When former President George W. Bush used tax rebates to stimulate the national economy, taxpayers received checks to spend at places like the downtown hardware store. One Bush rebate was $168 billion and termed economic stimulus to jumpstart a lagging 2008 economy. Nearly 130 million households took advantage of tax rebates that ranged from $300 […]

At the recent Angel Capital Association (ACA) Summit in Austin, Texas, the Angel Resource Institute reported on angel group activity in 2011 in the first annual Halo Report. I found some of the results quite interesting. For example: The median round of investment by group was about $700,000 but less than $300,000 was invested by […]

Have you ever noticed how careful we are as business owners to take good care for our expensive business equipment? Like…robots. Robots get their hydraulic fluid changed, hydraulic lines pressure checked, wear points examined, worn parts replaced, firmware updated, tolerances tested, configurations checked and their overall performance checked. When a robot doesn’t measure up, it […]

Going into the debate between incumbent Sen. Jon Tester and his challenger, Congressman Denny Rehberg, I expected a mostly sleepy discussion. This was, after all, their first debate of many in a room brimming with stuffy journalists in Big Sky for the annual Montana Newspaper Association conference. But I was mostly wrong. A half hour […]

I am guessing that everyone who reads this newspaper has inherited and needed to fix a difficulty that was generated by someone else. The tendency in that situation is to rail against/whine about the person responsible for the trouble. But most sensible people end up doing their best to fix the problem. Sadly for people […]

How do you like political ads now that corruption and lying are legal? In 2012, conservatives dismantled Montana’s ban on knowingly lying in political ads. Conservatives, led by American Tradition Partnership, Montana Right to Life, and Beaverhead and Lake Republican Central Committees, also attacked Montana’s Corrupt Practices Act, a law 75 percent of Montana voters […]

We could almost hear the shot of the starter’s pistol as the race for Montana governor began in earnest earlier this month. First out of the gate was Democrat Steve Bullock with an election year promise of a $400 payment for certain property owners. Republican Rick Hill responded that Montanans need permanent tax reductions, not […]

Think about the connections that you have with your clients. Are they simple, long-lasting and personal? Or are they laborious, fragile and distant? If your customers have to deal with a laborious or impersonal process for *anything*, just stop it. Now. People have enough complexity and hassles in their lives. They need more simple, hassle-free […]

Like most all of you, I got plenty of election junk mail. Who sent it? In my “collection” for the Tutvedt/Roberts battle (which isn’t complete – I trashed everything I got from American Tradition Partnership, those weasels), aside from a handful of letters and cards from the candidates’ campaigns, I got flyers from Montanans for […]

At what point is government, any government, no longer necessary and outlived its usefulness? At what point does it go beyond constructive and become destructive? At what point does the average human being finally say, “I will no longer accept corrupted control over my life”? When does the moment arrive when we wrest back control […]

Enough already! The Democrats really need to stop their escalating assault on women. I, for one, have had enough. First, the Democrats insulted every woman’s intelligence by trying to convince us that a legitimate discussion about First Amendment rights – specifically the protection of religion from government intrusion – was an attack on a woman’s […]

Last week’s primaries set the stage for plenty of interesting matchups, but one that may have gone unnoticed is the race for the Public Service Commission District 3 seat, where incumbent Democrat John Vincent will face Republican Roger Koopman in a general election showdown of epic proportions. Having worked in Bozeman, and witnessed the animosity […]

Unless Congress acts the existing Farm Bill sunsets this fall. If Congress refuses to pass a new Farm Bill, elected leaders essentially eliminate food stamps – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – for millions of Americans right before the general election in November. That is just silly. The Republican-controlled U.S. House may want to eliminate SNAP. […]

“Justice” has long been a core value and the legal backbone of American society. Its tenets are woven into the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. These documents protect our natural rights of liberty and property, guarantees a number of personal freedoms, and limits the government’s power in judicial and other proceedings. However, to […]

The easy question sometimes plays the role of the hardest question. We’ll see… What system (paper, software, methodology, whatever) do you use to manage ToDos, Goals and Priorities on an annual, monthly, weekly and daily basis? That question is part of a critical “intake” interview for new customers because managers, CEOs and company officers usually […]