Doom and Gloom or Something to Consider?
I don’t know about you, but I have found the last couple of years of our economy painful, but fascinating. We are truly living in the midst of a historic event.
Rumors of widespread panic, drops in housing and equities around 50%, wild runs in commodities only to come crashing down again.
While there is persistent hope, I believe our collective success demands that we understand reality.
Below is a link that compares what is happening globally to the great depression. Most of the comparisons that have been done have been comparing the US economy – this takes a global view, and it puts things in perspective.
Take a couple minutes to review, and let me know your thoughts.
Missing 17 year old girl in San Diego: Chelsea King
Hi friends,
Attached is a letter from parents of a 17 year old girl who has gone missing in San Diego county. The family are acquaintances of one our our IPP board members.
Please pray and pass this along to your friends and neighbors. Knowing enough about human trafficking and the possibilities out there, I just want to encourage us all to keep our eyes open and our hearts in prayer for Chelsea.
Thank you,
Shannon Keith
International Princess Project
800.430.6451
http://www.intlprincess.org
_____________________________________
Subject: Chelsea King
Our beautiful daughter, Chelsea King, has gone missing. She is one of those
GREAT kids. The ones that have HUGE dreams that make all of us smile. When she
walks into a room, she lights it up with her energy. She is a 17 yr old Senior
at Poway high school, currently taking 4 ap classes and carrying a 4.2 GPA. She
is a very accomplished french horn player who plays in her school band as well
as for the San Diego youth Symphony. She volunteeers her time through her peer
counseling group at high school to assist others when they need help. She needs
your help now.
I am asking that everyone that reads this forward it to your entire database of
friends, family and work. Additionally I need your help in building a campaign
to keep awareness focused on finding our daughter. I am hoping that I can create
shirts, cards, posters, websites, anything you can think of to keep her in the
eyes of the public. I do not want to limit this to San Diego-
I’ve attached a flyer and a picture we are handing out- please print it and do
the same. Chelsea is a very strong, resourceful girl. Her future is unlimited,
we just need to get her back. Thanks for all your prayers for Chelsea’s safe
return. It means everything to me and my family.
A live update from Haiti: Live update from Kristen Howerton
Below is a real life experience from a friend, Kristen Howerton, who was in Haiti adopting a new child when the earthquake hit. She is sleeping with her two babies in the courtyard of the US Embassy tonight.
Please pray for those in need:
(day 1 – Tuesday)
Last night a massive earthquake hit Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, where I am visiting our adoptive son. I am still reeling. The reports I’ve heard are saying it was a 7.4. I’m finding that hard to believe, having been through many an earthquake in my day living in California. It felt like nothing I have ever experienced.
At about 5pm, we were getting ready to head out for dinner. I had Karis strapped in her infant car seat, and Keanan was playing in the backyard. I ran upstairs to grab my purse. On the way down the stairs, the house started shaking violently. It was shaking so hard that I had to grab on to the railing to make it down. The ground was pitching and tiles were flying off the walls. I could see cracks forming in the walls, and it was difficult to even see from shaking. It sounded as if a helicopter was landing on top of the house. I made it down the stairs, ran to grab the carseat, and then ran outside, where the shaking continued. Outside we could hear people screaming, and though it was less than a minute, it felt like an eternity. The people in the streets were panicking, and we saw two women in towels, who must have run from the shower.
It’s startling what goes through your mind at a time like that. My first thought was getting Karis to safety, which I knew would be outside. Thank God I was not holding her as I went down the stairway. I was also scrambling trying to figure out what was going on. The shaking and noise was so extreme that I thought for sure it could not be an earthquake. I have never heard of Haiti being hit with an earthquake, so I was assuming something else was going on. I thought maybe the island was being bombed. I also had some thoughts about Armageddon – it felt like a disaster movie. By the time I got outside I thought the ground might even open up . . . that’s how hard it was shaking. Mostly, I just knew that it was bad, and I was very scared. The pendant lights in the house were swinging, and one fell down. The kitchen cabinets lost all their contents, and there was glass everywhere. Dressers, lamps, pictures . . . all on the floor. A table even collapsed.
