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Obama's Report Card from Left to Right

ann@annmonteith.com — 2010-03-15T15:48:36-04:00

Keeping track of what politicians have up their sleeve for business owners has never been as exhausting as it has been since President Bush started talking about bailing out the financial sector. But when President Obama began increasing the size and frequency of bailouts and, as he promised during his campaign, he began to “fundamentally transform America” into a big government society that stifles the private sector, watching what’s going on in Washington became an important part of my day. ...I can’t predict things two years from now, but if he continues on the downward spiral he is on, he won’t be reelected. ...After the bitter, partisan, bare-knuckled way President Obama and Democratic leadership forced through their health care legislation, it is likely that the atmosphere on Capitol Hill is so poisoned that no other significant laws will make it through Congress this year. ...Unfortunately, President Obama appears committed to achieving his agenda by other means, and he may do so in several major policy areas if Congress fails to stop him. ... ... It’s not like me to be depressed; but depressed I was over the Christmas holidays. ...22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. investors overwhelmingly see President Barack Obama as anti-business and question his ability to manage a financial crisis, according to a Bloomberg survey. The global quarterly poll of investors and analysts who are Bloomberg subscribers finds that 77 percent of U.S. respondents believe Obama is too anti-business and four-out-of-five are only somewhat confident or not confident of his ability to handle a financial emergency. ...“Investors no longer feel they can trust their instincts to take risks,” said poll respondent David Young, a managing director for a broker dealer in New York. Young cited Obama’s efforts to trim bonuses and earnings, make health care his top priority over jobs and plans to tax “the rich or advantaged.” Carlos Vadillo, a fixed-income analyst at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in San Francisco, said Obama has been in a “constant war” with the banking system, using “fat-cat bankers and other misnomers to describe a business model which supports a large portion of America.” ...This health-care plan is going to be a fiscal disaster for the country. ...I promised these things, but let me try to do them one at a time.” ...But what has surprised me is how he has failed to connect with the voters since he’s been in office. ... He has plunged in the polls more than any other political figure since we’ve been using polls. ...One business leader said to me, “In the Clinton administration, the policy people were at the center, and the political people were on the sideline. In the Obama administration, the political people are at the center, and the policy people are on the sidelines.”

May 3, 2011

ann@annmonteith.com — 2011-05-03T17:15:00-04:00

National Review Online

Elegy on a Budget Compromise

ann@annmonteith.com — 2011-04-08T23:47:08-04:00

I’ve tried holding my tongue on matters political for over a year, but after a month of witnessing Washington’s attempt to pass the 2011 budget, which a Democrat-controlled Congress was too “busy” to pass last year, and after watching a government shutdown be averted by legislation passed less than one hour before the midnight deadline, I simply have to say something about numbers, courage, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. ... In my opinion, had it not been for Secretary Gates’ well-publicized explanation to troops in Iraq as to how their paychecks would be affected by a D.C. shutdown, I’m not so sure Congress would have recognized what a dangerous game of brinksmanship they were playing. After the Gates revelation, it was clear that both parties could win nothing but national disdain had the issue not been resolved. It’s simply too much to watch the self-congratulatory fist-pumping and rhetoric emanating from Washington once LAST YEAR’S budget was a done deal. ... Like much of the western world, the U.S. is still lost on a very dark financial path that will ultimately crush the private sector: the now-heralded $3.8 billion in budget cuts are merely crumbs from a not-so-tasty pie. At the start of this ridiculous “negotiation,” the Republicans wanted $39 billion in budget cuts and the Democrats wanted $0. So I guess you could say that the Republicans “won.” In my opinion, you have won nothing when a budget, which in the last two years has become so inflated with new government bureaucracy, leaves a $1.65 trillion deficit to add to the more than $14 trillion dollar debt that now threatens to collapse our currency and bankrupt our country. The folks in Washington are acting as if they are clueless that nearly half of the budget will be funded by borrowing from abroad or printed by the Federal Reserve . . . a sure prescription for hyper-inflation. Today our debt is larger than the combined economies of China, the United Kingdom, and Australia combined. ... What kind of out-of-control government is it that keeps coming up with new programs to fund when we’re BROKE! Why is the press more interested in writing about celebrities than the fact that Moody’s is about to downgrade our debtworthiness, which will itself add more debt? it certainly isn’t fun to read about, but if you want to learn more about the debt, click here. The state of our economy, the inability of our elected representatives in Congress to craft a reasonable budget, and the Obama administration’s outward hostility to the private sector, along with its zeal to grow the public sector until there is nothing left of private enterprise, occupies my mind much more than it should. It makes it hard for me to write about the good things going on in the photography industry. I know that this is an unpleasant and unpopular subject for many people, but I still believe it’s important to know and write about. So as of this posting, I’m transfering Polinomics postings to a new Polinomics Blog on this website. If you’re not interested in concerns about the intersection of politics and economics, just don’t go there. In my present state of mind, I might not go there either.

