Month: September 2018

Network Mandates for a New Caribbean

Posted on September 26, 2018 in Economics, Ethos, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Golden Rule: “He who has the gold, makes the rules” …

When it comes to media industry (movies, film, fashion modeling), there are some other relevant idioms; consider this list:

  • Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.
  • Fake it until you can make it.
  • A face out of “Central Casting”.

All of these idioms help us to appreciate that in the media industry you must look the part. So if you have facial or grooming features that are different – zag while everyone else zig – you may not be selected for promotion and production. (Think: Dreadlocks, Afros and Braids).

This is sad! “Look the part”? What part, as determined by who? Obviously, there is an adjudicator as to Good/Bad, Yes/No. Who is that? That’s the opening idiom, the Golden Rule. In the media industry that adjudicator is the producer, director, promoter or media company executive. (See Appendix VIDEO for background on one big Broadcast & Media company).

So at times, even though “you are home”, you may have to act foreign. This is definitely the sad narrative taking place in this story below, when a Caribbean model/beauty queen had been scolded for looking too … “Caribbean”. See the full story here:

Title: Caribbean Next Top Model contestant wants apology from Wendy

ASPIRING international model Gabriella Bernard feels she deserves an apology from former Miss Universe and executive producer of the Caribbean Next Top Model competition, Wendy Fitzwilliam, after she was given an ultimatum on the television show- relax her natural hair or go home.

The particular episode was filmed in Jamaica last year and aired on television in February.

An excerpt featuring Bernard’s experience was posted to Facebook yesterday.

The majority of persons who commented on the video criticised Fitzwilliam for her response to the model’s stance.

Bernard, 24, told the Express via telephone on Thursday that she and other contestants had to undergo a makeover for the segment.

She said Fitzwilliam had the final say in what each girl’s look should be.

“For my look they wanted my hair relaxed,” she said.

In the video, Bernard was seen pleading with a hairdresser not to chemically process her curly tresses as she had spent the last three years growing it.

“I’m ok with texturizing my hair once my curls stay intact. You need to understand my hair is my identity,” she begged.

Bernard told the Express that the show’s producers, judges and hairdresser were nonchalant about how she felt.

“A lot more happened which you didn’t see in the video. But basically I was trying to reason with them but they were like it was no big deal, it’s just hair,” she said, adding that she was told that she could either relax her hair or leave the show.

Bernard’s hair was relaxed and she remained in the competition.

Towards the end of the video she appeared before Fitzwilliam and two other judges- international photographer Pedro Virgil and Caribbean fashion expert Socrates McKinney.

Before critiquing the model’s makeover photograph, Fitzwilliam scolded her for her “naughty” and “unprofessional” behaviour.

Bernard apologised, but explained that she previously had her hair relaxed for 15 years. She said when she transitioned to again wearing her hair natural she began loving herself more.

“We live in a world where the media tells us that we need to have straight hair to be accepted,” Bernard emphasised.

Fitzwilliam said she understood the young lady’s point, as she too had made the transition.

“However, as a young and upcoming model, as a young and upcoming attorney facing the judges and senior counsel, you have to be professional.

Shutting down my salon, creating that mayhem, when there were so many other young women to get done and to look fabulous as well, it’s a loud non-starter,” Fitzwilliam said.

Why didn’t she leave?

Asked why she did not stand her ground and bow out of the competition instead of having her hair relaxed, Bernard explained that she weighed her options and felt that she had reached too far in the competition to turn back.

“I had a conversation with myself and I said if I go home what am I going home to? Because I left my job to go on the show. I put in my application the Thursday and by the following Thursday I was flying out. I told myself that I had already reached this far and this was something that I wanted so much,” she said.

Bernard placed third in the competition.

She said she had always looked up to the former beauty queen and was disappointed by her approach and response.

Bernard has turned her experience on the show into a 20-minute documentary called Black Hair.

The documentary will be shown at the 2018 Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, from today until Tuesday.

She said she was also lined up for several modelling jobs and competitions.

As for her hair: “Monday actually marks the one year anniversary that I cut my hair and to me it’s growing beautifully.”

Fitzwilliam did not respond to calls from the Express, but she told the Newsday that she had no comment on the issue.

Source: The Daily Express – posted September 20, 2018; retrieved September 25, 2018 from: https://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/caribbean-next-top-model-contestant-wants-apology-from-wendy/article_48563808-bd29-11e8-8047-577ec8f9d0e1.html

While this is an issue of image, the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean asserts that Caribbean people can prosper where they are planted in the Caribbean homeland. At home, they do not have to adapt or comply with any foreign standards. They are home! At a bare minimum, Caribbean beauty should be recognized in the eyes of Caribbean beholders.

At a bare minimum! (For the record, the model in the foregoing article is undeniably beautiful, with her natural hair grooming).

But truth be told, if the media networks in the region are owned by foreign entities, then foreign standards are still “the rule”.

No more!

Change has come to the world and to the Caribbean region. The advent of Internet Communications Technologies (ICT) now has voluminous options for media to be delivered without the large footprint … or investment. Now anyone can easily publish VIDEO’s and Music files to the internet and sell them to the public – models abounds: i.e. pay-per-play, or subscription.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), a technocratic federal government to administer and optimize the economic-security-governing engines of the region’s 30 member-states. Embedded in this roadmap is the plan for the Caribbean Postal Union (CPU) whose focus is  to coordinate the regional mail eco-system plus the www.myCaribbean.gov portal to offer email and social media functionality for all Caribbean stakeholders: 42 million residents, visitors (up to 80 million), trading partners and the 10 million people in the Diaspora.

All of these numbers constitute a media market. Therefore …

… “ICT is the great equalizer” – Go Lean book (Page 198).

The book explains that the CU treaty will forge electronic commerce industries to allow Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to be the great equalizer in economic battles with the rest of the world; this model holds the promise of “leveling the playing field” between small … and large … .

Imagine the deployment of a new Caribbean Network! Not like ABC or NBC (in the US) nor the BBC in England, but rather like the WWE. In a previous blog-commentary it was related that:

This is better! (Every mobile/smart-phone owner walks around with an advanced digital video camera in their pocket). We are now able to have a network without the “network”. Many models abound on the world-wide-web. Previously, this commentary identified one such network (ESPN-W); now the focus is on another, the WWE Network, associated with the World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. This network is delivered via the internet-streaming only (and On-Demand with limited Cable TV systems).

We have so many examples-business models; think: WWE, ESPN-W, YouTube and Netflix …

… surely, we can deploy our own digital, streaming network as well, one just for the Caribbean region … so that we can better exploit the Agents of Change affecting the world – and reset image standards The Go Lean book specifically identifies technology and globalization among the transformations affecting our world (Page 57); it then declares that our region cannot only consume – we must produce – so we need to move to the corner of preparation and opportunity.

We need Caribbean stakeholders to own Caribbean media! We can then impose our own standards and remove restrictions that denigrate our lifestyles. So this issue is bigger than just image; this is having the means by which to control our destiny. Despite all the benefits for our image, this is an economic issue first and foremost. With the Agent of Change of globalization, we now have a product that the rest of the world wants to consume: our culture. Digital media allows us to disseminate that culture electronically, with a small investment footprint.

This is about supply and demand – a basic precept in the study of Economics. The transformation to new media has taken hold. More and more people are consuming electronic media; so much so that it is becoming the mainstay for communications and entertainment. This reference to electronic media does not only convey the visual images of television; there is also the ubiquity of the internet, with its many video streaming services.

Even TV networks are perplexed as to what video streaming will do to their medium. See this summary of a New York Times Business News article here and a related VIDEO:

General Electric wants to sell NBC because of rising losses … [as] a testament to the uncertain future of mainstream media, as the Internet has fractured audiences and few viable business models have emerged for the distribution of content online.

Source: Posted November 30, 2009; retrieved September 26, 2018 from: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/business/media/01deal.html
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VIDEO – The Future Of TV On The Internet, Streaming Services, Subscribership | Squawk Box | CNBC – https://youtu.be/VcKBwSzZArk

CNBC
Published on Dec 1, 2016 – Larry Haverty, Gabelli Multimedia Trust, and Porter Bibb, Mediatech Capital Partners, discuss the changing media landscape as well as the fight for viewers and subscribers. » Subscribe to CNBC: http://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBC

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The Future Of TV On The Internet, Streaming Services, Subscribership | Squawk Box | CNBC

This is the change that has come to the world … and the Caribbean.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean advocates for the Caribbean region to better prepare for this changing world and to better exploit the Agents of Change affecting us. With ICT, we are now able to have a network without the “network”. Many of the aforementioned online models have shown us that any platform that is nimble and focused can succeed with only a moderate level of investment. So a Caribbean homegrown network-portal, www.myCaribbean.gov, can be impactful and help to elevate our regional eco-systems for ICT, entertainment and television.

While this effort to forge a new Caribbean network is heavy-lifting, it is only the politics that is hard – consensus-building, consolidation and confederation – the technology is easy. This politics, to create a regional Single Media Market, is the purpose of the Go Lean roadmap.

At the outset, the roadmap recognizes the need to develop the homegrown ICT eco-system … with these statements in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 14):

xv. Whereas the business of the Federation and the commercial interest in the region cannot prosper without an efficient facilitation of postal services, the Caribbean Union must allow for the integration of the existing mail operations of the governments of the member-states into a consolidated Caribbean Postal Union, allowing for the adoption of best practices and technical advances to deliver foreign/domestic mail in the region.

xx. Whereas the results of our decades of migration created a vibrant Diaspora in foreign lands, the Federation must organize interactions with this population into structured markets. Thus allowing foreign consumption of domestic products, services and media, which is a positive trade impact. These economic activities must not be exploited by others’ profiteering but rather harnessed by Federation resources for efficient repatriations.

xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

xxviii. Whereas intellectual property can easily traverse national borders, the rights and privileges of intellectual property must be respected at home and abroad. The Federation must install protections to ensure that no abuse of these rights go with impunity, and to ensure that foreign authorities enforce the rights of the intellectual property registered in our region.

xxx. Whereas the effects of globalization can be felt in every aspect of Caribbean life, from the acquisition of food and clothing, to the ubiquity of ICT, the region cannot only consume, it is imperative that our lands also produce and add to the international community, even if doing so requires some sacrifice and subsidy.

xxxii. Whereas the cultural arts and music of the region are germane to the quality of Caribbean life, and the international appreciation of Caribbean life, the Federation must implement the support systems to teach, encourage, incentivize, monetize and promote the related industries for arts and music in domestic and foreign markets. These endeavors will make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play.

In the Go Lean book and previous blogs, the Go Lean movement asserted that the market organizations and community investments to garner economic benefits of ICT is within reach, with the proper technocracy. As related in a previous blog-commentary, the eco-system for streaming videos – i.e. YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, WWE, ESPN-W, Amazon Prime, etc. – is inclusive of the roadmap’s quest to make the Caribbean region a better place to live, work and play.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap. There in are the details of the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies that are to be adopted and executed to deliver the ICT solutions for the Caribbean region. Within its 370-pages, the Go Lean book re-affirms the mantra that ICT can be the great equalizer so that small nation-states can compete against large nation-states.

Once we – Caribbean stakeholders – control our network, then we control the standard – what is acceptable, what is NOT. Our declaration: Natural hair, for African-descended people, is Good!

The Go Lean roadmap conveys that we can deploy our own media enterprises to satisfy our own media demands – and maybe even satisfy some of the world’s demand. Yes, Hollywood could be virtual, not just in Hollywood, California, but anywhere; think: iHollywood. Consider how the book related the advocacy for improving the Hollywood-like landscape – the term “Hollywood” is a metonym referring to the overall American Motion Picture (film and television) industry – in the Caribbean; see these summaries, excerpts and headlines from this one page in the book on Page 203 entitled:

10 Ways to Impact Hollywood

1 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market
This treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market, thereby creating a single economy of 30 member-states, 42 million people and a GDP of over $800 Billion, (circa 2010). With its Los Angeles Trade Mission Office, the CU will empower the economic engines of the region to impact the movie/TV/media industries. One CU mission is to impact globalization by not just consuming media products, but creating it as well. As such, the eco-systems are to be fostered, starting with promoting Hollywood movie studios to film/spend more in the CU region – a function of the CU Department of Commerce. Then the CU will incentivize a local industry by building/supporting facilities, guiding artists, brokering funding and distribution. The CU must assume the role of rating movies for the region.
2 Image Management
Many times Hollywood portrays a “negative” depiction of Caribbean life, culture and people. The CU will have the scale and “muscle” (diplomatic and economic) to effectuate negotiations to better manage the region’s image. When movies are banned that have negative community portrayal, it is normally considered suppressing free speech; but when movies are labeled Rated R or NC-17, then such designations suppresses sales with violating freedoms. Thus ratings have clout.
3 Bollywood
Bollywood is the term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai (Bombay), India. The term is often used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema industry, a metonym. Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the largest centers of film production in the world – (See Appendix ZR on Page 346). Bollywood is a good example of developing and fostering a nascent film industry – the CU can use this as a model.
4 Underwater Filming
5 Respect for Intellectual Property
6 Caribbean Music Soundtracks
7 Movie/TV Studios Production and Sharing
The CU will promote cooperatives for many industrial endeavors, including movie and TV studios. The physical buildings can be jointly owned and time-shared. Many times in Hollywood (California), the same studio is used to produce shows for one network or another. For example, the Bob Barker Studio is used to film the TV Game Show The Price Is Right (for CBS), Real Time with Bill Maher (for HBO), a Soap Opera (for ABC) and sound stages for independent movies.
8 Digital Broadcast (Spectrum) Regulations
The CU will regulate and oversee services that cross national borders of the member-states. This includes broadcast rights (spectrum auctions). While each state have previously regulated TV and radio rights inside their borders, the unification of the single market will require a regional perspective. The value of broadcast rights will also be heightened because of the enlarged market (see Appendix IB), once the multi-language SAP feature is mandated.
9 e-Payments
10 Internet Streaming
The Caribbean Central Bank settlement of electronic payments will provide the payment mechanisms for domestic and foreign media to be downloaded legally. This is not the case now, as each Caribbean nation is too small to negotiate individual-independent solutions. But with a unified population base of 42 million, the CU brings a huge economic clout.

