You'd Be Crying Too If You Were Born $150,000 in Debt

Why is this baby crying?

$150,000 will be each person's share of the national debt in the year 2040 if present trends continue. The baby in the picture will be about 35 years old by then. I wonder how the baby will feel about being so deep in debt? Maybe a better question is, "Will the baby and everyone else have enough money to pay off their share of the national debt?"

How could the national debt be so large? Simple. The federal government spends more than it receives in taxes. And it's been living beyond its means for a long time.

The solution? Either cut government spending by 60 percent (fat chance!) or increase taxes by a factor of 2.5 (also, fat chance!).

The 300 year hypothesis: No republic in the history of the world has lasted three hundred years. The 300 year hypothesis was raised by the U.S. governments's head accountant, David Walker, the Comptroller General of the United States. For the U.S. that 300-year threshold will occur in 2076. Will the U.S. still be around then?

Something must be done, but the political will to take decisive action is lacking:

In his fiscal 2006 budget request, President Bush attempted to reign in unnecessary spending by cutting or eliminating 150 government programs to save about $20 billion next year. As reserved as these cuts are within a $2.6 trillion budget, members of Congress in both parties demeaned the President’s recommendations. If this struggle is any barometer for the future of our government, the United States may not have the chance to disprove David Walker’s 300 year hypothesis.

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Experimental Economics--Monkeys Go On A Spending Spree

A capuchin monkey

Did the monkeys you saw on your last trip to the zoo act almost human? If you answered yes, it could be that you're not too far wrong. When given "money," their spending decisions are just like those made by humans.

Keith Chen and his fellow Yale researchers have conducted an amazing economic experiment. First, they showed that monkeys follow the law of demand, just as it is taught in Economics 101. But that's just part of their results. Even more amazing is that monkeys are like most people in that, other things equal, they prefer to avoid risk.

Capuchin monkeys were given shiny metal disks--money--that they could trade for tasty morsels of food, such as pieces of apples. Researchers adjusted the "price" by changing the amount of food a disk would purchase. Sure enough, when the price decreased, the monkeys increased the amount of food consumed. Just like the law of demand predicts!

More complicated were the experiments in risk aversion. In the simplest terms, these experiments involved first offering the monkey consumers an unchanging amount of food for their money. Then the monkeys were offered an uncertain amount of food for their money, which might be more or less than amount of food offered in the first experiment. Like human consumers the monkeys preferred the sure thing to the uncertain alternative.

The lesson learned from this experiment? We now have a better understanding of why humans are risk averse. It appears that risk aversion is a built in response. Why would this be?

One possibility is that in nature, with a food supply that is often barely adequate, losses that lead to the pangs of hunger are felt more keenly than gains that lead to the comfort of satiety. Agriculture has changed that calculus, but people still have the attitudes of the hunter-gatherer wired into them.

This experiment just goes to show that the old saying, "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle" just might be true!!!

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$9,899 Tuition for a Worthless Degree?

Dr. Morton Middlefart, Rushmore University graduate

I have to choose my words carefully since I would prefer not to be sued by Rushmore University. If you've never visited the campus of Rushmore, that's understandable. There is none. Rushmore, you see, is a totally online, totally unaccredited "university." Some people call businesses like Rushmore diploma mills, but I wouldn't do that.

Rushmore is certainly different from the more widely known, accredited online universities, such as the University of Phoenix. You can enroll in Rushmore's MBA (Master of Business Administration) program for a one-time payment of $5,499. No Bachelor's degree, the normal prerequisite for an MBA? No problem, because Rushmore doesn't require a Bachelor's degree. Don't waste your time studying for the usual admissions test either. There is none. Speed is of the essence at Rushmore, though. Because there are no admissions tests and no transcripts required, your application will be processed in a mere three days.

Rushmore also offers a Ph.D. Don't forget to send $9,899 payable to Rushmore if you're applying for the doctoral program. I'm not quite sure why the doctorate costs almost twice as much as the MBA, but completion of a doctorate allows one to claim the title of Dr.

One of the advantages of being a student at Rushmore is that there are no tests to take. From what I can tell from the school's website the curriculum consists of reading a series of books, most of which I read when I was 13 or 14 years old, and writing a short book report on each. Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People is one example of a book that some Rushmore students have read in fulfillment of a course requirement. It looks like a Rushmore student can earn a doctorate by reading and reviewing 10 or so books of this sort, and then writing a thesis. Dr. Middlefart's thesis has been turned into a published book, which Rushmore encourages.

