So What Did The Birth of Christ Mean to You?

Christmas, as a holiday, is now in the history books. The economics are a statistic (good, bad, or indifferent). Time to move on. To what? I don't want to sound like one of those angry fundamentalists who are screaming "Put Christ in Christmas!" until December 25 and then move on to another seasonal cause. But I do want to suggest that while the holiday is past, on this day after Christmas it might do well to stop and consider what happened the day after the original Christmas. The Son of God was a day old. He had been born and now had lived his first day. The point is that he was real and, some 33 years later, he would live his last day and die in order to provide redemption to humanity. Does that mean anything to you?

Christmas Giving

This year, rather than give the traditional Christmas "junk" to clients (mugs, dinners, popcorn, whatever) it seemed more fitting to the season and to the times to give something to charity in their name. So, this year, Jholdas contributed to International Micro Enterprise Development (www.imed-online.org). IMED works among the poorest of the poor around the world in some very hard to get to places. Their volunteer network teaches and funds micro-businesses for the unemployed where the unemployment rates are 20-50% (and sometimes even higher)! We encourage all of you to consider a year end gift to a charity or ministry. It's a better use of money and it makes a real difference long after the cheeseballs are molded and thrown away. Merry Christmas!

Bailout-Mania

What is a bailout? It's either something you do for a sinking ship or something you do for someone in jail? Either way, it's NOT something you do for companies that have repeatedly failed to live up to the requirements of fundamental business, failed to look after the benefit of their shareholders, caved in to political/union pressure for decades, catered to greed and avarice that would make Gordon Gecko proud. Now our politicos (I can't call them leaders) are running scared and throwing our money (or money they are printing and using to devalue ours) at a problem that should be left to the "mercy" of the market! If Wall Street can figure out a path forward (which I believe they can) and if Detroit can figure out how to make cars America wants (and I'm not sure about this one), then they should. If they cannot, then let them file Chapter 11 and reorganize like many before them.

The Big Things First

Why, when we are seeking to cut costs in tough times, do we waste energy drilling down into little (or relatively little) things--the proverbial coffee supply or a couple of temporaries in the warehouse? We aren't going to get any significant results by concentrating "dollar time" on "nickel results." What are the big things? The obvious things? The sacred cows? If you're going to cut, get benefit from the effort.