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Will Straw, PhD: Where Have All the TVs Gone?

by on October 11, 2011

Huffington Post…

Over the last few years I’ve been struck, looking out at my undergraduate classes, by the sight of 80 or more Apple logos staring back at me from the backs of students’ notebook computers. Those reflecting on the legacy of Steve Jobs have emphasized the ubiquity of the iPhone and iPad, but I’m even more intrigued by the near monopoly Apple holds over the portable computer market for students, at least at McGill University where I teach. These 80 Mac owners are from a class of arts students that normally numbers just over a hundred. Another 10 or so students will bring no computer at all to class. A handful of others arrive bearing an assortment of netbooks (the hot electronics item of 2008) or Windows notebooks that range from the shiny and ultrathin through the big and clunky. We’re long past that brief historical moment when dudes wanted Dells for Christmas. I’ve visited other Canadian universities where classroom use of laptops by students is uncommon, either because official policies prohibit it or because students seem less able to afford them. In Latin American countries, I’ve counted fewer laptops in students’ hands and more Windows machines, and the economic reasons for this are easy to grasp. I’m told that the socio-economic background of McGill students is above the average for Canadian universities, and I suspect most of these students have grown up in peer groups and households where Mac ownership is commonplace. Still, Apple’s stranglehold on the student market, at least in my own institution, has never been adequately explained to me, except in the breathlessly enthusiastic language of the Apple cultist. Rightly or not, the superiority of Apple computers for consuming media content has long been touted and assumed. The ever-present student Macbook is probably one of the reasons why Canadians are cutting their subscriptions to cable television , as more and more young people watch television programming online, on their portable computers. The real story, it seems to me, isn’t how many people are cancelling cable but, rather, how few people of university student age even think of subscribing to it when they move away from home to set up apartments and attend university. In the absence of cable service, there is little incentive to buy a television set, either, since portable computers lend themselves more obviously to the personalized viewing, which characterizes so many people’s relationship to television these days. “None of my friends at school has a TV,” an undergraduate arts student told me last year, exaggerating only slightly. Like the disappearance of the landline telephone, the withering of cable will be less about long-time subscribers making a bold shift than about successive generations below them simply failing to sign up for a service they see as an unnecessary encumbrance. The effects of this are being felt across our media ecology. Without cable, people are less likely to buy television sets, which already serve in many homes as little more than expensive, overly-elaborate monitors for video games. With no need to purchase a bundle of services — landline telephones, cable television and Internet access — from major media industry players, consumers will be more easily drawn to cheaper, upstart sellers of single services, like Internet access or cell phone call time. The greatest error made by those who speculate about the future of media is to believe that people will forever desire a particular kind of experience — that of watching films with others in a darkened room, for example, or holding a musical recording in your hands, or getting a letter from someone whose handwriting you recognize. (All of these have been trotted out to convince us of the long-term survival of movie theatres, compact discs and handwritten correspondence.) For those who have grown up with such attachments, they may well be hard to shake. Media habits change, however, not because individuals shift their allegiances from the old to the new, but because younger generations grow up with little experience of the old and even less attachment to it. The portable computer carried onto campus on the first day of university is the sign of transformed habits that are rippling across our media landscape.

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Will Straw, PhD: Where Have All the TVs Gone?

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Kanye West Visits Occupy Wall Street

by on October 10, 2011

Huffington Post…

Kanye West has become the latest celebrity visitor to the Occupy Wall Street protests. The hip hop artist/fashion designer/all around impresario showed up at the rallies in downtown Manhattan on Monday. Russell Simmons, who has been involved with the protests for some time, tweeted a picture of West on his way down. West, of course, became known for his unscripted televised moment in 2005, when he said , “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” during an appeal for aid to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. PHOTO :

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Kanye West Visits Occupy Wall Street

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China, France agree to discuss Yuan flexibility

August 27, 2011

(MENAFN – Saudi Press Agency) The French economy minister says Paris and Beijing have agreed to discuss how to work toward making China’s yuan freely convertibl, AP Reported. Francois Baroin …

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Nancy Birdsall: Lipton and Zhu at the IMF: Intellectual and Policy Duopoly?

