According to Obama, the State of our Union is "getting stronger."
It's always interesting to hear what the President has to say in the State of the Union address during an election year. As both an employee and a business owner (and a taxpayer, and a homeowner), I was looking forward to hearing what the President had to say about the economy.
If you watched the speech on whitehouse.gov, you could see an
enhanced broadcast with charts and graphs to support Obama's talking
points. I thought this was a great addition to the speech - the visuals really did put numbers behind the words.
The preview text of the State of the Union speech is here, from Huffington Post.
Here's some of what the President said on business and the economy:
On jobs: Obama says we should turn the unemployment system into a re-employment system that helps train people to get back to work with new skills, with critical involvement by community colleges and less confusing program structure. Other promises on innovation and jobs - immigration reform, the Dream Act, equal pay for equal work, and funding for research, American-made clean energy and biofuel powered fighter jets. He also proposed a Veterans' Jobs Corps to put Veterans back to civilian work after military service.
Obama's Blueprint For an Economy Built to Last is based on returning manufacturing jobs that have been shipped to American cities,
where US employees are more productive than foreign workers. Obama
wants to know what you can do to create jobs here in America. He's encouraging the rich to see a shared responsibility for the future of the country - rather than rewards for right now.
Stop businesses who ship jobs
overseas: Obama wants to use tax incentives to bring jobs back here, and
deny companies any tax incentive to move jobs away. American
manufacturers should get big tax incentives for manufacturing here -
help financing plants and hiring workers. He also wants to ship more US-manufactured products overseas.
On taxes: Warren Buffet's secretary, Debbie Bosanek, who pays a higher tax rate her boss, was seated with Michelle Obama. The President has promised to
"level the playing field" on taxes, renewing the payroll tax cut and taxing people making a million dollars or more annually up to 30%. Can he do this without the support of
Congress?
On mortgages and banking: "Living Wills" for banks in case they should fail, and a chance for homeowners who wouldn't qualify for current mortgage programs to refinance at historically low rates, with banks picking up some of the costs. "It’s time to apply the same rules from top to bottom: No bailouts, no handouts, and no copouts."
The new Unit on Mortgage Origination and Securitization Abuse to
investigate the abuses that contributed to the financial collapse. Let's
hope this one has some teeth - usually recommendations by these kinds
of commissions are voluntary for banks and other bad actors.
Visions: A future with innovation and manufacturing, where responsibility is rewarded and we are innovators in education with dependable long-term prosperity, where everyone gets a fair shot and does their fair share. Obama states these are American values.
Remembrances: Post WWII prosperity, which wouldn't have been possible without strong manufacturing and the huge GI Bill - an enormous government investment in helping veterans prosper. Obama wants to party like it's 1944.
The only problem with all of this: Obama kept saying "Send me a bill" for all of these policies. What are the chances of Congress doing that? If you want Congress to pass any of these bills, click here to locate your Member of Congress and contact them.
My forecast: I sure hope some of this can happen - better mortgages, more manufacturing jobs, equal pay, a ban on insider trading by Members of Congress, consolidated bureaucracy - all of this would help. Not sure how much we'll see before the 2012 elections, though.
Showing posts with label the economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the economy. Show all posts
News this Week: Dilbert, Congress, and K-Mart Angels
What should you be paying attention to this week?
From blogger Sarah Gallagher at Gears and Shifts, some words on employee morale and office culture based on the wisdom of Dilbert.
Your takeaway: It's time to look in the mirror. Are you allowing, fostering, or participating in anything that contributes to poor treatment or poor morale for employees? Are you using resources to benefit the company, or your own convenience? Are you rewarding identical behavior in some people, but not others? Make 2012 the year you treat your employees better and provide opportunities for them to grow. If you've got a bad boss, make 2012 the year you stop responding to bullying and other poor treatment and/or embrace a new opportunity.
As I'm writing this, Congress has finally approved a two-month extension on the payroll tax cut.
Your takeaway: I wrote about this possibility back in August - and how it might make 2012 a more difficult year for pretty much everybody. The Obama administration helped things along with a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #40Dollars - asking Americans to tell Republicans what it would mean to us to lose $40 out of each two-week paycheck. You can find out more about the campaign and what $40 means to some people from this infographic, released by The White House. Let's hope Congress does the right thing and extends the payroll tax cut all the way through 2012.
Finally, in even better news, Secret Santas all over the country are paying off layaway accounts for strapped K-Mart shoppers, and a new study finds that Americans are, on average, more generous that people from any other country, with three out of five giving to charity and two out of five doing volunteer work this year, despite the poor economy. (Syracuse.com and ABC News)
Your takeaway? Who can you help between now and the end of the year? Take some cookies to a friend (or make a new one), walk the dog for an elderly neighbor, or make an extra gift to charity. The world will only get better if we make it that way.
Happy Holidays and thanks for reading!
