JAM Views

2020-01-27T03:46:00.003-08:00

TIME TO REBALANCE?
You've likely heard that the stock market is the only store in which consumers refuse to buy products on sale, and instead demand to pay full price, if not more than for full price, for all of their purchases. It's more fun to by growth stocks like Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google when all of our friends are buying them also. It would seem illogical to not! But, what does JAM VIEWS continually instruct us? Most everyone, especially the experts, are more often wrong than right. It's just this human nature which makes life on the planet so damn interesting. If we knew the right answers, and always made the correct decisions, what fun would that be?
This week I want to help us, one more time, understand value stocks (value investing) versus growth stocks (growth-momentum investing). Jason Zweig, The Intelligent Investor columnist, claims that the boring value stocks "are nearly the cheapest they've ever been compared with growth companies." Growth stocks have outperformed value stocks over the past decade "by one of the longest and widest margins on record." But, let's also be clear on an important point that these value companies are not wildly inexpensive historically relative to their own earnings and assets. They are wildly cheap only relative to the growth stocks' expansive valuations. Make sense?
So, even if an investor was currently bullish on the stock market, a swap, or partial swap, into more value stocks or value funds might be prudent. Let's look at some startling facts (remember, JAM VIEWS prefers facts and statistics instead of media and government narratives). Likely surprising to you today, Grandma's boring value stocks have outperformed the cool growth crowd for the majority of time since the 1930's, according to a recent report released by Research affiliates, LLC, based in Newport Beach, California [Tip: If visiting Newport, make sure you golf the Pelican Club overlooking the Pacific and then settle up all wagers across the street at the Twin Palms Night Club - it can be life-changing! But, I digress...].
But, here's where it gets interesting. According to Savina Rizova, head of research at Dimensional Fund Advisors, when growth has historically outperformed value for a decade, in the ensuing decade value stocks outperformed growth by more than 8% a year! Even when value lagged growth by 3% per year for a decade ending in 1998, it completely turned with value outperforming by 6% per year for the next decade. 6% or 8% more a year for 10 straight years has a huge effect on a 401k or 529 Plan.
Now, if or when that happens again soon, what will most real humans with 401k's do, as well as most 24-year old Bloomberg financial reporters advise? They will continue to buy high, sell low, and never create substantial wealth. They check the printout from the HR Director, and then buy all of the "good" ones (best PAST 5 or 10-year track records). Then, after a few years they sell those and buy the new "good" ones, because they just can't stand listening to their spouse one more night tell them what the guy on CNBC said! Trust me on this one. We had the privilege of serving over 3,000 clients, and the most important rule we learned was, and is, "First, do no harm."
So what are growth stocks/funds, and what are value stocks/funds? When dealing with mutual funds or ETF's, instead of individual stocks, as 98% of us should be, decisions are easier since the fund name may actually include the terms "Growth" or "Value." If not, the 1-pager tear sheets will list the top stock holdings. In simple terms, growth stocks have high earnings growth rates, trade at higher multiples to earnings (P/E ratios), and are expected to continue or accelerate their growth rates in the future. Also, they tend to be the "cool" companies with the new products, services and software. These are the companies in the news and make for enjoyable cocktail party banter.
Value stocks tend to trade at lower multiples to earnings, grow slower, and possibly pay nice quarterly dividends {Tip: Do you ever wonder why people choose to hold long-term savings in 1/2% bank accounts instead of in blue chip stocks with 4% dividends?]. Value stocks may be utility stocks (Duke Energy, Dominion Energy) or consumer durables and non-durables (Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Ford), and many times the lines may blur as previous growth companies mature and slow their growth rates but increase their stability, such as maybe McDonalds or Disney.
Remember that in the stock market, if you are the only one who is right, you are wrong. So, in value investing many times you must be patient, very patient, before valuations correct themselves. This why most real people cannot stay the course. They can't stand to listen to Watercooler Joe's harassment on why they are wrong one more day!
Speaking of long waits, value investors are now moving into more Japanese stocks after their underperformance for thirty years. In 1987, Japanese blue chips traded at more than 50x earnings. Today the Nikkei 2255 trades at 14x earnings, while the U.S. S&P500 trades at 20x earnings. It's confusing math for most of us to get a feel for what that means, so for example: If Nike earns $5 per share in net earnings, then in the U.S. that stock would be trading at a price of $100 per share. If Sony earns the same $5 per share, in Japan it would be trading at only $70 per share. Wall Street Journal writer Peter Landers asks us to consider Toyota Motor Corp. only trading at 10x earnings, or Honda Motor Co. where today "you get the whole motorcycle business for free." Finally, remember our lessons that no one, and no computer, has ever been accurate predicting up and down stock markets, so timing never works. Yet, modest tweaks and tilts and leans allow you to potentially maximize returns and minimize the effects of those unavoidable miserable turns. The main key is to stop allowing human nature, chemicals and emotions to push you in the opposite direction, like the rest of the crowd.
Resist the crowds. Your place is not among them. Time for a tweak?

"Those held in highest public esteem are neither the great artists nor the great scientists, neither the great statesman nor the great sports figures, but those who master a hard lot with their heads held high." - Austrian Public -Opinion Poll, "Man's Search For Meaning"

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com

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2020-01-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

LEAD A LIFE OF SIGNIFICANCE IN 2020
Since we've spent the last two years learning how to outperform our competitors and generate significant wealth, let's use some of this power to have a significant impact on the world this year. "To be loved by our friends and feared by our foes!" One of the modules I would teach in our Rookie Broker Training Program focused on getting involved in charities and community organizations. Our fun maxim was, "We must first save the world so that when we own it, it's a beautiful place we can be proud of!"
Whether through philanthropy, capitalism, one-on-one, or leading a movement, use all of your JAM VIEWS knowledge to make an impact out there. Be significant. Be relevant. Make sure it matters that you were here. Let's address some possibilities, as well as the examples of a few amazing overachievers who have recently moved on to their next adventures.
Private giving in the U.S. is up approximately 8% over the last year with Americans voluntarily giving away around $430 billion in 2019. Wow! [Wait a minute, you mean to tell me that when taxes are lowered not only do the Government tax receipts rise, but private giving to those less fortunate greatly increases also?]. A great misperception in our country today is that the vast majority of giving comes from the Gates and Waltons of the world, but this couldn't be more wrong. Karl Zinsmeister (great name!), author of the Almanac of American Philanthropy and editor in chief of Philanthropy magazine, states, "The lion's share of America's vast philanthropy comes from ordinary citizens, 100 million of whom make charitable gifts annually, with the average donating around $3,000. In addition, 77 million citizens volunteer time and labor. This broad generosity powers 1.5 million independent nonprofits." Karl must be a JAM VIEWS reader because he continually stresses, "Studies show that philanthropic efforts are more effective than government in the amount of social repair accomplished per dollar." Or as we question, "Why would we raise taxes, lower philanthropy and give the money to the incompetent bureaucracies to redistribute for us?"
For the last few years I have researched the organ donor problem as much as possible, as it appears to be such a "fixable problem" if capitalism and free markets were enabled. Of course, there are a multitude of ethical, moral and logistical challenges to overcome, but didn't we also have some guys take a walk on the moon? Over 40,000 people could be possibly saved yearly with kidney donations alone, and you and I each have one extra to spare!
As I have learned, the network and self-interest incentives are at the root of our underperforming system for transplants (sound familiar?). But, the Trump Administration recently proposed new rules to make transplants easier. One will increase eligible reimbursements for donors to include travel, lodging, lost wages and child-care expenses during post donation recovery. Second, the 58 organ procurement organizations will now be evaluated not only on survival rates, but also on the rates at which they transplant available organs. This will possibly encourage nearly 75,000 more transplants a year to give more people a fighting chance. This is significance.
Fazle Hasan Abed, a finance executive for Shell Oil wanted to get involved when a cyclone hit Pakistan in 1970 killing hundreds of thousands of people. The next year war transformed East Pakistan into Bangladesh and left millions more in misery. Mr. Abed sold his London apartment to fund the startup of Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee (BRAC) in 1972. He passed away recently at age 83, but not before BRAC became one of the world's largest nongovernmental aid organizations with 90,000 workers in 11 countries, running 36,000 schools and centers along with a university serving 12,000 students. Wow! Interestingly, Mr. Abed introduced capitalism to fund his mission. BRAC operates numerous businesses, including a microfinance bank, a clothing retailer, and dairy processing operations, all which fund more than three-quarters of their budget. How can that not stir your emotions about the power of one human with a mission?!
Michael Budney, the son of Polish immigrants, learned the machinery trade and eventually founded Atlantic Machine Tool Works in 1940 in Connecticut making parts for Pratt & Whitney aircraft engines. He recruited new Poles for his business, built motels for them to live in and provided health care with polish-speaking medical staff. By the late 1960s, Atlantic had 2,000 employees and annual sales of $35 million. Mr. Budney officially retired at age 104, yet remained in the shop every weekday until his recent death on December 4th at age 108. That is the definition of significance. His impact will echo through generations of Americans.
I know you are likely tired of me harassing you to get off that couch and impact the world beyond your wildest dreams, but look at all of these amazing stories going on around you! Do you remember the Meryl Streep movie "Defending Your Life" when she has her life review sessions, and the "heaven staff," which includes Rip Torn, applauds the movie playbacks of her courage and her life that overcame fear? This is similar to the stories in the long list of near-death-experience books which describe the life-review movie. Maybe it's true. Maybe it's not. That's not really important. I will tell you that this little reminder is a powerful tool that can give you inspiration and motivation to build something spectacular, to weather a period of great failure, or to stop feeling sorry for yourself just long enough to be significant for at least one more person out there.
This week I hope you think about the $430 billion of philanthropy and the over $20 trillion of capitalism occurring for good in our country in 2020. Add your part. Steel the mind. Make your impact. You have an amazing movie to make!

"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's." - Jesus

** Many thanks to the WSJ, Forbes and Fortune the above quotes and statistics.
** Photo credit goes to twitter.com

2020-01-11T16:43:00.001-08:00

SEE THE GREATER TRENDS
Do you remember the scene from the movie "Patch Adams" in the mental hospital when the grouchy businessman neighbor teaches Robin Williams to hold up four fingers, but to look past them to see the true solution, therefore blurring them to eight? He urged Patch to look beyond problems to see the true issue. As we build and protect our special organizations in this new year, we must see past the noise and understand the greater trends.
As a young financial advisor, and with the help of many people much smarter than myself, I was able to see that technology would then enable a new business model creating boutique wealth management companies. These boutiques could provide the same level of expertise and access for investors through advanced automation and partnerships with Wall Street, while providing the small company personal service and attention which had nearly become extinct in the the large firms. In a rare moment of clarity, I got off the train carrying everyone else, and with a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work, was able to build this model to serve clients in 42 states and 5 countries.
Our busy task list, the trillion emails in our inbox, and the sensationalized media divert our daily attention from the big picture. In business and the economy, we focus on the noise of here and now while Adam Smith's "invisible hand" is actually creating the broader result, or negatively, bringing us the next Black Swan to destroy our best-laid plans. This year let's promise to take a breath, raise our head out of the trenches, and see through the fog and friction of warfare [and I promise to stop mixing so many metaphors!]. Let's look at a few bigger trends:

1. Bet on America! I love the following synopsis from the Wall Street journal last year. "The lesson here is that, as Warren Buffet likes to say, don't bet against the United States to succeed. America makes mistakes, voters sometimes hand power to misguided politicians, and the public sometimes succumbs to financial manias that turn into panics and crashes. But left to work, trade and invest without too much political interference, Americans unleash their energies in productive fashion. Stocks fluctuate, but over time they go up - often in years you least expect it." Amazing. We must look past stumbles and short-term failures, and put our chips on winners, not just America but also those quality companies and quality people you should never bet against. I have a short list of people I would never bet against.

2. There's a ton of oil, the U.S. is a net-exporter, and it plays a smaller and smaller role every year. So, there will be short-term spikes and crashes in prices and production in which fortunes can be made and lost, but long-term it will not be the controlling variable it used to be. We will have plenty of it, thanks to fracking and other technologies, until the world's smart people figure out how to make nuclear and sustainable energies, and the batteries, economically-self-sustaining without tax dollars.
President Trump alluded to the same last week when he basically said, "Why am I messing around in the Middle East? I don't need their oil anymore." Around 21% of global crude and petroleum products flow through the Straight of Hormuz, and oil prices barely budged last week with the threat of war. Richard Soultanian, co-president of energy consulting firm NUS Consulting Group, said despite the geopolitical risks, the market is still oversupplied, and he points to record supply from the U.S. and OPEC's resistance to meaningfully reduce global output. Move onto water. Water is the next oil, and it will even be congruent with your save-the-planet mission.

3. We have already won the trade war with China, but they haven't told you yet. The daily tweets and media stories declaring trade Armageddon, when impeachment hearings or other scandals have a light news day, are just noise distracting you from the Invisible Hand. In his Political Economics column, Joseph Sternberg recently provided a clear synopsis. "China's current-account-surplus - the amount by which its exports of goods and services and income from overseas investments - has shrunk for years. It's likely to tip into a deficit early this decade, meaning China will import more goods and services (and receive less profit from overseas) than its exports." That might be startling to you. Let's repeat, soon China will be importing more than it exports.
To accommodate this radical global economic shift, China will have to entice more foreign investment into its domestic economy - factories and service companies. This will demand that China implements better rule-of-law protections for foreigners and intellectual property, even human rights. In other words, everything we have been arguing about will come about simply because of the demands of demographics and silent rules of free markets. Don't we keep saying in JAM VIEWS that money rules all? Markets always override government interventions. See past the 8 fingers.

Shut out the noise and think through the larger trends in your business, charity or world mission. On Oct. 21, 2016, Politico wrote, "Wall Street is set up for a major crash if Donald Trump shocks the world on Election Day and wins the White House." The S&P 500 has risen approximately 46% since then. The Bureau of Land Management released its plan to be green and install a 7,100-acre solar farm in the desert outside Las Vegas, but it's now being opposed by the Greens because the arrays will disturb the desert tortoise, the Kit Fox and the Threecorner Milkvetch plant. Keep chanting to yourself, "It's all nonsense!"
Finally, a thought to help us foresee the bigger picture, hang a frame in your home office of Dorothy Lange's 1936 iconic image, "Migrant Mother." I know I am planning to.

"Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth." John 12:35

** Many thanks to the WSJ, Forbes and Fortune for the above quotes and statistics.

** Photo credit goes to www.iucnredlist.org

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com

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2020-01-05T05:13:00.002-08:00

WHAT ACTUALLY IS CAPITALISM?
Election years bring us so many labels of division and derision which cause us instinctively to take sides and choose our tribes. Of course, recent years have been controlled by identity and oppression labels, the majority of which I still can't understand, although I am trying since the NPR radio station carries no other stories! Yet, nowhere are labels and terms more misunderstood than when the politicians attempt for a few minutes to finally address business and economics.
The term "capitalism" is, again, being demonized as manipulative, controlling, elitist, and destructive. Yet, in the true implementation of free-market capitalism this ideal is rather transparent, freeing, bourgeois, and enabling. Politicians, professors, and the media reiterate these incorrect definitions because they have never received a proper economic education, or because they are intentionally misinforming others who care not to educate themselves. So, we need a refresher this week. JAM VIEWS Members counteract this manipulation by continually seeking knowledge. Knowledge is power.
Instead of causing our eyes to glaze over with technical definitions, let's simply describe what free-market capitalism means to us today.
First, Barton Swaim in the WSJ described that is is not a planned system such as a socialist-communist society. He states, "A socialist economy is, by definition, a system - it must be created, planned, vigilantly monitored and forcefully regulated in order to function. But a market economy has no plan." Adam Smith first described this as "the invisible hand."
Second, Friedrich Hayek summarized in "The Use of Knowledge in Society" that a "modern market economy is an immeasurably confusing and constantly changing combination of associations and exchanges - not a 'system' of any kind." This is why artificial government inputs, such as price controls or minimum wage laws, always create opposite the desired effect, unfortunately many times long after that misinformed congressman has been re-elected for "helping" the poor.
Third, capitalism demands the correct allocation of capital (money), and only the capital, itself, understands where it is supposed to flow. History is replete with proof that mortal man cannot determine, or predict, the correct allocation. Only in modern media do we unfortunately believe the talking heads, Monday morning quarterbacks, who claim to have called market corrections, interest rate movements, and the next Google.
Fourth, therefore, capitalism requires money to be earned and spent by individuals working in their own self-interests. The antithesis is to give this money to a non-free-market entity, the government, which by definition is a socialist entity with no profit motive, no competition, and no demands for increased productivity or efficiency. Hence, Capitalists cannot understand a citizen's desire to transfer capital to the government through taxes, even when the specific goal may be the betterment of his fellow man. Higher taxes are inherently illogical to a Capitalist.
Let's pause for a current checkup on the recent capitalism infused into our U.S. economy after nearly a decade of determined socialist intervention.
The Good: Due to the recent tax reductions (TCJA) and the war against needless government regulation, 1) over the past year, wages for the bottom 10% of American workers have jumped 7%, and for workers without a high-school diploma have grown 9%, 2) labor-participation rates (people who can work working) have reversed long declines and are now increasing in every category, 3) even though the Congressional Budget Office had projected the creation of only 2 million jobs by this point, 7 million have actually been created, 4) even though the Federal Reserve had projected 5% unemployment at this point, it is setting records at 3.5%, and 5) the U.S. is the only Group of Seven country that will post GDP growth above 2% for 2019. Wow.
The Bad: It all gets erased if we never control the spending. We are all rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic and fiddling while Rome burns. Will the capitalists, so few left among us, pull the spending eject button and cut entitlement spending (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and 75 other programs), or at least cut the future growth of these line items? Will Maverick eject before the flat spin takes him out to sea? It's likely too late to save Goose, but will Mav live to fight another day? Can anyone who commits to push the eject button ever be elected, or re-elected?
Even on top of this entitlements looming disaster, Congress recently passed $1.4 trillion more in discretionary spending, 2,300 pages with "little debate or objection." The bill threw in $425 million in "election security grants" (Russian Collusion?), EPA budget increases (Increases?!), tax breaks for race-horse and Nascar owners (What?) and distilleries (Well, that one makes sense!). The Export-Import Bank was reauthorized for 7 more years (scam piggy bank for Boeing), the flood insurance program was extended (Nebraska min-wager pays for millionaire coastie's beach house rebuild), and Nancy gets federal funds for a San Francisco Park (To clean up the needles?). A significant percentage of Americans want to raise your taxes and give these people more of your money! Have they completely lost their minds?
Tax receipts have grown 4% over the last year because of the tax cuts (do you understand that?), but spending grew 8%. A trillion here, a trillion there, and soon we will be talking about serious money!
Fight for the capitalists. Understand what words truly mean instead of blindly accepting media narratives. The capitalists are our final and only hope. And, as Ayn Rand exhorts, "When I say 'capitalism,' I mean a full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism with a separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church." Stay diligent!

"Unfortunately, socialism could only work in a utopian vacuum of, I don't know, golden retrievers, but not with humans on planet Earth. It never has. " - Bob Vukovich, "Just One More," Ash Press, 2020

** Photo credit goes to you tube.

** Many thanks to the WSJ, Forbes and Fortune for the above quotes and statistics, especially Barton Swaim, Gary Cohn, and Kevin Hassett.

2019-12-28T09:26:00.001-08:00

RICHARD, DUNCAN & CARTER
Even though JAM VIEWS is constantly imploring the world to question everyone and everything, to find our own truths, and to find our own paths to success, apparently there are still a few billion humans we have failed to reach! Every week we continue to be barraged with wild stories, accusations and emphatic narratives from our leaders and media, most of which turn out to be completely false.
As JAM VIEWS always ponders, are these people in positions of influence simply incompetent or are they proactively fraudulent? I repeatedly provide you case studies because, otherwise, this constant flow of misinformation easily turns us all into "Joe Versus The Volcano" Tom Hanks cogs in the dystopian system.
As you contemplate your 2020, please reject these influences. Please write down some Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG's)! Differentiate yourself from the sheep! Take Risks! Do something every day that scares the hell out of you! Put a Post-it Note on your bathroom mirror that screams at you every morning, "Loved by her Friends and Feared by her Foes!" [Reminder: don't join Planet Fitness until February 15th when the mass of C-Players have already quit, again]. And, to take control of your off-the-charts 2020, remember not to believe anything anyone tells you, good or bad, and to just charge down your own path. The Dali Lama phrases this as, "Have no attachments, positive or negative."
Everyone telling you how bad everyone else has behaved and telling you to be "realistic" about your own goals is simply promoting their own self-interests and fears and destroying your true destiny. Just take the red pill in 2020, and see how deep the rabbit hole goes. Morpheus implored Neo, "All I'm offering is the truth." A couple examples this week to help us sharpen our saw:

1. Have you had a chance to see Clint Eastwood's new movie "Richard Jewell?" Clint, a great American, felt it was very important in today's environment to tell the country this story. As you likely know, Richard found the bomb at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and saved a large number of lives by clearing the area. Yet, the FBI suspected Richard as being the one who also planted the bomb. This was a reasonable option to pursue, but the FBI used the power of the government and the media to destroy Richard, making him then an easy target for criminal prosecution. The FBI leaked this information to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, so that ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN could set up shop across from his home. Then the FBI attempted to trick Richard into signing a false confession during a fake training video ruse.
He was innocent, yet the entire country believed him to be guilty founded upon the overwhelming power of the FBI and media. Today, a great number of Americans still believe him to be guilty because of this ingrained belief that positions of authority tell us the truth. In a future post we will address the half-century orchestrated "partnership" between the government and Hollywood-Television.

2. Duncan Robinson grew up in a good family, went to a small school, and "wanted to use basketball to get into a school that normally (he) wouldn't be able to get into." Everyone told him that at 5-foot-7 this would not be possible. His mother, Elisabeth Robinson, still remembers the incredulous response of his school's principal when she inquired about filming Duncan's games for college recruitment: "You don't think he's going to play basketball in college, do you?"
So, he worked harder, and the universe responded to his indefatigable hope and commitment by granting him another foot to 6-foot-7! He was accepted to the elite Williams College, a Division III sports program, but after a year the national powerhouse, Michigan, recruited him away. He wasn't drafted into the NBA, but was granted a spot in the summer league, and then was rewarded with a contract with the Miami Heat's G-League development team (like AAA baseball). The Heat then signed him to a two-year $3.1 million contract, each step more implausible than the one before. Now, he's one of the NBA's most-efficient players, shooting 45% on 3-pointers this season [Math: that equates to shooting 67% on regular 2-pointers. Unheard of!].
Duncan never listened to the crowd or took their "advice," and neither did Mom! He stayed in the "now," focused on everything that was within his control, and the universe continually worked to assist him. He knew that all he could do was have BHAG's, keep hope and faith, and commit to simply outwork everyone else of the planet. Good for him.

3. Finally, staying with the FBI, it appears that 20-years after Richard Jewel's abuses, nothing has changed. Carter Page recently began speaking out about the abusive investigation into his life by our intelligence agencies. Inspector General Michael Horwitz's report, as well as the unprecedented rebuke from the FISA Court Judges themselves, claimed the FBI committed "at least 17 significant errors or omissions" in gaining a surveillance warrant against him, and continually leaked information to the media to destroy Carter. He states, "From the day news of the investigation broke, I have faced threats to my life and have been forced to live like a fugitive. I still don't' fee safe enough to establish a fixed residence."
He continued, "After all this testimony, and after more than a year of round-the-click surveillance under FISA warrants, I have never been charged with a crime." We must understand that most of what the world is telling us is false.

This week, this New Year, I hope you are able to work through the fog and friction of modern life, and to become laser-focused on positive, honest and productive pursuits [Be Duncan!]. I pray that you may shelter yourself from the evil and distractions, and direct your energies to greatness for you and the people you love. You will be loved by your friends and feared by your foes! Happy New Year! Peace and Prosperity!

"For me, the perfect New Year's Eve involves going to bed early, before midnight, and maybe some caviar and vodka. It's hard to find the best caviar now. The caviar from a company called Roe is somewhat delicious, but nothing's as good as what I used to eat in Moscow." - You've gotta love Martha Stewart!

** Thank you to the WSJ, Forbes and Fortune for the above quotes and statistics.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com

* SUBSCRIBE TO JAM VIEWS

* PLEASE USE THE BELOW SHARE BUTTONS TO SPREAD THE WORD!

2019-12-21T07:17:00.000-08:00

CORNUCOPIA OF DUMB ECONOMICS
Has the world taken the holidays off from reading their weekend JAM VIEWS? They must have because the news is overflowing with dumb projects which violate every behavioral economics truism we attempt to populate in order to save the world! I think they must be doubling up on the brunch mimosas and bellinis and forgetting their 10-minutes of weekend JAM VIEWS wisdom. Let's do a quick review:

1. Simone Barron, a restaurant worker in Seattle, wrote that she lost her job because "the restaurant where I've worked for six years is closing as a consequence of the city's harmful minimum-wage experiment." Simone worked for Tom Douglas, one of Seattle's best known chef-restaurateurs for 30 years, but he couldn't overcome the 73% rise in minimum wages from $9.47 in 2015 to $16.39 today, not including the significant tips! That's just plain dumb. So Tom's restaurant Tanakasan had to close. Simone attempted to return to working at Sitka and Spruce, operated by James Beard Award-winning owner, Matt Dillon, but after 14 years it is closing also. Finally, Simone landed an interview at Super Bueno, owned by established chef Ethan Stowell, but before she could make her pitch Mr. Stowell announced that Super Bueno will close at the end of the year. Simone summarized, "I'm proudly progressive in my politics, but my experience shows that progressives should reconsider minimum wage laws that hurt the very workers they're trying to protect." A central JAM VIEWS theme.

2. The House passed the $738 billion National Defense Authorization Act, the Senate is expected to approve, and President Trump is expected to sign. On top of including payments to the military-industrial complex defense contractors whose cost-plus contracts go over budget by, literally, billions of dollars (another Post), the compromise pork added to the bill includes 12 weeks (3 months) of PAID leave for all 2.1 million civilian federal workers.
So, if John's wife has a baby, John may take 3 months off work and receive his normal paycheck, and his desk will, by law, be waiting for him. Now, I am a huge believer and supporter of early child care, bonding, and this neuroscience. You label it, I love it! Yet, I love it with my own money, and you can choose to love it with your own money, or not. Where is this in the Constitution? Can you envision walking into Joe's Auto Body and saying, "Hey Joe, if you didn't hear, Roxanne and I just had our fourth, so I will be gone for the next 3 months. Oh, and remember just like last time, keep sending my checks to the house and make sure my stall is waiting for me when I get back."
Of course, no real business could stay alive if this was the case, but government employees can do it because there is no bottom line, no stock options, no incentive to operate under-budget, and they are spending YOUR money. (Remember Post: "The Government Has No Money"). Michael Jackson told us, "If you can't feed the baby then don't have the baby!" Then once John eventually returns to work, and the Chinese are 3-more months ahead of him, he then wants YOU to pay for the childcare for John Junior. Bad policies incentivize unproductive, irresponsible, nanny-state behavior. Maybe that's the plan?

3. Speaking of unproductive nanny-states, French President Emmanuel Macron is again trying to find a capitalist bone in his body and extend France's retirement age and pension payouts. He is attempting to consolidate the country's 42 different pension plans into one universal system, and he has tried to pay bonuses to get people to work to age 64. They are rioting in the streets! I know plenty of 64-year-olds who can work circles around French 40-year-old C-Players, not to mention they possess incredible wisdom and experience so valuable to any organization.
With increased life expectancies, what do Jean val Jean and Cosette plan on doing for the next 30 years? Better yet, the Paris Opera Ballet is on strike because Macron wants to extend their pension eligibility date past age 42. "If the government insists on making dancers perform beyond a youthful age, it won't be pretty, argued dancer Alexandre Carniato." Will someone please tell Alexandre we are not asking him to dance Swan Lake until age 62, but instead telling him to go get another job and support himself once he decides to make a change? (see Rockettes, B-52's, et. al.). We laugh at much of this, but it is overtaking the U.S. while we sleep (and dream of dancing sugar plums).

4. Pay attention to elite coasties in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and California attempting to quietly pass a new bill in the House which raises the $10,000 cap on state and local taxes (SALT) deductible on federal returns. These politicians for the elites are attempting to raise income tax rates to offset this end-around, because there is a giant sucking sound of citizens leaving these states for the American freedom of Texas and Florida. They again want to nullify the tax reforms of 2017 which canceled your state (you) and my state (me) paying for their "luxurious lifestyles," to borrow a phrase from some U.S. Attorneys I know. Wait, I thought these were all the same people saying they help the poor and middle class!

5. Finally, as you likely know, Elizabeth upped her wealth tax from 3% to 6% per year. Now since these rich people don't keep their billions sitting in a Navy Federal Credit Union Passbook Christmas Fund Account, they have to sell shares of their companies each year to pay Elizabeth. They will have to first pay capital gains tax (rising from 20% to 39.6%), plus the state and local taxes, before getting her the check. All of her Silicon Valley supporters will have to actually pay 71.5% to get Elizabeth her money. The hilarious part will be watching Zuckerberg and Bezos sell 61% of Facebook and Amazon to pay the income, capital gains and wealth taxes over just the first five years. Now this has potential! Professor Hank Adler of Chapman University calls this the "trifecta of tax increases!"

Over the holidays, try to keep you blood pressure low as the proposals get crazier and crazier, but stay diligent. The more they repeat the false narratives, the more we begin to think they may be true. This is how it works. This week nod your head as the visiting relatives pull from the Cornucopia of Dumb, and just order another mimosa. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a peaceful and prosperous New Year!

