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web hunter russ Kratowicz, P.E., CMRP Barter If You Don’t Have Cash A time-honored way to get what you need despite budget cuts Most manufacturing plants already have put their corporate spendthrifts on short leashes. When economic pessimism rules the day, maintenance spending has a nasty way of dropping to zero while the need for tools and parts continues on, heedless of the economic punditry on the telly. For centuries, mankind has exchanged goods and services in the absence of cash, credit, banks and the other institutions we now think are so necessary in the real world. We’ve lost our ability to haggle in an uncertain, unstructured marketplace. That uncertainty becomes the launching point The value applied to sometHIng used for barter can sHIft an econoMIC burden to one party or the other. for this opportunity to root around in the chaos we call the Internet in search of some credible, practical, zero-cost, noncommercial, registration-free resources that can shed some light on barter and trade for the industrial world. Remember, we search the Web so you don’t have to. Getting started Cashless transaction have three main variants and quite a few benefits accrue to a company from using them. So says Nigel M. Healey in his article titled “Why is corporate barter” Pay a visit to http://findarticles.com, where you’ll see “Find Articles in:” and select “Business.” Browse the publications in alphabetical order, and you should select the letter B to zero in on a publication called Business Economics. Scroll to the lower part of the page, click on April 1996, and read this eight-page article (including three pages of footnotes and references) to learn about the variants, the benefits derived from engaging in industrial barter and an analysis of the domestic barter industry. The article examines a selection of barter-related material published since 1974. Case stuDIes The typical warehouse holds much excess unsold inventory, each item of which represents cash that should be deployed in far more productive ways. Companies that have found themselves in this situation include MTD Products Inc., AT&T, Konica U.S.A. and Heineken U.S.A. Inc. It was a barter arrangement that helped each of these companies liquidate inventory. Maybe you could ease your budget crunch by doing the same thing. All that’s needed to get moving might be some case studies, in which case you should open your book to www. industryweek.com and access the drop-down menu at the top right corner under the word magazine. The past issue you want is dated May 18, 1998, and the article you want is titled “Corporate Barter: Out Of the Dark” In it, Karen M. Kroll shows you how these companies disposed of lawn mowers, sunglasses, handheld consumer products and, amazingly, office space. Now, you can go forth and be the financial hero of the moment. Money source In the beginning, there was barter. The ancients had unmet needs, but no way to print greenbacks. They had no choice but to use other items as a medium of exchange. Ultimately, beads and trinkets were abandoned in favor of coins. That scenario appears to be a point of contention between Nick Szabo and Mencius Moldbug, a pair of bloggers, the former at George Washington University and the latter being a pseudonym. When you have enough time on your hands, get a sense of the give and take between the two by reading Szabo’s “Logical emergence of money from barter,” and the subsequent online debate at http://unenumerated. blogspot.com. Scroll down to the archives in the right-hand column and select the March 2008 issue. When that loads, drop down to the March 5 entry (they’re listed in reverse chronological order) and click on “Links to this post” found just below the last line of the posting. That will get you the original essay and the comments from both parties. EverYBoDY’s doin’ it If your company isn’t investigating the barter concept, you folks might be missing out on something good. But, don’t take my word for it. The skeptics out there in readerland might have an interest in the next Web site. It presents the basic idea of how barter exchanges operate and highlights their dollar volume trends. Toss your mouse at http://news. thomasnet.com and enter the word “bartering” in the search feature at the upper right corner. You’ll want to select the article titled “Small Biz Owners Revisiting Age-old Tradition: Bartering,” by Jorina Fontelera. It’s a link-rich page that will take you many interesting places. 42 APRIL 2009 www.PLANTSERVICES.com
