.
Nobles fought to hire enough serfs to keep their estates running and many trades suddenly needed to train outsiders, as entire guild families were wiped out. The advent of true wages offered by the trades encouraged more people to move into towns where they could get money rather than subsistence in exchange for labor. As a result of this change, birth rates exploded and families soon had extra sons and daughters who, without land to tend, needed to be put to work. Child labor was as much a part of the town’s economic development as slavery was part of the rural life.
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From annual revenues to real estate investment just about everything was down for hip hop cash cows according to Forbes. 50 Cent dropped from #4. earning $20 million last year to #14. earning $8 million this year and Kanye West dropped from #3. earning $25 million last year to #1o. earning $12 million this year. Well all but Lil Wayne, he actually went from #6. earning $18 million last year to #4. earning $20 million this year, Young Money is definitely doing the damn thing.
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If you are in the process of graduating college or transitioning careers within the next year, here is a list of the top ten places for young adults to live according to sources. The main statistics that are taken into consideration in choosing 1-10 are metro population size, median monthly rent (includes utilities), average annual wage, and unemployment rate.
1. Austin TX
Metro Population: 1,705,075
Median monthly rent (includes utilities): $864
Average annual wage: $41,380 (as of 2007)
Unemployment rate: 6.9%
2. Charlotte, N.C.
Metro Population: 1,745,524
Median monthly rent: $803
Average annual wage: $41,190
Unemployment rate: 10.9%
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Now this video is funny but very real, the world economy survives off of debt.. These large banking institutes wants everyone to stay in debt because thats the only way their able to remain tremendously wealthy and the same goes for all the countries around the world. Just take a minute and check this video out and leave your thoughts.
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(CNN) After seeing the chaos that took place in Georgia today, I had to raise the question are some people way to dependent on government assistance? I really believe that for most people who receive government assistance get into the habit of expectancy and the assistance begins to become a crutch instead of a stepping stone. The welfare system is in high need of restructuring.
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Here are a few occupations you may want to steer clear from; analysis predict that these occupations will never recover due to the recession, even when things get back to normal.
These doomed jobs come from industries in decline. Already fading, the recession was a death blow for manufacturing, administration and other work that can be done cheaper by foreigners and machines.
The double hit of recession and secular changes means employment will NOT come back easily. America’s unemployed are stuck with the wrong skills and little to contribute to modern industry.
Using data from the BLS, we’ve identified the fields in permanent decline. Click Here For Full List
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With over forty plus presidents in our country’s history you would think there would be some concrete strategies on the best way to run the country. But term after term a new administration comes in and promise to have a better plan than the old administration, as if they’ve developed some new revolutionary financial and political strategies. When Bill Clinton left office our nation was flourishing better than ever and of coarse the Bush administration took office and decided that Clinton’s strategies were all wrong. Bush and his administration felt there was a better way, and we all know how that worked out. So now it Obama’s turn to take the wheel and steer the country back to the road of growth and operating with a surplus of funds. I think the best way turn move forward is by looking back and studying what’s worked in the past and stick to the script. Check this article out by the Businessinsider which discuss Clinton’s success, Bushes destruction, and Obama’s clean up; How Obamanomics REALLY Compare To Clintonomics
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When I was in college I had the opportunity of being taught by a professor by the name of Dr. Wilkerson. He taught my Business Law class, Dr. Wilkerson was a former judge who had practiced law for over 30 yrs and was an old school no nonsense kinda gentle man. Wilkerson sternness rubbed many of my class mates the wrong way but there was a method to his madness. He was from an era where it wasn’t enough for a black man to be just as good as “others” in Corporate America but your skill set had to surpass theirs greatly just to be considered for a position.
Wilkerson class wasn’t my favorite because I liked studying Business Law. I have to be honest Business Law wasn’t one of my favorite subjects; a lot of the things we went over in the class that related to book work only stuck long enough for me to pass our biweekly test. I loved his class because in the mist our class time Wilkerson was able to squeeze in teaching us about life. One of the things that he drilled in us which has always stuck with me, was that he challenged us to be “Critical Thinkers” about all things. He would challenge us to think beyond our social economic back grounds, beyond what mass media says is cool or true, and to really consider our purpose in life. His advice to us was in all thing pertaining to our life we should stop, sit, and Critically Think. This advice from Wilkerson sparked a fire in me to continuously grow in self awareness, wisdom, patients, and applied knowledge.
I came across a dope write up in the Harvard Business Review (which I recommend all my view check out) which can help with giving a person a solid foundation to begin building self awareness and direction in life. It was written by professor Clayton M. Christensen and titled How Do You Measure Your Life. The professor discuss the world wind of changes his 2010 graduation classed experienced leaving a stable job market in 2007-2008 entering Business School and graduating into one of the worst recessions our country has ever experienced. With many of these students being left with career uncertainties and unable to lean on the identity and self importance their careers and degrees once gave them, many of them were going to need to do some soul searching.
