Not that I enjoy saying bad things about my hometown of Seattle, Wa. but when it comes to politics, most residents of the city are just plain nuts. It’s no wonder that the largest city in a state that was once dubbed, ” the 47 states and the Soviet of Washington,” is so far off to left that even great news, can be spun into catastrophe. That’s exactly what happened in yesterday’s Seattle-PI. In a very telling headline the question is asked, “The Money Squeeze: Is cheaper gas bad news?”

Huh?

What a stupid question. Of course it’s good news, if consumers can save 30% of their gas bill, can you explain to me why that’s bad?  I know it’s bad for environmentalists, and all those who drink the Al Gore Kool-Aid. After all it just goes to show that crude-oil is king, and alternative energy sources like  wind, solar, fully pumped tires, are all prohibitively expensive and fall by the wayside as crude prices fall. What happened to the whole alternative energy craze?  Funny what $65/barrel oil can do!

According to the PI article: ” When prices at the pump surged this summer, maintenance technician Taylor Morgan decided to change the way he got to the downtown Seattle office building where he works. He started taking a bus from his South Seattle home a couple of days a week. And he told his wife that the bimonthly trips to see family in British Columbia had to be cut to once or twice a year. On Friday, Morgan said he was happy to be driving his Honda Accord to work every day again. He stood pumping gasoline at a 15th Avenue West Chevron station, where the price for regular had dropped to $2.99 per gallon.

“Things are getting back to normal,” he said. “But with the crazy price changes, you can’t really be sure. It’s really confusing.”

Morgan and other baffled consumers are far from alone. With markets exceptionally volatile, even the region’s top economists can’t say whether gas prices will continue to fall or rocket again.”

Excuse me. What’s confusing about gas prices dropping rapidly? Why is it an issue if economists can’t predict the future? I don’t hear anyone crying over the fact that 6 months ago most ‘economists’ where predicting $5 per gallon. Nice call!

Heck, maybe just maybe the cheaper oil will mean salvation for the near bankrupt US car industry. Instead of another government bailout, maybe cheaper prices at the pump will help jump-start new sales.

Please see our Disclaimer HERE.

Aaron Katsman is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. He is lead portfolio manager for the Israel Growth Portfolio and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email aaron@profile-financial.com.

I recently received information from Betsy Storm, principal of Top Drawer Communications located in Chicago, Illinois about a new endeavor she started. The Mom Entrepreneur endorses Barack Obama so I was intrigued to learn what Betsy was doing to create awareness as well as increase her business. Here is her story…

“About eight months ago, I decided to boost my business while doing something good for the Obama Campaign at the same time. I used my knowledge of graphics, printing, marketing and PR in general to design and produce a limited-edition (500) high-quality long-sleeve T-shirt sporting the slogan “Mamas for Obama Know the Power of Voting.” The T-shirt, printed in front and back in color, has been a moneymaker for my business, a great way to raise awareness of my communications business and a fundraiser for the Obama Campaign. I will give $1,000 of the proceeds of the sale of the T-shirt to the Obama Campaign within a couple of weeks.”

Here is a link to her Web site for more information or to purchase a T-shirt and show your support: http://www.topdrawercommunications.com/mamas_for_obama.htm.

BizzyWomen.com is a web community committed to empowering professional women, career women and business women around the globe.  We’ve recently launched and invite you to check out our great content from a wide variety of contributors: from learning from female entrepreneurs on TV, to a vibrant discussion about our female vice-presidential candidate, to the powerful women leading Generation Y, to insight into maternity leave policy in the U.S., BizzyWomen is focusing on tough issues and addressing them.

It’s an easy step to make for BW to move from merely writing about poignant issues to doing something about them.  I want to recruit you to our lending team, BizzyWomen, on Kiva, a non-profit website that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world. You choose who to lend to - whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq - and as they repay the loan, you get your money back.

If you join our lending team, we can work together to alleviate poverty. Once you’re a part of the team, you can choose to have a future loan on Kiva “count” towards our team’s impact. The loan is still yours, and repayments still come to you - but you can also choose to have the loan show up in our team’s collective portfolio, so our team’s overall impact will grow!

Check out the BizzyWomen lending team, and learn more about lending teams on Kiva in general, by clicking here: http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=community&action=viewTeam&team_id=703&_isc=e1eef358-ce5c-102b-ac3c-ecd46065da15.

Thanks,
Editors, BizzyWomen

Preface: This isn’t a post about whether ExxonMobil is good or bad. It just triggered a thought in my head, so ExxonMobil is only a vehicle for an idea, not the subject matter itself. OK? But maybe the subject matter is corporate responsibility…but maybe it isn’t. I’m not sure yet.

