Welcome to TishTrek - More than a JOB BLOG!
I have joined 'the' giant chorus of people across the United States working to inspire Governor Chris Christie to run for President of the United States of America!
I've been writing to Rich Bagger, Governor Christie's Chief of Staff, all week. Below is the 5th note I sent to-date.
If you feel strongly that someone's moment has arrived, then make it your business to share that belief with the person navigating the life-enhancing decision!
TishTrek
----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: rich.bagger@comcast.net
Cc: gearle@nypost.com ; jmargolin@nypost.com ; apeyser@nypost.com ; letters@nypost.com ; jcrudele@nypost.com
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2011 2:53 PM
Subject: Gov Christie: The Moment has called you; you didn't call it! Pls Answer the Call.
Attention: Rich Bagger
Chief of Staff, NJ Governor Chris Christie
Cc: Reporters/ Writers I follow & respect @ The NY Post
Rich - Please forward this note to Governor Chris Christie and his wife, Mary Pat. Thank you. - Tish
Dear Governor Christie, Mary Pat and the entire Christie Family,
This is my daily plea to Rich Bagger who I've been asking to inspire and influence you to run for President of the United States of America!
I met you at the Forte Restaurant in Pt. Pleasant and on the Pt. Pleasant Beach Boardwalk when you were campaigning for governor. Many people don't know that Mary Pat lost 658 of her colleagues at Cantor Fitzgerald who were murdered on 9/11; and that your beautiful family did not know her fate that day for 8 long hours. I know your story and I knew many people @ Cantor & other Downtown firms who lost their lives because I've been a global recruiting manager in the financial sector for 24 years. One of my best friends - Marc Mruz - is a Managing Director @ Cantor and he would tell Mary Pat that my plea to you and your family is real and passionate and from the heart...
Together-separately our famililes faced the 9/11 'enormity of horror' as one. To be working moms who witnessed this history; to attend so many funerals; to see our beautiful nation under attack; to watch the unsung heroes like those in the Maritime Industry who brought a half million terrified people to safety for 9 hours straight that day were experiences that reminded all of us to put our families first.
We understand how hard a decision to run for President of the United States is, Governor Christie. We know the kind of sacrifices families have to make when parents run for and win any political office. The prospect of teenagers living in that global fishbowl called the White House would give any family pause. Having said all that, so many of us are hoping that your extraordinary family is strong and courageous enough to consider making these sacrifices for America.
The video below narrated by Tom Hanks shows the largest boatlift in human history! Just look at the faces of those men & women from New Jersey and beyond who became heroes without a moment's notice.
The moment called them, they did not call the moment. That's exactly what's happening to you now, Governor Christie!
Please watch this video; it is my hope that Vincent Ardolino, Captain of the Amberjack V, will inspire you to run for the office of President. Before Captain Ardolino risked all so others could live on 9/11, this is what he said, "I'm the type of person who can't stand by and watch other people suffer..." New Jersey has already learned that you are the same kind of man!
Here’s a remarkable 9/11 New Jersey story many didn't hear about until this video…. (my Aunt Mary sent it to me on 9/19/11 - I had never seen it before)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDOrzF7B2Kg&feature=player_embedded#!
Governor Christie - our families connected by this tragedy are the faces of 9/11. All of us who were there that day want to die in peace knowing that leaders who 'get it' and who 'believe in America's exceptionalism' have arrived to put the health, welfare & safety of our great nation, our kids and the generations that follow in the forefront of their decisions. That's it. That's why I'm writing to you.
I'm begging you to become America's Vincent Ardolino - become that hero who refuses to stand by while others suffer. America and her citizens need your leadership, your business integrity, your management courage, and your guts to put our nation back on a track we can all be proud of.
Please answer this call. Thank you.
My 9/11 story commuting on the SeaStreak ferry was published by the Asbury Park Press/ Gannett Newspapers, (One part of it on September 12, 2001 and the rest on the 10th Anniversary - 9/11/11). I've attached it below, so you know that my plea is grounded in reality. God bless your entire family and the United States of America!
With upmost respect,
Tish Ferguson
2404 Maria Place
Pt. Pleasant, NJ 08742
732-259-2780 - Cell
Thursday, September 8, 2011
10th Anniversary: My 9/11 pen is finally at rest - Amen.
Welcome to TishTrek - More than THE JOB BLOG!
God bless all of you and America on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11.
The Asbury Park Press/Gannett Newspapers will publish a '9/11 Memories & Recollections' column on Sunday, September 11th, 2011. I'm humbled that a piece I submitted depicting Harry & my ten year journey from 'heart-thumping sadness' @ sea to 'amazing strength' will be included, (I've shared my app contribution below my signature. It means a lot to me for each of you to have it because this is the last time I plan to write about our excruciating 9/11 ferry experience).
I also wanted to share the only photo I've ever come across which successfully captures the less publicized but 'utterly shocking moment(s)' we experienced on the waters surrounding NYC on 9/11. Allow me to explain...
We already knew the United States was under attack, so when our view of the NYC skyline disappeared in the horizon and was replaced - for a time - by clouds of smoke and debris, (exactly as the photo depicts), it led to the agonizing fear that tens of thousands were being killed in the Wall Street area because we knew so many people had not yet made it off the island or out of danger. We had no way of knowing what was going on. Like so many others, we didn't know if the attacks were contained to the WTC area; or if timed explosives were being set off throughout the corridors of Downtown Manhattan; or if approaching passenger planes would be blown out of the sky after the government ordered the air space over NYC 'sanitized.' No one knew what would happen next or how this day would end.
The picture attached above this post - which says 'it all' for many - is from a riveting book called, HERE IS NEW YORK: a democracy of photographs, conceived and organized by Alice Rose George, Gilles Peress, Michael Shulan and Charles Traub, www.hereisnewyork.com, (page 29). I purchased the book at St. Paul's Chapel (211 Broadway, NYC) - the back of 'that' church sits across the street & to the east of the World Trade Center site. It was built in 1766 and miraculously escaped the 9/11 attacks unscathed, (without a crack to a single window). It is the only pre-revolutionary church still standing in Manhattan and it became 'a reverent place' of solace & prayer & reflection for the 9/11 rescue workers.
On the 10th Anniversary, my Harry and I will return to St. Paul's Chapel and once again we will retrace 'our 9/11 voyage' from the Atlantic Highlands in New Jersey to New York City to remember, honor, and celebrate the lives of the 3,000 innocent people who were murdered as we struggled at sea on that fateful day.
We take this incredible journey each year because - as most of you know - our view of 9/11 played out while we were commuting on a ferry. Our SeaStreak Ferry captain navigated with confidence as he passed the eastern tip of Staten Island, with Swinburne & Hoffman Islands to our left and Gravesend Bay to our right. We moved from the lower bay to upper bay by passing under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. As we raced through New York Harbor watching destruction and fire bellow from our beloved World Trade Center complex, we stared at our beautiful Statue of Liberty on Bedloe's Island hoping that she too would be safe in the middle of this water. We literally gasped, then I cried as we passed the foot of Lady Liberty and Ellis Island and the Staten Island Ferry Terminal at Battery Park. We navigated to the right in an effort to get into the East River as quickly as possible.
Our SeaStreak captain explained by radio that it was critical to travel 'towards the danger' to save as many lives as possible. He was 100% right. There were terrified people desperate for help on every pier in the East River and there were thousands more running for their lives towards the Brooklyn Bridge. Our SeaStreak crew helped as many people at Pier 11 as our ferry could hold. We escaped through Buttermilk Channel, that short body of water between Governor's Island and Brooklyn's west coast, and made our way back under the Verrazano Bridge heading south to New Jersey.
While we were in the lower bay, the second tower succumbed to the terrors of our society. After it collapsed, God fervently urged me to look away and I listened. As smoke engulfed NYC, (just like the attached photo shows), I literally turned my body completely around and looked only to the east and the south so the power of the magnificent ocean would give my breaking heart strength. HE encouraged me to use the Sandy Hook landscape that was to my left to counter the view that was so painfully seared and freshly etched in my mind. As I worked to catch my breath, I prayed to HIM and it was HE who embraced me and Harry until we could reach the arms of our children - Kate & Scott, ages 12 and 8 at the time.
After the captain left us in the care of hundreds of volunteers in the Atlantic Highlands, he and all the SeaSteak heroes made 40-plus additional trips to bring thousands of additional commuters from the piers in NYC to safety in New Jersey. They did not stop until this job was done. The determination and courage of the SeaStreak Crew will never be forgotten. Harry and I honor them on this 10th Anniversary and always... our thanks to all.
Before I retire my 9/11 voice, allow me to say this: When I was a teenager, my history teacher - the amazing Mr. Oxenford at Pt. Pleasant Beach High School - taught me that I was accountable for researching, learning, facing, remembering and respecting history. Because of him, I left high school knowing that a failure to understand our nation's history and/or participating in collective apathy will always create conditions and opportunities for any 'history' to repeat itself. I've written about my 9/11 voyage and all the heroes who were within my reach to watch for the last ten years to document the history I saw with my own eyes; that chapter comes to a close on Sunday.
With Mr. Oxenford's inspiring lessons in mind, my 10th Anniversary Prayer is that my children and all citizens who follow them will honor the 3,000 precious lives lost on 9/11 by making it their business to understand what happened to our great country that day and why... Over the last ten years, writing about this experience and sharing it with many of you helped me find peace. On the 10th Anniversary, I offer the attached photo as the 'final word' which proves how far we've come in the past decade and how truly resilient our nation is.
My 9/11 pen is at rest and I am grateful. -Amen.
*** See Asbury Park Press story below that was published:
Warm regards,
TishTrek
******* The Asbury Park Press, Sunday - September 11th, 2011:
My husband and I were commuting on the SeaStreak Ferry when the first plane hit the North Tower. We gasped in horror at sea when the second plane exploded into the South Tower.
As the towering infernos spewed pieces from their silver shells, we reverently bowed our heads knowing each reflection in the sky symbolized a human life that wouldn’t return home that day.
After picking up 300 people fleeing to safety at Pier 11, we escaped to the lower bay-side of the Verrazano Bridge. All eyes were transfixed on the twin towers as they collapsed into those terrifying mushroom clouds which temporarily erased the Downtown skyline from our view. No one spoke.
Our stunned silence was shattered as a passenger yelled, “The Pentagon has been ‘hit’ too!” Some wept; others prayed; anxiety ruled.