Professor Christensen laid it out flat for his students by raising three questions for them to consider:
1.) How can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career?
2.) How can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness?
3.) How can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail?
Professor stated “Though the last question sounds lighthearted, it’s not. Two of the 32 people in my Rhodes scholar class spent time in jail. Jeff Skilling of Enron fame was a classmate of mine at HBS. These were good guys—but something in their lives sent them off in the wrong direction.”
You can read the complete write up by Clicking Here; below are a few of Professor Christensen’s words of wisdom… be sure to read the whole article though if its good enough to be taught to the worlds future leaders it might be worth a few minutes for you to check out.
“Over the years I’ve watched the fates of my HBS classmates from 1979 unfold; I’ve seen more and more of them come to reunions unhappy, divorced, and alienated from their children. I can guarantee you that not a single one of them graduated with the deliberate strategy of getting divorced and raising children who would become estranged from them. And yet a shocking number of them implemented that strategy. The reason? They didn’t keep the purpose of their lives front and center as they decided how to spend their time, talents, and energy.”
“Over the years I’ve watched the fates of my HBS classmates from 1979 unfold; I’ve seen more and more of them come to reunions unhappy, divorced, and alienated from their children. I can guarantee you that not a single one of them graduated with the deliberate strategy of getting divorced and raising children who would become estranged from them. And yet a shocking number of them implemented that strategy. The reason? They didn’t keep the purpose of their lives front and center as they decided how to spend their time, talents, and energy.
It’s quite startling that a significant fraction of the 900 students that HBS draws each year from the world’s best have given little thought to the purpose of their lives. I tell the students that HBS might be one of their last chances to reflect deeply on that question. If they think that they’ll have more time and energy to reflect later, they’re nuts, because life only gets more demanding: You take on a mortgage; you’re working 70 hours a week; you have a spouse and children.
For me, having a clear purpose in my life has been essential. But it was something I had to think long and hard about before I understood it. When I was a Rhodes scholar, I was in a very demanding academic program, trying to cram an extra year’s worth of work into my time at Oxford. I decided to spend an hour every night reading, thinking, and praying about why God put me on this earth. That was a very challenging commitment to keep, because every hour I spent doing that, I wasn’t studying applied econometrics. I was conflicted about whether I could really afford to take that time away from my studies, but I stuck with it—and ultimately figured out the purpose of my life.
Had I instead spent that hour each day learning the latest techniques for mastering the problems of autocorrelation in regression analysis, I would have badly misspent my life. I apply the tools of econometrics a few times a year, but I apply my knowledge of the purpose of my life every day. It’s the single most useful thing I’ve ever learned. I promise my students that if they take the time to figure out their life purpose, they’ll look back on it as the most important thing they discovered at HBS. If they don’t figure it out, they will just sail off without a rudder and get buffeted in the very rough seas of life. Clarity about their purpose will trump knowledge of activity-based costing, balanced scorecards, core competence, disruptive innovation, the four Ps, and the five forces.”
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Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are setting the bar on how the wealthy should give charitable contributions. Gates and Buffet are urging the super wealthy to follow in their footsteps and give at least half their wealth away during their lifetime or at death. To the average person this may seem ridicules, but when you really think about it if a person who is worth 4 billion dollars gave away 2 billion it would not constitute a lifestyle change for them. Someone who is worth 2 billion more than likely has the same quality of life as someone worth 4 billion; when I looked at things from this perspective I could really understand why Gates and Buffett may ask others to pledge most of their wealth to charity.
On the other hand, Forbes.com throws a curve ball to this concept of the two moguls giving their wealth away, stating that it will actually hinder the economy rather than help; check it out:
In its latest issue, Fortune magazine reports that “Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett are asking the nation’s billionaires to pledge at least half their net worth to charity, in their lifetime or at death.” Gates told Fortune that 50% of one’s wealth would constitute the “low bar” for giving, while Buffett has pledged to give 99% of his wealth away.
At first glance this is something to celebrate, for it rightly confirms that capitalism is, at its core, quite compassionate. The charitable ways of Gates and Buffett also provide living proof that the “trickle-down theory” is in fact reality.
And when we consider that the greedy hand of government will help itself to half of Gates’ and Buffett’s money upon death anyway, the idea of them depriving our federal masters while supporting good causes becomes even more appealing.
But while it’s exciting to contemplate the giving nature of Gates and Buffett, if their true desire is to help their fellow man, they should hoard every penny of their significant wealth. For the two richest men in the U.S. to monetize their wealth in order to support charities is for them to oversee the conversion of production goods to consumption goods. Some will no doubt benefit in the near term, but the removal of limited capital from the productive parts of the economy will ultimately reduce our standard of living, drive up unemployment and make individuals more as opposed to less needful of charity. Read More Here
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