Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/author/erik-hare/page/4/)
I work primarily as a writer, but I've also had great success as an advisor to nonprofits and small businesses. I have a unique strategic planning process that works well for small volunteer driven organizations because it produces a succinct, usable document in as little as 4 hours. I'm also an experienced grant writer, web content (SEO) writer, and user of Excel to improve inventory control. My approach to social media has created proven success at many small business by stressing integration and consistency of message.Judge my skills for yourself at my blog, Barataria. I have available an online porfolio of some of my work.In addition, I'm pleased to have assembled some of my 25 years of experience on the 'net in an Internet Writing Guide. The purpose of this work is to empower people with the skills they need to effetively tell stories that otherwise have not been heard and speak truth to power. Please let me know how useful it is for you and how it can be improved.Thank you for reading.
The September Jobs report finally came out after being delayed by the shutdown. Any way you look at it, a longer delay would have been better. According to the official Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) figures, the economy only added 148k jobs in September. Continue Reading
Back in September, Barataria speculated that this could wind up being a great holiday shopping season. That was before the shutdown and awfully early in the year to be sure of anything. A month later, the pros are weighing in on holiday sales and the predictions are generally all over the board. Growth of between 2.3% and 4.5% over 2012 is predicted by an array of professional organizations, so you can take your own guess. Continue Reading
A continuing resolution which re-opens the federal government was passed along with a debt ceiling increase that keeps everything hummin’ along until February. It’s good news, at least until the next manufactured crisis comes. We can’t be sure what kind of economic damaged was done in the 16 day shutdown until … well, until the workers in the government that tabulate this stuff get back to work. Continue Reading
What does it take for international markets to panic? With the debt ceiling due to be hit in a little more than a week, the short answer is that the “full faith and credit of the United States” is still worth quite a lot. We’re only starting to see the first signs of a panic as an auction of 1-month TBills sold at a net rate of 0.355%. If that doesn’t impress you, it’s worth noting that it was one third that a week ago. Continue Reading
How ya doin’? I know this is a tough time and the last person you want to hear from is a Democrat, but many of you are friends of mine. Some of the kindest and most decent people I know are Republicans, and I care about you. Much of my family were and are Republicans, too. You have to know I write this from the bottom of my heart. Continue Reading
What’s the right thing to do to help the economy? Clearly, Congress has no idea, making bizzy with games designed to impress their constituents. Major economists don’t agree, either, with at least three different views on what is going on and the appropriate remedies. How can it be so chaotic and disorganized? Continue Reading
Another year, another showdown over the budget. This time the threat is a trifecta, a showdown over shutting down government, defunding Obamacare, and a default on the Federal Debt by not raising the debt ceiling. The stakes could not possibly be higher – and yet just about no one outside of Washingtoon wants to be in this game in the first place. How did it get to this? Continue Reading
How good are things getting? It depends a lot on where you are in the economy. At the top end life is definitely improving – but at the bottom end it’s just endless misery. That’s the only conclusion that can be reached after two reports released this week. Continue Reading
There are basically two types of Democratic-Republics in the world – Parliamentary, or a Prime Minister led government, and a strong President based system. Hybrids of various kinds involving monarchs and other systems with varying degrees of power abound, but every democratically elected government in the world falls into one of these categories. The person who shows up at the international conferences has one of these titles. Continue Reading
Another cycle of violence between angry mobs representing the majority religion flares up in another nation. What could be truly “new” in this news? This week it was in Sri Lanka, but there was a difference. The mob were Buddhists and their victims were the Moslem minority at prayer in a mosque. It seems to be a spillover from the much more violent confrontations in Myanmar where hundreds have been killed at the hands of “Radical Buddhists” who destroyed the homes of over 400 Moslem families. Has the world gone completely mad? Continue Reading