If only Rushmore had been around when I was a teen. I could have sent my check, written my book reviews and a thesis, and subsequently strutted around with the title Dr. in front of my name. To be honest, being on the football team would have been more prestigious than calling myself "Dr.," so I guess it doesn't matter that my doctorate came years later, after reading a lot of technical books that make the Dale Carnegie classic look like kindergarten stuff.

The question Rushmore graduates must ask, and I would've asked even as a teen, is whether the degree is worth the tuition. You see, universities, the accredited kind, try to make sure that their graduates are able to perform on the job once they graduate. They do this by imparting some degree of rigor to the curriculum, requiring admissions tests, and assessing students' progress (by testing them). Rushmore, in my opinion, is lacking all of these characteristics. That's not to say that it's a diploma mill. Diploma mills require no work of their students. Rushmore does. It's just not very rigorous work that Rushmore requires.

There is a free rider issue in accredited universities, however, that sometimes weakens rigor, leads to a watering down of courses, and results in grade inflation. The downhill slide starts when student "consumers" raise a ruckus because standards are too high, at least in their opinions. In other words, students love an easy A. Ok, that's human nature--the something for nothing mentality. But if all students receive easy As, then the reputation of the university giving those easy As is going to hit the skids pretty fast.

A university whose graduates are found lacking by employers will find that employers won't hire more of those graduates. Then, the chickens come home to roost, as my grandmother used to say. The degree becomes worthless in the marketplace. A university that passes everybody on with high grades confers a degree that's devalued in the market place. The degree depreciates quicker than a '83 Yugo sold by Honest John's Used Auto Sales.

Thus, individually, students would like an easy course, easy grade, and easy degree. But collectively, it's in their interests to maintain rigor. In the case of unaccredited "universities" like Rushmore, the all-too-apparent lack of rigor is going to mean that most of its graduates will never teach at an accredited college or be viewed in the same light as someone with a degree from an accredited institution. Still, the degree may not be totally worthless. A diploma hanging on a wall is worth something as a status symbol. So is the right to call yourself Dr.

From what I've seen on his web site, Rushmore graduate Dr. Morton Middlefart is a cool guy from Denmark with a less than cool name. Like Dr. Middlefart, Rushmore graduates seem to be all male and already in the business world. If Rushmore can give them a boost in their careers, then who am I to criticize? I'm just not sure how much of a boost they're going to receive. Ultimately, unaccredited universities like Rushmore will have to pass the market test and demonstrate to prospective students that they're worth the cost of their tuition. That's the way of the free market.

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University of London Study: How to Lower Your I.Q. by 10 Points

Have you been feeling a little stupid lately? It may not be your imagination. A University of London study concludes: Emails, text messages, and phone messages can be hazardous to your ability to reason.

Respondents' minds were all over the place as they faced new questions and challenges every time an email dropped into their inbox.

The most damage was done, according to the survey, by the almost complete lack of discipline in handling emails. Dr Wilson [Dr. Glenn Wilson, who carried out the research] and his colleagues found a compulsion to reply to each new message, leading to constant changes of direction which inevitably tired and slowed down the brain.

The solution? Get a grip. Don't feel compelled to interrupt current projects to answer emails or text messages immediately unless they require an immediate response. You might just start feeling a little smarter again. Dr. Wilson offers his advice to employers: "Companies should encourage a more balanced and appropriate way of working."

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"There is No Knowledge That is Not Power."

Donald Trump

The quote from Emerson in the title of this post comes courtesy of Donald J. Trump. Yep, that Donald Trump. I signed on to the Trump University Inside Trump Tower Newsletter a few weeks ago. It's a good read. In the latest issue, Mr. Trump's article, "Use Knowledge to Your Advantage," offers several engaging vignettes illustrating how knowledge has worked to his advantage.

When I was waiting to buy 40 Wall Street (home of Trump University), it was advantageous for me to know a lot about the building and the troubles the owners were having with it. I spent time studying the building and the area, and kept informed about the latest developments. When the opportunity finally came to purchase it, I was ready and knew what I was getting into. The tallest building in lower Manhattan, 40 Wall Street is a 1.3 million square foot landmark. I bought it for $1 million. You can imagine what it’s worth now, considering it’s hard to find a one-bedroom apartment for under $1 million these days. When I say knowledge is power, I mean it. Use it to your advantage.