Maxine Weighs in on Health Care Reform

ann@annmonteith.com — 2010-03-23T09:04:00-04:00

When Maxine weighs in on a subject . . . I pay attention, so here’s her take on the recently passed Health Care “Reform” Bill: Let me get this straight . . . We're going to be gifted with a health care plan, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't fully understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn't read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president who also hasn't read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that's broke.... What could possibly GO WRONG? Only in America!

A Not-So-Merry Christmas for Business

ann@annmonteith.com — 2009-12-23T21:58:00-05:00

It’s now obvious that Congress is giving us a most unwelcome Christmas gift in the form of their massive health-insurance reform bill—even though the bill itself will be largely unknown to the Congressmen themselves, and completely unknown to the public and press. And just in time for an “historic” Christmas Eve vote, that is likely to go down in political history as one of the most cynical political maneuvers of all time . . . one that could possibly foment a grass-roots citizen revolt. ... This is not what I had expected to be contemplating over the 2009 holiday season: Last Christmas, I truly believed that by now we would be seeing a resilient private sector leading the way to economic recovery; that’s before I figured out how irrelevant the U.S. ...The vote will be historic all right: The more than 3,000 pages of legislation promulgated by the House and Senate does make clear that the “reform” will represent the largest expansion of government since the New Deal; its more than 100 new regulatory agencies that will stand between you and your doctor are just the beginning. And this massive overhaul of one-sixth of the American economy (by the same folks who can’t balance a budget) will be done without the support of a citizen majority, which will either further poison the political well or hasten the revolt against the legislators who have made such a colossal hash of an issue that Americans want to be resolved in a common-sense manner. I don’t know any business person who doesn’t want to see reform in our health delivery system that will allow portability, cover pre-existing conditions, and reduce costs so that individuals and government units can pay for reasonable coverage. ... However, free-market solutions are impossible when government controls insurance commissions and won’t allow competition across state lines; when government actually discourages tort reform; when government says it wants to hold down fraud and abuse that even IT admits is rampant in the bureaucracies it created, but then sees only more bureaucracies as the medicine to prevent it; when the Federal government refuses to implement the good-delivery models that some states have achieved on their own. So I fear it will be a very blue Christmas for the business sector and for Americans who wish to retain their economic, social, and personal rights to health care centered squarely on an unfettered doctor-patient relationship. ...This country’s inexorable march to socialized medicine was a subject of their great concern for most of my growing-up years, because my family had first-hand experience with government-run health care: We all spent many hours sitting in military dispensaries waiting to see a corpsman or nurse. Because I was prone to pneumonia as a child, my parents would pay out-of-pocket for a civilian doctor when I got sick, rather than subject me to the rationed care of our free “single-payer system.” ...To cause this amount of national dismay in the name of cost savings, is what galls me the most: Press and politicians alike have conveniently overlooked the phony-baloney math that undergirds this sham: ObamaCare requires FOUR YEARS of tax collections before the first year of “restructured benefits” (costs) kick in. ...PPA’s language was a lot kinder than mine would have been, but I’m really proud that my association is taking a stand when so many other organizations with constituencies that will be hurt by this legislation have either been paid off or are too fearful of Federal power to speak their mind. The saddest thing of all for me this Christmas is seeing heartbreaking story-after-story of the hard times so many families are enduring because of joblessness, and knowing that their only hope for better times ahead can be provided to them not by bigger government, which serves to put the breaks on free enterprise, but rather by the private sector, which is the creative engine of job growth. ... As they always do, businesses that are weathering this economic downturn are doing so by making the hard decisions and creating the out-of-the-box actions that government, by its very nature, finds impossible to manage, largely because its ranks are dominated by unions that demand wage and benefit increases, even in the face of a fiscal crisis and at times when the business sector obligingly downsizes, reinvents itself, and pulls its own weight so that government can hitch a ride. ...But there is something very new at the heart of this story, and for me it’s pretty chilling: Historically, government has respected and encouraged the unique roll the business sector has played in restarting the U.S. economy during hard times. ... It points strongly to the unprecedented lack of private sector experience in the Obama cabinet and goes a long way to explain why the administration thought it could placate the business community with a one-day “Jobs Summit” attended by some big-business political allies, union bosses, academics, mayors, and non-profit representatives, while denying access to the three major advocates for business owners: The U.S. ...And as we near Christmas Eve, word is now leaking out about the sleazy backroom deals that Harry Reid cut to literally—LITERALLY—buy the votes of recalcitrant Senators: A veritable holiday tableau of what the public hates most about politicians, brought to you by the folks who promised change in business-as-usual Washington. ...I’m hoping that as fellow citizens see exactly how business is being conducted in Washington, some of the fine folks who sold out their constituents will find a way to put some coal (or other fossil fuel) in their stockings next November. ...In the meantime, I’m heading for a family holiday in Deep Creek, and as it should be in this glorious season, I’m taking a most welcome time out from the real world.

