Saturday, January 24, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Jimmy V and the Closed Wallet
Faded photographs,
Covered now with lines and creases
-Dennis Yost and the Classics IV
Former ESPN announcer and basketball coach Jim (Jimmy V) Valvano set up a foundation for cancer research after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer in June of 1992.
June, 1992 was when my father found out he, too, had terminal cancer. He and Jimmy V were of similar age, personality and outlook on life.
From the time they were diagnosed, dad and Jimmy V both fought against cancer like they were an entry at the race track. They never met, but when dad was doing better, it seemed like Jimmy V was improving, too.
Dad took strength from Valvano's motivational presence. I'm convinced that Valvano's emotional February 21, 1993 speech at North Carolina State inspired dad to live for another week. That speech fired dad up from his deathbed.
We buried my dad on March 4, 1993. I came home that night to watch the ESPY awards where Valvano gave one of the most extraordinary, inspiring and heart-touching speeches ever given.
Recently, ESPN devoted a week to raise money for cancer research. ESPN called it the "Jimmy V" week and they kicked it off by replaying Valvano's 1993 ESPY speech.
I was watching the speech and suddenly tears started running from my eyes.
I'm one of those guys who cries about once a decade. Yet I can't stop crying as I watch a 15 year old replay of Jim Valvano.
He was still raising money for cancer, a disease that directly impacted my family. It brings back every emotion of connecting with my father. I reached for my wallet.
Then I stopped.
Like a lot of people, I've cut back significantly this year. I've been generous in the past, but now a tougher nut to crack.
I don't know what the future is going to be like. Even though I am better off than most people, I want to be careful. Just like many other people.
I realized that if I hesitated on a cause so personal, it must be hell for the other charities raising money.
I'm not the only person thinking twice about giving money to charity. Or about spending money.
Most people have the same kind of hesitation that I have. And this compounds the financial crisis problem.
People are afraid to spend money, so retailers sell less and lay people off. Retailers are selling less, so factories and manufacturers quit making goods and lay people off. People quit buying houses and cars, and those sectors lay people off.
Fearful people stop giving money to charity, so those charitable organizations cut services and lay people off. With fewer people paying taxes, government starts cutting services and laying people off.
Then people get more scared because they see all their neighbors getting laid off. They tighten their belts even further and the cycle goes into another round. Then they get laid off.
It all comes down to confidence. A year ago, Jimmy V's foundation would have had my money before they cut to commercial. A year from now, it might be the same story.
Right now, there is little chance. I want to see if we have hit bottom.
It often takes something monumental to shift the spiral. The Great Depression really didn't end until World War II. In previous recessions, gimmicks like wage and price controls, tax cuts and stimulus plans were used to try to halt economic slowdowns. They rarely worked.
We need for the markets to run their natural course. Things will bottom out and people will get their confidence back.
We stalled the bottoming out by throwing billions of tax dollars at Wall Street.
The public is smarter than Washington gives them credit for. They saw through the $700 billion bailout as a gift from Washington insiders to Wall Street insiders. People on Main Street realized that none of the $700 billion would be helping them.
Thus, we have a crisis in confidence. I'm hoping that new presidential leadership helps. But people have to get this recent crisis behind us. We need to find out what mistakes were made and make sure they don't happen again.
To paraphrase Jim Valvano, we must never, ever, ever give up until we fix the problems that got us in this mess.
Someday, we will get our confidence back. When that happens, the Jimmy V foundation will be getting my donation.
Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC, is the Founder of the McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Kentucky. He is the author of Son of a Son of a Gambler. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or read his award winning, syndicated financial column at www.donmcnay.com
Covered now with lines and creases
-Dennis Yost and the Classics IV
Former ESPN announcer and basketball coach Jim (Jimmy V) Valvano set up a foundation for cancer research after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer in June of 1992.
June, 1992 was when my father found out he, too, had terminal cancer. He and Jimmy V were of similar age, personality and outlook on life.
From the time they were diagnosed, dad and Jimmy V both fought against cancer like they were an entry at the race track. They never met, but when dad was doing better, it seemed like Jimmy V was improving, too.
Dad took strength from Valvano's motivational presence. I'm convinced that Valvano's emotional February 21, 1993 speech at North Carolina State inspired dad to live for another week. That speech fired dad up from his deathbed.
We buried my dad on March 4, 1993. I came home that night to watch the ESPY awards where Valvano gave one of the most extraordinary, inspiring and heart-touching speeches ever given.
Recently, ESPN devoted a week to raise money for cancer research. ESPN called it the "Jimmy V" week and they kicked it off by replaying Valvano's 1993 ESPY speech.
