Our country was resilient in the 18^th Century and survived the Revolutionary War.  In the 19^th Century the country was torn apart by the Civil War and in the 20^th Century the country survived a depression surrounded by two World Wars and then the Vietnam War.  In the first decade of this 21^st Century we survived a horrible attack on our homeland and are involved in two more wars.  It’s likely that we’d survive those as well if that’s all we had to worry about.

 What’s not as certain is whether the country has the resilience to survive the economic situation in which we are mired as well.  While there are indications that the recession has bottomed in some parts of the economy the critical Housing market arguably will be in recession for many years.  But there are other factors, notably continuing deficits and massive debt, out of control spending, weak domestic growth and strong foreign competition, new social programs along with tax increases.  If the economy were thriving and the debt brought under control we might even make it through these tough times. 

 But the country isn’t thriving and isn’t likely to so long as we stay with the policies of this past decade.  We’re just not resilient enough to withstand the headwinds on the horizon.  Tell your elected representatives you’ve had enough of their bickering, to reign in their spending and get the country’s fiscal house in order now, before it’s too late.

 Tell them to restart the economic engine through sound fiscal policy and get out of the way, before it’s too late. Tell them to let free markets work their magic. With proper policies in Washington we are resilient enough.

These views are strictly my own,

Bob Zartarian

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For the last year the national discourse centered on health care reform. Now it’s time to turn to what few disagree with –we need to quickly spur national and international commerce. It’s time to harness the energy that didn’t prevail on one side and the invigorated winners on the other – America needs to get back to work now. Their energy needs to be directed toward telling all elected officials to modify tax law and to make our country competitive on the world market.

Activists from both sides need to press the administration to quickly send long stalled international treaties to the Senate that will create trade. They need to demand programs that stimulate business across the board and eliminate job programs targeted for political gain.

It’s time to put away the rhetoric and demand JOBS of our elected officials. Tell them to stop increasing the national debt and focus on increasing employment. Tell them to legislate the return of Free Enterprise and then get out of the way.

JOBS and WORK – the four letter words to embrace now. The future of our country depends on it.

Bob Zartarian These views are strictly my own

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What does $2.739 gasoline have to do with Housing? Plenty and it’s not pretty.

Prices as the pump have jumped about 10% in Metro Atlanta over the last couple of weeks. Even if this were the result of increased demand that would signal a stronger economy (which I don’t believe), higher fuel prices will put a damper on a fragile employment situation (understatement). My crystal ball forecasts a cloudier future that doesn’t bode well for job creation.

It’s pretty clear that the consumer will have less disposable income in 2011 than in 2010. With gasoline prices again “water cooler” talk it’s likely that both the consumer and those responsible for making hiring decisions will be hesitant buy and to add new /recall laid off workers respectively.

Housing sales have been driven by low mortgage rates and depressed housing prices along with $8000/$6500 tax credits and a large inventory of unsold homes. With the tax credits due to expire in 45 days, mortgage rates likely to rise next month when the Federal Reserve will stop buying Mortgage Backed Securities and higher prices at the pump there is really just one way to restart Housing and the Economy. JOBS. More people have be employed each and every month from next quarter going forward (not fewer people losing their jobs) else we’re not going to see an improvement. The answer?

Encourage your elected officials to focus on real job creation – pass legislation NOW to unleash the power of Free Enterprise to again make this country “exceptional”. Congress is coming home for their Easter break. Tell them to revise our tax, energy and trade policies to restore the U.S. as the world’s dominant economic power. This is not a political issue – survival of our country and our position in the world is at stake.

These views are strictly my own Bob Zartarian, Marietta Ga.

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First it was New York, now it’s Washington. Unfortunately both got it wrong.

It’s not controversial to say that overzealous Wall Street types created fancy financial instruments that blew up Housing and ultimately the Economy. Let’s also remember that Washington types jumped in and instructed banks to make loans that didn’t make sense either. So Wall Street with Washington’s “encouragement” worked together to bring it all down.

Now the music’s stopped; we’re faced with high unemployment for years to come except now Washington is the old New York. Instead of Wall Street derivatives bringing us down we have massive Washington spending programs led by Health Care Reform and Cap and Trade looming. And then there’s taxes – old ones, new ones and those old ones ratcheted higher that will drain the pocketbooks of consumers. Without a vision of a solid future past job creators are holding back – with what’s going on why do otherwise? Turns out those Wall Street types aren’t so stupid after all. This time banks aren’t following Washington’s lead with easy credit and catching lots of heat for it.

Both got it wrong before. Hopefully Washington, the new New York will listen to the American people who appear to be saying our lawmakers must stop spending in a no growth, high debt and deficit, no job creation economy. We need years of good old fashioned common sense – that will restore confidence and the jobs that will lead us out of this morass we’re in now.

Bob Zartarian These views are strictly my own

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As I mentioned in my post The DADvocate Project Branding Contest – Win a free Twitter Background! I wanted to open up this branding process to the DADvocate community at large and and gain some feedback. Admittedly I also want to give my designer some exposure since I think she is AWESOME. So please leave some comments about your thoughts and you’ll have the opportunity to win a free twitter background designed by Havana. Check out her web site Kokographix.com

The design process starts with the interview:

Havana Interview – The DADvocate Project Branding from Kevin Metzger on Vimeo.