July 15, 2011

There was a lot of justified hand-wringing and tough talk in the media and in think tank and NGO-land about the unseemly use by Europe of its unwarranted voting weight at the IMF to push the election of Christine Lagarde. The appointment this week of Zhu Min , a former deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, as the one of two IMF deputy directors — the first time that a Chinese official has held such a post — suggests that Beijing extracted something worthwhile in exchange for backing Lagarde. Equally important, Zhu Min’s appointment shows that China is interested in expanding its influence within the IMF. Power still matters; it’s just that power is shifting. The appointment of White House economic aide David Lipton was no surprise and ensures that the U.S. preference for minimally managed capitalism (as Alan Beattie nicely argues (gated) will continue to dominate at the IMF. Even with former French Central Bank governors leading the IMF (e.g. Camdessus in the 1990s), it was the U.S. Treasury’s views (via Stan Fischer and Larry Summers) that mattered. And Lipton was Summers’ eyes and ears and mouth too during the Asian financial crisis. Lagarde will surely rely heavily on Lipton for advice. Lipton is smart and sensible. He will help Lagarde avoid seeming to favor German and French banks. Aside from China’s increased influence, the change from Strauss-Kahn and (John) Lipsky to Lagarde and Lipton doesn’t signal a big change at the IMF. (Lipsky and Lipton share not just those first three letters but basic market-friendly economics). For example, the IMF will probably participate in the next round of Greece-rescuing, still as a minority player. With fingers crossed on 19th Street, the can for now will again be kicked down the road. Ironically, Zhu’s appointment will make Sarkozy’s push for reform of the international monetary system more respectable, if not more likely anytime soon (for radical ideas in clear and careful language on reforming the international monetary system see here ). Min Zhu will raise questions about the dollar and about U.S. monetary and fiscal policy that up to now got no traction in the IMF’s economic monoculture. More and different views at the top is a good thing: as with Justin Lin, who as chief economist at the World Bank has been raising awkward (and unpopular) questions about the state’s role in triggering economic growth, going from monopoly to duopoly on ideas about the global economy is a good thing. Let’s hope at both global institutions it reduces the risk of really bad mistakes.

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Gingrich Campaign Over $1 Million In Debt

July 15, 2011

ATLANTA — Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign is more than $1 million in debt, according to his campaign disclosure provided to The Associated Press on Friday. The former House speaker’s campaign raised $2.1 million since he got into the race earlier this year. But he spent $1.8 million, and listed $1.03 million in debt, including more than $100,000 in legal fees. Gingrich listed $322,222 cash on hand. His campaign said he had received contributions from 20,217 donors, with 17,959 donating $100 or less. Gingrich’s White House bid has struggled since 18 staff members, consultants and advisers, including his two chief fundraisers, resigned earlier this year. He scaled back his spending, flying commercial airlines rather than taking corporate jets.

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Vinod Thomas: Global Crises, Social Safety Nets and the Poor

