Jo Lapidge and her family decided to buy a cat. However, she was soon regretting the decision after discovering how often she needed to clean the kitty litter. Watching the movie “Meet the parents” Lapidge found her solution when the cat went to the toilet on an actual toilet! With a few disks and a cheap toilet seat, Lapidge trained her own cat to use a normal toilet rather than the kitty litter.

“I only ever intended it for us, but then my husband, Terry, and I started wondering about commercial possibilities,” Lapidge said. Now the “Litter Kwitter” is sold in countries all over the globe, including the US and Britain.

Lapidge isn’t our only quirky inventor. Gilbert Huynh created a brand of underwear called 4SKINS. What makes this underwear special is that they have odour-neutralising fabric. In other words, you can pass gas and not have to worry about someone smelling it. Surprisingly, more women are buying this product than men, however, not for themselves.

“I’m amazed at the number of women who are buying them for their boyfriends or husbands,” Huynh said.

Quirky inventions like these are worth around $12 billion a year to the Australian economy, which is an excellent return for the simplest of ideas.

So, if you find yourself placing an unusual item on your Christmas wish list, it might profit you to think about creating it yourself.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

No surprise here. The swing from Democratic to Republican control had been anticipated for at least the past four weeks – a foregone conclusion according to the endless polling data that made its way around the globe.

With the U.S. economy still in sluggish mode and the world economic engine mired in 17 trillion dollars of debt, what impact will these elections have on the Obama administration and U.S. economic policy? I think the answers will be felt globally.

If you own or operate a business any where around the world, the U.S. mid-term elections will have an impact on your business.

The Ailing U.S. Economy

While the global economy is chugging along nicely, and the Australian economy doing very well, the U.S. economy remains in decline. The numbers speak for themselves:

• U.S. government, official Labor Department statistics put unemployment in the States at 9.75% – exceedingly high.
• The actual unemployment rate in the U.S. is estimated at 17.5% counting those who have given up looking for jobs or are working part-time jobs to pay the bills.
• Despite historically low interest rates on mortgages (as low as 4.25% on a 30-year fixed) the housing market in the States is on life support. Housing is always a leading indicator of an upward swing in any economy, making this news doubly dangerous.
• While the stock markets have come back smartly in the past 24 months, key indicators, like number of IPOs, are down indicating a “numbers” recovery rather than a genuine, confident recovery.
• Businesses in the U.S. aren’t buying or hiring, protecting capital rather than investing it.

The election results and the loss of control of the House will force the Obama administration to seek compromise on spending, taxes and tariffs, creating increased tensions among overseas trading partners, especially China, which holds a lot of U.S. debt and relies on U.S. consumers to purchase the country’s products.

Can The World’s Economic Engine Recover?

Most financial and business experts believe that the U.S. economy will recover. Let’s face it, economics are inherently cyclical.

The U.S. Senate, the upper house of Congress, remained under the control of President Obama’s Democratic Party. The lower chamber, the House, switched to Republican control. The House generates all fiscal legislation that is then passed on to the Senate for approval, reworking and ultimately compromise.

This changing of the guard indicates that Americans voted for fiscal change and, assumedly, fiscal restraint. With the American deficit growing at unprecedented rates, Americans voted to change the fiscal policies initiated by the Obama administration including an $875 billion bailout of the banking industry with billions going to big players on Wall Street including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Fannie Mae, the quasi-governmental agency that oversees mortgage lending.

I doubt if the U.S. economy will see a significant improvement despite the change in leadership in the House of Representatives. I suspect the economy is at least 24 to 30 months from a genuine, sustainable recovery based on bi-partisan politics in Washington.

The Impact on Australian Businesses

The Australian economy will continue to expand. Money will remain (relatively) cheap, enabling business to borrow to expand product and service offerings.

Access to U.S. markets will be simplified, as well. In fact, if your business had planned to establish a presence in the U.S. now’s the time to make the move. Exchange rates are favorable, real estate (especially commercial property) is still a bargain with inventory backing up six months and longer in some sections of the U.S.

American companies, large and small, will outsource more to save operating capital in a stagnant economy, creating opportunities for every Australian business from book printers to electronics retailers, consultants and other service providers.

