Paul Edwards

Picking the Life You Want to Live

September 7, 2020 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

COVID-19 has produced changes in our lifestyles and for the first time since the industrial revolution produced a majority of Americans saying they prefer to work at home.

Survey after survey show:

Metova’s April 2020 survey analyzed the responses of over 1,000 consumers. finding that 57% of respondents would prefer to keep on working from home. Almost half (48%) said they are more productive working from home.

An article in the New York Times asked “What if You Don’t Want to Go Back to the Office?

IBM surveyed 25, 000 people to gauge changes in perspective about work and found 54% of adults want to work remotely most of the time after the pandemic.

Other studies have shown that those who work from home full-time report being happier in their job 22% more than their counterparts who spent no time working from home.

Forbes magazine reported on May 20 that three out of five surveyed who had been working at home said they would prefer to continue working from home.

The Gallup Poll which tracks worker attitudes found three in five U.S. workers who have been doing their jobs from home during the coronavirus pandemic would prefer to continue to work remotely as much as possible.

Here are the reasons people prefer to work at home:

One study found 79% of workers say the quality of their work has improved. Many other studies come to similar conclusions.

Cutting back on commuting time. The average American who drives to work spends 54 hours per year stuck in traffic, according to an analysis by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.
Less pollution. American cities are less polluted because of reduced traffic.
Better health as people are exposed less to communicable diseases and have more time to exercise and stay physically fit, have fewer respiratory problems that come with driving
Global Workplace Analytics estimates that people can save, on average, $2,000 to $6,500 every year by not spending on things like gasoline and daycare.
Tax-wise, people who work at home can come out ahead. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 eliminated the home office tax deduction for employees (anyone who receives a W-2). However, if produce self-employment income at home, you can still deduct home office expenses.

One of the rewards of working at home is spending more time with your pets. Here’s a link to an in-depth guide for working from home with a dog.

If you are seeking a way to spend more time working at home for an employer or wish to produce extra income, take a look at whether the opportunities of becoming a Digital Document Creator.

The Economy is a calamity for most Americans; Why most people live paycheck to paycheck

August 30, 2020 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

Nearly a thousand Americans die of coronavirus deaths a day – more than in any other nation. While Americans constitute 4% of the world’s population, we have suffered nearly 25% of the global number of COVID-D cases and almost 25% of the deaths.

It’s clear that many households were not prepared for the economic downturn The loss of income and the consequent economic crisis hit a middle class that does not have much of a cushion to weather a depression.

A Federal Reserve study found that 6 in 10 households do not have enough liquid assets to cover three months’ worth of expenses. Just five percent of middle-class assets are liquid while almost 60 percent of a family’s assets are tied up in primary residences, retirement accounts, and businesses. 1 in 6 Americans could go hungry amid the Covid-19 crisis.

Even if families could sell their assets, they would be risking their homes, security in old age, and, for some families, their primary source of income. The need for cash is causing people to sell and barter their possessions.

With 74% of U.S. families living paycheck-to-paycheck—including one in four households that earn at least $150,000 per year—the pandemic plunged millions into desperate situations overnight. The U.S. economy has been kept up by economic stimulus of funds, IRS reminds consumers that unemployment income is taxable, meaning the government will get back some of the money it has spent over the next year.

The Brookings Institution took a deep look at pay across the U.S. and found that almost half of workers — 44% — earn low wages. 12 percent of Americans say they can’t cover a $400 expense; the remaining 27 percent said they could cover the expense but would need to use some combination of a credit card, taking out a loan, or selling something.

Almost a third of low-wage workers were below 150% of the federal poverty level. The median pay among low-wage workers was around $10.22/hr. When wages stay the same, they’re not really staying the same.

Personal Savings

Before the pandemic, the overall personal saving rate was relatively low at just under eight percent. While the savings rate has increased since just before the 2008 recession, it is nowhere near historic highs of over 13 percent. The value of savings are they can be drawn upon in an emergency. Sixty-nine percent of Americans have less than $1,000 in their savings account. As the economy falters, many in the middle class will now need to draw on whatever assets they have.

“The real tsunami is coming,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, tells us “the labor market is set to start weakening again. That leaves us with very little job creation in the rest of the economy but with still high levels of layoffs.” “You’re starting to see unemployment spells last a long time. The longer you’re out of the labor force and disconnected from your prior employer, the harder it is to reconnect.”

Unemployment

Less than a week after President Trump touted a positive jobs report and claimed victory over the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Department of Labor announced that more than 1.5 million filed new jobless claims in each week of June. Before the pandemic, the all-time weekly high was 695,000 in 1982.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the employment-population ratio, which is the percentage of adults in the U.S. population who are employed, fell to a record low of 52.8 percent. It was 61.2 percent at the start of the year. Doing the math tells us that nearly 48 percent of working-age adults didn’t have a job in May.

Economists say the employment-population ratio is a truer indicator of the health of the labor market because it counts the people who could be working but, for one reason or another, are not looking for a job. The monthly employment report only counts those who are looking for a job.

One in three Americans say a household member has been laid off or had their pay cut. What’s more alarming is that many jobs are disappearing. A recent report by Bloomberg Economics warned that up to a third of the job losses experienced between February and May may never return.

The real unemployment rate is 21%–and is heading higher. Government data available don’t account for many workers who are still on the job but are expected to be let go. For example, Boeing (BA) announced plans to cut 16,000 workers, with 12,300 of those job cuts already being identified through buyouts or involuntary permanent layoffs. But virtually all of those affected workers are still on the job as of today. United Airlines announced plans to lay off more than one-third of its 95,000 workers. Brooks Brothers, which first opened for business in 1818, filed for bankruptcy. Bed Bath and Beyond said it will close 200 stores.