Goodbye August . . . Glad to See You Go!

ann@annmonteith.com — 2009-08-30T19:06:00-04:00

The health care debate has consumed a great deal more of my spare time this month than I would have wished. I’ve written about it in this blog because I’m convinced that reform done the right way is of huge importance not only to every citizen, but also to the business sector; and if a faulty system is forced on us, the impact on people and businesses could be catastrophic. In spite of the inconvenience to anyone who has participated in the debate — on either side of the issue — I believe the furor it has caused ultimately will be helpful. Politicians and citizens now have no excuse not to know what’s going on. Yes, I’m still smarting over the fact that my Senator stated publicly that those of us who came to his Town Hall meetings “did not represent America.” ... And someone in the White House is paying attention as well, because that sophomoric and disgraceful item on the White House website that asked citizens to snitch on those who were opposed to the reform bills has disappeared. Turns out that my local TV station recorded the entire debate, so I decided to watch the whole thing again to see what I might have missed while I was making pictures, as so much was made of our particular Town Hall meeting in the national media for nearly two weeks after the event. (I’m astonished at the number of people who were in touch when they recognized me behind my camera on film clips). I continue to believe that what went on in Lebanon, PA — and at other Town Halls during August — was about as American as it gets: everyday people demanding information from their government that they have every right to receive and being determined to hold their representatives accountable for their actions. The very nice (and quite polite) lady in the teapot shirt, shown above, was the last person at the Town Hall meeting to ask a question of Senator Specter, and you can hear her “unAmerican” question (along with that of the gentleman shown above) for yourself in a video clip by clicking here. ...I think I would have gone nuts if it hadn’t been for two great classes, for Marathon in Nebraska and for Studio Management Services in Dallas. ...Another source of nourishment during all this debate were the writings of my favorite op-ed columnist, Charles Krauthammer. I watch the news on Special Report, during dinner every night, in hopes that Krauthammer will be providing commentary. Only a year ago I learned that this highly respected medical-doctor-turned-public-policy-wonk-turned-Pulitizer-prize-winning-editorial-writer has spent most of his life in a wheelchair because of a diving accident when he was in medical school. Because of his medical background and keen understanding of economics, I find his commentary on this issue to be especially instructive. Here’s what you’ll learn if you read Krauthammer on the subject of health care reform: ...It will be great to get back to business now that the legislators are back in D.C. I just hope that the Congress doesn’t do us in with its “business”: which calls to mind a recent photo that you might not have seen if you were not following the debate online. I know that it should be beneath my dignity to share this photo, but it SO sums up what I am feeling, and I just can’t help myself.

