Slippage -noun 1. an act or instance of slipping. 2. an amount or extent of slipping. 3. failure to maintain an expected level, fulfill a goal, meet a deadline, etc.; loss, decline, or delay; a falling off. 4. Machinery . the amount of work dissipated by slipping of parts, excess play, etc.

I am getting frustrated with the amount of time it is taking to get out of this recession. As I was watching Meet the Press on Sunday, August 22, 2010, they cited a study that said 40% of working professionals would quit their jobs tomorrow if they had somewhere else to go! The main reason for that statistic; everyone is doing multiple jobs and the work day has grown longer and more stressfull. We're all working harder than ever because we believe there is an end in sight! Ever vigilant in my belief that things are getting better, I took a deep breath and read the latest forty-six (46) page, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch report. The latter delineates what those entities are advising their customers to do with their money and why. Among some of their economic observations were:

China: "Many US multinationals which have spent years building all businesses in China are beginning to see meaningful results. As incomes rise and urban spending patterns gradually spread to rural areas, these companies should benefit from and expanding market and trade out by consumers to better quality brands." An excellent example, "in the first half of this year, China became the largest handset market in the world. China is, however, still largely under penetrated with regard to many products and industries. In our view, China is progressing to the next leg of economic development: from export-led growth, which was followed by construction and investment-led growth, to now transitioning to domestic consumption-led growth, driven by rising per capita income. China has built airports but still need to aircraft and jet fuel; China has built highways still needs trucks and diesel fuel; China has built new cities but still needs air conditioners and refrigerators." We are, my friends, poised to sell a ton of stuff to China in the very near future. Is that great news? The 2nd largest market in the world!!!

The report also states with respect to the US, "Our Bank of America/Merrill Lynch economics team does not forecast a double dip, but sees growth slowing from 2.9% in 2010 to 2.4% in 2011. This is mostly from slower growth in household consumption, new homes and inventories." The same group is, "... forecasting 4.5% increase in global growth in 2010 and 4.1% in 2011 led by emerging economies." Do you hear any of this in the media? Do you hear it from anywhere? The major threat to our recovery, according to the report? Government Uncertainty including health care, regulations, taxes and interest rates.

Here at Lukins & Annis, we see our business clients making a comeback. As money begins to become available, deals are coming together. Companies want to expand and provide more and better products to their customers. Spokane is poised to rebound!

We are currently in a state of slippage. We were making progress for awhile and now we're stalled. Politicians are protracting the recession by refusing to collaborate and exchanging repeated negative comments about the economy in the press. The press exacerbates these opinions from all sides and the consumer won't spend. The press even chides those who are optimistic. The economy is poised to make a comeback, but the dissection of every bit of negative data reinforces the fear consumers have about the future. Meanwhile, it seems very few "journalists" are capable of reading a thoughtful, easy to obtain, report about what probably will happen, most of it positive.

I've talked a great deal about the economy, but I know more about old cars than economics. I had a 1963 Rambler once, with a clutch that was constantly slipping. I could never get to top speed because the engine had to work harder, (more revolutions per minute) to make up for the slipping clutch. The engine in our current situation are US business interests and their actual and potential workforce. The clutch is our elected officials from all parties. Any way you want to look at it, it is time to get a new clutch or rebuild the old one. . .

Some more good news for America today! According to the New York Times, the Chinese are nuts about U.S. walnuts, almonds, and pecans. "This year, China will emerge as the top foreign buyer of American almonds, more than doubling its purchases from two years ago, according to data from the Almond Board of California. Last year, China was the top foreign buyer of American walnuts, and in 2007, it became the leading export market for pecans. Altogether, China bought $737 million in tree nuts from the United States last year, up from just $89 million five years earlier, according to the United States Department of Agriculture."