Many retailers are in bankruptcy –such as Brooks Brothers. J.C. Penney, Stage Stores, J. Crew, Nieman-Marcus, Roots USA, Pier 1, Tuesday Morning, Barney’s, Charlotte Ruse, Destination Maternity, Diesel USA, Forever 21, FTD, Full Beauty Brands, Gymboree, Payless Shoes, Things Remembered, and Z Gallery, and Denim retailer Lucky Brands, Stein Mart. Many of these bankruptcies result in the closing all of their Stores.

Giant Macy’s announced it is cutting 3,900 corporate jobs — 3 percent of its total workforce — to reduce costs as it struggles with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The cuts represent about a fourth of Macy’s corporate workforce. It expects to save about $365 million through the layoffs. The cuts represent about a fourth of Macy’s corporate workforce. The department store chain said it expects to save about $365 million through the layoffs.

Other businesses are in trouble, too, such as Chuck E. Cheese files, which filed for Chapter 11. Microsoft will permanently close its retail stores and put its resources into online channels after closing the outlets in late March due to COVID-19. Nordstrom, a major retail tenant finds itself at odds with its landlords. The upscale department store chain has reportedly notified the property owners of its namesake and off-price Rack stores that it will pay only half of its rent costs for the rest of 2020.

The demise of America’s malls can deal a blow to the towns that depend on them.

Malls and shopping centers across the country provide $400 billion in local tax revenue annually, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Millions of additional layoffs could come soon from cash-strapped state and local governments unless Congress provides additional relief and small businesses that have exhausted their borrowing under the Paycheck Protection Program. In a survey of its members, the National Federation of Independent Business said more than half of respondents had used up their loans and 22 percent planned to lay off workers as a result.

Temporary becomes permanent

People who are counting on businesses reopening their doors may be surprised to find that a temporary loss has become a permanent one, said Zandi. Millions of people remain unemployed and the number of jobs being permanently lost is going up each month. The rise in permanent job loss is the latest signal that the economic damage from the coronavirus is likely to be long-lasting. 6 million additional jobs lost may be a best-case scenario rather than the worst-case scenario

.An earlier University of Chicago study predicted that 42% of pandemic job losses would be permanent. These are not just job losses for millions of Americans but an even larger career existential crisis.

The “only way to have a viable economy and society is to control this epidemic.” “It was Trump’s defiance of science, his muddled messaging and his incessant vitriol that has plunged the country into a swamp of joblessness, receding labor participation and slumping business confidence unseen in other developed nations,”

“Here we are, a country so rich in expertise, in resources, in capacities, and yet we’re watching a complete failure of a political response — with a massive loss of life — in real-time,” Economist Jeffrey Sachs said. “It’s quite shocking because Trump not only does not know how to approach this issue but he blocks those who do.”

The nearly $3 trillion worth of pandemic relief measures approved earlier this year by Congress have clearly buoyed the economy, but the effect of those initial programs is ebbing. Many small businesses are running out of loans and grants that kept paychecks going out to at least some workers. State governments are financially distressed. Unless more relief money comes from Washington, more people will experience no-pay paydays.

The first wave of the coronavirus pandemic caused the U.S. economy to shrink at its fastest rate on the record because of the virus. The U.S. economy shrunk at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 32.9 percent during the second quarter of 2020 as spurred an economic collapse of record-breaking speed and size, according to the Commerce Department. It is the largest one-quarter plunge in economic growth since the federal government began reporting quarterly GDP data. The staggering contraction beats the last record set in 1958 when GDP shrank at an annualized 10% rate.

During the worst of the Great Recession, GDP shrank at an annualized 8.4% pace in the final quarter of 2008. Before that, the single largest annualized quarterly decline recorded by the Commerce Department was 10% in early 1958. the economy saw its worst quarter in at least 145 years. Federal regulators quietly shredded the most significant banking reform enacted after the 2008 financial crisis last month. When they were done, they patted banks on the back for continuing to shovel cash to their shareholders.

This downturn or depression is likely last well into the year. The average duration of a recession between 1945 and 2001 was 10 months. The middle class faces its greatest threat since the 1930s. Any way you slice it, it’s an ugly, historic economic contraction.

The industries that have seen the most job loss, including hospitality, leisure, and retail are industries where a much higher proportion of women work. The job market is rough for recent college graduates, with 68% fewer entry-level positions available this year than last year.

Making the Mortgage Payment or Rent

Half of U.S. homeowners struggling with mortgages due to COVID-19, researchers say many Americans are thinking about putting up the “For Sale” sign. A survey of 2,000 American homeowners found that 52 percent are constantly concerned about making their mortgage payment on time. Forty-seven percent of the poll say they are considering selling their home because they can’t afford their mortgage anymore.

Researchers say 35 percent of U.S. homeowners admit they’ve missed a mortgage payment during the pandemic. The same amount of respondents said they worry about losing their home. The poll, commissioned by the National Association of Realtors, also found that eight in 10 homeowners say the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unexpected financial problem in their lives.

More than half of the survey admit they have cut back on their basic expenses to afford paying off their home. Seventy-one percent of homeowners have significantly cut back on buying clothes. Other habits the tough financial times have cut into include buying take-out food (66%), paying for a streaming service (46%), and buying groceries (45%). Another 53 percent of homeowners are selling their own possessions to make extra income.

