The holidays tend to make us wax nostalgic, and this one is no different for me.  In fact, our collective economic struggle makes the simple joys of the season even greater.  While I am not yet willing to hoist the surrender flag that our industry is fundamentally different than it was a short while ago, there is no denying that our lives have been dramatically altered the past couple of years.  Some of these changes are part of the natural business cycle and will bring with them positive changes – whilst others will bring more tough decisions to make.  In this holiday message I would like to, for just a moment, ignore the tough issues and focus on the positive.

I hope that your families will continue to grow and prosper.  Our industry and economy are changing, but the traditions that we should focus on during this time of year do not have to.  My fireplace will still crackle with life on Christmas Eve.  My five and two year olds will still be overjoyed at the site of the Christmas tree on Christmas morning and will so eagerly tear open their gifts that lie beneath it. My wife and I will still enjoy decorating the old Cedar tree that has grown in our front yard for years.  Christmas carols will still play in the background, and the smell of freshly cut Pine, fully regaled in holiday trinkets and ornaments, will grace the inside of my old house.  Across the country churches will fill with praise and song – while those of us that choose to not exercise the religious aspect of the season may rejoice in the brotherhood and good will of the Christmas Story and holiday season. 

Indeed, there is much to be thankful for this Holiday season.  There is much work left to do, and many struggles yet to be fought. 

That said, I will cherish every Christmas, every season, every day I am granted to work in the industry that I have chosen to.  The blessings of this season are often clouded by “50% off sales” and a fundamental materialism so pervasive in our society.  It is easy to be swept up by all of it, throw our hands in the air and give up hope.  The real meaning of this season is that hope is everywhere - if we are willing to work and look hard enough for it.

I cannot thank you enough for reading this blog this year.  I hope I have managed to strike a nerve or two or at least make one ponder an idea or two.  I have learned quite a bit from notes and emails sent my way.  Regardless of the outcome of this rough economic period, we all belong to an industry that is a necessary and needed one.  We help to provide shelter to families, meeting places for the engine of commerce to be managed, schools to teach in and hospitals to care for the sick.  I firmly believe ours is a noble profession made nobler by doing the right thing and managing our businesses with sound fundamentals.

I wish for you and yours a safe and blessed holiday season.  May 2010 see a continued improvement in our economy and industry.  Most of all, I wish you some quiet time to reflect on the successes you have had and the ability to plan for more in the next year and years to come.

Citibank today said that they are going to repay the $20 billion in bailout funds that they were given in order to relieve themselves of the debt owed under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.  They are not the first bank (either commercial or investment) to do so.  The frosty lending environment still hasn’t thawed, and start-up capital lending is virtually non-existent.  Joblessness rests at over 10%, and Dubai may have gotten out of the gate first in the commercial lending meltdown. 

Despite calls from Congress and the President, banks are just not excited to lend and have finally re-discovered all of their market fundamentals (lend only to excellent risks; don’t gamble other people’s money;  build up savings cushion, etc.) that they conveniently forgot when mortgage backed securities were all the rage.  I can’t blame them for their lack of excitement at lending.  I wouldn’t either.  The trouble is, when you ask for taxpayer money in order to survive and receive it, normally there are strings attached.  TARP appears to have had no (or very few) strings.

General Motors has lost two CEO’s with pressure from government regulators.  Chrysler is quietly spending its last days as a going concern as a foreign-owned entity.  But the banks (along with re-insurer AIG), the nexus of the economic meltdown, seemed to have gotten away with nothing more than signing an IOU and agreeing to spend TARP funds on advertisements suggesting people start savings accounts with them.

Any time government begins to meddle in the private sector, even with the best of intentions, something equally as obnoxious seems to happen in return.  Banks took tax funded loans, got solvent, got more savings cushion, then are paying back TARP in order to avoid the pitfalls and market stigma.  Now that the government/private banking industry have crossed that line ever further than before, the question is fair to ask who’s next?

Small business owners across the nation with excellent credit histories are not able to borrow money.  Banks teetering on the verge of insolvency with laughable balance sheets were given loans in order to stay in business.  Something just doesn’t seem fair.

Poor choices should yield poor results.  Terrible choices should yield terrible results.  But in the age of TARP, the natural paradigm was artificially shifted.  Legitimate businesses lost funding and many have left the competitive landscape.  Terrible businesses are now paying back TARP funds with consumer savings instead of lending in order to avoid pay caps.  TARP may have been necessary at the time in order to avoid a depression.  However; the strings attached were much too easy to shed.  We can’t very well mandate who gets or gives loans and for what amount as that thinking helped get us into the mess we are in.  But it is a sad day when my construction company owning friends are laying off staff and considering orderly wind-downs and the banks are paying back TARP.  What a tangled web we have woven ourselves into.  Banks are unwilling to lend, businesses are afraid to expand (thus build) and the economy hangs in the balance.  Yuck.

I read an article the other day on the International Space Station in Fast Company magazine.  The quote at the end of the article was - in paraphrase- “There are no children on the space station, therefore, it is not our future.   It is just a space station”.

It got me to thinking, and, locked up tight in Omaha, Nebraska during the first blizzard of the winter, that is a dangerous thing.  Many of us are struggling to keep our doors open and aren’t much focused on the future beyond making payroll at the end of the week.  I totally understand the rationale.

As an industry, are we forsaking our future?  Are we appealing to the best and brightest of the younger generations to join our ranks?  Are we providing a creative outlet along with sufficient financial opportunity in order to not only sustain but grow our industry?

I firmly believe that the days of construction being the last best remaining option for employment are nearing their end.  Clients will expect us to be ever more professional, ever more efficient, ever more proficient and on top of our craft.  This will require bright people that are well trained and passionate about their chosen career in order to make this happen.  We can no longer hope for the best of the leftovers - we need top tier employees and staffs in order to secure our industry’s future.

What are you doing to promote and retain exceptionally gifted new staff?  What opportunities and challenges are you presenting them with?  Are you throwing them to the wolves and hoping that they figure it out?  What will we do as an industry in order to compete with tech companies and other forms of engineering that are a gathering place for bright young minds?

We can’t just make do with what we have walk through the door.  Instead, we must create an environment in which people can grow and succeed.  In times like this, it is difficult to think about years down the road.  But as that great turn of phrase mentioned and I twisted  “…Without young people, there is no future, it is just a job.”