Once we got outside, those of us in the house gathered and made sure everyone was okay. About ten minutes later, another earthquake. This was not as bad as the first, but still worse than any I’ve been through. These aftershocks continued through the night. I’m told at least 13 of them measured above a 4. It felt like they were coming every 20-30 minutes for a while. We were all pretty traumatized by the first quake, but the continuing shaking was extremely stressful. It felt like it would never end, and it was hard to feel safe no matter where we went. We gathered in front of the house so that we were clear of anything that could crumble. I tried to compose myself so that we wouldn’t freak out the kids any further, but it was difficult. I was fighting back tears with each new tremor, and wondering when it would stop and how we would get through the night.
We sat outside for a long time, and people stopped by to check in. We started getting a clearer picture of the devastation, and of how fortunate we had been. Buildings in Haiti do not need permits, and many are not structurally sound. Even in the nicer neighborhood we were in, many houses caved in. John McHoul stopped by to report that all of the kids in both orphanages were okay, which was a huge relief. Troy Livesay went out several times to check on others – you can follow his twitter feed at http://www.twitter.com/troylivesa
Troy and Tara have been receiving emails from people in the states wondering about loved ones. It has been very heavy. Thankfully some of them were found alive. I know that there are many, many people in this city who did not survive. The nation’s palace has collapsed, as did many major buildings. This is a devastating loss and my heart is heavy for so many families who are unsure right now.
I am very cognizant of how fortunate we are, and how narrowly we missed disaster by being in the right kind of building. It is heady to think that I owe my life right now to a Haitian contractor who didn’t cut corners during construction. I am still walking around in a daze. The big tremors have subsided at least for a bit – the last one was several hours ago. But we are still feeling a lot of intermittent shaking. It’s so unsettling. Last night was HARD. We debated sleeping outside because we were all so scared. I ended up sleeping on the bottom floor and a couple times grabbed Karis and ran to the door because the shaking was so bad.
Keanan is still with me, and seems unfazed by the whole thing. I’m sure I appear very stressed and I’m trying to make the best of this time with him. At the same time, I am desperate to get home and miss my husband and family terribly. I can’t wait to hug my kids.
I am also feeling stressed because Karis is sick. She’s been vomiting a lot, and it doesn’t seem like anything major, but I would just like to be back in the states in case in gets worse. I was already debating leaving early because she is sick, and now there is no way of getting any medical treatment. Hopefully (probably) she is fine and just has a stomach bug. Troy and some of the other Heartline staff spent a good part of the night at a makeshift clinic treating the injured. There are so many seriously wounded. I really have no way of knowing, but from the little I’ve seen I think the impact on Port-Au-Prince will be similar to the impact Katrina had on New Orleans. However, the country of Haiti has absolutely no resources to cope with something like this. People in the states with access to the news and internet probably have more information than we do. The city electricity is out and probably will be for some time. The Livesays are worried there may be diesel shortages following, and there is certainly not enough hospital beds to treat the sick.
I have tickets to fly out tomorrow but I don’t know if the airport will be operating (update – AA flights cancelled). I’m sure it will be a mob scene once it opens. Another fear that many have expressed is the tendency for things like this in Haiti to result in rioting or looting. I’m hoping that does not happen but I know that there will be many people angry people who do things out of desperation, as well as many fighting to leave the country in the next few days. Ironically, the first time I visited Haiti was in 1992, during a political coup d’état, and there was a similar scene as everyone tried to leave the country. I’m not looking forward to repeating that.
So far, I’ve been seeing people coming together. Last night about 200 people in this neighborhood gathered in a large field, and I could hear them singing worship songs as I tried to sleep. At every tremor, the singing got louder. We also heard that some streets shut down lanes of traffic to allow people to sleep away from buildings. As we walked this morning, it seemed like most people were outside, wanting to avoid being near anything that could fall or crumble. I know that the hospitals are in bad shape and that some doctors and nurses left their shifts, but I also know that other doctors have been setting up clinics.
I am exhausted. I haven’t showered since Monday morning and haven’t slept much since before the half-marathon. I’m trying to keep my perspective and remain grateful despite the circumstances. This is a rattling experience for me but it has been disastrous for many.
Please pray for the people of Haiti, and for the many families who will be grieving their loss at this time.
Is Social Media a Fad?
A great video that shares a fast moving array of statistics related to Social Media, its growth and penetration in Society.