A separate survey by Apartment List, a search firm, found that fear of eviction has escalated. More than one-in-five renters say they are “very” or “extremely” concerned about being thrown out in the next six months, up from 18% in June.

Thirty-one percent have asked a family member for a loan during the pandemic. Another 22 percent have reached out to friends for help with their bills. Some homeowners have opted for the real longshot, as 19 percent of homeowners admit playing the lottery has helped ease their financial burden.

What Jobs Are Coming Back

Eating and drinking establishments accounted for the bulk of the 7.5 million jobs the economy recovered in the past two months.

Yet restaurants still employed about 3 million fewer people at the start of July than they did before the crisis — a whopping 50% reduction. And the recent outbreak of coronavirus cases means many of those jobs probably aren’t coming back soon.st politics news.

A society in which the rich get richer as the poor and middle-class collapse is not a society that can sustain itself. The Fed and the financial regulators who stripped the Volcker Rule of its meaning are enlisting the country in a two-tiered future: one for the financial elite and another for ordinary citizens of a democracy. They are encouraging banks to take bigger risks as the economy collapses, without taking meaningful precautions. That cannot end well.

The Economy is Cratering. Welcome to the Trump Depression

Economists call 12.5% as the official unemployment rate or “U3” — but in these times, a better measure is “U6,” the statistic which includes “discouraged workers” and people forced into part-time work, or the underemployed. That’s closer to 20%, which is nearer to what you might expect after five months of unemployment topping a million people per week. And even that’s an understatement because none of this really measures the impact on the self-employed very well. The self-employed have come to be larger components of the economy, whether Uber drivers or Instacart deliverers — even the pre-Coronavirus economy was fully half “low-wage service jobs.” Nearly half of economists from leading association predict US economy won’t return to pre-pandemic levels until 2022. The patient wasn’t healthy to begin with.

En Route to Trumpistan – Can the U.S. Avoid Becoming an Authoritarian State?

August 24, 2020 by Paul Edwards 2 Comments

America resisted the efforts of the German American Bund in the 1930s to mobilize and win World War II. But now in 2020, we are on our way to an authoritarian state.

Trump began misusing federal forces to separate children from their families seeking asylum in the USA. Asylum seekers and families are protected by and international federal law which forbids the government to simply send them back. Federal courts stopped this administration from holding families for months without justifying the decision to keep them in detention.

A federal judge said he believed that if the allegations against the administration were true, they might very well be unconstitutional. Some courts have found this is implicitly part of the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of “liberty” without due process of law. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA Ms. L.; et al., Petitioners-Plaintiffs, v. U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”); et al., Respondents-Defendants. Case No.: 18cv0428 DMS (MDD) violates their due process rights,

Millions of people were outraged but no articles of impeachment arose from this abuse of power.

On June 1, in Washington, Trump deployed federal law enforcement personnel using riot control tactics and munitions against nonviolent protesters to clear a path for President Donald Trump to walk from the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square for a brief photo op. Within days, anonymous federal forces began to appear on D.C. streets.

In July, federal forces from the Department of Homeland Security were deployed in Portland, Oregon Kansas City and Seattle using unmarked cars and officers in camouflage wearing no badges, and with the power to abduct people from the streets. President Trump has threatened future deployments to other cities “run by liberal Democrats,” including Chicago, Oakland, and New York. The Mayor of Portland was gassed.

These deployments generated national outcry and lawsuits.

In June 2020, the Trump administration began deploying federal law enforcement forces to some cities in the United States, in response to rioting and monument removals amid the George Floyd protests. Federal law enforcement elements have been deployed under Operation Legend, Operation Diligent Valor, and the Protecting American Communities Task Force (PACT). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has cited an executive order regarding “monuments, memorials, and statues” as allowing federal officers to be deployed without the permission of individual U.S. states. The latest deployment he’s announced is to Kenosha, Wisconsin.

We know he’s worried about the coming election and the closer it gets, the more erratic and despotic his behavior! Trump says he’ll send law enforcement officials to monitor voting in November.

Trump repeatedly claims voter fraud will undermine November’s election results even as fellow Republicans acknowledge mail-in ballots are safe. In an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News, e would send law enforcement officials to polling locations to guard against voter fraud in November’s election. “We’re going to have sheriffs, and we’re going to have law enforcement, and we’re going to have, hopefully, US attorneys, and we’re going to have everybody and attorney generals (sic),” Trump said during an interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity. “Not helpful” is the way the postmaster general on Monday described Trump’s attacks on mail-in ballots.

Federal law prohibits any conduct that intimidates voters. Several states expressly forbid law enforcement presence at the polls. Department of Defense and National Guard personnel must also refrain from conducting “operations” at polling places. Furthermore, the President does not have the authority to send local sheriffs anywhere, and sending armed federal law enforcement to the polls could result in violations of US criminal code.

We’re experiencing a creeping martial law one step at a time. Martial law isn’t declared like in the movies – one which is all too easy to normalize and accept because it proceeds in slow steps.

President Trump operates from petulance. Upset when he heard that Goodyear factory workers were prohibited from wearing MAGA HATS at work, tweeted August 19th: “Don’t buy GOODYEAR TIRES.

The following day a Trump campaign event featuring “Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!” featured tires from Michelin (French), Bridgestone (Japanese), and Continental (German), but not Goodyear (American).

