• FOR A BRILLIANT PERSPECTIVE ON HOW & WHY OUR ECONOMY WORKS (OR DOESN’T) and where the cycle is headed, a 30-minute animated course in simple English, absolutely worth your attention: http://www.economicprinciples.org    Also, for a  very clever 3-minute simple animated presentation on HOW the internet works:  http://www.wimp.com/internetworks
  • ‘SUCCESSION CHALLENGES’ NOW RANK AMONG THE TOP FIVE BUSINESS RISKS.  A poll of 400 C-level executives for global companies found increasing concern that “motivating and equipping the growing number of younger workers (so-called Millennials) require different tactics… including alternative staffing models that provide more flexibility for retaining and replacing talent” at all managerial levels – but particularly in developing reliable successor executive management.  In family and closely-held businesses, where complex interpersonal relations typically prevail and where estate-tax-avoidance issues often take precedence, the challenge is even greater. DCG has decades of experience in strategically developing, mediating and orchestrating effective succession plans.  [DIRECTORSHIP MAGAZINE – Feb 6, 14]
  • A SELF-GENERATING ELECTRIC-HYBRID BICYCLE should be available by summer, with a motorized rear wheel powered charged by pedal-generated kinetic energy. Using a mobile app, cyclists can draw on five gears of power stored in a battery pack for up to thirty miles, as “sensors in the wheel measure topographical data and pedal force, kicking in to match user’s programmed boost settings.” The Wheel pre-sold its first thousand units at $700 each. [BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK – Feb 3, 14]
  • NEWEST SCAMS ALERT: (1) “Fraudsters get computers to send thousands of calls to random cell phone users which ring once and disconnect.” Curious users then call back to find music and/or a dragged out message which shows up on the next phone bill at $9 per minute from countries in the Caribbean; (2) Funeral notification emails which invite the recipient to an “upcoming celebration of your friend’s life service” but, upon click back, downloads malware; similarly, obscure ‘your order has shipped’ emails from Amazon, EBay, Fedex, etc. which also load malware; (3) Fake Google or Amazon Checkout invoices which direct payments to Western Union, MoneyGram or a bank source;  and (4) Credit Card charges for under $10 (often $9.84) which are often skipped over on monthly invoices. [DETROIT FREE PRESS – Feb 6, 14]
  • PERSPECTIVE ON CHINA’S FINANCIAL INTERDEPENDENCY WITH AMERICA:  Chinese companies get dollars by manufacturing/assembling products for global supply chains and have now amassed some $1.3 trillion in U.S. Treasuries, a worrisome position to most. But reality may be the opposite – that “Beijing is a hostage to our willingness to honor those obligations… If China sold off their Treasury notes, prices might wobble, but not for long before smart asset buyers would gobble them up as underpriced… Moreover, China would be paid in U.S. dollars, and then what?  Dump for say yen or Euros? …It is trade, not hoarding, which makes for a powerful economy and Beijing is becoming more dependent on the U.S. (and the rest of the world) for its strength and prosperity.”  [FORBES – Feb 10, 14]
  • WOW! “CHEATING ACTUALLY INCREASES CREATIVITY… and even seems to encourage creativity… because both creativity and dishonesty require a flexible attitude to rules, and cheats were less constrained to obey… The crucial predictor of creativity is the actual amount of cheating, not any propensity to cheat.” This all according to results of extensive experiments with 150 volunteers by professors from Harvard and USC.  [THE ECONOMIST – Feb 1, 14]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:      “If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved and never will achieve its full potential, that word is ‘meetings.”

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The divorce rate among women “plunged during the recession, but has inched back up as the economy has recovered and couples can better afford to split up,” according to a Univ. of Maryland study. A reminder that DCG provides exceptionally effective Mediation services in marital property disputes, at relatively inconsequential cost, when parties sensibly choose to divide assets personally rather than assigning the settlement task to litigation attorneys.

DUITCH CONSULTING GROUP – UTILIZING GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE TO PROVIDE OPTIMAL  STRATEGIC, FINANCIAL, OPERATIONS AND MANAGEMENT PLANNING & POSITIONING