The agonizing view of this heartbreaking enormity of horror was interrupted by selfless volunteers who had lined the Atlantic Highlands to help seafaring commuters who were dazed, frozen and bound together by a silence louder than any voice we had ever heard. It was the voice of "terrorism.”
As remarkable strangers comforted & protected others, the hand of God and the voice of "William Wordsworth" prevailed during this decade of recovery and resolve:
"What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind"
— William Wordsworth, (Intimations of Immortality)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, September 30, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Merkel & the EU: The Bailout or Handcuffs Crisis?
Welcome to TishTrek - More than THE JOB BLOG!
I'm a member of the 'Economist' Discussion Group on LinkedIn and this week there were a few questions asked by members on whether or not we felt Germany should be bailing out ailing member countries in the European Union. Some people were interested in understanding what kind of risks these bailouts could carry for Germany and other member companies operating from a position of financial strength right now. Here are my thoughts on this important topic:
Let's start with a 'TishTrek Rule' in the Government Bailout Business which I think is applicable in all countries and companies: If one of the first questions you ask after a major failure or financial collapse is, "Bailout or Handcuffs?" Then there can be NO BAILOUT!
For all other situations where 100% good faith was exercised and excellent work and good intentions delivered an adverse result that systemically harmed the economic system of a country, then by all means it's appropriate to offer solutions which can potentially turn a negative into a positive for all stakeholders.
If the situation warrants handcuffs, you better use them! People who intentionally execute actions to produce adverse results for personal profit & who operate without regard to the stakeholders they are accountable to cannot by enabled. If they have the potential, skills, expertise, willingness and opportunity to repeat this behavior, they will. You cannot fail to mitigate a toxic risk that is guaranteed to repeat itself.
Having said that, let me state in general terms that it is VERY difficult (probably impossible...) to get 17 separate countries with all their unique country-centric inner-workings & local processes in silos (some outdated with no sense of urgency when needed) to agree on 'any issue' never mind try to move all countries to one giant enterprise-wide solution. Kudos to the European Union for trying!
I've been impressed by members of the EU who could pull off agreement on smaller issues, so a lot has been going well! Many admire the progress of EU while watching from across the pond, but can that model work when catastrophic issues & risky financial considerations need fast and appropriate answers? The jury is out.
Having said that, the countries that are still financially sound, (i.e. - still have successful tax revenue-producing companies that create tangible goods which are in high demand the world over; and profits are hitting it out of the park), should have concerns & questions. I'm very familiar with a $69 Billion revenue producing chemical company in Germany that is doing beyond excellent, so could Germany’s country leaders be thinking why must 'our people' carry all this 'dead wood/weight' (i.e. Greece & others) without having the benefit of them doing or guaranteeing 'great things' in return for Germany now or in the future?
Well – perhaps Germany should hang in there and fund solutions 'for a time' (that is - for a time period their country is comfortable with...). Why? Because the good people of other countries helped them out, (i.e. the U.S. used taxpayer funds to make sure Deutsche Bank was paid back 100% on the dollar for billions in subprime risks they took & lost after they were bundled and sold to unsuspecting investors. These particular transactions were run through AIG Financial Products Corp in the UK and later contributed to destroying AIG’s entire company & the U.S. economy).
The great news for Germany is that all the counterparties (including Deutsche Bank) carrying those 'known' risks had been 'insured' through those 'special' counter-party contracts AIGFP execs signed off on. In the end, Deutsche and many other banks in the U.S. & abroad were made whole with U.S. taxpayer dollars when 'our' broader economy collapsed AND AIG found itself with no funds to fulfill these CONTRACTUALLY IRON CLAD commitments.'
The U.S. Fed gave AIG the billions they needed to honor those commitments. Okay, everyone gets it - - certain businesses & transactions in Investment Banking cannot happen without counter-parties teaming up in certain areas of business. BUT some argue that it was wrong for this intentional risk and those contracts to fall on the U.S. taxpayer. Many would not expect the German taxpayer to pick up such a tab especially for companies & countries that are not even members of the EU.
With this history in mind, perhaps it's OKAY and FAIR - for a period of time - that perhaps all member companies of the EU must 'give-to-get?’ But honestly - the whole end-result MUST be determined by what individual countries and their citizens think. It's their money and their country so they should be able to determine what a reasonable period of time is, what level of funding is too much, and whether or not it is ethical to support organizations, countries, corporations, etc which have already knowingly failed every stakeholder - shareholder, client, employee, business partner, and country - they were supposed to be accountable to.
You may ask: How long do we want to reward 'FAILURE' with taxpayer funds and hand government-sponsored 'competitive advantage' to failed companies competing against 'some' number of competitors that brilliantly executed with world class standards?
Others may ask: Why are we agreeing to penalize the HEROES of the Lost Decade who didn't cheat? (i.e. That is those companies whose investors risked their capital and in return the companies they invested in actually succeeded by putting mitigating risk, executing compliance standards, living the tenets of cost-containment; and the interests of shareholders, clients, employees & their countrymen first?
Some might suggest: How about giving taxpayer dollars to companies to honor their excellence, business integrity, accountability; and the fact that their companies never showed up @ a U.S. Fed-Sponsored or EU Lending window with their hands out to survive!
Why not give MetLife Bank & the new ALICO Co, (recently purchased by MetLife from AIG) taxpayer money to lend to small businesses! They've earned it! Chief Investment Officer Steve Kandarian spotted the mortgage-backed securities "BUBBLE" & the serious risk issues that doomed all of our countries in 2005 (that's 6 years ago!) so he and the MetLife management team acted on it. They all - including rating agencies - had the same data Mr. Kandarian had. How each company acted on the data is what created the champions & the losers of the LOST DECADE. Mr. Kandarian was rewarded for putting MetLife's survival 1st when they appointed him President + CEO of MetLife in May 2011, (Isn't that a great story about REWARDING a hero and winner of this Lost Decade?)
My point is that there's a GIANT hidden problem as I see it: Massive systemic risk -in the form of toxic assets and bad employees - is still sitting inside many of these companies our sister-countries are trying to save. So aside from handing lending funds to companies like MetLife to help small businesses grow, we have to focus on the people who willingly took action that failed their companies; and who are now sitting on piles of bailout funds intended for small business growth. I promise they will spend it to dilute toxic assets that are not transparent to us, on bonuses, etc.
We have to fire and/or handcuff more people to learn how they pulled this off: I thought we all agreed that 'smoke-n-mirrors' almost destroyed the world financially?!! Then explain why ‘we’ left the majority of the employees who ‘blew the smoke’ and ‘carried the mirrors’ that harmed us inside these companies? We all missed the opportunity to fire the traders, financial engineers/ analysts, compliance/ risk, and information technology professionals who executed the steps that collapsed their companies. As a result, we remain in terrible financial danger! All employees who touch any part a Financial Trading Transaction from Direct Market Access and Order Mgmt to Clearing Ops should have their career movement monitored by FINRA and/or the equivalent Global Regulatory authorities in other countries, (i.e. A U4 and U5 system should follow everyone). Otherwise, you are firing people who simply walk up the street to my office and get hired in the same exact job in my unsuspecting company.
We ALL targeted THE BIG CEOs like Chuck Prince from Citi for termination. But, I can assure you Mr. Prince never sat in ‘the technology pit’ at the Citigroup Capital Markets & Banking (CMB) Newport Operation in Jersey City, NJ during the firestorm of mortgage fraud & toxic bundling. He didn’t have a clue.
In many companies employees were asked and/or paid to create valuations on toxic mortgage assets using bogus asset valuation models. I know this because a few of my employment candidates walked away from these 'opportunities' with their integrity in tact. Yes – Candidates with PhD’s who were Chartered Financial Analysts were asked by many global leaders to not apply tools, inputs, and required valuation models that are always required to manage the equity, fixed income, and derivative investments for individuals and institutions. Anyone who did this should be banned from the industry; and stripped of their CFA certification. I don’t care if they don’t directly face an investment client or handle the actual assets, their risk assessments, algorithms, and conclusions are critical to every client’s investment strategy and to the ‘survival’ of the financial sector.
Sadly, other employees happily rigged the information technology systems in the 24/7 trading, surveillance, compliance and other transactional areas, (i.e. $10 billion in losses @ UBS and Societe Generale alone…). Does anyone really believe that the CEOs actually knew such things were going on? I don’t believe it, but they’re on the hook anyway for their failures in hiring!
I do think Chuck Prince & other CEOs are guilty of failing to put high caliber talent around them who shareholders could trust to operate with business integrity when no one was watching. They deserved to be fired for that failure alone, but.... every company and country missed the opportunity to eliminate the actual employees & the Trading Services vendors who worked in tandem in the corporate trenches to dupe all. How come so many of these people are still employed? The professionals who operate in this kind of packs are often smarter than most employees inside every Global Regulatory Body on the planet and they know it, (i.e. think SEC and Bernie Madoff).
My worry as a behavioral recruiting expert is that this massive systemic situation means there’s a 100% chance that many of the same employees will repeat the behaviors that harmed us in the first place; and they’ll use Germany’s BAILOUT FUNDS to help them. Some of these folks walk up the street and launch a hedge fund under another name or dive into the unregulated OTC derivatives market and know one can stop them from executing new schemes in a new financial system where they can operate virually undetected as the guy who almost destroyed Citigroup. When U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, acting CEO of Citi after Chuck Prince was booted out, was bounced from Citi in NYC; a week later he was doing his business in his executive office @ Morgan Stanley in Purchase, NJ - Westchester County.
While were on this topic, we’re all fools to bailout any Bank or Investment firm without doing an audit of their vendor management & RFP programs. Make sure they have the tools & processes in place to flag executives inside their companies who are silent clandestine partners in vendor companies that win business to support their company in the following areas: Trading Transactional Services, Buy/Sell Side Compliance, Surveillance & Employee Monitoring Solutions, Clearing Operations, Pre/Post Analytics, Global Connectivity, and Execution and Routing. Employment and Contract Help agencies, Stock Loan partners or other business tied to Liquidity Services, etc. leave corporations wide open for unethical and costly problems because execs create a built-in conflict-of-interest when they own external companies that execute business with the companies that employ them. When they own less than 51% of a company, it conveniently keeps their names off contracts and under the radar of internal corporate controls.
If a vendor relationship allows a Broker/Dealer or Financial Representative to profit off every transaction or gives them a % of every deal inside the company that employs them, it puts the best interest of investors at risk. Clients won’t ‘necessarily’ be offered the ‘best price-best value’ solution or the very best equity financing deal if an Financial Rep is ‘pushing or recommending’ only the external funding partner they own or are tied to while omitting other competitive options for the client that may be available. Any company where the FA enjoys external profits or financial gains that are not transparent to the investor cannot be allowed. How do we do this?
