Don’t you hate it when the alarm clock goes off in the morning? I used to always say, shout really, “okay, okay – OKAY!!! I’m getting up darn-it! As I scrambled to silence that annoying clock. Now that I’m retired I get up for different reasons but that old acronym “time is money” still haunts me today. Call me “old school” as I murmur to myself, “shouldn’t I be getting up anyway because time is money you know!” 🙂

How does this theme all tie in to where the U.S. economy is right now? Well, to answer that question I’m going to dispel a rumor. I’m putting on my economics hat over here and suggesting to you that it depends on a few factors but the most important factor in all of this is the “cost of money”. Yes, it’s true, when the cost of money rises like it has been for the past several months things suddenly change. The “time is money” theme takes on vital importance, so important that it runs uphill through all departments eventually landing on the desks of those cushiony “C suite” executives. Now that’s pretty important! See, there’s this thing known as “productivity”? Without productivity there is no profitability, which is the difference between sinking and swimming for any “for-profit” enterprise. Conversely, when money doesn’t cost anything to borrow, when money is essentially free for the taking [like in the two decades prior] employees can show up to work late and take a 2-hour lunch and God knows what all else, and almost never would it show up in the numbers as being particularly “counter-productive”. Mostly because the clock was ticking but it wasn’t pertinent, wasn’t all that expensive to run offices and facilities and plan new ones and travel for business and yada-yada-yada. That was yesterday, we’re not in that world anymore. Now productivity must rise and stay risen [if that’s a word] in order for these behemoth companies to even keep the doors open. So we’re going to continue to see changes in attitudes regarding haste, not waste.

Never mind the political failures in Washington elections and just how we got here, and a return to the Inflationary 1970’s, that’s all water under the bridge now, we must face the fact that we’re back there. You might be saying something like – “you don’t say?” And my reply to that is “yes, I didn’t not say”. Okay that made little sense but here’s what I’m mainly concerned about going forward.
See if you share any of these concerns/predictions with me:
– I expect corporate advertising budgets to shrink dramatically
and add these to the list
– Technological innovation will be stymied going forward, or heavily scrutinized prior to any implementation, especially for smaller firms
– Speculative investments and fringe investing ideas will essentially disintegrate given this new economic landscape

Remember how it was when those wacky unicorn ideas flourished in America when money was free for the asking, free for the taking? Not anymore, now money is expensive and the clock just keeps on ticking. Corporate attitudes have to change to meet bottom line objectives going forward. Organizations will come under increased pressure to improve productivity to offset the higher cost of borrowing. We’re already seeing this in major job cut announcements and budgets shrinking as they also place new and innovative idea-ologies on hold. Moves that will prove necessary so that an organization can get back to focusing on what they do best – thereby creating a faster track to increased productivity. “Time is of the essence” once again so fasten your seat belt friend because “time” just got a whole lot more expensive! Tick,tick,tick,… 😉