After the interview Havana spent some time drawling and brainstorming with me so she could be sure we were thinking along the same lines.

DADvocate Header Design Brainstorming Part 1 from Kevin Metzger on Vimeo.

One of neatest things about this process was her introduction of children into the design during her creative process. It was something I would never have thought of but I really like how she worked it in. What do you think?

DADvocate Header Design Brainstorming Part 1 from Kevin Metzger on Vimeo.

There is a third page of work shown here which i hav not posted video for.

All this work resulted in the four following ideas. What do you like about them? what would you change?

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Most would agree that to get Housing and the Economy back on track we need more demand and spending brought about by consumers with jobs and disposable income.   After all, that’s what all that stimulus spending was supposed to be about.

How is it then that allowing the “Bush” tax cuts to expire and instituting Health Care reform which will add taxes for years before benefits kick in can bring back jobs and grow the economy?  Don’t taxes take disposable income away from consumers and slow job creation?

Bob Zartarian – These views are strictly my own

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“Well, if we just look at what’s happened and works, why do we need something new?” This quote is from Jonathan Krohn, one of Atlanta’s own as he criticized former Republican Governor Jeb Bush. At 14 years old this young man already understands that we need not try new ideas when we have the benefit of hindsight to see what’s worked before to bring housing and the economy back.

Time after time in the past when taxes were reduced and/or eliminated and entrepreneurs were incentivized by profit to take risks, the country’s coffers filled up as economic activity improved. Couple that with long term pro-growth policies and you have the formula for a fast recovery.  Take away the impediments to doing business at home and abroad, let American business compete on the world stage without high tax rates and watch out!  Every time it’s been done the result is the same.  We recover.

A reduced tax burden along with spending reductions practically guarantees the chances for a robust recovery.  Throw in a strong dose of waste and fraud elimination and America will once again see everyone in its rear view mirror.  People who want a job will go back to work and we’ll have the revenue to bring down the crushing deficit.  Do this and those “babes” will have a life at least as good as ours.  We don’t need to “tinker” with make work programs, we need a plan that lets the world’s best do what it does best.

Bob Zartarian, – Marietta, Ga                                                           These views are strictly my own

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How sad, less than two weeks of focusing on Job creation and were already back to Health Care Reform, something that has mistakenly had the limelight for a year. We’re also back to Tea Parties, the KSM trials and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” that dilute the focus on Job creation. Important no doubt but not the priority that Job creation can and must be.

If the economy was strong we could deal with issues we WANT to tackle but they are unnecessarily taking the emphasis away from the NEED to create Jobs. As a country we need to distinguish between Needs and Wants. I’m fine with Reforming Health Care and debating those other issues but they are WANTS and not NEEDS (yes, there is already a way for the uninsured to get health care).

The statistical anomaly that recently brought down the unemployment rate at the same time as unemployment rose must be ignored. What we should be more concerned about are the tax cuts that will be allowed to expire at year end and the elimination of the program to buy Mortgage Backed Securities by the Federal Reserve in less than two months. The Congress and the administration must increase demand which will ultimately put people to work. Forget targeted stimulus – it has no lasting effect and is rife with waste and abuse. There are plenty of examples from the past year to prove that. Stop the plan to take more taxes from the American people. It may create a double dip recession.

The solution: reduce payroll taxes, reduce corporate taxes, eliminate capital gains taxes, keep the “Bush” tax cuts, eliminate the “death” tax and watch the economy “SNAP” back. Tax revenues will rise, we’ll be able to balance the budget and pay down the deficit and the country will recover. Let’s strengthen the employer class, put people to work and then address our WANTS.

Bob Zartarian  -  These views are strictly my own

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Remote Control Image

I recently found LogMeIn.com. This is a wonderful free remote control services that allows you to remotely control either a Mac or PC. It even works with  smartphones. You can actually control your PC or Mac through a smartphone. This is a truly incredible service and if you are a small business and have used GoToMyPC this service can save you $30/month.

They also offer paid services such as tech support, virtual networking and an advanced version of remote control that allows you to transfer files and use remote resources to print copy past etc. It’s all very cool. Check it out! It’s free and Freeing.

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Okay maybe I’m just a tech geek but I want an iPad. I love apple and have even before the release of the Mac. My first computer was an Apple IIC and was this amazing thing that if manipulated properly allowed me to write my own games.

Today the iMac we own renewed my interest in computing and is still allowing me to define my own games. The release of the iPad will take defining your own game even further. You can now take the game with you. As a blogger and tech enthusiast I love the product.

As a blogger and tech enthusiast I wonder why a few things were left out: Here is what I would have liked to see in addition to the incredible technology that is there. I want an iSight built-in on both sides so I can do video or video chat. I want the computer to do flash – this is a common technology used on many web sites and for many video presentations. I want the iPad to run more than one application at a time. And I want the iPad to be able to make and receive calls with a blue tooth headset and voice commands.

All the above said I think it turns out that the tweet I sent out on Tuesday before anyone else was saying it is going to turn out to be true “Somehow I think Steve Jobs speech tomorrow will be more impactful than the State of the Union !” For some reason I was thinking the State of the Union Speech was Tuesday.

The reason I think I’m right is because we have seen, even with some missing pieces, the introduction of a complete change in computing!

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