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| Angel. Flickr user Ewan Traveler. |
Your takeaway: It's time to look in the mirror. Are you allowing, fostering, or participating in anything that contributes to poor treatment or poor morale for employees? Are you using resources to benefit the company, or your own convenience? Are you rewarding identical behavior in some people, but not others? Make 2012 the year you treat your employees better and provide opportunities for them to grow. If you've got a bad boss, make 2012 the year you stop responding to bullying and other poor treatment and/or embrace a new opportunity.
As I'm writing this, Congress has finally approved a two-month extension on the payroll tax cut.
Your takeaway: I wrote about this possibility back in August - and how it might make 2012 a more difficult year for pretty much everybody. The Obama administration helped things along with a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #40Dollars - asking Americans to tell Republicans what it would mean to us to lose $40 out of each two-week paycheck. You can find out more about the campaign and what $40 means to some people from this infographic, released by The White House. Let's hope Congress does the right thing and extends the payroll tax cut all the way through 2012.
Finally, in even better news, Secret Santas all over the country are paying off layaway accounts for strapped K-Mart shoppers, and a new study finds that Americans are, on average, more generous that people from any other country, with three out of five giving to charity and two out of five doing volunteer work this year, despite the poor economy. (Syracuse.com and ABC News)
Your takeaway? Who can you help between now and the end of the year? Take some cookies to a friend (or make a new one), walk the dog for an elderly neighbor, or make an extra gift to charity. The world will only get better if we make it that way.
Happy Holidays and thanks for reading!
News This Week: Facebook Changes, Email Charter, Bank Fees
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| Tito is horrified by BofA. He can still get tuna, right? |
First, Facebook has made some massive changes to the way user feeds look and information is organized. Some of the engagement tools are really cool.
On the other hand, early results are bad for small and medium-sized brands - those with only a few hundred or few thousand fans may find themselves disappearing from fan feeds. Check your Facebook insights to see if your impression numbers are affected. That's what I'm noticing for the corporate Facebook pages I manage. Look for fixes soon - there will have to be workarounds or brands will start giving up on Facebook, which Zuckerberg won't like. (Search Engine Watch)
Next, do you find that email is taking over your time, and not in a good way? I often feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of email that I receive. I am a conscientious person who tries to read everything, but I sometimes find I'm deleting information that may be important because I know I'll never get to it in favor of trying to get to the stuff I know that I have to respond to, which is often more urgent, but less important. Check out the Email Charter, which is trying to change all that. I have to say I'm on board!
Finally, Bank of America is going to start charging customers $5 a month for use of a debit card, starting in 2012. This is as a result of Congress capping the fees that banks can charge retailers for accepting debit card purchases. (Business Insider)
What does this mean for you?
Take a look at how many of your customers are using their debit cards to buy with you - these customers will now either have to pay cash or use a debit card to avoid this $5 fee. It's hard to say what kind of affect this will have - debit cards sure are convenient and $60 a year may not be enough to make most consumers avoid using them. Are people really going to stop using their cards? Early chatter is more oriented around customers boycotting Bank of America, rather than ceasing to use their debit cards. Definitely keep an eye on this one if your customers use debit cards.
Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading! What do you think of this week's news?
News This Week: Target, Twitter, Jobs
What should you be paying attention to this week?
The price of success: Target's Missoni sales event generated more traffic than on Black Friday, and more traffic than its site could handle, locking out desperate Frugalistas for hours. (Consumerist)
Your takeaway: Do you know how much traffic your site can really handle? What's your backup plan? Do you need to expand your bandwidth? Now's a good time to investigate your limits, just in case.
Because knowing is half the battle: In an appeal to businesses, Twitter launches a new analytics tool. The new Twitter Web Analytics will help users understand how their web properties are shared across twitter, how much traffic twitter drives to their sites, and measure usage of the Tweet Button application. (Social Media Today)
Your takeaway: According to this study, Twitter influences more purchases than Facebook, so this is great information to have all in one place. At the moment, the new tool is only available to a small group, but be sure and give it a whirl once it's available to everyone in a few weeks.
The word of the day is "job": Last week, I wrote about the American Jobs Act, which President Obama debuted in a speech on September 8th. This week, Congressional Republicans have drawn a line in the sand about taxes (they don't want to raise them), so it remains to be seen what will happen with the bill. In the mean time, here are a few things you can do to create jobs while Congress gets its deal on.
What are you thinking about this week? Please comment or drop me a line.
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| Sold-out Missoni suitcase. Image: Target. |
Your takeaway: Do you know how much traffic your site can really handle? What's your backup plan? Do you need to expand your bandwidth? Now's a good time to investigate your limits, just in case.
Because knowing is half the battle: In an appeal to businesses, Twitter launches a new analytics tool. The new Twitter Web Analytics will help users understand how their web properties are shared across twitter, how much traffic twitter drives to their sites, and measure usage of the Tweet Button application. (Social Media Today)
Your takeaway: According to this study, Twitter influences more purchases than Facebook, so this is great information to have all in one place. At the moment, the new tool is only available to a small group, but be sure and give it a whirl once it's available to everyone in a few weeks.