Karen provides some good tips for how to leverage LinkedIn:
Here’s her top 5 list:
1. Join several groups that are relevant to your interests, industry, and background. LinkedIn lets you join 50 groups. As Karen states, “if the group has little discussion, dump it and find a new one.” Discussion boards within groups are a great tool for learning and for generating key contacts through LinkedIn.
2. Update your profile daily. You can change your status text, upload a new photo, add a contact, change your work experience, etc. When you update your profile, you show up on the home page updates of every one of your LinkedIn connections.
3. Participate in group discussions and add something of value. Sure, you can reply to questions or comments just to get your name in the discussion, but you’ll create a more positive lasting impression if you reply meaningfully. Otherwise your wasting your time as well as others’.
4. Join one of the open networking groups and NEVER select “I don’t know” when you get an invite from someone in that group. Instead, if you really don’t want to connect with that person, select “Archive.” When you click “I don’t know”, you’re putting a red flag on that account. At the same time, when you invite someone else to connect, make sure that you tell them to select “Archive” if they don’t wish to connect. You don’t want red flags on your account either.
5. Check out who has viewed your profile every day. Then click on those profiles. Clicking on profiles places you in their “recently viewed” section and increases your LinkedIn ranking.
Seth’s Blog: The myth of big salaries (it’s all marketing)
I couldn’t agree more with Seth’s take on big salaries:
The failed bankers on Wall Street have been whining that if they have to cut bonuses and salaries dramatically, they’ll be unable to recruit great talent, and they need great talent to fix the situation.
And for years, boards have been claiming that they need to pay CEOs $50,000,000 salaries in order to recruit the very best for their companies.
Jamie Dimon at Chase said, “It’s possible someone’s going to walk in my office and say, Jamie, I have a family. I can’t afford to live that way.”
This, of course, is nonsense.
After a million dollars or so in salary, the absolute amount that a person is paid has no real impact on their life. They can’t eat more meals in a day or wear more shoes. What matters to the manager is the relative amount. How much more would I make over there? Why does that company pay its CEO more than my company pays me?
via Seth’s Blog: The myth of big salaries (it’s all marketing).
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Protected: BVell’s March Madness Pool
Stocks Rally While Big Companies Fail
When the Spanish Galleons came back from the New World with cargoes of gold and silver coins, the Spaniards thought they’d hit the jackpot. All of a sudden, Iberia had plenty of money. Historians report that the Spanish neglected their fields and their manufactures; now they had easy money to spend. Prices rose quickly. Then, when the treasure ships stopped coming, the Spanish were broke. Spain – and Portugal too – went into a decline that lasted four centuries.
In the late 1990s, America got in the habit of getting shiploads of stuff from Asia – and paying for it only with pieces of green paper. Pretty soon, Americans too neglected their own factories – though not their fields. Let the Asians sweat, they said. We’ll think!
Not much serious thinking has taken place in the United States of America for the last 20 years. Instead, people preferred comforting illusions and conceited claptrap. We have the ‘strongest, most dynamic economy the world had ever seen,’ they congratulated themselves.
Of course, you don’t need to think – not when you ship is coming in. But now that the ship is sinking you’d expect people would put on their life jackets and their thinking caps. Nope. Now they look to the government for the free money. Yesterday’s news told us that Congress is now spending away $1 billion per hour.
Want a stunning figure? Half of Americans now say they are only one month or less away from not being able to meet their financial obligations if they were to lose their job — just two paychecks or less. And of these, more than half — 28 percent of all Americans — say they could not survive financially for more than two weeks without their current job.
This disturbing data comes courtesy of the 2009 MetLife Study of the American Dream, released Monday, which looks at how the financial crisis has affected the American Dream and consumer perceptions. It’s all the more disturbing considering that unemployment in the U.S. has already surged to 8.1 percent, with 651,000 jobs lost last month alone.
A Bloomberg News survey of economists released Tuesday morning found that economists now expect unemployment levels in the U.S. to reach 9.4 percent this year alone, and remain elevated through at least 2011 — prospects that paint a potentially grim picture for the U.S. economy in general, and for housing in particular. Traditionally, borrower defaults are driven by macro-economic factors such as increased rates of unemployment.
Brian Vellmure's Blog 