I was sitting here typing up a new post on Sociopaths in business (it’s going to end up being an e-book and a new Secret Rule) when I heard news that Studs Terkel, the Chicago radio commentator and general social commentator, passed on. I read his Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About …
ASSOCHAM: Indian Firms May Fire 25%
ASSOCHAM threatens that Indian firms may lay off 25% of their workers in the next 10 days, according to Expressindia. This seems a bit excessive even by my apparently ghoulish attitude to the current recession/collapse. I’m not sure what this means or if it is simply posturing by Industry. A quarter of your workforce is a large number, especially if …
Give the World a Drink
Dr. Pepper, the venerable American cola brand (born of Texas!), has announced that they will keep their promise to provide every American with a can of Dr. Pepper if rock band Guns N’ Roses (GNR) would finally get off their backsides and release Chinese Democracy, the now going on 15 years late album. Which they have decided to do. What …
What I'm Reading
I noticed that I did not actually say what I was reading these days in my prior posting asking you for your list. My stack includes:
I Will Take Blame For Financial Crisis
Several weeks ago I threw my hat into the ring as the best choice for the US Vice President candidate of either party. Today, in an effort to extend my patriotic efforts to serve my country. In exchange for a properly renumerated position, I am willing to come on board for the next year and take full blame for the …
What Are You Reading?
As I sit here working late at night, with a couple of new posts looking like they will become books in themselves, I started wandering YouTube and found some recent interviews of Francis Fukuyama and Fareed Zakaria. I’ve read too much of Fukuyama’s output over the past seven years, finding The Great Disruption and Trust pretty compelling. But that has …
Why You Can’t Trust Unemployment Rates
In comparing this current collapse to 1929-1932, you hear economists talk about how the unemployment rates are so different. Back then, almost a quarter of the workforce was out of work. Today, the number is still below 7%. (I’m America, so these arguments are all US-based.) There’s a problem with this thinking, because the current unemployment statistics no longer adequately …
Reforming CEO Compensation
There’s a lot in the press these days about the irresponsibility of CEOs who lied, covered-up and generally made a lot of cash while destroying billions of dollars of value. For example, here’s something from the Vault’s article on “Are CEO’s Ready To Face Career Instability?“: As [reviled Lehman Brothers CEO] Richard Fuld’s Congressional testimony aptly underscores, if ever a …
They Told Me About the Collapse 12 Months Ago
When I returned last week to the small city in northwestern Indiana where I live, it struck me that most Americans do not share my feeling that the world fundamentally shifted. They see it as something happening out there. Partly it’s because a lot of my neighbors don’t have retirement funds invested — I live in a youngish, blue-collar section …
Incentive-Based Compensation Destroys Productivity
Wall Street Online (through Yahoo!) is reporting that the stock market has had a major affect on the main compensation method in many industries: incentives. Unless the market increases substantially, with the DJI running back up towards 12 000 or 13 000, the options that were granted for the last five years are not worth what they were optioned at, …