Do Americans understand that Trump is undoing our constitutional right to a free election? A right millions of Americans have died protecting. Concerns are voiced by politicians and civil liberties groups that these deployments are unconstitutional and a red flag of authoritarian measures or the beginning of martial law. Trump is instituting martial law now in the time-honored way that authoritarian-fascists do. We need to remember “The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.”

Trump’s assault on the postal service threatens the November election and in stopping him, we can make Americans better

August 22, 2020 by Paul Edwards 1 Comment

Is American racing toward a tyranny? Fearing he will lose the election, Trump is pulling out all the stops to dampen the vote. Trump said he is blocking billions in USPS funding to prevent voting by mail. Trump vowed to block any pandemic relief spending bill that includes the $25 billion in emergency funding for the USPS, declaring mailed-in ballots are fraudulent.

The ridiculousness of this claim is the fact that 1 in 4 cast in 2016—about 33 million—were sent by mail. Without taint of fraud, five states (Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and Utah) use mail-in ballots exclusively, electing Republicans as well as Democrats: Even the Trumps vote by mail in Florida.

With the U.S. in midst of the coronavirus pandemic, people need to be able to safely cast their ballots without fear of catching COVID-D.

In furthering his effort to dampen down mailed ballots, he caused the appointment of a compromised Republican donor to run the post office, the first non-career postmaster in generations. This appointee owns stock in shipping companies that could benefit from a reduced post office or by contracting for postal functions. The Postal Inspector General is looking into this. Treasury Secretary Mnuchkin summoned Republican members of the Board of Governors impressing on them what was wanted in a new Postmaster General. No formal notes were taken because less than a majority of the board was present and Mnuckin thus avoided complying with the Public Records Act.

In June, USPS officials told union officials that management was getting rid of 671 sorting machines, about 10% of the machines in the country. The sorters were the kind that handled letters and postcards, not magazines and large envelopes, but are suited for handling mailed ballots. In addition, mailboxes have been removed, overtime pay cut and experienced managers removed or reassigned. Many of the removed sorters were in states that are political battlegrounds. A letter was sent to 46 states advising them to expect delays in processing mailed-in ballots in time to be counted.

The documents released by Representative Maloney show a 7 to 9% decline in mail delivery going back to July. including in First-Class, Marketing, Periodicals, and Priority Mail. “After being confronted on Friday with first-hand reports of delays across the country, the Postmaster General finally acknowledged a ‘dip’ in service, but he has never publicly disclosed the full extent of the alarming nationwide delays caused by his actions and described in these new documents,” said Chairwoman Maloney. “We have heard directly from our constituents, and these new documents show that the delays are far worse than we were told.”

The Postmaster General and his top aides have never admitted to the sweeping delays and reductions in service caused by his actions and detailed in these new documents

Buckling to public pressure and the threat of lawsuits by 20 states, the Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced he’s pausing changes ‘until after the election.’ “To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded.” DeJoy will not undo the damage he has done. He has no intention of replacing the high-speed sorting machines, blue mailboxes, and other key mail infrastructure. Postal employees are forbidden from reassembling mail sorting machines

In addition, he adding roadblocks to voting. Several states, including Alaska, require absentee ballots to be signed by a witness who verifies the ballot was completed by the voter submitting it. The new postmaster issued a new rule that postal service employees can not be witnesses while on duty, as they have customarily done.

The U.S. postal system precedes the creation of the country by one year. It was created in 1775 and Benjamin Franklin appointed the first Postmaster General by the Continental Congress. Then the Constitution provided in Article 1, “Congress shall have the power to establish Post Offices and Post Roads.”

The implementing legislation is codified in Title 39 of the U.S. Code. It states:

“The United States Postal Service shall be operated as a basic and fundamental service provided to the people by the Government of the United States, authorized by the Constitution, created by Act of Congress, and supported by the people.”

Now our soldiers around the world depend upon for mail from home, seniors and veterans get medicine by mail, unemployment checks go out by mail, and the post office remains part of the structural backbone of the nation.

Under normal circumstances, what Trump does would be impeachable offenses. A legal argument can be made that hindering the post office is an attack on the voting rights of Americans.”

Trump is hamstringing the post office so people might not be able to safely vote in the November election. Holding back funding means “they can’t have universal mail-in voting, they just can’t have it.” All the evidence points to his calling the election results void and attempt to hold onto the office.

Our need for a post system evolves. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y has proposed the Postal Banking Act, which would make retail banking services available at all U.S. Postal Service locations and other services including small-dollar checking and savings accounts; transactional services including debit cards, cash machines, bill payments, and online services. People with low

low incomes who otherwise do not have a bank would benefit.

Postal banking previously existed in the U.S. Known as “poor man’s banks,” post offices offered a number of financial services between 1911 and 1966, including savings accounts with modest interest rates. Postal banking was particularly needed during the Great Depression, when many commercial banks failed.

Postal banking will in time increase revenue for the post office. Small-dollar loans for consumers that offer low fees and low-interest rates can replace payday loans which are extraordinarily expensive with annual percentage rates near 400 percent and help keep the poor “poor.”

Mehrsa Baradaran, author of “How the Other Half Banks” and “The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap” recently authored a report stating three key improvements to our current banking system that postal banking could accomplish:

“Provide consumer financial services to underbanked communities, and help vulnerable populations achieve financial security and build savings;
Create a public option to compete with private banks; and
Strengthen the USPS, a vital part of our nation’s infrastructure.”