Another example is how I develop golf courses. I get the best experts in the world, and I ask them literally hundreds of questions. I go over every detail, every tree, every hole, every idea with them. Fortunately they love what they do, so they don’t find this tedious. By the time construction is underway, I know everything that’s being done and can keep an informed eye on the progress. There is no reason not to be thorough, whether you are the golf course architect or the developer. Teamwork really works when both sides put their knowledge together and aim for the best. Because of this approach, my golf courses are spectacular.

The lesson for students, whether taking courses at Trump University or elsewhere, is to make learning your priority. Don't let anything get in the way of learning. And remember, the details are important. I get the feeling that Donald Trump could do a pretty good job of designing a golf course without the experts, just because he pays attention to the details. He credits this idea from Kipling for his success:

Rudyard Kipling wrote something I read in college and have never forgotten: “I keep six honest serving men, they taught me all I knew—their names are What and Why and When—and How and Where and Who.” Finding the answers to those questions will ensure that your information is comprehensive and correct. There’s really no such thing as knowing too much about what you’re doing.

The best and the brightest people I've ever met sure fit the mold expressed in the previous sentence: There's no such thing as knowing too much about what you're doing. Especially when what you're doing involves the lives or livelihoods of people.

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Yeah, I'd Fire 'Em, Too!

From the Sydney Morning Herald comes the story of three former waiters (Larry, Moe, and Curly?) who claim they were fired by New York's posh 21 Club for being French. They've backed up their claim by filing a $5 million lawsuit claiming discrimination.

Not to give anyone the idea that I'd be in favor of discrimination, but I think I know the French. Rude, obnoxious, boastful, prideful, lazy. Oh, and anti-American. Shall I go on?

Wake up, guys! You weren't fired for being French. You were fired for acting French. You don't drink on the job and you don't get into arguments with the chef over a hamburger, even if the hamburger costs $39. You can hurl insults at Americans when you're a waiter in a restaurant in France, and maybe wine is so ubiquitous in France that drinking on the job is part of the culture, but this is America. Maybe nobody ever gets fired in France, either. But this is America. People can lose their jobs here. It's part of the reason our unemployment rate is 5 percent while yours is 12 percent. American businesses hire and they fire. From what I've read about France, once hired, never fired is the rule. That's why your companies won't hire anybody. Get it?

If the case of the French waiters goes before a jury, I'd bet on the 21 Club coming out a winner. And their customers, too!

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There's Gold in Them Thar Meals!

The headline caused me to do a double take: Restaurant to Stop Putting Gold in Food. I wouldn't exactly call what I've sometimes found in my Happy Meals gold, so on reading further I discovered that to get my daily dose of gold I'll have to go to Vietnam.

Hanoi's Kim Ngan Thien, or Golden Feast restaurant, serves up its dishes embellished with a unique seasoning--gold. In some Asian nations, gold is considered to have restorative and therapeutic value. You might think of the Golden Feast as something like a health food restaurant. In Economics 101, students are taught that product differentiation--the art of creating a unique product that consumers will desire--is one of the keys to business success. Maybe the Golden Feast will end up as a Harvard MBA case study of successful product differentiation. The restaurant has been serving about 100 diners daily since its opening last January.

Unfortunately for hungry customers with an appetite for gold dust, the government has ordered the restaurant to hold back that sparkly sprinkle for now. The effects on consumer health from consuming gold, even the small amounts served by the Golden Feast, needs to be established. Until then, diners will have to be satisfied with soy sauce. And the Golden Feast will have to give up the 15 percent surcharge on gold. As we say in economics, there's no such thing as a free lunch.

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$40,000,000 or 40,000,000 Credit Cards? I'd Take the Credit Cards!

In the old days, it was simple. You looked money over carefully to make sure it wasn't counterfeit BEFORE you accepted it. You safeguarded it in your purse or wallet, or tucked it under your mattress. You watched it like a hawk, where ever you put it. Money was a tangible thing. You could see it, feel it, smell it if you wanted to. No more.

Today, money is represented by electronic notations in a computer somewhere. Hackers, who could be staring at the dim glow of a computer screen anywhere in the world, can luck out and steal your credit card number. You might not lose any money, but you sure could be put through an emotional wringer until the charges against your card are forgiven.

The enormity of this week's compromise of 40,000,000 credit card numbers is hard to fathom.