The Go Lean book asserts that the region can be a better place to live, work and play; that the economy can be grown methodically by embracing progressive strategies in ICT and video streaming. This point was further detailed in these previous blogs:

How the Youth are Consuming Media Today – Digitally
YouTube Millionaire: ‘Tipsy Bartender’
UberEverything in Africa – Model for ICT and Logistics
Transformations: Caribbean Postal Union – Delivering the Future
The Future of Money – Necessary for Media Purchases
Truth in Commerce – Learning from Yelp for managing e-Commerce
Net Neutrality: It matters here … in the Caribbean
Amazon’s new FIRE Smartphone – Doubling down on ICT
Grenada PM Urges CARICOM on ICT

This Go Lean roadmap is committed to availing the economic opportunities of ICT but the roadmap is bigger than just media; it’s a concerted effort to elevate all of Caribbean society. The CU is the vehicle for this goal, this is detailed by the following 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

This Go Lean roadmap looks for the opportunities to foster economic growth in the Caribbean and foster good image of our Caribbean people. A Caribbean beauty reflecting her Caribbean heritage is good! While the rest of the world may not grant us that recognition, it will be up to them to change their perceptions. We cannot change the world – yet, but in time – but we can change our Caribbean society; we can reform and transform.

It is heavy-lifting, but we are up to the task. Let’s get started! In time, the rest of the world will conform and embrace this undeniable truth, that the Caribbean is the greatest address on the planet … and that Caribbean people are not Less Than.

This quest is conceivable, believable and achievable. This is the quest of Go Lean/CU roadmap, to do the heavy-lifting to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

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Appendix VIDEO – The History of Comcast NBCUniversal – https://youtu.be/aXmTwvLTWRE

Cow Missing
Published on Jul 24, 2017 – In the early years of the twentieth century, NBC and Universal began creating their extraordinary legacies in the exciting new worlds of motion picture production and distribution, location-based entertainment, and radio and television production and broadcasting. Today, as one company under the ownership of Comcast, NBCUniversal continues to build on this legacy of quality and innovation. …

 

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First Day of Autumn – Let’s Get Going South – ENCORE

Posted on September 22, 2018 in Industries, Strategy

This should be the start of the peak tourist season – its the First Day of Autumn, its time to head South.

The movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean asserts that Caribbean tourism can be rebooted, reformed and transformed to capture a reliable market of Snowbirds – people who live in Northern climates who want to spend the winter in warmer destinations. A case for this Tourism 2.0 was presented in this previous blog-commentary.

cu-blog-securing-the-homeland-from-the-seas-photo-5

Imagine this vision of a Caribbean future. Instead of Late September/October being the slow season for tourism, it could be the peak “Travel South Season”. See the photo here; imagine island-hopping on ferries to get to a tropical destination.

This is the business model envisioned in the Go Lean book. It asserts that with the right guidance, investments and the adoption of best practices that the Caribbean region can give refuge to these northern snowbirds for the winter, and profit our communities at the same time. One required investment would be the network of island-hopping ferries, as depicted here.

Imagine the scenario – in the VIDEO here – but a ferry of cars and RV’s (Recreation Vehicles) arriving in one Caribbean port after another:

VIDEO – RVing on the Gulf Coast Ferry System – https://youtu.be/XlTYa83EoTM
Published on Mar 6, 2013 –  … On a recent trip from New Orleans, LA to Galveston Island, TX, both Google Maps and our GPS suggested that we drive inland, along interstate 10. Since we prefer to stay on more scenic local roads whenever possible (and we were also eager to take the RV on the ferry ride to Galveston Island) we stayed along the coast instead. As a bonus, we drove through peaceful and scenic marshland and got some views of the Gulf of Mexico as well.
While researching our route, we discovered that there would be an additional water crossing required, on the Cameron-Holly Beach ferry. We weren’t sure if a large motorhome would be able to make the crossing. Were large vehicles allowed? Was there a problem with low tide causing steep approach or departure angles? A little online research showed that it wouldn’t be a problem, although we’d recommend that anyone planning to follow this route check for any updates or changes to ferry policies or conditions. The Cameron-Holly Beach ferry trip is laughably short… only 1/4 mile and about 3 1/2 minutes. …
When we arrived in Port Bolivar, TX to catch the ferry to Galveston Island, we were pleased to find that the trip was free for all ages! During the crossing we saw dolphins riding in our bow wave and were lucky enough to catch one of them on video, as you can see. Next time you’re RVing along the Gulf Coast, get off the Interstate and head out onto the water. It’s a great way to travel by RV!

Consider the original blog-commentary here from April 11, 2014. It is being ENCORED for this first day of Autumn 2018:

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Go Lean Commentary – Florida’s Snowbirds Chilly Welcome

Florida's Snowbird Chilly Welcome - PhotoTo the Canadian Snowbirds, looking for warm climates and a warm welcome, we say:

“Be our guest”.

To the Caribbean Diaspora, living in Canada and other northern countries, we say:

“Come in from the cold”.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean aligns with the news story in the below article. While the US may be retracting the Welcome Mats from Canadian snowbirds, after 180 days, the islands of the Caribbean extend the invitation for them to pass the wintry months here. They are invited to bring their time, talent and treasuries; (according to the foregoing article: billions of dollars).

  • Need an extra month? No problem.
  • Need access to cutting-edge medical treatment? Got it.
  • Need protection from crime and harassment? Got you covered.
  • Need video communications to interact with Embassy and government officials? Sure thing.
  • Need access to your Canadian dollar bank accounts? No problem.

The source news article is embedded here as follows:

Title: “Congress protects America from Canadian pensioners”
Gulfport, Florida – A chore combining carpentry with diplomacy awaits Gordon Bennett, a retired Canadian soldier, after his move to a larger mobile home near Florida’s Gulf coast. As commander of an overseas post of the Royal Canadian Legion, he likes to fly his national flag from a handy palm tree. But as a respectful guest—one of about half a million Canadian “snowbirds” who own winter homes in Florida, using special visas good for a total of 180 days in any 12-month period—he knows to follow strict protocol when mounting his flags, or face complaints from American neighbours. His Canadian flag cannot be flown on its own but must be paired with the Stars and Stripes (though never on the same pole). The American flag may not be smaller or fly lower, and must be flown in the position of honour (the right, as you emerge from a doorway).

Mr. Bennett, a genial octogenarian, does not resent the fussing. In his winter home of Pinellas County—an unflashy region of mobile home parks, “senior living” complexes, golf courses and strip malls—the welcome is mostly warm for Canadian snowbirds, who pump billions of dollars into Florida’s economy each year. His post shares premises with the American Legion, and has introduced local veterans to Moose Milk, a lethal Canuck eggnog-variant involving maple syrup. He routinely brings 50 or 60 Canadians to ex-servicemen’s parades, picnics or dinner-dances.

But once issues of sovereignty are raised, America’s welcome can chill. Visa rules force Canadian pensioners to count each day after they cross the border, typically in late October. They are enforced ferociously: overstayers may be barred from re-entry for five years. Some members of Congress have been trying to ease the rules for Canadian pensioners since the late 1990s. A law allowing Canadians over 55 to spend up to eight months in America each year, as long as they can show leases for property down south and do not work, passed the Senate in 2013 as part of a comprehensive immigration bill, but like the bigger bill, it has now stalled. In the House of Representatives an extension for Canadian snowbirds has been tucked into the JOLT Act, a tourism-promotion law introduced by Joe Heck, a Nevada Republican.

Canadian pensioners are not an obviously threatening group—few Americans report being mugged by elderly Ottawans armed with ice-hockey sticks. They pay property and sales taxes in America. They must cover their own health-care costs while down south, through the Canadian public health-care system and private top-up policies. If allowed to stay for eight months, most would stay only seven, predicts Dann Oliver, president of the Canadian Club of the Gulf Coast (staying longer would complicate their health cover and their tax status). They just want a few more weeks in the sun.

Yet even something this easy is proving hard. Mr. Heck is willing to tweak his bill to focus on two reforms: the Canadian extension and visa interviews by video-conference for Chinese, Brazilian and Indian would-be visitors, who currently face long journeys to American consulates. But many members of the House “are reluctant to do anything with the word immigration in it,” says Mr. Heck. Optimists hope the bill might come up for a vote this year. For Mr. Bennett and his wife, Evelyn, Canadians whose “bones ache” in their homeland’s cold, it can’t come too soon.
Source: The Economist (Retrieved 03/08/2014) –http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21598680-congress-protects-america-canadian-pensioners-chilly-welcome

Florida's Snowbird Chilly Welcome - Photo 2The book, Go Lean…Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) over a 5 year period. The book posits that tourism products can be further extended to attract, accommodate and harvest the market of Snowbirds. These ones bring more than they take, and therefore should be viewed as low-hanging fruit for tourism’s economic harvest. While some CU member-states may target a High-Net-Worth clientele, there is room too for the hordes of retirees who may seek more modest accommodations. In the end, billions of dollars of economic output from the Snowbird market are still … billions of dollars.

From the outset, the book defined that the purpose of the CU is to optimize economic, security and governing engines to impact Caribbean society, for residents and visitors. This was pronounced in Verse IV (Page 11) of the opening Declaration of Interdependence:

Whereas the natural formation of the landmass is in a tropical region, the flora and fauna allows for an inherent beauty that is enviable to peoples near and far. The structures must be strenuously guarded to protect and promote sustainable systems of commerce paramount to this reality.

In line with the foregoing article, the Go Lean book details some applicable infrastructure enhancements and advocacies to facilitate more Snowbird traffic:

  • Ferries – Union Atlantic Turnpike (Page 205)
  • Self-Governing Entities/Fairgrounds (Pages 105, 192)
  • Optimized Medical Deliveries (Page 156)
  • Marshalling Economic Crimes (Page 178)
  • Improve Elder-Care (Page 239)

The purpose of this roadmap is to make the Caribbean, a better place to live, work and play; for snowbirds too! This way we can benefit from their presence.

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Lessons Learned from 2008: Still Recovering

Posted on September 20, 2018 in Economics, Ethos, Government, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

“Count on the Greedy to be Greedy” – Book: Go Lean…Caribbean Page 26

When policies are put in place that allow greedy people – bad actors – to continue unabated, bad things happen … to the bad actors and to society in general. This reality is something that stewards of every society must contend with. Every community is required to implement public safety provisions – at great expense. But the lesson is undisputed: whatever law enforcement costs, pales in comparison to lawlessness.

This actuality applies all the more so to economic crimes and misdeeds; this was definitely true with all the economic crimes leading up to the Great Recession of 2008 – lost of net worth estimated at $11 Trillion. And yet, the US is throwing out much of the wisdom gleaned after 2008. There is the trend now to undo a lot of the reforms that were implemented after the Financial Crisis – to de-fang the Dodd-Frank regulations. This is unwise! The regulations that were imposed are designed to mitigate the risk of subsequent economic meltdowns.

History does repeat itself.

Before the Great Recession of 2007 – 2009, there was the Great Depression of 1929 – 1933. A lot of lessons were learned in its aftermath and new regulations instituted; these protected the American economy – from Bad Actors – for more than 60 years. One regulation was Glass-Steagall. The Go Lean book relates this summary:

The Bottom Line on Glass-Steagall
Glass–Steagall legislation is four provisions of the US Banking Act of 1933 that limited commercial bank securities activities & affiliations between commercial banks and securities firms. The entire Banking Act of 1933 is often referred to as the Glass–Steagall Act.Starting in the early 1960s, federal banking regulators interpreted provisions of the Glass–Steagall Act to permit commercial banks and especially commercial bank affiliates to engage in an expanding list and volume of securities activities. [Slowly over the decades, more provisions were chipped away]. By the time Glass–Steagall was repealed officially through the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act of 1999 (GLBA), many commentators argued Glass– Steagall was already “dead”. These commentators have stated that the GLBA’s repeal of the affiliation restrictions of the Glass–Steagall Act was an important cause of the 2008 financial crisis. Some critics of that repeal argue it permitted Wall Street investment banking firms to gamble with their depositors’ money that was held in affiliated commercial banks.

It is now 10 years after the peak day of the 2008 Financial Crisis. We all now have an expanded vocabulary with phrases like “Too Big to Fail”. This theory in economics – that asserts that certain corporations, particularly financial institutions, are so large and so interconnected that their failure would be disastrous to the greater economic system [1] – transcends to other aspects of society, like government. The contention is that “Too Big to Fail” institutions must be supported by the people – their government – when these institutions face potential failure. Otherwise, things go from bad to worse.

For the Great Recession of 2008, the Caribbean did experience the “worse”.

Even now, many of our economies are still recovering. (Many aspects of modern life is still reeling – see Appendix A).

This is because our primary economic driver is tourism; and the primary source of Caribbean tourists had been the countries at the epicenter of the Financial Crisis (North America and Western Europe).

This commentary completes the series relating the Lessons Learned from 2008.  This entry – 4 of 4 from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean – is in consideration of the post-2008 recovery and reconciliation since that Financial Crisis. Our parasitic condition was exposed during this crisis; we now want to do better, and be better.

The commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

  1. Lessons Learned from 2008 – The Long View – ENCORE
  2. Lessons Learned from 2008 – Too Big to Fail –vs- Too Small to Thrive
  3. Lessons Learned from 2008 – Righting The Wrong – ENCORE
  4. Lessons Learned from 2008 – Still Recovering

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can shepherd the economic engines of the region to apply the economic best-practices to finally make progress, think: diversification. The book quotes the convenient timing:

A crisis is a terrible thing to waste – Page 8

The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap to implement the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) and aligning institutions, like the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB). These are designed to provide better economic stewardship, to ensure that failures of the past do not re-occur. There is the need for a regional sentinel (watch dog and attack dog); we do not want to just sound the alarm; we also want to effect change by employing strategies, tactics and implementations.

