Podcast 234

Market Plunge. If it wasn’t for Ebola, this week’s Market Plunge would be the top story and we’d all be talking about it. Was it really less than a month ago that President Obama said the market and economy had come roaring back? And this week the market gave back all the gains so far of 2014. Will it come back. Analysts aren’t so sure. As the rest of the economies in the world contract, all hope was placed in US economic growth which the fantasy world created by the media hyped. Bad retail sales numbers this week dashed those hopes. Meanwhile the world’s governments and central banks that depend on inflation to wipe away debts, are very concerned about disinflation turning into deflation. Are lower commodity prices a good sign, or a bad sign? In the final analysis, the US economy will probably not be enough to act as a counterweight to fading growth in the Euro Zone and China, even with lower commodity prices. The worry on Wall Street? Faltering demand among consumers. Surprise! While the President touts economic ‘recovery’ the number of Americans on SNAP benefits (in other words Food Stamps) skyrockets, the clearest indication yet that the newly employed are in low wage part time jobs, and those out of the work force may stay out as long as government programs pay them to. Not a good combination, and certainly not one that indicates dynamic growth. What’s going on? Steve Forbes has five suggestions that are pretty good. The upshot? We’re a long way from the kinds of radical reforms that will change the scope, cost and size of the Federal Government and get things back on track. It isn’t gridlock causing the problems, its the people. It’s our politics. How do we put away creaky old Keynesian concepts moderate Republicans, democrats and progressives have championed going back to the New Deal? How do we cut away regulation, spending and taxation and reduce government power, so that new decentralizing technologies can empower the individual to innovate, generate tomorrow’s successes, and power the US out of the malaise we find ourselves in? Yes, there are Republicans afraid of radical change just as there are democrats afraid to reduce the size and power of government. We have to stop expecting creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial instincts from politicians. News Flash! Your congressman is not Steve Jobs. Not by a long shot. Some ideas to consider when thinking about the other major story chronicling the failure of ‘big government’ these days; The economy. Sponsored by Depotstar.

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Podcast 231

Short Term Thinking. How reliance on formula reduces innovation. American Business is increasingly reliant on short term thinking and ‘templates’ or formulaic approaches. The least revolutionary kind of innovation – improvements in finance, procedure, cost controls and personnel – are increasingly the only kind of innovation in the corporate world. Meanwhile, innovations that create new products, new markets and revolutionize thinking are in short supply. What started as a conversation between two old radio friends about the broadcasting business sparks some ‘slash and burn’ thinking about business in general. Why do some businesses rely on formula so much? When are formula’s good. When is it best to trash the formula and let the inmates take over the asylum? (Editors Note: The best jobs I’ve ever had in radio, the best experiences as a creative person in broadcasting happened when the inmates were running the asylum. In fact, that used to be our business model!) These days it seems like formulaic thinking has invaded politics, movies, radio, music, television … really almost everything. And, we’re choking on it. Is it possible one of the reasons so many people remain out of the work force for extended periods of time is because they’re sick of implementing plans from the corporate office? Maybe what we all need is to throw the formula out and start doing whatever we want. To be sure, there will be mistakes, and failures, but there might also be some great successes. Some of the things business does, it does because of formulas developed 20, 30, 40 even 50 years ago. Back in the day, those formulas may have made sense but now they bear little resemblance to new market contours. If the United States wants to maintain its position in the world, we’re going to have to set our workers free; Free to think, free to make mistakes and free develop the kinds of new strategies that revolutionize markets. The response to almost every truly revolutionary idea has always been, ‘You can’t do that’, or ‘It sounds like crap’, or ‘Why would anyone want that?’. Or worse, ‘That’s not the way we’ve always done it’. Our strength has always been in the skunk works, the garage, the basement and backyards, and with the so called ‘crazies’. Rules are made to be broken. Why don’t we start breaking some? Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and by Depotstar.

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Podcast 208

On The Road. 2700 Miles from Chicago, Illinois to Phoenix. The first leg of the trip takes The Bob Davis Podcasts from Chicago to the middle of Iowa, and a pouring rain. What is the take away from the IMTS; The International Manufacturing and Technology Show? For people breaking under a steady diet of doom, gloom and alarm from the media … for those who think ‘manufacturing’ in America is ‘dead’, this would have been a very instructive experience. Innovation in America is not dead. A manufacturing and technology show that filled Chicago’s McCormick Center, with big and small businesses from across the globe. The first experience of ‘The Big Trip’ is that innovative things are going on everyday in this country, it’s just that the people who run our media don’t understand any of it. If the United States ever is able to generate dynamic economic growth again there are many innovations that will produce many new products, each of them a revolution in itself. Slow growth means only the big companies have the cash to invest in new technology. It is hard to watch engineers, managers, academics and small business owners spend almost 6 hours in a workshop talking about these processes, and then find out our media has spent all day talking about an NFL player who beat up his wife. Sitting at a ‘Pilot’ in Western Iowa right now, cursing slow upload speeds, and trying to decide whether to push on to Nebraska, or crash in the front seat of the Crown Vic. Follow the rest of the trip with podcasts everyday from the Road. Chicago to Arizona, and all the buffalo Jerky and Macadamia nuts you can eat! Sponsored by Sedation And Implant Dentistry of Saint Paul.

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