I was watching the speech and suddenly tears started running from my eyes.
I'm one of those guys who cries about once a decade. Yet I can't stop crying as I watch a 15 year old replay of Jim Valvano.
He was still raising money for cancer, a disease that directly impacted my family. It brings back every emotion of connecting with my father. I reached for my wallet.
Then I stopped.
Like a lot of people, I've cut back significantly this year. I've been generous in the past, but now a tougher nut to crack.
I don't know what the future is going to be like. Even though I am better off than most people, I want to be careful. Just like many other people.
I realized that if I hesitated on a cause so personal, it must be hell for the other charities raising money.
I'm not the only person thinking twice about giving money to charity. Or about spending money.
Most people have the same kind of hesitation that I have. And this compounds the financial crisis problem.
People are afraid to spend money, so retailers sell less and lay people off. Retailers are selling less, so factories and manufacturers quit making goods and lay people off. People quit buying houses and cars, and those sectors lay people off.
Fearful people stop giving money to charity, so those charitable organizations cut services and lay people off. With fewer people paying taxes, government starts cutting services and laying people off.
Then people get more scared because they see all their neighbors getting laid off. They tighten their belts even further and the cycle goes into another round. Then they get laid off.
It all comes down to confidence. A year ago, Jimmy V's foundation would have had my money before they cut to commercial. A year from now, it might be the same story.
Right now, there is little chance. I want to see if we have hit bottom.
It often takes something monumental to shift the spiral. The Great Depression really didn't end until World War II. In previous recessions, gimmicks like wage and price controls, tax cuts and stimulus plans were used to try to halt economic slowdowns. They rarely worked.
We need for the markets to run their natural course. Things will bottom out and people will get their confidence back.
We stalled the bottoming out by throwing billions of tax dollars at Wall Street.
The public is smarter than Washington gives them credit for. They saw through the $700 billion bailout as a gift from Washington insiders to Wall Street insiders. People on Main Street realized that none of the $700 billion would be helping them.
Thus, we have a crisis in confidence. I'm hoping that new presidential leadership helps. But people have to get this recent crisis behind us. We need to find out what mistakes were made and make sure they don't happen again.
To paraphrase Jim Valvano, we must never, ever, ever give up until we fix the problems that got us in this mess.
Someday, we will get our confidence back. When that happens, the Jimmy V foundation will be getting my donation.
Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC, is the Founder of the McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Kentucky. He is the author of Son of a Son of a Gambler. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or read his award winning, syndicated financial column at www.donmcnay.com
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Son of a Gambler's Guide to Holiday Books
Son of a Gambler’s Guide to Holiday Books
It’s a lesson to me, the ablers and the beggars and the thieves
-The Grateful Dead
If you read my book, Son of a Son of a Gambler, you’ll know that my childhood was filled with beggars, thieves and other unusual characters.
But not nearly as unusual as the characters Ed McClanahan has encountered in his life.
Ed was one of the “Merry Pranksters,” a group typified by author Ken Kesey and other legends of the 1960’s counter-culture. Ed novel, The Natural Man, is a literary classic and, like Son of a Son of a Gambler, based in my old stomping ground of Northern Kentucky.
Ed recently released O The Clear Moment, and it is a great read. It is nine autobiographical short stories from a guy who has led a really interesting life. It is funny, insightful and one you won’t put down.
Another book that I didn’t put down was Sniper Bid, Rick Robinson’s follow-up to his hit novel, The Maximum Contribution. Both of the novels are based on Rick’s insights as a former Congressional aide and Congressional candidate. If you have someone who likes political thrillers, this is one to put in his stocking.
There are good guys and bad guys in the world of business, and Joe Nocera writes about both. I wrote about Good Guys and Bad Guys when the book was released earlier, but the book has received wide notice lately as Joe, a business columnist for the New York Times, has been the voice of reason and common sense during the financial crisis.
Joe’s been on highbrow shows like Bill Moyers Journal, and less than highbrow shows, like The Colbert Report. No matter the venue, Joe has interesting things to say.
I mentioned recently on Facebook that I wished Joe had been Treasury Secretary instead of our current Secretary, Hank Paulsen. Someone noted that would make him, “Joe the Treasurer.”
“Joe the Writer” is as good as they come.
Although I read hundreds of books a year (I really do), business books are at the top of my charts.
I previously reviewed the hardback version of The Success Effect by John Eckberg. The paperback edition is updated and is out in time for the holidays. John interviewed a number of business leaders, such as Donald Trump. He asked the people he interviewed what books they had on their nightstand and what music they listen to.