Democracy in Action - August 11, 2009

ann@annmonteith.com — 2009-08-12T14:31:51-04:00

In recent months I’ve written a few posts on my concerns about the rapid growth of big government and how I fear it will impact the private sector, especially small businesses . . . the segment of the economy that fuels the national growth engine but which, inexplicably, continues to wait on the sidelines, hoping to be called into the game. So I was thrilled when I learned that Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter was bringing his Town Hall meeting to Lebanon, PA — my home county — only seven miles from my home and business. ... He’s the chap who was a Democrat when he was coming up through the Philadelphia political system; became a Republican when he sought state-wide office in a state that leans right on many issues; then, when the Republicans lost the Senate in 2008, he switched over to the Dems, giving them a fillabuster-proof super majority. When pressed as to his reason for the switch, he admitted that he knew he couldn’t win the 2010 Republican primary, and I think it was pretty clear that he expected the Dems to accept him into their leadership, which hasn’t happened. ...Specter’s popularity, or lack of it, was of no concern: I wanted to learn what I could about the Senate health care bill, which is still in committee. I care about health care reform: It is vital for the well-being of small business and for the lives of photographers and of all citizens, including members of my family who have pre-existing conditions. ... Unfortunately some Senate Republicans (and most of the Dems) weren’t on board, because, as we learned, in many states, controlled by Republicans, the state insurance commissioner is second in power to the Governor. ...I’m not in Pennsylvania much these days because of teaching, but I know this community to be filled with sober, common-sense people who help their neighbors and do not suffer fools gladly. ...I was disappointed to see how small it was, and I very nearly decided not to bother, figuring it would be a scripted event, and that I would end up out on the street with the protesters. ... I believe there were somewhere between 200-250 who actually got into the room, but it was hard to tell how many were left to stand in the 90-degree day outside. ...Some prefaced their questions with statements of concern, and some, who had clearly read the House bill, just as I had, asked some of the most penetrating, pertinent questions, many of which the Senator deflected, saying that he didn’t know much about what the House was doing. ... I do take issue with two statements: One report said the crowd was “largely hostile,” and I can’t agree with that; most speakers thanked the senator for taking time out to come to Lebanon, and the only boos came when he said he side-stepped issues or made some not-so-clever quips, such as “You know I don’t get paid extra for coming here,” That definitely was not well received. ...A bus belonging to Americans for Prosperity did show up, but from what I could see they were there for a bus photo-op and to pass out “Hands Off My Health Care” fans, which were much appreciated by the folks standing in lines in the hot sun. ...The incident that made it big in both print and cable media involved an angry man who claimed that Specter’s staff had told him he would be allowed to address his concerns, and he demanded to be heard. ... I wish I could say the same about the news story: what a piece of journalistic garbage: You would think that we are a community full of savages living amongst the corn fields, who have been brainwashed by talk radio. ...In fact, after reading HR Bill 3200, and listening to Senator Specter, then coming home just in time to catch a live feed of the President’s Town Hall Meeting in New Hampshire (interesting that there was not a single nay-sayer in the the entire “Don’t Tread on Me” state), what I’m seeing is a complete disconnect between the two branches of government. ... Specter said repeatedly “I don’t know what’s in the House Bill, and the Senate doesn’t have a bill for me to read.” ... As one Philadelphia Town Hall participant groused: “The President wants to reform one-sixth of our economy in three weeks, when it took the Obama family six months to decide what kind of dog was right for the family!” ...They are just now getting the memo that now that polls show that the public actually likes it’s health care system, the only way they can keep the ball rolling is to attack insurance executives.

