Kate O'Sullivan, CFO Magazine
October 1, 2008

World is facing a natural resources crisis worse than financial crunch

The future Prez/ his lieutenants can keep the following in mind: (1) Two planets need by 2030 if we continue "business as usual" (2) Humans using 30% more resources than sustainable. This is from an article that appeared on the Guardian. The link to the article is:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/29/climatechange-endangeredhabitats

Posted by Ajith Sankar | Oct 31, 2008 9:59 AM ET

How will the voter's respond.

My concern isn't how the CFO's are going to vote, but rather how the Sarah's Palin?s "Joe Six-Pack and the "Hockey Mom" groups are going to vote. The economic interpretation from the uninformed or the selectively informed voter will decide the election. The Bush Administration policies deserve a lot of credit for the current mess.

Inflation has to be the number-one worry for the country as it will become politically advantageous to embrace inflation as the magic pill to grow us out of our economic problems. I disagree that companies are going to raise prices on commodities, because I see Freight cost, Oil prices and Steel prices rolling back already in response to lower demand and increased global supply. Greed isn?t isolated to Wall Street, but as consumer attitudes change around the world, the manufacturers will need to adjust their Greed Level backwards or become subject to opening the door to new global competition. The weak dollar has been the best stimulus my industry has seen in seven years and I can truthfully say I don?t have an issue with supporting a reasonable priced dollar because it will create more good paying middle class manufacturing jobs than any other economic stimulus the government can create. The artificially high oil prices that were blamed on the weak dollar will settle within acceptable limits once the price of oil stabilizes.

You can not tax you way to prosperity and if the capital gains tax is raised it will have a devastating impact on investment philosophy. Raising taxes on small business will curb spending on expansion by 75% from current levels. Pre-Reagan my business was confronted with the issues of trying to accumulate enough cash flow from after tax dollars to grow the business and to service our debt load. Had it not been for Ronald Reagan?s tax cuts, I can say with confidence that my company would not have had the growth we have had, nor would we have had the ability to sustain ourselves through the tough markets. The AMT has been a large theft of expansion funds during many years of my business cycles depending on the natural volatility of how cash flow events develop during the year.

Here we are thirty-five years after the first energy crisis and still waiting for an energy plan. It goes beyond party lines and into the world of the keeping the political contribution machines primed that have caused us to lack any energy policy. The Energy cabinet position is so damn important that I can?t say who sets in that position. I am a proponent of all-of-the-above and would look to the states to create and encourage energy development incentives that fit there state?s strategy within their respective markets. Ohio is focusing heavily on Wind Power and it makes logical sense for Ohio.

The only politically correct situation I see currently is for the members of the House and the Senate to take responsibility for the mess they created and apologize to the American people, and then resign from office.

Posted by Jerome Meyer | Oct 6, 2008 1:38 PM ET