I once used John’s idea in one of my columns. I asked the question to a number of well-known Kentuckians. It told me a lot about each of them.
I’ve been catching a lot of new business book releases recently and one I really like is The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. There are about 50 biographies of Buffett and I have read almost all of them. This is the best. It gives a lot of detail about Warren Buffett the man, not just Warren the money-making machine. It’s 976 pages, but they go by quickly.
Ted Turner is another hero of mine. But I don’t recommend his recently released autobiography. Ted has lived a fascinating life, but he is not an introspective guy. A better book about him is Ted Turner: It Ain't As Easy as It Looks, which came out in 1997.
I did a chapter in Son of a Son of A Gambler about my father’s friendship with Larry Flynt. And Dad also knew Hugh Heffner.
Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream, by Steven Watts, is a stunningly great biography of Hefner. Watts is a history professor at the University of Missouri. He has written excellent biographies of Henry Ford and Walt Disney. As in his previous books, Watts views Hefner from a biographical perspective but also notes Hefner’s impact on popular culture and history.
It is only proper that the son of a gambler and daughter of a gambler be on the same wavelength. I read Martha Frankel’s highly acclaimed, Hats & Eyeglasses: A Family Love Affair with Gambling, when it was released earlier this year. This riveting story is about her childhood as the daughter of a gambler and her addiction to poker playing.
About a month ago I connected with Frankel via Facebook. She had just purchased a copy of Son of a Son of a Gambler and, to answer the John Eckberg question, she had it on her nightstand.
The hardback copy of Hats and Eyeglasses is available for the holidays and paperback is coming soon. You might want to get both. Martha has known a few ablers, beggars and thieves in her lifetime, too.
Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is the founder of McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Kentucky. He is the author of Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win The Lottery. You can read other things he has written at www.donmcnay.com or write to him at don@mcnay.com
Monday, November 10, 2008
John Daly, Wall Street Bailout and Bottoming Out
John Daly, Wall Street Bailout and Bottoming Out
One little problem that confronts you,
got a monkey on your back.
Just one more fix, Lord, might do the trick.
-Lynyrd Skynyrd
I saw a pathetic story about golfer John Daly and how he continues to screw up his life. He has blown through millions of dollars, drinking problems, multiple wives and a potentially great golfing career. He is signing autographs at Hooters to make a few bucks.
People in the addiction world say that before an addict can get help, they have to “bottom out.” They have to reach their lowest point. Then they can get help and turn their lives around
John was never able to hit bottom. There has always been another corporate sponsor or another fan to buy him a drink. Hooters is his latest enabler.
It’s hard to come up with a more inappropriate sponsor for John Daly than Hooters. They need to cut John loose and let him bottom out. Or be ready for when he drops over dead in one of their bars. He needs help, but Hooters is not the place to get it.
When I think about John, I also think about the Wall Street Bailout.
We made a mistake in not letting Wall Street hit bottom, too.
I was a fervent opponent of the bailout. Someone called into a radio show I was on and asked me what would happen if we didn’t do the bailout. I said some companies would fail and the S&P 500 would drop by about 50%.
Once we hit that bottom, we could start the process of repairing and climbing back up the ladder.
Just like addicts do. They hit the bottom and reassess their lives. Many go on to productive and wonderful lives.
They just needed to hit the bottom first.
The quicker Wall Street bottomed out, the quicker we could have started the recovery. Instead, we enabled it to the tune of $700 billion.
There was no particular strategy to the enabling. We propped up some companies and let others fail. Instead of letting the stock market drop hugely overnight, it has been dropping over time, with no signs of hitting a bottom. Bad companies with bad management are allowed to make the same mistakes that got them into trouble in the first place.
No one on Wall Street is getting it. Instead of taking the $700 billion and making sure that it trickles down to Main Street, they are using it to buy other banks. They spend a lot of time talking about bonuses for their bigwigs.
A company getting taxpayer bailout money should not be handing out bonuses. A company getting taxpayer bailout money shouldn’t be buying other companies or paying dividends to stockholders.
There is a word for companies that need a government handout: Broke. Why should people get bonuses for managing a broke company? Or for managing a company broke?
If my business in Richmond, Kentucky goes broke, no one gives me a bonus. They tell me to find another job. Creditors take my house, car and cash. It’s the small business version of bottoming out. Very painful, but sobering.
Most of us in smaller businesses have bottomed out several times. Once we hit bottom, we figure out what we did wrong. We don’t make the same mistakes, and we often come back stronger than ever.
Both Wall Street and John Daly need to go through that period of bottoming out and self-examination. Neither one has. If we keep enabling them, neither one will.