Since this is a systemic and recognized problem in the industry, I suggest we start by regulating the OTC derivatives market just as Presidents Clinton and Obama have suggested we do; then make any ‘vendor policy’ violation by a FINRA licensed professional a felony. The rule has to be: If he/she willingly profits in the procurement of goods, services, tools, technologies, and human resources tied to the trading transactional services which support their clients and/or investors of their firm, they will be banned from doing any kind of business in all corporations that are regulated. We can never stop the waste of taxpayer Bailout Funds unless we end all these financial relationships today.
If the top and most revered government officials in Germany already figured this out, then we should stand with them and say - "No! – That is the great country of Germany has no interest in continuing the charade that rewards on-going failure like the United States has done." More importantly why give an unfair 'continued competitive advantage' to all the losers and cheaters of this decade?
If Chancellor Merkel thinks unworthy recipients are preparing to continue the assault on all people in every country touched by the subprime mortgage / CDO man-made disaster and if she believes such generosity would be robbing the next generation on every continent, then she should say, "NO!"
Every recruiter can tell you that you must have leaders @ ‘every’ level of your company who can look at facts and execute with courage & integrity. That's it. The solutions will grow on people if the manner in which they arrive at a conclusion is FAIR & JUST and most importantly if the solutions they deliver get the job done! - Tish
I'm a member of the 'Economist' Discussion Group on LinkedIn and this week there were a few questions asked by members on whether or not we felt Germany should be bailing out ailing member countries in the European Union. Some people were interested in understanding what kind of risks these bailouts could carry for Germany and other member companies operating from a position of financial strength right now. Here are my thoughts on this important topic:
Let's start with a 'TishTrek Rule' in the Government Bailout Business which I think is applicable in all countries and companies: If one of the first questions you ask after a major failure or financial collapse is, "Bailout or Handcuffs?" Then there can be NO BAILOUT!
For all other situations where 100% good faith was exercised and excellent work and good intentions delivered an adverse result that systemically harmed the economic system of a country, then by all means it's appropriate to offer solutions which can potentially turn a negative into a positive for all stakeholders.
If the situation warrants handcuffs, you better use them! People who intentionally execute actions to produce adverse results for personal profit & who operate without regard to the stakeholders they are accountable to cannot by enabled. If they have the potential, skills, expertise, willingness and opportunity to repeat this behavior, they will. You cannot fail to mitigate a toxic risk that is guaranteed to repeat itself.
Having said that, let me state in general terms that it is VERY difficult (probably impossible...) to get 17 separate countries with all their unique country-centric inner-workings & local processes in silos (some outdated with no sense of urgency when needed) to agree on 'any issue' never mind try to move all countries to one giant enterprise-wide solution. Kudos to the European Union for trying!
I've been impressed by members of the EU who could pull off agreement on smaller issues, so a lot has been going well! Many admire the progress of EU while watching from across the pond, but can that model work when catastrophic issues & risky financial considerations need fast and appropriate answers? The jury is out.
Having said that, the countries that are still financially sound, (i.e. - still have successful tax revenue-producing companies that create tangible goods which are in high demand the world over; and profits are hitting it out of the park), should have concerns & questions. I'm very familiar with a $69 Billion revenue producing chemical company in Germany that is doing beyond excellent, so could Germany’s country leaders be thinking why must 'our people' carry all this 'dead wood/weight' (i.e. Greece & others) without having the benefit of them doing or guaranteeing 'great things' in return for Germany now or in the future?
Well – perhaps Germany should hang in there and fund solutions 'for a time' (that is - for a time period their country is comfortable with...). Why? Because the good people of other countries helped them out, (i.e. the U.S. used taxpayer funds to make sure Deutsche Bank was paid back 100% on the dollar for billions in subprime risks they took & lost after they were bundled and sold to unsuspecting investors. These particular transactions were run through AIG Financial Products Corp in the UK and later contributed to destroying AIG’s entire company & the U.S. economy).
The great news for Germany is that all the counterparties (including Deutsche Bank) carrying those 'known' risks had been 'insured' through those 'special' counter-party contracts AIGFP execs signed off on. In the end, Deutsche and many other banks in the U.S. & abroad were made whole with U.S. taxpayer dollars when 'our' broader economy collapsed AND AIG found itself with no funds to fulfill these CONTRACTUALLY IRON CLAD commitments.'
The U.S. Fed gave AIG the billions they needed to honor those commitments. Okay, everyone gets it - - certain businesses & transactions in Investment Banking cannot happen without counter-parties teaming up in certain areas of business. BUT some argue that it was wrong for this intentional risk and those contracts to fall on the U.S. taxpayer. Many would not expect the German taxpayer to pick up such a tab especially for companies & countries that are not even members of the EU.
With this history in mind, perhaps it's OKAY and FAIR - for a period of time - that perhaps all member companies of the EU must 'give-to-get?’ But honestly - the whole end-result MUST be determined by what individual countries and their citizens think. It's their money and their country so they should be able to determine what a reasonable period of time is, what level of funding is too much, and whether or not it is ethical to support organizations, countries, corporations, etc which have already knowingly failed every stakeholder - shareholder, client, employee, business partner, and country - they were supposed to be accountable to.
You may ask: How long do we want to reward 'FAILURE' with taxpayer funds and hand government-sponsored 'competitive advantage' to failed companies competing against 'some' number of competitors that brilliantly executed with world class standards?
Others may ask: Why are we agreeing to penalize the HEROES of the Lost Decade who didn't cheat? (i.e. That is those companies whose investors risked their capital and in return the companies they invested in actually succeeded by putting mitigating risk, executing compliance standards, living the tenets of cost-containment; and the interests of shareholders, clients, employees & their countrymen first?
Some might suggest: How about giving taxpayer dollars to companies to honor their excellence, business integrity, accountability; and the fact that their companies never showed up @ a U.S. Fed-Sponsored or EU Lending window with their hands out to survive!
Why not give MetLife Bank & the new ALICO Co, (recently purchased by MetLife from AIG) taxpayer money to lend to small businesses! They've earned it! Chief Investment Officer Steve Kandarian spotted the mortgage-backed securities "BUBBLE" & the serious risk issues that doomed all of our countries in 2005 (that's 6 years ago!) so he and the MetLife management team acted on it. They all - including rating agencies - had the same data Mr. Kandarian had. How each company acted on the data is what created the champions & the losers of the LOST DECADE. Mr. Kandarian was rewarded for putting MetLife's survival 1st when they appointed him President + CEO of MetLife in May 2011, (Isn't that a great story about REWARDING a hero and winner of this Lost Decade?)
My point is that there's a GIANT hidden problem as I see it: Massive systemic risk -in the form of toxic assets and bad employees - is still sitting inside many of these companies our sister-countries are trying to save. So aside from handing lending funds to companies like MetLife to help small businesses grow, we have to focus on the people who willingly took action that failed their companies; and who are now sitting on piles of bailout funds intended for small business growth. I promise they will spend it to dilute toxic assets that are not transparent to us, on bonuses, etc.
We have to fire and/or handcuff more people to learn how they pulled this off: I thought we all agreed that 'smoke-n-mirrors' almost destroyed the world financially?!! Then explain why ‘we’ left the majority of the employees who ‘blew the smoke’ and ‘carried the mirrors’ that harmed us inside these companies? We all missed the opportunity to fire the traders, financial engineers/ analysts, compliance/ risk, and information technology professionals who executed the steps that collapsed their companies. As a result, we remain in terrible financial danger! All employees who touch any part a Financial Trading Transaction from Direct Market Access and Order Mgmt to Clearing Ops should have their career movement monitored by FINRA and/or the equivalent Global Regulatory authorities in other countries, (i.e. A U4 and U5 system should follow everyone). Otherwise, you are firing people who simply walk up the street to my office and get hired in the same exact job in my unsuspecting company.
We ALL targeted THE BIG CEOs like Chuck Prince from Citi for termination. But, I can assure you Mr. Prince never sat in ‘the technology pit’ at the Citigroup Capital Markets & Banking (CMB) Newport Operation in Jersey City, NJ during the firestorm of mortgage fraud & toxic bundling. He didn’t have a clue.
In many companies employees were asked and/or paid to create valuations on toxic mortgage assets using bogus asset valuation models. I know this because a few of my employment candidates walked away from these 'opportunities' with their integrity in tact. Yes – Candidates with PhD’s who were Chartered Financial Analysts were asked by many global leaders to not apply tools, inputs, and required valuation models that are always required to manage the equity, fixed income, and derivative investments for individuals and institutions. Anyone who did this should be banned from the industry; and stripped of their CFA certification. I don’t care if they don’t directly face an investment client or handle the actual assets, their risk assessments, algorithms, and conclusions are critical to every client’s investment strategy and to the ‘survival’ of the financial sector.
Sadly, other employees happily rigged the information technology systems in the 24/7 trading, surveillance, compliance and other transactional areas, (i.e. $10 billion in losses @ UBS and Societe Generale alone…). Does anyone really believe that the CEOs actually knew such things were going on? I don’t believe it, but they’re on the hook anyway for their failures in hiring!
I do think Chuck Prince & other CEOs are guilty of failing to put high caliber talent around them who shareholders could trust to operate with business integrity when no one was watching. They deserved to be fired for that failure alone, but.... every company and country missed the opportunity to eliminate the actual employees & the Trading Services vendors who worked in tandem in the corporate trenches to dupe all. How come so many of these people are still employed? The professionals who operate in this kind of packs are often smarter than most employees inside every Global Regulatory Body on the planet and they know it, (i.e. think SEC and Bernie Madoff).
My worry as a behavioral recruiting expert is that this massive systemic situation means there’s a 100% chance that many of the same employees will repeat the behaviors that harmed us in the first place; and they’ll use Germany’s BAILOUT FUNDS to help them. Some of these folks walk up the street and launch a hedge fund under another name or dive into the unregulated OTC derivatives market and know one can stop them from executing new schemes in a new financial system where they can operate virually undetected as the guy who almost destroyed Citigroup. When U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, acting CEO of Citi after Chuck Prince was booted out, was bounced from Citi in NYC; a week later he was doing his business in his executive office @ Morgan Stanley in Purchase, NJ - Westchester County.