July 14, 2011

A striking difference between the recent financial, food, fuel and economic crises of previous decades is the attention some nations — Colombia, Georgia, Ethiopia, and Mexico among them — have been able to give this time around to the plight of the poor from the outset. The handle these countries had on helping protect the poor and vulnerable extended from social safety nets that were already in place before the crisis struck. Development organizations, especially the World Bank, financed some of these programs. Much of the Bank’s support to social safety nets over the past decade, $11.5 billion worth, came during 2009-2010. Such efforts were nevertheless insufficient to prevent about 64 million more people from slipping into poverty by the end of 2010 on account of the financial crisis, or to withstand the additional impacts of the food or fuel price hikes. In West Africa, Pakistan, Haiti, and several other places, devastation from natural disasters severely strained vulnerable segments of the population. But the recent experience with safety nets provides precious lessons going forward. First, it pays to build safety net systems in relatively stable times so that the worst poverty impacts from unanticipated events can be cushioned. The recurring nature of financial, food and fuel crises, as well as climate-related disasters, makes clear the need for all nations to be prepared to protect against shocks with social safety nets. Prior preparation is important because during a crisis it is hard to initiate or even scale up social programs or modify target groups to respond adequately. Organizations like the World Bank are most effective when they engage consistently during stable times to help develop social safety net programs and to build sufficient flexibility into them. Second, the coverage of these programs needs to be expanded to more countries. Thus far, middle-income countries such as Brazil and Mexico, which had built up institutional capacity in this respect, have been in the forefront. But low-income countries too need to give priority to such efforts with more support from development agencies. Of particular importance are efforts to strengthen the capacity in low-income countries to design flexible programs that consider the local context. Ethiopia, a low-income country, set up a large public safety net program to handle chronic and repeated poverty due to predictable shocks, such as droughts. Over time it has built-in an automatic contingency mechanism that provides support in times of food insecurity. During the disastrous 2010 floods, Pakistan, a lower-middle-income country, was able to draw on the experiences of the 2005 earthquake and the 2007 national social protection strategy to create the Citizen’s Damage Compensation program using the national database to identify beneficiaries and provide cash grants through debit cards from the private banking sector. Third, it is key for these programs to reach the right beneficiaries, without corruption or leakage. In many programs when the poverty focus is mentioned, it is often in general terms of poverty reduction rather than as part of a time-bound objective directed toward a specific subset of the population. Countries and external financiers need to develop rigorous mechanisms that effectively identify the targeted beneficiaries and build strong results frameworks that focus on supporting the poor and the vulnerable. The cost of well-targeted programs is usually a small share of GDP, typically below one percent. Yet for their sustainability, it is vital that they focus on the right results and ensure that they indeed reach the poor and vulnerable.

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Sheldon Filger: Sovereign Debt Crisis Is Now Global

July 14, 2011

Any doubt that the Eurozone debt crisis is no longer contained but has metastasized into a full-blown global calamity is rapidly being erased by fast-moving events. With the second bailout of insolvent Greece in the works, followed by a ratings downgrade to junk by Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s has now weighed in with a double whammy. Ireland’s sovereign debt has been downgraded to junk status, with a clear signal that the marketplace expects the Irish Republic to require a second bailout package, as was the case with Greece. Moody’s has now followed up on its action regarding Ireland with a warning that for the first time in its history, the AAA rating on U.S. government debt is under review for a possible downgrade. This inauspicious development is in connection with the political dysfunctionality that has afflicted Washington policymakers in both the executive and legislative branches over extending the national debt limit. With ratings collapsing and bond spreads widening throughout the developed world, it now appears that another member of the infamous PIIGS nations (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) is descending into fiscal anarchy. Italy is on the verge of requiring a bailout of its own, one which would exceed what has already been allocated to Greece, Ireland and Portugal. In desperation, the Italian senate has voted in favor of austerity measures. Based on the failure of the austerity measures in Greece to prevent a second bailout being required, the desperate action by Italian decision makers is unlikely to work, and has the look of panic rather than thoughtfulness. Like a tsunami wave that can travel thousands of miles from the epicenter of a major seismic event, the cascading sovereign debt crisis, which had its origins in policy responses to the global financial implosion of 2008 and the Greek debt crisis of 2010, is now ravaging public finances on both sides of the Atlantic. A point may soon be reached where private investors, Eurozone taxpayers and the IMF can no longer cobble together ever-larger “rescue packages,” all of which, with perverse logic, require even larger levels of public debt to construct. A dark truth may soon permeate this ballooning crisis; the policymakers have no real solutions, and have just about run out of gimmicks and short-term fixes. The global economic crisis that began with the financial collapse of 2008, far from being resolved or a clear path to recovery being underway, is entering a more dangerous phase, in which sovereign debt reaches the level of unsustainability. The result could very well be paralyzing insolvency among the advanced economies, which could destroy the economic future of an entire generation.

