Can you imagine?

Can you imagine that?

Imagine you fell asleep in 2016 and woke up in 2026. You can not believe what you see. You wonder what happened. Am I in Lalaland? As you go about catching up, you realize that things have changed, and boy, they changed drastically and for the good. You start writing what has changed and you come up with the following:

1.       The economy is 50% bigger. You start doing some mental math and realized it really happened. There was no economic collapse and no great depression. The artists that said they were leaving the country are still here! The US economy grew at about 4% annual average over a decade and compounded to 50% growth. The Chinese economy is now growing at the same rate as US. How daring a president to accomplish such thing. Politicians are not supposed to solve problems, only fake and compound them.  You dig in and realized the trade is more balanced and fair. Welfare is way down. America is great again! Only a few night dreamers think of him as a clown. There are a few less nasty jokes about him too. You believe because you now see. Wait! You realize how little faith you had in our system, in our people, even in our government. Wow! He was right! Talking America up works.  

2.       Government size and debt are under control. A few trillion in debt have been paid. There is still large government debt (still about $20 trillion). There is still work to be done to conquer the people’s biggest enemy (runaway government debt). The only president to pay off all government debt was Andrew Jackson. How lucky to have a president that understand money, business, and the economy. Only in the early days of America we saw such thing. How daring a president to play the money game so well. He started with defensive, then move to the offensive, applying the rules of the game, and winning. He did drain the swamp; the alligators got angry, really angry, and they had no choice but adapt to the new house rules. As he used to talk in his speeches. We will win big, really big. The man has an ego bigger than our nation. How daring of him to use his ego for the betterment of a whole nation. I used to think – what a bunch of hogwash. Dang, he did it!

3.       Our enemies became our friends. A daring president faced the foes and turned them into friends. He would not be the first one to do it but went further than people imagined. Reagan did it and think what he went down in history for; brought down communism. You read some recent history and realize he started with North Korea and Russia and moved to many other countries and areas of the world. How could this be, he was totally unqualified to be good in foreign relations. He was not that intellectual. By now you are thinking he is not the lunatic you thought he was. You are no longer complaining since your grandson just left for a one-year exchange program in Russia and your son-in-law took a job in North Korea. Boy is he gutsy, he has a stronger spine and more hair on his chest than I thought! Many people now think he is witty and has the true grit that was so much needed.

4.       Improved infrastructure.  You noticed a drastic change in the roads, airports, and the cars and airplanes that you see. Heck, cars are driving by themselves. Sounds a little scary, but traffic seems to flow a lot smoother with a drastic reduction in car accidents. Fewer cars and less people own them. You love the lower cost of car and car insurance too. Electric cars are common. Gas stations have been replaced by electric stations. Renewable energy has taken off, solar in particular. Cost of energy has come down. 3D printers are common like laptops used to be. Kids produce all kinds of products using them. Again, you like what you see. Technology became friendlier than it used to be.

5.       America dominates the brain economy. There are dozens of trillion-dollar companies in market value, and all except for a few in Asia and Europe, the companies are all American. There are a lot less employees needed but the number of entrepreneurs has increased drastically. Individual business ownership has increased. Many types of small business have emerged. Who thought it was possible – growth with low inflation for decades now. It must be due to artificial intelligence. Human brains are designing amazing artificial brains. Many mundane tasks are performed by machines and more people are spending time managing than doing those boring chores.

6.       America is great again. You start looking around and see positive changes everywhere you look. With more people working and producing, there are less people to protest and occupy. More people are involved in the political process, especially young ones. You noticed several of your friends ran and won in the last election. Huge progress has been made in education and healthcare. Everyone has access to great education in the web. Teachers have been replaced by coaches and mentors. Wow! Amazing how the president has shocked the system and set a new level of expectation for government and the people. Americans have finally embraced financial literacy and entrepreneurship. Hard to believe but you see it everywhere.

7.       There is global peace and prosperity. America is respected again. No need to go around the world and apologizing for who we are. Many nations are taking their security more seriously and less dependent on USA. There are less division in USA and around the world. There is a lot more cooperation between nations because they are now competing more and protecting less. Several countries have now elected non-career politicians to high level government positions. Many governments organizations are run a lot more like businesses than bureaucracies. It is great to see that the intelligence and application of knowledge has increased globally. Middle class is a reality to many people around the globe.