For the Pacific Northwest Martin Kagan runs The Capital Asset Exchange Ltd., Beaverton, Ore., which seeks to be a forum and trading center for its members. The organization established the Oregon Trade Expansion Network (OTEN) to act as a clearinghouse for barter transactions among members. Of course, there’s a Web site associated with both and I’d like to direct your attention to a specific page. Head over to www.capex.com to access the link that takes you to OTEN. Find the link to an article titled “Trade Economics 101.” Kagan says that it will help determine whether barter can give you a competitive advantage in terms of getting new business, selling surplus, conserving cash or alternative financing. Kagan’s prose is a bit too abstract for my tastes and the graph that’s supposed to be on the page is missing, but there’s a message here that might prove to be of value to your real-world problems. Funky markets and pricing Money is a true, indifferent medium of exchange. Going outside the money economy obscures the value of commodities. The effect is especially pronounced when extramarket trading gets regionalized. Fragmented markets make it difficult to price offerings properly These arguments come from Gregg Economou, senior systems programmer at Carnegie Mellon University, who uses the nickname isildur, one of Tolkien´s characters. The rest of his musings are available for public inspection at www.vaxpower.org/~isildur, where you should scroll to the bottom of the page for the link to the article titled “Towards the new barter economy.” Worst practices The Soviet Union disappeared in a puff of smoke because, among other things, its command-and-control economy didn’t work very well when the rest of the world was booming. The profit motive was absent, and greenbacks, or whatever they call their ruble equivalent, were in short supply. What’s a good Soviet citizen to do The same thing that we might be forced to do: Use nonmonetary transactions. Before you join that game, learn from history to avoid making the same mistakes as our comrades. To make that possible, I direct your digital attention to “Explaining rise of barter in Russia: Virtual Economy vs. Monetary Issues,” an April 2004, master of science research paper written by Tuvshintulga Bold at East Carolina University. It examines the two main schools of thought concerning the collapse of that economy. It shows how the value applied to something used for barter can shift an economic burden to one party or the other. Before you barter, learn how this happens at www.ecu. edu, where your commissar orders you to enter the author’s first name in the search box to access the 25-page document. more resources at www.plantservices.com TOPic Online auctions Entrepreneurialism Green overview Industrial recycling Used equipment Domestic barter According to the next Web citation, from the historical perspective, barter is inefficient because it’s a response to, and not a remedy for, market adversities and uncertainties. In her 2003 paper, “U.S. Domestic Barter: An Empirical Investigation,” Barbara Cresti at the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium explores the the North American barter industry that came into being during the 1950s. She points out the difference between corporate and retail barter. You’ll learn how our robust financial infrastructure explains why barter works here and how its lack indirectly led to the collapse of the Russian economy. This scholarly work is at www.uclouvain.be/en-econ.html. Click “Publications” on the left. Then, click on “Discussion Papers” and select the “ECON DP 2003” option, also on the left. Scroll down to select the entry listed as “2003/36” to read the full report. Reduce the national deficit Those who enter the bartering arena can find some deals that make good economic sense. But you’ll need to keep track of the details so you can pay taxes on whatever results when the dust settles on your exchange and, thus, help us get through this financial downturn. Learn your reporting obligations by visiting our hired hands working in Washington’s Internal Revenue Service at www.irs.gov and performing a search on the word “bartering.” When I searched the IRS site, I found nearly 300 Web pages that have something to say about your cashless swap. Maybe you better get your CFO involved in this matter. Without comment www.greatoffers4u.com/articles/3823 www.barter.net search “Gatherers versus hunters” “Don’t quit your day job” “Growing green plants” “Second time around” “More than one kind of green” For more, search www.<strong>Plant</strong><strong>Services</strong>.com using the keywords green, exchange and trade. E-mail Executive Editor Russ Kratowicz, P.E., CMRP, at russk@ putman.net. www.PLANTSERVICES.com APRIL 2009 43
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Page 7 and 8: from the editor paul studebaker, cm
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Page 14 and 15: UP & RUNNING ABB technology can red
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Page 21 and 22: asset manager david berger, P.Eng.
Page 23 and 24: Technology Toolbox Sheila Kennedy A
Page 25 and 26: Table 1. On tap at www.PlantService
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Page 29 and 30: vendor selection committee, consens
Page 31 and 32: Compressor Power Is Not Measured by
Page 33 and 34: Efficiency / Compressors When amps
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Page 37 and 38: Reliability / Piping the stub-end.
Page 39 and 40: SKILLS / INSTRUMENTS AND CONTROLS A
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Page 45 and 46: our group of experts and provide an
Page 47 and 48: product picks Stainless solenoid va
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Page 51 and 52: Short-term maintenance never sticks

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