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Green Jobs Can Bring Home Bigger Paychecks, Report Finds

July 13, 2011

Unemployment remains high. Fossil fuels are under increased scrutiny. Governments are looking to cut costs. These underwhelming realities have shifted America’s attention toward the employment potential of the green community. As local areas continue to ramp up their efforts to save energy, more metrics are becoming available on the people behind those initiatives. The Brookings Institute released a study on Wednesday, profiling a multitude of national and regional trends within the United States’ green workforce. Entitled “Sizing the Clean Economy,” the study found that 2.7 million workers hold professions that qualify as “clean.” Outside of that national figure, Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program dove into the local scene. The report compiles statistics for several metro areas, looking at factors such as the quantity of clean jobs, the growth rate at which cities are adding clean jobs, and the wages for employees holding those positions. Leading the way in terms of overall clean economy size was New York, with 152,034 green jobs. Newsday notes that the largest slice of that green pie was transportation, which accounted for nearly 40 percent of those employment positions. In cities like Denver, green jobs are bringing home bigger paychecks . Workers in clean-energy posts within the Mile High City are netting $47,602 in annual pay, which is almost $4,000 more than the medium wage for others working in Colorado’s capital. While the Brookings report notes that the green economy “remains an enigma,” these figures stand to be boosted by the Environmental Protection Agency’s new financial backing of green jobs. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson introduced that vision on Tuesday , which includes $6.2 million in development and training grants.

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Retailers Go Green: Ditching Paper And Emailing Receipts

July 9, 2011

Apple customers have been used to it for years, but now more retailers are following in the tech giant’s footsteps by emailing receipts to their customers. Big chain stores including Nordstrom and Gap have started offering e-receipts over the past few months and even small business are starting to embrace the environmentally friendly option as well, reports USA Today . In five years, up to 60 percent of retailers will go paperless, a Nordstrom spokesman told The Boston Herald . Those who can’t stand keeping a wallet full of receipts will be thrilled, but some consumers won’t see this as a good move. It takes more time as cashiers have to ask each customer for their email address and some view it as a ploy to market online directly to customers, says USA Today . It’s part of a growing effort by retailers to electronically reach out to consumers via their smartphones and computers. They send emails and text messages alerting consumers to deals. They have websites and Facebook pages and smartphone apps –all aimed at making the store more than just a bricks-and-mortar shop. Typically, emailed receipts will contain offers for consumers to receive coupons and other deals from retailers in the near future. But customers shouldn’t worry about stores abusing their email addresses, as it’s a service that’s more about offering something the customer will appreciate, John Talbott, assistant director of Indiana University’s Center for Education and Research in Retailing told USA Today. In 2008 Best Buy and Target began testing AllEtronic to provide customers with emailed receipts. The company boasts their service as “green” for helping to save the trees felled for about 600,00 tons of thermal receipt paper used by stores each year. And it takes 15 trees, 19,000 gallons of water and 390 gallons of oil to make one ton of paper, the company told CNET .

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Family Office Exchange is betting that RIAs and the ultra-affluent can’t get … – RIABiz

May 31, 2011

Family Office Exchange is betting that RIAs and the ultra-affluent can’t get … RIABiz This is the story of Family Office Exchange ramping up its efforts in response. Impervious to the gravitational pull of a down economy, the family office business keeps plowing ahead and one big Chicago-based consultancy is planning its own aggressive … and more »

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As France’s Lagarde Launches IMF Bid, China, Criticism Surfaces