America has become a major source of remote services delivery. In fact, America is now a leading outsource along with India, the Philippines, the Ukraine and other expanding economies. Small Australian businesses contract with quality U.S. service providers from virtual assistants to highly-knowledgeable consultants at lower costs.

The American people voted for fiscal change by electing at least 60 new representatives to the Congressional House. This sends a clear signal to Obama’s White House that, as the old saying goes, “it’s the economy, stupid.”

In this election, it was all about the anemic American economy. The people want to see lower spending, a shrinking debt load and a real, foundational change in U.S. fiscal policy.

This bodes well for the Australian economy, keeping interest rates low, increasing business opportunities within the U.S. and engaging U.S. companies eager to partner with Australian businesses as consultants, outsources or business partners seeking a presence in a more robust economy. The Australian economy.

The recent changes in the balance of government power will only last 24 months before the Obama administration faces a new election. It’s reasonable to assume that the current administration will have to accept the will of the American people and pull in the reins on spending and borrowing away the country’s future.

Free, open markets develop in this kind of economic climate so look for synergies with the U.S. while the opportunity exists.

For some entrepreneurs, such as Aimee Marks, the path to success has been through a university course. Despite getting the idea for her biodegradable tampon company, T.O.M Organic, at school, Marks decided a university course would develop her product and company in a more thorough manner with a secure network of mentors to support her.

“The course taught me the fundamentals of launching and growing a business, and helped me avoid mistakes,” she says. “But ultimately entrepreneurship is about passion. If you are not really driven by an idea, no course will turn you into an entrepreneur.”
And many would agree, there are countless stories of successful entrepreneurs who have turned a unique idea into a thriving business through personal dedication, without the benefit of a university course.

One such team are nephew and uncle, Sean Condon and Tom O’Dowd, who are cashing in on the current Power Band craze. Thought to improve balance, strength and stability, the band has no medical foundation but many are convinced of its bohemian effects providing an annual turnover of more than a million dollars.

Condon basically fell across the band during a paddleboard lesson in Bali, the instructor telling him of its benefits. Recognising potential he convinced his uncle to join him in buying the Australasian importing rights.

As with many entrepreneurs, Condon and O’Dowd treat their business as a job and work hard to promote the band. A carpenter by trade, O’Dowd does not profess to understand the reasons behind the power of the band but saw the potential and ran with it.

Perhaps the answer is that it depends on the entrepreneur.

Finland was the first to recognize the importance of the Net, declaring into law the right of every citizen to broadband access. Now the US is following suit, considering a plan for free or very low-cost broadband connections for every American. So where is Australia in all this? Are we keeping pace?

According to, yep you got it, Labor statistics, Australia trails the world with the fifth most expensive network and is seventeenth in terms of take up with only 23.3% of people subscribing. Now that’s an interesting statistic, because if the Net is so important why are so few of us using it? Perhaps it is price, perhaps it is speed but it is definitely not age with many pensioners happily booking trips, making purchases and posting their bridge scores online.

The Internet is vital to the new digital economy. Not only does it allow scientists, economists, sports enthusiasts and all our amazing educators to share information with immediacy and relevance, it is depended on by millions of people everyday as a major form of communication.

Imagine any business thinking about operating without an Internet presence? How would anyone find them or know what they do? If you don’t have a business website you are simply not known. I wonder when was the last time anyone dusted off their Yellow Pages and actually looked up a number? Nope, I’m pretty sure all of you searched online.

It is now possible to work from a distance. Employees can interact effectively and efficiently without actually going to a fixed workplace. The cost cutting to businesses is phenomenal. But most of all, we must be able to communicate with speed to keep up with every latest development that spins by, only to be replaced with astonishing speed.

This is the essence of the Net and this is why Australia must support a world-class broadband network.

Disclaimer: My presentation “Ten Ways to Double Your Sales Using Technology” uses broadband.

It’s no surprise that the Coalition has a funding ‘black hole’. Take a look at the independents’ demands and it’s likely that whoever forms a government will be left with their very own large black hole.

Julia Gillard has already caved in to Wilke’s demands regarding funding for the Hobart Hospital and gambling.