My immediate thought was, why don't we have more nuts in Eastern Washington? At least walnuts? (I knew almonds were a California product and pecans grow in warmer climates throughout the south.) Many natives of this area have regaled me with stories of walnut trees, walnut throwing and walnut eating. At first blush, the answer appears to be that walnuts don't grow well here. However, according to an article written by R.L. Stebbins, for the Cooperative Extension Service, there are varieties that will grow here, including Franquette and Spurgeon. Going from the academic to old farmers, (the latter of which you can find here at Lukins & Annis!) I discovered the real reason why we don't have walnut trees; they take too long to mature and must be invested in while they are non productive.

It seems that economic development is like trying to find someone to grow walnut trees. We need to create a long term plan with public participation and then invest in implementation. You might say, "hey Chuck, how can you talk like that in the middle of a recession?" I would answer that this recession has provided us with tremendous opportunities to boost economic development. We have not however, developed broad consensus on this issue, so we continue to lose out on new manufacturing to places like Moses Lake, despite the tremendous quality of life we have here.

I don't know who can step up and get this done. I think I just voted to tax myself to have fire protection as did many other residents. That seemed odd to me, but okay, eventually there is a reason to have a fire truck around. Yet, I have not been asked to pay for the one thing that could result in lowering crime, the need for emergency services, drop outs, family violence and many other negative indicators. Raise my property taxes to fund economic development please! Economic development is like planting walnut trees. You have to make some serious investments before you get any nuts...

My faith in America was restored on Saturday, May 29, 2010. . .

At 10:30 a.m., at the Coeur d'Alene Resort, I squeezed into the tight but comfortable cockpit of the Tesla Roadster. By some great good fortune, Tesla of Seattle had called the afternoon before, and asked me if I would like to drive that car. I think I said, "This is a joke right? You... you're not really calling to offer me the opportunity to drive one of the world's fastest cars?"

The representative, Genny Carter, assured me she was serious and hoped that I would be able to participate in a test drive. I started jumping up and down in my chair. I felt positively giddy at the thought of putting my large paws on such a vehicle.

Many of you probably know that the Tesla is a completely electrical car, not a hybrid, that's built in California. Tesla recently announced a partnership with Toyota. "I've felt an infinite possibility about Tesla's technology and its dedication to monozukuri (Toyota's approach to manufacturing)," said TMC President Akio Toyoda. "Through this partnership, by working together with a venture business such as Tesla, Toyota would like to learn from the challenging spirit, quick decision-making, and flexibility that Tesla has. Decades ago, Toyota was also born as a venture business. By partnering with Tesla, my hope is that all Toyota employees will recall that 'venture business spirit,' and take on the challenges of the future."

Ironically, Japanese carmakers learned modern manufacturing techniques from United States companies and then proceeded to dominate the automotive world. Thanks to Tesla, the shoe is now on the other foot. Tesla is taking Toyota back to school. Tesla is a role model and hopefully U.S. companies will look closely at what Tesla has done. When a giant like Toyota wants to be your bud, that's a pretty good indicator of genius.

So I watched the video about how tall guys get into the roadster. Right foot first, lean in and lower yourself to the seat. Get your right foot over to the accelerator and then bring in your left. I recalled these instructions in detail and was ready to pronounce victory, when my head bumped into the canvas top. But then again, I may have the world's longest torso, so a more proportional human would not have bumped their head!

We got under way and the car has great low-speed manners. When you let off the accelerator, the vehicle slows down dramatically. As I turned onto on an undisclosed roadway, I pushed down hard with my right foot and felt my body being shoved back in the seat like Godzilla had hit me. I did this multiple times and decided that the roadster represented the perfect combination of adrenalin and ecology. Go fast, no guilt! If you love the planet, you gotta buy one of these! I think maybe Greater Spokane helped get me on some list for this, so thanks to them!

Meanwhile, we have lots of great business innovation going on in Spokane. Things are getting better, so stay revved up like the world's fastest car, (0-60 in 3.7 seconds, I'm not saying how fast I went.) Tesla is the blueprint and the inspiration America needs!

The crazy events leading to the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have caused a number of people to put on their thinking caps. Early in the process, my peeps and I talked about using a contraption similar to the dome now being lowered over one well, including using a hose to pump the oil to a ship or barge! Seriously, we really did!

