Change to Plan B

If you are among the many who have lost their jobs, or find yourself living with relatives because of a home foreclosure, it is probably time to change to Plan B, while Plan A is at least temporarily on hold. Plan A was what you wanted to do while you thought that you were in control of your future. Now that you know that you can't always be in control, you have two choices. You can sit around and wait for something to happen, or you can change to Plan B. Even though you aren't doing what you wanted to be doing, you can accomplish a lot with this interim time you have been given. Here are just a few examples: You can spend some quality time and rebuild relationships with those family members for whom you never could find time under Plan A. You can finally get to do some of the things on your Honey-Do list (and save contractor/maintenance cost if you are still in your home, or you can help your relatives with their house if you are a temporary tenant). You can take that course at the local college for fun or to improve your qualifications for a new job. You can volunteer to help at a hospital or food bank to aid people who are worse off than you. (Sometimes this even leads to a new career.) You can approach a realtor or bank and seek a temporary job maintaining foreclosed houses so that they are in good enough condition to be sold. You can work on that art project or invention that you had in the back of your mind.
You are in between desirable situations right now, but don't waste this very valuable time. Right now, you are free to do anything you want. Once you get resituated in a new job and/or house, you will be back on the treadmill, and you will have lost this opportunity to just be yourself. Don't find yourself looking back and wishing you had used this time more wisely. As Omar Khayyam once wrote, "Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been."

Unemployment & the Poor Housing Market: Mutual Solutions?

It's actually possible that unemployment and the poor housing market may be at least partial solutions for each other. Consider the fact that if you are unemployed, along with many others in your area, it is likely that you will have to go somewhere else to find a good job. If you go somewhere else, you will have to get a home there. When you look for that home, you will be helped by the facts that home prices are depressed and interest rates are low. In order to move, you will have to go through the ordeal of selling your existing home, but it is likely that you have more equity in your current home than the amount you will need for a downpayment on your new home. That means that you will have some remaining capital as you start your new job in your new location. Having cash resources will allow you to furnish and remodel your new home as desired. Spending that money to get your new house ready will contribute to improving the economy, which will create more jobs and make more people able to afford a new house. In every transaction, someone spends money to get something he or she wants, and the seller of that product or service gets cash to do the same thing later on. Spending circulates cash and builds up the economy. Spending only cash that you already own builds up the economy more slowly than spending other people's money through loans and credit cards, but it is a lot safer in times like these.

Go with the Flow

If you are among the many who have found themselves laid off from a long-term job, be prepared to welcome change in the future. Companies that are laying off lots of employees are not just trying to limit their economic risk. They are trying to morph themselves into a more viable configuration for the future. In most cases, they will never bring back the same employees that they once considered essential. If they do engage in substantial hiring in the future, they will probably be looking for employees with different skill sets, and employees who will start at the bottom of the compensation ladder, rather than at the top due to seniority. Even now, there are firms and industries that are hiring, and you always have the option of handling your situation by starting up a venture of your own. Your best approach is to face your future as having great but different possibilities from the past. You should network with past associates, and monitor business and national/international news to identify trends toward new kinds of companies and jobs. If you are set to interview a new potential employer or a potential customer for your new venture, take advantage of modern technical capabilities to prepare yourself. In the old days, a smart job applicant would try to get a copy of the annual report for a company at which he was interviewing. Now, you can learn all about that company or potential customer through searching their name and key activities/products on the Web. Do all you can to walk in knowing something specific about the company so that you can engage in knowledgeable conversations with the interviewer. Being able to give them specific compliments about their business is a big plus. It shows your interest, and it gives them the feeling that you will be able to join the team without as much training expense as other candidates. It is a lot easier for potential employers and customers to communicate with people who already know something about their businesses, and it makes the meeting less awkward. There is an element of fear on the part of the employer, because there are many liabilities and hidden costs in selecting improper employees. If you search company information well, there will be more comfort in your interview, and the company's sense of "Stranger - Danger!" will be allayed.

Why "Buy American" Means Something

As we sit in the middle of this depressed economy, the government's hands are tied when it comes to "Buy American" discussions and rules. Because of our participation in the World Trade Organization and other international trade negotiation groups, our government has to take the position that our markets are open to products from any other country, so that other countries will equally allow open sale and distribution of our products. Way back during President Reagan's administration, I attended a meeting on international trade at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where the top U.S. Trade Negotiator was the speaker. During that meeting he talked about our disadvantages in trade because other countries had lower costs than we did. At that time at least the U.S. market was the source of the majority of consumption in the world. When I suggested that we offset cost advantages of other countries by controlling access to our markets, he looked at me as though I was absolutely crazy.

