UBI Business Services has introduced a distressed small business loan program for family owned and operated small retail food and service businesses. The program was devised modeled on a formula developed by Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, for which founder Mohamed Unus won the Nobel Peace Prize. The goals are:

1. Turn negative profit into positive profit
2. Support family owned and operated business
3. Prevent business failure in the first two years of operations
4. Educate, empower and grow the business to sustainable profits

Qualifications:

1. Less than four years in business
2. Less than $150,000 a month in sales
3. Located in King or Snohomish County, Washington
4. Willing to learn and change behavior
5. Pass interview process for
   1. Financial, Lease and Economic Review
   2. Work Ethic, Manageability & Commitment (subjective)
   3. Sustainable Business in Current Market and Location

Call Roger Harman at 206-261-2726. A personal site visit and interview are required after a successful telephone interview.

Being true to yourself means bowing to one authority, your intuition, which cannot be demeaned by anything in the world.

I am assuming a Law & Order believer is usually a Right to Life believer. I am assuming that a Law & Order person is more concerned about the protection and help for the victims than protection of the criminal ad nausea. I am assuming such people are usually free enterprise, property rights, stateis rights, the constitution, and small government believers.

How does a Law & Order believer reconcile the fact that the 90s drop in crime was not due to Rudy Giuliani (however his programs contributed more than any other effort according to statistical analysis) or other government laws, regulations and actions? It was not due to government programs and funds to police and protective services? The decrease in crime within months of the passage of legislation was not due to the Clinton/Gingrich partnership of massive government expenditures on local governments and law enforcement (There was a dropping crime rate before the funds hit the street)?

How does the Right to Life believer reconcile such core beliefs with the fact that Roe vs. Wade was the biggest single contributor and overwhelming contributor to the decrease in crime in America. (See The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb)? It is mathematically proven, albeit after the fact by armchair statisticians, that Roe vs. Wade was the cause of lower crime beginning in the 90s. Hindsight is always better than foresight; none of us knew at the time of the relationship and all with the best of intentions tried to attack the problem of America's streets. A fundamental of free enterprise is the choice of the individual and every time it is manipulated it backfires with few documented exceptions over the past century.

Believers of both Right to Life and Law & Order cannot have it both ways. This is an intellectual watershed of most of religion; the denial of scientific fact to attempt to transform faith (not provable or undeniable) to belief (experientially known) to fact (scientifically verifiable). Faith God knows, facts we know. What are your comments, I am in a dilemma?

Ask your CPA or executive with the big bucks to explain to you the difference between a “Single-period direct capitalization” and a “discounted cash flow.” For now I will withhold the answer. Why, because for almost 30-years I have used this question to intimidate CPAs, financial analyst, financial planners and executives who live and work, make decisions, manage assets and moneys for others with present value. Yet, they cannot answer this simple Finance 101 question.

Makes one wonder what we are paying for? Ask your banker or stock broker. If they cannot answer the questions simply and distinctly so that a 6th grader can understand it or educate you how to use it then you had better move your money or assets from their care. More on this later if the topic is picked up and runs.

There are those that project a slow-down, even a borderline recession for the Puget Sound Region in 2008. I disagree.

I do not call a settling from hyper growth to a growth still above 5% annually and double-digit growth for spot areas (neighborhoods or economic sectors)a slow-down. I am thankful after so much of a doldrum, especially in real estate from the 80s through the 90s to a return to a positive local economy. My observations are based on the following. Our future will be well above recessionary.

Continues...

I've been thinking about ways to address the problems revealed by the Katrina experience, and I've proposed 16 things we could do.

What I offer is pragmatic, aggressive and likely effective in ways far reaching into the future. What I offer is probably not politically correct and will raise the ire and scratching of the “hen party extremist” on both sides of the aisle. I have sent this to you because I believe you, among others in a very small group, in my opinion, that have the spirit of the founding fathers, the commitment to integrity, ethics and personal ideals over politics and the experience, skill sets and broad base of supporters to make this happen. I see you in a room together sharing ideas for a better future and a better response in civilized intelligent discourse, something that those of us working in America to pay your and the way of others think seldom happens.

The linked file is a PDF. I welcome your comments here in the UBI BizBlog.

I send this too you because our country needs you and I personally believe in you. Both Senator Stevens and Senator Murray know my commitment to doing what is right. I pray you agree with the concept of what I propose and that you, together, will move forward to heal wounds across divides, in the streets and in the pocket books of Americans.

The 16 Points