"Great leaders don't just out-perform their rivals. They transform the sense of what's possible in their fields." - Bill Taylor

**Photo credit goes to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

** Thank you to the WSJ, Forbes and Fortune for the above quotes and statistics.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com

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2019-12-14T13:36:00.003-08:00

DIFFERENTIATE NOW WITH QUALITY & SUBSTANCE
Famous "car guy" David E. Davis Jr. once said, "The problem with General Motors is that nowhere in the United States is there a 14-year-old boy with tears in his eyes saying, 'Please, Dad, buy a Lumina.'" This says it all. For your business, charity, and you, personally, to be successful today you must differentiate, do something special, and inspire people!
We know that vanilla just doesn't work anymore, and unfortunately, the masses now believe that to get attention you must become the loudest, most-obnoxious, most-classless voice out there. We all think it is now proper to be outrageous, watch couples throwing plates in restaurants, and follow whatever activist screams the loudest.
But this week I want to help us follow the advice of class and grace leaders, true influencers, who substantially differentiate themselves and their organizations so smoothly that many times you never notice their "cool factor." A short list for the week:

1. Say what you mean, and do what you say, regardless of how inconvenient or painful. The loudmouths and people in authority out there have a tremendous problem keeping their word. [Secret: because no one makes them].

2. If you have to, speak of what you have done, not what great accomplishments you are planning. Talk is cheap and is totally discounted today by anyone who matters. Yoda said it best, "Do or do not, there is no try." In our investment firm, every teammate, top to bottom, would stand up before the entire company once a quarter with one slide of what their targets were for the upcoming quarter, but more importantly with a second slide of what they told us last quarter and the objective-quantifiable results. [Tip: this process helps the C-Players resign before the next quarter without you having to fire them].

3. When customers/clients walk into your office or shop, shock the hell out of them with the receptionist jumping to their feet, shaking hands and greeting them with a warm welcome. Lead them to the coffee and snack bar, and before their appointment let them relax with peaceful background music and a soothing lavender fragrance. [Hint: olfactory senses are the most powerful memory makers]. Thank you to cool-guy-receptionist Justin for teaching me.

4. When you and your team make a mistake, blow away your customer with your aggressive follow up to fix the problem and turn this disadvantage into an advantage. The extra phone call the next week stating "we just wanted to double check," seals their loyalty to the company for eternity. [Market Research: Ritz Carlton claims that the average hotel guest rates them a 4 out of 5, but if they screw something up during the stay and then blow them away with the fix and hospitality, the guest scores them repeatedly 5/5 and increases their frequency of stays].

5. Implement a mandatory phone/email/messaging etiquette program and separate your team from nearly everyone on the planet. When a customer says "thank you," everyone says, "my pleasure." Read the great many books on proper systems/voicemails/emails/messaging management, decide what works in your business and then put it in stone - zero excuses! For example, our organizations must return all voicemails (internal or external) by the end of the day if received before Noon, and before tomorrow Noon if received in the afternoon. [Tip: I would many times make the call driving to my son's lacrosse game, "John, hey I just wanted to call you to let you know I received your message, and I wasn't able to get that answer today, but wanted to let you know I will get it to you tomorrow." John would say, "Oh...okay, thanks so much for calling." In 30-seconds you have forever differentiated yourself from the masses and secured John as a client for life].

6. Look sharp. It has nothing to do with money. Don't dress like a slob, but instead make a statement that you have a little style, you care about yourself, and you respect the people with whom you are working or socializing. As we taught you in earlier Posts, drive a car with a little style, and buy it after the early depreciation so you spend even less than your neighbor with the Lumina. Your lawn looks amazing, you stay healthy and strong, your office has character, and people don't look past you like another one of the sheep. [Secret: Have your kids bounce out of their chair and give a firm handshake and look the adults in the eyes during the next introduction, and everyone will be baffled by how you are doing this].

7. Greatly separate yourself by applying our many Posts stressing leadership-by-example. Don't voice loud opinions about how others have failed us until you commit to greatness yourself. Don't tell your employees what to do, but instead show them and do it with them. Clean the office kitchen, go to Staples and pick up the supplies, go on sales calls regularly with the rookies, beat everyone to the office every day, take responsibility for every mistake in the organization, play third base on the company softball team, the list is endless [Hint: the best part is that your competitor leaders are not doing any of this - I guarantee it!].

8. Finally, focus every day on being that class and grace leader we frequently discuss. Be the leader you always wanted to be. While your competitor is beating their chest, screaming and doing something stupid, stay focused on the prize. Actions, not words. Productivity, not nonsense activity. Build your resume of accomplishments which gives you the confidence to stay the course for quality and character. [Truth: Give your spouse and kids someone to truly look up to - they know the truth].

Well, I hope I don't sound like your grandfather, but the stupidity of today's reality TV and social media cultures provides us an incredible opportunity! It has never been easier to differentiate your business or differentiate yourself on the climb up the corporate ladder. So many out there are just phoning it in, and when they do finally get motivated, so many times it's about all the wrong things. Don't buy the Lumina, and don't study international politics with Matt, Ben and LeBron. Think these things through! Have a great week!

"We will not lie, steal or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does." - USAFA, 1956

**Photo credit goes to www.Forbes.com.mx

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

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2019-12-07T14:03:00.001-08:00

LESSONS FROM THE SERBS
JAM VIEWS continuously urges us all to open our minds, see business and the world differently, and find our own truths. This week I want to tell you an incredible story which incorporates so many lessons we strive to teach and instill with our JAM VIEWS Mission: greatness requires risks, question everyone and everything, we are exponentially stronger and smarter than we ever imagined, there are amazing adventures out there in business and life if we just get off the couch, and the universe conspires to provide us incredible success if we just keep the faith and finish the race!
During World War II, American B-17 and B-24 bombers crews were ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to undertake risky missions bombing oil fields and refineries in Ploesti, Romania, approximately 35 miles north of Bucharest. This massive complex was producing almost a million tons of oil a month, accounting for nearly a third of the petroleum products that fueled Hitler's tanks, battleships, submarines and aircraft.
Unfortunately for our courageous airmen, Ploesti was protected by the best German fighter pilots in the Luftwaffe. These necessary low-level raids were terrifying and difficult, and getting back home was even more problematic as the German Messerschmitt fighters hunted our vulnerable bombers. A large number of our planes were lost, and another large number of our aircrews parachuted into occupied Yugoslavia when their planes were mortally wounded on the route back to Allied bases.
But, the universe would intervene. Serbian General Draza Mihailovich had moved his army up into the hills of Yugoslavia to resist the Germans, and to resist General Josip Broz Tito, the socialist Partisans leader battling to move Yugoslavia into the Soviet communist cradle at the close of the war. [Envision current socialist politicians or university professors].
When airmen would land, they would be met with Serbian men, women and children and an outpouring of hugs, kisses on both cheeks, and chants of "Hero Americans!" [Full disclosure; Martinovich is Serbian for "Son of Martin."]. Mihailovich's army and these loyal followers would hide the airmen, nurse them to health, and share their homes, clothes and minimal food. Most importantly, they shared their plum brandy! The General protected all of these Serbians from the raping, pillaging, murdering Germans and, being a lover of America, assigned Serb fighters to protect each individual American. These airmen, which grew into the hundreds, were secretly transported to Pranjane, Yugoslavia, Mihailovich's stronghold, in order to best protect and care for them.
Meanwhile, U.S. and British intelligence had been infiltrated by socialists and communists whom obfuscated the truth on the ground, and manipulated FDR and Churchill into supporting Tito in Yugoslavia while abandoning Mihailovich's army, falsely-labeling them as German collaborators. This fake news was propagated by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursors to MI-6 and the CIA. [Envision Steele Dossier].
Although abandoned by the Allied Government, Mihailovich chose to do the right thing because it was simply the right thing to do. He continued to protect the Americans. He covertly sent telegrams to Washington, alerting them to the great number of airmen who were still alive, but these were ignored by the State Department, as the politics supported "the other side." [Envision the Kurds].
The universe intervened again. Mirjana Vujnovich had escaped from Serbia when the Nazis invaded, surviving a wild two-year odyssey through ten countries to make it to America and a job in the Yugoslavian Embassy in Washington, DC. She heard rumors of these downed airmen and sent a letter to her husband in Italy, George Vujnovich, a native of the Pittsburgh Serbian-American community who left the steel mills for a position with the OSS.
George battled the establishment to save these men, but was thwarted by our own government at every turn. British SOE counterparts even sabotaged multiple missions until Vujnovich demanded only Americans going to save Americans. But how would it be possible?
George recruited three teammates, to include George Musulin, a former Pitt offensive lineman, to parachute into Mihailovich's territory to organize a rescue against all odds. The Serbs and Americans built by hand a landing strip in the mountains in the middle of Nazi-occupied territory. Vujnovich sent in C-47 cargo planes in the night, and these incredible pilots executed death-defying landings and takeoffs to first save the wounded and most ill. As the word of success secretly spread through the Air Force squadron, more planes arrived, and now with American P-51 Mustang and P-38 Lightning fighter escorts. The airmen almost froze on the cold flights back to safety since they gave their coats and boots to the Serbians - the only gifts they could return for their lives.
The mission that was only authorized to last a couple weeks went on for six months, during which George and his team rescued 432 American airmen and 80 British, Canadian, French, Italian and Russians. Not one single life was lost in the effort! How is that possible?! Universe.
Once complete, the military and State Department refused to acknowledge this incredible story. All participants were given gag orders with threats of court martial. [see today's Cato Institute v. SEC, unconstitutionality of gag orders]. The British and U.S. Governments gave credit for these saved lives to General Tito and the communist Partisans, even planting stories in the New York and Washington newspapers [see today everyday].
With this backing, Tito completed his takeover of Yugoslavia and gift-wrapped this territory for Stalin and the communists who destroyed Eastern Europe for several decades. Mihailovich was captured and trial set. American airmen campaigned and protested across the country for the U.S. to save Mihailovich, yet the State Department would only send a letter. A letter. [see Afghan & Iraqi interpreters for the U.S. military refused Visas to U.S.]. Two days after the trial, Mihailovich was executed.
Years later as the betrayal leaked, and Churchill admitted his deception by communist moles led by SOE agent James Klugmann, General Dwight D. Eisenhower urged President Truman to posthumously award General Mihailovich the Legion of Merit, the highest award possible for a foreign national. But, again, the government covered this up, and all of the airmen, and the press, were never notified of the award. The State Department was concerned about offending "current Yugoslavia." The medal was put in a drawer in the State Department for 20 years! In 1967 the medal was discovered, and in 1997 the file was declassified. In 2005 the surviving airmen traveled to Yugoslavia to present the medal to Mihailovich's daughter Gordana, and Gregory A. Freeman began researching his book, "The Forgotten 500," a gripping tale you won't be able to put down. A JAM VIEWS Book Club recommendation.
So many lessons for us today. Those whom fail to study history are doomed to repeat it. In the new year when faced with a great challenge, just ask yourself, "What would Mihailovich do? What would Vujnovich do?" Take a stand this year. Don't believe what the masses tell you. Take risks. Do the right thing simply because it's the right thing to do.

** Thank you to Gregory A. Freeman, "The Forgotten 500," Dutton Caliber, 2007.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

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THE GOVERNMENT HAS NO MONEY

2019-12-01T07:30:00.001-08:00

THE GOVERNMENT HAS NO MONEY

(Jeff was unavailable this week, so we wanted to post one of the top-rated Posts from April 2018 which seems so relevant with our current Presidential campaigns. Enjoy!)

Recent generations of Americans have been raised and educated to view the Government as an omnipotent and never-ending caretaker, as if it is "the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." We personify this caretaker with fatherly characteristics and responsibilities. We state, "They should pay for the poor...They should tax the rich...They should increase Social Security...They should pay for my childcare..." Why do we believe that because we were born, that some entity behind the green curtain should pay for our comfort, much less our survival? Is this belief inherent, or is it instilled?
Remember that we must localize all monetary transactions in order to begin to understand how things actually work. In this situation, what we do not realize is that there is no "They." There is only you, me, and our neighbors. If I want someone to pay for my childcare, I should walk over to Mrs. Johnson's apartment once she gets home from work at the bottling plant and let her know that I need her to write me a check. Now, I will need to be prepared for the fact that she might belt out a little Michael Jackson, "If you can't feed the baby then don't have the baby," and moonwalk herself back into her apartment. But, at least I would feel like I had shown good character and asked her directly for her money.
Governments are pass-through entities just like the Limited Liability Company (LLC) which you set up for your amazing Rodan & Fields skin care side business. "They" only have the money that you agree to give them (and yes, you have to agree - Another Post). "They" produce nothing, create nothing, and cannot survive without you - not the other way around.
Now follow me on some of these numbers. A tip - read the numbers slowly and attempt to digest what they really mean. Human nature forces our eyes to glaze over when reading big numbers, and this is exactly what "They" are counting on. The U.S. federal budget this year is approximately $4.5 Trillion. This is the amount of your money which "They" are going to spend. But, it gets worse. You are only agreeing to give them $3.5 Trillion, so "They" are going to borrow another $1 Trillion from the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Germans so "They" can pay for all of the things we believe that "They" need to give us. Now since Mrs. Johnson gave you the moonwalk instead of a check, and since you still feel that someone else should pay for your childcare, "They" knocked on her door for you and took her money under threat of a long list of punishments, to include federal prison. For the rest of the money that Mrs. Johnson couldn't come up with, "They" went hat-in-hand to foreign countries and bartered away more of Mrs. Johnson's, and your, future in order to get the rest of the money.
Now stay with me. since World War II, taxes have grown 15% per year faster than Mrs. Johnson's paycheck from the bottling company, and the federal government's spending has grown a shocking 50% faster than her paycheck. So each year, the IRS Agent knocking on her door takes a larger slice of her pay. But, "They" still don't have enough, so they travel the globe and beg other countries for more and more every year.
Some big numbers again. Because of this trend, the National Debt (our Collective Mortgage) is about $20 Trillion, which equates to $50,000 for every man, woman, and child (so get Junior to work!). But, this does not count Social Security and Medicare, which also have no money. It will cost you and me another $80 Trillion to make up the shortfall we have not saved for the Baby Boomers. This is on top of the Social Security and Medicare taxes we will already be paying out of our paychecks for the indefinite future. This fiasco is called an "unfunded liability."
Very important. When "They" tell you that Social Security will "run out of money" in 2032 (or whatever year they keep changing it to), what that really means is that will be the first of many years in which annual worker payments into the system will not be sufficient to make the payments out to the recipients of the system. There is no money sitting in a Social Security bank account holding all of the contributions you gave them out of your paycheck for all those years. The extra "savings" were raided by politicians years ago. There is no money.
So because we thought it would be rude and even outrageous to personally ask Mrs. Johnson for her money, and we instead got "Them" to do it by force, we all now collectively owe $100 Trillion, not to include the money we are already obligated to pay each year into the future. I don't even know how many zeroes are in $100 Trillion. Fourteen?
In another Post we will address different options for possibly saving this amazing country from bankruptcy, or at least a painful devaluation, like so many other countries have had to do throughout history. But until then, we need to understand that all economics are local. If you want to ask your neighbor to cover some of your expenses, then do it. If you want to pay someone else's bills, that would be a wonderful gesture. Just understand that there is not a middleman who is paying for what we feel we deserve. Not only that, but that guy has even already blown all the cash we gave him to hold for us!