While were on this topic, we’re all fools to bailout any Bank or Investment firm without doing an audit of their vendor management & RFP programs. Make sure they have the tools & processes in place to flag executives inside their companies who are silent clandestine partners in vendor companies that win business to support their company in the following areas: Trading Transactional Services, Buy/Sell Side Compliance, Surveillance & Employee Monitoring Solutions, Clearing Operations, Pre/Post Analytics, Global Connectivity, and Execution and Routing. Employment and Contract Help agencies, Stock Loan partners or other business tied to Liquidity Services, etc. leave corporations wide open for unethical and costly problems because execs create a built-in conflict-of-interest when they own external companies that execute business with the companies that employ them. When they own less than 51% of a company, it conveniently keeps their names off contracts and under the radar of internal corporate controls.
If a vendor relationship allows a Broker/Dealer or Financial Representative to profit off every transaction or gives them a % of every deal inside the company that employs them, it puts the best interest of investors at risk. Clients won’t ‘necessarily’ be offered the ‘best price-best value’ solution or the very best equity financing deal if an Financial Rep is ‘pushing or recommending’ only the external funding partner they own or are tied to while omitting other competitive options for the client that may be available. Any company where the FA enjoys external profits or financial gains that are not transparent to the investor cannot be allowed. How do we do this?
Since this is a systemic and recognized problem in the industry, I suggest we start by regulating the OTC derivatives market just as Presidents Clinton and Obama have suggested we do; then make any ‘vendor policy’ violation by a FINRA licensed professional a felony. The rule has to be: If he/she willingly profits in the procurement of goods, services, tools, technologies, and human resources tied to the trading transactional services which support their clients and/or investors of their firm, they will be banned from doing any kind of business in all corporations that are regulated. We can never stop the waste of taxpayer Bailout Funds unless we end all these financial relationships today.
If the top and most revered government officials in Germany already figured this out, then we should stand with them and say - "No! – That is the great country of Germany has no interest in continuing the charade that rewards on-going failure like the United States has done." More importantly why give an unfair 'continued competitive advantage' to all the losers and cheaters of this decade?
If Chancellor Merkel thinks unworthy recipients are preparing to continue the assault on all people in every country touched by the subprime mortgage / CDO man-made disaster and if she believes such generosity would be robbing the next generation on every continent, then she should say, "NO!"
Every recruiter can tell you that you must have leaders @ ‘every’ level of your company who can look at facts and execute with courage & integrity. That's it. The solutions will grow on people if the manner in which they arrive at a conclusion is FAIR & JUST and most importantly if the solutions they deliver get the job done! - Tish
Monday, September 26, 2011
Outsourcing Mom & Dad in 2003: Now what?
Welcome to TishTrek - More than THE JOB BLOG!
Dear Friends,
I want to share a letter to the Editor that I wrote in 2003 which I think will surprise you. It gives us all a little something to think about. In 2003, I wrote the following:
Dear Editor,
“It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s mind.” - Samuel Adams
The time is now to highlight the critical impact the outsourcing of U.S. jobs to foreign countries is having on the entire U.S. infrastructure and American families in general. I have been professionally engaged in these issues first hand since 1990, so I'd like to bring the country's attention to some startling facts that explain how incredibly rampant the Off-Shore / Outsourced Employment solution has become and how it is 'silently' succeeding at threatening national security, while adversely impacting and undermining American workers and their opportunity to work, prosper and thrive.
The Wall Street Journal reported today, (Wednesday, 11/18/03 - pg 1 and A3) that AT&T Wireless will eliminate 10% of its 30,000 U.S. workers in the areas of customer service and information technology and outsource those positions to India next year.
In July 2003, the Associated Press reported that IBM planned to join hundreds of other corporate market leaders by moving thousands of US-based Information Technology jobs to India and China to reduce costs. IBM, like AT&T Wireless, views this as one of the few ways left to compete with competitors who spent the last twelve years reducing operating expenses by handing 1.5 million jobs to off-shore workers in foreign countries, while successfully eliminating the positions and benefits expenses of U.S. employees working on U.S. soil.
The Wall Street Journal and the Arizona Republic reported the weeks of July 6th and 13th that tens of thousands of Customer Service/ Support, Call Center and Relationship Management jobs will be moving to Off-Shore Staffing Solutions next. This activity has the potential to threaten the economy of entire U.S. cities including Phoenix, AZ and beyond where call center hubs have thrived for years.
Putting these economic issues aside for a minute, we already know that securing confidential data with the help of Information Technology is not a foul-proof business, so how come U.S. corporate computer systems and all the information housed in them are allowed to go to regions of the world considered hot beds for geo-political challenges and terrorism without anyone blinking as much as an eye?
As a consumer, customer, or investor how many companies asked any of us for permission to send all our identity-related data and the systems they are stored in to countries where it is absolutely impossible to conduct a meaningful country-wide criminal or employment background check on the individuals hired to manipulate this data? If you are employed full-time by a financial institution in the U.S., you don't get hired without a full employment, education, credit and criminal background check, so why lower the threshold for foreign hires in foreign lands at a time when our national security is threatened daily?
On the heels of call center displacement are the plans to send pharmaceutical research off-shore to parts of the world where researchers come cheaper by the dozen and where companies are pleased there is no equivalent for the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. What will stop individuals dedicated to their vision of 'smarter, faster, cheaper for personal profit' from walking out the door with a formula, replicating efforts and mass producing untested drugs which could then be distributed to unsuspecting people around the globe? Can this be part of a new plan hatched by the U.S. pharmaceutical industry designed to create competitive advantage and to gain market share? Imagine the devastating impact this 'evolving employment solution' could have on New Jersey's economy alone.
The New York Times reported on Sunday, November 16th, 2003 that Massachusetts General Hospital is currently beaming X-rays and MRI scans to India, to be worked on by radiologists there who come nine times cheaper than the experts who are trained in the United States, (i.e. Some instances - $250K vs. $25K per year). Back-office medical work began leaving our shores during the Clinton Administration and there is no end in sight - billing, coding, collections, transcription and claims services. These new arrangements show, as the New York Times put it, "that even medical care, the most intimate and localized of services, is grappling with the globalization that has moved many jobs - first in manufacturing and more recently in white collar work - across the ocean."
How can America stay strong, if we undermine our infrastructure to the point that our skilled and educated citizens are eliminated from the employment equation? How will families keep themselves whole, when parents are being escorted to the door of their jobs by the thousands losing financial security and benefits, while the employment opportunities our children aspire to continue to move to cubicles in India, China and beyond at a minimum current rate of 1.5 million jobs per twelve year period? (These figures do not even include the long history of jobs lost in manufacturing).
The Wall Street Journal estimated that 475,000 non-manufacturing jobs had moved off-shore in the past three years alone with a guarantee that two-thirds of those positions will never return. Are we all too busy to worry about the staggering loss of employment opportunities for U.S. citizens?
Make no mistake, many companies are skipping town and country to bolster bottom lines and circumventing U.S. laws and mandates in the process. There is a rampant corporate practice of eliminating positions held by U.S. citizens over the age of
50, who are then replaced with fresh-faced university graduates from the Asia Pacific region without any practical or business experience. Research proves that at a minimum it is only one sixth the cost-per-hire, per job to engage an off-shore resource, following the elimination of an experienced U.S. worker. Yes, it's cheaper for now, but what ever happened to protecting hard working citizens from age discrimination in this county?
Where are all the executives who used to value and mandate skills and competencies that could only be acquired through 'business experience?' What happened to all the executives who knew how to leverage employee’s skills and experience to compete? As we have observed in this era, when executive pay and year-end bonuses are at stake, there are no limits to the Off-Shore solutions a company will consider.
No surprise in 'The Enron Age' that The Wall Street Journal reports that American workers with life-threatening diseases, some in the middle of medical programs and treatments, are having their jobs eliminated at Polaroid, Bank One and beyond to ensure corporate cost-containment of benefits expenses. If you don't view this grotesque practice as un-American, then you can't know a cancer patient whose job was eliminated so the company could eliminate his/her medical and disability benefits.
Much of this is being allowed and ignored by Democrats and Republicans alike under the tidy headings of Off-Shore, On-Shore, Outsourced and In-sourced Solutions 'mandated' - executives claim - for corporate survival, leaving lots of people asking where the heck is the U.S. Dept. of Labor, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission when workers need them? Who's giving Corporate America the free passes to ignore the tenets of U.S. Employment Law and to bypass the 'Americans with Disabilities Act' altogether with employment practices 'disguised' as 'Off-Shore Business Solutions?'
The Off-Shore / Outsourced Employment Solution gained very powerful momentum in the United States when most people weren't even paying attention. For twenty years, when the unions were yelling in the wind about this very issue lots of people didn't care because it wasn't happening in their own employment backyard. In the name of globalization and free trade, (can you say NAFTA?) 'Corporate Americas' Employment Boat' left the dock for unknown off-shore destinations years ago with the blessing of multiple U.S. Presidents and Administrations.
Along the way, executives figured out how to operate their businesses outside of the U.S. infrastructure, unfortunately too many of them evolved as experts who only know how to compete by eliminating the American worker from the equation. Those of us who represent a blue or white collar profession in any industry, owe it to ourselves, our colleagues and our children's futures to weigh in on these issues now or this 'silent killer' of the U.S. job market will continue to prevail with unimaginable consequences.
Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek
Please Note: The unimaginable consequences in the job market that I feared in 2003 started to roll in during the Summer of 2007 for talent in many job categories in the U.S. Market. Honestly - I could have written the letter above in September 2011 because everything I worried about happening to the employment market arrived as a consequence of the Subprime Mortgage/CDO disaster and the economic meltdown which resulted in the current 2010-2011 Recession. Maybe I should have yelled louder back then. I'm sorry I didn't. - My apologies to all.
Dear Friends,
I want to share a letter to the Editor that I wrote in 2003 which I think will surprise you. It gives us all a little something to think about. In 2003, I wrote the following:
Dear Editor,
“It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s mind.” - Samuel Adams
The time is now to highlight the critical impact the outsourcing of U.S. jobs to foreign countries is having on the entire U.S. infrastructure and American families in general. I have been professionally engaged in these issues first hand since 1990, so I'd like to bring the country's attention to some startling facts that explain how incredibly rampant the Off-Shore / Outsourced Employment solution has become and how it is 'silently' succeeding at threatening national security, while adversely impacting and undermining American workers and their opportunity to work, prosper and thrive.
The Wall Street Journal reported today, (Wednesday, 11/18/03 - pg 1 and A3) that AT&T Wireless will eliminate 10% of its 30,000 U.S. workers in the areas of customer service and information technology and outsource those positions to India next year.
