Merry Christmas!

Happy Kwanzaa!

Happy Hanukah!

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Happy Boxing day!

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Happy Bodhi Day

Happy Edi-al – Adah!

Happy Lunar New Year!

Happy Mardi Gras!

….and if I missed your special winter holiday, than have a happy special day!

Here we go – - Few economists have been more correct about the economic crisis of the last several years than the proudly liberal Paul Krugman.
Krugman spotted the “liquidity trap” early on (since the problem with the economy was too much debt, cutting rates and creating easier money would not get us out of it).
Krugman shot down the hyperventilation about a coming hyper-inflation, arguing that the global labor glut would prevent easy credit from inflating wages.
Krugman quickly pronounced the Obama Administration’s stimulus as far too small and said it would not get the job done.
Krugman scoffed at the idea that interest rates were about to skyrocket as our creditors decided en masse that we were so fiscally irresponsible that they couldn’t possibly lend us any more money.
He has been right on all counts.
Recently, Krugman has denounced the “austerity” push of the GOP, arguing that tackling our debt and deficit problem right now with spending cuts is the worst move we can make. Such cuts, Krugman argues, will put more people out of work and shrink the economy. And this, in turn, will increase, not decrease, the deficit.
Krugman thinks we should tackle the debt and deficit problem later, when the economy is on more solid footing. He points to record-low interest rates as a sign that the world is still willing to lend us as much money as we want, practically for nothing. And he argues that, instead of cutting back, we should be using that money to build infrastructure, strengthen the economy, and put more Americans back to work.
And some Republicans, it seems, are starting to notice.
A couple of months back, Republican commentator David Frum made a startling observation:
Imagine, if you will, someone who read only the Wall Street Journal editorial page between 2000 and 2011, and someone in the same period who read only the collected columns of Paul Krugman. Which reader would have been better informed about the realities of the current economic crisis? The answer, I think, should give us pause. Can it be that our enemies were right?
Will Frum be ostracized for that remark? After all, Paul Krugman is supposed to be Public Enemy No. 1.
Or will more Republicans begin to agree that, although government spending does indeed need to be cut eventually, and the debt problem does need to be addressed, suddenly chopping, say, $1 trillion of government spending next year is not the best way to get ourselves out of this mess?

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/david-frum-paul-krugman-right-2011-10#ixzz1bfKCyiaV

“You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did.

“Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless — keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

The way of life can be free and beautiful.

But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.

To those who can hear me I say, “Do not despair.” The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass and dictators die; and the power they took from the people will return to the people and so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers: Don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel; who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate; only the unloved hate, the unloved and the unnatural.

Soldiers: Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written, “the kingdom of God is within man” — not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men, in you, you the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.

Then, in the name of democracy, let us use that power! Let us all unite!! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie! They do not fulfill their promise; they never will. Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people!! Now, let us fight to fulfill that promise!! Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Soldiers: In the name of democracy, let us all unite!!!

Hannah, can you hear me? Wherever you are, look up, Hannah. The clouds are lifting. The sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world, a kindlier world, where men will rise above their hate, their greed and brutality.

Look up, Hannah. The soul of man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow — into the light of hope, into the future, the glorious future that belongs to you, to me, and to all of us. Look up, Hannah. Look up.

http://youtu.be/WibmcsEGLKo

Sunday, Sept 11 -Wake up, set-up booth, conference starts with a reception in the exhibit hall – [http://goo.gl/02lFi]

Monday, Sept 12 – 1st full day of conference - [http://goo.gl/lHvpo]

Tuesday, Sept 13 – 2nd full day of conference – exhibit hall closes, tear down of booth – etc – [http://goo.gl/IF0K3]

Wednesday, Sept 14 – final day, conference ends early afternoon, leave hotel, fly to New York, Kennedy, cab to Grand Central, take train home to Peekskill – last picture, my hot market research wife, Indiana,  ecstatic to see me – the end – [http://goo.gl/ZfGkj]

"I wanna be a market researcher..............."

MRA Conference Wash DC Part 1 of 6, Sunday June 5th – http://goo.gl/qhzAn
Traveling NYC to WASH to arrival at Hotel and M3 Party later that night.

MRA Conference Wash DC Part 2 of 6, Monday June 6th – http://goo.gl/Uxcwt
Washington DC MRA Conference Monday (part 1 of 2 for Monday).

MRA Conference Wash DC Part 3 of 6, Monday June 6th – http://goo.gl/DHnpq
Washington DC MRA Conference Monday (part 2 of 2 for Monday).

MRA Conference Wash DC Part 4 of 6, Tuesday June 7th – http://goo.gl/uDqQ6
Washington DC MRA Conference Tuesday (part 1 of 2 for Tuesday).

MRA Conference Wash DC Part 5 of 6, Tuesday June 7th – http://goo.gl/21vuo
Washington DC MRA Conference Tuesday (part 2 of 2 for Tuesday).

MRA Conference Wash DC Part 6 of 6, Wednesday June 8th – http://goo.gl/jD9uo
Washington DC MRA Conference Wed, last day of conference and traveling home to Peekskill!

• Research Field Directors/Field Management Pros/Data Collection Vets/On-line & Off-line – http://goo.gl/pP9qT
• Market Research Jokes and funny stories – http://goo.gl/LtRTY
• Market Research – How did you become a Market Researcher? – http://goo.gl/9iawF

Bonus – our Client Development Director, Nelson Davis, will be “wandering” around at the show (all three daze) – find him, he’ll take your picture – and then sent you a link to view all the pics he took at the conference!  If you’d like to meet Nelson and find out more about AIP (and get your picture taken), call him at 917.975.0357.

AIP panel coverage: Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, India & The Philippines.

See you at the ARF!