BUSINESS OUTLOOK: MARCH 2008

Overview

Nobody likes to read a gloomy forecast, and I assure you they're not much fun to write. If you predict something wonderful and turn out to be wrong the critics will at least grant that your heart was in the right place. Detail a downer, however, and predictive failure makes you a scorn-worthy Chicken Little.

Having thus clucked a qualification, let it now be said that March looks murky at best and downright depressing at worst. The historical echo that seems most appropriate is August of 1978, a period that was entirely emblematic of the Carter era economy. A rapidly depreciating dollar, increasing unemployment, huge increases in lending rates (the very reason the Fed is so loathe to go in that direction today), general commodities inflation and an economy held hostage by oil all cast their dark shadows here.

But wait, there's more!

The specific astrological factors influencing March 2008 combine to tell a cautionary tale regarding the application of too much pressure on the pedal as one comes to a partially washed out bridge. While there is complexity here that can't easily be captured in a few words the signs point to a culture that has become hell bent on making things happen, even at a moment when nobody's vision regarding outcomes is particularly clear. This portends a period when individual entities will set priorities that are intended to certify their own worth, but will be both self-deceptive and outwardly deceiving...and perhaps even dangerous and destructive...regarding what they are likely to accomplish over the long haul.

In business, then, this is a time to keep two important thoughts in mind. First, The people who are coming to you with proposals at this time are seeking material self-validation but are probably not at all sure of what lies ahead or what they are building towards...and they are more than capable of exploiting any kindred vulnerability they see in you. The second, if you can manage it at all, is to give all the wiggle room you can to your most sacred policy and your most valued plan...it is far safer now to flow with the river for a time than to drive the bus or be the bridge.


History Rhymes

Jessica Dubroff - The story, you may remember, had a horrible conclusion. Jessica was a telegenic seven year-old California pilot attempting to be the youngest person ever to successfully undertake a trans-continental flight. Taking off from a Wyoming airport in foul weather conditions...apparently allowed to do so because of a tight itinerary related to overly ambitious media commitments...her plane crashed killing her, her father, and her flight instructor. With apologies to Jessica's spirit and condolences to those who loved and admired her, this is a month to remember that we are all sometimes seven year-olds ill-advisedly trying to take off in a hail storm.

MC Hammer Files For Bankruptcy - For a while the popular baggy-pants purveyor of so-called "pop rap" couldn't be touched for glamour or influence. Now Hammer is best remembered for blowing his considerable wad on a lavish lifestyle. The "stuff" came to define him, and eventually it was all gone. Interestingly, only the day before Hammer's filing another even more influential and dapper figure in American culture, the famed mobster John Gotti, was found guilty of murder, leading to a sentence of life imprisonment without chance of parole. The implication? It's a really bad season for grabbing the world by the unmentionables.

MST3000: The Movie - MST3K fans...and you know who you are...always remember that your infatuation with all things techie may lead to nothing more than life as a forgotten janitor on a mothballed space station populated only by yourself, terrible old movies and some robots made from spare parts. Shouldn't you have some interests that don't require being so plugged in and parked away? Shouldn't you occasionally laugh at yourself?