As I walked past my colleague’s desk a moment ago I saw press release about management training for Indonesian women, sponsored by ExxonMobil. This reminded me of the link I posted a week ago about ExxonMobil being sued over human rights violations in Aceh.

So we’re thinking about a company accused to doing ‘bad’ things, who then does ‘good’ things in the communities where it works (forget about the merit or strength of the ‘good’ things vs the ‘bad’ things in the case of ExxonMobil. That’s not where my thoughts are going today).

While you could say that ExxonMobil sponsors projects (another example here) to improve their image (and you’d probably be right), there is probably someone working for ExxonMobil who adopts the philosophy that it’s better to ‘do good’ in the community, even if there are PR gains, than not to do anything at all, and maybe that’s right too. But it makes me wonder about ‘being good’ vs ‘doing good’ (although I’m already having doubts about my own distinctions here. We’ll see how far I can take them).

If we consider a person. A not very nice person (suspend judgment of ExxonMobil now, we’re moving on), called Stan. Stan is a grump, overly cynical and tells four-year-olds that Santa Clause isn’t real. Not a very nice guy right? But Stan knows he’s not a very nice guy, so to make up for it he gives money to children’s charities.

1. Does giving money to children’s charities make up for being a not very nice guy?

2. Should Stan forget about easing his conscience by giving money to charity and just start being a nice guy?

3.Assuming that Stan would like to be a better guy but doesn’t know how to be or doesn’t want to be (surely we all have things about ourselves that we would like to improve but haven’t), is it better to give the money to charity or, because it’s a token gesture, forget about it?

It seems like Stan is choosing to ‘do good’ occasionally rather than ‘be good’ as often as he can.

1. Assuming that most of us want to ‘be good’ but are probably lacking in some areas, should we continue to strive to ‘be good’ or should we accept that we have limitations and take a ‘do good’ approach?

2. Is there any difference between the two? Does ‘being good’ just mean that you ‘do good’ many times a day?

3. Is it just a scale of ‘doing good’ frequency that’s the issue? Stan is still a butt because he does a lot of bad and a little bit of good, but his friend Sally ‘is good’ because she commits herself daily to ‘doing good’ for others.

Epilogue: For the sake of expressing this thought I have ignored what I think is the key issues of ‘what is good/what is bad’, and ‘how do we measure the impact good/bad’. In fact, without exploring those ideas this post is just a silly ramble.

Also, the corporation as person? If you haven’t watched The Corporation yet watch it soon.

This post was submitted to BizzyWomen by a great blog, Where is Sarah?, written by Sarah Fortuna, an Australian writing for her friends and family while she is living abroad. This blog was begun while Sarah was living in Banda Aceh, Indonesia as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development.

Much of the focus at BizzyWomen.com is on work/life issues. How to balance career and family. Prioritizing what’s important in life, and gaining both professional and familial fullfilment. If you are looking to put things in perspective, check out this video on the story of John Challis.

John’s motto of courage+believe=life, and the way that he lived his motto is inspirational. Not even cancer could prevent him from living his life to the fullest, and accomplishing his goals. His message of living your life for today and maximizing your activities is a lesson for us all to internalize. This teenager was truly special. He started a foundation, The Courage For Life Foundation, to ” To provide Life Encouraging Sporting Experiences and Community Support for High School Athletes with Life Threatening Illnesses.”

Unfortunately, John passed away yesterday at the age of 18. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, and his inspiration will live on with us forever.

Aaron Katsman is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. He is lead portfolio manager for the Israel Growth Portfolio and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email aaron@profile-financial.com.

From a distance I hear ‘can you spare a dime?’
Can change hold off a life of crime?
Are my thoughts silly or sublime?
He nears, will I get off in time?

He’s probably just down on his luck,
What’s wrong if I give him a buck?
I’d help out a friend who is stuck,
Perhaps he won’t see me when I duck.

“Help out your fellow man,” we’re told
But people’s faces are stone cold–
“He’ll learn his lesson–all withhold!”
Am I to judge? Is that too bold?

Closer and closer ’spare a dime?’
Will my change change his life, or mine?
Are my thoughts silly or sublime?
He nears, will I get off in time?

A special thanks to Abe who helped with the editing.

Aaron Katsman, IsraelNewsletter.com

Disclosure: Author’s fund has no positions in any stock mentioned as of 7/25/08.

Please see our Disclaimer HERE.

NEW! Introducing Israel Opportunity Investor, our monthly subscription-only newsletter. Stay ahead of the game and make smart decisions in Israel stocks. Go here to learn more.

