Democratic Business: October 2009

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

US Has the 20th Most Free Press

First Amendment - "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Why is the United States number 20 on the list of countries with the greatest freedom of the press?

Is it any wonder that the nations (Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Netherlands, Switzerland, Iceland, and Lithuania) with the most freedom of the press tend to have the least corruption and the highest standard of living. Anyone who understands the principles of democracy should not be surprised.

The best medicine for corruption is a little sunlight.

(Read article and see rankings @ http://www.rsf.org/en-classement1003-2009.html)

Thursday, October 15, 2009

As Foreclosures Hit All-Time High, Wall Street on Pace to Hand Out Record $140B in Employee Bonuses

Finance is supposed to exist for one purpose: to make the real economy work better. The fact that the DOW Jones has topped 10,000 and banks are doling out record employee compensations, while foreclosures are at record highs and unempoloyment is expected to top 10% is further proof that the real economy and the finance world have come unhinged.

How can the finance world make tons of money off of an economy in crisis?
By removing import legislation over the last decade that allows Wall Street & banks to grow like crazy, deliberately make bad loans with high interest, and to do it with other peoples' money. With that kind of a formula you are guaranteed to report record profits--not by creating anything of value, but by taking billions out of the real economy in trading profits.

How Will You Measure Your Life?

I recently read this article by Clayton Christiansen out of Harvard entitled, “How will you measure your life?” It is what he tells his students on the final day of his class.

One of the items that he mentions sticks out to me. It reads as follows:

“One of the theories, . . . . . how to be sure we find happiness in our careers—is from Frederick Herzberg, who asserts that the powerful motivator in our lives isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements. I tell the students about a vision of sorts I had while I was running the company I founded before becoming an academic. In my mind’s eye I saw one of my managers leave for work one morning with a relatively strong level of self-esteem. Then I pictured her driving home to her family 10 hours later, feeling unappreciated, frustrated, underutilized, and demeaned. I imagined how profoundly her lowered self-esteem affected the way she interacted with her children. The vision in my mind then fast-forwarded to another day, when she drove home with greater self-esteem—feeling that she had learned a lot, been recognized for achieving valuable things, and played a significant role in the success of some important initiatives. I then imagined how positively that affected her as a spouse and a parent. My conclusion: Management is the most noble of professions if it’s practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team. More and more [people think] that a career in business means buying, selling, and investing in companies. That’s unfortunate. Doing deals doesn’t yield the deep rewards that come from building up people."

I’m sure you can see why it sticks out.