Donald Trump, who has already vowed to veto the bill to fund the post office for the election, if it somehow makes it past Mitch McConnell’s Republican Senate, predictably spent most of the day golfing, but as always, he still found time to complain about the Postal Service and spout his unproven yet insistent belief that voting by mail is only okay when he’s doing it and it’s called “absentee voting.”

According to documents, obtained by House Oversight Committee chair Carolyn Maloney: “These steep declines did not start in April or May when the corona crisis hit us, but in July when Mr. DeJoy came on board and began making his changes.”

The report specifically notes a “marked decline” in-service performance for priority mail starting the week of July 11, about a month after DeJoy assumed the reins. At the beginning of July, priority mail was delivered on time more than 90% of the time, but by the start of August, priority mail deliveries were on schedule less than 80% of the time. DeJoy really worked some magic there.

But mail services slowed across the board: While priority mail service declined 7.97% compared to its baseline number, first-class mail service fell 8.1% below baseline, marketing mail saw an 8.42% decline from baseline service, and periodical deliveries dipped 9.57% below baseline.

Serving Americans in new and needed ways is a win-win for people and the post office. The big banks will continue to do well and only those who bleed the poor will be left out. These are not normal times and we need to look to some fundamentals to save the post offices and prevent turning the United States into Trumpistan.

More Evidence of DeJoy’s partisanship.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy allegedly pressured former employees to donate to Republican candidates he supported and then reimbursed them with large bonuses, according to multiple media reports.

Both The Washington Post and The New York Times said Sunday that DeJoy, a top Republican fundraiser and Trump megadonor, urged workers at his former business, New Breed Logistics, to write checks to lawmakers for more than a decade between 2003 and 2014.

Federal election laws prohibit straw-donor donation schemes, in which individuals bypass political donation limits by reimbursing others that effectively donate on their behalf. The New York Times notes it is legal, however, for people to encourage their employees to donate.

EIDL Ends as COVID_D ROARS ON

July 12, 2020 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

On July 11, the U.S. Small Business Administration announced the ending of the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Advance program, which provided U.S. small businesses, non-profits and agricultural businesses a total of $20 billion in emergency funding. The EIDL Advance provided $1,000 per employee up to a maximum of $10,000. 770,756 sole proprietors received Paycheck Protection Program loans, just 3 percent of all sole proprietors in the United States, leaving many small businesses on their own to fend for themselves.

These funds helped and a number of my clients successfully applied for these funds. To be sure these funds helped. This program ends just as the economic recovery appears to be fizzling and as the virus takes more lives and the economy is having to be closed down in states where the number of cases are skyrocketing. Just over half of Americans have jobs now, the lowest figure in more than 70 years. The economy did regain a total of 7.5 million jobs in May and June, faster than many economists anticipated. That, however, was just one-third of the number lost to the pandemic.

At this point, a recession feeds on itself as companies needing fewer employees downsize their workforces and others decide to give up, such as restaurants and barbershops, the people who had those jobs are out of luck. Not only do they do not have the money for rent, food, health, and on and on, they have less discretionary income to do things like going to amusement parks. Millions of Americans are in danger of becoming destitute if COVID-D roars back.

Extra unemployment benefits enacted by Congress in March are set to end on 31 July. About one in five people in renter households are at risk of eviction by the end of September. Delinquency rates on mortgages have more than doubled since March.

What’s needed are national strategies with accompanying funding to control the pandemic and aid small businesses to survive.

Commute Time Grows Longer

October 7, 2019 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

TURNING HEMP INTO AN INCOME NOW THAT HEMP FARMING HAS BEEN LEGALIZED BY THE 2018 FARM BILL

January 5, 2019 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

Hemp is unique in that every part of the plant can be used and it’s extremely easy to grow in every state. In fact, the growing season is so short that farmers can plant hemp after harvesting their other crops. The plants deep roots help create ideal growing conditions for future crops, while its dense foliage chokes out weeds. These attributes make it a perfect cash crop for farmers throughout the United States and around the world.

In the past, hemp was world’s standard fiber with unmatched tensile strength. After removing the fiber-bearing cortex from the rest of the stalk, hemp can be used to make any fiber-based or cellulose-based product. The fiber was used to produce over 5,000 different textile products before prohibition. With recent advances in processing, these end uses could be rapidly expanded to applications like replacing many plastics.

Researchers have taken a growing interest in CBD due to its beneficial influence on the human endocannabinoid system, which is responsible for regulating a variety of physiological and cognitive processes. A growing body of research has found that CBD could help relieve pain, reduce inflammation, reduce anxiety, protect the brain, and even regulate blood sugar levels, making it a potentially valuable alternative to conventional pharmaceuticals.

Here are some of the products that can be sold locally or over the web: hemp paper products, hemp textiles, course textiles like carpeting, 3D or 4D printing using molded plastics made from hemp, essential oils, body care products, cosmetics, construction fiberboard, insect repellant, industrial oils, livestock bedding, dog collars woven out of hemp, and green footwear.

The Answer for America’s Energy Future

January 4, 2019 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

The United States can solve its own energy problem now that the productivity of American farmers and entrepreneurs has been unchained by legalizing the growing of hemp in the United States with the Farm Bill of 2018 for the first time since the 1930’s.

Hemp is essentially a weed but it is an exceptional plant because it is easy to grow in all states. Every part of the plants is usable. It can be grown in poor soil not suitable for growing food. It leaches toxins, like heavy metals, uranium, and arsenic from the soil and metabolizes them, revitalizing spoiled lands, as where coal has been mined and gas extracted. The Midwest has more than 11 million acres of poor land not being used for crops.