Health Reform or Massive Power Grab: You Decide

ann@annmonteith.com — 2009-08-01T14:06:40-04:00

I should start by admitting I have a bias against BIG: I don’t much care for big cities, big schools, big bureaucratic corporations, big hospitals, and — most of all — big government. ...When it comes to health care, I prefer to deal with routine issues at a small private practice in the tiny Maryland community where we have a lake house: The doc listens to you and the problem gets resolved. I even made the three-and-a-half-hour trip to that community to have an angry gall bladder removed because they could take me right away, rather than wait for at least two weeks to schedule the surgery at the huge Hershey Medical Center, which is only 7 miles from my Pennsylvania home. ...And now the Federal government, which has grown at a breathtaking pace since last fall, is poised to nationalize our health care system, according to a plan that in effect points to a leak in the national faucet and proposes to fix it by tearing up the entire American plumbing system. ...I’m a registered Independent because neither party represents enough of my core views to strongly identify with, but on this one, I’m grateful to the Republicans for standing firm and to the Blue Dog Dems who are risking the ire of the White House in repudiating this nightmare. ...Page 30, Section 123, line 11 mandates a private/public Health Benefits Advisory Committee government committee that decides what determines eligible treatments/benefits are provided by an acceptable plan. ...Page 50, Section 152: I’m pretty sure that the language of this section provides health care to non-US citizens, illegal or otherwise, even though another section of the bill says that it (not the section on page 50) doesn’t provide care to illegals. ...Unless the employee is covered by a family plan elsewhere, he or she will be subject to “Individual Responsibility” provisions, which the government dictates (see page 167, line 18 for “Tax on Individuals Without Acceptable Health Care Coverage.” ...If you do, you’ll wonder why ANYONE would want to become a doctor (especially since the government decides on his or her level of reimbursement on page 127). My personal favorite of all the dictates is on page 253, line 10, under “Validating Relative Value Units” for doctors’ fee schedules: “Work elements to be validated include: time, mental effort and professional judgement, technical skill and physical effort, and stress due to risk.” ...Page 265 covers government mandates on productivity for private health care; Page 489, Section 1308 allows the government to include Marriage and Family Therapy as a health care element; and on and on it goes. Believe me there are HUNDREDS of radical bureaucratic proposals in this bill, but I don’t have enough time to list all the catastrophes. Don’t take my word for it: Read it yourself, or to make it easier, divide it up among your friends and let them take notes, then exchange information. Over recent months, I’ve watched as Congress and the Administration have severely limit the economic freedom of Americans by quadrupling the deficit, printing money to purchase our own debt, and delivering a pork-laden, non-stimulative “stimulus” bill, all of which are likely to prolong the recession. But in spite of this and a now-stalled cap-and-trade bill that is enough to scare the pajamas off of manufacturers from bread bakers to bomb makers, in the back of my mind I’ve believed there was still room for the private sector to restart the country’s economic engines, something that government cannot do. ...A growing number of Americans are seeing it for what it is: a naked government power grab based on the assumption that somehow government can do better in “caring for” people than they can do for themselves and through the private sector. ...The costs of routine care are easier to reform; look for best-practice models for chronic care (including end-of-life care) and diagnostics; then let’s see where the cost differentials fall for catastrophic care, which might require a Federal option for uninsurable Americans, rather than unfunded mandates for the states. • Give the responsibility for routine care (and perhaps diagnostics) back to individuals, allowing individuals to purchase routine health plans or tax-exempt savings plans that include diagnostics and catastrophic care as necessary elements unless and until we find a better way. ...Please understand that I wouldn’t have taken the time to read a 1,000-+-page legislative proposal or to natter on in this post if I didn’t believe that the future of our way of life is at stake.

Tea Anyone?