In July 2003, the Associated Press reported that IBM planned to join hundreds of other corporate market leaders by moving thousands of US-based Information Technology jobs to India and China to reduce costs. IBM, like AT&T Wireless, views this as one of the few ways left to compete with competitors who spent the last twelve years reducing operating expenses by handing 1.5 million jobs to off-shore workers in foreign countries, while successfully eliminating the positions and benefits expenses of U.S. employees working on U.S. soil.
The Wall Street Journal and the Arizona Republic reported the weeks of July 6th and 13th that tens of thousands of Customer Service/ Support, Call Center and Relationship Management jobs will be moving to Off-Shore Staffing Solutions next. This activity has the potential to threaten the economy of entire U.S. cities including Phoenix, AZ and beyond where call center hubs have thrived for years.
Putting these economic issues aside for a minute, we already know that securing confidential data with the help of Information Technology is not a foul-proof business, so how come U.S. corporate computer systems and all the information housed in them are allowed to go to regions of the world considered hot beds for geo-political challenges and terrorism without anyone blinking as much as an eye?
As a consumer, customer, or investor how many companies asked any of us for permission to send all our identity-related data and the systems they are stored in to countries where it is absolutely impossible to conduct a meaningful country-wide criminal or employment background check on the individuals hired to manipulate this data? If you are employed full-time by a financial institution in the U.S., you don't get hired without a full employment, education, credit and criminal background check, so why lower the threshold for foreign hires in foreign lands at a time when our national security is threatened daily?
On the heels of call center displacement are the plans to send pharmaceutical research off-shore to parts of the world where researchers come cheaper by the dozen and where companies are pleased there is no equivalent for the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. What will stop individuals dedicated to their vision of 'smarter, faster, cheaper for personal profit' from walking out the door with a formula, replicating efforts and mass producing untested drugs which could then be distributed to unsuspecting people around the globe? Can this be part of a new plan hatched by the U.S. pharmaceutical industry designed to create competitive advantage and to gain market share? Imagine the devastating impact this 'evolving employment solution' could have on New Jersey's economy alone.
The New York Times reported on Sunday, November 16th, 2003 that Massachusetts General Hospital is currently beaming X-rays and MRI scans to India, to be worked on by radiologists there who come nine times cheaper than the experts who are trained in the United States, (i.e. Some instances - $250K vs. $25K per year). Back-office medical work began leaving our shores during the Clinton Administration and there is no end in sight - billing, coding, collections, transcription and claims services. These new arrangements show, as the New York Times put it, "that even medical care, the most intimate and localized of services, is grappling with the globalization that has moved many jobs - first in manufacturing and more recently in white collar work - across the ocean."
How can America stay strong, if we undermine our infrastructure to the point that our skilled and educated citizens are eliminated from the employment equation? How will families keep themselves whole, when parents are being escorted to the door of their jobs by the thousands losing financial security and benefits, while the employment opportunities our children aspire to continue to move to cubicles in India, China and beyond at a minimum current rate of 1.5 million jobs per twelve year period? (These figures do not even include the long history of jobs lost in manufacturing).
The Wall Street Journal estimated that 475,000 non-manufacturing jobs had moved off-shore in the past three years alone with a guarantee that two-thirds of those positions will never return. Are we all too busy to worry about the staggering loss of employment opportunities for U.S. citizens?
Make no mistake, many companies are skipping town and country to bolster bottom lines and circumventing U.S. laws and mandates in the process. There is a rampant corporate practice of eliminating positions held by U.S. citizens over the age of
50, who are then replaced with fresh-faced university graduates from the Asia Pacific region without any practical or business experience. Research proves that at a minimum it is only one sixth the cost-per-hire, per job to engage an off-shore resource, following the elimination of an experienced U.S. worker. Yes, it's cheaper for now, but what ever happened to protecting hard working citizens from age discrimination in this county?
Where are all the executives who used to value and mandate skills and competencies that could only be acquired through 'business experience?' What happened to all the executives who knew how to leverage employee’s skills and experience to compete? As we have observed in this era, when executive pay and year-end bonuses are at stake, there are no limits to the Off-Shore solutions a company will consider.
No surprise in 'The Enron Age' that The Wall Street Journal reports that American workers with life-threatening diseases, some in the middle of medical programs and treatments, are having their jobs eliminated at Polaroid, Bank One and beyond to ensure corporate cost-containment of benefits expenses. If you don't view this grotesque practice as un-American, then you can't know a cancer patient whose job was eliminated so the company could eliminate his/her medical and disability benefits.
Much of this is being allowed and ignored by Democrats and Republicans alike under the tidy headings of Off-Shore, On-Shore, Outsourced and In-sourced Solutions 'mandated' - executives claim - for corporate survival, leaving lots of people asking where the heck is the U.S. Dept. of Labor, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission when workers need them? Who's giving Corporate America the free passes to ignore the tenets of U.S. Employment Law and to bypass the 'Americans with Disabilities Act' altogether with employment practices 'disguised' as 'Off-Shore Business Solutions?'
The Off-Shore / Outsourced Employment Solution gained very powerful momentum in the United States when most people weren't even paying attention. For twenty years, when the unions were yelling in the wind about this very issue lots of people didn't care because it wasn't happening in their own employment backyard. In the name of globalization and free trade, (can you say NAFTA?) 'Corporate Americas' Employment Boat' left the dock for unknown off-shore destinations years ago with the blessing of multiple U.S. Presidents and Administrations.
Along the way, executives figured out how to operate their businesses outside of the U.S. infrastructure, unfortunately too many of them evolved as experts who only know how to compete by eliminating the American worker from the equation. Those of us who represent a blue or white collar profession in any industry, owe it to ourselves, our colleagues and our children's futures to weigh in on these issues now or this 'silent killer' of the U.S. job market will continue to prevail with unimaginable consequences.
Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek
Please Note: The unimaginable consequences in the job market that I feared in 2003 started to roll in during the Summer of 2007 for talent in many job categories in the U.S. Market. Honestly - I could have written the letter above in September 2011 because everything I worried about happening to the employment market arrived as a consequence of the Subprime Mortgage/CDO disaster and the economic meltdown which resulted in the current 2010-2011 Recession. Maybe I should have yelled louder back then. I'm sorry I didn't. - My apologies to all.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
President Obama: Act on Root Causes of 'Uncertaintly!'
Welcome to TishTrek - More than THE JOB BLOG!
This is an open letter to President Barack Obama & the U.S. Congress:
Please act on root causes of 'uncertainty" to create jobs in the United States of America.
Acknowledge the issues that are causing the 'uncertainty' in the market which put businesses on a path to pause and halt investments, initiatives, business plans and hiring. Then let's commit ourselves to forcing the entire Congress to address them!
1) U.S. corporate tax rates are the highest on the planet and they need to be lowered, (We just surpassed Japan in this regard). This fact is inspiring global companies to expand their business and infrastructure in emerging markets, offshore, etc. - they are researching every option outside of the U.S. where they can find a lower corp tax rate.
2) Any Federal Regulation or mandate accused of being 'Anti-Business' need to be assessed and measured against that charge. If our research concludes that the 'value proposition' of a federal regulation actually has an anti-competition and anti-business purpose which makes it anti-Capitalism, then the regulation needs to be fixed, changed, adjusted, eliminated. If that same regulation is designed so the U.S. government can favor one set of market offerings over others, or favor one company over ten others then we have to make the case to Congress to change such a regulation. Gov't shouldn't have a built-in system to enact mandates that allows it to hand-pick winners and losers. Why would I invest my money in a technology if the U.S. government is going to give my competitors built-in 'competitive advantage' in the form of legislation, waivers, mandates, funding, guarantees of gov't contracts, etc. @ the same time its putting strict limits on how my company can operate,
who I can employ, where my raw materials come from, where my facilities can be built in the U.S., etc. Why would investors risk investment money that has a 100% chance of being 'undermined' or 'lost' by unfair gov't meddling? (i.e. Unions and NLRB vs Boeing and the Unemployed in South Carolina; New and costly EPA Rules vs Profit Margins of already struggling businesses). Finally, any federal mandate like these that alter the playing field and the business landscape and that require our fellow citizens - who happen to be business owners - to pay millions of dollars in mandated upgrades or compliance fines should require the approval of the entire Congress.
3) Face Healthcare Reform without the politics: Honestly, I don't care if you are talking about HillaryCare in 1998/99; or ObamaCare now; or AARPCare tomorrow - Since the current Healthcare Reform Act applies to every citizen in the country - It remains the giant elephant in the Chief Financial Officer's office in every company and that's a problem. The CFO's team is responsible for doing the cost analysis for such programs per employee; forecasting how many employees in each plan category it will apply to for the next 3 to 5 years; what the long-term costs of administering the program will be, etc., etc, etc. I don't know a single employer who has any of these answers yet and that's a big giant problem that is contributing to 'uncertainty.' As employers, we can't calculate or forecast our benefits expenses per employee for a system that was mandated without a pricetag. All the corporate opt-outs that were granted to-date prove this point. Many financially conservative companies will wait years (if they must and some already are...) until they understand whether or not these costs will have an 'adverse impact' on profits or their overall business long-term. Many will not decide to enter new businesses, expand what they're already doing, etc. without financial clarity; Sooo I suggest we all commit to PHASE I in HealthCare Reform: That is only target the help for the people who find themselves with zero medical coverage in the U.S. right now. Until the large-scale issues of ObamaCare are resolved & until there is clarity on COST for the corporations responsible for delivering these programs, there will be no 'certainty,' (Still unknown: Outcome of Supreme Court challenges, costs, costs, costs, how we create catastrophic coverage pools for pre-existing conditions that small businesses could never carry alone without going out of business, etc). This 'damaging uncertainty' will continue to contribute to this 'Lost Decade,' but maybe we can agree on certain first steps that help the uninsured who need help by crafting some kind of Step I Program immediately.
4) Stop the shovel-ready Gov't Spending that rewards FAILURE! Gov't TARP, Stimulus Programs, 'Secret' Lending Arrangements for special clients @ our Fed Window, QE 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... vs America's great companies that executed with excellence in 'risk mitigation' and didn't need bailouts. Think about it: Massive amounts of money delivered by our gov't that granted unfair 'competitive advantage' to companies who intentionally failed their shareholders, clients, employees and the economy when they bundled and sold toxic mortgages to unsuspecting investors worldwide, (It was on purpose, unethical and outrageous but Joseph Cassano's AIG Financial Products court case confirmed in 2010 that these acts were not illegal!) Some of America's winning companies were positioned to step in and acquire many of those failing companies that were in a free-fall, but the gov't prohibited that remedy in our free market by handing the losers and cheaters billions of our tax dollars... they gave them the money to continue repeating the behaviors that ruined our economy in the first place. We are either free market capitalists or we are not. Which is it? When we agree what our country believes in, then we can all agree on whether more bailouts that reward failure make sense and is the way to keep going. OR should we put the government stimulus money in the hands of corporate leaders who actually assess risk and act on it to make sure their companies survive.
