Got that Peter Lorre feeling?

I don’t know about everyone in the graphic arts industry, but I think the nightly national news is the funniest show on television. They call in their economic “experts” who solemnly tell us that the recession is over while the anchor sits and nods wisely in agreement. I can’t help but wonder what they do “off camera.” Do they high five each other and joke about how they are pulling the wool over our eyes? Maybe they think we can’t see the truth, but we can, all we have to do is look at our bank statements. The truth is there in the bottom line. The truth shows up in 1% or less passbook interest and 25% credit card interest. Wouldn’t printers love to have those margins?

I know of no printer who believes that the recession is over. Oh sure, we have moments when the market seems to be coming alive and we experience busy times here and there, but overall–overall there is trouble. Printers who haven’t gone out of business are largely hanging on by the skin of their teeth.

So if the recession is really over and the printers aren’t feeling it, maybe every other business is benefiting. Right? Wrong, everywhere I go I hear the same story of cutbacks, slow sales, and low expectations of recovery. Oh sure, the hope is there. We are, after all, Americans and Americans never say die, but aren’t you tired of the beatings we are taking? You go to work day-after-day hoping that the newscaster was right and things are going to pick up and they don’t–what do you do?

I read the other day that four mutual fund managers each got billion dollar bonuses. The recession is over for them, that’s for sure.  AARP magazine said that Corporate Executives are funding their bonuses by reducing health care and other benefits on the rank and file, so I guess the recession isn’t affecting them either. The insurance companies got congress to pass a health care law forcing everyone to buy private insurance. Happy days are here for them too.

So if you get blue and can’t pull yourself out of the fogs of gloom,  just shout with all the enthusiasm you can muster, “The recession is over!” If that doesn’t make you laugh, nothing will.

Note: The latest blog entry in Chicken Scratchings is “To e-Book, or Not to e-Book, That is the Question.” Just click on the underlined to take you there.

Transparency is the word of the last couple of years and will probably be the word that defines the decade. Everyone is promising to be more transparent, but do they really mean it? Complete transparency would not be good.  I don’t want to know the minutia of a company’s operations anymore than I want to see a patient splayed open on an operating table.

Well there is transparency and transparency. The kind of transparency I’m talking about is really just another name for honesty. I want to know if the companies I buy from are committed to fairness. Recently our bank sent us a letter telling us that they were doubling our interest rate. In the letter were a half a dozen checks we could use just like cash. In the small print we learned that should we use one of these checks, we would be agreeing to triple the interest rate.  We called the bank and asked why they were doing this to us. Had we suddenly become a dangerous credit risk? No. Had we missed or been late on any payments? No. What did we do to deserve this treatment? Nothing. We were assured however, that it was all for our own good. Huh? How can these people, who are people just like the rest of us, peddle this lie and do it with sincerity? It’s like spanking a child in the morning because they might do something wrong during the day. Or this is more like it, you did something wrong and because somebody has to pay, you find a patsy to suffer the punishment. In the case of banks it is the consumer. They are making us pay for their foolish behaviors and bad gambles.

I found the following example of a bank’s idea of a customer bill of rights posted on the Internet. Do you agree with it? Does it provide real protections for the customer or is it more of a public relations white wash?

1.      Our customers are entitled to be greeted with a smile and treated with friendliness, courtesy and respect by all of our employees.
2.       Our customers are entitled to be served by employees who are people-oriented and have a passion for providing quality service.
3.       Our customers who prefer to use online banking are provided with a state-of-the-art, secure website.
4.       The following groups of individuals and organizations are entitled to receive checking accounts free of any monthly service charges:
*      ALL senior citizens
*       ALL United Way agencies
*       ALL churches, synagogues and mosques
*       ALL charitable organizations and foundations
*       ALL political subdivisions
5.      Our customers are entitled to receive prompt service. For example, thanks to local decision-making, our response to a loan request shall not exceed five business days.
6.       Our checking account customers are entitled to use any ATM, anywhere, free of service charge, up to six times per month.
7.       Our customers are entitled to free and convenient parking when conducting bank business.”

I’m not trying to pick on the bank.  I’m sure they issued their Customers’ Bill of Rights as a way of appearing to be open, caring and considerate. It bears the tracks of  a legal staff that wants to protect the bank’s interests. In truth, it is a pleasing lullaby and I’m pretty certain you can hear this song sung, or one just like it, in every bank in the country.

