January 2010
133 posts
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About business founders, inventors, entrepreneurs and culture.
[R]eal value creation [by established modern economic view comes from] company creation; that’s the hardest thing to do. Innovating in hostile environments take raw talent and complete suspension of disbelief. The founders who make this happen are the heroes of our industry. (Source)
When I am reading this, then I can’t think that VCs like bank bailouts. And lesson number two, in perspective of the France-CEO-culture topic + foreign affairs (politics). Nobody from the outside should ‘get in’, lecutre them and use force how to do something ‘right’.
Who are you to tell someone what is right and what is wrong.
My John Edwards moment.
I have been reading here and there about John Edwards missteps. But found myself in one of Andrew Young’s accounts, more or less.
[I] paid for much of [his affairs] expenses out of [my] pocket, and [the guy] promised reimbursement when [we find the money].
I never saw the money from an ex-friend/flatmate for whom I paid his share of the deposit for a flat.
Do I really have to pay NYT or WSJ for this type of journalism? No wonder we expect it to be free! →
venturebeat.com
… I get that type of spam everyday already in my in-box. Some think the specific writers/editors should be fired.
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“As a creator, part of what I seek is recognition, immortality. I don’t work for Apple, or Google (I’ve been offered jobs & buyouts) because I want the fame myself. It’s my shot at immortality. My designs are my children. So it stinks when I feel like Steve might get the fame for my innovation. I lose my children, as it were.”
“But your children aren’t really yours. They have lives of their own. So when your designs do change the world, you have to accept it. You have to say, ‘Ok, this was such a good idea, other people took it and ran with it. I win.’”
” —via @WilShipley. About products, software and design. (Source @TechCrunch)All eyes are on Greece. Current investors in a precarious situation.
Before I quote the experts and pundits here, let me state one fact. Greece is not the tip of the iceberg of the coming rolling (sovereign) debt crisis. Greece had these problems long before the credit crunch. Others will see their premiums rise dramatically to pay down/to issue new debt too.
Zero Hedge reports … “The main story of the day anyways was further sell-off of Greek bonds. France and Germany denied rumors of an ECB bail-out, but the IMF stated they would act if needed. We think this puts Europe in a bit of a pickle, because this is the first hard test on the union, and letting the IMF take the helm and step in to support one of their members would be somewhat humiliating. Maybe ripple effects on Spain, Portugal, or Ireland, will also make France’s and Germany’s position more difficult to hold. The odds in our mind are towards a quick resolution. Bunds have been bought against the PIGS sovereign bonds being sold, and we think a resolution will bring about swift selling of German Treasuries, especially as US Treasuries are barely rallying despite a strong 7Y auction today.”
Reuters reports a government on ROADSHOW … “The government had previously announced it would stage a roadshow for investors in East Asia, including China, and the United States sometime this year.”
See here for the FT blogging about Goldman Sachs involvement “high-risk high-return = client Greece”.
The China story @moneyweek.com … “A former adviser to the Chinese central bank, Yu Yongding, effectively told Bloomberg that China shouldn’t touch Greek debt with a ten-foot bargepole. “Even if pricing is attractive, one key problem for Greek government bonds is the lack of credibility. We trust US statistics on debt and deficits. The numbers are not pretty, but we have a pretty good idea of what we are buying. In contrast, Greece’s statistics have been sharply criticised by the European Commission.” In short, says Yu, “It is unreasonable for an economist to support a diversification away from an unsafe asset class [US Treasuries] to a much more unsafe asset class [Greek government debt]. Let European governments and the European Central Bank rescue Greece.”
Tony Barber from the FT highlights the point that Greece is not Ireland … “given the constraints of European monetary union (devaluation is not an option, there is no national control over interest rates, and so on), Ireland has bitten the bullet and pushed through the only measures that will work.
Brian Lenihan, Ireland’s finance minister, made an interesting point last year when he said other European Union governments were amazed at the mild public reaction to the austerity measures in the 2010 budget. There would have been riots in France, he observed.
What about Greece? The conventional wisdom is that a Mediterranean government can’t adopt Irish-style rigour because people will pour into the streets, social order will be threatened and the authorities will back down. This is too condescending, in my view. Street protests have a ritualistic quality in France, Italy and elsewhere in southern Europe, and there is no automatic reason why they should throw a government off course.”
And to underline my initial statement from above, I will quote an expert … “the U.K. is a must to avoid,” Bill Gross from Pimco writes. “Its Gilts [government bonds] are resting on a bed of nitroglycerine. High debt with the potential to devalue its currency present high risks for bond investors.” (Source)
Daily Media Use Among Children and Teens Up Dramatically From Five Years Ago - Kaiser Family Foundation →
kff.org
- Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). And because they spend so much of that time ‘media multitasking’ (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.
- For the first time over the course of the study, the amount of time spent watching regularly-scheduled TV declined, by 25 minutes a day (from 2004 to 2009).
- Top online activities include social networking (:22 a day), playing games (:17), and visiting video sites such as YouTube (:15). Three-quarters (74%) of all 7th-12th graders say they have a profile on a social networking site.
- The proportion of young people who read a newspaper in a typical day dropped from 42% in 1999 to 23% in 2009.
Henry Paulson Memoir 'On The Brink' Exclusive: Strongly Defends TARP, AIG Bailout, Praises Bush, Slams Palin →
huffingtonpost.com
[Paulson] remains skeptical of too much regulation, saying “there is a very real danger that financial regulation will become a wolf in sheep’s clothing” for countries to use as a protectionist measure to limit competition.
Woot!? Regulation is the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” for banks corporate entities making money off money with a +20% margin? One has to know that he is biased. Paulson is a Wall Street nuts and bolds guy. Period.