This is an example of a Watch Dog, the group FocusEconomics – see Appendix B VIDEO; they monitor the economic activity in the Latin America & Caribbean region and report to their clients accordingly. This is their summary of the full Caribbean region:

Strong fixed investment and spillovers from the expansion in the U.S. economy.

FocusEconomics do not rate each of the 30 Caribbean member-states, just a select few. This group of professional economists recognize that the Caribbean region has been burdened with repercussions from the Great Recession, and declare that only now is the recovery starting to take hold. See here, a sample of their projections for 2018 and beyond:

Belize FocusEconomics panelists expect GDP to expand 1.9% in 2018; continuing the recovery trend in the last 5 years: 2013: 1.6; 2014: 1.7; 2015: 1.8; 2016: 1.8; 2017: 1.9
Source: https://www.focus-economics.com/countries/belize
Dominican Republic FocusEconomics panelists expect GDP growth of 5.2% in 2018; continuing the recovery trend in the last 5 years: 2013: 4.9; 2014: 7.6; 2015: 7.0; 2016: 6.6; 2017: 4.6
Source: https://www.focus-economics.com/countries/dominican-republic
Haiti Reconstruction efforts should continue to drive growth rates, but political instability risks derailing the outlook. Haiti is vulnerable to the ending of the Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in the U.S. starting in July 2019, which will hit remittance inflows. FocusEconomics panelists foresee growth of 2.1% in 2018, which is down 0.1 percentage points from last month’s forecast. The panel expects the economy to expand 2.8% in 2019. The last five years recorded these growth rates: 2013: 4.2; 2014: 2.8; 2015: 1.2; 2016: 1.5; 2017: 1.2
Source: https://www.focus-economics.com/countries/haiti
Jamaica Moderating growth but still robust global economic activity and a pickup in mining output are expected to drive growth this year and the next. Panelists expect GDP growth of 1.9% in 2018, up 0.3 percentage points from last month’s forecast, and 2.2% in 2019. The last five years recorded these growth rates: 2013: 0.5; 2014: -0.7; 2015: 0.9; 2016: 1.4; 2017: 0.5
Source: https://www.focus-economics.com/countries/jamaica
Puerto Rico Due to a low base effect from last year’s dismal economic performance (i.e. Hurricane Maria) and the stimulus received from federal disaster relief funding, the economy is likely to grow in FY 2019. Our panelists forecast that GNP will expand 4.3% in FY 2019, and 2.9% in FY 2020. The last five years recorded these growth rates: 2013: -0.1; 2014: -1.8; 2015: -0.8; 2016: -1.3; 2017: -2.4
Source: https://www.focus-economics.com/countries/puerto-rico
Trinidad and Tobago Growth should accelerate in 2018 and over the following few years as new gas projects come online; these which should also support recovery in the non-oil economy. FocusEconomics panelists expect growth of 1.4% this year, and 2.0% in 2019. The last five years recorded these growth rates: 2013: 2.7; 2014: -0.6; 2015: -0.6; 2016: -2.3; 2017: NA
Source: https://www.focus-economics.com/countries/trinidad-tobago

Considering these assessments, there is no doubt about the Caribbean’s economic disposition: we are parasites of the US economy, not protégés. Our primary activity for our service based economy is tourism – catering to North American snowbirds; those escaping harsh winters during the peak months. Their leisure is our business; our business is their leisure.

The prime directive of the CU/CCB roadmap is to optimize the economic engines of the region to elevate the economies from the parasite status to starting the journey to become protégés. This need was pronounced early in the Go Lean book, in the opening Declaration of Interdependence – (Page 13) – with these statements:

xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

xxv.   Whereas the legacy of international democracies had been imperiled due to a global financial crisis, the structure of the Federation must allow for financial stability and assurance of the Federation’s institutions. To mandate the economic vibrancy of the region, monetary and fiscal controls and policies must be incorporated as proactive and reactive measures. These measures must address threats against the financial integrity of the CU and of the member-states.

The Go Lean book – available to download for free – provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society. We never want to be in such a vulnerable position again, as we were in 2008, and the years thereafter. We must have technocratic oversight of the systems of commerce so that we can finally enjoy some diversification. This is perhaps the biggest-best lesson to glean from the 2008 crisis. But there are more lessons too; in fact, there is an advocacy in the book that relates specifically to lessons from that crisis. Consider the specific summaries, excerpts and headlines from the book on Page 136 entitled:

10 Lessons Learned from 2008

1 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market
This treaty unifies the region into a single economy of 30 countries, for 42 million people and a GDP of over $800 Billion. The neighbor to the northwest of the Caribbean, the US, is a unified economy of 50 states & 300 million people; they are the best example of economic prosperity in history. But the US suffered an economic “blood-bath” in the 2008 Great Recession; they lost $11 Trillion in net worth, mostly due to mortgage-based securities (MBS). Many lessons abound. The danger stemmed from banks initiating bad mortgages, then packaging them on the capital market for sale (globally) as bonds with no outsiders discerning the strength, or weakness, of the underlying mortgage assets.
2 Wall between Commercial and Investment Banking
3 Lax Oversight – NINJA Loans
In the aftermath of the Great Recession, there were many “autopsies” and post-mortem analysis on the root-causes and systemic risks. Most blamed the lax oversight in the housing and mortgage industries, where there were sub-prime mortgages jokingly described as NINJA loans (No-Income-No-Job-no-Assets). Many legislators attempted to return to some of the common sense provisions that protected the economy for the 65 years of “Glass-Steagall”; there were all these failed bills: the “Banking Integrity Act of 2009”, “SAFE Banking Act of 2010”, and the Return to Prudent Banking Act of 2011. A softer banking reform did pass, Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010).
4 Volcker Rules
The Dodd-Frank Act included the Volcker Rule, which among other things limited proprietary trading by banks and their affiliates. This proprietary trading ban prevents commercial banks and their affiliates from acquiring non-governmental securities with the intention of selling those securities for a profit in the near term. Some have described the Volcker Rule, particularly its proprietary trading ban, as a return to some prudence of “Glass-Steagall”, as “Glass–Steagall Lite”.
5 Credit Rating Reporting – Institutional and Individual
6 Opinions: Disclosure Requirement
7 Derivatives: As Insurance Product, Should Have Reserves
8 Leverage – Common Sense Restraints
Banking risk is managed by controlling leverage, the magnifying factor compared to equity that borrowing money allows for a bank. Banking regulations best practices keeps leverage amount near 12-to-1. In 2008, Lehman Brothers leverage rate was pegged at 31-to-1; the more they borrowed the less capital equity they featured, so profits, and losses, were magnified. The mortgage crisis led to Lehman Brothers massive losses, then bankruptcy; the US largest at $691 Billion.
9 Consumer Protections
10 Systemic Risk – Economic Security
The CU will monitor and mitigate systemic risks in the financial systems because failure can be cascading. This area, financial markets oversight, is where laissez-fare government oversight should end – economic security is too vital.

2008 was a giant mess for the US. We want to learn and apply lessons from their experiences. But truthfully, we have no power there. We have no vote and no voice to change them. We can only protect ourselves from their abusive activities; (the abuse to the American-self and the interconnected world). The bad trend of America stripping the new financial protections has begun – already after less than 10 years. This has been addressed in prior Go Lean commentaries; see a sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8379 Fallacy of Going back to Self-Regulation of Economic Centers
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7601 Returning to the Abusive Policies of Debt
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3397 Christmas Present for the Banks – Rolling back some of Dodd-Frank
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2259 Lax Regulation and Prosecutors again ,,, for American Business

So if we cannot change America, all we can do to prepare for the worst. We must first diversify our economy away from America First; we must no longer be parasites. The related subjects of rebooting the Caribbean economy – starting first by diversifying away from tourism – has been a frequent topic for Go Lean blog-commentaries; see a sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15346 Industrial Reboot – A Series on Diversified Jobs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14242 Leading with Money Matters – Follow the Jobs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10585 Two Pies: Economic Plan for a New Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=833 One currency, divergent economies

This is the quest of the Go Lean/CU roadmap, to reboot the societal engines of the region, the member-states individually and the region as a whole – in a Single Market. The roadmap details these 3 prime directives:

This is the quest for the Caribbean region, it is not unrealistic. It is conceivable, believable and achievable. Now is the time to lean-in to this roadmap for the CU. This is how we can make the the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

—————

Appendix A – Opinion: We’re Measuring the Economy All Wrong
Sub-title: The official statistics say that the financial crisis is behind us. It’s not.
By: David Leonhardt

Ten years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the official economic statistics — the ones that fill news stories, television shows and presidential tweets — say that the American economy is fully recovered.

The unemployment rate is lower than it was before the financial crisis began. The stock market has soared. The total combined output of the American economy, also known as gross domestic product, has risen 20 percent since Lehman collapsed. The crisis is over.

But, of course, it isn’t over. The financial crisis remains the most influential event of the 21st century. It left millions of people — many of whom were already anxious about the economy — feeling much more anxious, if not downright angry. Their frustration has helped create a threat to Western liberal democracy that would have been hard to imagine a decade ago. Far-right political parties are on the rise across Europe, and Britain is leaving the European Union. The United States elected a racist reality-television star who has thrown the presidency into chaos.

Look around, and you can see the lingering effects of the financial crisis just about everywhere — everywhere, that is, except in the most commonly cited economic statistics. So who are you going to believe: those statistics, or your own eyes?

Over the course of history, financial crises — and the long downturns that follow — have reordered American society in all sorts of ways. One of those ways happens to involve the statistics that the government collects. Crises have often highlighted the need for new measures of human well-being.

The unemployment rate was invented in the 1870s in response to concerns about mass joblessness after the Panic of 1873. The government’s measure of national output, now called G.D.P., began during the Great Depression. Senator Robert La Follette, the progressive hero from Wisconsin, introduced the resolution that later led to the measurement of G.D.P., and the great economist Simon Kuznets, later a Nobel laureate, oversaw the first version.

Almost a century later, it is time for a new set of statistics. It’s time for measures that do a better job of capturing the realities of modern American life.

As a technical matter, the current batch of official numbers are perfectly accurate. They also describe some real and important aspects of the American economy. The trouble is that a handful of statistics dominate the public conversation about the economy despite the fact that they provide a misleading portrait of people’s lives. Even worse, the statistics have become more misleading over time.

The main reason is inequality. A small, affluent segment of the population receives a large and growing share of the economy’s bounty. It was true before Lehman Brothers collapsed on Sept. 15, 2008, and it has become even more so since. As a result, statistics that sound as if they describe the broad American economy — like G.D.P. and the Dow Jones industrial average — end up mostly describing the experiences of the affluent.

The stock market, for example, has completely recovered from the financial crisis, and then some. Stocks are now worth almost 60 percent more than when the crisis began in 2007, according to a inflation-adjusted measure from Moody’s Analytics. But wealthy households own the bulk of stocks. Most Americans are much more dependent on their houses. That’s why the net worth of the median household is still about 20 percent lower than it was in early 2007. When television commentators drone on about the Dow, they’re not talking about a good measure of most people’s wealth.

The unemployment rate has also become less meaningful than it once was. In recent decades, the number of idle working-age adults has surged. They are not working, not looking for work, not going to school and not taking care of children. Many of them would like to work, but they can’t find a decent-paying job and have given up looking. They are not counted in the official unemployment rate.

All the while, the federal government and much of the news media continue to act as if the same economic measures that made sense decades ago still make sense today. Habit comes before accuracy.

Fortunately, there is a nascent movement to change that. A team of academic economists — Gabriel Zucman, Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty (the best-selling author on inequality) — has begun publishing a version of G.D.P. that separates out the share of national income flowing to rich, middle class and poor. For now, its data is published with a lag; the most recent available year is 2014. But the work is starting to receive attention from other academics and policy experts.

In the Senate, two Democratic senators, including Chuck Schumer, the party leader, have introduced a bill that would direct the federal government to publish a version of the same data series. Heather Boushey, who runs the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, told me that it could be the most important change in economic data collection in decades.

Source: New York Times – Posted September 15, 2018; retrieved September 20, 2018 from: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/opinion/columnists/great-recession-economy-gdp.html

—————-

Appendix B VIDEO – About FocusEconomics – https://youtu.be/L2Ys5GH_tmw

Published on Aug 2, 2018 – FocusEconomics is a leading provider of economic analysis and forecasts for 127 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, as well as price forecasts for 30 key commodities. The company is supported by an extensive global network of analysts.

Since its launch in 1999, FocusEconomics has established a solid reputation as a reliable source for timely and accurate business intelligence among Clients from a variety of industries, including the world’s major financial institutions, multinational companies and government agencies.

Source: Retrieved September 19, 2018 from: https://www.focus-economics.com/about-us

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Lessons Learned from 2008: Righting The Wrong – ENCORE

Posted on September 19, 2018 in Economics, Industries, Strategy

Learning lessons from the past means that we will not succumb to the same risks, threats and dangers.

Is this the case for the Caribbean? Have we truly learned from the Great Recession of 2008? Are we able to avoid those threats and overcome any dangers that may arise … anew.

Doubtful!

In the 10 years since 2008, our Caribbean region have only declined, not improved. We have still not recovered. 🙁

This is the continuation of a series of commentaries relating the Lessons Learned from 2008.  This one – entry 3 of 4 in this series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean – is in consideration of the “economic chaos” that led-up to the 2008 Financial Crisis and the lack of recovery in the Caribbean region. Our economic engines have been based primarily on tourism, so when the economic crisis befell our trading partners, we were affected worse – think parasites attached to a sick host.

Lesson for us: We must diversify!