What are your thoughts? Has anyone passed or changed one single law that now makes it a felony (with mandatory prison time attached) for any executive or FINRA licensed professional who knowingly and willingly fowards toxic assets onto unsuspecting investors ever again. I didn't think so. Wow - there's so much work to do to protect the future, finances & dreams of the generation that will follow us.
Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek
This is an open letter to President Barack Obama & the U.S. Congress:
Please act on root causes of 'uncertainty" to create jobs in the United States of America.
Acknowledge the issues that are causing the 'uncertainty' in the market which put businesses on a path to pause and halt investments, initiatives, business plans and hiring. Then let's commit ourselves to forcing the entire Congress to address them!
1) U.S. corporate tax rates are the highest on the planet and they need to be lowered, (We just surpassed Japan in this regard). This fact is inspiring global companies to expand their business and infrastructure in emerging markets, offshore, etc. - they are researching every option outside of the U.S. where they can find a lower corp tax rate.
2) Any Federal Regulation or mandate accused of being 'Anti-Business' need to be assessed and measured against that charge. If our research concludes that the 'value proposition' of a federal regulation actually has an anti-competition and anti-business purpose which makes it anti-Capitalism, then the regulation needs to be fixed, changed, adjusted, eliminated. If that same regulation is designed so the U.S. government can favor one set of market offerings over others, or favor one company over ten others then we have to make the case to Congress to change such a regulation. Gov't shouldn't have a built-in system to enact mandates that allows it to hand-pick winners and losers. Why would I invest my money in a technology if the U.S. government is going to give my competitors built-in 'competitive advantage' in the form of legislation, waivers, mandates, funding, guarantees of gov't contracts, etc. @ the same time its putting strict limits on how my company can operate,
who I can employ, where my raw materials come from, where my facilities can be built in the U.S., etc. Why would investors risk investment money that has a 100% chance of being 'undermined' or 'lost' by unfair gov't meddling? (i.e. Unions and NLRB vs Boeing and the Unemployed in South Carolina; New and costly EPA Rules vs Profit Margins of already struggling businesses). Finally, any federal mandate like these that alter the playing field and the business landscape and that require our fellow citizens - who happen to be business owners - to pay millions of dollars in mandated upgrades or compliance fines should require the approval of the entire Congress.
3) Face Healthcare Reform without the politics: Honestly, I don't care if you are talking about HillaryCare in 1998/99; or ObamaCare now; or AARPCare tomorrow - Since the current Healthcare Reform Act applies to every citizen in the country - It remains the giant elephant in the Chief Financial Officer's office in every company and that's a problem. The CFO's team is responsible for doing the cost analysis for such programs per employee; forecasting how many employees in each plan category it will apply to for the next 3 to 5 years; what the long-term costs of administering the program will be, etc., etc, etc. I don't know a single employer who has any of these answers yet and that's a big giant problem that is contributing to 'uncertainty.' As employers, we can't calculate or forecast our benefits expenses per employee for a system that was mandated without a pricetag. All the corporate opt-outs that were granted to-date prove this point. Many financially conservative companies will wait years (if they must and some already are...) until they understand whether or not these costs will have an 'adverse impact' on profits or their overall business long-term. Many will not decide to enter new businesses, expand what they're already doing, etc. without financial clarity; Sooo I suggest we all commit to PHASE I in HealthCare Reform: That is only target the help for the people who find themselves with zero medical coverage in the U.S. right now. Until the large-scale issues of ObamaCare are resolved & until there is clarity on COST for the corporations responsible for delivering these programs, there will be no 'certainty,' (Still unknown: Outcome of Supreme Court challenges, costs, costs, costs, how we create catastrophic coverage pools for pre-existing conditions that small businesses could never carry alone without going out of business, etc). This 'damaging uncertainty' will continue to contribute to this 'Lost Decade,' but maybe we can agree on certain first steps that help the uninsured who need help by crafting some kind of Step I Program immediately.
4) Stop the shovel-ready Gov't Spending that rewards FAILURE! Gov't TARP, Stimulus Programs, 'Secret' Lending Arrangements for special clients @ our Fed Window, QE 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... vs America's great companies that executed with excellence in 'risk mitigation' and didn't need bailouts. Think about it: Massive amounts of money delivered by our gov't that granted unfair 'competitive advantage' to companies who intentionally failed their shareholders, clients, employees and the economy when they bundled and sold toxic mortgages to unsuspecting investors worldwide, (It was on purpose, unethical and outrageous but Joseph Cassano's AIG Financial Products court case confirmed in 2010 that these acts were not illegal!) Some of America's winning companies were positioned to step in and acquire many of those failing companies that were in a free-fall, but the gov't prohibited that remedy in our free market by handing the losers and cheaters billions of our tax dollars... they gave them the money to continue repeating the behaviors that ruined our economy in the first place. We are either free market capitalists or we are not. Which is it? When we agree what our country believes in, then we can all agree on whether more bailouts that reward failure make sense and is the way to keep going. OR should we put the government stimulus money in the hands of corporate leaders who actually assess risk and act on it to make sure their companies survive.
What are your thoughts? Has anyone passed or changed one single law that now makes it a felony (with mandatory prison time attached) for any executive or FINRA licensed professional who knowingly and willingly fowards toxic assets onto unsuspecting investors ever again. I didn't think so. Wow - there's so much work to do to protect the future, finances & dreams of the generation that will follow us.
Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek
Friday, September 23, 2011
MetLife's CEO Steven Kandarian: Subprime Era Hero!
Welcome to TishTrek - More than THE JOB BLOG!
Introducing One of TishTrek's Heroes of the Decade: Steven Kandarian!!
Why was Steve Kandarian, MetLife's Chief Investment Officer in 2005, tapped as MetLife's President and CEO in 2011??
Answer: In 2005, "he ACTED when he recognized the commercial mortgage-backed securities market had turned into a bubble, with banks underwriting bad investments and then intentionally passing them along to other investors." Putting MetLife's survival 1st, in 2006 he led a massive sale of risky investments which had become too big a part of MetLife’s overall real estate portfolio.
As a client of MetLife, that's how I define 'leadership.'
Thank you, Sir!
- TishTrek
Introducing One of TishTrek's Heroes of the Decade: Steven Kandarian!!
Why was Steve Kandarian, MetLife's Chief Investment Officer in 2005, tapped as MetLife's President and CEO in 2011??
Answer: In 2005, "he ACTED when he recognized the commercial mortgage-backed securities market had turned into a bubble, with banks underwriting bad investments and then intentionally passing them along to other investors." Putting MetLife's survival 1st, in 2006 he led a massive sale of risky investments which had become too big a part of MetLife’s overall real estate portfolio.
As a client of MetLife, that's how I define 'leadership.'
Thank you, Sir!
- TishTrek
Friday, September 16, 2011
Kweku Adoboli: Rogue UBS Trader or Economic Terrorist?
Welcome to TishTrek - More than a JOB BLOG!
We all know the tag-line: "If you see something, say something."
This morning, my keyboard spoke when I forwarded worrisome concerns regarding UBS Trader Kweku Adoboli to the FBI, Todd Schoenberger @ Landcolt Trading & to reporters @ the New York Post.
I've never been afraid to challenge situations which have the potential to adversely impact fellow citizens. That's why I ask questions; and research answers.
In the end, if a theory or concern is proven unwarranted or wrong through a thorough due diligence process - I'm relieved and grateful. I accept the results & move on...
Having said that, I believe that we're all accountable for taking steps to mitigate risks that put our society and the health, welfare and safety of our fellow man in danger.
See below...
Best regards,
TishTrek
----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: tharp@nypost.com ; ptharp@nypost.com ; jcrudele@nypost.com
Sent: Friday, September 16, 2011 8:34 AM
Subject: Kweku Adoboli: Rogue UBS Trader or an Economic Terrorist?
Attention: Paul Tharpe
Cc: John Crudele
Gentlemen:
Is Kweku Adoboli a rogue UBS trader or an economic terrorist? Could UBS's $2 billion trading loss be the result of an intentional act which was executed to support the underpinnings of the London riots? Could other London banks be next? Google www.deepblack.org.uk - "the place where conflict is creative."
deep:black co-founder Petra Hilgers photo blog can be found on www.deepblack.org.uk. Hit NEWS icon @ the top of pg; then hit Petra's Photo Blog which was announced on the site on September 6th in the 2nd bullet. When you reach 'petra hilgers' page, you'll find the anti-corporation picture (Citi & HSBC London office buildings in the background; with a black sheep in the foreground) - it's the third photo down. The site's riot:lyrics goes on to make the compelling case that the uprisings in London are far from over & agitators have lots of targets on their mind. On Aug 18th, the site shared this quote/ comment from one of her followers to inspire followers: "devoid of love - divide us & rule us; looting & destroying; look who got there first." Who do they think looted and destroyed 'us' first? The global banks?
On August 26th, Petra Hilgers posted a rant underneath her photo of the Citi, HCBC London offices which states: "White sheep or black sheep? And who’s the black sheep: the sheep in the foreground? The corporate power in the background? I like the complexity of this image which at a first glance doesn’t seem complex at all. And it makes me think of the discussions all around me about the riots in London: the temptation to divide into black & white and find easy answers when in fact things are so very complex, layered and possibly uncomfortable. I wonder: how many of us find and if only faintly that the word “riot” resonates somewhere deep inside?"
Finally, rogue UBS Trader or economic terrorist? (you decide). In your NY Post article, you write that "experts said it was difficult to pile up huge unauthorized postions with such mundane trading strategies..." I'll take that point a step further. Interview Chief Information Officers in trading execution services and they'll tell you that it's not only difficult, it's almost impossible without some kind of 'collusion' across business/functional areas to execute such trades without notice.
Whatever caused this $2 billion loss, you can be sure that Kweku Adoboli did not act alone. How come UBS order & execution supervisors weren't managing compliance workflow and the technology that helps mitigate risk by identifying questionable transactions & positions? Who ignored the surveillance requirements under Reg NMS, OATS, etc that are specifically designed to protect UBS & its shareholders? UBS is a revered state-of-the-art advanced technology shop with sophisticated data feed solutions that track both market & trade data.
