Milton Friedman on Phil Donahue (1979)

Heard this on the radio on Friday -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWsx1X8PV_A

This is the reason that Milton Friedman won a Nobel Prize in Economics. Taped in 1979, think about the parallels that we're hearing in today's economic and political activity.

Let's stop with the talk about redistributing wealth as a means to solve our our personal economic and social situations.

American Business

I sat in a Starbucks today in Fort Washington, PA, checking email between meetings while on the road. At the table next to me were with two gentleman and a woman. The woman was a sales rep for ice cream shop supplies - ice cream mixes, ice cream cones, yogurt, etc. One guy was the owner/operator and the other was the managing partner.

After the 20 minutes that I eavesdropped on the conversation, she took the order, filled out the paperwork, and set up the account. "Diane" was so professional from start to finish - I actually went out to the parking lot when she left to compliment her.

Here's the best part - while sitting there and watching the two guys talk about their new ice cream shop this Spring, sharing the floor plan with Diane, and oozing excitement about the new venture, it gave me a certain sense of comfort and faith in the American businessman.

Despite Washington D.C.'s best efforts to waste a trillion dollars, the stock market's obvious disdain for the current economic situation, and the constant negative media that bombards every hour, here are two guys sitting in Fort Washington, PA - completely oblivious and thinking of nothing but their ice cream shop in a Starbucks when it's 40 degrees and windy outside.

This is why America is great.

Facebook Terms of Service

Logged into my Facebook account this morning to see:

Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised. For more information, visit the Facebook Blog.

The changes from earlier this month had users worried that Facebook would use their information after canceling an account with them.

I give them credit - they do listen to their users. Though, it would seem that they should try to listen to users before implementing policies like this so they don't appear to be backtracking all the time.

Resources for "The Elevator Pitch"

Students in my Entrepreneurship class are required to produce a 30-second "Elevator Pitch" audio file as part of a business plan assignment each term.

Came across a few resources for those looking for more tips and help on developing the pitch for your business venture:

• TechCrunch's community video project - "Elevator Pitches"

• Dan Primack's blog post on PEHub - "Hey Entrepreneurs: Want Some VC Pitching Practice?"

• Your Elevator Pitch - Couple of good articles/tips

• "The (Perfect) Elevator Pitch" - by Aileen Pincus on BusinessWeek.com

• "Perfecting Your Pitch, Part One: Assume Short Buildings" - by John Hoult at Fast Company.
  

(And a personal hooray - This is my 100th blog post here on StrucTURa!)

New Article posted in Seeking Alpha

In case you missed it, Seeking Alpha posted a recent article I authored:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/119580-can-we-expect-a-springtime-bounce-in-housing-prices

I usually re-post the articles here, but this one was a bit lengthy with lots of graphs, so in the interest of time, I'm simply linking to the article from here.

Enjoy!

Geithner on Lending Levels

And switching over Timothy Geithner's speech this afternoon... He stated that the program proposed is to (paraphrasing) "insure that lending would be greater than without government intervention."

Read: We're putting money in the market so that we can spur lending and open the credit markets.

That's what I thought they were trying to do.

Bernanke on Entrepreneurship

Watching Mr. Bernanke's testimony to the House of Representatives Budget Committee. He just said something very poignant (paraphrasing):

In1930s in US and more recently in Japan, the destabilization of the banking sector made it very difficult for entrepreneurs to get credit and very difficult to grow their business.

What I see in this statement is that business will lead us out of the current economic environment - not the government. Focus on financial market stabilization and business what it's good at - innovate and advance on new opportunities.

That is all.