Hail, Hail, The Gang’s All Here! But Do They Care About Small Business?
As the newest crop of legislators arrives at the Capitol today to officially assume their oath of office, one must ask: “Will this class of Senate and Assembly inhabitants have a greater appreciation and understanding of small business than history has shown?”
If more of our state leaders had hands-on experience signing the FRONT side of a check, they’d appreciate exactly what small business owners are going through in this economic downturn and how their decisions impact the jobs and lives of working Californians. Sadly, the majority of our Capitol leaders have no idea what kind of fatal blow new and unexpected costs – be they taxes, levies, assessments, fees – will do to small business owners and the people they employ.
Most small businesses have limited incomes and razor-thin profit margins, which basically means that every month, every pay period, once they have paid what is due for administrative, payroll, overhead, property, utilities, permits, inventory, and, yes, taxes, they are left with little, if anything, for their own livelihood or other unanticipated future needs. In fact, many small employers at this point in history are faced with the sad reality that they are steeped in red ink and are scrambling to find immediate sources of credit or some form of capital to survive.
New Legislators – First, Go Find the Capitol’s Bathrooms
Welcome new legislators! Here’s the first thing you have to do in the capitol once you are sworn in. Go find the bathrooms. Take a tour. Get a architectural plan of the capitol. Do what is ever necessary to find the bathrooms. Do it now. Why? Because in this era of term limits you have very little time to become experts on governing California.
We’ve all heard the phrase attached to the argument that because of term limits new legislators only have enough time to “find the bathroom” before they are term limited out. That means that the legislators cannot come to grips with the policy and politics of Sacramento to make important changes in California’s governance. They only have time to get their feet wet—then presto, they’re gone.
Whether current term limits are good or not is not the point here. Term limits is the law that the new class of 25 novice legislators will serve under. So there is no time for excuses, they have to get up to speed quickly.
Stop the Nonsense About Arnold and Prop 8
I enjoy post-election recriminations as much as anybody, but I’m beginning to think the post-Prop 8 recriminations are getting out of hand. There’s plenty of blame to go around, but the latest target — Arnold Schwarzenegger — doesn’t deserve the criticism he’s currently getting.
Here’s the case against Arnold being made by No on 8 folks: Schwarzenegger is to blame for Prop 8 for failing to sign into law two bills legalizing same-sex marriages that were sent his way in 2005 and 2007. The argument is that Schwarzenegger set the stage for a ballot initiative by blocking legalization through the traditional process. Hans Johnson, a progressive political consultant, wrote recently in Huffington Post: “More than any other person, he remains responsible for putting marriage equality in jeopardy in California and leaving its future in the court’s hands. Having changed the state constitution, Prop 8 is now beyond both his reach and the legislature’s. For the time being, at least, it has foreclosed the very process that the governor stymied twice before.”
Bottom Or Bear Market Rally?
While we were enjoying the Thanksgiving Holiday break, the markets had five consecutive ‘up’ days, by my count – three Obama press conferences; five ‘up’ Dow days in a row. Have we seen the Bottom or is this just a Bear Market Rally? Likely, it is the latter, but, the Bottom can only be confirmed when looking in the rear view mirror, and we are still weaving and bobbing so much to avoid all the roadkill of the last months that we cannot safely steal that glance yet.
A Bear Market Rally is that curious creature that inspires hope, only to dash that hope after a short time and confirm that this is indeed a deep Bear Market and the Bulls have not returned. The Bottom, on the other hand, is the absolute statistical low point as shown on graphs – usually a V or U shape, that we can look back at and say, there it is – that was the Bottom – now onward and upward. It also gives us bragging rights if we got lucky enough to actually buy something at the absolute statistical bottom. It can make a dabbler in investment sound like a true maven – enough to fool the uninitiated and those without any historical reference.