ann@annmonteith.com — 2009-04-16T22:16:07-04:00

While I was in Ireland, I missed all the news about the Tea Party protests that were being organized for Income Tax Day on April 15. But I got home in time to see the news coverage . . . what there was of it. I was pleased to see ordinary citizens who are concerned about the direction of U.S. financial policy take to the streets. Since I teach and write about small business issues, I’m just as upset about what I consider to be reckless financial policy as the protesters. ... She took this picture of her husband, Foster, during a protest near her home in Plymouth, Michigan. ... I am appalled that you disregarded the efforts of ordinary people like me and my husband and referred to the tea parties as "organized by the right extreme". ... I learned about it by accident, from a friend - and I am no activist, have never been to a demonstration before in my life, nor has my husband - but we decided to go, and stand up for what we believe in. ... Your off-hand statement diminishes us, and every American who has the right to differ with you. ... American history abounds with grassroots demonstrations when the people decided to stand up and be counted because we are troubled. ... Today, hundreds of citizens agreed with our stand, all around the state - people like us - ordinary people I share the concerns that Foster and Helen expressed because I believe that so much of our government’s reaction to the current financial crisis will make it harder for small business to recover and prosper for lots of reasons that you could hardly call the fears of an extremist. ... ▪ Without any debate among our elected leaders, our government has assumed authority to provide tax-payer subsidies that effectively decide which business will succeed and which will fail, rather than letting the free market dictate success or failure. ... ▪ Without any debate, our government used tax payer’s money to bail out and take over banks and mortgage lenders and insurers, thus rewarding failure and not punishing wrong-doing in the process. ▪ Congress has voted to confirm administration officials who can’t understand the tax code well enough to pay their tax indebtedness, and has given them a pass on what would be punishment for everyday taxpayers. ▪ Congress has completely ducked the issue that the mortgage crises was largely brought on by the government’s insistence that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae issue sub-prime mortgages to people who clearly could not afford to pay for them. ... ▪ The Fed chairman Bernanke responded by printing a trillion dollars to capitalize the economy . . . doing so with no debate and with full understanding that this action could trigger hyper inflation. ▪ The Government put a tax-the-rich target on the back of anyone earning $200,000 or more, one of the most hurtful of all possible strategies for small business. ...So who are the extremists here: A government that has spent more money in a few short months than all administrations put together since George Washington, or every-day Americans: working people who love their country and who are alarmed about a government that is trampling on citizens’ economic liberties by creating taxpayer funded programs designed not to make the poor richer, but rather to render the rich poorer? I don’t believe we’ve seen the last of the tea parities: What do you think . . .

Polinomics 101: A Big Week for Federal Follies

ann@annmonteith.com — 2009-03-21T07:33:40-04:00

It was hard to keep your eye on business this week, what with the incredible fist-banging-hair-on-fire-garment-shredding-rhetoric of both Republicans and Democrats in D.C., which was occasioned by the revelation that the very folks who brought on the need to bail out AIG Corporation with at least $170 billion in taxpayer money (yet to be collected from us) would be receiving some $165 million in “retention” bonuses. • Never mind that this $165 million payment represents only one-half of one percent of the recent Congressional Spending Orgy. • Never mind that the Congressional Budget Office reported that the budget deficits will average almost $1 trillion a year over the next decade, which is $2.3 worse than the administration is predicting. • Never mind that the guy they are now blaming for knowing about the bonus debacle (Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner) is the same guy that couldn’t figure out his self-employment tax when his employer sent him a cheat sheet on how to do it; that was O.K., but knowledge of the unpopular bonuses . . . oh no! • Never mind that Mr. Geithner is home alone, with no assistants in the Treasury Department to help because of now-impossible ethics hurdles. • Never mind that the issue of the toxic assets that pollute the financial system continues to languish. • Never mind that while no one was looking, history was made on Thursday, when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke printed $1TRILLION so that the Fed can begin buying debt from the Treasury; yes . . . that means moving money from one pocket to another; so Bernanke is either a world class genius or scarier than Alan Greenspan. • Never mind that it was New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo who uncovered the bonus mess by reading the documents that the media failed to read and report on . . . and it looks like he’s still diving for the iceberg itself: if you want to know who did what at AIG, log on to Cuomo’s Media Center section of the AG website. • Never mind that the media still refuses to investigate the tough and most relevant question: the relationship between government and our failing financial institutions. And the Biggest Never-Mind of All: An embarrassing number of this week’s Caterwauling Congressmen (Dems and Reps), who were determined to “punish” the greedy, voted for the recent omnibus spending bill that made this greed possible. So far none has stepped forward to say that he or she actually read the 1,000-page document, along with its 10,000 pages of reference material. God knows what will pop up next. The Congress-Members-as-Populists-Parade was really quite a sight to behold this week: almost as interesting as watching a wild-west sheriff try to clean out the whorehouse by shooting the piano player. Stay tuned . . .