At least Daly recognizes that he screwed up. Wall Street doesn’t seem to get it. Many businesses remind me of addicts who think one last fix can cure their problems. More companies, from many industries, are trying to get a piece of the bailout money or get a bailout of their own.
We have to let some companies bottom out. We need to let them truly examine how they got in trouble in the first place. We need for them to shed their bad habits and replace them with good ones.
The alternative is to have the economic equivalent of John Daly - Years of resources being wasted while we hope for a turn around that never happens.
We’ve learned lessons by watching addicts. We’ve learned lessons by watching countries, like Japan, prop up their economies. We know what to do. We just need leaders with the guts to do it.
Its time to let Wall Street bottom out. It is the only way it will truly bounce and rebound.
Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC, is the founder of McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Ky and an award winning, syndicated, financial columnist. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or read what he has written at www.donmcnay.com. McNay is Treasurer of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the author of Son of Son of a Gamblers: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win The Lottery.
One little problem that confronts you,
got a monkey on your back.
Just one more fix, Lord, might do the trick.
-Lynyrd Skynyrd
I saw a pathetic story about golfer John Daly and how he continues to screw up his life. He has blown through millions of dollars, drinking problems, multiple wives and a potentially great golfing career. He is signing autographs at Hooters to make a few bucks.
People in the addiction world say that before an addict can get help, they have to “bottom out.” They have to reach their lowest point. Then they can get help and turn their lives around
John was never able to hit bottom. There has always been another corporate sponsor or another fan to buy him a drink. Hooters is his latest enabler.
It’s hard to come up with a more inappropriate sponsor for John Daly than Hooters. They need to cut John loose and let him bottom out. Or be ready for when he drops over dead in one of their bars. He needs help, but Hooters is not the place to get it.
When I think about John, I also think about the Wall Street Bailout.
We made a mistake in not letting Wall Street hit bottom, too.
I was a fervent opponent of the bailout. Someone called into a radio show I was on and asked me what would happen if we didn’t do the bailout. I said some companies would fail and the S&P 500 would drop by about 50%.
Once we hit that bottom, we could start the process of repairing and climbing back up the ladder.
Just like addicts do. They hit the bottom and reassess their lives. Many go on to productive and wonderful lives.
They just needed to hit the bottom first.
The quicker Wall Street bottomed out, the quicker we could have started the recovery. Instead, we enabled it to the tune of $700 billion.
There was no particular strategy to the enabling. We propped up some companies and let others fail. Instead of letting the stock market drop hugely overnight, it has been dropping over time, with no signs of hitting a bottom. Bad companies with bad management are allowed to make the same mistakes that got them into trouble in the first place.
No one on Wall Street is getting it. Instead of taking the $700 billion and making sure that it trickles down to Main Street, they are using it to buy other banks. They spend a lot of time talking about bonuses for their bigwigs.
A company getting taxpayer bailout money should not be handing out bonuses. A company getting taxpayer bailout money shouldn’t be buying other companies or paying dividends to stockholders.
There is a word for companies that need a government handout: Broke. Why should people get bonuses for managing a broke company? Or for managing a company broke?
If my business in Richmond, Kentucky goes broke, no one gives me a bonus. They tell me to find another job. Creditors take my house, car and cash. It’s the small business version of bottoming out. Very painful, but sobering.
Most of us in smaller businesses have bottomed out several times. Once we hit bottom, we figure out what we did wrong. We don’t make the same mistakes, and we often come back stronger than ever.
Both Wall Street and John Daly need to go through that period of bottoming out and self-examination. Neither one has. If we keep enabling them, neither one will.
At least Daly recognizes that he screwed up. Wall Street doesn’t seem to get it. Many businesses remind me of addicts who think one last fix can cure their problems. More companies, from many industries, are trying to get a piece of the bailout money or get a bailout of their own.
We have to let some companies bottom out. We need to let them truly examine how they got in trouble in the first place. We need for them to shed their bad habits and replace them with good ones.
The alternative is to have the economic equivalent of John Daly - Years of resources being wasted while we hope for a turn around that never happens.
We’ve learned lessons by watching addicts. We’ve learned lessons by watching countries, like Japan, prop up their economies. We know what to do. We just need leaders with the guts to do it.
Its time to let Wall Street bottom out. It is the only way it will truly bounce and rebound.
Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC, is the founder of McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Ky and an award winning, syndicated, financial columnist. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or read what he has written at www.donmcnay.com. McNay is Treasurer of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the author of Son of Son of a Gamblers: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win The Lottery.
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