"The perfect political party would promote as small a government as possible along with pure capitalism, while not promoting their personal beliefs on me."
- Jeff Martinovich , "Just One More: The Wisdom of Bob Vukovich," Ash Press, Spring 2020

* For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

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2019-11-24T08:53:00.001-08:00

AMMO FOR THE HOLIDAYS!
As we approach the holiday dinners and relatives staying two days past the "fail-safe-point," I thought I would give you a small smorgasbord of sensible facts and issue updates for you to invoke when Cousin Eddie's arguments clearly commit violence against common sense.
Go for the jugular early and show them how cutting taxes actually increases the country's tax revenue. This drives them crazy! The Congressional Budget Office reports that through the first 7 months of this year, tax revenues rose 2% TO $2.041 trillion even though the corporate tax rate was dropped 14%.
Of course, Aunt Ridley from Portland will say, "This just helps the rich!" Calmly pour a little more shiraz and inform the table that the Census Bureau reported that real median household income (amount earned by the very middle) recently hit $65,084 in 2019 dollars. That's the highest level ever and a gain of $4,144 (6.8%) since the current Administration took office and passed the tax cuts. For comparison, during the previous Administration's nearly 8 years, the median household income rose just under $1,000. How can this be possible?
When Uncle Hunter, or Professor Hunter as he prefers, pulls out his Yale sweater, remind the living room that student-loan debt has now hit $1.5 trillion and college prices keep going up simply because the government guarantees the debt to a third party (the university) without the third party having any incentive to cut costs, increase productivity or show an economic benefit for the expense. [Similar to the states' control of Medicaid enrollment while the Feds actually write the checks]. Explain how this all violates Econ 101, if they still teach that at Yale, but that Secretary Betsy DeVos has recently updated CollegeScorecard.ed.gov. The site will now provide a little transparency and capitalism to the equation y giving prospective students information on how much their school's graduates are earning in their desired field, and how that equates to monthly pay along with the student loan payments. Knowledge is power. A good step by Betsy in the right direction. And, don't let Elizabeth take our Charter Schools!
Slide some extra cash to the young crowd to ensure they choose Uber and Lyft over drinking and driving this season. But, warn them that California has now ruled these capitalist drivers can no longer be independent contractors in charge of their own destiny - along with your DoorDash girlfriend or the Amazon buddy who puts together the delivered furniture. California wants more employment taxes from these overachievers, along with more workers comp and unemployment insurance payments. Unions and scumbag plaintiff attorneys are behind this socialist campaign, as 5,730 wage-and-hour law complaints were filed last year in California alone. These ingenious businesses will be gone overnight if the socialism spreads from the left coast and the National's ballpark. Get up the courage to ask DoorDash Girl to marry you before you never see her again!
When the family plans the Memorial Day trip to your brother-in-law's beach house in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, respectfully decline on the principle that others' tax dollars rebuilt this house after the last hurricane. Have the integrity to not speak out of both sides of your mouth, and provide your family strong leadership-by-example. Explain the situation with Loyola University Professor Walter Block's advice. "The best policy is the middle one - laissez faire capitalism. Treat people as adults - allow them to take whatever flooding risks they choose, but on their own nickel. They should be free to build wherever they want, and to indemnify themselves against risk by buying insurance on the open market. But they should not receive a dime of taxpayers' money for rebuilding." We toast to that.
Finally, honor Uncle Joe and Cousin Linda's, Korean War and Vietnam veterans respectively, requests to turn off the NFL and NBA games on the flat screen. Uncle Joe gave up the NFL after the final "taking a knee" scandal, and Cousin Linda canceled her NBA Live subscription after the Houston Rockets-LeBron fiasco of not supporting the courageous Hong Kong citizens.
But, give them a new idea. Watch "Field of Dreams," and then make your proposal to let Pete Rose finally enter the Hall of Fame. Rally their emotions for the game of a simpler time. Charlie Hustle sprinting to first base even on a walk, playing hurt, knockdowns and spitballs, and sliding into bases hard. Rose won 3 batting crowns, 3 World Series Championships, and had the most hits ever. Ever. As you watch "Shoeless Joe" Jackson hit balls with Kevin Costner, think about what Roger Lowenstein wrote about Rose. "The sport misses the authenticity of his voice, and the Hall of Fame - barred to him on account of his banishment - can hardly be complete absent such an immense talent. After 30 years, baseball should think about bringing him home." [Full disclosure, this author kept a poster of Pete Rose over his bed for 18 years in that Dayton, Ohio rancher and always wore number 14 in every little league contest].
Happy Thanksgiving my friends. I wish you and your families incredible happiness and prosperity.

"I didn't have no education." - Pete Rose, famous for his double negatives

** Thank you to the WSJ, Forbes and Fortune for the above quotes and statistics.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

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2019-11-17T05:51:00.002-08:00

NOT ENOUGH INCOME INEQUALITY?
Income inequality is another falsehood currently being pushed by politicians, and will be a household term for everyone by election day 2020. Therefore, in our JAM VIEWS mission, let's understand the truth of income distribution today in the United States.
As you are tired of hearing me chant, we must deal with the facts. We must understand that all news is tainted, if not clearly false, and the great majority of "experts" truly are not, as this blog continually uncovers. Once you understand the math, then you are permitted to scream for more redistribution, or to scream to take back more of your own money. That is the great freedom of being an American. All JAM VIEWS continually asks of us is to, first, understand the facts so that we may form an educated opinion for ourselves - not from someone else's sound bite.
And another reminder, it is much more fun to hang around people with views much different than our own. Vanilla is boring, and lack of growth is boring. Seek out diversity in your friendships and associates. Otherwise, you become that guy at the water cooler whom everyone already knows their opinion on everything. Don't be predictable!
Former Senator Phil Gramm and former Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, John Early, have released another report detailing the true economic distributions in the U.S., as of the end of 2017. This week I thought I would attempt to summarize the current state of affairs from their report in order that you may be armed with some simple facts when Uncle Charlie and Aunt Vivian fly in from California for Thanksgiving dinner.
The first roadblock for Americans attempting to understand income inequality is that the Administrative State's Census Bureau chooses to produce irrelevant household income numbers. The Census Bureau claims that the top quintile (20% of earning households) has 17 times as much income as the bottom quintile, but they do not distribute the net number that you as a U.S. citizen are left with to spend however you see fit. The Census Bureau does not calculate in the taxes you have to pay before you get your money, and it does not calculate in the redistribution public transfer payments to American households.
For example, in the top 20% the numbers do not factor in that one-third of the income is first taken by the government in federal, state and local taxes, as this top 20% pays nearly 70% of all taxes for our country. Wow, thank you for your service! Also, the Census Bureau, inexplicably, fails to count the $1.9 trillion a year taken from higher quintiles and given to lower quintiles. Again, thank you for your service!
So you know, there are 95 federal programs, such as Medicaid and food stamps, along with dozens of state and local programs with which the Administrative State takes and gives. 40% of federal spending is allocated to these transfers, and this income provides nearly 90% of the bottom 20%'s resources, as well as more than 50% of the next 20%'s resources. Still with me?
At the beginning, there is actually a 60-1 disparity as the top 20% earns an average of $295,000, while the bottom 20% earns $4,900. Then the bottom 20% receives $48,000 in transfer payments and pays out almost $3,000 in mostly sales taxes, ending with approximately $50,000 in net resources. At the same time, the top 20% pays out an average of $109,000 in taxes leaving approximately $190,000 in net resources to spend as they see fit: A true Income Inequality Ratio of 3.8 to 1.
Interestingly, the average middle-income household receives nearly $18,000 in government transfers and pays the same $18,000 in taxes. Also, the lower second 20% earns 500% more income than the lowest 20%, but nets only 9% more to spend as they see fit. Not good.
The concerning issue, if you recall our Behavioral Economics posts, is that Americans operate in a mostly logical fashion when it comes to work and earnings. For instance, the anti-poverty spending of the last 50 years has raised most households into the middle class, yet has tempted many to stop working. In 1967, 70% of prime working-age adults in the bottom 20% were employed, and now only 36% keep a job. They are not being irrational, but logical. I am even curious as to why the next 20%, and even the next 20%, still work. It really doesn't make much sense.
Last week, I wrapped up a six-week course teaching inmates job hunting skills and interview techniques. As I sat down with each individual to complete their resume, a consistent answer was, "This doesn't matter. I'm just going to get a check." I told them that I couldn't really argue with them. "That sounds logical."
Maybe you think 3.8 to 1 is too much income inequality in our country, or maybe you believe this is too much income equality which is killing economic incentive and mobility, but at least now you have the truth. Vote as you see fit. Have a great week!

"Choose a job that you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." - Confucius

** Thank you to WSJ, Forbes and Fortune for the above statistics, and most especially Senator Gramm and Mr. Early for their work.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

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2019-11-12T07:11:00.002-08:00

ANTITRUST SMOKE SCREEN
What is a smoke screen? It's a cover to hide what's really going on behind it. We can likely label every government economic activity a smoke screen, as the true intentions are never what is sold to the taxpayer, and antitrust actions are simply the latest angle, reborn. So, let's attempt to understand the truth, not the politics, and be able to understand the intentions behind the smoke screen.
In more recent years, antitrust initiatives attempted to breakup Microsoft in 2000 when a federal judge ordered it split in two. Bill Gates fought back aggressively, George W. Bush was elected, and the case was reversed on appeal with Microsoft paying a juicy settlement to the government. Now with market forces, Microsoft's name is never mentioned as a monopolistic threat.
In the '70's and '80's the government attempted for thirteen years to break up IBM. IBM is now irrelevant in the big picture and recently spent a third of its market value to acquire Red Hat, praying that cloud services will save its future. See a trend here? See how markets take care of themselves if governments stay out? And, Microsoft would have given us tremendously more innovation if Bill gates hadn't said, "Okay, if that's what you want, screw it. I'll be over here trying to save the world with Melinda." [One day read about how the Gates Foundation's world impact, however remarkable, is a mere fraction of the poverty-killing, medicine-creating, economic growth his technology produced, and would have produced].
Antitrust is the current tool used by liberals to work the masses into a froth to overthrow the King and redistribute the wealth. Vive la France! And, it's the tool for conservatives to attack Google's news algorithms and Twitter's bans on political speech. It is simply the tool, one with, again, little economic credibility.
The theme should be: Don't spend all of this money, energy, and political will rallying the public against successful companies. Instead, spend all of this power helping the thousands of small businesses become big also. Focus on abundance, instead of scarcity.
Economically, antitrust activity has simply caused more harm than good. Fortunately, since Robert Bork authored "The Antitrust Paradox" in 1978, most Administrations have focused not on the size of the company, but whether its actions harm consumers. Antitrust scholar Joshua Wright wrote in 2016, "Economic analysis has more often than not trumped ideological politics for the past 35 years. Let's keep it that way." Barak Orbach, University of Arizona law professor and member of the American Antitrust Institute, states, "The energy for antitrust reforms is not in science and facts, but in accounts that can move public emotions."
So, remember that when Elizabeth Warren publishes her 1,700-word blog post titled "Here's How We Can Break Up Big Tech," and Attorney General William Barr opens Department probes of Google and Apple while handing over Facebook and Amazon to Chairman Joe Simons of the Federal trade Commission (FTC), none of this has anything to do with protecting U.S. consumers and taxpayers.
These are simply narratives to grab votes and extort huge sums of money from Main Street and Wall Street to give to Washington. Congress and the Administrative State are deeply troubled that the European Union blackmails Google for $5 billion using the antitrust smoke screen of "unfair searches." Google pays the $5 billion to keep playing the game. U.S. politicians scream, "You can't do that to America's successful companies - at least until we get our slice/vig/taste/tax!" The Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury props up Wall street with $4 trillion printed out of thin air, and then fines Bank America $17 billion for fraudulent mortgages. It's all nonsense. All a scam. And our job is to, if we choose to keep playing the video game, at least not believe the narratives.
The latest proposals call for Facebook to spinoff its previous Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions, and Amazon to spinoff Whole Foods and Zappos. The FTC claims they have the power to review old mergers and have formed an antitrust task force for this purpose. What happened to ex post facto? How is this legal? Does that matter?
State attorney generals love a great blackmail - tobacco, opioids, vaping, big tech. Why don't all of these extorted dollars get returned to taxpayers, whose money it is in the first place? How can government agencies grab "forfeited" assets and fines and keep them for their own operations and kingdom building? Are they appropriated the constitutional power to tax?
In the Swamp, did you know that Attorney General Barr was previously General Counsel at Verizon Communications where he clashed with tech companies over net neutrality which prevented Verizon from charging users higher fees? Barr also played a key role in reconsolidating the telecomm industry after the court-ordered breakup of AT&T, "thus protecting the Bell companies from the competition Congress intended," according to FCC lawyer Chris Wright. Later Barr testified against the "grossly anticompetitive" tactics of cable companies who were shutting out the telecoms. Life is really a James Bond 007 movie in which you truly never know who is working for whom - unless, of course, you follow the money. Senator Elizabeth Warren, House Antitrust Subcommittee Chair David Cicilline, FTC Chair Joe Simons, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and U.S. Attorney General Barr will play whatever role you need, whatever angle fills your emotions, as long as you keep the dollars flowing. Vive la France!
Over 50 people in the Justice Department alone are working on tech antitrust cases. Instead, give that tremendous amount of money to startup incubators and accelerators. Makan Delrahim, Head of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, says more than a third of his current 100-plus open criminal investigations involve the government as the victim who gets the extortion money. Take the budget for 100 investigations, and instead give it to Chambers of Commerces in Nebraska, Arkansas, and Ohio. Do good, not harm.
In 2016, 433,000 businesses were born in the U.S., but 400,000 died. Help them. In 2017, .26% of female adults created new businesses, .30% of African-Americans, and .50% of Latinos. Spend the bulging budget not on fighting dragons, but on helping real people like these entrepreneurs.
As a JAM VIEWS reader, you of course know the educated answer: Keep your own tax dollars, unleash laissez faire free-market capitalism, and spend your own money for your own self-interests. Maybe Microsoft and IBM will thrive, or maybe they won't. Thousands of other innovations and miracles will be created and thrive. Half the studies show the bulk of innovation is created inside large companies, while the other half always claim most new technology and services come from small companies. Pure capitalism gives both. Put on your face mask, and see through the smoke screens [A shout out to our courageous capitalist brothers in Hong Kong!]

p.s. A grateful thank you this Veterans Day to our incredible men and women who serve and protect this great republic. In honor of these heroes, JAM VIEWS asks that we all do everything we can to support our deployed troops and families, fix the Veterans Administration, and stop civilian U.S. attorneys prosecuting soldiers in war zones under constant threat from terrorists - it's a national disgrace.