Confessions of an Economic Conservative

ann@annmonteith.com — 2009-03-03T12:08:31-05:00

A born entrepreneur, I guess, I instinctively understood that if I wanted to achieve a higher standard of living than what was afforded to me by the meager $.50 a week allowance my parents provided, I would have to get off my butt and learn how to earn money by my wits. ...By then a streak of 60’s idealism convinced me that I wanted to become a senior high school English teacher, and my practicum experience teaching 11th and 12th grade English exceeded my hopes that I could make a difference in the lives of kids by exposing them to the power of language. ... A representative informed me that the union did not look kindly on how many hours I was spending after school helping students and meeting with parents, as it put undue pressure on regular teachers to do the same. I also received information on the union’s political positions, which included opposing English as the official language of the U.S., a position that in good conscience I could never support because I believe so strongly in the need for a common language as vital cultural glue. ...By the time Jim finished his MBA studies at Wharton and we got married and moved to Annville, it was obvious that if I didn’t agree to join the teacher’s union my life as a public school teacher would be made miserable, so I decided to apply for a position at a local college; I wasn’t looking for a fight in those days. ...Those plans changed dramatically when Jim came home one fine fall day several years later and announced that he had decided to quit his well-paying job as general manager of a plastics company to help me start up my photography business that he now intended to join. ...Most of my business students know the story of how I came to owe $187,000 at 23% interest because of the bad decisions we made investing borrowed money at a time when America’s banking system was out of control and inflation threatened every family’s way of life. ... Fund-raisers were held around the world for these American farmers, who, like anyone who borrowed money during this period, had been victimized by banks and savings-and-loan institutions that racked up commissions by convincing farmers and others like Jim and me to keep on borrowing because the value of our land was escalating, and it represented the vehicle by which we should fulfill our dreams. ...Early on I was fortunate enough to meet the late Bud Haynes, who became my business mentor; he made me understand that creating a business could be every bit as creative and rewarding as making photographs. ...If you’re still reading, I want you to know that I’ve recounted this personal history as an explanation as to why I have more than a passing interest in the state of our economy. ... The more I studied, the more convoluted the subject became, and I began to understand how a nerdy guy like Bernie Madoff (whom the media inexplicably calls “charming”) could cheat his clients out of so many billions of dollars: When so few people understand the complexities of international banking, you can get away with almost anything . . . until the Ponzi scheme finally plays out. One thing has become abundantly clear to me: The same kinds of greedy manipulators who orchestrated the Savings and Loan debacle were alive and well and flourishing in the 21st century, and if you peeked into their business plans, you could find government lending a helping hand. ...As an unabashed advocate of capitalism, it has been extremely discomforting to witness the parade of capitalists—especially those in the financial sector—behaving so badly; but I am mindful that layers upon layers of government bureaucracy make it so much easier for bad financial behavior to go unnoticed. ...I’ve been watching closely and hopefully, but the recent unveiling of a so-called stimulus package, followed up by the pork-laden omnibus spending bill that represents an all-out assault on the business sector, has set me to emailing and calling my elected representatives. ...At this writing our government seems hell-bent on repeating the mistakes of the past: thinking the government can supplant the private sector, and by sheer force of will and taxation reverse what it helped to cause, using the same tactics that precipitated the problem in the first place: spending money we don’t have to subsidize failing institutions; borrowing from nations who may not have our best interest at heart; and targeting the “rich,” so that government can orchestrate the next rocketing bubble that will do what all bubbles eventually do: burst when they have wreaked maximum havoc. ...What I’ve heard from my elected representatives is that we have no choice but to do so because of the Mother of All Cop-Outs: “We are in uncharted territory, so we need to act boldly and swiftly.” ...I don’t much like labels, but I am just fine with being called an economic conservative, because most of us who identify with this mindset believe that if it looks too good to be true . . . it simply IS too good to be true. ... The reasons no longer matter: what I learned is that if a company cannot explain to you what it does to earn money in less than three sentences, then you should not go to work for it or invest in it. ... What I’m afraid I will be studying in the years to come is what happened when the government couldn’t explain its economic recovery plan in less than 1,000 pages and the Congress voted it through the day they received it without reading it.

