THE REVIEWS

SERVICE TO SOCIETY

My name is Christopher Peter and welcome to the Christopher Peter Review.

In this podcast episode, I discuss the famous words of former President John F. Kennedy calling for Americans to do their part to contribute to the American society they want to live and take pride in. In a nation built for the people, of the people, and by the people, it was a great message to ask the people to be an active participant in their outcomes.

This is a stark contrast from our current social condition, where our leaders seek power by shifting blame towards society for the actions, choices, and consequences that may emanate from the people. While there are some areas public policy can be better, the rhetoric makes it seem like these individuals do not believe in the people as much as leaders in the past. Or they want to shift the responsibility elsewhere for political power grab.

Our society does embody more entitlement than what could be deemed a healthy level. For instance, we those who max out their student loans and believe taxpayers should foot the bill for their personal choice. But I still believe most people want to succeed the right way, attain that self made label, and earn their keep in life without burdening others. They want to succeed but may need some direction or guidance.

I believe that America can have a society that fosters a culture that rewards hard work, ambition, and innovation, while still caring for those who truly cannot take care of themselves. Encourage and require that every able bodied person maximizes their opportunities for personal success but to also contribute to the wellbeing of society through service to community, generosity towards organizations that help those who truly cannot help themselves, and just basic showing of kindness and compassion. And not accept societal grifters.

Please experience my new podcast episode where I discuss the famous remark from JFK as well as comment on recent current events.

TIPPING POINT

My name is Christopher Peter and welcome to The Christopher Peter Review, where I discuss salient current events that impacts our public policy, economic outcomes, and overall society.

There are moments in our lives or our professional roles where we may realize that a change is needed and it is needed right now. Moments that are pivotal on the decisions made one way or the other. And that is what my main segment focuses on in this podcast episode.

The people we elect to make the big decisions that impact the conditions of our society and the quality of life in our communities continue to come up short in this tipping point moments. Instead of making the tough choices and the right choices, many seem more focused on changing the question they are being asked or obsessed on how the result may impact their own outcomes.

Many of the costs associated with inaction or the wrong type of change are quite steep. Some outcomes we cannot change after they occur. A sentiment that many might really consider. People in power are not elected to make changes for the sake of doing something different or simply hold the line. They must make the right choices at the right time and deliver the right results.

Please experience my new podcast episode below where I discuss the decline of our cities and how to avoid these pitfalls, why Americans tip, and we make our Super Bowl picks.

REAL VALUES

The size and scale of a company is important. Our economy needs companies of all sizes. Small businesses. Medium businesses. And large global multinationals. These all help our economy and stabilize industries. 

There are strong opinions about large corporations. In many ways, we are conditioned to not like big companies and to view them as greedy entities. Yet, we are not supposed to view the government as greedy when taxes are increased during economic downtimes, good times, and anytime elected officials want more funding for pet projects. 

The reality is that we need large businesses. Large scale businesses that can employ people, create economic wealth, and produce and distribute the goods and services needed from sea to shining sea. Big companies have the resources to provide the benefits, labor protections, and perks that we wish all employers would offer. 

We also need to consider the benefits of having multinationals domiciled in your economy. I believe it is better to have large organizations that operate in your borders be domiciled in your economy than based elsewhere. Just like with individuals, home will always be where the heart and interests are so it is important that home is local. While profitability will always rule, I firmly believe that operations considered foreign will have less leeway than the home operations will have. 

In this podcast episode, Real Values, I discuss metrics used to measure the size of companies, managing sports assets for long term success, maintaining values to protect communities, and recent current events. 

CONTINGENCY PLANS

My name is Christopher Peter and welcome to The Christopher Peter Review.

Outcomes do not always go as expected. At times, there is a need to pivot and be able to make lemonade when society is handed a batch of lemons. In the case of the presidential primaries, Republican and Democrats might need to find a way to make lemonade.

As a society, we have seen the saying that elections have consequences prove all too correct. Consequences with policy ineffectiveness, personal behaviors, or rigid ideology without regard to the impact on the citizens. Usually, there is a mix of good with the bad consequences. So society has to determine whether the good outweighs the bad.

America is not governed with a parliamentary system, where we can say shortly after an election that “we got this one wrong” and get a redo. Rather we have a governance system based on checks and balance and stability, where we have a long enough period to say without a doubt that we made the wrong choice and this is why now we must change paths.