"He who permits himself to tell a lie once finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells a lie without attending to it, and truths without the world believing it." - President Thomas Jefferson

** Thank you to the WSJ, Forbes, Fortune and Bloomberg for the above statistics and quotations.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

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2019-11-02T17:40:00.001-07:00

EXECUTE vs. PLAN (& don't talk to Siri!)
It's not the thinkers that change the world, but the doers. You are only aware of the historically-great thinkers who were the ones that also wrote the book, built the organization, and failed at their first 1,000 experiments. Our companies, schools and playgrounds are filled with brilliant, high-IQ individuals, yet 99.9% never reach their potential because no one ever teaches them how to execute.
In our investment firm, I often declared, "I can go down the street to William & Mary and hire hundreds of MBA's who can create a financial plan or client service software. They are a dime-a-dozen. But, find me the 1% of A-Players who can wake up every morning and go get the money, and we can build an empire!"
As a CEO, President of Big Brothers Big Sisters, or captain of the sports team, I have always been baffled by the great divergence of output from similarly-situated human beings on our teams. It is not intelligence. Is it nature or nurture? Whatever the answer, we must commit to being the "Just Do It" leader, and we must only recruit these same people for our organizations [see Post, "The Right Type of Diversity: Harvard to Hairdressers"].
Professor Wyatt Wells wrote what I believe to a be a hilarious article about the strategic planning exercise at Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM). He recounts the "organizational ritual...took months...at considerable expense." His observations confirm what all A-Players already know. The B's and C's spend their weeks creating plans and policy, and telling everyone else what they should do - along with why they, themselves, are constrained from achieving their own ambitious objectives. Remember, life is too short and precious to be hanging around these people. Your place is not among them!
AUM commits to "enhance morale among employees." Tear that up, enroll your company team in the local Friday night softball league, take them to Harrigan's Pub after, and you will see enhanced morale.
AUM commits to "enhance a culture of scholars." Erase that, and become the leader with the most trade licenses and industry accreditations, and be "the smartest one in the room." Your entire organization will follow and duplicate your achievements without you ever uttering a word of guidance.
AUM also commits to adopting "national advising best practices standards and diversity learning outcomes." I must not be bright enough to understand what the hell that one means! With today's fast pace, 5-year plans are a joke, 3-year plans are a waste of time, and 1-year strategies may be partially accurate [see Post, "Extraordinary Organizations"]. Professor Wells concludes from his experience that "strategic planning, the way it's practiced by most institutions in the U.S., is a fraud...offers incompetent managers a shield...and at its best, it's little more than a public-relations exercise."
So, how do we not follow the masses, and instead find High-Executioners and build special organizations?:

1. High-Executioners many times have backgrounds focused on achievement in sports, top academics and development goals, such as Eagle Scout. The child who committed to practicing fundamentals, who hit the pool before and after school, now as an adult doesn't know any other way than to do whatever it takes to reach their goal. Remember those kids with wet hair in high school? Go look them up now.

2. Massive organization and time management are non-negotiable requirements for High-Executioners, and for anyone they choose to partner with. They refuse to suffer disorganized underachievers. They make tomorrow's task list before closing the books on today. They implement every new technology for efficiency. If the task list turns red when past due for them, their assistant, or their boss, it drives them crazy!

3. High-Executioners stand out like a super nova among the masses at work, at the gym, or at the Susan G. Komen Pink Meeting. Unfortunately, most people that do not produce at the office, don't get involved in their community, and literally just sleepwalk through the day. All circles of life are interwoven - work, health, relationships, spiritual. High-Executioners burn it down in all circles. The work-a-holic excuse is a myth propagated by B's and C's to rationalize their lack of desire to also coach the little league team, or follow a healthy discipline.

Work everyday to raise your level of execution, and do everything you can to recruit these rare individuals to your mission. Leave the strategic plans to the B's and C's. They love that stuff!

p.s. Section 215 of the Patriotic Act, which authorizes the U.S. intelligence services to access your health records, DNA tests, and conversations on Alexa and Siri, expires or is reauthorized on December 15th. You likely remember James Clapped, Director of National Intelligence, testifying to Congress that they were NOT collecting the telephone-call metadata, including phone numbers and the time, duration and details of calls and texts of hundreds of millions of Americans - until it was discovered they were.
According to U.S. Congressman Buck McKeon, "Even after legislation was passed in 2015 to rein in the program, the agencies were ultimately forced to suspend the call-detail-record program last year, when they realized it was collecting far more data than they could handle and was violating even their own expansive view of their authority." Wow.
Just giving you the facts. What you do with them is up to you, High-Executioner.

"Good managers can usually list their goals on a note card and explain how they intend to achieve them on a few sheets of paper." - Prof. Wyatt Wells, Auburn University at Montgomery

** Many thanks to the WSJ, Forbes and Fortune for the above quotes and statistics.

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2019-10-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

DUMB RESEARCH WITH YOUR MONEY
Where in the Constitution of the United States is it written that Mrs. Johnson, a hardworking maternity ward nurse at Riverside Hospital, must pay a significant slice of every paycheck to federal taxes which are redistributed to a wealthy university, or one of the thousands of "institutions," to pay for some academic's research study? If Mrs. Johnson was ever able to stop working long enough to review how her money was being spent, I believe it wouldn't be so pleasant in the newborns nursery.
It is unconstitutional to take Mrs. Johnson's money for these academic adventures, and a great number of these studies are nonsensical research with pre-determined, confirmation-bias results which a fifth-grader could have told us, while saving us millions of dollars.
For example, last week Michael Kremer, Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee were awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for their ground-breaking economic studies. Profs. Duflo and Banerjee, who are married to each other and teach at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) traveled to India and conducted an experiment to compare changes in child immunization rates in several villages. David Harrison and Paul Hannon for the Wall Street Journal reported, "In some villages, the researchers offered families a bag of lentils and a set of metal plates to encourage them to immunize their children. Children in those villages were more than six time as likely to be immunized, they found."
This is brilliant! We discovered that poor people will show up if we bribe them with food and silverware. I know guys that will go to Wal-Mart when they know the lady who passes out free samples is on duty, and that weekend Buffalo Wild Wings had the buy-one-beer-get-the-next-one-free promotion I think we watched 22 football games in a row!
Harvard Professor Kremer traveled to Kenya and "found that children treated for intestinal worms are more likely to attend school and work in higher-paying occupations than those who weren't treated because of funding limitations, making it cost-effective for governments to fund mass-deworming campaigns." So, not only did we have a Captain Obvious moment to understand that children who receive better medical care will attend school more frequently, but we even have attempted to document a study in order that one special interest group, or dare say the dewormer pharmaceutical company, can pursue their end objective of more government funding.
Now, remember last year's Post, "The Government Has No Money," to know that when I say "government funding," there actually is no such thing. There is just Bob, Susan, Marge and Mrs. Johnson funding. Do you feel good about Harvard and MIT taking your tax dollars to send these academics on adventures which you will never get to experience, yourself? Also remember that in our recent Post, "Harvard's Discrimination Keeps Going," that even with a gazillion-dollar endowment, Harvard still chooses to take your tax dollars for these "studies," and then the Nobel Prize Committee actually reinforces this ridiculousness. This is the elitist, academia, deep state stuff that makes "fly-over-country" taxpayers lose their minds as they struggle to pay their own bills.
For fun let's review a few other federally-funded studies. Senator Tom Coburn has compiled an annual waste and abuse list, titled "Wastebook," and Derek Draplin at the University of Michigan created "The College Fix." A few on their lists:

1. The National Science Foundation (your money) awarded Professor Terrie Williams of the University of California - Santa Cruz $856,000 for testing mountain lions on treadmills. The study concluded that "mountain lions do not have the aerobic capacity for sustained, high-energy activity." Rather, "they are power animals...who use a burst of speed and the force of the pounce to knock down or overpower their prey." Didn't I learn that on an episode of "Gunsmoke?"

2. The National Science Foundation also funded the University of Rochester study of the gambling habits of monkeys. It was concluded that the monkeys, just like my Vegas golf trip buddies, continued to ignore random scenarios and "make choices as if they expected a streak. The monkeys showed the hot-hand bias consistently over weeks of play." I can't tell you how many times we had to scream at Kevin to get up from the blackjack table. "Now cash in your chips before you lose it all again!"

3. One more from our favorite National Science Foundation (remember, your money). The Foundation funded Columbia University $5.2 million to create an interactive game aimed at engaging people to get involved in climate change activism. They created Future Coast, "a collaborative game set in an alternative world where fictional voicemails have been transported back in time. One message describes sunny 75 degree weather in Antarctica compared to a chilly -2 degrees in Arizona with expected hailstorms." I am not making this up!

The federal government collects approximately $4.5 trillion each year from all of us and redistributes it like this, and the polls claim that over half the country is okay with raising taxes and giving them more! What is the definition of insanity?
For decades I have been shocked at the absurdity of these farces presented as research studies in academia, and hopefully now that you are aware, you are too. Do everything in your power to stop giving technocrats your money, government and academic. They have no capitalistic bottom line, no consumer need to satisfy, no competition to sharpen the saw of efficiency, and no constitutional right to use your money. Their adventures weaken your lifestyle, your security and retirement, and your pursuit of happiness.
Be educated. Understand what is really going on with your money. Choose not to be a pawn. The Nobel Prize Committee might not take you out for champagne brunch, but it would have been on your tab, anyways. Stay diligent!

"The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to every evening think what can be done better tomorrow." - Ingvar Kamprad

** Thank you to the WSJ, Forbes, Fortune, Wastebook, & The College Fix.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

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2019-10-19T11:00:00.000-07:00

WHY WE NEVER MAKE 10%!
As you may have seen recently during the 917 commercials interspersed with a few moments of football (my attention span just can't sit through that many commercials anymore!), Schwab finally just cut their trade commissions to zero. E-Trade quickly followed, along with TD Ameritrade, and Fidelity rolled out their zero expense ration mutual funds.
This prompted a few requests for JAM VIEWS to delve deeper into uncovering why real people, you and I, over the long-term never make the rates of returns advertized in the latest Wall street book, or espoused by Jim in Receivables who always lies about his 401k performance.
First, realize that trading commissions only make up about 7-12% of these institutions' top line revenue, so we don't need to fret over their future success. After running a Broker-Dealer (B/D) and Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) for two decades, I can tell you that the company makes money in twenty different ways aside from the client commissions. But, this week let's focus on why these commission prices are just one of the shiny objects which distract us from achieving long-term wealth. A quick list of more fundamentals below:

1. INDEX FUNDS VS. ACTIVE FUNDS? Bottom line is that it doesn't matter. Index funds buy or track a fixed basket of stocks or other investments, while active funds are daily operated by a manager or team of managers who make specific decisions on what to buy or sell. Generally, active funds will charge a .5% to 1% higher expense ratio because there are actual managers. Recently, for an extended period, index funds have outperformed active funds, so the marketers and the media now promote this as a historical truism. This is usually the point when the cycle reverses, as this one will also. They always do. Joel Greenblatt of Gotham Asset Management, a very successful hedge and mutual fund advisor, states, "Warren Buffet says most people should index, and I agree with him. But Warren Buffet doesn't index, and neither do I." The answer for us is to buy both. Buy the index funds which are appropriate for your long-term goals, and buy high-quality, experienced managers who have weathered many different cycles.

2. BUY STOCKS, BONDS, MUTUAL FUNDS, HEDGE FUNDS, EFTs, INDEXES, FUTURES, OR COMMODITIES? Bottom line is that we should buy a little bit of everything. In our investment firm, we preached thirteen (13) slices of the pie as a minimal blend to smooth out a client's performance chart, so they didn't hurt themselves (covered later). The simple key is to own a big basket of different investments which are aligned with your mission, yet which likely perform well (and poorly) at different times. In your Statistics 101 Course they labeled things that moved in tandem as having a correlation of 1.0, and things that moved opposite of each other as having a correlation of -1.0. You want your basket to, as closely as possible, have a correlation of 0.00. You want some things to be "zigging" while others are "zagging." Again, for most of us the answer is to access all of these categories through mutual funds, ETFs or Indexes, since we don't have the money, expertise or time to buy all of the individual stocks or bonds.

3. BUY GROWTH OR VALUE, LARGE-MID-SMALL CAP, CORPORATE OR GOVERNMENT BONDS, DOMESTIC OR INTERNATIONAL? Bottom line here is to invest in each style and sector. You, or the smartest managers and computers, will never predict what is going to be the hot spot next year. As in #2, take a little slice of each, and you will be light-years ahead of your neighbors. Remember, just when every singe advisor on CNBC and CNN says that Value Investing is dead, these funds will begin to outperform growth funds.

4. AMAZON'S LAST MILE? Have you followed how even mighty Amazon has struggled with the most efficient and effective logistics answer to get those Tory Burch shoes to your front door step? They offered employees to buy truck routes, are testing automated trucks, and of course those drones. Investing has the same problem. All of the above strategies, plus a million more, never work for us real humans, because we are human.
The television commercials and the ads in Forbes, Fortune and the Wall Street Journal are simply marketing strategies to gather dollars, trillions of dollars. They never help real people master Behavioral Economics. If you want to build wealth long-term, you must understand this. Everyone, and I mean everyone, buys high and sells low, especially Jim in Receivables - he just won't show you the real truth. Warren Buffet for many decades averaged 21% a year, double the average of the stock market, by simply buying good investments at fair values and holding them forever.
Joel Greenblatt again states, "When people can check their returns 30 times a minute on the internet, time horizons shrink, investors are impatient and sell at any sign of underperformance." The truth is that Jim in Receivables always does much worse than Susan in Shipping who never checked her 401k until a week before retirement.
Behavioral economics studies the effects of psychological, cognitive, emotional, cultural and social factors on the economic decisions of individuals and institutions. Economist Richard Thaler was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences of "establishing that people are predictably irrational in ways that defy economic theory." Robert Shiller, winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in economics, claims "the central issue in behavioral finance is explaining why market participants make irrational systematic errors contrary to the assumptions of rational market participants."

I know it sounds complicated, a lot to understand, but as with so many other topics we dissect in JAM VIEWS, successful long-term investing is much simpler than the world makes it out to be. Schwab's zero fees marketing is BS. Vanguard's 40-year war claiming .5% less fees were the Holy Grail didn't' make one real person one more dollar. More importantly, in October 1987, in 2000, and in 2008 Vanguard's .5% less fee didn't stop one American citizen from selling out their 401k after the market dropped 50%, and didn't ensure they were fully invested when the markets recovered up another 100%.
Don't be distracted by the shiny objects. Do opposite of what feels good. Understand that these cycles many times last for years. Just as I try to always talk you into first doing your own taxes, first understand the long-term investing basics. Then, if you want some help and oversight, get yourself a partner who doesn't follow the noise.
Have a great week!

ps. Did you see that CNBC hedge fund guru, Jim Cramer, has now joined Bull Market Fantasy to provide "expert opinion and advice on Fantasy Football with a Wall street twist?" Need I say more?

pss. Secret - Schwab makes 60% of its total revenue by simply sweeping cash nightly from customers' brokerage accounts into the firms' banking accounts.

