Thursday, July 29, 2010

Basic Economics

Obama’s Fiscal Priorities are Skewed

July 25, 2010 · Leave a Comment 

Blinder’s Blinders lead to National Blunders, or Obama versus King Solomon . . . So here’s a question for you: Is it better to give 50,000 people $1 or give one employee a $50,000 job that allows him to contribute to a growing company? Increasing the tax burden on small employers to increase the unemployment benefit keeps us from creating an actual job for a flesh and blood human.  This is a bit of a hot topic as the Obama administration is promoting their “we know better than you do” economic policies with a heavy PR blitz. As part of the blitz, Alan Blinder published... [Read the full story]

Books you Need

Seth Godin, Linchpin

January 26, 2010 · 2 Comments 

I was fortunate to receive an advanced copy of Seth Godin’s latest, Linchpin. I had a very hard time writing an appropriate review on Amazon. What others reviewers are raving about is how this book is about doers . . . kind of, but not really. This book is about people who fancy themselves single-handedly able to change the world. Change being the operative word. Which means they are discontent now, want things to be different and heretofore really haven’t done squat about it. You and I know them as whiners. If they’re just out of college they really want to travel Europe staying... [Read the full story]

Education Issues

Laffer’s Laughing

July 20, 2010 · Leave a Comment 

Arthur Laffer recently offered his thoughts on the Unemployment Benefits in the Wall Street Journal opinion pages…. What kept coming to mind is, how are we even having this conversation? And by conversation I mean, how can we look at the empirical evidence concerning unemployment benefits and still somehow draw the conclusion that extending them will be a good idea? How is giving more cash to an unemployed person going to stimulate the economy? Is the unemployed person creating wealth? How about jobs? No? No Kidding. Indeed, if you are unemployed you are either searching for an opportunity... [Read the full story]

Favorite Links

Information with a View

April 13, 2010 · Leave a Comment 

It is not enough to get information, now need we to have that information presented contextually and graphically. If done well, this kind of information aggregation can cause greater understanding, but naturally it can also cause greater confusion. http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/13/graphing-internet-digg-google-trends/ Digg has the lead on creating fascinating ways to connect who is spreading what information. The net is all about the curious flow of connectivity between people and topics. If you are in marketing this is tremendously useful for tracking fads. If you’re bored at work,... [Read the full story]

Sports Stat of the Week

Can you win in Teal?

May 25, 2010 · 1 Comment 

So it is official. The Philly Flyers will play the Chicago Blackhawks for the Stanley Cup. Montreal, the third “Original Six” in the conference finals was axed by the Flyers tonight. Wow. Montreal has a losing streak a mile long (last won the cup in 1986, quarter century itch?). . . but guess who’s streak is deeper…. San Jose Sharks The Blackhawks ended the Stanley Cup dreams for the Sharks and I hate (not really – I mean, it IS the Sharks) to say it, but I told you so. If you saw the Sports Stat of the Week articles in August and September, you may remember that the... [Read the full story]

Education Issues

Laffer’s Laughing

Arthur Laffer recently offered his thoughts on the Unemployment Benefits in the Wall Street Journal opinion pages…. What kept coming to mind is, how are we even having this conversation? And by conversation I mean, how can we look at the empirical evidence concerning unemployment benefits and still somehow draw the conclusion that extending them... [Read more of this review]

Cost of Education

Friday night my little sisters graduated from high school. Come Fall they are off to college. What better time to reflect on the changing values of a college education. Does it make sense to go to the best school you get into? Is it worth $100k, $200k in debt? It seems to depend on what we expect to get out of the education. 1. If you just want to get... [Read more of this review]

Education Issues – State v Federal Standards

Former Intel CEO Craig Barrett is behind the Common Core State Standards Initiative and hopes you will be too…. Mr. Barrett sees common education standards as essential to creating the work force of tomorrow and he wants to narrow the gap in education quality among the states. All of which sounds ideal . . . if we can agree on what those standards... [Read more of this review]

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