In this moment, I do believe that both sides have to consider the real possibility that neither of the leading candidates will be available. One is facing new indictments with trials to occur during the contest. While there are clear political agendas working in elevating the alleged crimes, it still is something that may impact the contest. On the other side, the health and well being is clearly a concern along with growing scandals that may impact his appeal as well. What if one is in jail and the other just comes to the realization that he is no longer capable and did not do a good enough job?

I know there are some people that say having a backup plan or contingency plan is sign of a lack of confidence. But I think it is a sign of proper planning, flexibility, and foresight to acknowledge there is a future risk that if it comes to fruition there needs to be some process of still moving forward. This is a moment in time where both parties are clearly headed towards nominating candidates that may not be the best ones available to either side. Candidates that America is better off moving forward from.

In the podcast episode below, I discuss projected labor shortages and how society can address them, I look the potential for rethinking the nominees for next year’s presidential election, novel ideas in sports, and more. Please experience this important podcast episode below.

CHOICES

My name is Christopher Peter and welcome to The Christopher Peter Review.

Our life outcomes are generally a result of the choices we make each and every day. Something that we may not always want to acknowledge. The choice of whether to eat an unhealthy lunch in place of a salad may seem like a fleeting decision, but one that could lead to a simple decision to offset that choice during dinner or lead to consequences if we make the wrong small decision all too frequently.

A small bad choice made to frequently is a bad pattern. No one is perfect. But we should understand consequences of the decisions we make and accept responsibility for the outcomes. In our society, we all too often blame society, other people, and everything under the sun to escape the reality that we created the situation we are in. The earliest we come to turns with this, the earlier we can start make better decisions that can reverse the course and put us on better path.

We do not always control every deciding factor in every decision we need to make. I think it is fair to acknowledge that. But we control how we react to situations and how we decide to manage these situations. The lack of control does not fully exonerate us for poor reactions and responses. We still have the responsibility to make the best of even the worst situation to make lemonade out of lemons.

In this special podcast episode, I discuss social media, the potential reunification of China, and bad public policy. Discuss the difficult choice that Taiwan officials face in the midst of reunification with China. Bad choices in regard to our policy failures. And good choices in regard to social media. Please click below to experience Choices.

PATRIOTISM 2.0

My name is Christopher Peter and welcome to the Christopher Peter Review.

I firmly believe that people are dynamic to truly love their nation, while understanding there are opportunities for improvement. No nation on this earth can claim to be the perfect nation and free of any controversial action in extended length of their history.

People evolve over time and values and norms change. Perspective is needed to be rational and intellectually mature about events that are not so great overall. Every individual has made decisions that they regret or would not do so if they knew the consequences of those decisions. Same with societies. There are practices that were institutionalized that will not be returned because times have changed.

In all fairness, no nation can claim absolute perfection. But the United States of America is the gold standard. No nation has done more to elevate people out of poverty and oppression than America. No nation has stood up to Communism, Fascism, and terrorism and succeeded as the driving force. No nation affords their people the economic freedom, personal freedom, security, and choice America offers.

In this special episode, I discuss the importance of patriotism America and debate recent Supreme Court rulings. Please enjoy. Wish you all a Happy July 4th celebration!

MANAGING CHANGE

My name is Christopher Peter and welcome to The Christopher Peter Review.

There are few guarantees in life. Only that everything changes and we will have to adapt, manage, or succumb to that change. Some people want to be the drivers of change, while others do everything in their power to ensure that the change is vetted and tested before it is allowed to impact society.

I believe there are valid arguments for both sides of being an agent for change and being a supporter of tradition. Change for the sake of change can create negative externalities that the proponent of that change should have anticipated ahead of time and mitigated. At the same time, the prisoner of the moment may overlook the current externalities some may experience that need to be addressed.

This is why change must be managed or vetted to ensure that we can be effective, efficient, and consistent with our shared guiding values that make our society the best in the world and our economy the premier innovation machine and opportunity generator on earth. We must anticipate to the best of our abilities the costs, risks, and benefits before agreeing. Some effects you cannot reverse. And cost spent on failed endeavors are funds that could have been used on more beneficial endeavors.

In this podcast episode, I discuss some idea to facilitate change including how to improve sports talk shows, the one day coup, and new approaches companies are taking to manage their workforce as well as other recent current events. Please enjoy below.