"There's no excuse for this," said Avivah Litan, a Gartner Inc. expert on the security of financial data. "This takes the cake."

It didn't take long for the politicians to begin weighing in, too, hoping to curry favor with worried cardholders.

"Hardly a week goes by without startling new examples of breaches of sensitive personal data reminding us how important it is to pass a comprehensive identity-theft prevention bill in Congress quickly," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has sponsored a consumer data protection law.

As for me, I'm listening to the advice of the experts and will watch my statement very carefully for fraudulent charges. Even if money isn't always tangible today, those electronic notations that represent money are just as spendable as the green paper and shiny coins of yesteryear!

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QuickTake: The Case of the $6,000 Shower Curtain

Dennis Kozlowski

Dennis Kozlowski, disgraced ex-CEO of Tyco International Ltd., had to have been a tough sell to the jury hearing charges the he and fellow Tyco executive Mark Swartz looted the company's treasury for over $500 million. Who would be willing to cut some slack to guy living in a $31 million apartment, complete with a $6,000 shower curtain. I, for one, would sure like to see that shower curtain!

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QuickTake: S.O.P.--Stupid on Purpose

From John Carlton's Rant comes this tidbit:

Most airlines are still giving out peanuts during flights. Do you know what the number one food to cause lifethreatening allergic reactions is? Yep. Peanuts. But it’s just been S.O.P. for the airlines for so long, they can’t break out of it. I’m watching for someone to sue the guts out of them. I know at least two people who clog up dangerously just breathing peanut dust. This allergy stuff is not secret.

John's take? Standard Operating Procedure (S.O.P.) sometimes stands for Stupid on Purpose!

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QuickTake: A Housing Bubble? Chairman Greenspan is Dubious

Don't look for significantly cheaper housing prices, said Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan in his June 9th testimony before Congress:

Because of the degree of customization of homes, it is difficult to achieve significant productivity gains in residential building despite the ongoing technological advances in other areas of our economy. As a result, productivity gains in residential construction have lagged behind the average productivity increases in the United States for many decades. This shortfall has been one of the reasons that house prices have consistently outpaced the general price level for many decades.

Although we certainly cannot rule out home price declines, especially in some local markets, these declines, were they to occur, likely would not have substantial macroeconomic implications.

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The Corporate Blog Heats Up!

I've mentioned in this blog on several occassions that I'm an admirer of GM and its Fastlane Blog. CNN reports that GM is just one of about 100 companies that now have their own blogs. Watch out, though, hundreds more are on the way. Why would a corporation decide to blog?

The Internet journal format, they find, lets businesses expand their reach, generate product buzz and encourage consumer loyalty while bypassing traditional media.

"When we feel that we need to get a direct response out there, we've certainly got this bully pulpit to some extent," said Michael Wiley, GM's director of new media. "It's a place where we can talk directly to people unfiltered." ...

... Done well, corporate blogs can create good word-of-mouth among consumers who aren't reading business pages or thumbing through trade magazines.

There are dangers, though.

But bad blogging can easily backfire. Readers will pick up insincerity instantly.

"Don't go toward fake blogs. Don't launch character blogs. Use a blog for what it's for, transparency," said Steve Rubel, vice president of client services at CooperKatz & Co., a New York PR firm.

Rubel follows blog news on his blog, Micro Persuasion, and runs his company's unit of the same name, advising clients on blogging and on podcasting, the suddenly fashionable creation of downloadable person-to-person broadcasts.

He and other PR professionals can rattle off blogs gone wrong -- usually "fake blogs" that stir up the ire of bloggers by hiding the fact that they are really ad campaigns, such as one McDonald's posted in advance of a Super Bowl campaign about a Lincoln-shaped french fry.

Blogs that smack of press releases won't do the job, Rubel said. He tells clients to see what's out there about their company or industry, then decide whether they want to engage bloggers or even start their own blogs.

The explosive growth of corporate blogs is just another example of competition in action in our economy. When one firm finds success at doing something new, others follow. Customers benefit from the competition. The next time, you're in the market for a new car, check out the GM Fastlane blog and ask yourself if GM is a company you'd like to do business with. Remember, if you do become a customer of GM and you're not satisfied, you can always create your own anti-GM blog. The GM Breakdown Blog, anyone?

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Bono--An Economist/Statesman in the Making?