The commentaries in the series are fully cataloged as follows:

  1. Lessons Learned from 2008 – The Long View – ENCORE
  2. Lessons Learned from 2008 – Too Big to Fail –vs- Too Small to Thrive
  3. Lessons Learned from 2008 – Righting The Wrong – ENCORE
  4. Lessons Learned from 2008 – Still Recovering

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can shepherd the economic engines of the region to apply the best-practices to finally make progress. We need a more diversified economy. So we must learn from the mistakes of the past, ours and others.

This is the purpose of this commentary to apply lessons learned from the mistakes of the US housing crisis and apply the lessons here. We must learn how “they righted that wrong”. See this Encore of a previous blog-commentary here from May 6, 2017, as follows:

——————————-

Go Lean Commentary – Righting a Wrong: 2008 Housing Crisis

Have you ever made a mistake?

“Let him that is without sin, cast the first stone” – Jesus Christ (The Bible @ John 8:7)

Since everyone makes mistakes, a good measure of a good character is how we “Right the Wrongs” that we may have caused to others. This could be the measurement of a good man (or woman), a good company and a good community. People want to be associated with goodness. They will travel great lengths and at great cost to associate with good people, affiliate with good companies and live in a good community.

CU Blog - Righting a Wrong - 2008 Housing Crisis - Photo 1

There are lessons to be learned when people, companies and communities make mistakes and then make concerted efforts to “Right the Wrongs”. These are lessons that can be applied right here in the Caribbean so as to supplement our efforts to elevate our society, to make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play.

This is more than just an academic discussion for the Caribbean; we are known to have our defects – we repeatedly make mistakes, we endanger people, oppress them, suppress their rights and then carry on unrepentant – this all results in “pushing” people away, causing societal abandonment. We must recognize these defects and repent, reconcile, reform and “Right the Wrongs” of our society.

This is the purpose of the book Go Lean…Caribbean, to help reform and transform the societal engines in the 30 member-states of the Caribbean region. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The Go Lean/CU roadmap applies best-practices for community empowerment and features these 3 prime directives, proclaimed as follows:

  • Optimization of the economic engines to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect public safety and ensure the economic engines of the region.
  • Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

What “Wrongs” exactly can we consider to glean lessons-learned for our community empowerment? This commentary is 1 of 4 in a series considering how to “Right a Wrong”. The full series is as follows:

  1. Righting a Wrong: 2008 Housing Crisis
  2. Righting a Wrong: Puerto Rico’s Bankruptcy
  3. Righting a Wrong: Volkswagen Emissions Crisis
  4. Righting a Wrong: Takata Air-Bags

These “Wrongs” relate to bad actions and inaction by different actors. The image and reputations of stakeholders “take a hit” while the issue is fresh. But eventually the recovery – Righting the Wrong – can override and became the lasting legacy. This first wrong – 2008 Housing Crisis – was one of the episodes of the recent Great Recession. The Go Lean book sought to catalog the cause-and-effect of many 2008 developments from an inside perspective. The book identifies its authority to comment on these developments. See this “Who We Are” quotation (Page 8) and the VIDEO in the Appendix below:

This book is published by the SFE Foundation, a community development foundation chartered for the purpose of empowering and re-booting economic engines. …

2008 – The peak day of the recent global financial crisis was September 15, 2008. On this day, Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection, and eventual dissolution, after succumbing to the weight of over-leverage in mortgage-backed securities. There is an old observation/expression that states that “there are 3 kinds of people in the world, those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder ‘what happened?’“
Principals of the SFE Foundation were there in 2008 … engaged with Lehman Brothers; on the inside looking out, not the outside looking in. Understanding the anatomy of the modern macro economy, allows the dissection of the processes and the creation of viable solutions.

Omaha – The book was initially composed in Omaha, Nebraska, the home of one of the world’s richest men, Warren Buffet – the “Oracle of Omaha” – CEO of corporate giant Berkshire Hathaway. While the United States experienced boom and bust during the Great Recession, Omaha remained a stable, consistent model of prosperity (in March 2008 the unemployment rate in Omaha was 3.9 percent). This was no accident. This community embraces a certain ethos that is fundamental for stability and vibrancy: good corporate citizenship. Omaha is home to other corporate movers-shakers in addition to Berkshire Hathaway; (see Appendix A [on Page 254]). This community example is purported as a model for assimilation by the Caribbean region.

The Go Lean book, though composed in 2013, set the pattern for the Caribbean region to look-listen-learn from models, samples and examples like these. This allows for the regional stewards and administrators to structure policies and procedures so as to apply the lessons learned in their jurisdictions. This was an original intent. As a planning tool, the Go Lean book commenced with a Declaration of Interdependence, pronouncing the need for regional integration so as to improve our society based on lessons learned from other societies. See a stanza here (Page 14):

xxxiii. Whereas lessons can be learned and applied from the study of the recent history of other societies, the Federation must formalize statutes and organizational dimensions to avoid the pitfalls of communities like East Germany, Detroit, Indian (Native American) Reservations, Egypt and the previous West Indies Federation. On the other hand, the Federation must also implement the good examples learned from developments/communities like New York City, [Omaha,] Germany, Japan, Canada, the old American West and tenants of the US Constitution.

So here is the Wrong … and here is the “Righting of the Wrong” associated with the 2008 Housing Crisis:

The Wrong:
In 2008 a perfect storm of economic disasters hit the US and indeed the entire world. The most serious began with the collapse of housing bubbles in California and Florida, and the collapse of housing prices and the construction industries. Millions of mortgages (averaging about $200,000 each) had been bundled into securities called collateralized debt obligations that were re-sold worldwide. Many banks and hedge funds had borrowed hundreds of billions of dollars to buy these securities, which were now “toxic” because unknown values and no buying markets.

A series of the largest banks in the US and Europe collapsed; some went bankrupt, such as Lehman Brothers with $690 billion in assets; others such as Citigroup, the leading insurance company AIG, and the two largest mortgage companies (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac) were bailed out by the US government. Congress voted $700 billion in bailout money, and the Treasury and Federal Reserve committed trillions of dollars to shoring up the financial system. But the measures did not reverse the declines – banks drastically tightened their lending policies, despite infusions of federal money. The government, for the first time, took major ownership positions in some banks. The stock market plunged 40%, wiping out tens of trillions of dollars in wealth (estimates tallying $11 Trillion); housing prices fell 20% nationwide wiping out trillions more. By late 2008 distress was spreading beyond the financial and housing sectors, especially as the “Big Three” of the automobile industry (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler) were on the verge of bankruptcy, and the retail sector showed major weaknesses. Critics of the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) expressed anger that much of the TARP money that had been distributed to banks was seemingly unaccounted for, with banks being secretive on the issue.[45] [See this portrayal in these photos or the VIDEO at https://youtu.be/N9YLta5Tr2A.]

CU Blog - Righting a Wrong - 2008 Housing Crisis - Photo 2

CU Blog - Righting a Wrong - 2008 Housing Crisis - Photo 3

CU Blog - Righting a Wrong - 2008 Housing Crisis - Photo 4

CU Blog - Righting a Wrong - 2008 Housing Crisis - Photo 5

Righting the Wrong:
In February 2009, [the newly inaugurated] President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; the bill provided $787 billion in stimulus through a combination of spending and tax cuts. The plan was largely based on the Keynesian theory that government spending should offset the fall in private spending during an economic downturn; otherwise the fall in private spending would perpetuate itself and productive resources, such as the labor hours of the unemployed, will be wasted.[46] Critics at the time claimed that government spending cannot offset a fall in private spending because government must borrow money from the private sector in order to add money to it. However, most economists do not think such “crowding out” is an issue when interest rates are near zero and the economy is stagnant.

The recession period officially expended only 6 quarters (Q4-2007 to Q1-2009), but the effects were longer lasting. This was deemed the Great Recession because of the fundamental shifts the economy made. For example, in the US, jobs paying between $14 and $21 per hour made up about 60% those lost during the recession, but such mid-wage jobs have comprised only about 27% of jobs gained during the recovery through mid-2012. In contrast, lower-paying jobs constituted about 58% of the jobs regained.

As of December 2012, the US Federal Reserve Bank reported that the net worth of US households recovered by $1.7 trillion to $65 trillion during Q3-2012. It was still below the record high of $67 trillion during Q3-2007, but up $13.5 trillion since its recent cyclical low during Q1-2009.[47]

Source: Book Go Lean…Caribbean Page 69 – 70

None of the Boom-and-Bust homes in this drama were in the Caribbean; (though Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands are American territories and did have crises, their home pricing were only mildly affected, going up or going down only a little).

While this was a crisis for continental America, due to inaction on the part of Caribbean regional stewards, this 2008 crisis brought devastation to our region. In some cases, we are still reeling from it; they are near Failed-State status as a result.

There were bad actors in this crisis. They had their Day of Reckoning as well. See these previous blog-commentaries that detailed the aftershocks of the 2008 economic crisis:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10187 Day of Reckoning for NINJA Loans
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8379 Economic Fallacy: Self-regulation of the Centers of Economic Activity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6531 A Lesson in History – Book Review of the ‘Exigency of 2008’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1896 The Crisis in Black Homeownership
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1309 5 Steps of a Bubble
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=353 Book: Wrong Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn

One mission of this Go Lean roadmap is to apply the lessons from this American Drama in the stewardship of our Caribbean homeland. Since we also had financial upheavals in our region, many things these were due to contagions of the American crisis. So we needed remediation of our financial institutions as well. This point was detailed in this previous blog-commentary from November 14, 2014:

‘Too Big To Fail’ – Caribbean Version

There were [financial] crises on 2 levels: the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 – 2009 and regional financial banking dysfunctions. See here:

Global – The banks labeled “Too Big To Fail” impacted the world’s economy during the Global Financial Crisis. Though the epi-center was on Wall Street, the Caribbean was not spared; it was deeply impacted with onslaughts to every aspect of Caribbean life (think: Tourism decline). In many ways, the crisis has still not passed.

Regional – The Caribbean region has not been front-and-center to many financial crises in the past, compared to the 465 US bank failures between 2008 and 2012. But over the past few decades, there have been some failures among local commercial banks and affiliated insurance companies where the institutions could not meet demands from depositors for withdrawal. Consider these examples from Jamaica and Trinidad:

  • There was a banking crisis in Jamaica in the 1990s. In January 1997, the decision was made to establish the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC) with a mandate to take control and restructure the financial sector. FINSAC took control of 5 of the 9 commercial banks, 10 merchant banks, 21 insurance companies, 34 securities firms and 15 hotels. It was also involved in the re-capitalization and restructuring of 2 life insurance companies, with the requirement that they relinquish their shares in 2 commercial banks.[48]
  • For Trinidad, the notable failure was the holding company CL Financial, with subsidiaries Colonial Life Insurance Company and the CLICO Investment Bank (CIB). In mid-January 2009, this group approached the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago requesting financial assistance due to persistent liquidity problems. The global financial events of 2008 combined with other factors placed tremendous strain on the group’s Balance Sheet. The CL Financial lines of business ranged from the areas of finance and energy to manufacturing and real estate services. The group’s assets were estimated at US$16 billion at year-end 2007, and it had a presence in at least thirty countries worldwide, including Barbados. Most significantly, the company held investments in real estate in Trinidad and the United States of America, and in the world’s largest methanol plant prior to its difficulties.

Going forward, there needs to be a solution to mitigate systemic threats that may plague the Caribbean region.

This is the quest of the Go Lean roadmap. The book first presents the community ethos that the region needs to adopt; then it presents detailed strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies for the economic stewards to deploy. These constitute Big Ideas for the Caribbean region.

For one, there is the plan for a Caribbean Central Bank!

Among the Big Ideas of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation is the introduction and assimilation of the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) and the Caribbean Dollar. The CCB is actually a cooperative among the region’s Central Banks. All the existing Central Banks, at the time of ascension, will cede their monetary powers to the CCB and continue their participation using well-established cooperative principles. – Go Lean…Caribbean book Page 73

Secondly, there is the tactic of a separation-of-powers between the CU/CCB entities and the member-states in the region. This directive allows for the transfer of oversight and administration of certain state functions to the CU federal authorities. This is modeled after the European Union and the European Central Bank.

This is how the Go Lean roadmap proposes to “Right the Wrongs” of the recent financial crises: to incorporate the organizational structure with the mandate to administer and shepherd the region’s monetary and banking eco-system. This intent was pronounced at the outset, in the opening Declaration of Interdependence, enshrining the need for regional integration on monetary matters for Caribbean society. See the related stanzas here (Pages 12, 13):

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

xxv. Whereas the legacy of international democracies had been imperiled due to a global financial crisis, the structure of the Federation must allow for financial stability and assurance of the Federation’s institutions. To mandate the economic vibrancy of the region, monetary and fiscal controls and policies must be incorporated as proactive and reactive measures. These measures must address threats against the financial integrity of the Federation and of the member-states.

Now is the time for the Caribbean to embrace change. From an economic perspective, we have done wrong … in the past – at a minimum, we are guilty of inaction. We now need to “right those wrongs” or especially to develop the defenses to ensure no future damage to our economy by dysfunctional administration of the region’s monetary and economic engines. It is time for new stewards of the Caribbean economy, security and governing engines. It’s time for the CU/CCB. We must prove that we have learned from our past and that of our trading partners. We must do better and be better.

A lot is at stake: the hopes and dreams of our people, young and old. They all want; we all want a better Caribbean; better places to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for the roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

————

Footnote References

45 – Holt, Jeff. “A Summary of the Primary Causes of the Housing Bubble and the Resulting Credit Crisis: A Non-Technical Paper”. 2009, 8, 1, 120-129. The Journal of Business Inquiry. Retrieved 15 February 2013.

46 – Congressional Budget Office – “Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output from October 2011 Through December 2011”. February 2012; retrieved June 2013.

