Opinion

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The Business Times Contributors THE BUSINESS TIMES NovemberJANUARY 11-24, 2021 15-28, 2015 Opinion Opinion Business BriefsA new year affords Business Peoplea new opportunity to meet local needs Almanac

A new year almost always brings an opportunity for a fresh start and renewed ambition to do things better.

In business, that usually boils down to providing customers better products and services faster and at lower cost than competitors. Part of the process must include listening to customers to determine what they actually need and then meeting that need. After all, it does little good to offer the latest and greatest if nobody actually wants what you’re selling.

Just like the businesses that belong to the group, the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce invariably starts out the new year with a reassessment of the services and resources it provides and how well they match with members needs. Jeff Franklin, the new chairman of the chamber board of directors, personifies this approach in describing what he considers his role for the coming year: listen to members, determine their needs and then meet those needs. It’s a role with which Franklin is familiar as market president of Bank of Colorado.

The process will take on a more structured approach in what the chamber plans as the resumption of a program aptly called Listening to Business. Under the program, business owners participate in in-depth interviews to identify barriers to growth and other problems they encounter.

The new year offers a good time to join the proverbial club.

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The Grand Valley Business Times, a subsidiary of Hall Media Group LLC, is published twice monthly and distributed throughout Grand Junction, Fruita and Palisade. Advertising rates and deadlines are available upon request. Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, editor, staff or advertisers.

Copyright © 2015 — All rights reserved.

It’s that time of year when resolutions and prognostications abound. My favorite saying applied to New Year’s resolutions is in saying they’re basically a bunch of promises to break the first week of January. And while I won’t predict a whole lot, I can pretty much accurately nail a few things that without question will make the news. You will see these are pretty, well, predictable: ■ Prediction one: There will be some sort of weather event, natural disaster or heinous occurrence where someone will be interviewed and say the following: “I’ve never seen anything like that in my lifetime.” It’s as if this person is a required attendee at every news reporting event. While I understand most people’s perspective can indeed be limited by, or contained within, their own personal experiences, it is too much to ask to consult some historical perspective before saying such a thing? Yes, this response can apply to some events. But when it comes to weather and natural disasters, I’m pretty sure this is simply history repeating itself. Same as it has for millions and millions of years. More important, the planet made it! What didn’t were certain species. How’s that for perspective? ■ Prediction two: When it comes to a crime or something that occurs between humans, the other required attendee at all news reporting events is the person who says this: “They we’re just the nicest people, and in no way did I see something like this coming.” Exactly. No one does most of the time when it comes to neighbors and acquaintances. People should be surprised at what goes on from time to time in their neighborhoods, towns and with people they know because people are good. And for the times that they shouldn’t be shocked — like with politicians, repeat offenders and terrorists — where’s the interview that says, “This doesn’t surprise me in the least.” ■ Prediction three: Something good will happen economically, and the government will take credit for it. The most recent example is gas prices, where people ask me why I won’t credit the president for low gas prices. My answer is simple: Government never makes the price of something go down and simply takes credit for good news. Gas pricing is subject to many global factors. Now there are government answers to addressing some of them to keep prices stable for Americans, but our government has none of them in place. The only things it has in place in the

Bold predictions for 2015 more like not-so-bold repeats long run always hurt consumers. Another fact is that unemployment reaches a certain level based on the economy. And while the government might brag the number is low, it’s more than likely the government did something to cause that number being low — and not in a good way. Conversely, when business picks up, it’s because the people who need to buy widgets who were not buying widgets because the economy was contracting due to natural (or unnatural, government caused) reasons, decided we better buy some widgets. The government had nothing to do with this. ■ Prediction four: In keeping with things the government does, I predict the government will manipulate the numbers to make the claim the economy is getting better because of how hard it is working to help all of us “working Americans.” Now Craig Hall you might say, “Craig, you always say this about President Obama because you don’t like him.” You’re right in a sense. I don’t know the man, but what I know of him and his thinking, I don’t like it or him one iota. Before you go off, however, I didn’t like President Bush and his bailouts, stimulus and his abandoning the free market to save the free market. And I don’t know him either. What the government does, and the only thing it can do, is hurt the economy. Unless it does nothing or put criminals in jail instead of partnering with them, nothing the government does will help. Always look at it this way, whatever the government says it is doing, whatever the name of the law it is passing, or whatever the name or goal of the bureaucracy it is presenting to the people, expect the polar opposite to occur. I guess what I’m saying is that perhaps it’s time to get out of our own perspective. There’s plenty of history books and historical research out there to begin to understand that all of this has happened before. And it will again, whether the topic is people or government. The best recommendation is to find some books or try that whole Google thing. There’s a lot of information on the Great Depression. The truth is it wasn’t even a good one until the government got involved. There’s also plenty of research on the medieval warm period when the planet was much warmer than today with a whole lot less people (and warmer well before man was here at all). And yep, people have been killing other surprised people since history was first written. Maybe some research will help stop all of these trends. Otherwise, we’ll be saying we’ve never seen anything like it in our lives. And not in a good way. Craig Hall is owner and publisher of the Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 Copyright © 2021 — All rights reserved. F or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com. ✦

I could have written the headline “Of Colorado and Texas: a Covid 19 story.” But just covering airports and stadiums will allow you to get the gist. I’m also writing this off the top of my head because I’ll never get my head around the two Americas we’re living in related to the pandemic.