May 25, 2011

PARIS/WASHINGTON (Jean-Baptiste Vey and Lesley Wroughton) – France’s Christine Lagarde has entered the race to head the IMF despite anger in big emerging economies over Europe’s “obsolete” lock on the job. France’s finance minister announced her candidacy on Wednesday, the eve of a G8 summit, after securing the unanimous backing of the 27-nation European Union and, diplomats said, support from the United States and China. “It is an immense challenge which I approach with humility and in the hope of achieving the broadest possible consensus,” Lagarde told a Paris news conference. The 55-year-old former corporate lawyer, who speaks fluent English, has won plaudits for her deft chairing of the G20 finance ministers and communications skills. But unlike Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned last week after being charged with attempted rape, she is not an economist and may struggle to match his thought leadership over the management of the world economy. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa criticized EU officials in a joint statement for suggesting the next International Monetary Fund head should be a European, a convention that dates back to the founding of the global lender at the end of the Second World War. However, the countries known as the BRICs failed to unite behind a common alternative candidate, leaving the way clear for Lagarde unless she slips on a pending French legal case. Diplomats said the complaint was mostly aimed at securing a commitment from developed countries that nationality will no longer be a covert criterion for selecting future IMF chiefs. In a nod to the emerging nations’ concerns, Lagarde said she would work for “greater representativity and greater flexibility” at the IMF if elected. BRICS AGGRIEVED In the first joint statement issued by their directors at the Fund, the BRICs said the choice of who heads the IMF should be based on competence, not nationality. They called for “abandoning the obsolete unwritten convention that requires that the head of the IMF be necessarily from Europe.” Lagarde said she was running as a candidate to serve all IMF members, not just Europe, although she noted her experience and good relations with European officials would be an advantage in steering the IMF’s role in the bloc’s debt crisis. “Being European shouldn’t be a plus, but it shouldn’t be a minus either,” Lagarde said. Hours before the statement was issued in Washington, France’s government said China would back Lagarde. The Chinese Foreign Ministry declined comment. Some emerging market government officials say privately that although they are fed up with advanced economies controlling the selection process, they are not in a position to put forward a challenger who could stand up to Lagarde. Mexico has nominated its central bank chief for the job and he said some countries had welcomed his decision to run. South Africa and Kazakhstan may put forward their own candidates. Under a long-standing agreement between the United States and Europe, the top job at the IMF goes to a European while an American leads its sister organization, the World Bank. The United States also fills the number two position at the IMF. European diplomats said Washington had asked the French government about the legal case hanging over Lagarde, in which she faces accusations of abusing her authority. The Court of Justice of the Republic, a special court created to try ministers for alleged offences committed while in office, is examining the procedure followed in awarding the 285 million euro settlement to Bernard Tapie, a convicted ex-minister who backed Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign. French officials have told other governments privately the case will not be a show-stopper, the diplomats said. Lagarde said her conscience was clear. “I have every confidence in this procedure because my conscience is perfectly clear,” she said. “I acted in the interest of the state and in respect of the law.” U.S. BACKS EUROPEAN The EU and the United States, which sources in Washington have said will back a European, have enough joint voting power to decide who leads the IMF. Securing support from some emerging economies would defuse a potentially bitter row over the decision though. In April 2009, the Group of 20 leading nations endorsed “an open, transparent and merit-based selection process” for heads of the global institutions. France, which presides over the G20 this year, has made an effort to work with Beijing on key issues for developing nations like global monetary reform and commodity market speculation. Last week, the head of China’s central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, said the IMF’s leadership should reflect the growing stature of emerging economies. But he stopped short of saying its new boss should be from an emerging economy. Wu Qing, a researcher with the Development Research Center government think tank in Beijing, said it was plausible that China would support Lagarde as there weren’t many qualified candidates from China or Asia in general. The IMF’s board will draw up a shortlist of three candidates and has a June 30 deadline for picking a successor. (Additional reporting by Julien Toyer in Paris, Jiang Yan in Beijing, Leigh Jones and Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Emily Kaiser and Paul Taylor) Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions .

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Lagarde Set To Announce IMF Bid On Wedneday

May 24, 2011

PARIS-French finance minister Christine Lagarde is set to announce her bid to become the next managing director of the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday, according to a French government official.

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IMF Head Pulled Off Plane, Charged In Alleged Sexual Assault