I just watched a crazy video, click here where these two country looking guys demonstrated how hay or straw could be used to clean up oil! The oil clings to either material. They postulated that if tons of straw were spread around the polluted area, it could be scooped up later by barges with nets. Better still, when the straw washes ashore, then you use an already existing machine that is used to sweep up seaweed to sweep up the oil contaminated hay. After it dries out, you burn it to create electricity! These guys are nothing short of down home geniuses!

The question I would ask these guys right away is whether they have done anything to formally take credit for this idea. By that I mean, applying for a patent, trademark or copyright. Everyone has had at least one good, original sounding, idea in their lives. I am delusional enough to believe that I have had many! As an example, I credit myself for inventing square headlights in the sixth grade. I even have the drawings to prove it. The teacher told me, "You will never see square headlights on a car." Good thing that guy didn't make his living predicting the future!

Here at Lukins & Annis, we were recently joined by patent attorneys Keith Bergman and Bill Jeckle. These guys are the real deal. Both are registered with the U.S. Patents and Trademark Office and have an office full of cool things that they have patented. You can see a great explanation of their practice area here. We are doing this part of our firm somewhat differently in order to accommodate you creative thinkers. We will set aside time, on an appointment basis, for someone to come in and interact with Keith or Bill for 30 minutes at no charge. Then if you want to go forward, we conduct what is known as a "novelty search." This will tell you and us, whether the idea is patentable. This costs $1,000. If the answer comes back yes, then we will quote you a fixed price for completing the patent application. That is generally going to be somewhere from $5K to 15K. You put up two thirds of that amount which goes into trust. When the application is done, you pay the balance and we send it off. No hourly fees in any of the former.

You need to consider protecting your great idea now, before the next crisis, whether you talk to us or another patent attorney. Or, you can be like me, and spend the rest of your life trying to convince others that you DID come up with that idea!

The Oracles are at it again! I was appalled to read in today's online edition of the New York Times, click here that the National Bureau of Economic Research is not yet ready to declare the recession over. This bit of news brought to you by the same brain trust that didn't see the financial explosion coming in the first place. I think I am a bit jaded in my attitude by the forthrightness of our own local economists, who were optimistic at the beginning and later admitted that they were too optimistic. Despite the development of complex computer models, even mega smart humans cannot calculate every variable in this equation.

The thing we really don't need is the ongoing ambivalence expressed by this group and our national leaders. The Times article noted, "Citing job gains in March, Jeffrey A. Frankel, an economist at the Harvard Kennedy School, declared on his blog last week, 'The recession is over.' He said he made that case when the committee met Friday (April 9, 2010) in Cambridge, Mass., but added that he could see that a strong argument could be made for holding off on a pronouncement."

We can all agree that a wide variety of factors is responsible for these constant half hearted pronouncements, including the gross domestic product, employment trends, consumer confidence, etc. However, I think the factor that is rarely discussed, is the lack of courage and leadership from those in charge at the national level.

We have some tremendous collaborations here in the Inland Northwest that are assisting with efforts to get us out of this recession. Yes the progress is slow, but local elected officials understand that projecting optimism is a big part of how this mess is going to get turned around. At the national level, the countless hours spent name calling and a general unwillingness to discuss our economic issues in a civil way, seriously limit the possibilities for accelerating a turnaround.

There was a great article in the Spokesman Review this morning, click here about Spokane residents clamoring for a Trader Joe's to be built. New resident Nova Duft launched a "Bring Trader Joe's to Spokane" Facebook group. According to the article, it is one of many such sites advocating for various cities, with the hope that the Trader Joe's decision makers will expand to their respective cities.

Maybe we need a "Put Aside Your Differences and Address the Economy" Facebook page. This doesn't seem like rocket science to me and many of you. All sides have a lot more in common than they care to admit. I don't know of a better idea...our communities, our businesses and our families need some full on, non-partisan leadership.

Spring Cleaning has always baffled me to some extent. Why do we have to wait until Spring?? Do our minds shut down the rest of the year? In any case, as businesses on the move in the Inland Northwest, we should pursue some "Spring Thinking."

