Rudy Giuliani Loves America, Except When He’s Consulting for Qatar

After leading New York city through the trauma of Sept. 11, 2001, Rudy Giuliani has cashed in on his reputation as “America’s mayor” to launch a lucrative security consultancy and establish himself as a frequent television pundit on all things terror-related. He also ran for president in 2008, mounting a campaign that was perhaps most notable for Giuliani’s seeming inability to appear in public without mentioning the numerals “nine” and “eleven.”

Now, Giuliani is back in the news for a different reason: remarks critical of President Barack Obama that have been widely criticized as racist. For observers of Giuliani’s post-9/11 career, the former New York mayor’s most recent broadside against the president smacks of a certain oil-tinged hypocrisy.

“I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America,” Giuliani said during remarks at a New York dinner last week. “He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.” On Sunday, he walked back his remarks by writing in the Wall Street Journal that “I didn’t intend to question President Obama’s motives or the content of his heart.”

It’s hard to know exactly what Giuliani meant by this remark beyond his obvious, general distaste for the president, but in comparing himself to Obama, Giuliani makes an implicit distinction: That he holds in his heart an abiding love for the United States that the current occupant of the White House does not.

What Giuliani doesn’t mention is that the consulting company that has made him a very wealthy man since leaving public office has done work on behalf of a country that all but certainly does not love America in the vague, jingoistic way Giuliani would like you to believe that he does: Qatar, the tiny oil-rich kingdom has drawn criticism in the past for its cozy relationship with violent Islamist movements.

read more: https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/02/23/rudy_giuliani_loves_america_except_when_hes_consulting_for_qatar/

Four Realities of Value-Based Pricing

By Michael W. McLaughlin

Some years ago, I owned a home with a nasty construction defect. When a strong wind pushed rain against the front door, the water flooded inside and under the front entry, damaging the floor and leaking into the basement.

My search for help turned up four contractors. Three of them quoted an hourly rate without specifying how long or what it would take to complete the job—too many unknowns with water damage, they said.

The fourth contractor told me that the damage and cause could be repaired in one week or less at a specified price. He presented a stack of references from other clients with similar problems and he promised something his competitors didn’t: to fix the leak.

That contractor’s price was based on results, not time applied to the project. He made good on his promises, and it was worth every penny.

Pricing on results, or the value of results, makes sense for consultants too. Why shouldn’t clients pay you for what you help them achieve, rather than the number of hours you log? And to take the logic another step, if your work generates big savings for a client, shouldn’t you share in that windfall?

Value-based pricing is a sound strategy, but it can be trickier than it sounds. Make sure you consider the four realities below before you try this pricing method.

Reality #1: Clients don’t care about your business.

Most clients try to get the most, at the best price, when they hire a consultant—and they should. Of course, some clients will pay a premium if they believe they can achieve faster, better, or more permanent results with a higher-priced consulting firm.

read more http://mindshareconsulting.com/realities-value-based-pricing/

Reverse mortgages enticing but the details can be tricky

When you have most of your wealth tied up in your home, it’s referred to as being “house rich, cash poor.”

Many seniors who find themselves in this position may be enticed by the commercials offering salvation. They are wooed by a chance to tap into their home’s equity with a reverse mortgage. Smooth television ads make it appear to be a no-brainer. It’s actually much more complicated.

The most appealing quality of this type of loan is that, unlike with a traditional mortgage, you don’t have to make monthly payments. The lender doesn’t collect until the homeowner moves, sells, or dies. Once the home is sold, any equity that remains after the loan is repaid is distributed to the person’s estate.

To qualify, you have to be 62 or older. The market for reverse mortgages isn’t huge — about 1 percent of all mortgages — but reverse mortgage lenders are likely to pump up the volume in coming years as more seniors retire. For a lot of people, the only source of big money for them is the equity in their homes, says the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In 2013, a typical household had only $111,000 in 401(k) or IRA savings, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. The center found that too many people are dipping into their retirement accounts during their working years, causing what is called “leakage.”

But a lot of seniors have equity in their homes — totaling about $3.84 trillion, according to one mortgage industry survey. They can tap into that equity by selling or taking out a home equity loan or line of credit. But selling isn’t an option if they want to stay put, and they would have to make payments on the line of credit or loan.

Given those options, it’s no wonder a reverse mortgage can be appealing.

The consumer bureau, in a report analyzing 1,200 reverse mortgage complaints received from 2011 to the end of last year, found that many people are confused about this type of loan.

read more https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/02/20/reverse-mortgages-enticing-but-details-can-tricky/aysqkJZbFOcwRg4AELY4EJ/story.html

Northeast Braced for Blizzard as Another Winter Storm Looms

The winter-weary Northeast is hunkering down for blizzard conditions expected to bring sub-zero wind chills and more than a foot of snow in some parts. But it's Boston that it's in the cross hairs again, and is likely to break a record Sunday morning for its all-time snowiest month. The city is expected to get 9 inches of snow, but needs just one more inch to hit the milestone, forecasters said.

Twenty-six states were under weekend winter weather warnings, with no immediate end in sight to the freezing conditions. Some of the coldest air in the past 20 years will be accompanied by winds approaching hurricane force — and, for the snow-battered coast of New England, what could be a paralyzing blizzard.

A blizzard watch was in effect from the Maine-Canada border south to Long Island and a winter storm watch was in place for New Hampshire and parts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. 

The system threatens to disrupt travel, knock out power and make driving treacherous, if not impossible. Multiple weather-related accidents and road closures were also reported in Indiana and Ohio, including a fatal pile-up involving several semi-trucks near Columbus, according to state officials.

But the heaviest snow would come Saturday night, and the strongest winds should be Saturday night and early Sunday morning, forecasters warned.

Wind gusts could howl at 70 mph and north-facing coastal areas could suffer moderate flooding and beach erosion from the "monster storm," said Bill Simpson, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. Cape Cod would be under a hurricane force wind warning from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. 

read more:  http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/northeast-braced-blizzard-another-winter-storm-looms-n306286

How To Convert Your Annual Salary To An Hourly Consulting Rate

Whether you’ve ever been a consultant before or not, I hope you’ll start thinking of yourself as a consultant in 2015. You are the CEO of your own business. Your career is your business!

You can’t let your employer run your career —  not that most employers are sitting around worrying about their employees’ careers, if we are honest. You have to run your own career, and that means knowing what problem you solve for your employers.

If you think about it, a full-time employee is just a consultant with only one client. I hope you’ll take the next step in 2015 and get a consulting business card. You can consult at night and on the weekends. It’s a very good thing to do, not just for the extra income but for the mojo boost and the understanding of the market that a part-time consulting business gives you.

My daughter was just 19 when she started a music theory coaching business. She was happily surprised to find that people who pay fifteen bucks an hour for babysitting will pay thirty-five dollars an hour to someone who can teach their child to read music and understand music theory.

Some kids are really talented players or singers but they don’t know theory, and you have to pass a theory exam to get into music school.

My daughter started to pay attention to pain. Some parents had a lot of pain around music theory instruction. There is pain everywhere! No matter what sort of pain you solve, somebody  has it and they will pay you to make it go away.

 

read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2015/02/13/how-to-convert-your-annual-salary-to-an-hourly-consulting-rate/