GOALS

One of the best selling business books of all time is The One Minute Manager. Its advice to managers, which, after reading it, seems obvious, is to take a minute to set a goal for those you are managing (which could be your children before taking them to a restaurant), because if you do not tell someone what you want them to do, you have little reason to expect them to do it (not messing around in a restaurant) or to complain if they don't. 

Then take a minute to praise those who achieve the goal or a minute to reprimand those who do not. Do not beat up those who fail or forget to praise those who did well. 

It's great advice, whether for business or parenting.

The catch (it’s not really a catch) is that the goals a manager sets in business are often dependent on the economy, or, more precisely, on what media experts and politicians are saying about the economy. 

Who or what is responsible for inflationary price increases? Are we at risk of an inflationary collapse? Is a recession right around the corner? What does the Federal Reserve actually do? How does it change the money supply? How does it change interest rates? What can it do to end an inflation? Can the Fed end an inflation without pushing the economy into a recession? How smart are our trade agreements? What is behind economic growth? 

There is more, of course, but the bottom line is, not only are the business, investment, and personal goals we set affected by how we see the present and future economy, the success or failure of those we manage can also be dependent on whether or not we got the right story about the economy.