Irish rocker, Bono 

Bono's at it again. Lobbying, that is. For the world's poor. In Congress.

Yes, Irish singer Bono walks the walk on behalf of the poorest of the poor around the globe, especially those living a subsistence existence in Africa. And he's winning accolades for that effort.

Said former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas: "I don't assume that a rock star is going to be lucid on the esoterics of economics." He gave Bono an "A-plus" for being well-informed and intensely devoted to the issues.

"I told him he's my favorite pest. He keeps coming back," said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill. "It's not unusual for members of Congress to be lobbied by stars and starlets. Usually it's a one-time stand. He's different. He clearly cares. He's clearly committed."

"He's transcended music," said former Rep. John Kasich, R-Ohio, who met Bono through Arnold Schwarzenegger and later introduced the musician to Helms and Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. "He's gone from a rock band to a rock band with a purpose."

Said Santorum: "He knows the importance of 302b allocations," the arcane congressional terminology that refers to amount of money the appropriations committee doles out to each department and agency.

Bono is one smart cookie. He knows how to be taken seriously, even going so far as to study under Jeffrey Sachs, Professor of Economics at Columbia University. No one man show is Bono, either. DATA (Debt, Aids, Trade Africa) is the name of the nonprofit organization Bono founded in 2002. Record sales are not the only measure of a rock star. Not when his name is Bono.

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I Love GM!

2006 Chevrolet HHR

There aren't many companies that would create a blog that allows readers to criticize the company and its products. And criticize they do. I've never seen any other web site where the readers slam the company. I wish more companies were as diligent in their efforts to establish an honest online relationship with their customers as is GM.

Think for a moment about how conflicted the besieged company's management must have been about setting up the GM Fastlane Blog. The easy thing to have done would have been to turn off comments and use the blog as a typical sales promotion. Yet, GM had the guts to take the bouquets with the brickbats.

GM Vice Chairman is the author of the Fastlane blog. In today's post he wrote,

There are fundamental changes taking place in our product development organization that add up to a winning formula. These changes are largely cultural, and as most of you know, cultural change often takes time. I’m sure some of you may have read Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point, in which he identifies how minor trends become blockbuster phenomena. Well, I firmly believe we have reached a tipping point in our organization.

A few years ago, planners would sift through reams of data, segment the market, analyze and deconstruct the data until they discovered a niche in which we needed a new product. Once the need for the vehicle was determined, the designers were given a formula to work with. Not a blank canvas, more like a paint-by-numbers scenario.

Today, we’re operating on a much more emotional, creative level and our designers have been empowered to express themselves. Our winning products will not be determined by careful analysis; they will captivate and enthrall through imaginative design and flawless execution.

We’ll be introducing a lot of new products that reflect another new philosophy of General Motors, which is not to introduce vehicles that are merely competitive, but to really target being the best. This has, frankly, also required some recalibration of the internal culture, especially in the United States. And it’s taken some time to lift ourselves to the best international standard in sheet metal fits.

That 2006 Chevy HHR (Heritage High Roof) in the picture says a lot about the progress GM is making in reclaiming its role as the world leader in automobile styling. There' s been a lot of negative news about GM coming out lately. Maybe I'll comment on that another time. For now, I'd rather say thanks to GM for having the vision to create a real blog and the courage to revamp its corporate culture. With folks like Bob Lutz at the top, I have a feeling that the bad news about GM is going to be just another pothole on the highway to success.

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Before There Were Trucks, There Were Railroads, ... Before There Were Railroads, There Were ...

A picturesque canal

... canals. I once had the opportunity to take a flatboat ride along a section of restored canal in central Ohio. Horses on the bank of the canal, the towpath, pulled a merry band of sightseers and history buffs along for a mile or so before turning around and returning us to our point of departure. Reliving history for a pleasant hour or so was enjoyable and educational. For people living in the pre-Civil War era, however, canals boosted economic development by providing a cheap transportation route for selling their goods over a wide area.

When I think of canals, I think of the northeastern states, like New York. It's good to know that some of the old canals are still around, even if their economic significance is diminished. Down south, where I grew up, canals weren't necessary because of navigable rivers, and because the iron horse was a more economical delivery system for goods by the time population levels reached critical mass in the south.

In Europe, the old canals seem to be alive and well. According to this information, several canals are still classed as working canals in Scotland. There seem to be a lot of canals in Britain.

