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Most business people recognize that the most important time to generate good publicity is during or right after a crisis, because ultimately the preservation of one’s “brand” is vital to weathering crises. Generating goodwill and avoiding bad publicity, as much as possible, are vital to branding.
Many people don’t really understand what a brand is. In brief, a brand is a promise. It is a promise that every time people interact with a particular product or company or whatever, they will experience the same quality and value. A breech of that promise can tarnish a brand, and indeed, “brand death” is possible.
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We’ve been covering the proposed unionization 11,000 home child care providers by Governor Mark Dayton since he first proposed the idea several months ago. In November, he issued an executive order that scheduled an election via mail-in ballots, but the election would only allow the 4,300 or so providers that currently receive state subsidies to operate their home business to vote on a measure that would cover all providers in the state. Dayton, pressured by public employee unions like AFSCME that gave him thousands in campaign contributions in last year’s election, has blasted Republicans for linking his decision to his long standing relationship with union leaders. The facts, however, speak for themselves.
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The United States’ symbiotic circle with China is now indisputable. China, a country internationally acknowledged to be artificially inflating their currency, the Yuan, has been described by the U.S. Treasury as something quite the opposite; not a currency manipulator. They claim that the tag of ‘currency manipulator’ “have not been met with respect to China.” Apparently, Chinese purchasing vast amounts (upwards of 26%, or $1.1 trillion) of public U.S. debt, effectively keeping the Yuan from inflating while the rest of the world, particularly America, experiences inflation as per usual and the director-general of China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) claiming that “For everyone, including China, [purchasing U.S. Treasuries] is the only option” does not qualify as currency manipulation.
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Last month, the State of Minnesota received an early Christmas present. The state has brought in nearly $900 million over earlier budget forecasts. This is truly a great gift.
The money has to be used to replenish reserves. In other words, we already spent the money. With the large amount of accounting tricks the state government has been using for the last few years, this extra money will make our state’s budget a little more structurally sound.
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Have you ever wondered how a sports franchise can have a record-setting season in standing points, overall wins, or point differentials one season, and finish near the bottom of the division the next? In college sports, one might point to the loss of a several key seniors and an influx of inexperienced freshmen as to why the wins just aren’t coming. But in professional sports, how does the loss of one or two players cause a division-topping season be followed by a season at the bottom of the division?
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