"Humans make 95% of their decisions using mental shortcuts or rules of thumb - heuristics." - Daniel Kahneman.

** Thank you to the WSJ, Forbes and Fortune for their above quotes, statistics and advertisements.

** The above is not investment, tax or legal advice. Consult your advisors

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

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2019-10-13T08:29:00.001-07:00

HARVARD DISCRIMINATION KEEPS GOING!
Earlier this year I wrote about the secret discrimination going on against Asian-Americans in Ivy League college admissions due to the Asians' high academic and extracurricular performance. I have written on numerous occasions about the sneaky efforts of teachers unions to undermine charter schools due to their significant outperformance And, we have recently discussed the obvious need for merit-based immigration in order to continue our economic expansion in the face of aging demographics.
Last week the socialists, the apologists, the redistributors, the elitist protectors scored another victory against the overachievers, but hopefully only momentarily. Federal Judge Allison Burroughs ruled that Harvard was not discriminating against Asian-Americans by ruling that it was okay to discriminate against Asian-Americans.
As you may remember from our Post, Harvard assigns subjective "personality" and likeability" points in order that Admissions may fudge scores to penalize Asians and bring their totals within the range of white applicants. To overcompensate for this behind-closed-doors adjustment, Asians must score about 140 points higher than whites on the SAT to be accepted, and 300-400 points higher than other demographic groups. Otherwise, the approximate 20% Asian enrollment at Harvard would have grown to the 43% enrollment as at the elite California Institute of Technology, whose admissions process is race-blind.
As a reminder, Harvard accepts your tax dollars (Can you believe they take federal tax dollars even with a gazillion-dollar endowment?), so they must adhere to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which states this is illegal. Shockingly, Judge Burroughs stated that it's "possible" that Asian applicants "did not possess the personal qualities that Harvard is looking for at the same rate as white applicants," and "it would be unsurprising to find that applicants that excel in one area, tend to be somewhat weaker in other areas."
Why is CNN not losing their minds over this and calling for Judge Burrough's impeachment? What if she had made this same statement about another demographic that she felt may "excel" in let's say athletics, but tends to be weaker in "other areas?" Where is the tribunal? Why don't we protect Asians like we do other minorities? Because, they are overachievers, that's why! They make the rest of us look bad because they study all night while we binge watch Game Of Thrones. They are that guy on the factory line who assembles too many widgets and makes the rest of us get yelled at by the foreman.
We have to reverse this way of thinking. Unfortunately, this human trait has a long history. Columnist Jason L. Riley tells us that in 1914 about 40% of Columbia University's students were Jewish, and then with quotas by 1918 it was reduced to 22%. In 1925, Harvard's freshman class was 30% Jewish, and then quotas the next year dropped it to 15%. These quota levels remained for decades because the Jewish students were excelling far beyond the rest.
Human beings have always dragged the top down and then persecuted the weakest, most vulnerable sector. It is a defect in our genetic code. Study every culture, color, and socioeconomics and you will find this always true. In prison, a violent microcosm of our society, the cars (gangs) ensure that each individual is not more important than the car, and if violence breaks out, everyone must participate. Also, there is a clear pecking order of who rules and who is persecuted, with persecution even taking place within the subgroup. Everyone believes that someone above must be dragged down and that someone below is to be tormented. Wall Street is no different than prison, just with Canali suits and Charvet ties.
We JAM VIEWS members must provide leadership by example for our compatriots. We must provide grace to those less fortunate, and we do this by fighting for merit-based systems in all things, pure capitalism, and free markets whose rising tides raise all boats. We must call out and oppose all discrimination. We must shine light on Government shadows. We must use our personal energy and capital to support causes and organizations which build and create, instead of propagating inferiority and dependency.
Don't focus on breaking up big, successful companies, but on creating the regulatory and capital markets which enable thousands of smaller companies to become big also! Just as pure capitalism cleanses the market, merit-based systems strengthen all of us.
Stay diligent and pay attention to the Students for Fair Admission's battle against Harvard all the way up to the Supreme Court. This is important. Have a great week!

"There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed." - Ray Goforth

** Many thanks to the WSJ, Forbes and Fortune for the above quotes and statistics.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

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2019-10-06T06:53:00.001-07:00

DAVID KOCH
This week we again honor, and learn from the life of, another American capitalist. David Koch, owner and Executive Vice President of Koch Industries, recently moved onto his next adventure at age 79. His name immediately extracts labels, categories, and condemnations from so many in our, sadly, polarized-politicized society. Yet, as with most successful individuals, very few in our society actually understand or appreciate his great contributions to the country.
David Koch was that guy who had six CD's in the car deck - Sinatra, Aretha, Stones, Placido, Snoop and Taylor Swift - so that you could never put him in a box or truly label him.
He certainly favored free markets, liberty, and capitalism, but he also gave $1.3 billion to arts, prison reform, and medicine. He supported the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, the Lincoln Center, the National Association of Defense Attorneys, the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and, truly, hundreds more, while his do-nothing detractors critiqued his every move. This is the unfortunate reward to most true leaders.
Many don't know that he earned TWO chemical engineering degrees at MIT, while also setting the school record for the most points scored in a single basketball game. He and his brother, Charles, built Koch Industries into an energy-oil refining giant, which made them instant targets of the Left.
In business, Mr. Koch created well-paying jobs for thousands of Americans. Alex Epstein, founder of the Center for Industrial Progress reflected, "While oil refining, one of the key businesses of Koch Industries, is treated as shameful, it is one of the world's most life-giving businesses. Every product and service we use is better and cheaper because of oil power - from the food we eat to the vacations we take to all the amazing items we buy on Amazon."
William McGurn, the Main Street columnist, adds, "Any honest accounting of the connection between fossil fuels and human well-being would acknowledge that these sources of energy have helped lift desperate millions out of poverty, and that, at least for the foreseeable future, there is no alternative that could deliver the same." To be economical, not political, how about we follow AOC's plan after she first helps desperate millions? [She better hurry because she says we have only 12 years left! But, wait, didn't Al Gore say we only had 10 years left, 13 years ago? I must have that wrong].
David Koch took care of "stakeholders" before it was cool to say stakeholders, and certainly without government involvement. His Guiding Principle No. 3 stated, "Principled Entrepreneurship: Practice a philosophy of mutual benefit. Create superior value for the company by doing so for our customers and society. Help make Koch the preferred partners of customers, employees, suppliers, communities and other important constituencies."
Chandra Bozelko, Vice President of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and author of the Blog Prison Diaries, teamed up with Mr. Koch in 2015 for the Bipartisan Summit on Criminal Justice Reform. A former prisoner, and working for a "liberal organization," Ms. Bozelko asserted, "David's greatest contribution was to disprove the notion that people can't work together without agreeing on everything." She states, "But insisting on homogeneity of thought is a surefire way to arrest progress." She also summarized, "I disagreed with David Koch on climate change and many other things, (but) I am for the almost 2.3 million people who are incarcerated and the approximately 113 million family members who go through the criminal justice system with them. I don't need a purity test to get something done." Brilliant.
Finally, David Koch put his money and energy where his mouth was, and got his buns off the couch, to run for Vice President on the Libertarian ticket in 1980, promoting free markets and limited government. [Thankfully, President Reagan also supported these principles]. Yet, showing his convictions and independence, more recently he openly did not support the anti-free-trade and anti-immigration wings of the Republican party. He followed his beliefs. He continually took a stand.
As we stated last week that we shouldn't scream for refugee asylum immigration until we, personally, sponsor one family into our own homes, we should not scream about David Koch's positions until we, personally, do even a fraction of the good he has done for others and for our great country.
A salute and gracious thank you to a great American off on what is likely another amazing adventure.
What are you going to do this week to make a difference, to make it count that you were here? You can do it!

"All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them." - Walt Disney

** Many thanks to the WSJ and Forbes for the above quotes and statistics.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com

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2019-09-27T17:16:00.001-07:00

IMMIGRATION-GDP-TAX REVENUE
Joseph C. Sternber writes, "The problem with old people is that they eventually stop working," and "No workers equals no tax revenue."
The Department of Homeland Security reports that more than 530,000 people were apprehended at the U.S. southern border in just the first half of 2019.
The Census Bureau data from 2011-15 shows that immigrants are about 20% more likely than native-born Americans to found new companies.
In order for the country's economic growth and further expansion to continue, we must finally implement the sensible, merit-based, America First Immigration Plan. The numbers don't lie, and even though the previous Administrations used demographics and worker participation rates as cover for their excuses and socialism, eventually the current economic expansion will run into unnecessary ceilings if we don't fix the immigration piece of the economy.
Japan has spent decades in recession and economic purgatory because of an aging population problem, a problem they could have fixed with a better cultural acceptance of immigration. Germany the same, except for now Chancellor Merkel opened the flood gates not for positive, self-enhancing immigration, but for self-destructive immigration.
The economic immigration which must happen immediately in the U.S. is the selfish, narcissistic, America First immigration which will provide signification boost to GDP growth. All CEOs know that revenue cures all ills. Now, to finally implement the correct plan, the current Administration will have to give CNN more fodder than ever to roll out every politically-incorrect attack. But, as group psychology studies support, we must implement the hardest parts of what truly needs to be done during periods when the attacks couldn't be any worse.
The economic environment has never been stronger. The Wall Street Journal reports that unemployment is at a 50-year low, and there are roughly 1.2 million more job openings now than there are people to fill them. The black unemployment rate hasn't been this low in generations, and the jobless rate for black women is the lowest on record. Wages for low-wage workers are rising faster than higher-wage earners, and both at the fastest clips in a decade. The Hispanic poverty rate in 2017 was the lowest ever recorded. Now is the time!
We will soon be Japan unless we can implement a selfish, merit-based system. (You are not allowed to scream for more "asylum seeking refugee" immigration unless you have taken in one of these families to live in your home. And, if you have, the rest of us are thankful for your incredible generosity. Please send us stories).
At the higher end of our economic spectrum, only about 1 in 5 who apply for green cards in any year are awarded resident status. We must open the gates here. An immigrant college graduate is 38% likelier to found a business than an immigrant high school graduate. An immigrant who arrives before turning 20 is 34% likelier to start a company than one who arrives after 35.
Edward P. Lazear's research shows that immigrants from Israel, Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Greece are 300% more likely to found an incorporated business than native-born Americans. Economic literature suggests entrepreneurial parents create entrepreneurial children, with the next generation also driving new business. Entrepreneurial immigrant adults start businesses, and often their kids do also. Let in the young and educated. Brain drain the entire globe!
At the lower end of our economic spectrum, we open the gates for merit-based, most-qualified, most-potential workers coming for opportunities to add value to our country, and themselves. (You are not allowed to scream that this is unfair or discriminatory unless your company first hires 10 new refugee workers and pays them equal wages regardless of their skills or qualifications. And, if you do, the rest of us are thankful for your generosity. Please send us stories).
This enables more legal immigration, which allows these honorable economic migrants to not pretend they are something else, or to increase the 12 million illegal immigrants. The demographics of the U.S. demand that we allow these amazing people into our Monopoly game. They don't want free money, just to be allowed to play in our game. Because of our fantastic success, we now need them as much as they need us. What a great problem to have!
The only other answer is, of course, to radically cut entitlement spending, because the workforce forward is just not there to pay for the Social Security checks, much less Medicare. But, this will never happen until the big crash, default, disaster occurs. So, a proactive answer is to view the country with abundance, not scarcity. View the country as a CEO, and build our workforce intelligently.
This is easy math. Remember that math always, eventually, wins. We can create false narratives, fake news, and whatever silly ideology we wish to waste our time with, but the numbers don't lie. Now is the time to do it right. Carpe Diem! Have a great week!

"So often people are working hard at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard." - Caterina Fake

** Thank you to the WSJ and Forbes for the above statistics and quotations.

2019-09-21T17:29:00.000-07:00

RESPONSIBLE COOL CAR INVESTING
Just as some people think the simple real estate strategies we discussed last week are out of their price range or beyond their investment knowledge, buying a cool car is also much simpler and less expensive than we, and our neighbors, think. And speaking of neighbors, when you bring home your Porsche 911 Turbo, know that they will say you are not being responsible and are likely having a mid-life crisis. Instead of telling them to worry about their own, boring life, just smile in the knowledge that you are spending way less than they are with their "regular" leases.
Just as in stock investing and home buying, with cars most of us make a long list of mistakes. Buying the exotic car is another area where a little education can put us far ahead of the crowd. The problem is that for most of us, no one has ever explained it to us, so here's how I learned about it many years ago.
My second year in the investment business, the Wheat First Securities Training Department asked me to travel to Richmond, Virginia, to speak to the new rookie class of financial advisors. As I crossed the busy street to the Riverfront Plaza high-rise offices, I almost stepped in front of a cool Ferrari being driven by none other than our CEO, Marshall Wishnack. At the close of my presentation, I enthusiastically said to the new class, "And, to prove the great potential for you in this business, I just saw our CEO zip into the parking garage in a gorgeous, new Ferrari! This is the greatest business in America!"
The next day back in the office bullpen I received a phone call from Mr. Wishnack. I thought for sure I must be getting fired! Instead he said, "Listen, Martinovich, if you're going to tell the story, make sure you get it right. It's a Lamborghini!" He then proceeded to explain the simple economics of responsible cool car investing. Below is my attempt to pass on his wisdom.
First, here are some recent results on buying or leasing a new BMW, Mercedes and Audi, all which the neighbors feel are reasonable choices:

1. The BMW 5-Series selling for $30,846 after 3-years depreciation of 52.6%.
2. The Mercedes E-Class selling for $34,010 after 3-years depreciation of 49.9%.
3. The Audi A3 selling for $21,120 after 3-years depreciation of 47.9%.

