Change Management International - Robert Ian

New Financial Paradigm: Enough Is As Good As A Feast

There's a technique used in the sales process called mirroring. Mirroring is process of building trust with someone by reflecting their words and expressions back to them, by using similar language, gestures, and allowing the person you are trying to influence, to be heard. Mirroring is a powerful behavior modification technique because it subconsciously conveys the idea that "I am like you are". This perceived synchronicity helps the salesperson build trust, melt resistance and quickly close the sale. Techniques like this to build trust are fine if you back things up with honesty, integrity and a good product. However, convincing people that "I am like you are" to make them feel better in the short term, and then turning around and sticking it to them, is disingenuous at best, and manipulative and fraudulent at worse.

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Is Bernanke The Anonymous Bidder Buying Treasury Debt?

Last week there was a disturbing article in the Financial Times of London that raised a simple, but unanswerable question: Who's buying US Treasury Notes? In other words, who's buying all the debt that is being created with reckless abandon each and every day by the federal government? Last week auctions of U.S. treasury notes attracted very strong buying from domestic institutional investors. Several investment experts cited in the article speculate that there is "one big bidder" who is buying all the debt.

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Confiscating Your 401k: Is Government Plan Friend or Foe?

This past week there have a number of articles and commentaries circulating on the internet about a proposal called "The Hamilton Project" put out by the Brookings Institution to convert money from your 401K plan into an annuity, and then parcel out what they call "guaranteed income" for the rest of your life. This is a big topic with many agendas, motivations and ramifications all rolled into one. I will discuss these in future commentaries but right now I want you to grasp the essence of this proposal and ask yourself: if putting what little remains of your retirement account in the hands of the government and having those funds administered by many of the same financial entities that caused this economic crisis, and subsequently profited from your pain and destruction over the past two years, if that's really in your best interest from here on out?

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Next Round of Cuts Will Jeopardize America's Competitiveness

There's an alarming trend developing in the shadows of American business both large and small alike that could have a negative impact on our ability to compete both at home and abroad in the coming months and years. This trend has to do with the cuts that have been made in both personnel and overhead over the past 24 months.

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