Hemp has a short growing season, which means it can be harvested 3 times a year. Or it can be planted after other crops, requiring no fertilizer, herbicides, or pesticides. It can be used as a rotational crop or planted after other plants are harvested. Because of its deep roots and dense leaves, it chokes out weeds.

Because the hemp plant has so little THC, not enough to get anyone high, the commercial growing of hemp should face fewer regulatory problems from the Food & Drug Administration.

The oil pressed from hemp seed can be converted into biodiesel and fermenting the stalks results in either ethanol or methanol or both. Of all the plant sources of energy that have been tried, hemp is superior to alternatives include algae, Carrizo cane, switchgrass, and food plants like corn, soybeans, olives, peanuts, and rapeseed.

Hemp produces nearly four times as much oil per acre as soybeans, which is currently the only crop grown on a large enough scale for biodiesel in the U.S. and ten times more wood pulp than trees per acre. While hemp has been used and can be used for canvas, rope, and clothing, it can also replace some plastics and its seeds, rich in omega-3 fatty acids vitamin E and minerals like potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, and zinc, can be used as food, its unique properties lend themselves to producing energy.

Farmers need to be made aware of the benefits to them of growing hemp.

A national association, such as the National Hemp Association or Vote Hemp, needs to launch a campaign “Providing America’s Energy Future” to create a favorable climate for farmers to be aware of hemp’s benefit with the assurance they will enjoy long-term markets. The timing is good as the oil and gas industry’s stock prices are down. A recent article is entitled “Bloodbath in Oil & Gas Stocks Could Continue.”

Critical masses of growers can be organized by county, multi-county or state to help them market their hemp, establish standards and provide a knowledge base for obtaining optimum yields.

Hemp can’t be beat as a cash crop. It turns out to be the most cost-efficient and valuable of all the fuel crops we could grow on a scale that will enable America to become energy independent on a sustainable basis.

How do we define middle class as we enter the second decade of the 21st century?

November 21, 2018 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

Fundamental changes in the structure of the U.S. economy, combined with increased health-care costs and lack of saving, have created a financial trap for millions of American workers heading into retirement.

Having healthcare insurance that covers most if not all the costs of healthcare – not the phantom policies with $5000 deductibles. In 2016, 37% reported having trouble affording health insurance premiums, up from 27% in 2015; 43% had trouble affording deductibles, up from 34% and 31% had trouble affording copays for doctor visits and prescription drugs, up from 24%.

In 2017, out-of-pocket medical costs, which includes health insurance premiums, copays, and prescription drug costs, pushed the incomes of 10.9 million people below the poverty threshold. That’s 400,000 more people who were impoverished by medical bills in 2017, compared to last year.

Significant equity (25%-50%) in a home or equivalent real estate.

The ability to be paying off all debt and expenses over for at least six months if one of the primary household wage-earners lose their job .

Income that enables the household to save at least 6% of its income.

Retirement funds: 401Ks, IRAs, pensions that will supplement Social Security.

Reliable vehicles for each wage-earner.

If a household needs government assistance in any form (housing, food stamps, Federal Energy), the household has likely slipped out of the middle class.

To be fully middle class, there are assets such as family heirlooms, precious metals and jewels, tools, etc. that can be transferred to the next generation and that will not vanish in an investment bubble or medical emergency.

The ability to provide for their children’s education, extracurricular activities, etc.

Sufficient leisure time to maintain their physical/mental, and spiritual fitness and to get training or otherwise learn new skills and find markets for one’ services in a technology changing economy.

To be middle class today is a continuing struggle for most Americans and yet the strength of America’s skills and the economic productivity of educated Americans is necessary for the nation’s survival.

Will Shoppers And Developers Adapt to Proximity Marketing In-Store?

February 1, 2017 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

Today’s constantly connected consumers are using smartphones in-store more than ever.

A recent Google survey states that a staggering 80 percent of shoppers are using smartphones to make purchasing decisions. Retailers and start-ups have taken notice, and the concepts of mobile location analytics and proximity marketing are emerging out of that.

Publications like Techcrunch and Adweek have articles of retailers launching Bluetooth beacon pilot programs almost on a daily basis. Some recent examples include Target, Country Market and Urban Outfitters.

But when you clear away all the buzzwords, what exactly is this shift we’re seeing? It’s the world customizing itself to you. The world is reacting to your presence, specific to you as an individual.

Proximity marketing is an exciting concept, but a lot of people are worried they’ll be inundated with spam if they opt in.

That is an exciting concept. Talking about this out in the world will get you varying reactions, from concerns about privacy issues to the idea that your phone is going to spam you with Viagra ads non-stop, but if you boil down the idea, there are some really compelling concepts here.

Personalization is a Key Benefit

Let’s take a look at a form of personalization we all know about today. A husband and his wife have individual key FOBs for their car. When the husband gets in the car, the mirrors adjust, the seat slides back, and the radio station changes to his favorite morning radio station. When his wife uses the car that evening, the car returns to her preferences. That’s an example of very useful personalization. Now, imagine if a retail store could do that for you.

We’ve seen online personalization become more and more sophisticated over the past decade with platforms such as Google AdWords and the Facebook Audience Network, and the addition of proximity marketing technologies is making it possible to expand that personalization in-store, effectively bridging the gap between digital and physical environments. There are both exciting and scary possibilities to this.

