Five Lessons From the Banana Man

Don't trust the experts, go see the jungle for yourself and other business lessons from a produce king

By RICH COHEN

When a fertile piece of land seemed to have two rightful owners, a rival company hired lawyers. Sam simply bought it from each owner.

Samuel Zemurray, known to friend and foe alike as Sam the Banana Man, made his first fortune in "ripes," bananas that the big fruit traders considered too mature to reach market in time for sale. Their rule of thumb was "One freckle turning, two freckles ripe"—thus consigning tons of fruit to a great reeking pile at the edge of the wharf, where it was pushed into the sea or simply left to rot.
When Zemurray, a young Russian immigrant, saw that first sad pile of ripes—circa 1895, in the port of Mobile, Ala.—he recognized his opportunity. For a man who spent his early years on a desolate wheat farm in Bessarabia, there was obvious value in even a freckled piece of fruit. By 1903, he was a mini mogul, with $100,000 in the bank.

From there, Sam went into yellows, even greens. In 1909, he headed south to Honduras, where he bought and cleared great swaths of virgin jungle and then, working with a mercenary army recruited in New Orleans, overthrew the government and replaced it with one more to his liking. He built a cracker-jack banana company down there and eventually took over United Fruit in December 1932. By the time he died in 1961, in the grandest house in New Orleans, he had been a hauler and a cowboy, a farmer, a trader, a political battler, a revolutionary, a philanthropist and a CEO.  READ ARTICLE

Don't Give UP... if you need an alternative view of your Problems/Solutions...Reach OUT

El Gráfico de la Semana: Hay que arreglar los programas de derechos a beneficios

Emily Goff y Rachel Sheffield

Bajo la presidencia de Obama, el país está acumulando una deuda insostenible. Estados Unidos está sufriendo ya casi cuatro años de déficits, la deuda pública es más del 70 por ciento de la economía y sigue en aumento. El Congreso y el presidente deberían ofrecer soluciones que pongan estos programas en un presupuesto que reduzca costos de hoy y los conserve como una red de seguridad para el futuro.
Los casi 80 diferentes programas de bienestar social que opera el gobierno federal también necesitan una reforma sustancial. En lugar de abordar las causas de la pobreza, el enfoque de Washington ha sido gastar más dólares del contribuyente –cerca de $ 1 billón por año– en un creciente número de programas que tienden a atrapar a los pobres en la pobreza. Ninguno de estos programas incluye disposiciones funcionales para promover la responsabilidad personal, como los requisitos de trabajo y límites de tiempo. Y el gobierno ha hecho mucho más fácil que la gente reciba asistencia social, desalentando así el trabajo.



Basta con mirar El Gráfico de la Semana para comprender que esto no puede seguir así. Con semejante enfoque, no es de extrañar que un número creciente de denuncias de abuso de la asistencia social haya sido noticia en los últimos tiempos, como la ganadora de la lotería de un millón de dólares que recibe estampillas de comida, un narcotraficante de Massachusetts que intentó usar dinero de la asistencia social para pagar su fianza en Alabama o la publicidad de una discoteca que decía “Fiesta de Estampillas de Comida Este Viernes”.
La Fundación Heritage tiene un plan: Para Salvar el Sueño Americano. Equilibra el presupuesto en 10 años y lo mantiene equilibrado. Para Heritage, la oportunidad y la libertad encarnan el Sueño Americano y con su plan asegurará que así sea para las generaciones actuales y futuras.



Wayuu Bags from Communities in La Guajira Colombia

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The Magazine

Barack Pinocchio Obama

Facts are Stubborn Things

By FRED BARNES

       

Are the media beginning to catch on to President Obama? The answer is a tentative yes. This doesn’t mean the press is softening its hostility to Mitt Romney. Heaven forbid! But at least for now Obama is getting razzed by the very people who used to uphold and defend him.

Gary Locke

It’s about time. Obama and his team have been playing the media for fools. Think of the stories the White House has foisted on them (and some have bought). Obama secretly favors the Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction plan. The Republican landslide in 2010 was consistent with Obama’s election in 2008—both pleas for change. His endorsement of same-sex marriage was courageous. And besides “gutsy call,” there was “nobody messes with Joe.”
A turnaround was perceptible last month after the president claimed “federal spending since I took office has risen at the slowest pace of any president in almost 60 years.” This went too far. It clashed with the reality of a presidency in which hefty spending increases and soaring deficits are hallmarks.
Media fact checkers waded in, not from the right but from the Washington Post and the Associated Press. “Obama claim of thrifty spending falls short of reality,” AP concluded. Glenn Kessler of the Post said the president’s data “are flawed.” It was a full debunking, but Obama aides didn’t give up. They continued to argue Obama had slowed spending.
That’s another mark of the Obama presidency with potential for media attention: repeating a claim after it’s been exposed as false, misleading, or flimflam. Obama did this early in his presidency when he zapped House Republicans for rejecting his request to work with him on the economic stimulus. In truth, the stimulus bill was already a done deal—crafted entirely by Democrats—when the president spoke to the House GOP conference. READ ARTICLE