Where Motorola Blew It – BusinessWeek
This is straightforward and revealing article about how a company, no matter how dominant at one point, can be quickly left behind as the market changes. Part of being a market leader is that one is exposed to attack from others, especially from the market itself if the whims of customers change.
Law school study links laptop computer use, student engagement: IU News Room: Indiana University
There is this funny and extremely pervasive impression of laptop usage in law schools. It’s not all faculty, but many consider them to be almost inherently evil and counter productive. Any student using a laptop must be on Facebook, must be surfing the web, etc. And that any student who does any of those things at all is not getting as much out of class as he or she could without a laptop.
Now, in no way do I dispute the possibility – the extreme likelihood, in fact – that students with a laptop in front of them will surf the web, go on facebook, etc. At some point during class. I do maybe once or twice out of my two classes per night (so that’s about 3 hours, FWIW, with 3-4 visits total or so to non-course-related sites…honestly). But just because a student may do that doesn’t mean that all students do it, or that they all do it all the time. In other words, it doesn’t mean that laptops are evil and counter-productive unto themselves.
For only the second time and only in the last few months, here’s a research article indicating that laptops might actually be helpful, specifically in a law school setting. This is a pretty big deal.
Pfizer lines up biggest bank deal since March, tapping U.S. aid – MarketWatch
The article sums up the importance of this deal pretty well, but it’s nice to see that the paranoia about liquidity is a bit less intense for the right customer (though no, you and I are not the “right” customer just yet), and that TARP has had a positive impact for at least some lenders. After all, when that paranoia is at the point where even the commercial paper market is compromised, how can one start thinking about lending for purposes of buying out other companies?
The whole TARP thing is even more intriguing since many banks rejected for fear that customers would lose confidence in a bank if it accepted this “bailout” aid.
Helpful travel tips – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com
Not exactly what you’d expect from the blog of a noble-prize winning* Economist but, hey, it’s useful.
*I’m sorry, I mean a winner of the Sveriges Riksbanks Prize in Economics Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
IBM seen remaining steady with earnings report – MarketWatch
Between IBM being the “slow, plodding behemoth” from a decade (and a half?) ago and its significant transition from a product company to a service one, this is a pretty impressive sign. It’s still a “bellwether” for the overall tech economy, and its transition to a service company has made it better able to withstand the current economic situation.
Removing cats to protect birds backfires on island
In Jared Diamond’s book, Collapse, one of the case studies he examines is the introduction of, I believe, rabbits to Australia. They were brought in for game hunting, and actually the first attempt failed so people tried again. However, they soon bred out of control and now the ecosystem there is devestated.
This is kind of the opposite – feral cats were identified as having a deleterious impact on the environment, so they got rid of them, but now some other “immigrant” species is running amok.
I think it says a lot about how sensitive ecosystems are, especially ones that have been largely isolated for so long such as those around New Zealand and even Australia.
January 16, 2009 Articles from the Web, Musings, Rants, and Random Thoughts 1 Read more >
BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Blair awarded top medal by Bush
I was listening to the podcast from The Economist and they mentioned that Bush had awarded Blair and some others the highest medal available for civilians. The interesting comment was that perhaps it was a bad thing to receive such an award from Bush, especially when it was because of the recipient’s support of the efforts in Iraq.
Then again, Blair’s image has been pretty badly tarnished already. Perhaps this doesn’t make as much of a difference.
Obama Begins Selling Americans the Stimulus Plan – BusinessWeek
I don’t have a ton to add to this article, but I thought it was a worthwhile one to read.
One idea that came up in my marketing and economics classes the other night was what if something clearly tangible and understandable – cash or something akin to vouchers- were put into the hands of consumers with an explicit requirement to use that money to buy “something” were put into play. Every consumer understands the idea of something of actual cash value, and the idea that “spending helps the economy” is one which is sufficiently entrenched that the population will get it.*
I can see where Obama’s credit to businesses for creating jobs makes sense to businesses (not saying it will be effective – I’m saying that business owners will understand the point even if they ignore it). But there is no stipulation that the businesses then use that money for something that will actually continue to stimulate the economy.
Actually, it’s kind of like the luxury tax in baseball. I’m a big Yankees fan (and have been forever). Every year, their payroll is so high that they pay millions of dollars to other, smaller market teams. It’s supposed to balance the system (whether it does or does not is a different discussion altogether). But at one point the Yankees asked the very reasonable question “are those other teams actually using that money to compete for the players which they supposedly can’t afford, or are they just pocketing it to help their bottom line?”
* – I am not saying that the general population has trouble understanding basic economic principles. But “spending money helps the economy” is a heckuva lot more logical than “decreasing interest rates decreases the cost of capital and therefore gives you more money to work with.” They are essentially the same in effect, but very different in perception and impact.
This year is ‘a bad time to buy a home,’ analyst warns – MarketWatch
This article states so many obvious items that I wonder if I should still read MarketWatch.
The part on unemployment is good. Talking about issues around unemployment is almost always good – very important, and people need to see past just the number of people without jobs and towards the impact that stat has on the overall GDP and economy. But the housing stuff is just weird.
Stimulus must build stronger nation, Obama says – MarketWatch
“I have confidence that not only are we going to be able to create jobs, but we’re also going to be making a down payment on some critical areas that, as the economy recovers and the private sector starts investing again, we’re going to see some long-term benefits and long- term savings,” Obama said at a press conference in Washington.
Obviously I don’t have the full text of the speech, and I am acknowledging that any news source is just one source, written a specific way. But…on the one hand, I’m really glad to see intelligent, long-term thinking applied to this topic. We must plan ahead. We must lay down the groundwork for the future so that we will avoid this. We must rethink what we are doing now. Yes, we need to think this way. I completely agree.
On the other, it’s kind of sad that a speech has to be made saying that a $775 billion plan needs to be more than a quick fix. I know this is a big problem and any dollar amount should be more than a quick fix. But as was mentioned in both my marketing and econ classes last night, a big part of stimulus is getting cash in the hands of people. Cash in the hand is easy to understand. Cutting interest rates as a way of reducing the cost of capital and therefore improving the liquidity status (essentially) or ability of individuals is a bit harder to understand…which means that talk about long-term needs to be done very delicately. So far, the quoted items make it sound like Obama did a good job.
Anyway. Random thought.
January 7, 2009 Articles from the Web, Getting Political 0 Read more >