47 – American Enterprise Institute – Retrieved December 2012 from: www.aei-ideas.org/…/u-s-net-worth-hasrecovered-13-5-trillion-but-still- below-2007-peak/

48 – Retrieved November 14, 2014 from: http://www.centralbank.org.bb/WEBCBB.nsf/WorkingPapers/DB0CF759B9E97FB9042579D70047F645/$FILE/Exploring%20Liquidity%20Linkages%20among%20CARICOM%20Banking%20Systems.pdf

————

Appendix VIDEO – The 2008 Financial Crisis: Crash Course Economics – https://youtu.be/GPOv72Awo68

Published on Oct 21, 2015 – Today on Crash Course Economics, Adriene and Jacob talk about the 2008 financial crisis and the US Goverment’s response to the troubles. So, all this starts with home mortgages, and the use of mortgages as an investment instrument. For years, it seemed like the US housing market would go up and up. Like a bubble or something. It turns out it was a bubble. But not the good kind. And the government response was…interesting. Anyway, why are you reading this? Watch the video!
More Financial Crisis Resources:
Financial Crisis Inquiry Report: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-FCIC…
TAL: Giant Pool of Money: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio…
Timeline of the crisis: https://www.stlouisfed.org/financial-…
http://www.economist.com/news/schools…

 

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Lessons Learned from 2008: Too Big to Fail –vs- Too Small to Thrive

Posted on September 18, 2018 in Economics, Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

It is now 10 years later. The world is remembering the Financial Crisis of 2008.

This is the anniversary of the peak day, that of Lehman Brothers bankruptcy filing on September 15, 2008. The world has endured a lot since that time, we have looked, listened and learned. We have even added some new phraseology to our vocabulary; think …

… “Too Big to Fail”, a theory in economics that asserts that certain corporations, particularly financial institutions, are so large and so interconnected that their failure would be disastrous to the greater economic system, and that they therefore must be supported by government when they face potential failure.[1] .

“Too Big to Fail” was a Big Deal. This is more than just an academic discussion – see AUDIO Podcast below. In 2008 the biggest impact of the global financial contagions was the dilution of net worth for the citizens of the affected countries: US, Canada and Western Europe. These economies are the primary source of Caribbean tourists; since tourism is the primary economic driver, this was a real problem for the pocketbooks of every individual and institution in the region.

This is the continuation of a series of commentaries relating the Lessons Learned from 2008.  This one – entry 2 of 4 in this series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean – is in consideration of the “economic chaos” that led-up to the 2008 Financial Crisis and the contrast between “Too Big to Fail” and “Too Small to Thrive”. Due to the contagions of 2008, the Caribbean also had economic collapse, but not because our banks are too big; rather they are too small – think parasite attached to a sick host – they have no leverage or shock-absorption from servicing the full region.

The commentaries in the series are fully cataloged as follows:

  1. Lessons Learned from 2008 –The Long View – ENCORE
  2. Lessons Learned from 2008 – Too Big to Fail –vs- Too Small to Thrive
  3. Lessons Learned from 2008 – Righting The Wrong – ENCORE
  4. Lessons Learned from 2008 – Still Recovering

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can shepherd the economic engines of the region to apply the best-practices to finally make progress; move forward, not stand still and not go backwards.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap to implement the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) and Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) to provide better economic stewardship, to ensure that failures of the past do not re-occur.

What economic failures?

In a previous Go Lean blog-commentaries, it was detailed how our region has had to endure financial crises; yes this includes the Too Big to Fail collapse in the US but also home-grown ones in our neighborhood. The financial system we live in today has been transformed because of the impact and consequence of previous crises. So the banks that have the Too Big to Fail designation now get additional protection and can thusly grow – with less regard to risk. And grow, they have!

NEW YORK – MARCH 24: (FILE PHOTO) The JP Morgan Chase building is seen March 24, 2008 in New York City. The banking giant posted a $2.7 billion profit in the second quarter July 16, 2009, a 36% jump from 2008. Revenues were up 39%, at $25.62 billion. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

This was the summary from this news article/PODCAST here, where it explains that “just six banks now manage more than half the assets in the whole banking industry”. In fact, one sample bank, JPMorganChase, now manages US$2.8 trillion in assets; that’s more than the gross domestic product of Canada, Italy or Brazil. Listen to the PODCAST here and see that full transcript in the Appendix below:

Audio-Podcast– Once “too small to thrive,” now some banks are “too big to fail” –https://play.publicradio.org/api-2.0.1/d/podcast/marketplace/segments/2018/09/11/mp_20180911_seg_19_64.mp3

So how and why did community banking become national banking or global banking? One word: Consolidation. The foregoing PODCAST quotes:

“There’s been a tremendous amount of consolidation during the last four decades,” … “The American banking system went from about 13 or 14,000 commercial banks four decades ago down to closer to 5,000 now.”

This is the advocacy for the Caribbean, here in the Go Lean book. The strategy is for all the 30 member-states in the region to consolidate, collaborate and confederate to form a Single Market economy. The regional leverage allows for more growth because of a larger, stronger market. This consolidation – across 30 countries of 5 different colonial legacies and 4 languages – is for banking as well. This is to be shepherded by the CCB, a formal cooperative (collusion) of all the Central Banks in the region. The CCB will be ready for the heavy-lifting of this regional stewardship.

Without this cooperative, we will never have “Too Big to Fail”, instead we will only have “Too Small to Thrive”.

So imagine 1 currency, the Caribbean Dollar! Imagine the proliferation and liquidity of vibrant Capitals/Securities Market.

Welcome to the new Caribbean economy.

Here is where the Lessons from 2008 weigh heavy. A consolidated, integrated banking system will mean more linkages among the member-states of a new economic union. So the issue of financial contagions among these linked communities will now be a constant concern – so there must be a constant sentinel: the Caribbean Central Bank.

The prime directive of the CU/CCB roadmap is to optimize the economic engines of the region despite the reality of financial contagions. This need was pronounced early in the Go Lean book, in the Declaration of Interdependence – (Page 13):

xxv. Whereas the legacy of international democracies had been imperiled due to a global financial crisis, the structure of the Federation must allow for financial stability and assurance of the Federation’s institutions. To mandate the economic vibrancy of the region, monetary and fiscal controls and policies must be incorporated as proactive and reactive measures. These measures must address threats against the financial integrity of the CU and of the member-states.

The foregoing PODCAST relates the peril associated with banks only tied to a mono-industrial local economy; this quotation:

… Texas, where oil was king in the ‘80s. Texas had more banks than any other state. Regional banks, like those in Texas, were not diversified. They were tied to the local economy. So when the price of oil fell to $10 a barrel, hundreds of Texas banks failed.

The foregoing PODCAST helps us to appreciate the regional vision: We do NOT want to be “Too Small to Thrive”, but we do not want to grow to be “Too Big to Fail” either. There must be a happy medium, a “Goldilocks” destination.

VIDEO – Goldilocks and the Three Bears – https://youtu.be/PGI-4MrC_b8

TheLearningStation – Kids Songs and Nursery Rhymes

Published on Jul 8, 2016 – Your children will love this popular children’s fairy tale, “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” song and story! Goldilocks and the Three Bears is from the CD and CD Download “La Di Da, La Di Di, Dance with Me.” “La Di Da, La Di Di, Dance with Me”.

CD Download: http://store.learningstationmusic.com…

“La Di Da, La Di Di, Dance with Me” CD http://store.learningstationmusic.com…  

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society … including banking and monetary control. We must have the technocratic bank supervision and oversight: assessing risk factors, monitoring risks, managing leverage and regulating industry performances.  There is an advocacy in the book that relates specifically to bank supervision; consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines from the book on Page 199 entitled:

10 Reforms for Banking Regulations

1 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market
This treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market, creating a single economy of 30 member-states, 42 million people and the GDP impact of over $800 Billion. In addition, the CU treaty creates a security apparatus to defend against regional threats and systemic risks. When it comes to banking, without proper oversight, the financial systems can imperil the region’s economic security. Deficient oversight can also foster an environment for lawlessness with bad actors exploiting the lack of controls for money laundering, tax evasion and even funding terrorists. Many countries in the region have (had) a vibrant offshore banking industry. But with international reforms from the OECD (an arm of the IMF), US Treasury/Justice Departments, and other institutions, there has been external and internal pressure to reform the industry to curb illegal activities and cooperate more with cross border investigations. … The CU economic and security reboot will bring the balanced oversight, plus added protections like deposit insurance.
2 Foreign Currency Considerations
The Caribbean Dollar (C$) will be traded in the international market, so the need for various currencies will be minimized. Domestic currency devaluations were among the Failed-State indices that drove a lot of Caribbean citizens to emigrate. The reforms associated with securing the new regional currency, C$, is therefore vital. For example, all casinos in the region will be expected to “game” in Caribbean dollars.
3 Debit Cards & e-Government Disbursements
4 e-Purse and Internet Commerce
5 NFC and Mobile Payment Systems
6 Mortgage Banking
7 Credit Card Banking
8 Fair Credit Reporting
9 Fair Collection Practices
10 Bankruptcy Reform

The related subjects of banking oversight and optimizing  financial governance have been a frequent topic for Go Lean blog-commentaries; see a sample here:

Leading with Money Matters – The Almighty Dollar
Failure to Launch – Economics: The Quest for a ‘Single Currency’
West African Case Study: ECOWAS to Launch ‘Single Currency’
Transforming ‘Money’ Countrywide
European Central Bank launch 1 Trillion Euro Stimulus
For Canadian Banks: Caribbean is a ‘Bad Bet’
5 Steps of a Bubble – Learning to make a resilient economy
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce failing investment in FirstCaribbean Bank
Barbados Central Bank records $3.7m loss in 2013
Dominica raises EC$20 million on regional securities market

The 2008 Great Recession / Financial Crisis exposed the trappings of the interconnected global economy. If we, in the Caribbean, are going to “play in this sandbox” – transact in this marketplace – then we must be prepared and On Guard, for the risks, threats and dangers.

Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG)!

We were not prepared in 2008! We were Too Small to Thrive.

We must be ready now … and going forward! We must learn and apply this lesson from 2008.

This is the quest of the Go Lean/CU/CCB roadmap, to elevate the societal engines of the region, the member-states individually and the Single Market as a whole. Yes, we can! The roadmap details these 3 prime directives:

This quest is the BHAG for the Caribbean region, but it is conceivable, believable and achievable. Now is the time for change; time for all regional stakeholders, individuals and institutions, creditors and debtors, to lean-in to this roadmap for the CU and CCB.

The functioning of this roadmap is complex and complicated, requiring heavy-lifting. But the destination of this roadmap is simple: a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

——————–

APPENDIX – Once “too small to thrive,” now some banks are “too big to fail”
By: Sabri Ben-Achour

The idea behind “too big to fail,” of course, is that some institutions are just so massive and interconnected that their failure would mean disaster for the economy.

And today? Lots of firms seem to fit that classification.

Let’s just take JPMorgan Chase. It manages $2.8 trillion. That’s more than the gross domestic product of Canada, Italy or Brazil. Just six banks manage more than half the assets in the whole banking industry. Most of them would be considered too big to fail.

There was a time when banks were small and plentiful.

“At the all-time peak in the United States, around 1921 or 1922, there were 31,000 or 32,000 banks,” said Richard Sylla, New York University financial historian and professor emeritus.

The Great Depression wiped out thousands of banks, but for about 40 years after that, the number was stable. Until it wasn’t.

“There’s been a tremendous amount of consolidation during the last four decades,” Sylla said. “The American banking system went from about 13 or 14,000 commercial banks four decades ago down to closer to 5,000 now.”

One reason there were so many banks is because state laws ensured it. Federal law left the regulation of bank branches up to states. Different states had different rules, and rules within states could be pretty restrictive.

“For most of American history, banks were not able to cross state lines,” said Frederic Mishkin, Columbia University professor of banking and financial institutions. “In some states you could only have only one branch.”

Some banks lobbied for it to be this way, Mishkin said.

“This actually was a way for banks to not be as competitive, and particularly if you’re a bank in one state you don’t want to have people from other states come in and take away some of your business. So you’ll fight like hell to keep them out,” he said.

Just because there were a lot of banks back in the ‘70s and ‘80s does not mean they were good banks.

“I lived in Chicago in the 1980s, and the service was just horrendous because the competition was just terrible,” Mishkin said. “I had a case where they had a check that that was forged. They cashed it and they’re supposed to give me the money back. I never got it back. So it was a different world.”

But the real problem for banks of that era was that because they were small, they were fragile, said Robert Hendershott, hedge fund portfolio manager and Santa Clara University associate professor of finance. “Having tens of thousands of tiny little banks is economically insane,” he said. “It is not an efficient way to organize a banking system.”

Today we talk about banks being too big to fail, but back then they had the opposite problem.

“The U.S. banking industry was too small to thrive,” Hendershott said.

He points to Texas, where oil was king in the ‘80s. Texas had more banks than any other state. Regional banks, like those in Texas, were not diversified. They were tied to the local economy. So when the price of oil fell to $10 a barrel, hundreds of Texas banks failed. The number of banks in the United States also shrank during the thrift crisis in the late ‘80s and the recession in the early ‘90s.

It’s at this point that Congress started to take notice, and in 1994, it passed the Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act.

“That was where Congress tore down all the barriers and banks became free to merge and grow across state lines,” Hendershott said.

And that is exactly what banks did. Through the Great Recession, banks consolidated even further as some failed and were bought up by others. And more banks went from “too small to thrive” to “too big to fail.”

This story is part of Divided Decade, a yearlong series examining how the financial crisis changed America. 

Source: Posted September 11, 2018; retrieved September 17, 2018 from: https://www.marketplace.org/2018/09/11/economy/divided-decade/once-too-small-thrive-now-some-banks-are-too-big-fail

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Lessons Learned from 2008: The Long View – ENCORE

Posted on September 15, 2018 in Ethos, Implementation

10 years ago today (September 15, 2008) …

… Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy … and brought the global financial system to its knees.

The whole world was watching, as global markets immediately plummeted.

