Econ Recon: The Man may be Checking Out….The Future of Getting Things Done….Decoding Your Plastic…..Eleven Tough Lessons: “Everyone is Afraid”

 “If printing money is good for the economy, we should make counterfeiting legal.”

Brian Wesbury, Economist

 Econ Recon

Vistage Confidence Index: What your fellow CEOs think about the Economy Ahead:  This quarterly survey of our CEO members has been released for the third quarter.  Check out your fellow CEOs’ take on what’s ahead for the economy by clicking here.

The Man Who Runs the Economy may be checking out:  If you had to associate the economy with one person over the past four years (for good or ill) it would have to be Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve.  Economist Brian Wesbury in his latest Wesbury 101 Video  thinks that Mitt Romney’s stated intent to not renominate Bernanke if he becomes President (aside from being unprecedented) will motivate the Fed Chair to tender his resignation if Romney wins.

Banks: Good News Here…..Bad News There:   Vistage Staff Economist and Institute for Trend Research Presdient Alan Beaulieu shares two blog entries this week that are worth your attention.  First,  delays in implementing Dodd Frank may  benefit the economy in 2013…..and German Chancellor Merkel’s decision to not participate in bank recapitalizion makes Europe’s recovery even more uncertain and perhaps delayed until 2016.

The Future of Getting Things Done

The time (and therefore, productivity) master of the twenty-first century is David Allen whose “Getting Things Done” became a national best seller.   Allen maintains that mastering your time requires having a reliable system for capturing all your commitments and eliminating the stress of worrying whether you’ve kept track of everything.  As organizations become flatter and everyone takes on more responsibility, such techniques will move from the optional to mandatory.    Allen recently was interviewed in the Atlantic Monthly and asked about the future of “Busy and Busier.”   His observations include that the enemy is not information overload, it’s having to look for action items in the information. Plus he explains the reason that checking your email or Facebook page can become obsessively addictive (and counterproductive). Check it out!

Decoding Your Plastic

Ever wonder what all those numbers on your credit card mean?   They do mean something…and they have a function, too.   Learn more by checking here.

Eleven Tough Lessons

Take two minutes and check out this graphic executive summary and overview of Eleven Tough Leadership Lessons  taken from Deirdre Maloney’s book  Tough Truths: The Ten Leadership Lessons We Don’t Talk About   She created a multimillion dollar not for profit and shares what she learned along the way.   This well reviewed book is short and to the point.  Among her ten lessons:   “Everything is politics”….”Success in Unpopular”….. and “Everyone is Afraid.”