Author: CBPS

Peter Mehit is co-founder and Managing Partner of Custom Business Planning and Solutions, a business consulting firm that provides problem solving, planning and process help. He has worked from private equity to the Fortune 100 at all stages. He can be reached at pmehit@wbpllc.com or at 800-741-8444.

Should the U.S. Continue Its Stimulus-Program Payouts? | TIME

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For now the weak dollar is helping America’s exports. But it is also spooking holders of U.S. debt, whose continued purchases of U.S. Treasury bills allow Washington to fund its deficit spending. Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that the Reserve Bank of India had bought 200 tons of IMF gold reserves, the biggest single purchase by a central bank in 30 years. That pushed the price of gold past $1,100 an ounce, the latest record breaker in a string of new highs, as the market anticipated gold buying by other central banks to hedge against a falling dollar.

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Hard Work’s Overrated, Maybe Detrimental. | Design & Innovation | Fast Company

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overrated-work

A co-founder of Flickr argues that hard work often doesn’t amount to much–and neuroscience offers some backing for the claim.

Caterina Fake, who, with her husband Stewart Butterfield, founded Flickr, knows a thing or two about bliztkreig work schedules. But she points out that late nights are seldom very useful in the grand scheme of things. Hard work?

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New Thiel’s Deals! | Paul Thiel

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paul_headIn a very significant transaction for the Inland Empire, Superior Quality Foods — the Ontario-based maker of ‘Better than Bouillon’ and other products — was sold to Southeaster Mills. The deal was handled by Randy Krauthamer of MRC Worldwide. ‘Better the Bouillon’ is the #2 bouillon in traditional US grocery stores and #1 in organic-oriented stores. SQF’s other products are sold to leading branded and private label food manufacturers who use the firm’s products in frozen entrees and soups.

How Do You Pull Off a Ponzi Scheme? : Stupid Regulators | Securities and Exchange Commission Files

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Bernie Madoff's wild ride (Photo AP)

Don’t worry about government regulating health care, get them to regulate the financial markets:

Madoff said it was “amazing to me” that he didn’t get caught … because they specifically asked him, “Are these securities at DTC? (Depository Trust and Clearing Corp.)”  They further pressed, “What is your account number.” He replied, “646.” Madoff stated that it was “obvious they thought that something was amiss.” He went on to say that when they asked for the DTC account number, “I thought it was the end game, over. Monday morning they’ll call DTC and this will be over… and it never happened.”

Madoff stated that when … Enforcement did not follow up with DTC, “I was astonished.”

But the real question is, can the industry be regulated at all:

Madoff noted that the industry is growing incredibly complicated. He gave the example of when his firm put up a credit default swap and didn’t know how to do the books. Madoff said he didn’t know … He said he called Merrill Lynch, Lehman Bros, five firms total, all of which didn’t know. He said the NASD had no clue. Madoff stated that today, lots of trades are done off the books because people don’t know what to do with them.

Read the Horror – exhibit-0104