TELLING STORIES WITH NUMBERS

 

Some readers may be curious about the author. Here is a short story about me:

Telling a story with numbers means learning what the numbers say and then summarizing that story using the numbers as examples. Some call that Financial Planning and Analysis [FP&A]. Regardless, I have told stories with numbers in various arenas during my entire professional career. Most good business stories have two basic parts: the Mission of the Enterprise; and, the projected and/or actual financial results.

I read the story of Economics at Whittier College and then in graduate school at LSE  [London School of Economics] in England where I took an M. Sc. [Econ] in 1966. I studied Russia during the Cold War at LSE to understand the challenge presented to Capitalism by the story of Socialism. This blog presenst my observations of the continuing threats to the National Security of the United States posed by Russian tyrannies and our domestic response to those threats.

My first significant job was an F P & A analyst at a publicly traded chemical process manufacturing company in Los Angeles. I wrote the stories of the plans and then analyzed the financial results for hundreds of operating plans. I wrote the plans in longhand with an adding machine and summarized the stories of performance for the Board and Corporate management. Eventually I used a variety of software programs to write the stories of how the results compared to the plans.

From there I wrote my book ‘HOW TO WRITE A BUSINESS PLAN’, which explained financial story telling for entrepreneurs. My book has helped thousands of entrepreneurs for more than 30 years and is now in its 14^th Edition. I also created and managed a Business Plan Mentoring consultancy where I helped several entrepreneurs tell better stories.

As Professor of Economics at City College of San Francisco [CCSF] I taught Economic stories to college students for 23 years until retiring in 2023. I wrote a textbook [MACROECONOMIC ESSENTIALS, 2020] for my students to see the story we discussed in class.

And, I changed the story of Economics to include the impact on real people of economic decisions and published the new story here [www.miepa.net].

My family has some history in Amercia: 400 Years of Stories from My American Family: Includes some historically notable family stories Kindle Edition,

Billionaire Bad Dogs: Turds in the Punchbowl

Training a dog to poop where you want him to poop can be hard. First thing before you try to train him is to get his attention by rubbing his nose in the poop, then you can show him what you want. Billionaires and dogs are similar in that neither one understands fully WHY you want something from them; I consider myself lucky if I can show my dog what I want. And, maybe he'll remember it. 

Many Billionaires want more money as their primary goal. They will support anything they expect to give them more money. Some think a tyranny will do that for them. We should try to train them to POOP properly. 

Maybe we can rub their nose in the POOP so they won’t install a dictator. After all, It's hard to really understand what life is like in a tyranny; especially for those who have not travelled in or read about tyrannies. 

Here’s the POOP  --  rub it on them...

Life under a tyrant can be peaceful when the media are silent about crime. Tyrants will murder or imprison those who insist on reporting crime, especially crimes committed by the tyrant and his cronies. 

An American dictator will target 'bad' reporters first. Say ‘Goodbye’ to Rachel Maddow [MSNBC] and Marc Elias [https://www.elias.law/team/marc-elias].

An American dictator will imprison opposition politicians in remote camps with limited medical care; some may die in camp. Say ‘Goodbye’ to Bernie Sanders [D VT]. 

A tyrant may simply shoot them on the street or murder them in their home. Say  ‘Goodbye’ to Jamie Raskin [https://raskin.house.gov/about]. 

Some of our American Billionaires and Corporations support a tyranny in the 2024 elections. Perhaps they think their wealth will grow with a dictator. 

They are deluded.

Tyrants assume they control all the property in their country. Some Billionaires think their association with him protects them and their property assets. But, when a tyrant wants a property for some purpose, he just takes it. A complex set of laws and chain of title protects property ownership today, but a tyrant can just ignore those laws.

Tyrants may just shoot the objecting person as he drives to the office using a long distance sniper. Say ‘Goodbye’ to Bill Gates.

Or, perhaps you are a compassionate Doctor and refuse to treat patients with medications specified by the State: You may be thrown out of a window in the hospital. Say  ‘Goodbye’ to Dr. Fauci.

How about a woman raped by the tyrant? Say ‘Goodbye’ to Stormy Daniels and E. Jean Carroll.

Can you flee to another country with a stable reputation of protecting its residents? The tryant will find you. You may fall out of a building,

 Or, random criminals may shoot you and your family while you are on a vacation. 

Or, your accountant may be locked inside a damp cellar and beaten daily until he dies.

Or, you may join an old acquaintance for a cup of tea.

Or, someone may poison your house so that your an your adult daughter almost die from touching the door handle.

Or, an assassin my find you in a public park in Paris and chase you down until he shoots you.

Does it ‘stink’ yet?

This and more will happen if we elect a tyrant.

See more here