Small Business Boomers

Monday I’ll start a gig as an auditing consultant.  I’m working through a temp agency who likes to place people with a high end skill set regardless of age, specifically Resource Global Professionals.  I’m sure that there are other similar types of outfits around.  I just happen to click with these folks.  When you can’t get past the gatekeepers in HR, using a temp agency can be a successful strategy.
Anyway, that is my last piece of information to pass on to you Boomers as I leave the b5 team.  Thanks for reading my pieces and good luck.
Jim Norton

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You’ve know about investment bubbles.  We’re are all living through the results of the housing bubble.  Of course with the bursting of the housing bubble there is now a new bubble in commodities.  It started in oil, but has grown into metals and food.
How does this start?  Bubbles start when your pension fund and your 401K mutual funds start looking for higher returns.  That is not a bad thing.  Just like securitization of home mortgages is not a just bad thing at it’s base.  It’s disastrous in the extreme when it becomes inflated into a “bubble.”
So, what is with the …read more

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There is a shortage of containers for shipping goods from the U.S. to other countries.  Shipments are backed up for 3 months on refrigerated containers.  The trade deficit for the past month is at its lowest level since 2001.  Gas consumption is down substantially.  The dollar seems to be holding at about 150 Euros.  India seems to be running out of cheap labor to support its own economic boom.  Like the song says, “The times they are a changin’.”
Well, that’s good news, because there is always money to be made in changing times.  You just need to be sharp enough …read more

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I got a phone call the other day from an automated calling system.  It played me a recorded message.  An unnamed credit card company was about to raise the interest rate on my credit card.  This was my final warning.  The only way I could stop them was to press 1 and talk to a representative.
I really didn’t care because I pay my credit balances off in full every month, but I thought this was a very sophisticated scam.  It could catch people unawares and get their credit card number.
So, be aware.

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In today’s Wall Street Journal, David O’Reilly, CEO of Chevron, talks about some very hard energy facts, page B1.  We all know them, but we don’t really like to hear them out-loud. 
Netted out, he states that we are stuck with our current energy technology for the decades to come.  If we could start today to re-do the energy infrastructure, regardless of cost, it would take a generation, 25 years, to change over to something other than oil, gas and coal.  By the way, we don’t have the money or the technology to meet these new methods of energy delivery and production.  That is …read more

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It seems that each of us in the U.S. has 19 feet of retail space allocated for our use.  Historically we should have no more than 10 feet of retail space per person.  So, we are overbuilt by 90%.  Not a good sign for retailers or those who own retail property.  For the moment retail is expensive.
There is a realtor in Coral Gables, Florida who takes people around in a green bus to view distresses properties.  I heard this on NPR.  Seems some folks think that distressed property in Florida is now cheap.  Tough call.  Economists who study the real estate …read more

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“The chain-link gate yowled like an angry tomcat in the watery light of dawn.”  This is the first sentence of a book by a “New York Times bestselling author.”  I can’t say that I’ve seen a more hack-kneed or trite opening to a book since Snoopy wrote one.  There follows a number of quotes lauding the abilities of the author and the series of books, all marketing BS.  If you are a writer, and I like to think that I am, you wonder how this book got published.
Okay, give the guy another 25 pages.  Maybe it’s just a bad start.  After …read more

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If you feel that you have an age discrimination case you need to talk with your local Federal office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  They have a very good process to help you determine if you have a case under the law.  They will advise you and take action if they feel you have a good case.
People always say that you’ll never get another job in your field if you invoke the law.  If your experiencing consistent age discrimination, what have you got to loose.
If you’re out of work, you have plenty of time on your hands.  Get involved in government.  …read more

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On April 28th Eureka Ranch Technology Ltd. will launch a registry site where researchers and inventors can post their ideas. The site is planeteureka.com.  The purpose of the site is to offer innovations to people and companies who can develop posted ideas into marketable products.
The reasoning is that small businesses don’t have much money for research and development, but they are very good when it comes to bringing new ideas to market.  So, the site offers new, underdeveloped ideas to small businesses.  The site has some big name backers: Best Buy, Department of  Commerce, Proctor & Gamble.
It is a good idea to …read more

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I write the occasional for the local newspaper, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, so I tend to read the paper.  Today there was another letter about job discrimination against those over 45.  It’s real it happens all the time.  I have a neighbor who is a head hunter and he told me outright that employers tell him never to send a resume of someone older than 45.  It’s against the law, but very difficult to prove.
That leads me to a question.  If you and I have a good chance to live to be over 100, what are we going to do …read more

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