Back to Basics

ann@annmonteith.com — 2009-03-09T23:49:00-04:00

Over the last few months I’ve talked with a lot of people whose business skills I admire about where current economic challenges are pushing the photography industry. ... Instead of reporting my observations as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, which I did last fall, I’m labeling them as the Challenging, the Uncertain and the Hopeful, leaving the Hopeful until last because there is quite a bit more of it than you might think. ...Until consumers get over their fear of the unknown—or learn to live with it—most businesses, including photographers, will be in for a struggle. It doesn’t help that the explosion of new photographers in the industry over the past five or so years has created chaos for both photographers themselves and for consumers who are bewildered by marketplace extremes in pricing and business practices. The addition of so many newbies in such a short time has destabilized the industry because it has escalated the number of fragile businesses in several categories: hobbyists who don’t care about being profitable as long as they are bringing in a few bucks; wannabes who don’t know what’s up; once-profitable businesses that have not responded properly to increased competition, old-time businesses that are in decline; newer businesses that are just holding on; and marginally profitable part-timers who would collapse if they went full time prematurely. ...In its place I believe we have entered into an era of heightened “polinomics,” in which we will witness an epic struggle between two long-standing ideological factions: the proponents of big government as the solution to economic pain and those who believe that private enterprise is the best engine for creating economic growth. ...In the brave new world of polinomics, few things are clear except for the fact that politics and economics always make uncertain bedfellows, especially for those who are sleeping on the floor and kept awake by their snoring. ... • This might sound strange, but I believe that the very best news there is for the professional photographic industry is the fact that most—and I do mean most—photographers are not very good at business simply because they never try to be. ... Every week I get encouraging emails and notes from students who have achieved impressive successes because they grasped the tools they were given in class and did nothing more than put them to work. So I am convinced that many photographers can move forward during this recession by reading a book or taking a class or implementing well-known success strategies that are not as much fun as trying new photographic techniques or buying more photographic stuff. ...This may mean cutting back regular studio operations several days a week to save on expenses and use other skills to get different kind of business, such as helping families to create decorative wall groupings from their family portraits and snapshots. ... So take a deep breath, push away the tendency to panic when your phone is not ringing as much as usual, and make use of the character-trait advantage that self-employed business people have over those who depend on others for their livelihood: self-reliance. ...I know this to be true because Jim and I opened two businesses during recessions, and we bought our vacation home on the tail-end of another, as we saw its potential as a rental property. ... • One of the often-overlooked benefits of a recession is that local business people who trade with a similar market are often more willing to engage in partnership marketing than they might be otherwise. So seize the initiative and invite several non-competing vendors to go to lunch with you to talk about cooperative marketing ventures, such as a charity event or a “night out” that will lift people’s spirits and call attention to your businesses. ...In my opinion the answer to that question is no different from what it should be in good times: It’s the value of thoughtful, artful photography in the lives of the families we serve. ... In bad times and good, we have to be better storytellers, because the benefits of what we sell are so much easier for the heart and the mind to recognize than all the “stuff” that so many retailers have a hard time defending during a recession. At last month’s Studio Management Services workshop in Atlanta, Carol Andrews brought along a full newspaper page ad for De Beers, the diamond company of “A Diamond Is Forever” fame The ad talked about “ living in different times,” and the importance of “fewer, better things.” ...Last Saturday I spoke to my blogging buddy Carrie Viohl, who called my attention to a wonderful Allstate TV commercial that delivers a similar message . . . about how families get “Back to Basics” during hard time.

Presidential Poll Results

ann@annmonteith.com — 2008-11-07T09:25:37-05:00

When my thoroughly-non-scientific presidential poll closed on election day last Tuesday, I was a bit surprised to view such round numbers: 100 photographers voted, and the result was a dead heat: 50 for McCain and 50 for Obama. I didn’t expect that photographers would mirror what turned out to be the actual popular vote division of 53% for Obama and 47% for McCain because frankly I expected business owners to vote in larger numbers for McCain, purely on the basis of Obama’s stance on increasing business taxes.

Who Will Get Your Vote for President?

ann@annmonteith.com — 2008-10-27T16:03:26-04:00

As a business owner, your vote for president is always important. This is especially true in 2008, given the current uncertainty about the economy brought on by the collapse of confidence in the worldwide banking system. So I thought it would be interesting to know how photographers plan to vote next Tuesday. I hope you will take a moment to respond to this anonymous one-vote-per-computer survey. I'd like to get as many votes from photographers as possible, so please feel free to pass this link on to photographers you know and ask them to vote as well. Unlike some members of the traditional media, I'll wait to report the final result of this humble survey until after the polls have closed :-).