Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/author/erik-hare/page/8/)
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.
What’s the worst that can happen? As the deadline approaches for the Fiscal Cliff later this month, a lot of people are asking this question. It’s becoming common on both the left and the right to question whether or not we should just “go over” the edge and see what happens. Continue Reading
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick. Continue Reading
Consumer confidence, as measured by a survey plugged into a magic formula, is at the highest level in nearly five years. Housing prices have risen for the sixth straight month. All is attributed to improvements in employment, something rarely noted in the media over the summer but felt by people all across the US. Continue Reading
The election is over. The Sunday morning gab shows suddenly found a purpose, interviewing serious Senators and other concerned about the work that the new (and first old!) Congress will face – particularly the “Fiscal Cliff”. A tremendous amount of movement on the Republican side shows that tax increases, particularly coming as reform in the deductions allowable, is definitely on the table. Continue Reading
Black Friday is well named. The term seems to originate with the Philadelphia Police, who in 1966 started to dread the massive disruption in traffic that put them all on overtime the day after Thanksgiving. The massive public expense for the benefit of retailers was given the dark moniker because it was something that the city wanted to dissuade. Continue Reading
It’s been a long time since I wrote about Europe. How many ways can a humble blogger say, “Nothing has really changed”? Nothing has. Currency union has turned into a straightjacket of austerity and the European Union is plunging into a deep recession. The only true news has been a day of protest across Europe, fueled in part by the now 25% unemployment rate in Spain and other nations. It has become a full meltdown. Continue Reading
The phrase is often credited to Ben Bernanke, but variations of it have been around for decades. The “Fiscal Cliff” that went largely unmentioned during the campaign now dominates the talk out of Washington. It is probably the most important thing that will happen in the next Congress, and it will certainly set the tone for the end of the Obama administration. Yet almost no one has taken the time to explain what’s at stake in plain language. Continue Reading
News shown out over the highway in big glowing numbers – 3.289, a number lower than anyone had seen in a while. That was the price per gallon of gasoline the last time the little purple car was filled up and piloted back down the highway. A few months earlier it was 3.929 at the same station, about 20% higher or $7.68 over a tankful. How can that possibly be? Continue Reading
Income inequality is one of those things that we find almost impossible to talk about in US politics. Simply raising the issue automatically leads to charges of “class warfare”, a term that is empty enough in meaning to raise emotions without much intellect. Yet it is important. Continue Reading
As we head into the final stretch of the election season, the presidential debates and accompanying horserace are the focus of the upcoming two weeks. Continue Reading