MANAGING REALITY

My name is Christopher Peter and welcome to The Christopher Peter Review.

One of the easiest thing people do in this world is see a gap in others. See mistakes or missteps others make and dissect these moments in a manner to highlight our own self belief in our own intelligence. How can this person have done this or done that when it was so obvious the choices he or she should have made. We all personally believe that we know what someone else should have done with their lives, their careers, or daily situations.

Sometimes we lose this perspective when looking at people who are more successful than we believe they should be. This person must have done some immoral action to gain an advantage that we did not do. This person got there because of their race, gender, other demographic, or network. There between who we perceive them to be and how they got be where they are in life. So we fill in the blanks to make ourselves feel better about our situations.

That is life in America and really any society for the most part. Our reality is not always real, but our perception of what must have took place in order to feel better or less worse about our own lives. That is how we get out of bed each day. Now, I am not trying to make the impression that we are all purposefully malice individuals. Many times people do not act on their thoughts. We do not treat someone differently because we think they have ill gotten gains. We do not help someone even if we believe there is a correction that could change their perceived situation.

My point is that a birds eye view is not always the reality that individual is really facing. Maybe that person who has a better title than we have benefited from performing well on visible projects, affording him or her a fast track through no real fault of their own. They had an opportunity and took advantage of it. Maybe that person who we think is making all the wrong decisions has a host of other factors that make these straight forward decisions not so straight forward.

In this podcast episode, Managing Reality, I focus on discussing how we are impacted by marketing in our lives. Many times we think we are behaving in rational manners, but are really reacting to exposures to marketing promotions, societal engineering, socialization, and other factors that influence our decision making in a not so straight forward manner. At times, we need to challenge our norms, default positions, and instinctive actions to understand why these exist for us and if they really belong in our respective lives.

Please experience this podcast episode below, where I also discuss inflation as well as other current events.

THE COST OF MONEY

My name is Christopher Peter and welcome to The Christopher Peter Review.

Does the financial ends justify the means to attain that financial benefit? There is a saying that everyone has a price, which might be true. There may be a price point where we are willing to set aside our personal standards and principles to experience a financial benefit that is needed in the moment or just to satisfy a momentary urge.

When we set aside our personal standards and guiding principles, we also set aside any excuse related to consequences or externalities that may exist because of that decision. The excuse that we did not know or anticipate the effect is not an adequate excuse when the result came from a pure monetary pursuit.

I am a capitalist at heart and believe people should maximize their outcomes and financial viability. Take advantage of opportunities that exists because some come only once in a lifetime. But you must understand not only your benefit, but what the potential cost associated that others may bear.

For instance, there are many companies that offer services that really do not make the customer better. They enjoy back end rebates and incentives, while exposing the end user or consumer to financial and other risks that they should not bear. When the regulators come knocking, should we really be sympathetic to the argument that this was not something they could have anticipated?

In this new podcast episode, I lead a discussion on the true cost of streaming, Trump’s new indictment, and the PGA Merger as well as other recent current events. Please click below to experience The Cost of Money podcast episode.

NEW CHALLENGES AND CHALLENGERS

My name is Christopher Peter and welcome to The Christopher Peter Review.

The quality of policymaking is a result of the pool of candidates available to compete for the 538 spots in Congress, 50 governorships, and single opportunity for President of the United States. While many pundits prefer a quite and predictable path towards nominations, our democracy may be better served with more engaging and thorough discourse reflecting the diverse views of the various sects of each party.

The voters that make up each of the leading political parties are not monolithic on either side. Both Republicans and Democrats hold a blend of views that may fall under the label of conservative, liberal, moderate, or fringe. The successful candidate will usually be the one that finds the right mix that connects the broadest coalition and has the proper timing. Sometimes, you may have the right message, just the wrong time for it.

There are many challengers seeking the 2024 Republican nomination. But, there are only two that have a realistic chance. Former President Donald Trump and highly successful Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. There are two people competing to unseat Joe Biden. While he is on the clear path to continue his plan to rerun, I think there should be some concern of how popular some of the more radical members of his party are showing in the race.

Elections have consequences. Some lasting longer than others. In this new podcast episode, I discuss the 2024 GOP field, ideas for small business, the importance of travel, the NBA finals, and boycotts. Please click below to experience The Challenge.