Big changes are coming to Washington as promised during the political campaign. Watching the appointments lighting up the news are....wait a minute...the new guy was going to change things. Why are so many of the folks in his administration not new? One thing they have in common is that they are all members of the Council of Foreign Relations? 

The CFR, the International Monetary Fund and the Trilateral Commission are still in charge.  Their contemporaries made up most of the Bush crew and look what happened. Now they have brought up reinforcements to coordinate the globalization of our economy.

The financial tentacles of the banking community and the stock markets are causing a world- wide recession. And since nearly all of the new CFR guys come from the financial sector, it's a good bet that most of the bail out funds will be going to the..... financial sector!

The new foxes have moved into the hen house.

If we want to make it in this economy we need to be creative -- we have to learn to "lean out." That's a skiing term I used to hear when I was learning to ski moguls. In order to maintain your balance you need to learn to lean your body out away from the mountain, into the unknown.  One of the reasons I never got to be a good skier was because I had such a hard time trying to "lean out." I could get into it sometimes but most of the time it scared me. But like skiing, finding the balance of your business requires leaning out into the unknown.

Where you've been in the past will not hold the answers to your business in the future. It's the place where you have never been that will hold new ideas and possibilities.

Considering that, when concentrating on your retail profits:

• Try not to drop prices. The influx of cash will make you think you're making money, but cash flow isn't profit -- it's just cash. It won't keep you in business.
• Lowering your prices will take away value from your products. You'll begin to think that your products aren't worth it.
• The only business out there will come from the customer with money. This customer is the one that will survive and send you referrals.
• The cheapest price in town will not satisfy the better customer. The better customer is not looking for commodities.
• Can't get rid of it? Raise the prices of the "dogs." Leave the prices there for a few months and then put them on sale.

Remember, you're planning not only for today's customers, but for future customers.

If you think you're not touched by Bernie Madoff's 50 billion dollar scam, think again. Big losers are checking with their accountants right now to see what tax losses may be claimed. In the future all taxpayers will pay more because Madoff's victims will pay less.

Watching the scandal unfold, it struck me that the whole sordid mess has a common thread. The Council of Foreign Relations is up to its eyeballs in every phase of it. From Wall Street to the SEC to all branches of the government, CFR members hold key positions in every segment of the controversy including the investigators and supposed regulators.

These folks, most with Ivy League pedigrees, have joined together in the financial world to create this incestuous financial disaster. Wall Street has ignored the basic law of nature that in-breeding creates idiots. This may be a temporary set-back in CFR's plans to rule the world.

A man who sells a competitor's brand of equipment calls me the "preacher" of the carpet cleaning industry and tells people, "It's a cult thing. If you go to Indianapolis, don't drink the Kool-aid."

During the '70s and '80s, I conducted more than 800 Mini-Clinics. These were four-hour presentations designed to interest people in Bane-Clene products and were combined with educational information. They were held from border to border and coast to coast including two in Hawaii, three in Alaska and twenty in the United Kingdom.

I made many friends on those tours who thought pretty much the way I do. Dependability, being on time, ethics, honesty and other subjects that I think are important to success made up the agenda. But part of my presentation was about pricing, and bait and switch advertising came in my cross hairs. That's when I discovered the hard way that a large number of people in our business use this pricing method. My comments on that subject and employee/customer safety made some enemies for me, too.

My friend Howard Olansky, co-founder of ICS magazine, referred to me in the religious genre one time. He attended a meeting on the west coast and compared me to a "missionary." Howard referred to my discourse as having an "evangelistic fervor."  I liked "Humble Howie" and miss him a lot. And I liked his words a whole lot better than those of that equipment salesman. 

 

I'm saddened by the continuous effort of CRI to undermine and repress professional carpet cleaners who have worked hard for so many years to serve the carpet industry and enhance the value of their products. Apparently the best interest of carpet and it's reputation are not at the top of everyone's agenda.

A brochure mailed to millions of homes for a product called "Final answer" may prove to be appropriate. As a WWII vet I remember the "Final solution."  In my opinion chemical products like these are doing more to destroy professional carpet cleaning than bait and switch advertising.

Another travesty is CRI's equipment testing program which gives a cheap little rental machine their top rating. A half-hour Infomercial touting CRI approval on television is flawed in both accuracy and voracity. Does anyone in Dalton understand how ridiculous this looks to real carpet cleaners?

A professional cleaner who has been in the business for many years is required to use CRI approved products and attend IICRC schools to validate a warranty. Yet, DIY "experts" who never cleaned a carpet in their life can do it with no training and keep the warranty in force.

This all may be a moot point with carpet sales sliding down the proverbial tubes. As a carpet cleaner, I'm glad we can clean stone, terrazzo, marble, tile, laminate and wood floors. My first love is carpet, but at least we'll still have work.

"Remember Pearl Harbor?" That was the battle cry of WWII. President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "Sunday, December 7, 1941, a day that will live in infamy..." Not many are alive who remember that fateful Sunday morning when the dastardly attack took place on our Pacific Fleet. Those who were, will never forget.

"Remember the Alamo" and "Remember the Maine" are slogans that would never be forgotten...but now they are relegated to the pages of tattered history books that are routinely ignored by many teachers. "Remember September 11" is the latest of infamous events that unfortunately will soon be just a faded memory.

Thank God for the brave troops who protect our freedom and for the first responders who protect us in this land of plenty. With all of our problems, people still want to come here legally or illegally. But, freedom is not free!

According to Information Resources, Inc. 2008, half of U.S. consumers consider at least one sustainability factor when selecting brands to buy or stores to shop. If you're in business, this is certainly a good reason to go green.  The more I read about green the more I know that green is more than a trend for our world, it is our world.

The other day I was buying a birthday present and instead of using a fancy paper gift bag I decided to purchase an ecofriendly bag that could be saved and used at the grocery store. I am becoming more conscious of how much paper I use and shred and frankly I'm ashamed. I do much of my food shopping at the Honest Weight Food Coop in Albany, New York and am surprised at how many people bring their own bags and how many of the bags are made of recyclable materials and are a permanent solution to plastic and paper bags.

The 2008 ImagePower Green Brands Survey also states, "Though U.S. consumers are more concerned about the economy than the environment these days, they still will pay more for green products." For most of us, business is slow and most retailers are looking for new ways to meet and keep customers. So why why not tout your "greenness" as much as you can? If you're going to talk the talk you had better walk the walk. According to another survey, 12.1 % of consumers say they never believe the green claims and 65.3% say they sometimes do. So, if you are going to build green into your business you'll have to "show 'em you mean it." Not sure how to go organic? Visit here to learn.

According to Floor Focus, the CRI’s annual meeting focused on correcting misinformation. CRI has gathered scientific information that refutes many myths, especially the one that carpet is hard to clean. With more than 46 years in the cleaning business, I know carpet is easy to clean.

But if it's so easy to clean why did CRI set up a testing program for equipment and cleaning supplies? And consumers are told by some CRI members that only certain cleaners with IICRC certification using CRI approved products can clean their carpet or the warranty may be void. Does this sound like carpet is easy to clean?

The absurdity comes full circle when a little rental carpet cleaning machine is awarded CRI's highest rating. The little machine with a cheap fan-type vacuum ranks higher than some truck-mounted cleaning systems that use large, positive displacement vacuum pumps.

As the ol' accountant says, "Go figure!"