So, why can’t retailers live without it? The retailer will now be able to understand shopper behavior beyond POS data. Retailers currently have the ability to analyze traffic patterns, deliver personalized offers, measure dwell times, build on customer loyalty profiles and even A/B test physical displays. And what does the shopper get? By integrating this technology into a retailer’s app, the shopper gets an ultra-personalized experience through customer-specific offers, location-specific coupons and contextual information such as maps and menus.

But the question that keeps coming up is: Will shoppers adapt to this kind of experience? If users don’t adopt the technology, hockey stick graphs will never happen for retailers. I think of a Sheryl Sandburg story I’ve heard during her presentations several times. When Caller ID first came out, users were scared by it. They thought the concept of knowing who’s calling before you picked up was creepy. Now, 20+ years later, we don’t pick up our phones without knowing who’s calling.The user’s perception of the technology completely flipped over a couple of decades.

It seems a general consensus among investors and marketers that someone will figure out and win the proximity marketing race.

Proximity Marketing Use Cases

Let’s take a look at some use cases that highlight potential values of proximity marketing:

Kitchen Remodel

You’ve finally made the decision to remodel your kitchen after 30 years, but you don’t know where to begin. You enter the kitchen department of a national hardware store and you are notified by an employee about an app that helps guide you through the complicated and expensive process of remodeling your kitchen. Upon app download, you’re given a series of easy directions that show you how to use your new app. You start by picking out your cabinets and you find a style that you like but they are not in the color you like. By tapping a swatch smart tag (tags that you swipe to receive contextual information), you are able to view additional colors available by special order. You save your style and color to your profile. As you’re walking over to pick out countertops you are notified in app not to forget to pick out your cabinet hardware. Once that’s picked out you head over to the countertops.

The app has measured that you have now spent 20 minutes in the kitchen department. It gives you an offer for 5 percent off, incentivizing you to make the purchase today. Out of the 10 displays of countertops the retailer has on hand, most app users only spend time at four of them. The retailer knows that it may be time to change out the other six with more trendy options. Since styles may trend by region the retailer can analyze stats broken down by segments.

After finding a countertop you like, you save it to your profile and swipe a delivery tag to see how long that countertop takes to be installed. You have a question about how rugged the countertop is and you tap a button that alerts a store employee that you need assistance. The app has successfully guided you through this process in a way that makes the shopper feel comfortable that their dream kitchen will come together perfectly.

Retail Environment

In the retail environment, smart zones and tags can be used in an endless ways. Here are a few examples.

A family walks into a store with an app in hand to check the latest offers the retailer has published. After adding the coupons in which they’re interested to the app, they walk around the store. Shoppers save money and time because the app tells them the quickest route to pick up everything on their list. If a coupon is missed, the app can alert the shoppers.

Retail giants have already recognized the potential of proximity marketing, along with scores of startups.

The family decides to get a new TV, and after dwelling in the electronics department for five minutes, they are asked if they need assistance. They respond yes, and an employee gets a television from the warehouse for them. Next, they swipe a tag that shows them accessories, store stock information, and related products from the same brand. They can easily see which mounts work for that TV, and find the appropriate cables in the next aisle.

The app services are integrated with e-commerce and m-commerce platforms, so users can use ‘Buy Now’ buttons that simply send the product to their door. The family chooses not to bother squeezing the TV into their car, and instead choose to have it delivered that afternoon.

On the way out, the app recognizes that the dwell times in the checkout areas are longer than managers would like for a good customer experience, so more cashiers are sent to the checkouts.

Outdoor Concert

A group of friends is going to an outdoor concert with several stages. The concert promoters built an app that helps concert attendees navigate the event. The app has many useful features like schedules, barcode access to VIP areas, and information on concession stands.

The event promoters also installed Bluetooth Low Energy beacons throughout the event so that the app could provide contextual information to attendees based on their locations. While standing in long beer lines, the group is notified that lines are half as long at the beer tents half a block away. When a band is about to begin playing, the friends are alerted that they better head over to that stage.

As they head over, they get pushed a coupon that gives them 20 percent off a T-shirt in the merchandise tent. Upon leaving, the app lets them know where the closest and fastest exit is, according to their location.

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Brand Opportunities

Various brands might use proximity marketing to build loyalty and boost user engagement. So, if a shopping mall with 100,000 items on the shelves from a thousand different brands uses the technology, each brand can opt in or out of the program.

A brand could market special offers without having to invest a small fortune in on-site marketing activities or on their own app. Imagine a soft drink company doing a virtual promotion for a certain product: They could have the campaign up and running with a few lines of copy and code.

It could be deployed nationwide, or worldwide, in seconds. Imagine a flash sale: 30 minutes in which people, worldwide, could get 30 percent off a specific product at the same time, just like an e-commerce platform. And like an e-commerce platform, the brands would have access to performance analytics about the campaign they just ran. They could immediately justify the spend, while the retailer could monetize its brick-and-mortar space through the program.

Moving Towards A More Frictionless Experience with Current Technology

The key to winning this space is building a more frictionless experience. Cautious clients always reference QR codes when considering new smart tags. QR codes were a good idea, but didn’t work because it took longer to snap the picture than it did to type in a URL. Users ended up rejecting it.

Latest technologies such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Near Field Communication (NFC) have less friction and are easier to use with integrated apps. NFC is not open on iOS yet, so it is not being widely used for smart tags, but may be in the future. If we look to the past, Touch ID wasn’t open to third-party devs, but Apple eventually opened it up in iOS 8. We’re on iOS 9 now, but if Apple chooses to do the same with NFC, web-like links in the real world will become more commonplace. NFC has been available on Android devices since about late 2011.

