The 90/10 Thought

Spoke at both services again this morning on what it means to be part of a transformational community. Still very much challenged by the question: can the 90 look after the 10?

Simply can't be done unless a transformation takes place at the individual level first.  Three thousand people on the day of Pentecost where changed and one aspect of this change was that none had need.

Not communism or socialism at work where people feel coerced into action, but a voluntary response from individuals whose lives had been radically altered.

So what does this mean for me? 

Wall Street CEO Pay

Can you imagine living on a base pay of only $500,000 per annum? A number of years ago CEO pay was 24 times the pay of the average worker. Last year the multiple had soared to 275 times. Core to this country is the belief that a honest day's work deserves a fair wage.

Is $10,000 per week a fair wage for a CEO? How about $2,000 per day?

While families are losing their homes, workers are losing their jobs, and taxpayers are footing the bill for the enormous errors on Wall Street, it would be nice to see bank executives accustomed to $20 million incomes share in the suffering. That is, if you think making $500,000 is suffering.

The down side is that many of the banking leaders will leave the newly nationalized banking industry and for more lucrative positions elsewhere. Depending on your view this may or may not be a good thing.

I think integrity demands that they stay and clean up the mess they created. Maybe a goodwill gesture of $1 annual pay until the mess is fixed would restore their reputations.

I think Obama is doing the right thing forcing the issue. It is a shame that they couldn't work it out for themselves. Poor things.

Rogonomics

My friend Roger is getting himself into trouble by stating the obvious in too candid a way. Have we become so desperate that we do not care how much money the government borrows? We buy from China. They take our dollars, say 'thank you' and then lend our dollars back to us. If the Chinese economy starts falling apart and they have to start raising cash, I would not be surprised if they started calling in the loans from the US government. Wow, that would be a problem.

Has anyone ever successfully borrowed ever increasing amounts of money and managed to get themselves out of debt? Probably not, so why does everyone think this is a great strategy for the government?

Roger, I don't think you are that far off the mark. Hold your ground.

What is going on?

Am I the only person that thinks there is something wrong with giving the banks billions of dollars and zero accountability? It is the same people criticizing on the hill today that approved the package in the first place. Politicians are incredible. Teflon, as in nothing sticks.

One CEO stated today that despite receiving $25 billion, his bank lent the same amount of money in Q4 2008 as they did in the prior year.  what happened to the $25 billion?

And the answer is.....

An interesting question....

Can the 90% take care of the 10%?

What a wild idea / notion. Somewhere as the 19th century ended and the 20th century began, the church abdicated it's social responsibility to the government. Up until the end of the 19th century the church was the social / welfare program. 

So, with unemployment expected to reach 10%, my question is: can the 90 take care of the 10. Can you imagine how the world would be turned upside down by a church that lives a radical message? It will be hard to deliver with so much of the budget tied to buildings and infrastructure, but what if the church broke free of it's existing paradigm and became the 90 that looked after the 10.

Impossible. Really?

Back home in Indy

Arrived back in Indy on Thursday evening. The journey was complete. The amazing thing is no jet lag at all. Tokyo is an interesting place. Some nice food and great tea. Glad to be back home with Fiona.

So, the January job figures were bad and the big question is, when will it all end. Some are already predicting the worst is over. From a business perspective it just doesn't feel that way. I will be surprised if we see any improvement in 2009.

Liverpool et al

Arrived in Manchester on Jan 31st after a lot of drama in the sky. For the first time I was part of an emergency landing. The crew could smell burning in one of the galleys. This resulted in an emergency landing at JFK (New York). It was weird seeing the runway lined with emergency vehicles. Anyway four hours later, we took off again the same plane having taken another 50 passengers on board.

The story behind the 50 passengers was interesting. Delta, in the process of pushing two planes back from the gates at the same time, managed to push them into each other. One was damaged therefore the 50 additional passengers. Oops. Imagine explaining that to your boss. "I don't know what happened. We didn't notice the other plane". They should really make the 777 a little bit bigger and more noticeable.

Even though we were delayed by 4 hours, we still made it to Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon to see Man Utd record a 1-0 vistory over Everton. The difference in quality between the teams was much greater than the score line suggests. My brother in law, Steve, hooked us up with great tickets for the game. The 'us' is Graham and me (plus Spee). We spent the evening after the game at a 16th Century pub in Manchester. Ate 'toad in the hole. Excellent.

On Sunday, we travelled up to Liverpool by train to see Liverpool play Chelsea. Given that Graham is a life long Liverpool supporter, my nerves were on edge. I knew this game could go either way. This was his first time at Anfield and I was hoping /praying not only for a Liverpool win, but that Torres would score.

What a great day. We visited the museum at Anfield, which was a history lesson in all things Scottish. Bill Shankly kicked things off, then we walked past tributes to the myriad of stars that made Liverpool great: Billy Liddell, Ian St.John, Kenny Dalgleish, Graham Souness, Alan Hansen,etc. After the museum tour we made our way to the Legends Lounge where Liverpool great Ronnie Moran was hosting a small pre and post match event. Then we headed off into the stands to see the game and we were not disappointed. See, there is a God in heaven.

Not only did Liverpool win, but Torres scored twice. The atmosphere at Anfield during the singing of 'You'll never walk alone' reminded me of the emotional experience you have during the 1st lap at Indy as a wall of sound moves towards you and the hits you full force.

Truly amazing experience. Next up to bat is an Arsenal game with Alistair.

Serious name dropping here, but none of this would have been possible without my brother in law giving us the Man U tickets and George Gillett giving us the Liverpool experience.

Around the world in a week

I always had the notion that one day I would like to fly around the world. Well I am typing this from the airport in Tokyo on the final leg of an around the world trip. It is definitely not for the faint hearted.

I set off last Friday (Jan 30th) and travel from Indy to Manchester via Atlanta. The second leg of this epic journey was on Tuesday (Feb 3rd) as I travelled from Manchester to Tokyo via Paris. I am now heading back to Indy (Feb 5th) from Tokyo via Atlanta. I thought i would have been trashed with tiredness by now, but not the case. I suppose let's see what happens when i get back later today.

It was a great trip though.

Sorry

I have been remiss over the last two weeks and have not posted to the blog. That will change today.