Aaron Katsman is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. He is lead portfolio manager for the Israel Growth Portfolio and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email aaron@profile-financial.com.

The issue of executive pay is alive and well, as we hear about CEO’s taking home obscene amounts of money, while shareholders are left holding the bag. Many top companies are hearing calls from shareholders to limit pay to senior executives. The AP reports: “Fund managers and individual investors alike are campaigning for a ’say on pay’ rule giving shareholders a vote on executive compensation at major corporations, especially America’s biggest banks. This is the latest salvo in the battle against Wall Street’s exorbitance, and this time it appears shareholders might stand a chance.”

I am in full agreement that in order to attract the best leaders you need to pay. Just check out what happened to Ice-Cream maker Ben and Jerry’s to see how the principle works in real life. They wanted to limit the CEO pay to a certain percentage of the lowest paid employee. What happened was that they couldn’t find anyone worthy enough to take the job. In the end they gave in to the forces of capitalism and paid a normal CEO salary.

The  question is why can’t we pay senior management based on their performance? Why should a CEO who managed to lose his company $5 billion, and lose his shareholders 60% of their investment, receive $50 million plus stock? Why not incentavize CEO’s so that if they do a good job, they make tons of money, and if not, they don’t. On the other hand a CEO that creates shareholder value as well as corporate profits should make lots of money.

There is no doubting that CEO’s work extremely hard and 99% of the population couldn’t do their jobs. That being said we shouldn’t be rewarding them just because they have the title “CEO.” We should reward them based on their success.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com.

Entrepreneurs are always looking for ways to make their business more profitable. They are always looking at making things more efficient. One aspect which has just started to gain momentum is trying to improve the health of your employees. The fact is that employees that are healthier tend to do better and more productive work, and are at work more often.

For many of us who sit in front of a computer screen for hours on end, gaining weight as our diet consists of eating chocolate croissants and washing them down with cup after cup of coffee, there is hope. A new trend is taking shape across the U.S.: company wellness incentives.

According to a CNN Money report: “Employee programs that promote healthy lifestyles with monetary carrots and sticks are becoming increasingly popular. In fact, 46 percent of employers offer incentive-based wellness plans, according to a recent study by Watson Wyatt and the National Business Group on Health, and that proportion is expected to grow to 70 percent by 2009.”

Employers have figured that they can save tons of money by giving financial incentives to keep their workers healthier as employees call in sick much less. This is a classic win/ win situation; employers save money and employees get healthy.

Of course, there are those critics who warn that this could constitute a hostile work environment and is illegal. After all, no one can force an employee to lose weight or lead a healthier lifestyle. To those critics I say, lighten up! (couldn’t resist).

With obesity a growing problem, it seems that employer wellness incentives are going to be more common place.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), the world’s largest investment bank, recently announced a plan to spend $100-million (U.S.) on a program to teach 10,000 women about business and management around the world.

The program, titled “10,000 Women,” will primarily target women in the Middle East, Asia and Africa with the goal of increasing their standard of living and raising gross domestic product annually in hundreds of developing countries. The program hopes to open doors for thousands of women whose financial and practical circumstances prevent them from receiving a traditional business education.

In addition to funding tuition for business and management education, 10,000 Women will work with development organizations to better understand the local challenges girls and young women must overcome so more of them can realize economic opportunity and achieve their full potential. Many of these partnerships will seek to establish mentoring and networking channels for women and encourage career development opportunities.

Why women?

10,000 Women has been in development for more than a year and was inspired by economic research from Goldman Sachs that showed the powerful effects of greater labor force participation of women on economies and societies. The research, released in a report titled “Women Hold Up Half the Sky,” demonstrates that strengthening education for women is a critical and underutilized lever for economic growth in developing and emerging economies.

Here are some of the findings:

• The impact of female education is felt not only in women’s lifetimes, but also in the health,education and productivity of future generations as well. The economic growth that resultsfrom higher education feeds a virtuous cycle that supports continued improvements in education and health.
• Narrowing the existing gender gap in employment could increase income per capita by as much as 10%–14% above our baseline forecasts in the BRICs and other key emerging markets by 2020. Higher levels of female education could also have raised trend GDP growth rates in these countries by 0.2% over the past decade.

The program has already found its first beneficiary, a 27 year old Egyptian woman who designs and sells handmade furniture.

Learn more about 10,000 women here:

• 10000women.org
• 10,000 Women Fact Sheet [PDF, 216 KB]
• 10,000 Women Key Biographies [PDF, 51 KB]
• Global Economic Research: Women Hold up Half the Sky