Proximity marketing relies on Bluetooth and beacon technologies, but the hardware is not perfect, limiting potential in-store applications.

So, that leads to BLE emerging as the best current cross-platform technology. Beacons are great because they are cheap, small, and don’t need to be plugged in, so installation is relatively easy. Apple introduced the iBeacon protocol in 2013, and various vendors have produced iBeacon-compatible hardware that is being used to power mobile commerce pilot programs. Several companies in this space are trying to figure it out, Qualcomm Gimball , Swirl and Shelfbucks to name a few. Most of them produce their own beacons but they all follow the BLE protocol.

Is the experience frictionless yet? Absolutely not. Users need to download an app that takes up precious real estate on their phone. The app needs to be running while they’re in the brick-and-mortar, and most integrations I’ve seen are less than seamless.

Beacons are not perfect technology; you cannot create shapes other than cones or circles, and they overlap. You cannot define a perfect space as a zone. If you picture a store map, most departments are laid out in rectangles and a beacon broadcasts its unique identifier to nearby smartphones in a circle radiating out from the beacon. So the best we can do currently is make the circles take up most of the department or endcap. This makes for imperfect mapping of the store. Some zones will overlap and some won’t work well, but in general, marketers are getting data they didn’t have before and users are getting a new and unique experience. Augmented reality (AR) can add another twist to beacon mapping a store through functionality that helps the user with wayfinding or even gamification of a brick-and-mortar store.

The way I look at it is that we’re at the Atari phase of proximity marketing, and it will eventually evolve to Playstation 4. There are a lot of things to be excited about, even at this early stage. I firmly believe that the concept of interacting in our environments with our smartphones will not go away. It’s not a fad. Take a look around the next time you’re walking through a shopping mall or a retail store. People are using their phones to digest, share, and understand the world around them, and if we give them the right tools I believe they will use them.

“At this stage I don’t think the problem of adoption lies in technology, but rather the experience we’re creating for the user.”

At this stage I don’t think the problem of adoption lies in technology, but rather the experience we’re creating for the user. Real estate on user’s phones is more competitive than ever. For a user to not only download a retailer’s app, but keep it and use it, the app needs to have some powerful information. It must do more than pop a coupon. It’s got to make their lives easier, educate them on things they don’t know, introduce them to things they’re interested in and engage them when they’re about to lose interest.

The jury is still out on whether Amazon’s Dash buttons will be a success, but I can tell you I use mine.

Amazon Dash buttons did not impress the tech press, but here is why I use them on a regular basis.

Why? Because it’s so easy. I don’t even have to take my phone out of my pocket these days when I run out of garbage bags. I use the last one and I simply push the button to the right and they’re at my door the next day. Buying garbage bags was easy before when I did it in the store. It was a little easier via Amazon Prime, but now it’s reached a new level of frictionless that I can’t turn away from. I hope they quit making dash buttons before I turn into a Wall-E dystopian human that they predict so hilariously.

I used to believe that the value needed to be balanced for both the user and the marketer, but I now believe that the value for the user needs to be higher than the value for the marketer. Users don’t care if it’s an uneven playing field, they want useful tools and experiences, and if they don’t find what they’re looking for the app is going to be deleted.

The Future Is Now! (Sort of)

That’s where we as UX/UI designers and developers come in. Clients are excited about this space, but they’re looking for guidance. They have many questions about what is possible and what is a responsible way of using it without annoying their customers. They need help molding their ideas into solutions that increase ROI but don’t jeopardize the customer experience they’ve worked so hard to refine.

What do clients want and expect?

Clients and IT departments are very protective of their apps; a solid security plan will always need to be in place.
Clients will not commit to this technology in all their stores until it’s proven through a pilot period. Most published sources start small, one to 10 stores, and then roll out a larger footprint.
In-app privacy policies will need to be updated to launch a program full scale. Launching a controlled pilot program (employees only, for example) would provide a case study that highlights consumer value before deciding to update the policy.
Clients usually gravitate towards popping offers that help get things moving, but to create an effective campaign, the experience has to be much better.
Clients expect the technology to be more accurate than it currently is. They should be informed of its quirks. Great demos are powerful, but scaling the technology to multiple locations can’t be overlooked.
All clients want increased loyalty that results in larger basket sizes and trip frequency. Location-based functionality would add to loyalty programs by incentivizing brick-and-mortar trips over online shopping.

What sort of questions can designers and developers expect?

Since this is a new way of interacting with shoppers, testing is vital.
Every retailer is different. Create a one-store playground and have fun. Figure out what customers find valuable. Then, scale.
Even though popping offers always comes up, we should try guiding our prospective clients in the right direction by always attempting to answer the question, “Why would the shopper need this app?” If a loyal customer doesn’t need the app, it’s not worth creating it.
The key to selling a concept is to find a way of giving the shopper an experience they couldn’t have had without the technology. Understand the customer.
Test, test, test. Stores are made of different materials, and different types of merchandise can be a mess for creating zones.

I believe that if we create great experiences that users will adopt, marketing ROI will follow, but we need to focus on the user first. If we achieve that, there are many exciting opportunities ahead as our environments react to us and become more personalized.

I’m very excited to see how proximity marketing unfolds over the next five to 10 years. In the end, if we’re focusing on the customer experience and building them great tools, I think it becomes something more than advertising, and the benefit for marketers will follow.

BY BRANDON R JOHNSON – FREELANCE DESIGNER @ TOPTAL