But this writer was there, on the inside of Lehman Brothers. This fact was related in the opening of the 2003 book Go Lean … Caribbean (Page 8), as follows:

2008
The peak day of the recent global financial crisis was September 15, 2008. On this day, Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection, and eventual dissolution, after succumbing to the weight of over-leverage in mortgage-backed securities. There is an old observation/expression that states that “there are 3 kinds of people in the world, those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder ‘what happened?’“ Principals of SFE Foundation were there in 2008 … engaged with Lehman Brothers; on the inside looking out, not the outside looking in. Understanding the anatomy of the modern macro economy, allows the dissection of the processes and the creation of viable solutions.

This is the first of a series of commentaries relating the Lessons Learned from 2008.  This first one – entry 1 of 4 in this series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean – is in consideration of the “economic chaos” that led-up to the Great Recession and why it is necessary for these commentaries to be so long and comprehensive. The Caribbean problems are complex and complicated – there are no short and simple solutions. It will take a thorough roadmap to effect the necessary changes for the region to reform and transform. If we do not learn the applicable lessons from 2008, we will only repeat the mistakes of 2008.

The commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

  1. Lessons Learned from 2008 – The Long View – ENCORE
  2. Lessons Learned from 2008 – Too Big to Fail -vs- Too Small to Thrive
  3. Lessons Learned from 2008 – Righting The Wrong – ENCORE
  4. Lessons Learned from 2008 – Still Recovering

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can shepherd the economic engines of the region to apply the economic best-practices to make progress. As a Caribbean region, we need those lessons, and progress.

Some of these commentaries are Encores, as is this one. So as follows is the original submission from August 26, 2014. See that entry here:

—————–

Go Lean Commentary – Why So Long? Can’t We Just…

CU Blog - Why so long - Can't we just - Photo 1We have now reached a milestone in the publishing of the (sometimes) daily blogs from the publishers of Go Lean…Caribbean, 150 submissions. This is a good time to address a consistent question we’ve gotten from some readers:

Why are the blog commentaries so long?
Can’t you accomplish the same objective with shorter blogs?

This submission here is meant to be a practice in active listening: We hear you! Consider this attribute of  one blog published on August 20, 2014:

3742 words: NYC’s MetroCard – A Model for the Caribbean Dollar – https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2074

So can we accomplish the same objectives with shorter commentaries? The answer: No!

The question is interpreted by us as “Can’t we just…?”

There is a serious reason why this is the answer: These are serious issues. We cannot, must not skim on the consideration of the solutions.

Our experience has taught us that serious problems require thorough and thoughtful consideration. There is no place for abbreviation in this exercise.

Our experience?

Consider these events from 2008, (a frequent topic of discussion in Go Lean…Caribbean blogs):

Video: Too Big To Fail – 2011 Movie (Pardon the adult language):
YouTube Video Sharing Site (Retrieved 08/20/2014) –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqf97p1Rdm0

As the events of September 2008 unfolded where the financial system (Wall Street) was on the brink of collapse, stakeholders from the US Treasury Department assembled a representative body to conceive a remedy.

The resultant plan/proposal was introduced on September 20, by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and was later named the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)[a].

The plan/proposal was only three pages long, intentionally short on details to facilitate quick passage by Congress.[b]

The plan called for the U.S. Treasury to acquire up to $700 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities…

… in the end, in an analysis by Bloomberg Business News Source, it was disclosed that the Federal Reserve had, by March 2009, committed $7.77 trillion to rescuing the financial system. This amount is more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year.[c]
Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia Source (Retrieved 08/20/2014) –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Economic_Stabilization_Act_of_2008

So can’t we just…?

The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) and the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB). This Caribbean empowerment roadmap has 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The book described both the CU and CCB as hallmarks of technocracy, a commitment to efficiency and effectiveness. The book itself is 370 pages and covers 144 different missions.

As alluded above, principals in the Go Lean…Caribbean movement were front-and-center in the events that unfurled in 2008.

CU Blog - Why so long - Can't we just - Photo 2

The roadmap was constructed with the ethos to be thorough in the assessment, strategies, tactics, implementation and advocacies to understand the complexities of our time and forge permanent change in the Caribbean region. The following is a sample of these specific details from the book:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future Page 21
Community Ethos – Intelligence Gathering Page 23
Community Ethos – “Crap” Happens Page 23
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Strategy – Vision – Confederate 30 Member-States Page 45
Strategy – Missions – 144 Advocacies Page 457
Tactical – Confederating a Permanent Union Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean Region Page 127
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008 Page 136
Planning – Lessons Learned from New York City Page 137
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Reforms for Banking Regulations Page 199
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Wall Street Page 200
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street Page 201
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Hollywood Page 202
Appendix – Credit Ratings Agencies in 2008 Page 276

Imagine following a long complex and detailed recipe for baking a cake. To get the best results, it is important to include all the ingredients and follow the exacting instructions, the more detailed the better.

The quest for Go Lean…Caribbean is not as simple as baking a cake, rather a goal that is so much more important, to make the Caribbean region a better place to live, work and play.

We cannot skim on this effort – too much is at stake!

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

———————

Appendices:
a.  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21draftcnd.html?_r=0; retrieved August 20, 2014.
b.  http://content.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1843642,00.html; retrieved August 20, 2014.
c.  Ivry, Bob; Keoun, Bradley; Kuntz, Phil (November 28, 2011). “Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion Undisclosed to Congress”. Bloomberg Markets Magazine. Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved May 14, 2012 from: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-28/secret-fed-loans-undisclosed-to-congress-gave-banks-13-billion-in-income.html.

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Blog # 800 – An Inconvenient Truth – Caribbean Version

Posted on September 14, 2018 in Ethos, Implementation, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

There was a film released in 2006 entitled An Inconvenient Truth. This capped the campaign by former US Vice-President Al Gore (1993-2001) to educate citizens about global warming; this was a comprehensive slide show that he estimated to have given more than a thousand times.  This film was part documentary and part prophecy. When asked of the need for a sequel, Co-Producer Laurie David responded:

“God, do we need one, everything in that movie has come to pass. At the time we did the movie, there was Hurricane Katrina; now we have extreme weather events every other week. The update has to be incredible and shocking.”[149]

Incredible and shocking is also our Inconvenient Truth for the Caribbean. The prophecy highlighted in that 2006 documentary manifested in the Caribbean in the years since. There was a sequel to that original film, the 2017 An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. The tagline for the movie was:

Fight like your world depends on it.

See a Trailer of the sequel in Appendix B below.

Here is where we are in the Caribbean – our world depends on our fighting to assuage the great threats to our society. These are defined in the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation and protection of Caribbean society – for all member-states.

In the book, the threats are described as Agents of Change (Page 57), none more challenging than Climate Change for us:

  • Climate Change – This issue is a major concern for the whole world, but particularly impactful on the Caribbean. There is some debate as to the causes of Climate Change, but no question as to its outcome: temperatures are rising, droughts prevail, and most devastating, hurricanes are more threatening. The CU roadmap must address the causes of Climate Change and most assuredly its consequences. The CU federal government must therefore advocate systems and schemes for a lower carbon footprint. Notwithstanding, the CU must implement recovery measures to respond, react and rebuild from the ever-more-devastating hurricanes.
  • Technology – Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT) is dynamically shifting the world. There are also industrial changes taking place, as in more efficient manufacturing methods, automation/robotics, and transportation options … in response to Climate Change, i.e. Green Energy options.
  • Aging Diaspora – Those that expatriated in the 1950’s and 1960’s now comprise an aging Diaspora – with the desire to return to the “town of their boyhood”. With inadequacies to prepare and respond to natural disasters, the repatriations may not happen.
  • Globalization – We are competing against a “flat” world. Any one country can provide a competitive delivery of the needs and wants of any other society, no matter where they are located physically.

*************

Inconvenient Truth 1

What is inconvenient is that we do not have a partner in the United States of America. We must raise the mantle ourselves and fight for our own cause. President Trump has wiped out all Global Climate Change initiatives by the US federal government. So this government is headed by someone that does not even believe the scientific certainty of Climate Change.

This actuality was boldly lamented in the book, in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 11):

i. Whereas the earth’s climate has undeniably changed resulting in more severe tropical weather storms, it is necessary to prepare to insure the safety and security of life, property and systems of commerce in our geographical region. As nature recognizes no borders in the target of its destruction, we also must set aside border considerations in the preparation and response to these weather challenges.

Inconvenient Truth 2

Natural Disaster preparation and response is reflective of our priorities. Hurricane Maria exposed the deficiency among the American stakeholders. Puerto Rico got no love from Washington; even in death the misery was understated, under-valued and undercounted. Despite this bad report, President Trump continues to defend his administration actions, despite irrefutable evidence to the contrary; see article in Appendix A.

Our other colonial legacies were equally unprepared:

The Go Lean book asserts that the full region of 30 member-states must come together – ourselves – to optimize the societal engines of economics, security and governance. We have delivered a “day late and a dollar short” on so many mitigations – consider our Catastrophic Risk Insurance Funds.

Inconvenient Truth 3

Rising Sea Levels may cover the coral islands.

The geology of the Caribbean has resulted inn 2 kinds of islands: Volcanic versus Coral (Reef). The volcanic islands tend to be mountainous, while coral islands tend to be flat. Climate Change have a real devastating effects on coral islands. Already the Pacific island-nation of Kiribati is facing extinction from high sea-level rise. This same fate awaits many Caribbean member-states. This is why many Caribbean states are members of the formal SIDS (Small Islands Development States).

Inconvenient Truth 4

Seaweed is not so innocent. The beautiful beaches are no longer “so beautiful” without strenuous re-engineering, This is a direct result of Climate Change – https://stluciatimes.com/2018/03/04/fisheries-department-supports-sargassum-cleanup/

Inconvenient Truth 5

Our Diaspora is not returning. The original implied contract was for Caribbean citizens to emigrate abroad then come back home for retirement. Due to societal defects, many of the Diaspora are not returning; even to support their elderly parents; rather, they have been bringing their elderly to the foreign destinations. There is also a Climate Change angle, winters in northern locations – think: Canada – is milder due to global warming.

Inconvenient Truth 6

We are doubling-down on economic failure.

The primary economic engine in the Caribbean region is based on tourism. There is the need to diversify; yet the member-states have been doubling-down on the failing business models in tourism rather than investing in better models. Consider the example of resort-casino gambling.

Inconvenient Truth 7

We are doubling-down on our societal defects and hate.

Our people leave their Caribbean homes for “Push” and “Pull” reasons. “Pull” refers to the lure that life is better abroad, but “push” refers to the societal defects that drive people away to seek refuge. The Caribbean region does not embrace the “live and let live” ethos, so minority groups have experienced a Climate of Hate.

This is inconvenient and sad!

***********

These Inconvenient Truths are consistent for the movement behind the Go Lean book. The original book, and subsequent blog-commentaries, detailed the assessment in current Caribbean society, and then advocated for a new Caribbean – with new community ethos, strategies, tactics and implementations.

This submission is a new milestone; this is blog-commentary # 800.

These prior entries posit that the Caribbean status quo is truly in crisis. Alas, this crisis is a terrible thing to waste. Let’s reform and transform now! Yes, we can!

This is the quest of the Go Lean movement, to forge a Single Market and a technocratic government for the 30 Caribbean member-states. But the Go Lean book asserts that this effort is too big a task for just for Caribbean member-state alone, so the book urges all 30 member-states to convene, confederate and collaborate in order to effect change. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs. (The issue of jobs alone is paramount to any Hope and Change movement in the region).
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

The book stresses that reforming and transforming Caribbean communities must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 – 14):

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xii. Whereas the legacy in recent times in individual states may be that of ineffectual governance with no redress to higher authority, the accedence of this Federation will ensure accountability and escalation of the human and civil rights of the people for good governance, justice assurances, due process and the rule of law. As such, any threats of a “failed state” status for any member state must enact emergency measures on behalf of the Federation to protect the human, civil and property rights of the citizens, residents, allies, trading partners, and visitors of the affected member state and the Federation as a whole.

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes … can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

The Go Lean book accepts that the Caribbean region – all 30 member-states – is currently at a Failing disposition. But we can do better and be better. First, we must acknowledged our Inconvenient Truths.

And then work or fight towards reforming and transforming our society. Our world depends on it!

This is hard, heavy-lifting, but this roadmap is conceivable, believable and achievable. Let’s get started. Let’s make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the free e-book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

—————–

Appendix A – Trump questions Puerto Rico death toll, prompting San Juan mayor to call him ‘delusional’ and ‘paranoid’

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Thursday questioned a report putting the death toll from last year’s catastrophic hurricane in Puerto Rico at nearly 3,000. He also called the new estimate an effort by Democrats to discredit him.

San Juan’s mayor described the president’s claim as “delusional” and even prominent Republicans such as House Speaker Paul Ryan distanced themselves from Trump’s tweets about Puerto Rico.

“This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “If a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list. Bad politics. I love Puerto Rico!”

Trump’s comments, which come as his administration prepares for Hurricane Florence to hit the East Coast, led both Democratic and Republican lawmakers to weigh in countering his claim. When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last year, it devastated homes and infrastructure and left large swaths of the territory without power for months.

Ryan, pressed by reporters on Trump’s tweet, said he disagreed with the president but would not comment on whether he thought Trump should apologize.

Ryan said he had  “no reason to dispute” the findings of a study commissioned by Puerto Rico’s government that put its death toll at nearly 3,000 people.

“Those are just the facts of what happens when a horrible hurricane hits an isolated place like an island,” Ryan said when asked about Trump’s tweet.

Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who has been outspoken on the government’s response to the storm, lamented in a tweet that the deaths had become political. He repeated the study’s findings that 3,000 more people died on the island after the hurricane than during comparable periods.

“Both Fed & local gov made mistakes,” Rubio wrote. “We all need to stop the blame game & focus on recovery, helping those still hurting & fixing the mistakes.”