Maybe the government won't talk or think about "Buy American", but individual Americans certainly should. If you buy an American product, the dollars you spend stay in this country and circulate through the hands of many businesses and individuals. If you buy a product from another country, you send most of those dollars (except for the retailer's share) outside of the U.S. financial system, and they circulate through hands in another country. This costs U.S. jobs and endorses the terrible financial bias in favor of short term profits over long term planning and profits. If we had been thinking long term, we wouldn't have our industries (especially automobiles) in the terrible situation they face now. When we consistently run a huge multi-billion-dollar-per-month trade deficit for many years, we find that our country and our stock market have to get funding from other nations to support our economy. Right now, China's government is questioning the ability of the U.S. Government to pay back the money America has borrowed from them. China is also trying to get the dollar replaced by a different currency as the standard currency for settlement in international trade. We have had great advantages in the past because of the strength of our market and our currency. As they both weaken, we have to make decisions with a constant concern for how the countries to which we owe huge amounts of money will react. These are not good trends. Maybe, as an individual, you have bought goods from other countries because of lower prices, perceived status, or even technical preference. I suggest that if we all keep up such practices, we will undermine our future standard of living and even our ability to negotiate deals and treaties from a position of strength. Americans have the opportunity to guarantee that their country remains strong if they take the American product and service options when they are purchasing in the marketplace. Back when Britain was the greatest international power, there was the common expression, "penny wise and pound foolish". Look where that approach got them. Don't take the approach that a present bargain has no connection to a strong future. If American firms are supported, they will achieve greater volumes of units sold, reduced costs, and increased technology. All of these things will benefit you in the long run.

Now Is the Time for All Good Men & Women...

...to think about what they would most like to be doing. Some people have time to think about this because they are out of work or retired. Others have to dream in small intervals between their many daily tasks. Use the Internet as a great big Dream Machine. With zero or very little up-front cost, you can set up a blog or a web site and present yourself to the world as whatever it is that you would like to be. Then, you can search the web for the additional knowledge that you would need to be that new identity, and you can communicate to or with others in that field. For instance, if I were to pull out of the air a desire to be a chef specializing in Chinese food with a Mexican twist to it, I might set up a blog or a web site called Chinexico. Then I could study both Chinese and Mexican cooking and test out some recipes such as Sweet and Sour Tamales, or Egg Rolls with Flour Tortilla wrappers. If the recipes turned out to work well, I could publish them on my site, try writing a new Chinexican cookbook, or open a specialized restaurant that someday might turn into a chain of such places. This particular dream might not be too farfetched, because tortillas and egg roll wrappers and mu shu pancake wrappers are all quite similar. Some Chinese restaurants use very hot peppers in their cooking as do Mexican restaurants. Both ethnicities use rice (arroz)...You can try out your dream in any category you want, but you will probably need a twist on what is already available in order to make your innovation something special and something about which you can get to know more than most others. This approach gives you a fun enterprise which could turn out to have some economic or at least self-confidence value. It also might turn out to be something that is worth noting on your resume as you look for new work. If you are out of work and looking for a new position, this exercise will give you something useful to say that you have been doing since leaving your last job. It is easier to land a new job if you haven't had a long empty period since your last one.

Write Right Now

Why do writers write? There are many more reasons for writing than there are for publishing. Writing is an enterprise and an adventure and a chance for immortality. Some people make money from their writing, but most do it for other reasons. I admit to several motivations. I want to leave some trace of my existence and thought processes behind after I have gone on to whatever lies beyond life on earth. I find that I think differently when I write down my thoughts and have to make each new sentence have some logical relationship to the one that preceded it. I want my children to understand the part of me that I have never explicitly expressed. I want to create something that wasn't there before. I want to record and appreciate history.

If you are among the many thousands of people who have found themselves without a job during this economic downturn, consider the possibility that your period of unemployment could be a valuable opportunity to try something new and different. Rene Descartes said, "I think. Therefore, I am." All of your life you have had your own unique perspective on the world. Nobody else sees the world through your eyes. Here is your chance to do something special with your time of unemployment, rather than drifting through it just waiting and worrying. For at least one hour each day, sit down with pen and paper or laptop and write something. Your writing might take the form of letters, or poems, or remembrances to share with your children. You may choose to make it part of your job search by using it to network with others. You may even find it to be something so pleasurable that you will want it to continue after you are back in the working world. For most of our working lives we are tied to the details and objectives of our jobs. Don't look now, but you are free to think and write about anything you want. Go and create.

Spring Upward

This morning, we finally made it out of winter and into spring. I think that I've seen enough indicators to be cautiously optimistic that the economic trends are springing upward too. The stock market is a leading indicator, and it has started to look mildly but consistently positive. I have been to car dealers where I have seen more people at least looking. I have seen a few "Sold" signs on houses and more realtors bringing potential customers for house tours. There are even some repaired potholes on my neighborhood streets (Some, but nowhere near all of the holes are repaired.). I know a lot of people who are taking major spring break vacations with their kids, and companies are again sending people on business travel. Smaller local banks are lending, and companies are extending credit terms. The big remaining obstacles are the major banks and insurance companies getting liquid again. The stockbrokers should be doing well because they make as much from a trade in a downward market as they do from a trade during a market gain. So, let the sun shine in and warm things up gradually.