He reaffirms my beliefs that during times of little prosperity, those seeking more regulation, higher taxes, and protectionism usually get their way.

But once prosperity blows up, the quasi-virtuous policy circle becomes an unvirtuous one as new interest groups come to the fore to exploit an appetite, previously weak, to impose their costly or vindictive wish lists. And even well-meaning policy gets twisted and rendered incoherent.

His thoughts generally state that government cannot act as efficiently as private enterprise and can cause far more harm than good.

Or take the gathering auto bailout: Taxpayer dollars are being thrown at Detroit auto makers to make them “viable,” even as Congress imposes new fuel-mileage mandates requiring them to incur tens of billions in costs unlikely to be recouped from their customers — the definition of “nonviable.”

He then takes Obama’s planned “stimulus” package to task:

Mr. Obama’s troops palpitate with excitement at the prospect of $1 trillion in “stimulus,” though any net benefit to the economy likely will be incidental. Al Gore has thrown out the window any unpopular carbon taxes in favor of direct subsidies to his green energy investments. He sees the moment for what it is — alarm about global warming has degenerated into a pretext. Billions will be diverted from useful purposes to create “green jobs” that deliver no meaningful impact on climate or the accumulation of atmospheric carbon.

Frankly, the government needs to let entrepreneurs takeover. The attempts to create new markets with green regulations will backfire, as they already have with autos and oil prices. Manipulating the free market is like swimming against the Niagra River.

My Mom is the authority on stain removal and seems to always have a unique home recipe. She suggested white vinegar, but unsure of herself she recommended Google’ing. I couldn’t believe I had not thought about it already.

The recipe I found called for fresh lemon juice to be sqeezed onto the stain. Then let it soak for a few mins in warm water. Finally, let it sun dry as the sunlight acts as a bleach.

As I was sprinkling the lemon juice on the stain it began to dissipate. I was stoked! I thought I had ruined a $50 shirt.

Thank you, Mom. And Thank you, Google.

A method for seeing subscriber content for free on the WSJ Online. See an article, click on the Digg link, then click on the story link on the Digg page and all the content will be shown. Pretty sneaky.

How to bypass WSJ.com subscriber wall from michael galpert on Vimeo.

A commodity is a product with little to no difference when compared to competing products. There are many substitutes and therefore many consumers focus on price when making a buying decision. While there are obvious examples like commodity trading in corn and coffee there are the not so obvious. Ketchup is widely available. Perhaps Heinz is the best known brand, but is it incredibly superior to other products? Maybe, but only by a few orders of magnitude.

However, Heinz has survived on its brand and continually charging more than lesser known or generic ketchup. I could easily buy generic ketchup, but I know I am taking a slight risk in giving up taste and the satisfaction of using a known brand to save a few dimes.

Diamonds are also a well known commodity. Why is it that buying the same ring you could buy in a local shop at a Tiffany’s costs three times as much? Is it the blue bag? The feelings generated from buying part of Tiffany’s and bringing it home? The feelings of your girlfriend or wife when she opens the package to reveal the blue iconic brand? The answer is “Yes.”

Based upon my experience and all that I have read on the subject, people buy based on emotion and back it up with logic. In marketing a commodity, one must supply the recipe to create emotion within a buyer and the knowledge which forms the logic.

For instance, take the Sham-Wow infomercial. Sham-Wow is what looks to be chamois cloth made to soak up liquid easily and be continually re-used. The television host does a good job at taking real life situations and demonstrating the product’s uses. The theater created produces the emotion in the buyer.

What happens next is he states openly, “You’re going to spend $20 a month on paper towels anyway.” This is the logic behind the purchase.

Finally, product testimonials are given. This backs up further the logic portion…because other people buy it/use it.

I find myself looking for these components when someone gives a sales pitch to me. It is a bit of a habit now.

I think this is a time of year where hopes and dreams build for the coming year.Unfortunately, some people are looking to the government for their hope and “Change.” My wish is for people to find the hope within themselves and to make the changes they want in their own lives. Don’t plan on the government solving your problems, you WILL always be disappointed.

FDR did not solve the Great Depression and Barack Obama will not solve our current economic disorder. The market will cleanse itself of the filth. Allow it to do its job and find the opportunities that come from it.

There is great personal opportunity around.

One of my favorite quotes of all time is:

It is difficulty that makes what men are.

-Epictetus

Although I don’t contribute to Twitter that much, I am a lurker. I follow 56 people and have not added anyone to that list in some time. Why?

I have found the people I follow contribute to Twitter too much. Guy Kawasaki is a big violator in this regard. Every time a new Alltop link is created, it is tweeted. This makes for a lot of tweets in one day and sucks the air out of the room in Twitterific. I can’t hear the people I want to hear. Still, Guy does have some good tweets every once in a while. So, I don’t want to “unfollow.” What is my solution?

The Twitter Noise Reducer

It is well hidden on the eastern side of downtown in an area of mostly abandoned factories and warehouses. They took on a huge opportunity in unifying the music scene in Cleveland. Judging from last Friday, they have done a good job.