Once we get past the first week of people whining about "losing" an hour of sleep, the days are longer, the temperature warmer and some feelings of renewed opportunity appear. Consider that there has been a huge number of participants in Spokane's effort to be the chosen by the Masters of Google, for free mega high speed internet infrastructure. Yes, other cities are competing, and their mayors are jumping into shark tanks or frigid waters. The irrepressible Mary Verner raps better than any other mayor in the nation, but more importantly, has brought the city through some tough times. Using the ideas of city employees, she reduced budgets and created better customer service. Google, don't you want to be associated with some of the smartest people in the nation, who live by the slogan "Near Nature, Near Perfect?" There's no better photo opportunity anywhere in the United States!

We all need to assess our attitudes going forward. There are many ways to reach out to fellow business people and strategize about how to keep a small business from going under. I met a great lady the other day named Coralie Myers. Ms. Meyers has worked for banks and the SBA. I referred a business in need to her for a possible workaround and told her I didn't know how they would pay her. Coralie said, "give them my number..." I see Allen and Bill and those peeps at Launchpad renting out table spaces for $75 a month to budding entrepreneurs. Yes I did say $75 per month! They don't have to do that, but they are pro-business and putting their money where their mouth is! And, there's a networking event or two or three over there every week for little or no money!

Greater Spokane Inc. (GSI) has the Procurement, Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) for those who want to learn to contract with the government for goods and services. All levels of government, whether you like it or not, are spending gobs of money and looking for quality vendors. Participation in the PTAC is free and you'll meet a group of like minded humans to network with.

So what's it going to be folks? Are you going to keep whining about your sleep? Or as the old guys used to say, "Make hay while the sun shines?" (Okay, now I am an old guy...) We're making hay at Lukins and Annis, and we're ready to help you and your business Spring Forward!

Today, my friend Skip Leasure, with Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management, sent me a long report about the economic "Big Picture" in the coming months and years. While I didn't agree with the entire analysis I took note of data relating to the number of people who pay NO income tax.

"The percentage was about 25% in the early 1950's and dropped to about 15% in the 1960's. It is nearing 50% now. Government at all levels (local, state, and federal) is relying on a smaller tax base to fund growing expenditure levels. What happens when substantially more citizens pay no personal income tax and can, through their elected representatives, invoke ever higher levies on the minority that do? When this possibility is raised many people just assume it can never happen but it already has. Last year, a majority of Oregon voters passed legislation to levy a surcharge on the 3% of its couples earning $250,000 or more ($125,000 individually). In essence 97% of the population was asked to increase taxes on the other 3%. Additionally they (the voters) passed a tax on business revenues rather than profits."

We really must put the brakes on this trend. Washington is currently talking about increasing the B & O tax that already takes a significant chunk out of business revenues. There has to be some balance. Penalizing the high achievers does not help the rest of the population in the end. Despite the enormous need among so many folks in this country right now, we must fight the urge to tax our way out by putting more strain on high wage earners and businesses, in a disproportionate manner. The time to talk seriously about a straight income tax is right now. Smarter people than I, on both sides of the political spectrum, have determined that such a tax, set at say 10% of gross wages, would finance the government and then some. Additionally we could free up significant amounts of money spent by the IRS and taxpayers under the current system.

We have to work our way out of this mess. That means freeing up capital so that small businesses can get loans and/or restructure current loans. They can then stay in business and/or hire more people who need jobs. This needs to happen very soon, and it will only happen if everyone pays their fair share.

One of the great things about working here at Lukins & Annis, is having computer guys that stay on top of viruses, malware, scams and all the other disruptive garbage that arrives in our e-mail. Most of the time, our security software nabs the infected emails and labels them as such. One of the ways that we stay on top of this, is by communicating with everyone when a new negative phenomenon starts to take place.

Recently, I received an email which many of you may have received, saying that Facebook had changed my password. Sadly, it came from a business colleague outside of the firm, who is a computer consultant! I immediately went to http://www.snopes.com to check the validity of such a message and indeed, they reported it was a scam.