Above, we have spent roughly $30,000 plus maintenance and repairs, depending on our arrangements. Most cars have a continual declining value curve, but higher-end cars may follow a "j-curve" value path. If we wait three or four, or even a few years more, to purchase these automobiles, many times the bulk of the depreciation has already occurred, and the price will stabilize forward. We may realize very little decrease in value while we own and enjoy these vehicles, and in special situations we may even experience appreciation in value.
So, these purchases may, economically, be little different than holding that same capital in the bank at 1/2% interest, and can be brilliant investments when compared to the above "more sensible" purchases.
For example, a Ferrari 360 Modena purchased in 2004 for $160,000 could be picked up today for $70,000 with very low mileage, and will likely hover around this same price for the next year or two. Older 308 and 328 Ferrari models which could have been purchased for around $40,000 a few years ago, are now hard to find under $60,000 (the curve turned back up).
A 2008 Porsche 911 Turbo with 520 horsepower and low mileage can also be picked up for $70,000 with little to zero decrease in value the next few years. A 2002 Aston Martin Vanquish V-12 (Bond, James Bond) with 460 horsepower can be acquired under $70,000 and enjoyed for very little in depreciation. We can be patriotic and purchase an awesome American-made 400-horsepower V-10 Dodge Viper for $40,000, and every Saturday ask our spouse, "Are you sure you don't have more errands I can run for you?!"
Car expert, Doug DeMuro, a few years ago bought a Ferrari 360 Modena to test all of the true expenses. He paid $86,500 and sold it a year later for $78,000 after driving it for 5,022 fun miles. He spent $4,629 on repairs and maintenance because he decided to replace the tires and front brakes, along with two oil changes, expenses in the same ball park as the BMW. He claimed his depreciation would have been less than $5,000 if he took his time on the purchase and sale.
Neighbors spend $300,000 on a boat, which is an economic hole in the water, while trying to make you feel guilty about spending $10,000 on a Porsche or Aston Martin. Don't fall for their jealous, misguided opinions. They know not what they do.
You work crazy hard, you are a good person, and you deserve to treat yourself to things while not worrying about what the rest of the neighborhood might say. Now you know how to do it cheaply, responsibly, and less than your neighbors are spending, themselves. Now someone has told you, and you know, too. No excuse!
My son, Cole, and I would start many sunny Saturdays by driving the 7-year old Ferrari 355 Spider to Subway's for an early lunch and then off to do the errands list. We made it last much longer than necessary. I always thought, "Mr. Wishnack would be proud."
Have a great week, and send us a great story of your next purchase!

"Yesterday is not ours to recover, but today is ours to win or lose." - Michael Rowan

2019-09-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

RENTAL PROPERTY MADE SIMPLE
We all know the Johnsons on Oak Street. They retired early and seem to take two or three amazing trips a year. The rumor is "they own property." We naturally are jealous of their relaxed lifestyle, as we have the mortgage, BMW lease, and credit cards providing our daily panic attacks. We rationalize that they must have received inheritance from her family, but the truth is that many years ago they bought one rental property, then a few more. They forewent the spending beyond their means on consumables (Amazon) and depreciating assets (new BMWs), and put this amount into appreciating investments (such as simple real estate). Now, they have a positive net worth (Assets minus Liabilities) and are not living paycheck to paycheck, which is better than most of the rest of us Americans.
Keeping it simple today, which it truly is, you can start by purchasing a 3-bedroom, 2-bath renter-friendly home for little down, and at low current fixed mortgage rates. You can then receive maybe $100-$200 positive net cash flow a month, and thanks to the large interest and depreciation tax write-offs, you will also get a nice check back at tax time (or increase your W-9 allowances at work to get more in your paycheck every two weeks).
Then, after you feel comfortable with your new knowledge, you can go get a few more. In the mean time, your monthly mortgage is slowly building equity in the property, and the property value is also growing at a historical-average +4% per year. Make sense?
Don't be intimidated by investments, or say you were never good at math. This truly is easy stuff which only takes a commitment to "Just Do It!" You will be able to overcome your excuses of bad credit, down payment cash, or "Jersey Shore" is on MtV tonight!
Once you get started, you will be surprised at all of the expenses you may deduct. Always remember that the Government designs the tax code to motivate you to do what they want you to do. The Government wants you to provide affordable, quality rental housing to American citizens, so it makes the tax code beneficial for those who provide this service.
You may deduct (write-off) expenses in Advertising, Auto and Travel, Cleaning and Maintenance, Commissions, Depreciation, Insurance, Legal and Tax Prep Fees, Management Fees, Mortgage Interest, Points, Repairs, Taxes, and Utilities. Order online the free IRS Publication 527 and in 3-4 days you will have this well-written, simple description to explain each category. Remember the JAM VIEWS mantra to do your own taxes and then take them to a professional to review. At a minimum, you will then understand how it works, and you can maximize the investment even more next year. Simple stuff.
Normally this net loss is what they term "passive," so it can only be used to offset other passive income (real estate or from a company in which you own a small part), but the tax laws now, if you handle the property yourself, let you even write this loss off against regular "active income" (your salary). If your income (MAGI) is under $100k, you can deduct this rental loss up to $25k against regular income, and this deal phases out gradually over $100k. This makes the reward "doubly-easy." The IRS gives you an example. "The rental loss was from the rental of a house Mike owned. Mike had advertised and rented the house to the current tenant himself. He also collected the rents, which usually came by mail. All repairs were either made or contracted out by Mike. Although the rental loss is from a passive activity, because Mike actively participated in the rental property management he can use the entire $4,000 loss to offset his other income." What's our excuse now?
My father, Don, self-taught himself to buy small rental properties by reading the books and attending a few seminars. I was cheap labor for moving lawns and painting houses in return for Domino's Pizza and, of course, the best motivation, "This is how we pay for our summer Florida vacation!" When he wouldn't let us go out to dinner, Mom and I would harass him with "Oh, but we have real estate!" But, he was right. He and Mom lived a much better life than his civil service income alone would have ever provided.
I tried to follow his example by never selling our homes when we moved, but by continuing to to own and rent these properties - an easy way to collect a small portfolio of properties. Beyond nice travel in retirement, the equity in your properties will pay for college educations (refinance and pull the equity out tax free), the ability of one spouse not to work 9-5, and much more freedom and flexibility.
Teach your teenager to purchase a small house and learn about capitalism. Instead of going back to work once the kids enter school, build a small portfolio of real estate.
Don't forget the vacation home which you can rent and still enjoy yourself while building more equity. Basically, you can personally enjoy the home for 2 weeks a year while allowing other renters to make your mortgage payment throughout the year (see Pub. 527 for these rules also). We enjoyed a magnificent beach house in the Outer Banks, North Carolina, for many years with a mortgage I would never have been able to cover without allowing others to also enjoy this magical property.
Stop living paycheck to paycheck. Stop having a panic attack in the middle of the night over your debt. Build equity. Be an owner.

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." - John Steinbeck

** The above is not legal, tax, or investment advice and you should consult your own professional advisors.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com

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2019-09-07T16:18:00.002-07:00

THREE AMAZING WOMEN
This week JAM VIEWS honors three amazing women who, unfortunately for us, have left this year to move onto their next big adventure. We have learned that the fastest way to expand our minds, understand what is possible, and to be inspired for greatness is to study the lives of people who constantly said, "Yes!," and here are three Yes Women.
As an aside, if you have a break in your schedule this week, please watch the movie, "Darkest Hour." In the incredible performance as Winston Churchill, Gary Oldman shows us how the most important decisions in the world come down to just ordinary, failed human beings having the courage to do the best they can. Saving the free world truly came down to one person going against everything that was "realistic" and everyone who was operating from a position of fear. On a much smaller scale, of course, this dynamic plays out in all of our lives daily. Can we summon the courage to do the right thing?
These three women did, and their stories are emblematic of continuing JAM VIEWS themes: perseverance, standing up for what is true, and at all time proclaiming "Why not me?"
Kathleen Eisbrenner was the very rare female entrepreneur in the energy industry. She joined El Paso Energy Corp. and worked to solve the problems with efficiently and less-expensively transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) in order to deliver more energy to our country and to the developing world. The problem was that LNG must be cooled to minus 260 degrees to be transported on ships, and then "re-gasified" at massive onshore terminals that take years to build, face regulatory hurdles, and are cost prohibitive in areas of the developing world.
So, Ms. Eisbrenner and her team developed technology which allowed the LNG to be re-gasified aboard the ships and then easily piped to shore. Building on this success, she later became CEO of Exelerate Energy and spread this technology worldwide. She was also an executive vice president at Royal Dutch Shell and founded NextDecade Corp. which worked to more-efficiently export gas produced in the U.S.
Tragically, Ms. Eisbrenner, 58, recently died of head injuries from a fall. I believe many times the universe calls the overachievers early because they are urgently needed for the next challenge. Yet, we are all thankful for, and much better off because of, her technology and capitalistic drive.
Unita Blackwell grew up in Mayersville, Mississippi, and after leaving school at 14 she picked cotton and cleaned houses. Then in 1964, when she was 31, Unita listened to civil rights activists speak at her Baptist church. When they asked for volunteers to help them fight for voting rights, she stood up [Life "Just Say Yes!" Moment].
This moment transformed her life and many others as she became a leader in voter-registration drives, even being jailed frequently. She was elected Mayor of Mayersville, likely the first black woman mayor in Mississippi, ever. She met President Lyndon Johnson at the White House where he gave her a bottle of whiskey as a souvenir, and she became friends with Shirley MacLaine who took her on a tour of China in 1973. In 1992, The MacArthur Foundation awarded her a $350,000 Genius grant.
Wow! Ms. Blackwell recently passed at age 86, but not before teaching us all to take a stand, to stand up for what we believe is right. We are all better off for her leadership.
Rosemary Mariner was an aeronautics student at Purdue University when a visiting airline executive told her that women would never be accepted as airline pilots. She then knew exactly what she must do. She did him one better and became the first woman to fly a Navy jet [see "Why Not Me?"].
Rosemary told the Los Angeles Times, "When I hit a wall, I am going to get under it, over it or around it." In 1972, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt Jr. (what a great name!) initiated a new program for women to fly Navy aircraft, and Ms. Mariner was one of the first eight women. She flew 15 different planes, and even landed on aircraft carriers. [Remember those scenes in Top Gun as they attempted to land on carriers?! Or, have you ever heard President George H.W. Bush tell the story of his night lost at sea when the luminous trail of the algae stirred up by the carrier led him back to the ship?].
Ms. Mariner (also a providential name) rose to the rank of captain and became the first woman to command a military aviation squadron. She recently passed from cancer at the young age of 65, but at her funeral, pause for effect, four Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet jets - all piloted by women - flew over to honor her.
Three amazing women, and three inspirational stories to get us moving this week. "Time waits for no man," and certainly these overachieving women understood this truism. Let us all summon our own courage this week to just say "Yes!," stand up for what's right, and constantly ask, "Why not me?" Have a great week!

"Duty, honor, country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn." - General Douglas MacArthur, USA

** Many thanks to the WSJ and their wonderful obituaries which allow us all to honor, and learn from, these great people.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com

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2019-08-31T11:00:00.000-07:00

GOOD MANNERS RADICALLY INCREASE BUSINESS SUCCESS

Many years ago I was shocked to learn that psychology studies have repeatedly concluded that nearly 90% of the reason customers decide to do business with us, personally, is HOW we look and HOW we speak. Only roughly 10% depends on what we say, or what's on that Power Point slide.
Being in the investment business at the time, this conclusion made total sense. When I spoke to groups two or three times a week, instead of the audience understanding the color charts and graphs on the screen, they were sizing me up, personally, to see if I fit the picture of that investor they like on CNBC, if I used the same words they had read in the Wall Street Journal, and if I emitted the correct energy and character which would help them feel comfortable working with me.
Today, we so easily get wrapped in the explanation, the details, the algorithm, that we forget what truly controls our business success, that 90%. Peggy Noonan's recent WSJ column attempting to implore our society back to manners and proper formalities reminded me that JAM VIEWS was due for a little more Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People." This is the 90%. This is why associates I have worked with have read it, and many have even provided me thorough book reports. These are the A-Players who will always thrive.
One year, to the dismay of my Second Street Restaurant partners, I even passed out the books to our service managers and bartenders. My partners said, "You mean the same bartender I have to call every day to explain why its important for him to come to work today, you now want me to have him read Dale Carnegie?!" If we could only get everyone to understand the true forces of the universe which control our success.
Ms. Noonan reminds us in her column that we have grown even more rude, slovenly, indifferent and cold. She claims great nations run on manners, "the lubricant that allows the great machine to hum," and I would add that this goes double for great businesses, great corporations.
She, of course, has much angst with our current smartphone culture, in one hundred different ways, especially the 30-something screeching into her phone at the nail spa because she was "closing a deal!" As she lists a few of the endless examples in business and society, she claims that to constantly correct these people "would be like slapping the maid." One of my favorite lines. So, let's review a few more important lessons from Mr. Carnegie this week:

1. Appeal to Nobel Objectives. Simply give people a fabulous reputation to live up to. If you constantly tell your associates how hardworking and creative they are, they will eventually believe that they are, and their actions will emulate this instilled mindset. If you constantly tell your management team how proud you are of them for handling the 1,000 personnel issues with compassion and strategic vision, they will naturally strive to be "that leader they have always wanted to be." And, of course, if you tell your kids daily how ridiculously smart they are, their grades will reflect it, and if you tell your spouse everyday how much you admire their love and grace, you will be even more blown away by their actions and happiness. We hold the power of the gods in our fingertips, on our lips, if we could just remember to use this power for good every day.

2. Ask Questions Instead of Giving Direct Orders. Unlike maybe you and me, 98% of the country has never served in the military. The world has changed, and its not a one-factory town where the employees have to do what you say, or else. People have options. At the start of every corporate retreat, I put up the the pyramid management chart, and I turn it upside down to communicate to the sales force and the operations staff that the CEO and the executives all work for them, not the other way around.
We must achieve our influence by helping others find the answers themselves. A brilliant leader facilitates and empowers everyone else to come up with all of the answers. Even when a specific directive must be given, it is presented as a question, as an idea. Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) all the way down to what coffee the office purchases must now be everyone else's ideas [at least they must think they are].
Ever notice how your spouse will never follow through on the project you believe is of utmost importance, but if it's something they deeply care about they shock you with an unbelievable commitment and execution?! Asking questions takes practice and requires much more wisdom and grace than giving orders, but I am confident you will soon master this, Grasshopper.

3. Never say, "You're Wrong." Most of us know that the moment we tell our colleague their opinion is wrong, a wall one-hundred-feet high goes up, and they become even more entrenched in their belief and opposed to anything further we have to say. Unfortunately, we just can't stop ourselves from telling Bob, and everyone else, how stupid is his idea. Then when we think we are at least trying to be kind, we throw in a Sandwich Theory attempt with, "Bob, I know have have put a lot of work into this and everyone admires your opinion, BUT you are simply wrong on this one." This makes it worse.
When we say "but," all the other human hears is, "Everything I just said before this 'but' is false, and likely condescending or demeaning." We must replace all "buts" with "ands" in every sentence. Your success in achieving objectives will skyrocket, and your relationships will remain stronger for the next time you need Bob on your side.
We must never use "but," especially in the most sensitive matters. Recently, I was forced to petition the courts to remove the presiding judge from a legal matter in which she was, unfortunately, biased and conflicted in multiple ways. I first stated that I had great respect for her service to the courts and the country, which is completely true. Then I stated, "AND, unfortunately, in this specific matter" it appeared there needed to be a change. I believed it was key to show the proper respect to the other party, and we certainly didn't want them to feel patronized. Put up Post-it Notes on your computer screen, on the bathroom mirror, everywhere that say "No Buts!"

Have a great week and remember that great manners are the lubricant of success!

"Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do...And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." - Marianne Williamson-Book, "A Return to Love"

** Thank you again to Mr. Dale Carnegie and the WSJ for the above quotations and statistics.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com

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2019-08-24T17:46:00.000-07:00

JACK WELCH IS NO DOUBT THROWING UP!
Last week you may have seen that the Business Roundtable, an influential group of approximately 200 CEOs from our country's largest corporations, rewrote their Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation to proclaim that it is no more based solely on yielding the highest profits for its shareholders. Rather, the purpose now is to consider the rights and needs of all "stakeholders" - employees, customers, and society at large [insert "Government'].
We are not at the edge of the slippery slope. We are screaming down the hill in our Freedom Flyer unaware of that huge snow ramp that creates the three-week tail bone bruise. Of course, all successful corporations know that the employees, customers, and a healthy community are vitally important to long-term success, yet it has been the pure and clean capitalism model of Adam Smith and Milton Friedman, ensuring the self-interests of shareholders remain the preeminent purpose of companies, which has protected the onward and upward march of the United States of America. The embarrassingly-low GDPs of Germany, France, England and the rest, all "in business" for hundreds and thousand of years longer than us, show us the antithesis, the socialism, the concerns for society which in turn hurt society. Congratulations to Elizabeth Warren who has successfully scared the common sense out of 200 CEOs.
In 1970, economist Milton Friedman wrote in the New York Times (of all places) that profitable businesses serve the common good so much better than executives who spend money on social responsibility. Also, he explained how CEOs who put social responsibility over shareholders feed the public belief that free markets and business are "wicked and immoral" and must be curbed by "external forces," which "will be the iron fist of Government bureaucrats." So prescient of today's Roundtable, he concluded that "businessmen seem to me to reveal a suicidal impulse." Or, as we state today, "Where have all the real leaders gone?"
Ayn Rand would say that now is the time they have all withdrawn from leading our great nation and retreated to "Gault's Gulch." These leaders will finally be joined by Dagny Taggart, her heroine of "Atlas Shrugged," who will be the last to give in to the technocrats destroying our free markets and success.
J.P. Morgan's Chief, Jamie Dimon, is currently leading the Roundtable charge with support from his buddy, Warren Buffet. These two exemplify the textbook change in uber-wealthy business leaders, normally in their 60's, when they suddenly feel great guilt for their outsized wealth. They begin promoting higher taxes on the rest of us, along with renouncing the very same corporate governance, tax planning, and concerns for self interests which created the incredible wealth for so many individuals and communities in the first place. Textbook.
The Roundtable voted 181-7 in favor of the change in their mission statement with one very interesting dissenter, Larry Culp, the new CEO of General Electric. On multiple occasions JAM VIEWS has highlighted GE's fall from grace, but now I might have great hope for their rise from the ashes! Where is Jack when we need him?
In our Building Special Companies course, Jack Welch, the tremendously successful CEO of General Electric from 1981-2001, is prominently featured in lessons teaching our students how to hire and grow "A-Players," as well as in building substantial net worth. During Jack's tenure at GE, the stock price rose 4,000% as annual profits (not revenue) surpassed $15 billion. Jack taught the world to hire A's, train B's to become A's, and fire the C's. In his two seminal management books, "Straight From the Gut" and "Winning," Jack built upon Adam Smith and Milton Friedman to teach us that the most important mission of a corporation was to be highly profitable. This profitability brought employee security, new opportunities, more jobs, hope, college funds, retirement funds, good health, and the opportunity to truly provide charity for our fellow man. Who does the socialist need? They need rich business leaders who actually create the money, of course.
Jack professed differentiation and meritocracy, and despised equality and redistribution. He raged against the fake cause of social responsibility. Unfortunately, once Jack's time passed, Jeffrey Immelt took the reins at GE, and to Jack's horror drove it into the ground while focusing on "stakeholders." The Wall Street Journal has called Immelt "the model of the stakeholder executive, posing in Vanity Fair as a spokesman against climate change, issuing pronouncements after the 2008 panic about the failures of capitalism." Immelt forgot what his job was and destroyed the golden goose, therefore harming all of the stakeholders to which he professed to be helping.
Remember the JAM VIEWS constant theme; those who preach to help others do not, while those scorned as taking advantage of others are the ones truly taking care of them. Truth since the beginning of time.
Hopefully, the CEOs will lighten up on their lunch cocktails at the Oak Room (maybe better yet reinstitute lunch cocktails) and also remember another JAM VIEWS truism for dealing with Elizabeth Warren and her Gang; never appease an oppressor. The only successful strategy throughout history has been to oppress the oppressor.

"When I say 'capitalism,' I mean a full, pure, uncontrolled unregulated laissez-faire capitalism with a separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church." - Ayn Rand

**Many thanks to the WSJ, Forbes and Fortune for the above quotes and statistics.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com

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2019-08-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

UPDATES - FOLLOW THE FACTS, NOT THE NARRATIVE

This week we want to review some important updates. There is much positive karma going on out there - which of course you would never hear in the news - and the potential is even so much greater if capitalism and education are permitted to keep quietly flourishing (well maybe not so quietly). Here are some facts:

1. Neel Kashkari, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, recently released a report explaining the true job growth and "reversing of income inequality" now occurring in the United States. Low tax rates and deregulation are creating 200,000 new jobs a month for our citizens in 2019, which is roughly double the number needed to keep up with population growth. So, 100,000 citizens per month are still coming off the unemployment rolls! More than 70% of the people taking these new jobs reported that in the prior month they weren't even looking for work! Yes, the opportunities are too good to resist, even for all of the people who had considered themselves disabled and preferred a government check. Wow.
Interestingly, as unemployment has plummeted to 3.6%, unemployment for recent community college and vocational school grads is 30-40% less than four-year college grads. Wake up call for the under-achieving university system in our country? Wages are increasing over 3% and the "less educated" wages are growing nearly double the "educated." Wages in mining are up 7.5%, leisure and hospitality 4.4% and retail 4.3%, while wages in finance are up 2.3%. No wonder the elites, technocrats and trust fund babies are losing their minds! Go with the facts, not the false narratives spread by those with the microphones.

2. The smart ones understand that nuclear energy is the energy answer for the future, and holds a far greater potential than the next-best alternative. Yet, the elites continue to pursue nonsensical agendas to simply stir up voters. Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public works, recently attempted to overcome the barriers to finally completing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waster storage facility in Nevada. He claims that if the U.S. is serious about climate change, we must become serious about nuclear energy. Nuclear power generates roughly 20% of our power today and 60% of our carbon-free energy, which is more than 3X the energy produced by wind and 18X the amount of solar.
The Yucca Mountain storage site is larger than Massachusetts and is determined to safely contain this material for at least a million years, while new technologies are dramatically reducing even this storage requirement. Because of "New Green" plans, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission stopped work on Yucca in 2015, and eight states have passed laws against building more nuclear capability until this is resolved.
Mark Mills, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, attempted to clarify the true "waste and destruction" which must occur to meet global agendas such as the Paris Accord. A single electric-car battery weighs 1,000 pounds, while fabricating one requires digging up and processing 500,000 pounds of raw materials "somewhere on the planet." Building a wind turbine requires 900 tons of steel, 2,500 tons of concrete, and 45 tons of nonrecyclable plastic, while solar power requires even more cement, steel, and glass plus rare-earth elements.
To meet these "renewable" agendas, silver mining must jump 250%, indium 1,200%, and other elements 300-1,000%. Finally, don't forget that more than 90% of the world's solar panels are built in Asia on coal-heavy electric grids blacking out the sky at today's levels, and the 2050 Paris Accord targets for solar will result in the disposal of more than double the tonnage of today's global plastic waste. [But at least Starbuck's is using paper straws!].

3. In our continuous campaign to support school choice and charter schools, we wanted to highlight Baker Mitchell's fantastic efforts in North Carolina. A retired electrical engineer who sold his company and began volunteering as an elementary school science teacher, Mr. Mitchell became inspired by Thaddeus Lott, the principal of the high-achieving, low-income Wesley Elementary in Houston. He became so inspired that he founded the Roger Bacon Academy which oversees four charter schools in southeastern North Carolina. He recently published a report to counter the opposition's current strategy to play the race card to stop these successful schools. He reports that in North Carolina charter schools have a 26.1% black enrollment versus 25.2% for state district schools. The report presented to the North Carolina General Assembly this year confirmed that at virtually every grade level and virtually every student subgroup - white, African American, Hispanic, economically disadvantaged, students with disabilities, and students with limited English proficiency - charters outperformed the district schools in English, math and science. As 40% or more of Roger Bacon's students come from low-income households, Mr. Mitchell says his critics simply "do not want families making education decisions for their children. The system does not want to lose control or money." We are incredibly grateful for warriors like Mr. Mitchell.

Know the facts. Don't succumb to the narratives. Have a great week!

"The two of us are quite rich...both of us are sons of immigrants who came to these shores with almost nothing...we know that we can spend our dollars more wisely, and in ways that benefit our communities and our country, than politicians can...the businesses we created have employed hundreds of thousands of Americans...We have given more than $2 billion to charity...Our patriotism is measured not in how much we pay in taxes - which is a lot - but in the businesses and the wealth and the jobs we create." - Bernie Marcus, co-founder of The Home Depot, and John Catsimatidis, owner of Red Apple Group.

** Thank you very much to the WSJ, Forbes, and Fortune for the above quotations and statistics.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com

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2019-08-10T11:00:00.000-07:00

EXPAND YOUR BUSINESS BRAIN
Periodically in JAM VIEWS we cover a strategy from my 25-lesson course "Building Special Companies" which was founded on the upcoming book "Zero to a Billion to Zero," Ash Press, 2020. The hopes of this course and book are for our members, and so many more, to capitalize on the successful strategies implemented by the very smart people I have had the privilege to work with, along with learning from the errors which I have personally made along the way, all so that our members may better navigate around these challenges, themselves.
Recently I had the opportunity to read "Exponential Organizations" by Salim Ismail, Michael Malone and Yuri Van Geest. This book takes many of the "Building Special Companies" business fundamentals and puts them on steroids, blood doping, the hyperbaric chamber, and even those LeBron compression boots to turn small companies into Unicorns ($1 billion valuations). Salim and his associates, which also include the founders of Singularity University, Peter Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil (also Google's AI Chief), have put together a fantastic study of moving solid business fundamentals into the age of crowdsourcing, digital communities and going viral. Let's cover a couple concepts this week:

1. Think exponentially, not linearly: When asked how we grew our consulting firm at an average annual growth rate of 36% for nearly two decades, my first answer has always been, "Because we simply believed that we could," and my second answer has been, "Because we didn't know we weren't supposed to." So much of business, and life, is simply believing it should be so. You hear this termed the lens of the camera, laws of attraction, or simply your worldview. Once you believe this to be your paradigm, you will readily adopt strategies which are congruent with this viewpoint, and you will not waste time on actions which are not consistent with this mission.
Ismail, Malone & Van Geest define the Exponential Organization (ExO) as one "whose impact (or output) is disproportionally large - at least 10x larger - compared to its peers because of the use of new organizational techniques that leverage accelerating technologies." While traditional companies can only achieve arithmetic outputs per input, ExOs achieve geometric outputs. You are likely familiar with the sixty-year history of Moore's Law which states that price/performance is cut in half every eighteen months (think flat screens, laptops, cell phones). Now, the business power of the internet has even cut this halving to nine months, and in some industries even one month!
Coca Cola thinks linearly; for each new worker hired, factory built and new customer acquired, we will sell x cans of Coke. ExOs sell more cans of Coke without adding anything into the input side of the equation. [Oh yeah, remember that when you are growing so much faster than everyone else, the C-Players will scream that you are cheating. So be ready for it, and just roll with it]. Now, stay with me.

2. You know I couldn't resist telling you that these strategists also believe that nearly every "expert" is wrong, and they urge us not to waste our time, or brain power, following the experts [I knew they were JAM VIEWS readers!]. Eastman Kodak invented, and then rejected, the digital camera before declaring bankruptcy in 2012. McKinsey & Company advised AT&T not to enter the mobile phone business, predicting there would be fewer than one million in use by 2000 [There were 100 million in use by 2000 - a 99% market miscalculation, not to mention the biggest opportunity in modern times].
Growth is blowing away every prediction of government technocrats and Wall street analysts. The same 3D printer cost $40,000 in 2007 which now costs $100. The same drone which cost $100,000 in 2007 now costs $700. Solar energy cost $30 per kWh in 1984 and now costs $0.16 per kWh. Medicine's full body scan cost $10,000 in 2000 (I got one!) and now costs $500. Humans cannot predict these trends or astronomical results. Get comfortable with the fact that you do not know what you do not know, and you will perform well beyond the masses following the experts.

3. In "Building Special Companies," we teach the participants to outsource everything, as opposed to all of the employees, leases, and fixed assets I years ago collected on our balance sheets. Today, Mr. Ismail thinks we would be crazy to have any employees or other assets in our corporations. We just need to borrow everyone else's stuff!
Contract out all employees, and better yet have your crowd and community do all the work for free. These people who believe in your mission have current skills (no constant retraining required), and they are proven much more capable than captured talent experts. In 2011, Allstate Insurance, who employed 40 of the best actuaries and data scientists money could buy, ran a public contest to see if anyone could improve on its claims algorithm which they had carefully optimized for six decades. Within three days, 107 teams did it better, and at the end of three months, the algorithm had been improved 271 percent [hopefully they fired the 40 experts!].
DIY Drones, a community of volunteers, has been able to design and build a drone with 98% functionality of the military's Predator drone, with one difference: A Predator costs $4 million and a DIY drone costs just under $300.

4. Use your community and crowd to bring customer-acquisition costs, and even service costs, to zero. Nurture the community by providing them inspiration (a "Massive Transformative Purpose"), and then listen and give back to your group every day. I have always preached that "people just want to be inspired!" Most people lead lives of "quiet desperation," but if you can engage their minds and their hearts, they will blow you away with their creativity, effort and persistence.
Help people become friends. Connect your peer-to-peer platform. Everything and everyone is rated, internally in the company and externally in the community. Join the thousands of other communities already out there with compatible missions. These groups sell your products or services because they simply want to, and it does not cost you a penny. They even take over your customer service function as your "raving fans" help each other answer questions and fix problems in this peer-to-peer world. Your community will now handle your idea generation, funding, design, distribution, marketing and sales.
Have you ever participated in a Kickstarter or Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign? The site collects all pre-orders for a new product, and then if enough people purchase, the site releases the money to the developer to now create the product. Entrepreneurs validate market demand before building the product!
Did you know that Hyatt has 45,000 employees spread across 549 properties and is worth less than Airbnb with just 1,324 employees located in a single office?
Expand your mind! Have a great week!

"In short, a five-year plan is a suicidal practice for an ExO...implement a one-year plan (at most) and watch it all scale while course-correcting in real time." - Ismail, Malone & Van Geest

** Many thanks, and a great recommendation, to Salim Ismail, Michael Malone and Yuri Van Geest for "Exponential Organizations," Diversion Books.

For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com

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