A friend and I often discuss the dismal morass of vapidity education's become in the U.S. And whether it's due to ineptitude of teachers, watering down of curricula to nothingness, or leveling the classrooms to accommodate the lowest denominators doesn't really matter, because the results the same: generation after generation leaves our schools, as the great Green Bay Packer fullback Jimmy Taylor said, "unscathed by education."
To that end, one of my favorite recent topics is how little people know about finance today. And that not only extends to the general public, it applies to those actively engaged in the business. Because, having spent most of my career in that arena, I can certainly see the changes for the worse.
During my financial education, for example, subjects of the most importance included accounting, financial analysis and particularly, a thorough understanding of profits, losses and debt. I can still see and hear in my mind educators railing on about assets, liabilities, net worth's, and management of borrowed funds. And through it all, above all else...the need to absolutely stay out of the "red."
Later on in my business career, which involved lending funds, financial analysts too were quick to avoid businesses in the red, because in accounting terms, red equates to losses. On the other hand, successful operations were in the "black." The color differences existed primarily because financial statements were written in ink, and black meant profit, red meant loss.
Now today, even though most financial accounting is computerized, the terminology hasn't changed and you'd think that folks with any kind of financial acumen would know that "red" means bad. Yet, there's a major insurance company that puts all of its clients under a red umbrella of losses, as I interpret their ads. Then there's a bank that claims to be ranked first or second in the nation, who's name is proudly emblazoned under a red slash. Maybe they've lost so much money, they're proud of being over-achievers in finding new ways to fail.
But the good news for them is, most people don't realize that these financial institutions have reached the pinnacle of boobdom, and even if they did, they really don't care. Because one more illustration of banker's ineptitude doesn't matter a blip.
Yet, financial institutions aren't alone when it comes to ignorance and vapidity. Because here's another one. Sears is reportedly under fire for selling T-shirts depicting images of the Twin Towers with the word "Gotcha" emblazoned on the front of the clothing. They pulled the September 11-related shirts from shelves in Kansas City, Mo., after customer complaints the clothing was disturbing.
A Sears employee said, "Seeing that and what it means is upsetting, very heartbreaking."
As it turns out, Gotcha is a company that made the clothing, printing its brand name on the front of the shirts. But Sears executives claim the word "Gotcha" was never meant to be attached to images of the World Trade Center towers. "We began removing this T-shirt from stores earlier in the week when the image was brought to our attention. We expect to have it removed from all stores as quickly as possible. We apologize for the oversight."
Well, all of that rhetoric's great, but really, how could this situation have gotten this far? Are we to believe that the manufacturer produced however many thousand shirts and never looked at one? Or that when the stuff arrived at the stores, no one realized a thing until customers started complaining? The funny (sad) thing is, that in today's day and age it's possible that it really all was just accidental, and mistakes compounded mistakes.
But, if we start believing that the whole Sears fiasco was just oversight and unintentional, the next thing you know a president could tell us he attended a church for twenty years and never listened to a single sermon. What's worse, lots of folks would believe him.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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