Category: Business

Sue Over the Salad

Rival’s $7 salad makes New York restaurant owner see red | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited
Lower Manhattan, New York, which has long regarded itself as the world’s ultimate trend factory, has spawned a new pastime that could spread like wildfire through America and beyond: suing over the culinary equivalent of plagiarism.

Rebecca Charles, the creator and owner of the wildly popular Pearl Oyster Bar in the West Village, this week lodged a legal suit with the New York courts that charges her former sous-chef with taking her menu and interior styling and recreating it nearby. Continue reading “Sue Over the Salad”

The Evolution of Pessimism

blog.pmarca.com: Bubbles on the brain
The human psyche seems to have a powerful underlying need to predict doom and gloom. On Wall Street, investors who have this habit are known as “perma-bears” and generally are predicting the imminent collapse of the stock market.

I suspect this need was evolved into us way back when.

If there is a nonzero chance that a giant man-eating saber-tooth tiger is going to come over the nearest hill and chomp you, then it’s in your evolutionary best interest to predict doom and gloom more frequently than it actually happens.

The cost of hiding from a nonexistent giant man-eating saber-tooth tiger is low, but the cost of not hiding from a real giant man-eating saber-tooth tiger is quite high. As well as this article on business bubbles ,read this medical paper on other evolutionary consequences of modern lifestyles.

Blame Income Inequality On Education?

Why Is Income Inequality in America So Pronounced? Consider Education – New York Times
Pessimists like Charles Murray, co-author of the much-debated 1994 book “The Bell Curve,” have argued that only so many individuals are educable at a high level. If that were the case, current levels of inequality might be here to stay.

But the evidence suggests that when additional higher education becomes available, it offers returns in the range of 10 to 14 percent per year of college, at least for the first newcomers to enroll.

Nonetheless it will, sooner or later, become increasingly difficult to deliver the gains from college — not to mention postgraduate study — to the entire population. Technology is advancing faster than our ability to educate. So even if inequality declines today, it may well intensify in the future. Even if American education improves at every level, the largely not-for-profit educational sector may simply be less dynamic than the progress of new technologies. Continue reading “Blame Income Inequality On Education?”

Globalizations’ Win-Win Game

Enterprise Resilience Management Blog: Globalizations’ Win-Win Game
Many people still perceive globalization as a contest in which there must be winners and losers. If China rises, for example, they assume that someone else (e.g., the U.S.) must fall.

It’s ironic that Americans need to save more and the Chinese need to spend more in order to foster global economic growth. Both countries, however, need to better invest in their people. Investment in human capital is always a good idea. The more educated a work force becomes, the less likely it is to be exploited. The healthier a work force, the more productive it becomes. The more productive it becomes, the wealthier it becomes. The wealthier it becomes, the more concerned it becomes with the environment. It is a righteous cycle from which everyone eventually benefits.

The Pirate Pose

The Pirate Pose – Executive Articles – Portfolio.com
Twenty years after Bonfire of the Vanities, the author checks in on the new masters of the universe and finds them even coarser and ruder than their predecessors could have ever imagined being.

A long (7,000 word) article by Tom Wolfe on the blue jean lifestyle of this new Gilded Age creation – The Hedge Fund Manager- to launch Vanity Fair’s new on-line magazine.

Six Funny Life Lessons

Six Funny Life Lessons | Who the hell is Carl Pei?
Lesson 1: Naked Wife

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next door neighbor. Before she says a word, Bob says, “I’ll give you $800 to drop that towel.” After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob.

After a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 dollars and leaves. The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks,…

“Who was that?” “It was Bob the next door neighbor,” she replies. “Great!” the husband says, “Did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?”

Moral of the story: If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure. Continue reading “Six Funny Life Lessons”

Kiva.org – Loans that change lives

Kiva.org – Loans that change lives

Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can “sponsor a business” and help the world’s working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you’ve sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.