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican and early Trump supporter, said he disagreed with the president.

“I’ve been to Puerto Rico 7 times & saw devastation firsthand,” Scott, now a candidate for Senate, posted on Twitter. “The loss of any life is tragic; the extent of lives lost as a result of Maria is heart wrenching. I’ll continue to help PR.”

Ron DeSantis, a former Republican congressman running for governor in Florida, also disputed Trump’s assertion. “He doesn’t believe any loss of life has been inflated,” spokesman Stephen Lawson said in an emailed statement.

As his team braces for Hurricane Florence, Trump has praised his administration’s responses to deadly storms – including in Puerto Rico.

San Juan mayor Cruz responded, …

“Simply put: delusional, paranoid, and unhinged from any sense of reality.”

“Trump is so vain he thinks this is about him. NO IT IS NOT,” Cruz wrote on Twitter.

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said he “strongly denounced” what he described as questioning the impact of the storm for political purposes.

“The victims and the people of Puerto Rico do not deserve to have their pain questioned,” he said in a statement. “It is not time to deny what happened, it is time to make sure that it does not happen again.”

Democrats on Capitol Hill blasted Trump.

“Only Donald Trump could see the tragedy in Puerto Rico and conclude that he is the victim,” said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. “May God bless the souls of the nearly 3,000 Americans that died in Puerto Rico and may he take pity on your soul Mr. President.”

Without mentioning Trump by name, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, slammed the “cavalier” tweeting about the number of deaths in Puerto Rico.

“You have lost compassion for people who are diverse,” she said.

Trump’s Thursday morning tweets focused on a George Washington University study released last month that examined the toll from Hurricane Maria. From September 2017 to February 2018, 2,975 people died, according to that study, which was commissioned by Puerto Rico’s government.

Late Thursday, deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley pushed back on criticism of the Trump’s response to Maria in a statement, saying the administration provided “unprecedented support to Puerto Rico.” Gidley said Cruz and the “liberal media” have tried to “exploit the devastation by pushing out a constant stream of misinformation and false accusations.”

In addition to force of the hurricane itself, many people in Puerto Rico died because disease and infection due to the lack of electricity and drinkable water on the island. The storm destroyed homes and and crippled roads, bridges, and hospitals.

George Washington University said Thursday it stands by the methodology used in the report and said the work was conducted with “complete independence and freedom from any kind of interference.”

“We are confident that the number – 2,975 – is the most accurate and unbiased estimate of excess mortality to date,” the school said in a statement.

Trump also took heat after he visited Puerto Rico in the aftermath of the Sept. 20, 2017, storm. The president tossed paper towels to Puerto Rican residents at a local relief center, angering storm victims and others who saw his actions as insensitive.

After his tweets Thursday, Democrats accused Trump of minimizing the death toll for callous political reasons.

Andrew Gillum, the Democratic candidate for governor in Florida, slammed Trump’s tweet.

“No death is partisan and our brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico deserved better from @realDonaldTrump before, during, and after the hurricane.”

The House Democratic Caucus tweeted that Trump “won’t acknowledge the thousands of Americans who died on his watch,” and added, “Even worse, Republicans have no interest in holding this administration accountable and ensuring that Congress is prepared to respond to these disasters.”

A report released this summer by the Federal Emergency Management Agency identified deficiencies in the administration’s response, including that the agency was not adequately staffed heading into the hurricane season. In the months leading up to Maria’s approach, FEMA had 10,683 people on hand, about 86 percent of the agency’s target, the report found.

The report found that the island itself was not prepared for such a storm, which contributed to widespread loss of power and communications – hampering the response.

A Government Accountability Office report last week confirmed many of those findings, and also noted that 54 percent of the FEMA workers deployed last year were serving in a role they were not qualified to perform. Staffing shortfalls complicated many aspects of the response, including the effort to move people into temporary housing in the mainland, the GAO found.

“The 2017 hurricanes and wildfires highlighted some longstanding issues and revealed other emerging response and recovery challenges,” the report said.

Source: USA Today newspaper – Posted September 13, 2018; retrieved September 14, 2018 from: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/09/13/donald-trump-without-evidence-questions-puerto-rico-death-toll/1288118002/

—————–

Appendix B VIDEO – An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power (2017) – Official Trailer – https://youtu.be/huX1bmfdkyA

Published on Mar 28, 2017 – Watch the new trailer for An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, the sequel to An Inconvenient Truth. In theatres July 28, 2017. #BeInconvenient

Climate Changes, Truth Does Not.

A decade after AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH brought Climate Change into the heart of popular culture, comes the riveting and rousing follow-up that shows just how close we are to a real energy revolution. Vice President Al Gore continues his tireless fight traveling around the world training an army of climate champions and influencing international climate policy. Cameras follow him behind the scenes – in moments both private and public, funny and poignant — as he pursues the inspirational idea that while the stakes have never been higher, the perils of Climate Change can be overcome with human ingenuity and passion.

Official Movie Site: http://www.inconvenientsequel.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnInconvenie…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/aitruthfilm

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aninconveni…

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Mortimer Candies … Thriving at 90

Posted on September 13, 2018 in Ethos, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Candy is good … for you!

At least here at Mortimer’s Candy Kitchen in Nassau, Bahamas*.

This establishment is now celebrating 90 years of continuous operations; that’s 90 years of smiles. These sweet confections are more than just hard manifestation of sugar; no, this is manifestation of Bahamian excellence.

That’s right. This is bigger than candy. This is the manifestation of the unique Bahamian culture and identity.

This is the focus of this movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free. We examine and exclaim dimensions of Caribbean society and culture – good and bad! Mortimer Candies – despite the underlying presence of sugar – is all good! One can taste the 90 years of love and pride in every concoction.

Here’s to 90 more years!

————

VIDEO –  Behind the sweets at Mortimer’s Candy – https://youtu.be/9kZRMOVbwRA 

BahamasLocal
Published on Jul 29, 2010 – Bahamas Local got to watch the pros at Mortimer’s Candy mix a batch of hard candy at their shop at the top of East Street. Check out our video to see how they get all those colors in your favorite candies.

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. The purpose of the book is not culture, it is economics, security and governance. But the book clearly supports the notion that the Caribbean is the greatest address on the planet – not because of the terrain, fauna and flora –  but because of culture, festivals, food, music, dance, rum, cigars and our unique history. We have a fusion of African, Amer-Indian, European and Asian influences that cannot be found anywhere else on the planet.

Yes, candy is food! So Bahamian candy is part of the unique Bahamian culture.

The importance of our culture is why we work so strenuously to improve our societal engines. In fact, these 3 prime directives is the focus of this CU/Go Lean roadmap, though on a regional basis:

The Go Lean book stresses that preserving Caribbean culture is a heavy-lift task; there are global forces trying to assimilate Caribbean people to conform to foreign cultural influences (think: American & European), instead of promoting our local cultures. We must not be molded by these global influences; rather we must project a positive image to the world and declare that we are not ‘Less Than‘.

This quest requires that we firstly, “fix what is broken”, that is reform and transform our societal engines. So this is a quest to defend our specific Bahamian image and the overall Caribbean image. This effort is a Big Deal that requires regional collaboration. This regionalism effort was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 14):

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption … and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes … can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

xxxii. Whereas the cultural arts … of the region are germane to the quality of Caribbean life, and the international appreciation of Caribbean life, the Federation must implement the support systems to teach, encourage, incentivize, monetize and promote the related industries for arts and music in domestic and foreign markets. These endeavors will make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play.

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society. While we want to change our communities, we do want to preserve our treasured culture.

Cultural preservation is a familiar subject for this Go Lean roadmap; there have been a number of previous blog-commentaries by the Go Lean movement that explored dimensions of Caribbean culture. As follows is a sample of those previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15376 Preserving and Monetizing Caribbean Culture
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12304 Caribbean Festival of the Arts – Past, Present and Future
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9860 Forging Change Thru Arts & Artists
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9712 Forging Change Thru Panem et Circenses (Food & Festivals)
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5098 Forging Change Through Food and Culture

In summary, on a national basis, our Bahamian culture is important to our Bahamian identity. As we meld with the rest of the world, our unique culture must shines through. But we are part of a bigger family – our Caribbean region. On the regional basis, our Caribbean culture is important to the Caribbean identity.

Our quest is simple: to promote and preserve our culture. The success of this effort allows us to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

————–

References: * This author is from the Bahamas.

Get more info at this link: http://mortimercandies.com/

 

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Naomi Osaka’s recipe for success: Caribbean Meld

Posted on September 12, 2018 in Ethos, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

There is actually a recipe for success on the world stage, one that has just been applied by tennis superstar Naomi Osaka in winning the 2018 US Open over fan-favorite Serena Williams. The recipe:

Meld Caribbean distinctiveness with that of other cultures.

Wait what?!

This sounds so familiar, even fictionalized! Those who are fans of the science fiction franchise Star Trek will remember the mantra of the cybernetic life form “The Borg”. Their announcement when attacking potential victims were as follows:

”We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.” – Source

This is “Art imitating Life”! We see this recipe at work with this new sports champion and beneficiary of this international melding: Naomi Osaka.

She is a professional tennis player who represents Japan internationally. She is the first Japanese citizen to win a Grand Slam singles tournament, defeating Serena Williams in the final of the 2018 US Open.[6] Osaka has reached a career-high world ranking of No. 7.[4] She was born to a Haitian father, Leonard “San” François, and a Japanese mother, Tamaki Osaka .[7]

This story, beyond its relevance to sports, has a Caribbean relevance because of Osaka’s parentage. The meld – noun/verb: blend – had produced an end-product that has accomplished more than any one component has accomplished on its own. Osaka is the first Japanese citizen to win a Grand Slam event, and needless-to-say, the first Haitian.  It has not been easy:

In racially homogeneous Japan, Osaka is considered hāfu, which is Japanese for biracial.[10] Her Japanese grandfather was furious when he found out that her mother was romantically involved with a black man. As a result of the interracial relationship, her mother did not have contact with her family for over ten years.[8] In a 2016 interview, Osaka said: “When I go to Japan, people are confused. From my name, they don’t expect to see a black girl.”[11] – Wikipedia

This biography provides a lesson-learned for the rest of the Caribbean, and the world for that matter:

  • To our Caribbean brothers and sisters, we entreat you to embrace pluralism; good things come from the embrace of our differences.
  • To the rest of world, we declare that the Caribbean identity is not “Less Than”. We bring a strength of character and ethos that adds value and elevates any community where we meld.

If we can successfully meld and conquer a challenge on the world stage, how much more so can we meld our distinctiveness here at home or in our regional neighborhood to accomplish greater feats. This is the message of the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean, which asserts that great Caribbean progress is in store when we meld – integrate, collaborate and confederate. The book – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states.

This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs. There are many industrial expressions that we will have to make in order to reach these goals, including the facilitation of the Art & Science of Sports.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

The book stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 14):

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes … can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

xxxi. Whereas sports have been a source of great pride for the Caribbean region, the economic returns from these ventures have not been evenly distributed as in other societies. The Federation must therefore facilitate the eco-systems and vertical industries of sports as a business, recreation, national pastime and even sports tourism …

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines for all member-states in the Caribbean region.

The story of Naomi Osaka is about more than just her heritage. She is an excellent athlete of her own making. It takes blood, sweat and tears to excel at the highest level of her sport. For Osaka to beat Serena Williams – earning $3.8 million – that was no fluke; that was the full measure of her athletic prowess; that was heavy-lifting. Even now, all the attention is on Serena losing, rather than Osaka winning; see the VIDEO here and the related story in the Appendix below:

VIDEO – US Open Highlights – https://nyp.st/2CM60t5

Published September 8, 2018 – Serena has mother of all meltdowns in US Open final loss.

Heavy-lifting in sports is a familiar theme for this Go Lean movement; we recognize that there could be more economic rewards if the regional stewards do a better job of facilitating a viable sports eco-system – we have few expressions of professional sports and no intercollegiate system in the region. We have previously elaborated on how the Art & Science of sports can be used to help elevate our societal engines. Re-consider these previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11287 Creating a legacy in pro-Surfing
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8495 Basketball Great and Caribbean Role Model: Tim Duncan
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7866 Caribbean Track & Field Athletes monetize their talents “elsewhere”
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1446 Caribbean Players in the World Cup
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1020 Advocates and Revolutionaries for Caribbean Sports

So how can we foster more people in our Caribbean region to be like Naomi Osaka, people who can help to elevate our society and the global image of Caribbean contributions to the world? The Go Lean book addressed this question; within its 370-pages of instructions for impacting society, in the specific details for fostering more world-class athletes. Consider the summaries, excerpts and headlines from this one advocacy in the book on Page 229 entitled:

10 Ways to Improve Sports

1 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market
This will allow for the unification of the region of 30 member-states into a single market of 42 million people and a GDP exceeding $800 Billion (per 2010). This market size and multi-lingual realities allows for broadcasting rights with SAP-style language options for English, Spanish, French and Dutch. This makes the region attractive for media contracts for broadcast rights, spectrum auctions and sports marketing. The Olympics have demonstrated that sports can be profitable “big business”, and a great source of jobs and economic activity. The CU will copy the Olympic model, and harness the potential in many other sporting endeavors, so as to make the region a better place to live, work and play.
2 CU Games
Promote the CU Games, every 2 years, as the ascension of the CARIFTA Games for Amateur and now Professional Athletes. The CU Games Administration will also partner with all National Olympic Committees. This administration applies to feeder games, trials and qualification events. The ultimate goal is to field a world-class competitive Olympic Team representing the entire Caribbean. While the CARIFTA Games are for track-and-field events only, the CU Games will resemble a mini-Olympics with multi-sports (boxing, football/soccer, tennis, volleyball, sailing, baseball/softball, etc.)
3 Fairgrounds as Sport Venues
The CU Fairgrounds (managed by the Interior Department) will have the infrastructure to fund, build and maintain sports arenas and “stadiums” (stadia) in local markets. The mantra is “build it and they will come”, so the CU building and managing world-class sport facilities will result in a more organized industry and the emergence of vertical markets.
4 Regulate Amateur, Professional & Academically-Aligned Leagues
5 Establish Sports Academies
6 “Super” Amateur Sport Association
7 Regulator/Registrar of Scholar-Athletes – Assuage Abandonment
8 Sports Tourism
9 Professional Agents and Player Management Oversight (a la Bar/Lawyer Associations).
10 Impanel the CU Anti-Doping Agency

Congratulation Naomi Osaka!