The word of the day is "job": Last week, I wrote about the American Jobs Act, which President Obama debuted in a speech on September 8th. This week, Congressional Republicans have drawn a line in the sand about taxes (they don't want to raise them), so it remains to be seen what will happen with the bill. In the mean time, here are a few things you can do to create jobs while Congress gets its deal on.
What are you thinking about this week? Please comment or drop me a line.
News this Week: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
What should you be paying attention to this week?
Whether you agree with his politics or not, I hope you watched Thursday's speech by President Obama.
There are a number of things to think about.
1) If you're a small employer, there's a proposed tax cut for hiring anyone who's been unemployed for six months or more.
2) For manufacturers, the President has proposed making it easier to export your products all over the world.
3) If you're a visionary, Obama wants to make getting patents quicker and simpler.
4) More controversially, the President has called upon the richest of the rich and the largest, most profitable corporations to "do their part" and pay more taxes.
5) For the rest of us, a proposed income tax cut should save most families about $1500 next year.
6) There was also a great marketing angle to this speech. Obama repeated the words "Pass this jobs bill" many times. "Pass this bill now," he said again and again. He clearly messaged what he wanted and why. We can all take a cue from that.
What does this mean for your business?
It's hard to say. Certainly, the Republicans will oppose the plan, but Obama has also employed some strong rhetorical strategy - according to the President, people who are against the American Jobs Act are against building infrastructure, supporting products that are made in the USA by Americans, business tax cuts, and shoring up our educational system so we can be more globally competitive. Watch for a Republican alternative plan building on the prebuttal they already released, coming ASAP.
It will be interesting to see what the American Jobs Act looks like in the end, and how it will be paid for.
What do you think?
We can't end this week without considering how September 11th has affected all of us, our families, our lives, and our businesses. We all have our own memories of that day, and this is a good time to reflect on how we can value each other more and appreciate each other's differences.
Whether you agree with his politics or not, I hope you watched Thursday's speech by President Obama.
 |
| Photo: Flickr user Buggolo |
1) If you're a small employer, there's a proposed tax cut for hiring anyone who's been unemployed for six months or more.
2) For manufacturers, the President has proposed making it easier to export your products all over the world.
3) If you're a visionary, Obama wants to make getting patents quicker and simpler.
4) More controversially, the President has called upon the richest of the rich and the largest, most profitable corporations to "do their part" and pay more taxes.
5) For the rest of us, a proposed income tax cut should save most families about $1500 next year.
6) There was also a great marketing angle to this speech. Obama repeated the words "Pass this jobs bill" many times. "Pass this bill now," he said again and again. He clearly messaged what he wanted and why. We can all take a cue from that.
What does this mean for your business?
It's hard to say. Certainly, the Republicans will oppose the plan, but Obama has also employed some strong rhetorical strategy - according to the President, people who are against the American Jobs Act are against building infrastructure, supporting products that are made in the USA by Americans, business tax cuts, and shoring up our educational system so we can be more globally competitive. Watch for a Republican alternative plan building on the prebuttal they already released, coming ASAP.
It will be interesting to see what the American Jobs Act looks like in the end, and how it will be paid for.
What do you think?
We can't end this week without considering how September 11th has affected all of us, our families, our lives, and our businesses. We all have our own memories of that day, and this is a good time to reflect on how we can value each other more and appreciate each other's differences.
Your Role in Job Creation
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 9.1% unemployment rate in July, 2011, not good news. In some areas of the country, that rate is 20% or more. Don't forget that this rate is calculated using only people who are currently looking for work - people who have given up looking or dropped out of the workforce entirely aren't included. Neither are people who have part-time work but would prefer to work full time. So the true unemployment rate could be far higher.
So what's your role in job creation? What can you and I do to help?
1) If you're able to, hire someone. Even part-time. Even 1099. Even just for one project. Every bit helps.
2) If you really, really can't hire anyone to work for you, think about things you used to hire other businesses to do, that you've started doing yourself for the past few years. Can you farm out some graphic design, accounting work, marketing, or PR to help another business? Again, every bit helps.
3) If your clients are other businesses, how can you provide even better service than you've been providing? If you help your clients grow, then they can do their part in job creation, too.
What about you? What are you doing to help create jobs, even as the economy stays challenging?
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| Photo: Flickr user SahajaMeditation. |
1) If you're able to, hire someone. Even part-time. Even 1099. Even just for one project. Every bit helps.
2) If you really, really can't hire anyone to work for you, think about things you used to hire other businesses to do, that you've started doing yourself for the past few years. Can you farm out some graphic design, accounting work, marketing, or PR to help another business? Again, every bit helps.
3) If your clients are other businesses, how can you provide even better service than you've been providing? If you help your clients grow, then they can do their part in job creation, too.
What about you? What are you doing to help create jobs, even as the economy stays challenging?
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