Canal digging goes back a long way in history. In fact, economic historian Robert Fogel recognized the importance of canals in pre-civil war America:

Had the railroads not been invented, shipments would have taken place via canals, rivers, and wagons. Wagons being expensive and inefficient, they would have been useful only for short hauls to rivers or canals. Fogel concluded that the costs of wagon transport would have made agriculture economically feasible no more than roughly forty miles from any navigable waterway. Based on the system of canals in 1890, both in use and previously abandoned, Fogel was able to include 76 percent of all contemporary agricultural land within forty-mile buffer zones adjacent to the system of waterways. Nearly all of the agricultural land that fell outside the buffer zones, and hence would have been lost to the economy, were concentrated in the four states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas, meaning that the railroad's impact was felt most in the intraregional trade between farms in those states and the great primary markets of the Midwest.

One thing that hasn't changed in 200 years is that goods have to be transported from producers to consumers. Today, most goods are transported by truck or rail. I doubt that 200 years from now people will consider highways and railroad tracks to be as picturesque as the old canals.

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Stop the Revolution--I Want to Get Off

From New Scientist comes a frightening vision of our technology-enhanced future. Frightening that is if you care to spend time with an animal companion.

OK, to be fair, "Animals and Us: Forward to the Revolution" is primarily an intellectual discourse on the diverse relationships between humans and animals. On the one hand, we eat cows, chickens, and fish. On the other, we treat Pup and Kit just like members of the family. It can be hard to reconcile these divergent behaviors.

Suppose in a not-so-distant future that the glass domes that enclose human existence exclude the animals--all of them. Picture that future in your mind:

Beef steaks are grown from cell cultures, and robotic pets are good at everything from minding the kids to caring for the elderly. And we have supercomputers to simulate all the drugs and medical advances anyone could ever dream of.

So what happened? The "Animals have Intrinsic Worth" lobby won out, that's what happened. After a century of gently running down the stock, all animals were left outside the glass dome to find their own level: survive, evolve or die.

What brings about animal apartheid in the future? Partlly, its the way we're thinking about animals today. Animals, at least some of them, have come to be seen as more than just a commodity to be bought and sold:

Science has provided us with compelling evidence that animals are more like humans than we previously thought - at the very least, they are sentient. Where animals were seen as "agricultural products", now they are seen as creatures with feelings. This has been accepted by the European Union, which has put a definition of sentience in its animal welfare legislation: "A sentient animal is one for whom feelings matter." In deciding that they are sentient and have feelings, science has blurred the line between "them" and "us" even more.

Why all the fuss? What's wrong with the way we interact with animals at the moment? Nothing, if you don't accept that animals have their own feelings and emotions, or accept it but still don't care. But if you do care, then you will realise that the moral relationship we have with animals is deeply troubled. It becomes impossible to maintain moral blindness to the way we treat them.

When you consider that there are about 50 million dogs and another 50+ million cats in the U.S. alone, the cost of caring for pets must be enormous. Then consider that while most people do chow down with a side order of veggies, it's the meat--the animal--that's the main course. Add in the leather for shoes and belts, the fur used to make coats, and all the other economic contributions made by animals, and you probably have at least 15 percent of GDP.

A world without animals? Talk to the Native Americans, who saw the sacred buffalo driven to near extinction as the iron horse thundered across the prairies bringing a tidal wave of settlers who held no respect for the life of the grand beast. The legend of the buffalo dance offered the Blackfoot a promise that the lives of the buffalo killed for food would be restored to life. Where are the buffalo dancers today?

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Who's Missing? CNN's Top 25 Business Leaders

CNN's Top 25 business leaders:

1. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft
2. Sam Walton, former CEO of Wal-Mart
3. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric
4. Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
5. Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler
6. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple
7. Herb Kelleher, chairman of Southwest Airlines
8. Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computer
9. Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve
10. Carl Icahn, 1980s corporate raider
11. Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel
12. Michael Milken, former junk-bond wizard
13. John Reed, former CEO of Citigroup
14. Ted Turner, founder of CNN
15. Jim Clark, former CEO of Netscape
16. Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay
17. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com
18. Michael Eisner, CEO of Disney
19. Peter Lynch, manager of Fidelity's Magellan Fund
20. Phil Knight, CEO of Nike
21. Katharine Graham, late CEO of Washington Post Co.
22. W. Edwards Deming, influential business consultant
23. Ken Lay, former CEO of Enron
24. Shawn Fanning, founder of Napster
25. Lou Gerstner, former CEO of IBM

EconOpinion would like to note for the record that Ted Turner, the founder of CNN is on the list, but out of the top 10 at #14. Conflict of interest? The list clearly emphasizes contemporary people of prominence in business, but on the other hand, the #2 person on the list, Sam Walton, is deceased. CNN, what were the parameters for eligibility for inclusion on the list?