Henry Paulson Memoir 'On The Brink' Exclusive: Strongly Defends TARP, AIG Bailout, Praises Bush, Slams Palin →
huffingtonpost.com
[Paulson] remains skeptical of too much regulation, saying “there is a very real danger that financial regulation will become a wolf in sheep’s clothing” for countries to use as a protectionist measure to limit competition.
Woot!? Regulation is the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” for banks corporate entities making money off money with a +20% margin? One has to know that he is biased. Paulson is a Wall Street nuts and bolds guy. Period.
Head of Chinese State-Owned Enterprise Lectures on Boardroom Management @Davos - China Real Time Report - WSJ →
blogs.wsj.com
Very well balanced article. Especially the inefficiency mentioned. Lots of malls and skyscrapers in the ‘newly build cities’ are indeed empty.
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The British economy: Stuck in the mud | The Economist →
economist.com
4th quarter 09 growth = 0.1% First estimate!
Gordon Brown, the prime minister, will be hoping that the meagre increase in national output for the fourth quarter may be pushed up when the official number-crunchers, armed with more information, revisit the figures on February 26th and March 30th.
The fact is that it is more likely to be revised down from its 0.1%, for sure. Like the 3rd quarter 09 numbers from the USofA 3.4% was the first release. Then it was revised down subsequently to 2.2% in the latest (third from the DECEMBER 22, 2009) estimate by the BEA.gov.
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“Mr. Obama is in danger of being perceived as someone whose rhetoric, however skillful, cannot always be trusted. He is creating a credibility gap for himself, and if it widens much more he won’t be able to close it. Mr. Obama’s campaign mantra was “change” and most of his supporters took that to mean that he would change the way business was done in Washington and that he would reverse the disastrous economic policies that favored mega-corporations and the very wealthy at the expense of the middle class and the poor.”
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Bob Herbert (via azspot)
At least he tried. Not so many were before him in the same position.
YouTube and movie rentals for $3.99. How NOT to do it. →
fool.com
Maybe YouTube made the system too cumbersome, requiring film buffs to jump through too many hoops, and ultimately requiring payment through Google Checkout. It could have at least accepted eBay’s (Nasdaq: EBAY) PayPal or a major credit card like Visa (NYSE: V), instead of forcing users toward its proprietary transaction platform.
Having too much pride in its own product portfolio [/integration] will hurt the acceptance of other great ideas and products. Offer choice even in payment systems. You are serving the long-tail already folks.
Politik darf nicht Ideologie folgen. Politik muss Realist und Pragmatist sein.
eng. Policy should not follow ideology. Policy needs to be a realist and a pragmatist. (Policy/Politics)
Pres. Barack Obama in an interview with Diane Sawyer ABC (Jan 25th 2010)
“I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president.”
“I can guarantee that the worst thing we could do would be to raise taxes when the economy is still this weak.”
I am looking forward what he is proposing on Wednesday in his State of the Union address.
“Das Problem [, im Krieg,] ist mit der Angst fertig zu werden. Einer der keine Angst hat, muss dumm sein. […] Angst muss man bewältigen. Verdrängen nutzt nichts.”
—Helmut Schmidt über seine Kriegserfahrung.
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Nichts ist härter als die Wahrheit.
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The psychology of power: Absolutely | The Economist →
economist.com
[P]ower tends to corrupt and to promote a hypocritical tendency to hold other people to a higher standard than oneself. [P]owerful do indeed behave hypocritically, condemning the transgressions of others more than they condemn their own.
However, an intriguing characteristic emerged among participants in high-power states who felt they did not deserve their elevated positions. These people showed a similar tendency to that found in low-power individuals—to be harsh on themselves and less harsh on others—but the effect was considerably more dramatic. They felt that others warranted a lenient 6.0 on the morality scale when stealing a bike but assigned a highly immoral 3.9 if they took it themselves. Dr Lammers and Dr Galinsky call this reversal “hypercrisy”.
This Senator brought to you by Gazprom | The Economist →
economist.com
Restrictions on election campaigning and corporate election spending exist throughout the democratic world, and yet actual citizens maintain their ability to express their views. That’s because, as John Paul Stevens said in his dissent, for-profit corporations are different from non-profit citizens’ associations and from individuals. The judges’ refusal to perceive such apparently elementary distinctions will lead to a vast increase in the ability of corporations to influence politics. This will prompt some to question their motivations. The decision was five to four, dividing the court along party ideological lines.
Corporate entities are different than individuals like you and me and why [motivation] they might air a political ad. This decision, this incident, is another step in the ‘selling out of America’ process.
Some developed nations have to 'arrest disruptive debt dynamics'. →
pimco.com
The longer it takes for such commitments to materialize, the harder it becomes to arrest disruptive debt dynamics. And, once they get going, serial credit rating downgrades can aggravate already fragile financing dynamics. At that stage, playing catch-up on the fiscal adjustment front becomes even more difficult.
Wenn du möchtest das der Nagel in der Wand verschwindet solltest du vielleicht nicht den Schraubenzieher wählen.
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“Gratification that comes instantaneously, usually disappears just as quickly. Real success in life comes from commitment, persistence, effort, hard work.”
—Barack Obama (here)
“Make no mistake, moving is living.”
—Up in The Air (via filmquotes)
“Do something compelling. There’s a trillion people writing blogs that need something to write about. There are magazines hungry for content. There are hundreds of thousands of people bored on the internet wanting something to look at or do. For the most part, people have exceedingly low standards on the internet. But, I think people are hungry for better. Make something better. People will notice.”
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Frank Chimero (via marco)
True.
(via superamit)
Rafer sez:
This why information overload doesn’t actually exist.
(via rafer)
