Wall Street’s financial mess is complicated. The bail-out is complicated.
But one thing is clear: whatever is to be done must be done in the sunshine with full recourse for chicanery and self-dealing.
Secretary Paulson Wants a Section 8
Category: Business/Economics
Schweppervesence…and Malaria
Mixers…and medicine.
In 1968, Commander Edward Whitehead came to Harvard Business School to give a talk on the continuing importance—in the face of computers and other rapidly advancing technologies—of people in industry. (A similar, and rather drier talk he gave in 1955 is here.)
Perhaps the first CEO to become his company’s advertising spokesman, Commander Whitehead (1908-1978), a World War II veteran of the South Pacific campaign in His Majesty’s Navy, was the President of Schweppes (USA) and Continue reading “Schweppervesence…and Malaria”
Kenya in Willits
In Mendocino County recently, on a day when the smoke from the hundreds of still-burning forest fires was relatively tolerable, I walked through a nearly deserted city park in Willits with my son and my brother and noticed two black men lunching at a distant picnic table. From previous conversations with my brother, a double-decade Willits resident, I knew the town’s demographics: two black men were entirely anomalous…and therefore, intriguing. Originally on a tack that would pass them at an impersonal distance, our stroll was drawn closer by their African garb. On the edge of the table was a book, so my brother opened the conversation, “What’re you reading?” Continue reading “Kenya in Willits”
Gasoline Prices: Prius Economics
This week our Prius odometer hit 40,000 miles. We bought the car in May 2005, exactly three years ago. We average 43 mpg. That means we have purchased 930 gallons of gasoline during the three years, or 310 gallons each year.
Looking at the price of gas in Northern California (blue line) over those three years and estimating an average price of $3.10 per gallon, we spent $961 per year on gasoline.
Our previous car got 23 mpg.
Craigslist.org — A Different Kind of Company
Craigslist, the largest source of classified ads in any medium throughout the world, serves 450 cities in 50 countries.
Started in 1995 by software engineer Craig Newmark, 55, as a bulletin board for posting notices of social events relevant to San Francisco-based software and internet developers, Craigslist now adds 30 million new listings and logs 10 billion page views each month! But 94% of Craigslist’s ads are free, and it doesn’t take advertising from outsiders, yet it makes a profit and is growing at an extraordinary rate. How does it do this? And why? Continue reading “Craigslist.org — A Different Kind of Company”
Will There Be Water in Lake Chad?
Much of the talk about unsettled times ahead looks to oil as a cause: economies will undergo transition and regional conflicts will increase.
Think also about water.
Lake Chad is an exemplar. At one time the world’s sixth largest lake, included in four African countries (Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria), it has, in less than a half-century, shrunk to one-tenth its former size. Continue reading “Will There Be Water in Lake Chad?”