German Cheap Labor A Challenge To Portugal

Just to prove how absurd the notion of "cheap labor" being a factor in international trade, here we have an article explaining how low labor rates in Germany, relative to the club med countries (Spain, Italy, Greece, etc) is straining the euro agreement to the breaking point. German labor rates are in fact, nominally higher the the other locations, but German management and when needed austerity introduced by management, makes german manufactures preferable overall to the other eurozone members. Thus Deustchland uber alles when it comes to economic activity.

It is a nice trick: misidentify the problem as labor rates, pick a fight that you cannot win, everyone argues about labor rates, and nobody notices the fat cats getting fatter while the workers get less and less, no matter what the outcome. And note the already recognize they cannot win! Note from the article:

Charles Dumas from Lombard Street Research said the Club Med states and Ireland cannot deflate wages below German levels without causing havoc to their economies, so the EU policy creates a profound bias towards a deflationary slump for the whole system.

This is all too bad, because the Irish had originally rejected joining the EU, then on a second push, joined up. Immediately they were again enslaved under the English, and it would have been all the more clear if Tony Blair had become president of the EU.

I was at a St. Patrick's Day party 17 March for a lad whose granma had a price on her head for her work in the 1927 uprising that threw off British rule. Her offenses were capital, so she was in USA in exile for the rest of her life. The Irish could not keep free for even 100 years. Sigh.

The Irish leadership complains that they cannot deflate their workers wages low enough to compete with German workers... what madness! The problem is not Irish workers wages, it is Irish management sloth. Note that the Irish leaderships solution is Ireland become competitive by artificially lowering Irish wages. I am not picking on Ireland, this solution is exactly what the USA leadership proposes vis a vis USA problems with China.

People say there are unions, therefore there are problems. The fact is there are problems, therefore there are unions. Show me a union house and I will show you a poorly managed company. Show me a well managed company, and you will see no unions.

What USA is missing is an independent union element. They have all been co-opted by the state.

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Question on Royalties

Hope all's well. Question for you regarding designer royalties - is there a way to find out the going rate for royalties in my industry (luggage) before approaching designers? How do I know if the designer I wish to work with is quoting me a reasonable percentage? Also, is your instruction regarding asking designers to forgo an advance a rigid one or is there some flexibility? Is this kind of arrangement the norm or an acception? (Not counting people like Karl Lagerfeld or Prince!)

S,

Mostly by reading trade journals or calling luggage makers and asking them is the best way to find the going rate...

The point of the advance on royalties is to shoo away flakes... if you have retailers who say it is a good idea and does not exist, then you are not a flake... therefore, there should be no advance...

John

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Anthony REads The Times

So much for Obama's Green job initiative. China is kicking our butt with our own technology...

"NatCore Technology of Red Bank, N.J., recently discovered a way to make solar panels much thinner, reducing the energy and toxic materials required to manufacture them. American companies did not even come look at the technology, so NatCore reached a deal with a consortium of Chinese companies to finish developing its invention and mass-produce it in Changsha, China."

I wonder how much Mr. Pinto makes? If US innovators are heading off to China I think we're in trouble. Innovation was our ace in the hole. How can we recover from a brain drain? I think what made the US great was immigrant talent from across the globe, free to come and innovate.

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In last nights course session there was a side discussion regarding a course designed to make you successful in acting as a commission agent, tuition a mere $9,000. I expressed doubts about the course in the transcripts. In essence my argument was take your $9,000 and start a business today, your best teachers are your customers.

All over my website I have testimonials from people who have taken my seminars. But I will tell you myself NOBODY has ever been successful by taking my class. it would be absurd to think that 18 hours of instruction would be responsible for you eventually earning $100,000 per year, or more. Or for that matter, $30,000 per year. (to get to 60, just take another 18 hours!) You see, it is silly to think taking classes will make you successful.

My class is designed to save you time and money. What success you have will be completely yours. Just as a tennis coach can give you some tips that will greatly improve your game, so it is with my class, and anyone else's. You still have to practice and work it through and get it right. Anything I or a tennis coach may show you, you would probably eventually figure out for yourself, after much time and expensive experimentation. There are very kind people who say they are successful from taking my class. I do not use those testimonials, because it is not true. They are being kind, but for me to use those testimonials would be misleading. They are successful from their efforts, not my class. What testimonials I use say: great class, good info, best value, etc. People often tell me I should charge more, because my class is worth so much more. I'll tell you a secret about the price of the class: at $95, it brings in the people who are most likely to use the info well, and most likely to appreciate it. Lower or higher brings in the wrong crowd.

So my advice is whenever someone offers to take your money to make you successful, put your money in your shoe and get out of there. As I stress in the class, your success depends on you, going through a process others have gone through. It is completely up to you whether you decide to do so or not, and it is an existential crisis to make the move. No one can do it for you, no amount of money can make it happen without you putting yourself into it.