What is it really saying? We like you. We will smile at you. We offer free no-fee checking accounts for certain groups. We have a secure website. We will waive a small number of ATM fees each month. We make quick decisions on loans. And finally, we have convenient parking.

What would I like them to say?

• We promise to always engage in, and be guided by, the highest moral and ethical standards.
• We guarantee that our officers and directors will be fairly rewarded for superior performance but never at a rate that is more than 50% of their annual salary.
• At year end, no bonuses, stock options, or other remunerations will be issued if the bank has lost money.
• Our employees are all well-educated and highly trained. Nepotism is never practiced here.
• Never will the bank issue a loan to a customer who does not possess the means to repay it.
• The bank will turn its back on creative financing schemes because we know that they rarely work out in the long run for the consumer or the bank.
• Should an employee be found guilty of ethics violations, in or out of the bank, they will be immediately suspended, and subjected to dismissal pending a thorough investigation. This rule also holds true for officers and directors.
• Just because we are allowed to arbitrarily increase interest rates on credit cards, we promise to hold the line and increase them by the least possible amount and only when absolutely necessary.
• We promise to treat each customer according to their history with the bank and not punish one for the misdeeds of another.

I invite any reader to add to this list. A universal bank customers’ bill of rights is desperately needed. Let’s start a movement.

If you are a writer and have a book manuscript, but haven’t found a publisher to pick it up, you may have to self-publish. Part and parcel with self-publishing is self-selling. You will have to market your book. How do you do it? I recommend TAP (The Author Platform). It is comprehensive, but easy to follow. You’ll learn Internet marketing, Social marketing, Amazon, and much more. See for yourself by going here.

80% living on 20% leftover’s

Déjà vu?

I learned just this year that the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) publishes a report (link) on the Internet about the United States. I was reviewing the section on the economy that was updated on August 13, 2009. In the middle of the report is this statement, “Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households.” Furthermore, “The onrush of technology largely explains the gradual development of a ‘two-tier labor market’ in which those at the bottom lack the education, and the professional/technical skills of those at the top and more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits.”

No middle class–no small business

For 34 years the American middle class has been steadily shrinking. Where will we be when the middle class is gone? Will we be safer, healthier, or wealthier? When you think about it, small business, the backbone of the American economy is in serious danger. As the split widens between the haves and the have nots, who will buy the products and services of small business? It won’t be the big corporations, that’s for sure. What will this country be like when the splitting stops and 20% of the population control 80% of the wealth, and 80% have to live on what’s left?

Americans slipping slowly down the drain

The CIA report also says, “Long-term problems include inadequate investment in economic infrastructure, rapidly rising medical and pension costs of an aging population, sizable trade a budget deficits, and stagnation of family income in the lower economic groups.”

Printers probably the first to go

Why do I bring this up? My career has been spent in the printing business. Most printing firms in the United States are small businesses. When the middle class is gone, and small business owners disappear, what will happen to printing? The answer is obvious.

How can government help turn the tide?

• Educational Needs. Provide educational opportunities to all citizens who want it. A college education shouldn’t create a lifetime burden of student loans. Free education would benefit us all.
• Health Care. Make sure all citizens have access to good health care. We have the most expensive health care in the world and some of the most unhealthy citizens. One reason is because care is delayed until the need is critical.
• Ban Lobbyists. Cut access of  corporate lobbyists and make sure they have only the same access to lawmakers as any other citizen. Our survival as a nation depends on fairness for all. Special interests cannot be allowed to rule. When special interests rule, the public loses.
• Regulate Compensation Packages. Create an Executive compensation commission to review and regulate public corporations. Companies who are vital to the national interest and deemed too big to fail have to be subjected to intense scrutiny. Just as the SEC requires annual reports, compensation must be examined and regulated if necessary, to protect our common interest.
• Recover Pension Funds. Create a collection mechanism to recover money from executives of corporations who raided or otherwise harmed vested pension programs. It is unconscionable that an employee be left penniless after working a lifetime for benefits, while the upper echelon retires comfortably.
• Banking Transparency. Make sure publicly held corporate executives cannot secrete their fortunes in secret accounts. Transparency in banking is necessary only for those who have the power to wreak havoc on the economy and cause recessions.

I know, some of these suggestions will strike some as being un-American. Maybe you are right, but when any sector has the power to harm the whole, it has to be considered a public threat. The demise of the middle class is a public threat and must be treated as such.