My story involves a trip to Dallas with some buddies to catch the Broncos game and enjoy a weekend in a place where freedom rings. Sadly, what this column should be about was the beers, football and brushes with greatness we had because of the Draft Kings Lounge passes we got through an old — well, she’s young — friend allowing for such a cool experience. So I’ll briefly touch on them anyway.

Boy was there football to watch. We were literally on the Denver sideline for the game against the Cowboys. The experience was nearly as enjoyable at Texas Live, the largest and coolest sports bar I’ve ever seen. Yeah. We had a few beers as well. After all, it was a guys’ trip. As for greatness, I missed out on the picture my buddies got with lengendary Broncos running back Terrell Davis on the elevator coming back down to the lounge from the main concourse. But I did turn around and say, “Hey, that’s Lee Greenwood” from our vantage point, and he came over for pics and handshakes with my buddies and the crowd in the lounge pit area.

We packed a lot into the 48 hours of freedom between our experiences in the gulags disguised as the airline industry in America.

This isn’t about Grand Junction Regional Airport. It’s what the airport must operate under given all the laws, mandates and Sequoia-pulp-sized litany of regulations from our federal government. So masked up it was from the moment of entry to the moment we got on the plane, then it got worse. First, and to be frank (while hoping I get no one in trouble) we sat well away from our gate as a small group with masks basically off. And then as my “crew” tends to do, we followed the cart going up to the bar to be there at “opening” and sat pretty much mask-less at the table as well. All thanks in no part to a county which wants freedom — our current leadership folks aside who want their version of it.

Of ocurse, I could write a novel abut what the TSA has become, but I digress.

If I heard about masks once on the plane, I heard it six times before takeoff — including the ever-popular threats of breaking federal law, losing flying privileges and the inference of harsh

Grand openings among indicative local trends penalties for breaking the “law.” Then Of airports and stadiums: Telling a COVID-19 story

One of my jobs as editor of a business journal is to pay attention to various again, the feds run the airlines as well, so indicators and what they, well, indicate, about the economy. Consequently, I there’s always been a chance of that. The spend a good portion of my time writing about unemployment rates, real estate airlines are correct: Flying is a privilege. sales and tax collections. But a privilege is something we should go I’m also something of a geek. Perhaps in another life I to a private business to obtain and adhere would have worked as an economist. I actually consider these to its procedures, not the dictates of sorts of numbers interesting and enjoy reporting on them. government. You’ll understand this more I came to the office at 6 in the morning to join in a virtual once shopping or eating out becomes a media briefing staged by the Conference Board in New York government-regulated “privilege.” to go over its latest global economic outlook. I was happy After looking about the cabin for any to do so because I got to listen to some real economists curious eyes, I took my time eating my talk about such topics as gross domestic product, labor pretzels mask down-mask back up style shortages and inflation. It was like Christmas — and nearly as with the occasional sip of water requiring entertaining as listening to officials from the Federal Reserve the same insane actions. If you think the Phil Castle talk in their peculiarly parsed fashion about their projections. Of course, none of the indicators singularly suggests surge of in-flight problems are the result of anything but the mask policies due what’s going on in the economy. But connect all the dots, and a more complete picture emerges. Craig Hall to government taking more control of our lives under the guise of safety from

In Mesa County, for example, the monthly unemployment rate has trended COVID, you couldn’t be more wrong. down even as higher prices and large commercial transactions push the dollar They are. If you unconvinced, then why volume of real estate sales to record levels. Tax collections continue to outpace won’t the government allow airlines to start not only 2020, but the past four years. It’s picture of a local economy that’s their own terminal access and flights for rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic, but one also challenges from labor those desiring to fly with no mask — and shortages and higher housing prices. better, more sensible security? Hint: They

In reporting other business stories, it occurred to me I should add two more never give up control. For more proof, indicators to my list — grand openings and relocations. see gambling, cigarettes, pot and all the

Grand openings are scheduled for Nov. 13 for the Ordinary Fellow, a new other industries in which the government winery in Palisade, and Nov. 16 for the Shamrock Foodservice Warehouse, a new controls the means of production. store in Grand Junction that will serve not only restaurants and caterers, but also For the record, the flight home airport the public. That’s not to mention the recent relocation of Networks Unlimited into to plane experience was a huge ditto. I’m larger and refurbished quarters in Grand Junction. just glad the American Airlines weather