So as you consider educational possibilities, critique the offer: are they promising to show me how it works, or promising to make me successful?. Buy the former, avoid the latter.

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Expeditors International

Peter J Rose started Expeditors International back in the 1970's when a little transportation deregulation caused him to realize that service based logistics might be more profitable than asset based logistics, that is to say the chartering and reselling space on vessels might be more profitable than owning the vessels. I've long heard he has little to say outside of a yearly commentary, and I finally found where this is. REad through for good business sense, what he sees wordwide in world trade, and insights to the logistics business.

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Harry Reid Explains How Not To Pay Taxes

Jan Helfeld does yeoman work revealing internal contradictions of his targets, but here he ought to have let Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid explain his point: Reid says taxes are voluntary because there are enough loopholes to legally get out of paying any taxes. Now Reid is thinking of big biz in USA when he makes that statement, but it is true of small business as well. If you look at the income statement of a business, there is the income, which is where your customers have found what you offer is worth more to them than their money. Take out costs of goods sold. Then you have gross profit. Next comes overhead, what you spend in your business. What is left is net profit, before taxes. Instead of focussing on net profit, which is really just what is left over, we ought to focus on the overhead, what you live on, what you spend living your lifestyle.
Being self employed means you can largely avoid taxes, as Harry Reid was trying to explain to his interviewer. Sometimes your target has more interesting things to say than you might think. I can see why the people of Nevada love Harry Reid. Listen carefully as Reid points out how people who are employees are trapped in the sort of lack of freedom taxpayers experience in Europe. This video is fascinating.

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Finger Found In Toyota!

Or probably another hoax. When fast food joints were paying out millions to people who found gross things in their food, people who wanted millions started finding gross things in their food, such as rats and whatnot. One lady found a thumb in her Wendy's chili and was on her way to millions when investigators found the source of the finger: an associate of her husband had lost it in an industrial accident. The finger turned up in her chili because she put it there, she confessed.

Now they find they cannot recreate the dramatic anti-Toyota runaway Prius event a week or so ago. When US Govt owns your competition, you are in trouble.

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The Business Of War And Clergy Abuse

Here is an excellent example of an article that presumes guilt. If you want to know what is at the heart of the charges of pedophilia among churchmen it is simple: the Catholic Church is the largest organization opposed to the USA invasion of Moslem countries.

The charges in USA first surfaced back when the Church opposed Bush W's invasion of Iraq back in 2003. Now that the USA seems to be readying an attack on Iran, another sweep of charges may serve to silence Church critics of USA military adventures.

In the face of the assault on the Church, the Catholic bishops foolishly accepted the advice of "experts" who once the US Bishops established protocols to deal with the charges, the very lawyers who advised the Churchmen turned around and began suing the church, knowing what weaknesses were built into the protocols.

We do have a problem of definitions. What cases exist are examples of long ago a young priest and older students, not the old man jumping a child that the salacious charges conjure up. There are degrees of guilt and crime, and if each case were adjudicated (not possible, since the statute of limitations is up) the truth would not be so compelling. And some cases are outright false, as Cardinal Bernardin suffered worse for a false charge of child abuse than he did when he died of cancer. In his case a priest angry at Bernardin's liberality convinced a disturbed young man to level a false charge against Bernbardin. In Seattle, a priest who was a frequent visitor to my home as I was growing up with my two brothers, was accused, after his death so he could not defend himself, of grooming and sexually abusing three brothers in turn. A charge so awful it must be true, one would think. Or a charge so awful it works everytime. I have found at least seven other places in USA and Canada which such a charge was levied against different priests. An event that is statistically impossible. And then finally, I was there. I was in Jesuit and Christian Brother schools. We knew who faced sexual orientation challenges. And those of us who had no interest stayed away from it. Those with an interest, joined in, like say, joining the chess club. For those who engaged back then to come forward now and want more, that is not right. Let them make their charges in open court, and let their peers say what they saw at the time. And for those quick to accept the charges against the priests, what crimes are you responsible for that are acceptable, and not condemned? What challenges have you faced that you have not failed in?

If people were really concerned about protecting children, then the focus would be on the public schools, where the rate of child sexual abuse is far higher than anyting reported about the hyper-scrutinzed Catholic Church..

People are convinced that it is celibacy that drives errant priests on sexual adventures, but this does not explain how the Protestant churches with married clergy have the same problems, at a higher rate.

A Seattle judge spent years taking slight blond youths that came before him in court to his cabin in the woods for a little hands-on discipline. People knew, reported it, but the system did nothing. The judge committed suicide when a newspaper was about to out him. That was back when some newspapers had some independence. Not any longer. When the powers that be say "spread false charges against the Catholic Church" everyone, including Drudgereport, falls in line. There is a tremendous opportunity for anyone who wishes to do good while doing well: begin reporting the news accurately and fairly, something otherwise not available in USA.

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