Overall, you realize that the enormous resistance to such unconventional, revolutionary leader as a president was necessary. Little did you know things would turn out better than you ever imagined. What the GOP did was absolutely necessary and contributed to unprecedented progress. They provided enormous resistance to any and all changes but could not hold progress back. America had a daring president that wanted to leave a legacy for generations to come. Without conflict and resistance there is no progress. Many leaders thrive on resistance. We got lucky to have one that did. Even though he was a little crazy, and at times paranoid.

There is a little sad part of the story. That is, you came to the realization that you missed it! You realized that you missed the above. You should have not bet against the clown and against America. Now you wished you had a little more faith in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Imagination is more important than knowledge but it is not enough. We must have courage to imagine and we must have faith to turn our imagination into reality. We are not lacking knowledge or even imagination, we are lacking faith. Faith is believing to see and not seeing to believe. Let’s have a little more faith!

If you saw value in reading this article, please share it with others. 

Be blessed and be a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana

Author of the book PRICELESS, Co-author of the book Follow to Lead

"Those that take swift action will always leave those that don't breathing the dust"

"The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious"

“Managers influence numbers, leaders influence people by inspiring them to pursue excellence”

The Long-Term Benefits of Tariffs

Why Tariffs Are Beneficial

You are probably saying there is no way that tariffs can have a positive effect on both parties -  imposing them and those on the receiving end. I encourage you to read this article to the end and you will likely agree with me. We have become accustomed to reading the headlines only, which normally are negative because they are predominant. In order to understand anything, we must look at both sides of any situation. Since the majority of you have already read the headlines on the negative effects of tariffs, I am taking a minute of your time to take you through the positive effect. Thinking for a change, yes, that is what we need to do more of. There is no problem that can withstand the constant attack of positive thinking. Nothing ever comes out of negativity, absolutely nothing. Tariffs give a jolt to the global system of trade and forces companies to take a closer look at their products, processes, systems, technology, people, etc. leading to many positive improvements. Yes, tariffs can be a positive catalyst for change. I am not either for or against tariffs, just looking at the long-term positive side of it. Let’s then think beyond the benefit of short-term increased government revenue. Tariffs are a better way to increase government revenues then to increase the taxes on already overtaxed citizens, especially in a government with over 20 trillion of debt.

Here are 7 positive benefits of tariffs:

1)      Get countries to the table and talk. Either by action or reaction more conversations and negotiations will take place. Trade agreements will be challenged, reviewed, and renewed for better win/win agreements.

2)      More local manufacturing. More manufacturing moving to USA by foreign companies which is good for the US economy as new jobs are created. More manufacturing in local markets like China (Harley Davidson, Tesla recent announcements) which is good for American companies. Local people working together take more pride in what they are doing. Create more jobs and higher wages at home.

3)      More efficient and effective manufacturing. The tariffs make exported products less competitive which forces companies to lower manufacturing costs (requires a complete new look at the current manufacturing systems). A short-term negative can be reversed to a long-term benefit in competitiveness.

4)      Slow the US Economy short term. This is a more effective way of slowing the economy than doing it via increasing interest rates, especially when in a very low unemployment situation like now. In the long-haul economies expand as manufacturing is spread into more countries.

5)      Consumers win on the long term. This happens with increased competitiveness, more options and more innovations. Consumers may pay the price short term while local manufacturing is getting set up for a broader number of products.

6)      Growth in US and Global economies. Remember the auto industry in the 70’s and 80’s. The Japanese ended up building factories in US to avoid import duties and reduce shipping costs. US automakers built factories in many other countries to become more competitive there. Everyone benefited and yes, the consumers did too, especially in many developing countries with more options and lower prices. Besides, the global economy needs to grow at a faster pace and keep on growing to support higher standards of living for more people.

7)      Global peace. Countries that do business together don’t go to war to each other. The movement of people increases increasing the transfer of knowledge and understanding of cultures. The well interconnected business world makes it difficult for countries to wage war with each other.

If you saw value in reading this article, please share it with others. 

Be blessed and be a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana

Author of the book PRICELESS, Co-author of the book Follow to Lead

"Those that take swift action will always leave those that don't breathing the dust"

"The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious"

“Managers influence numbers, leaders influence people by inspiring them to pursue excellence”