Some of the top technologists, risk managers and compliance professionals on the planet work for UBS, so the lone wolf theory UBS & the media is peddling simply isn't believable.
I'm writing because I'm worried. The global banking system should be worried too.
- Tish
Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek
We all know the tag-line: "If you see something, say something."
This morning, my keyboard spoke when I forwarded worrisome concerns regarding UBS Trader Kweku Adoboli to the FBI, Todd Schoenberger @ Landcolt Trading & to reporters @ the New York Post.
I've never been afraid to challenge situations which have the potential to adversely impact fellow citizens. That's why I ask questions; and research answers.
In the end, if a theory or concern is proven unwarranted or wrong through a thorough due diligence process - I'm relieved and grateful. I accept the results & move on...
Having said that, I believe that we're all accountable for taking steps to mitigate risks that put our society and the health, welfare and safety of our fellow man in danger.
See below...
Best regards,
TishTrek
----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: tharp@nypost.com ; ptharp@nypost.com ; jcrudele@nypost.com
Sent: Friday, September 16, 2011 8:34 AM
Subject: Kweku Adoboli: Rogue UBS Trader or an Economic Terrorist?
Attention: Paul Tharpe
Cc: John Crudele
Gentlemen:
Is Kweku Adoboli a rogue UBS trader or an economic terrorist? Could UBS's $2 billion trading loss be the result of an intentional act which was executed to support the underpinnings of the London riots? Could other London banks be next? Google www.deepblack.org.uk - "the place where conflict is creative."
deep:black co-founder Petra Hilgers photo blog can be found on www.deepblack.org.uk. Hit NEWS icon @ the top of pg; then hit Petra's Photo Blog which was announced on the site on September 6th in the 2nd bullet. When you reach 'petra hilgers' page, you'll find the anti-corporation picture (Citi & HSBC London office buildings in the background; with a black sheep in the foreground) - it's the third photo down. The site's riot:lyrics goes on to make the compelling case that the uprisings in London are far from over & agitators have lots of targets on their mind. On Aug 18th, the site shared this quote/ comment from one of her followers to inspire followers: "devoid of love - divide us & rule us; looting & destroying; look who got there first." Who do they think looted and destroyed 'us' first? The global banks?
On August 26th, Petra Hilgers posted a rant underneath her photo of the Citi, HCBC London offices which states: "White sheep or black sheep? And who’s the black sheep: the sheep in the foreground? The corporate power in the background? I like the complexity of this image which at a first glance doesn’t seem complex at all. And it makes me think of the discussions all around me about the riots in London: the temptation to divide into black & white and find easy answers when in fact things are so very complex, layered and possibly uncomfortable. I wonder: how many of us find and if only faintly that the word “riot” resonates somewhere deep inside?"
Finally, rogue UBS Trader or economic terrorist? (you decide). In your NY Post article, you write that "experts said it was difficult to pile up huge unauthorized postions with such mundane trading strategies..." I'll take that point a step further. Interview Chief Information Officers in trading execution services and they'll tell you that it's not only difficult, it's almost impossible without some kind of 'collusion' across business/functional areas to execute such trades without notice.
Whatever caused this $2 billion loss, you can be sure that Kweku Adoboli did not act alone. How come UBS order & execution supervisors weren't managing compliance workflow and the technology that helps mitigate risk by identifying questionable transactions & positions? Who ignored the surveillance requirements under Reg NMS, OATS, etc that are specifically designed to protect UBS & its shareholders? UBS is a revered state-of-the-art advanced technology shop with sophisticated data feed solutions that track both market & trade data.
Some of the top technologists, risk managers and compliance professionals on the planet work for UBS, so the lone wolf theory UBS & the media is peddling simply isn't believable.
I'm writing because I'm worried. The global banking system should be worried too.
- Tish
Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek
Monday, September 12, 2011
On 'this' day, Grandma wrote one last lesson...
Welcome to TishTrek - More than a JOB BLOG!
Tuesday - September 13th is the 8th Anniversary which marks the day my mother lost her battle with cigarettes. I'm celebrating her life and my love for her with a renewed message to my kids: "Don't Do As We Did; Just Don't Smoke."
Okay - call the Diet Police! I cheated on my diet Monday... It was my first "David Letterman Stouffer's Mac-and-Cheese Moment" since June. In the end, it didn't even taste that good. And - oh my gosh - Scott got home early from work and caught me in the act!! I felt like 'that kid' with her hand caught in the cookie jar!
So I ask you, why did I do that? I'm telling you, it was that familiar desperate reach for comfort food after an exhausting day and a rough week of memories. When I get exhausted, my will power heads straight for the hills. How about all of you?
Do I actually need a big neon sign on my refrigerator with a warning label that reads, "This kind of repeat behavior has a good chance of putting you in Jersey Shore Medical Center where doctors will break open your chest cavity while they put you on the heart-lung machine so your heart can keep a beat with the help of technology while they clear your clogged arteries. Your arteries will be filled with bad cholesterol from this Mac-and-Cheese you have sent through your system for 30 years?!" Gosh - logic tells us one thing; emotions beat to a drum that will take us off that cliff whenever we're not careful!
Sometimes I think about my own Mom's quest to find peaceful quiet moments during stressful times... She never sought comfort in food, but she grew up in a Salutatory Age of Smoking - meaning smoking was welcomed as an acceptable & fashionable habit which was picked up by lots of teenagers & young adults in the 1940's, 1950's and beyond. In those times, this act was greeted as some kind of tribal right-of-passage that everyone went through on their way to adulthood. And okay - let's join the chorus... Big Tobacco's marketing and advertising campaigns were the best Madison Avenue had to offer in those days! Yes - even that hunk - 'The Marlboro Man' - died of cancer.
Some people could stop the habit on a dime; for others - like Mom - they'd engage in a lifetime-of-trying and they still could not quit. My hazel-blue eyes were fixated on her throughout my elementary school years and I mostly saw the strongest and smartest woman I had ever known. By 8th grade, Mom had all of us convinced that we could become President of the United States if we put our minds to it. Eight kids make for a lot of mouths and egos to feed, but she found time to be everyone else's rock too - a special person so many turned to & called on for help - and I mean "everyone" including friend, stranger and foe alike! If you knew the teens who turned to the embrace and warmth of my parents for help between the 1960's and the 1980's or counted how many actaully lived in our home - your definition of "selfless" would be altered forever.
The term "selfless" would stay with Mom until the day she died. In the early years, it never dawned on me that perhaps she never left enough time or energy for herself... How did she do it, I started wondering when my own kids arrived? At times, could it be that exhaustion, bad news and stressful times impacted the quality of her life too?
This month, Dr. Oz informed his viewing audience that people can take up to 15 years off their life if smoking is the habit that follows them, (i.e. instead of dying at age 65, a non-smoker has a shot at living until 80 years of age!). Can you imagine? You can bet no one was announcing such risks in the 1940's, 50's & 60's when teenagers innocently viewed smoking as a kind of 'right-of-passage' to adulthood.
Having said this, what I do know is that my mom waged a 35-year valiant & silent battle that was really no ones business until she died 8 years ago. I remember her wearing the nicotine patches; literally smoking pipes and cigars; attending hypnosis & smoking cessation courses with her friend Jude at Ocean County College; chewing that special gum; and submersing entire cartons of cigarettes in wastebaskets of water to banish the tangible temptation from our house.
In our living room on Lincoln Avenue, she was ahead of her time as she 'exercised-for-endorphins' to the greatest hits of Herb Albert & the Tijuana Brass before there were ever aerobic classes in any neighborhood, (Scott - that's where my love affair with brass instruments started!!). She walked on the beaches in Pt. Pleasant with the best of friends like Barbara Fioretti, Joan Spiegle and her sister, Mary; cleaned our house like a fiend to eliminate the smell of smoke, (I'm talking wall washing & windows open in winter here gang!), etc... I never put these efforts into one paragraph before, but the reality screams that my mother tried very hard so it was no wonder she would warn everyone to simply steer clear of this deadly habit that is so hard for many people to break.
As I anxiously waited for her to survive through multiple vascular surgeries of the leg, neck and beyond, followed by quadruple open heart surgery and abdominal aortic surgery, the painful message regarding nicotine could not be more clear. In an unbelieveable moment, she requested I drive her straight to the 7-11 for cigarettes as the first stop from heart surgery to home. I didn't want to; and I knew others would have made a different decision, but I did it. Mom was sitting in my car with a heart-shaped pillow protecting the giant incision up-and-down her chest and she was suffering. My gosh - It had been hard enough to watch her in this struggle with herself when she was strong, so pushing back when she was physically weak was not an option.
After I purchased those cigarettes, I began to cry because it felt as if the razor-sharp scalpels used to save her life had just etched a message in my gut that I knew one day I would write to honor her and explaining how hard she tried.
The message from Kate and Scott's beloved Grandma was clear: "Don't do as I did; just don't smoke!"
Best regards,
Everybody's Cousin Tish
Quote of the Day: "Where there is a will, there is a way."
- The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
Tuesday - September 13th is the 8th Anniversary which marks the day my mother lost her battle with cigarettes. I'm celebrating her life and my love for her with a renewed message to my kids: "Don't Do As We Did; Just Don't Smoke."
Okay - call the Diet Police! I cheated on my diet Monday... It was my first "David Letterman Stouffer's Mac-and-Cheese Moment" since June. In the end, it didn't even taste that good. And - oh my gosh - Scott got home early from work and caught me in the act!! I felt like 'that kid' with her hand caught in the cookie jar!
So I ask you, why did I do that? I'm telling you, it was that familiar desperate reach for comfort food after an exhausting day and a rough week of memories. When I get exhausted, my will power heads straight for the hills. How about all of you?
Do I actually need a big neon sign on my refrigerator with a warning label that reads, "This kind of repeat behavior has a good chance of putting you in Jersey Shore Medical Center where doctors will break open your chest cavity while they put you on the heart-lung machine so your heart can keep a beat with the help of technology while they clear your clogged arteries. Your arteries will be filled with bad cholesterol from this Mac-and-Cheese you have sent through your system for 30 years?!" Gosh - logic tells us one thing; emotions beat to a drum that will take us off that cliff whenever we're not careful!