Bob Katter, with his old ‘new’ paradigm, wants taxpayers and consumers to bankroll farmers through protectionism and the rebuilding of tariff walls torn down in the 1980s. Even though most modern economists see protectionism as harmful to economic growth, Katter seems determined quite literally to return Australia to the days of Keating’s famous ‘Banana Republic’!

Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor are yet to add to the growing demands once they have decided who to ‘trust’. But it seems likely that one cost we can all agree on is a new broadband network in whatever form it finally takes.

What is your perception of these guys? As we know in business perception determines buying decisions and there’s always a next time.

Ahh … the price of independence!

Barack Obama was elected on a platform of change. And Washington was ready for change after eight years of the Bush Administration’s mucking up on the world stage.

The war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan – despite the deep tragedy the world experienced on September 11, 2001 (and indeed, it was a world tragedy), we aren’t any safer. We aren’t any better off and, in fact, the financials are scary despite recent, sustained gains in the larger stock markets.

U.S. unemployment reached the symbolic 10% level, coming in at 10.7% in the last quarter.

It was a little over a year ago that Lehman Brothers announced it was defaulting on its debts and received and immediate infusion of government bailout money.

Insurance giant, AIG, also announced it was facing bankruptcy. AIG insures all of the home mortgages in default in the U.S. The feds pumped in an instant $80 billion to prop up a company that was “too large to fail.” So much for free economy.

The fact is, the US Government cherry-picked which companies would survive with federal loans, subsidies and tax breaks. When Merrill-Lynch came, hat in hand, they refused to bail out this commercial lender and the company collapsed under the weight of its own debt.

Read the whole article here

You’ll cringe as TOXIC ASSETS ooze closer to your nest egg!!!

You’ll SHIVER IN FEAR at the CREEPING NATIONALIZATION!!!

DON’T MISS

THE ROCKY FISCAL HORROR SHOW

coming soon to a cinema near you

(Okay, a bit cynical but an apt metaphor for what’s taking place in the global economy.)

With U.S. President, Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package in place – all 1,000 pages of it – global economists have had the opportunity to pore over this dry (as Adelaide’s current weather) document to discover some frightening facts and figures.

The Nationalization of U.S. Banks?

Citigroup is the 800-pound gorilla among U.S. financial institutions, providing consumer and institutional services across all sectors of the global economy. The money-based conglomerate has already received $65 billion in “buy-out” money from the feds, who currently hold an 8% stake in Citigroup.

American taxpayers and foreign governments holding U.S. bonds now have a small ownership position in the largest financial entity worldwide. However, the prognosticators have determined that this 8% ownership stake in Citigroup was necessary to keep financial markets afloat.

The new stimulus package, dubbed “The Stim” by the U.S. media, shows more tax dollars and more borrowed money going in to failing banks with the government possibly taking a 40% stake in Citigroup. Creeping nationalization!

Read the article here

When asked if this Congressional buy-out of garbage paper generated by the likes of Goldman, AIG, Fannie and Freddie would solve the problem, not even the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury knows. He was asked if this is “the last wrench in the tool box” by Senator Chris Dodd (D,CT), head of the Congressional Subcommittee on Banking. The Treasury Secretary replied that, “Yes, it is the last wrench.” Dodd, mildly shocked, asked, “Well, what if it doesn’t work?”

The Treasury Secretary of the U.S. stated simply, “It has to work.” Hardly an answer that fills me with the warm fuzzies. If the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury doesn’t have a Plan B, C, D right on down the line, I’m buying gold and burying it. the economic world is on the verge of collapse. Or is it?

Small Businesses Feeling the Credit Freeze

Just last week I ran across an article in the New York Times that exquisitely describes the problem, not in terms of numbers, predatory lending and failed mega-lenders like Bear-Sterns, AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – all non-commercial lenders that have been pumping garbage paper into the sub-prime market. Why?

One word: greed. The Times piece explains the dual nature of the current “credit crunch” – the genesis of this domino effect we’re seeing in almost every market sector on a global scale. This isn’t a liquidity problem, even though the U.S. Congress is ready to pump up the world economy with an infusion of USD$750 billion that will now be loaded on to the backs of U.S. taxpayers.

The problem is one of perception – the perception of trust.

Read the whole article here