• FAMILY BUSINESSES, WHICH COMPRISE NINE IN TEN OF THE WORLD’S ENTERPRISES, FACE DILEMMAS AND COMMON CHALLENGES. Most typical are: “(1) Family loyalty and multi-generational thinking which morphs into resistance to change; (2) Clash with outside equity interests; (3) Meeting family expectations and continuing a legacy while achieving personal fulfillment of heirs; (4) Frustration of non-family staff, raising uncomfortable questions about social mobility (or lack thereof); (5) Accusations of belonging to the ‘Lucky Sperm Club’ (a Warren Buffett term); (6) Pre-existing domestic frictions that make their way into the business, and/or disagreements which can bring feuds among siblings…  Family Business is not a business kids inherit from parents, but rather a business which one borrows from the children.”  DCG have decades of experience in resolving these issues to optimal results – both in estate planning strategy and in functional interrelationships post-transition. [ECONOMIST – 4/8/23]  
  • CORPORATE WOKENESS IS WORKING, A RESULT OF OLD-FASHIONED STRONG-ARM THREATS. Latest data shows 840 U.S. companies (including 15 of Fortune-ranked top 20) have received ‘Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality’ Certification from the Human Rights Campaign funded by George Soros – “the largest gay rights political lobbying group in the world…The award is based on a Corporate Equality Index rating of workplace features such as ‘gender-neutral dress code, data collection about sexual orientation & gender identity, and supplier diversity, along with demonstrated effort to utilize other Certified suppliers… Compliance is strictly enforced by HRC representatives checking visibility of company programs for workforce protections/ inclusive benefits/ inclusive culture/ social responsibility/ responsible citizenship/ etc., absence of which threatens loss of Certification (and susceptibility to boycotts)… It’s the modern-day equivalent of Mafia protection money to keep the heat off their businesses,” and combined with Virtue Signaling, big businesses are complying.  [PRICKLY PEAR – 4/13/23]
  • BUSINESSES WITH ANY EMPLOYEES NOTE: California’s Private Attorney General Act (PAGA) allows any current or former employee to act on behalf of the state (which keeps 75% of any penalty settlement), and on behalf of all ‘aggrieved employees’ (i.e. class action) relating to violations of over a hundred laws in its Labor Code. No matter how trivial the violation and regardless of any actual injury, a single violation can subject an employer to massive civil penalties, based on every pay period and for every employee in the class. Violations can relate to wage/hour laws, method of tracking time, wage statements, payroll records, policies, handbooks, etc. So, documentation and implementation of policies should be a critical company priority, with HR specialists and Employment Law attorneys not only regularly updating Handbooks but also reviewing recordkeeping procedures and materials.
  • RIGHT-HAND/ LEFT-HAND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES are making the White House effort to remake the auto industry a literal joke. While the President has Executive-Ordered a goal for 50% electric vehicles in eight years by 2030, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just announced emission standards projected to achieve 67% EV sales in less than 10 years, the Energy Information Agency just forecasted that EVs could make up to only 15% in eight years – and 19% by 2050, twenty-eight years. Beyond the incapacity to develop electrical grid and/or automakers to remake manufacturing facilities, latest polling suggests that nearly half of U.S. adults are unlikely to switch at all, concerned about range and cost of electric vehicles. “This blunt-force Big Government effort to eliminate gas-powered vehicles is a citizen-beggaring strategy by ecofascists hell-bent on picking winners and losers, ignoring the free market, even if it means ignoring the will of the American people.”  [PATRIOT POST – 4/14/23]
  •  THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

San Francisco’s ‘progressive’ view on crime has caused another major store to close – Whole Foods 64K sq.ft. Flagship, opened less than one year ago – to “ensure safety of its employees, after deteriorating street conditions around drug use & crime… The store had already slashed hours due to high theft, hostile visitors, and syringes & pipes being left in the bathrooms. “

 According to Scientific American medical & science journal), moves in Florida’s legislature to control public education are “akin to fascist strategies of Italy’s dictator Benito Mussolini, while parental concerns about leftist indoctrination with Critical Race Theory, DEI training, the perversion of so-called gender-fluidity and transgenderism (including irreversible mutilation of children’s bodies) are the Personification of Evil… How can you not laugh at the magnificent morons of the radical left?”  [RED STATE]

Lots more cold weather & rain is coming to California as the cyclical El Nino climate pattern progresses. Nat’l Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) now reports a 62% chance that by July ( 80 to 90% by fall) increased sea surface temperature over the Pacific equator will shift the ‘jet stream’ to cause this climate effect, along with stronger hurricanes in the central and eastern Pacific.

A Creative explanation of how our tax system is contributing to societal breakdown. https://biggeekdad.com/2019/02/how-the-tax-system-works/ 

 On Aging:  At age 4 success is not piddling in your pants. At age 12 success is measured by having friends. At 16, it’s having a driver’s license. At age 30, it’s having money. Until 65 it’s having more money. At 75, it’s still having a driver’s license and back to having friends. And after 80, back to not piddling in your pants.