Sometimes I think about my own Mom's quest to find peaceful quiet moments during stressful times... She never sought comfort in food, but she grew up in a Salutatory Age of Smoking - meaning smoking was welcomed as an acceptable & fashionable habit which was picked up by lots of teenagers & young adults in the 1940's, 1950's and beyond. In those times, this act was greeted as some kind of tribal right-of-passage that everyone went through on their way to adulthood. And okay - let's join the chorus... Big Tobacco's marketing and advertising campaigns were the best Madison Avenue had to offer in those days! Yes - even that hunk - 'The Marlboro Man' - died of cancer.
Some people could stop the habit on a dime; for others - like Mom - they'd engage in a lifetime-of-trying and they still could not quit. My hazel-blue eyes were fixated on her throughout my elementary school years and I mostly saw the strongest and smartest woman I had ever known. By 8th grade, Mom had all of us convinced that we could become President of the United States if we put our minds to it. Eight kids make for a lot of mouths and egos to feed, but she found time to be everyone else's rock too - a special person so many turned to & called on for help - and I mean "everyone" including friend, stranger and foe alike! If you knew the teens who turned to the embrace and warmth of my parents for help between the 1960's and the 1980's or counted how many actaully lived in our home - your definition of "selfless" would be altered forever.
The term "selfless" would stay with Mom until the day she died. In the early years, it never dawned on me that perhaps she never left enough time or energy for herself... How did she do it, I started wondering when my own kids arrived? At times, could it be that exhaustion, bad news and stressful times impacted the quality of her life too?
This month, Dr. Oz informed his viewing audience that people can take up to 15 years off their life if smoking is the habit that follows them, (i.e. instead of dying at age 65, a non-smoker has a shot at living until 80 years of age!). Can you imagine? You can bet no one was announcing such risks in the 1940's, 50's & 60's when teenagers innocently viewed smoking as a kind of 'right-of-passage' to adulthood.
Having said this, what I do know is that my mom waged a 35-year valiant & silent battle that was really no ones business until she died 8 years ago. I remember her wearing the nicotine patches; literally smoking pipes and cigars; attending hypnosis & smoking cessation courses with her friend Jude at Ocean County College; chewing that special gum; and submersing entire cartons of cigarettes in wastebaskets of water to banish the tangible temptation from our house.
In our living room on Lincoln Avenue, she was ahead of her time as she 'exercised-for-endorphins' to the greatest hits of Herb Albert & the Tijuana Brass before there were ever aerobic classes in any neighborhood, (Scott - that's where my love affair with brass instruments started!!). She walked on the beaches in Pt. Pleasant with the best of friends like Barbara Fioretti, Joan Spiegle and her sister, Mary; cleaned our house like a fiend to eliminate the smell of smoke, (I'm talking wall washing & windows open in winter here gang!), etc... I never put these efforts into one paragraph before, but the reality screams that my mother tried very hard so it was no wonder she would warn everyone to simply steer clear of this deadly habit that is so hard for many people to break.
As I anxiously waited for her to survive through multiple vascular surgeries of the leg, neck and beyond, followed by quadruple open heart surgery and abdominal aortic surgery, the painful message regarding nicotine could not be more clear. In an unbelieveable moment, she requested I drive her straight to the 7-11 for cigarettes as the first stop from heart surgery to home. I didn't want to; and I knew others would have made a different decision, but I did it. Mom was sitting in my car with a heart-shaped pillow protecting the giant incision up-and-down her chest and she was suffering. My gosh - It had been hard enough to watch her in this struggle with herself when she was strong, so pushing back when she was physically weak was not an option.
After I purchased those cigarettes, I began to cry because it felt as if the razor-sharp scalpels used to save her life had just etched a message in my gut that I knew one day I would write to honor her and explaining how hard she tried.
The message from Kate and Scott's beloved Grandma was clear: "Don't do as I did; just don't smoke!"
Best regards,
Everybody's Cousin Tish
Quote of the Day: "Where there is a will, there is a way."
- The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
Thursday, September 8, 2011
10th Anniversary: My 9/11 pen is finally at rest - Amen.
Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!
While President Obama was delivering his jobs speech to Congress on television this evening, my focus was elsewhere so I wrote the following:
God bless all of you and America on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11.
The Asbury Park Press/Gannett Newspapers will publish a '9/11 Memories & Recollections' column on Sunday, September 11th, 2011. I'm humbled that a piece I submitted depicting Harry & my ten year journey from 'heart-thumping sadness' @ sea to 'amazing strength' will be included, (I've shared my app contribution below my signature. It means a lot to me for each of you to have it because this is the last time I plan to write about our excruciating 9/11 ferry experience).
I also wanted to share the only photo I've ever come across which successfully captures the less publicized but 'utterly shocking moment(s)' we experienced on the waters surrounding NYC on 9/11. Allow me to explain...
We already knew the United States was under attack, so when our view of the NYC skyline disappeared in the horizon and was replaced - for a time - by clouds of smoke and debris, (exactly as the photo depicts), it led to the agonizing fear that tens of thousands were being killed in the Wall Street area because we knew so many people had not yet made it off the island or out of danger. We had no way of knowing what was going on. Like so many others, we didn't know if the attacks were contained to the WTC area; or if timed explosives were being set off throughout the corridors of Downtown Manhattan; or if approaching passenger planes would be blown out of the sky after the government ordered the air space over NYC 'sanitized.' No one knew what would happen next or how this day would end.
The picture attached above this post - which says 'it all' for many - is from a riveting book called, HERE IS NEW YORK: a democracy of photographs, conceived and organized by Alice Rose George, Gilles Peress, Michael Shulan and Charles Traub, www.hereisnewyork.com, (page 29). I purchased the book at St. Paul's Chapel (211 Broadway, NYC) - the back of 'that' church sits across the street & to the east of the World Trade Center site. It was built in 1766 and miraculously escaped the 9/11 attacks unscathed, (without a crack to a single window). It is the only pre-revolutionary church still standing in Manhattan and it became 'a reverent place' of solace & prayer & reflection for the 9/11 rescue workers.
On the 10th Anniversary, my Harry and I will return to St. Paul's Chapel and once again we will retrace 'our 9/11 voyage' from the Atlantic Highlands in New Jersey to New York City to remember, honor, and celebrate the lives of the 3,000 innocent people who were murdered as we struggled at sea on that fateful day.
We take this incredible journey each year because - as most of you know - our view of 9/11 played out while we were commuting on a ferry. Our SeaStreak Ferry captain navigated with confidence as he passed the eastern tip of Staten Island, with Swinburne & Hoffman Islands to our left and Gravesend Bay to our right. We moved from the lower bay to upper bay by passing under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. As we raced through New York Harbor watching destruction and fire bellow from our beloved World Trade Center complex, we stared at our beautiful Statue of Liberty on Bedloe's Island hoping that she too would be safe in the middle of this water. We literally gasped, then I cried as we passed the foot of Lady Liberty and Ellis Island and the Staten Island Ferry Terminal at Battery Park. We navigated to the right in an effort to get into the East River as quickly as possible.
Our SeaStreak captain explained by radio that it was critical to travel 'towards the danger' to save as many lives as possible. He was 100% right. There were terrified people desperate for help on every pier in the East River and there were thousands more running for their lives towards the Brooklyn Bridge. Our SeaStreak crew helped as many people at Pier 11 as our ferry could hold. We escaped through Buttermilk Channel, that short body of water between Governor's Island and Brooklyn's west coast, and made our way back under the Verrazano Bridge heading south to New Jersey.
While we were in the lower bay, the second tower succumbed to the terrors of our society. After it collapsed, God fervently urged me to look away and I listened. As smoke engulfed NYC, (just like the attached photo shows), I literally turned my body completely around and looked only to the east and the south so the power of the magnificent ocean would give my breaking heart strength. HE encouraged me to use the Sandy Hook landscape that was to my left to counter the view that was so painfully seared and freshly etched in my mind. As I worked to catch my breath, I prayed to HIM and it was HE who embraced me and Harry until we could reach the arms of our children - Kate & Scott, ages 12 and 8 at the time.
After the captain left us in the care of hundreds of volunteers in the Atlantic Highlands, he and all the SeaSteak heroes made 40-plus additional trips to bring thousands of additional commuters from the piers in NYC to safety in New Jersey. They did not stop until this job was done. The determination and courage of the SeaStreak Crew will never be forgotten. Harry and I honor them on this 10th Anniversary and always... our thanks to all.
Before I retire my 9/11 voice, allow me to say this: When I was a teenager, my history teacher - the amazing Mr. Oxenford at Pt. Pleasant Beach High School - taught me that I was accountable for researching, learning, facing, remembering and respecting history. Because of him, I left high school knowing that a failure to understand our nation's history and/or participating in collective apathy will always create conditions and opportunities for any 'history' to repeat itself. I've written about my 9/11 voyage and all the heroes who were within my reach to watch for the last ten years to document the history I saw with my own eyes; that chapter comes to a close on Sunday.
With Mr. Oxenford's inspiring lessons in mind, my 10th Anniversary Prayer is that my children and all citizens who follow them will honor the 3,000 precious lives lost on 9/11 by making it their business to understand what happened to our great country that day and why... Over the last ten years, writing about this experience and sharing it with many of you helped me find peace. On the 10th Anniversary, I offer the attached photo as the 'final word' which proves how far we've come in the past decade and how truly resilient our nation is.
My 9/11 pen is at rest and I am grateful. -Amen.
*** See Asbury Park Press submission is below.
Warm regards,
TishTrek
******* The Asbury Park Press, Sunday - September 11th, 2011:
My husband and I were commuting on the SeaStreak Ferry when the first plane hit the North Tower. We gasped in horror at sea when the second plane exploded into the South Tower.
As the towering infernos spewed pieces from their silver shells, we reverently bowed our heads knowing each reflection in the sky symbolized a human life that wouldn’t return home that day.
After picking up 300 people fleeing to safety at Pier 11, we escaped to the lower bay-side of the Verrazano Bridge. All eyes were transfixed on the twin towers as they collapsed into those terrifying mushroom clouds which temporarily erased the Downtown skyline from our view. No one spoke.
Our stunned silence was shattered as a passenger yelled, “The Pentagon has been ‘hit’ too!” Some wept; others prayed; anxiety ruled.
The agonizing view of this heartbreaking enormity of horror was interrupted by selfless volunteers who had lined the Atlantic Highlands to help seafaring commuters who were dazed, frozen and bound together by a silence louder than any voice we had ever heard. It was the voice of "terrorism.”
As remarkable strangers comforted & protected others, the hand of God and the voice of "William Wordsworth" prevailed during this decade of recovery and resolve:
"What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind"
— William Wordsworth, (Intimations of Immortality)
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