… and thank you … for making it easier for us to impress on the world that Caribbean-anything is not “Less Than”. That argument is now easier to make.

It is now also easier to convey the message that “Yes, we can” forge a “pluralistic” democracy and make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

—————–

Appendix – It’s shameful what US Open did to Naomi Osaka
Opinion by: Maureen Callahan

Naomi Osaka, 20 years old, just became the first player from Japan to win a Grand Slam.

Yet rather than cheer Osaka, the crowd, the commentators and US Open officials all expressed shock and grief that Serena Williams lost.

Osaka spent what should have been her victory lap in tears. It had been her childhood dream to make it to the US Open and possibly play against Williams, her idol, in the final.

It’s hard to recall a more unsportsmanlike event.

Here was a young girl who pulled off one of the greatest upsets ever, who fought for every point she earned, ashamed.

At the awards ceremony, Osaka covered her face with her black visor and cried. The crowd booed her. Katrina Adams, chairman and president of the USTA, opened the awards ceremony by denigrating the winner and lionizing Williams — whose ego, if anything, needs piercing.

“Perhaps it’s not the finish we were looking for today,” Adams said, “but Serena, you are a champion of all champions.” Addressing the crowd, Adams added, “This mama is a role model and respected by all.”

That’s not likely the case now, not after the world watched as Serena Williams had a series of epic meltdowns on the court, all sparked when the umpire warned her: No coaching from the side. Her coach was making visible hand signals.

“I don’t cheat to win,” Williams told him. “I’d rather lose.”

She couldn’t let it go, going back multiple times to berate the umpire. At one point she called him a thief.

“You stole a point from me!” she yelled.

After her loss, Williams’s coach admitted to ESPN that he had, in fact, been coaching from the stands, a code violation. The warning was fair.

Everything that followed is on Williams, who is no stranger to tantrums. Most famously, she was tossed from the US Open in 2009 after telling the line judge, “I swear to God I’ll take the f—king ball and shove it down your f—king throat.” John McEnroe was taken aback. Even Williams’s mother, Oracene Price, couldn’t defend her daughter’s outburst.

“She could have kept her cool,” Price said.

On Saturday, she also could have tried to be gracious in defeat. No matter how her fans try to spin this, Williams was anything but. Upon accepting her finalist award, she gave parsimonious praise to her competitor while telling the crowd she felt their pain.

“Let’s try to make this the best moment we can,” she said in part, “and we’ll get through it . . . let’s not boo anymore. We’re gonna get through this and let’s be positive, so congratulations, Naomi.”

Osaka accepted her trophy while choking back tears. She never smiled. When asked if her childhood dream of playing against Williams matched the reality, she politely sidestepped the question.

“I’m sorry,” Osaka said. “I know that everyone was cheering for her and I’m sorry it had to end like this.”

She turned to Williams. “I’m really grateful I was able to play with you,” Osaka said. “Thank you.” She bowed her head to Williams, and Williams just took it — no reciprocation, no emotion.

Osaka, a young player at the beginning of her career, showed grit, determination and maturity on that court and off.

She earned that trophy. Let’s recall that this wasn’t Osaka’s first victory over Williams — she beat Williams back in March, causing a hiccup in that great comeback narrative.

Osaka earned her moment as victor at the US Open, one that should have been pure joy. If anything was stolen during this match, it was that.

Source: New York Post Newspaper – Posted September 8, 2018; retrieved September 12, 2018 from: https://nypost.com/2018/09/08/its-shameful-what-us-open-did-to-naomi-osaka/

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Manifesting High-Tech Neighborhoods

Posted on September 11, 2018 in Ethos, Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Previously … we said:

“Build it and they will come”.

Now … we are saying:

Get out of the way and ‘they’ will come and build it.

It could be that simple – there are players who want the opportunity to test their theories, manifest their visions and explore their ideas. They will come to you and build High-Tech neighborhoods, but only if you let them, not trample on their sensibilities and not block their progress.

Are you willing to cooperate in a climate like that? Can you “live and let live”?

The answer is not so obvious. A lot of people treasure their independence. They are willing to endure whatever disposition in life as long as they “do it their way”. This is why Self-Governing Entities are so critical in this plan for a new Caribbean.

Self-Governing Entities (SGE), as defined in the book Go Lean … Caribbean, allows communities to apply changes to a limited geographic area. (Truth be told, it is hard to change whole countries; it is easier to change just a small area at a time).

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states, bottoms-up neighborhood by neighborhood. The book defines SGE’s as follows (Page 30):

Self-Governing Entities
The CU will promote and administer all Self-Governing Entities (SGE) throughout the region. This refers to scientific labs, industrial parks, commercial campuses, experimental hospitals, and even foreign bases. These facilities will not be subject to the laws of the local states of their address, rather CU, international, foreign sovereignty, or maritime laws, thus spurring [Research & Development or] R&D.

Who will be the owners/investors of the Self-Governing Entities that embark in the new Caribbean?

Many candidates abound! Here is one example. Here is Google – and their subsidiary Sidewalk Labs – as they engage their test-plan and manifest their vision for a limited urban area … in Toronto, Canada. See the full story here:

Title: Google’s parent company just reached an agreement with Toronto to plan a $50 million high-tech neighborhood
By: Leanna Garfield

  • On Tuesday (07/31/2018) morning, Waterfront Toronto’s board unanimously agreed to work with Sidewalk Labs to develop a 12-acre swath of the city into a high-tech neighborhood.
  • Sidewalk Labs, the urban-innovation arm of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, had committed $10 million for the planning process, and an additional $40 million in investment has now been unlocked. The entire development is expected to cost at least $1 billion.
  • The company has been quiet about the exact plans for the neighborhood, but its CEO, Dan Doctoroff, has spoken about how urban environments could be improved through self-driving cars, machine learning, high-speed internet, and embedded sensors that track energy usage.

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Sidewalk Labs — the urban-innovation arm of Google’s parent company, Alphabet — just got the green light to plan a high-tech neighborhood on Toronto’s waterfront.

On Tuesday morning, the board of Waterfront Toronto, the organization administering revitalization projects along the Canadian city’s waterfront, unanimously agreed to work with the company to design the neighborhood. Final approval to physically develop the plans is likely to happen next year.

Called Quayside, the neighborhood will be designed to prioritize “sustainability, affordability, mobility, and economic opportunity,” according to Sidewalk Labs. The city of Toronto and Sidewalk Labs call the larger project “Sidewalk Toronto.”

Sidewalk had already committed $10 million for the planning process, and an additional $40 million in investment was unlocked with the board’s approval. The entire 12-acre development, however, is expected to cost at least $1 billion, The Wall Street Journal estimated.

The agreement “lays out a path towards a transparent, collaborative partnership with Waterfront Toronto and the people of Toronto,” Josh Sirefman, Sidewalk Labs’ head of development, told Business Insider in a statement. “We look forward to working together to develop a groundbreaking plan to improve the lives of people living in Toronto and cities like it around the world.”

The company has been quiet about the exact plans for the neighborhood, but Sidewalk Labs’ CEO, Dan Doctoroff, has spoken about how urban environments could be improved through self-driving cars, machine learning, high-speed internet, and embedded sensors that track energy usage.

“We are excited to take this next step with Sidewalk Labs to set the stage for a transformational project on the waterfront that addresses many critical urban issues faced by Toronto and other cities around the world,” Waterfront Toronto tweeted Tuesday.

Based on 2017 renderings, it looks as if Sidewalk Labs wants Quayside to be a mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly neighborhood. The preliminary illustrations include bike-share systems, apartment housing, bus lines, and parks.

The project has been in the works for more than a year. In March 2017, Sidewalk Labs responded to Toronto’s request for proposals to redevelop the waterfront parcel. The planning process kicked off with a community town-hall meeting in November where residents discussed their thoughts and concerns about the project.

Business Insider previously reported that locals had expressed worries that Quayside could become a “new Silicon Valley,” bringing issues like gentrification, higher housing prices, and income inequality.

The plan-development agreement became public on Tuesday afternoon after Waterfront Toronto and Sidewalk Labs signed the deal.
Source: Business Insider Magazine – posted July 31, 2018; retrieved September 6, 2018 from: https://www.businessinsider.com/google-sidewalk-labs-toronto-neighborhood-2018-7?utm_content=buffer2ecae

From the Caribbean to Google: “We want some of that!”

It is our hope that with the appropriate governmental structure in place, Google (Alphabet) may bring some of those investment dollars – see related Appendix VIDEO – to our Caribbean shores. This type of investor was an early motivation for this roadmap for regional cooperation and confederation, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 13):

xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

Following and studying the machinations of the Google company/enterprise is a good idea. This company “puts its money where its mouth is”. We have previously identified these Research & Development efforts that have manifested over the years:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3974 Google and Mobile Phones – Here comes change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1743 Google and Novartis to develop ‘smart’ contact lens
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1277 The need for highway safety innovations – here comes Google

In a previous Go Lean blog-commentary, it was related how it is much easier to reform and transform a country by focusing on families, neighborhoods and cities. Do this again and again, and the whole nation, even the region is transformed.

Imagine Caribbean islands and coastal states with SGE’s peppered throughout the region. This is the new Caribbean that is being presented: reforming and transforming the full region, one neighborhood at a time. Imagine too, if the transformations are technological: electric street cars, self-driving vehicles, high-speed internet, and smart energy systems.

The Art & Science of cities is very important for this Go Lean roadmap to elevate Caribbean society. The Go Lean book applied detailed analyses of a number of cities (Caribbean city: Freeport, Bahamas; American cities: New York City; Omaha, Nebraska; Detroit, Michigan; Los Angeles City-County), then proceeded to detail the needed strategies, tactics and implementation to reform Caribbean urban areas. In fact, the CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs. This roadmap calls for Self-Governing Entities, even in urban area, so as to optimize industrial policy.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines. Urban areas always have additional protections compared to rural areas.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies. SGE’s are managed only at the federal level, but there must be negotiations with local/municipal governments.

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society … including the urban communities. There is even one advocacy that relates specifically to urban optimization; consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines from the book on Page 234 entitled:

10 Ways to Impact Urban Living

1 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market
This treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market, thereby expanding to an economy of 30 countries, 42 million people and a GDP of over $800 Billion (according to 2010 metrics). The mission of the CU is to enhance the economic engines of the region, fostering institutions like capital markets, secondary mortgage funds and consumer credit reporting. These initiatives will facilitate local governments and town-planning efforts by providing the financing vehicles, and eco-system, for the real estate developers and municipal governments to predict the supply-and-demand..
2 Self-Governing Entities

The CU will promote and administer all self-governing entities (SGE) throughout the region. This refers to scientific labs, industrial parks, commercial campuses, experimental hospitals, and even foreign bases. These facilities will not be subject of the laws of the local states of their address, rather CU, international, foreign sovereignty, or maritime laws; but depend on the local infrastructure to provide basic needs. Thereby creating jobs and economic activity.
3 Proximity to Healthcare
4 Online Education Facilitation
5 Optimizing Transportation Options

The CU will spearhead transportation solutions for intra-city transit, so as to assuage urban traffic congestion. This will include rail options such as above-ground light-rail and street cars on the major arterial roads. The development of toll roads, with price-traffic elasticity, is a basic CU strategy for urban transportation infrastructure. So too, is bicycle options; the CU will foster local deployments of bicycle paths, dedicated lanes and on-demand bike sharing/rental programs; (see Appendix ZU). Bike Sharing is a synergistic solution for health/wellness and transportation. A lot of urban areas in the Caribbean region are old cities, designed centuries ago; therefore they have small quaint streets – perfect for bicycling.
6 In-sourcing
7 Service Continuity – ITIL
8 Financial Guarantees
9 Big Data Analysis

The CU’s embrace of e-Government and e-Delivery models allows for a lot of data to be collected and analyzed so as to measure many aspects of Caribbean life, including: trade, economic, consumption, societal values and macro-performance, and media consumption. This way, “course adjustments” can be made to strategic and tactical pursuits.
10 Legislative Oversight

In addition to the book, previous Go Lean commentaries related details of urban life and how best-practices can be applied so as to make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. Here is a sample of previous blogs:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11386 Making Better Cities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8573 Build a Street Car System and Harvesting the Growth
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6016 Model of Urban Solutions – Cooperative Refrigeration
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4587 Burlington, Vermont: First city to be powered 100% by renewables
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3641 ‘We Built This City …’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3326 M-1 Rail: Alternative Motion in the Motor City
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1731 Ode to Omaha, a Model City
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1596 Book Review: ‘Prosper Where You Are Planted’

The Go Lean book and these accompanying blogs posit that economic success can be forged by doubling-down on R&D in Caribbean cities. We can improve one urban neighborhood at a time. Before we know it, we have changed the whole region.

We can do better, than our Status Quo.

There are many role models to follow.

The foregoing example – Google-Sidewalk Labs in Toronto, Canada – is a manifestation that the change we seek is conceivable, believable and achievable. Yes, we can … make our homelands better places to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the free e-book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

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Appendix VIDEO – Inside the construction project promising to transform Toronto’s waterfront – https://youtu.be/PAgTA6tQdZs

CityNews Toronto
Published on Jun 27, 2018 – It’s a $1.25 billion multi-year project that promises to transform how Torontonians live, work and play along the waterfront. Tina Yazdani checks in on the creation of a new shoreline and flood protection system in the Portlands.

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