When I asked my IT Director, Ubber Geek Dave Nevala, about how a legitimate computer guy sends out crazy messages like that, he said it has nothing to do with the computer guy. The message generator is probably generated by malware on his own computer OR on another computer somewhere else in the world and his address was used with the hope that a bunch of us would open the e-mail.

So, the e-mail states that the user can find his new password in an attached document. Opening that document launches an executable file that triggers for download of malware that allows others to take control of your PC. Any personal or business information on that computer is easily stolen.

Even if information is not stolen, cleaning up the hard drive is a time-consuming, costly process. Sending out short reminders to everyone in your company takes a few minutes. You might also remind them about updating their computers at home. Dave just sent out this message... Microsoft also announced a "zero day" vulnerability which means that they are aware of a security vulnerability that is currently being exploited by hackers, but no patch exists for it yet. The problem is apparent in Internet Explorer versions 6 and 7, so if you've held off upgrading to IE 8, this might be a good reason to make the plunge.

Depending on the version of Internet Explorer you're using, the shortcut to "Windows Update" exists in the Internet Explorer "Tools" or "Safety" menu. Choosing the "Express" update should keep your computer updated with the critical updates. Start today! It is well worth your effort.

In Satomi Owners Association v. Satomi, LLC (2009), the Washington Supreme Court was faced with an important constitutional issue as to whether the Federal Arbitration Act preempts the judicial enforcement provision of the Washington Condominium Act.

The case arose out of the allegedly defective construction of two condo projects in King County. The condominium owner's associations brought construction defect claims under the Washington Condominium Act against the condo developers and contractors.

The developers and contractors argued that such claims had to be arbitrated because of the arbitration clause in the parties' respective contracts and the strong federal policy favoring enforcement of arbitration provisions under the Federal Arbitration Act. The condominium owner's associations argued that construction defect claims were beyond the scope of the contractual arbitration clauses, relying on the express judicial enforcement provision in the Washington Condominium Act.

The Washington Supreme Court wrestled with the apparent conflict between the federal and state laws, and ultimately held that the judicial enforcement provision of the Washington Condominium Act was preempted by federal law. Thus, when there is an arbitration provision in the parties' contract, the proper forum for condo construction defect claims is arbitration, not state court.

However, Satomi Owners Association v. Satomi, LLC does not render the judicial enforcement provision of the Washington Condominium Act completely toothless. Where the parties contract does not contain an arbitration clause, the judicial enforcement provision still applies and condo construction defect claims may be brought in state court.

Satomi Owners Association v. Satomi, LLC ought to be considered in drafting and negotiating any condo construction contract. The decision provides an increased level of certainty in contracting for alternative dispute resolution and a strong signal as to how courts will likely construe the scope of an arbitration clause in the context of condo construction.

The recent projections reported in the Spokesman Review, about additional decreases in home values in Spokane and Kootenai counties could be taken rather negatively at first glance. Homeowners lose some additional value on their homes and theoretically, tax revenues decline at a time when more services are actually needed.

However, the fact that more people can buy more house for less money provides us with additional leverage in our efforts to promote Spokane. One might argue that every other jurisdiction in America will attempt to make the same argument. Notice I said, "attempt" because how are you going to compete with "Near Nature, Near Perfect?"

It easy to forget all the attributes that exist here. As a relative newcomer, I continually marvel at what a great place this is! One of the very difficult things to understand, is how successful economic development takes place. We have the partnerships between local business, local chambers and local government. We seem to be able to present a united front. So what's lacking in our strategy?

My guess? Serendipity. Although there are many definitions of that word, I prefer to the following: The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.

The way I interpret that definition is that we need more people to become involved in the process of promoting the Inland Northwest to those areas outside of our immediate universe. Most of our businesses and their employees clearly have the faculty to address the merits of this wonderful place. All of us have a friends, family and business contacts in other states. We need to elevate this mission to a higher priority to decrease unemployment and to cause our community to thrive economically once again. The folks who do this full-time need our help.