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Biblical Economics--The Parable of the Talents

The Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal decided to tout some Biblical economics yesterday in response to comments from John Kerry: "I went back and reread the whole New Testament the other day. Nowhere in the three-year ministry of Jesus Christ did I find a suggestion at all, ever, anywhere, in any way whatsoever, that you ought to take the money from the poor, the opportunities from the poor and give them to the rich people."--John Kerry*

I thus give you the Parable of the Talents, which appears in Matthew 25:14-30 (a "talent" was a measure of both weight and money, analogous to the British pound):

"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
"After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.'
"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
"The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.'
"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
"Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'
"His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
" 'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' . . ."

Another version of this parable appears in Luke 19:11-27. Also relevant is the story of Jesus' anoiting at Bethany (John 12:1-8):

Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
"Leave her alone," Jesus replied. "It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me."
Another version of this story is in Matthew 26:7-12.

OK. I'm convinced that anyone can find something somewhere in the Bible to support his views, whatever those views are. But then again I already knew that from watching Pastor Robert Tilton on late night cable!

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I Wish I Could Understand Japanese

Japanese mystery singer

Web surfing is a wonderful hobby. I get the same enjoyment out of it as I did shortwave listening as a kid. You know, sitting in the dark with the light from the tubes to keep me company, delicately turning the dial of a shortwave radio, listening for signals bouncing thousands of miles through the atmosphere to my little listening post. Then trying to deciper the language. German, Austrian, Russian? Chinese, Japanese, or something else? If I was able to figure out the source of the signal, I could look up at the big world map pinned to wall and search for Hiversum, Holland or Quito, Ecuador, or other exotic locales.

The Internet is a lot like that. I found a video of the Japanese mystery singer on an Excite web page populated with artistic strokes making up an exotic font, apparently Japanese. If you like an edgy look and style, the singer in the picture is not for you. I liked her, though. Kind of a Japanese 70s Brady girl. I wish I knew a little more about her. Is she a popular singer in Japan? Does she have her own TV show?

It's just like shortwave listening. Sometimes I never was able to figure out anything much about the station that penetrated the static in a whisper. I have a feeling the same will be true about the Japanese mystery singer.

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QuickTake: How to Pass a Drug Test

The product is called the Whizzinator. You use it to pass a drug test. At least one athlete has apparently used it. An endorsement opportunity?

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QuickTake: Don't Forget to Turn Out the Lights

While exploring several news sources in Thailand, I came across this story about the government's campaign to reduce the country's oil import bill. Turn off your air conditioner during the lunch hour and turn off a light for five minutes in the evening and you'll have done your civic duty as a citizen of Thailand. Just in case doing your civic duty isn't motivation enough, the government announced discounts on electric bills for people who reduce their energy use compared to the same month a year ago.

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Queer News, Indeed!

Thailand's Phuket Gazette newspaper calls itself "The local paper with an international audience." It offers some tasty tidbits to readers in a featured page called Queer News. The flavor of the stories offered is captured by three sample opening sentences:

NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: A man in Srichon District put a shotgun in his mouth and blew his brains out after his wife refused to let him attend a neighbor’s funeral with her.

NAKHON NAYOK: The recent spate of incidents involving insects laying their eggs in human orifices took a new and disturbing turn on May 8, when the mother of a newborn found 10 maggots living inside the bellybutton of her two-day-old son.

SURAT THANI: Tourists arriving on the island of Pha-ngan in Surat Thani Province are to be issued with stickers reminding them that “free sex” is illegal, following government concern over visitors having sexual intercourse in public places.

You can read the rest of each story by following the link provided in this post.

I'm not sure but I think the purpose of stories like these is to remind readers of the Gazette that no matter how bad their problems are, there are plenty of other people facing even worse situations. That's a valuable service in today's stressed-out world. One that draws an audience of readers. In turn, the readership creates a market for advertising on the pages of the Gazette. Another win-win outcome for the economy of Phuket and for that international audience the Gazette boasts of having.

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