There’s no direct correlation among grand openings, relocations and problems are restricted to the end of the economic growth. Courageous entrepreneurs open ventures in the midst of month after employees run out of hours. challenging times, still confident they’ll survive and perhaps even thrive. Now, how ’bout that Cowboys More generally speaking, though, grand openings and relocations indicate stadium? I’ve never seen a smoother improving conditions — of businesses opening to meet demand or relocating to running operation handling 100,000keep pace with growth. The news is more often good than bad. plus people over a few hours in such an

I’ll keep reporting on other economic indicators — not only because I think efficient manner in my life. I’ve been to it’s important, but also because I happen to think it’s fun. But I’m also eager to more than 100 University of Michigan report on grand openings and relocatons. Consider that a not-so-subtle invitation games, and it’s like the Bataan Death to business owners and managers to help me with the process and let me know in March just to go to the bathroom or get a timely fashion when they occur. a hot dog. Not in Jerry World. Ticket

It’s part of my job to pay attention to various indicators. They’re so, well, takers? No more than a couple of folks indicative. in the multitude of lines. Security gates? Come on through, pardner. And don’t Phil Castle is editor of the Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or mess with the three guys on the other end phil@thebusinesstimes.com. or you’ll have problems — of which my F humor saved me after they started in on my Buccaneers gear. As my buddy asked, “Have you ever seen a place where you had so much room surrounded by 100,00 people?” And we did it all without masks, same as a bunch of other stadiums did last weekend. And as it has been since football season began. I assume without it being a super spreader event. Yet our airlines and airports mask us up despite being actually less crowded. Then again, Jerry Jones runs one and the government runs the other. Craig Hall is owner and publisher of the Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com.

True blame for scarcity lies not with pandemic, but pandemic response

It’s a fundamental economic truth: Scarcity exists because resources are limited. It is a matter of unlimited wants versus limited resources. United States residents are unique and pampered. In fact, the U.S. has been called the land of the plenty when compared to other countries and economic systems. Americans are accustomed to fully stocked automobile showrooms, grocery stores, lumber outlets, technology centers and other suppliers of goods.

Most people alive today have never experienced true shortages of basic supplies. There were shortages during World War II because resources were devoted to the war effort. There were shortages of gasoline in 1973 during the OPEC oil embargo and in 1979 with the Iranian revolution. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, toilet paper and hand sanitizer were scarce, but those shortages were short-lived.

Something is different now. Have you noticed empty shelves in your favorite store? Have you placed an order only to discover the item was out of stock or backordered? Then months later the order remained unfilled? Have you been unable to repair your car because an essential part can’t be found? Is lumber unavailable or too expensive?

The pandemic has been blamed for the shortages and broken supply lines that deliver goods to market. The goal of shuttering the economy was to break the pandemic cycle. That might have been helpful, but not catastrophic to the economy. But the extended closures that followed in some states were indeed catastrophic. Is the pandemic to blame? Or is it the response to the pandemic?

A supply chain is defined as a system of activities, information, organization, people and resources supplying products and services to consumers. The supply chain everyone depends on was decades in the making. Helen Raleigh, a senior contributor at The Federalist, wrote in a recent blog: “The culprit of current supply chain disruptions is a persistent labor shortage caused by poor government policies.” She cited economist Richard M. Salsman from the American Institute for Economic Research, explaining the labor shortage has been both mandated by shutdowns of

Phyllis “nonessential” businesses and subsidized with extended unemployment benefits. Hunsinger That’s made it difficult for many businesses to attract and hire labor of sufficient affordability, quality, quantity and reliability. Workers are needed to unload ships at port, drive trucks, man the rails, deliver goods and stock shelves. In the absence of these workers, consumers stare at empty shelves. The unprecedented scarcity of goods Americans face now is different. The unintended consequences of government regulation have affected the economic principle of supply and demand. In their book, “Common Sense Economics,” Joseph Calhoun, Tawni Ferrarini, James Gwartney, Dwight Lee and Richard Stroup define economics as the science of common sense. If that’s true, our scarcity today is a result of government bureaucrats who have no common sense.

Phyllis Hunsinger is founder of the Freedom & Responsibility Education Enterprise Foundation in Grand Junction. The FREE Foundation provides resources to students and teachers in Western Colorado to promote the understanding of economics, financial literacy and free enterprise. For more, visit www.free-dom.us.com. A former teacher, principal and superintendent, Hunsinger wrote “Down and Dirty: A ‘How To’ Math Book. Reach Hunsinger at phyllis@free-dom.us.com. F