All performers sounded great. Some needed more polishing in their onstage presence, but others excelled. I particularly liked This Is A Shakedown and Ghost Town Trio. I think both could break out. Their sound really resonated with me and I think others might find the same true..

This Is A Shakedown uses a mix of punk, techno, and a lot of synthesizer all put together for a slammin’ good sound. It was unique and interesting, so have a look.

Ghost Town Trio has a killer sound that was catchy, but not too “pop.” I caught myself listening over the weekend a few times. They have some Blink 182 and All-American reject qualities you might be reminded of, but the songs are just good. “I Though You Were” and “Cold Machine” are great!

I could not believe both of these bands have not broken out yet. I’d love to help. Let me know if you want to hear some ideas.

Sorry about the embedded music starting automatically. It is the best I could do in such a short amount of time.

In the analog world is this true? If one’s company makes a product that is a first mover, innovative, and people want it yet it only has a minimal amount of testing, should the company launch?

I suppose every situation is different and as we always said in the marine corps, “situation dictates.” However, what if it were this simple?

On the web, launching a product like ID or some other newfangled web app is going to do little damage if it doesn’t work. The worst case scenario is someone uninstalls your plugin or never comes back to your site. After all, like many consumer apps, it is free. Because there was no investment other than a small amount of time on the consumer’s end, the consequences for the web company are, relatively, not that bad.

On the other hand, consider an arbitrary product like windshields as our real world example. Windshields, Inc (fake company) has a brand new windshield product made of 100% recycled material and slightly cheaper than the price of normal windshields. Incredishield (also a fake company) is a close competitor building a similar product. Is it plausible for Windshields, Inc. to release their product with minimum testing to meet the lowest standards in order to beat their competitors to market? Mind you, they are risking future product failure, their names would be tarnished, and they could go out of business. However, the reward is establishing your company with 100% recycled material windshields just as Xerox is to copiers and Google is to search and the financial windfall that goes with it.

Is this another case of “good enough” being good enough? It could make for an interesting case study.

In the past 25 years much of the American Manufacturing backbone has been displaced to other parts of the world. The best example would be China, where low cost labor, lack of environmental regulation, and quality still continues to grow, at last estimate 9.5% (China’s GDP). However, dealing with China means that the cost of manufacturing must also be added to the cost to ship it the the United States. In the last year, with the price of oil doubling, the cost/benefit of doing business in China has lessened. Alluded to in this article, the cost of transport is hampering globalization.

Combined with lead times for material of 30-60 days, and more people begin to look for other options. Maybe the world is not so flat. American companies are now interested in Central America for the closer proximity, milder political climate, and more favorable currency situation. However, Central America is prone to stong hurricanes, which would be a limiting factor.

As shipping costs grow, demand for oil is likely to fall. If companies make large logistical changes to their business and shift to a bigger Central American strategy, Asia might be the loser. That is, if Central America can keep quality high. I don’t think this will be as big of a problem as it might be with China. Belize City is a two hour flight from Miami. This is compared to New York to Beijing…which is about 20 hours. One trip can be done on a weekend (enjoying the beach a little as well). The other takes about a week for a productive roundtrip and most of the fun in China is tasting the smog. I’d rather the beach personally.

Even though fuel costs have fallen of late, Chinese manufacturers are seeing high levels of inventory. They are giving greater and greater discounts. We shall see what the ramifications are.

When Tiger Woods entered the professional ranks, the number of golfers in the United States swelled. The number of golf courses being constructed increased. That was in 1996.

In 2008, golf is growing much slower and with far fewer people playing consistently. The number of golf courses is still growing. However, people seem to be working harder, devoting more time to kids’ activities, and other pursuits.

Golf is an expensive sport. The costs for 18 holes and a cart are normally $40+++ and the time it takes to play 18 holes is still 4-6 hours (depending upon how fast you play). Golf courses are not only competing for your time, but also for your money.

I ventured out to play 18 on a nearby course I had never played before a while back. I Google’d the course directions and I was off. I still got lost. For some reason, the course spent $5 on a cardboard sign, similar to “Open House” signs, as a way to direct people off the main road and onto the smaller road back to the course. It did not help that the course is within a regular neighborhood and you would never know there was a golf course back there.

Everything changed when I made my way to the clubhouse to pay. I was told by the cashier that if I did our Alma Mater’s athletic cheer then I would receive a discount. He belted out “O-H” and I responded “I-O…UUUU”…

As it turns out, at the previous weekends college football game (Ohio State vs Ohio University), OU fans played off the normal OSU cheer (when we were beating the Buckeyes). I had an OU shirt on. I got my discount and walked out ready for 18. Marketing SHOULD make you feel good.

It was a beautiful day and what a great course at a great price. With as much as this golf course has going for it, one would think a sign would generate enough business to pay for it ten times over. It is amazing when something so simple can be looked over when dealing with day to day issues.

Sometimes pinching pennies results in lost dollars.