May 15, 2011

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, was arrested and is being questioned by police after allegations of sexual assault emerged on Saturday. The New York Post initially reported that Strauss-Kahn was removed from an Air France flight just minutes before takeoff from Kennedy Airport. UPDATE: Reuters has confirmed through NY police that Strauss-Kahn was charged with “a criminal sexual act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment.” Scroll down for the latest information on the charges. According to The New York Post , a housekeeper entered Strauss-Kahn’s New York City hotel room at noon on Saturday. Sources claim that Strauss-Kahn emerged naked from the bathroom and grabbed the housekeeper, forcing her to perform oral sex on him. Strauss-Kahn was considered a potential candidate in France’s 2012 election. The New York Times reports that Strauss-Kahn is a former economics professor, and started in the 1980′s as a deputy in parliament, and then was a finance minister: Mr. Strauss-Kahn eventually sought the socialist party’s presidential nomination himself in 2007 — calling for an “anti-Sarkozy front” — but lost to Segolene Royal. Months later he was tapped to run the I.M.F. and received Sarkozy’s support, which many critics called a strategy by Sarkozy to keep Mr. Strauss-Kahn away from the forefront of the socialist party. According to a Reuters post on Twitter, “Lawyer representing IMF chief Strauss-Kahn says Strauss-Kahn ‘will plead not guilty.’” Strauss-Kahn has blogged for HuffPost . Reuters reported early Sunday morning on the charges: IMF chief and possible French presidential contender Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested and charged with an alleged sexual assault, including an attempted rape, on a hotel maid in New York City, police said on Sunday. Strauss-Kahn, a key player in the world’s response to the 2007-09 financial meltdown and in Europe’s ongoing debt crisis, was removed from an Air France plane minutes before it was to take off for Paris from John F Kennedy International Airport on Saturday, New York police spokesman Paul Browne said. Browne said Strauss-Kahn was formally arrested at 2:15 a.m. (7:15 a.m. British time) on Sunday on charges of criminal sexual act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment. A lawyer representing Strauss-Kahn, Benjamin Brafman, told Reuters in an email that the International Monetary Fund chief “will plead not guilty.” Brafman made no further comment. A 32-year-old maid filed a sexual assault complaint after fleeing the $3,000 (1,852 pound)-a-night hotel suite at the Sofitel in Times Square where the alleged incident occurred around 1 p.m. (6 p.m. British time) on Saturday, Browne said. Strauss-Kahn, 62, who has been considered a possible Socialist Party candidate in the French presidential election in April and May 2012, appeared to have fled the hotel after the incident, the police spokesman said. Browne told Reuters an account of events which led to the state charges against Strauss-Kahn. “She told detectives he came out of the bathroom naked, ran down a hallway to the foyer where she was, pulled her into a bedroom and began to sexually assault her, according to her account.” “She pulled away from him and he dragged her down a hallway into the bathroom where he engaged in a criminal sexual act, according to her account to detectives. He tried to lock her into the hotel room,” Browne added. Browne said Strauss-Kahn does not have diplomatic immunity. He is expected to be brought before state court on Sunday. According to New York state law, a criminal sexual act includes forcibly compelling someone to engage in oral sex. The offence carries a potential sentence of 15-20 years, the same as attempted rape. Unlawful imprisonment carries a potential sentence of three to five years. IMPACT ON IMF The allegation will be a major worldwide embarrassment to the IMF, which has authorized billions of dollars in lending programs to troubled countries and has played a major role in the euro zone debt crisis. It follows the announcement on Thursday the IMF’s No. 2 official, John Lipsky, plans to step down in August when his term ends. The IMF managing director has yet to say whether he will run for president, although French opinion polls put him as a clear winner over conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy if the two faced off in an election. “The NYPD realized he had fled, he had left his cell phone behind,” Browne said. “We learned he was on an Air France plane. They held the plane and he was taken off and is now being held in police custody for questioning.” After being removed from the aircraft’s first-class section, he was taken to the police department’s Special Victims Unit in Manhattan, known to viewers of a hit U.S. television show based on its work. The woman, who has not been named, “was brought by EMS (emergency medical services) to the Roosevelt Hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries,” Browne said. Strauss-Kahn was on his way to Europe for a meeting on Sunday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss the European debt crisis and then was to attend a euro zone finance ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday. Strauss-Kahn took over the IMF in November 2007 for a five-year term scheduled to end next year. Before that, he was a French finance minister, member of the French National Assembly and a professor of economics at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. The IMF declined to comment and IMF board officials told Reuters they had not been informed officially of the incident. PAST CONTROVERSY Strauss-Kahn has faced controversy before. In October 2008, he apologized for “an error of judgement” for an affair with a female IMF economist who was his subordinate. An inquiry cleared him of harassment and abuse of power, although he was warned by the fund’s board of member countries against further improper conduct. Strauss-Kahn apologized to the woman, Piroska Nagy, and his wife, French television personality Anne Sinclair, as well as to IMF employees for the trouble he had caused. Since taking over the IMF, he has won plaudits for putting the fund, the world’s main overseer of the global economic system, at the centre of global efforts to cope with the financial meltdown of 2007-09. Strauss-Kahn introduced sweeping changes at the global institution to ensure that countries swamped by the financial collapse had access to emergency loans. He was pivotal in brokering a bailout program for Iceland, Hungary, Greece, Ireland, and recently Portugal. He has also overseen internal changes that have given emerging market countries, such as China, India and Brazil, greater voting power in the institution, and weighed into thornier issues by urging China to allow its currency to rise in value in a dispute with the United States. Based in Washington at the IMF’s headquarters, Strauss-Kahn has continued to spend a lot of time in France, fanning speculation he was considering re-entering politics as a presidential candidate. Lipsky’s planned departure and now Strauss-Kahn’s detention raises questions about a possible leadership vacuum should the IMF chief be charged by U.S. authorities or face possible discipline by the IMF board. (Reporting by Christine Kearney and Noeleen Walder; Editing by Peter Cooney, Todd Eastham and Jackie Frank) Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions .

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Income Inequality Is Soaring Globally — Even In Sweden

May 3, 2011

Widening income inequality has been a thorn in America’s side for some time now. Turns out, other countries in the developed world aren’t exempt from it, either. Yes, even Sweden. In a new report , the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) finds that since the mid-1980s income inequality has increased in 77 percent, or 17 of the 22 surveyed countries. Across all OECD countries, the report found, the average income of the richest tenth of the population is now nine times that of the poorest tenth. Globalization, technological innovation and relaxed regulatory environments have all contributed to the growing gap between rich and poor, the OECD found. The report pays special attention, though, to the changing formation of families, pointing to research showing the income inequality has risen in the U.S. as a result of growing numbers of single-headed households. Globally, household income has increased overall by 1.7 percent annually, the OECD found. But not all income levels have benefited equally. The world’s bottom decile of earners saw their income grow annually by only 1.4 percent in the last 30 years or so, while the top decile grew at an annual rate of 2.0 percent. Countries at both extremes of the inequality spectrum are moving closer to the center. Mexico and Chile, which together have the two highest levels of inequality, have seen the gap between rich and poor narrow in recent years. But surprisingly, it’s in the historically egalitarian countries of Denmark, Germany and Sweden that the divide between the rich and poor has widened most in the past decade. This isn’t just an issue of poor versus rich, however. The middle-class has largely been left behind too: “The highest 10% of earners have been leaving the middle earners behind more rapidly than the lowest earners have been drifting away from the middle,” the report’s authors write. Capital income, or income derived from wealth not work, has been a particularly notable source of rising inequality, the report notes, widening more than wage inequality in two-thirds of surveyed countries. Still, capital income remains a relatively low percentage of overall income at 7 percent. On Monday, though, Paul Krugman noted that 400 people alone accounted for 10 percent of all U.S. capital gains income in 2007. With the exception of France, Japan and Spain, wages of the rich have grown more than those of poor since the mid-1980s, the report finds. That has something to do, according to the OECD, with the declining number of average hours worked by low-wage workers, even in comparison to also declining hours worked by the high-wage workforce. Only in Greece and the United States, the report finds, have the average number of hours worked risen for the bottom quintile while declining for the top. (See below chart): The below graph shows where inequality has risen, where it has fallen, and by how much since the mid-1980s: Read the paper: GROWING INCOME INEQUALITY IN OECD COUNTRIES: WHAT DRIVES IT AND HOW CAN POLICY TACKLE IT?

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Obama Reelection 71 Percent Likely After Bin Laden Kill, Says Irish Bookmaker

May 3, 2011

More bad news for the fledgling Republican presidential field. Ireland’s largest bookmaker slashed the odds on President Barack Obama winning reelection from 4-7 to 2-5 thanks to his triumph in hunting down and killing Osama bin Laden. Paddy Power said the incumbent now has the shortest odds of securing a second term since he took office in January of 2009. Obama now has a 71 percent probability of winning four more years in the White House. The company recalculated its odds based on scores of bets that rolled in Monday morning after news broke that the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks was no more. “Recent events in Pakistan have literally whipped punters into a frenzy with more bets placed on President Obama in the past 24-hours that in the past six months,” said company spokesman Ken Robertson. Among GOP contenders, former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney has the next best odds of winning the 2012 election, at 10-1. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is at 12-1 odds. Alaska Gov.-turned-TV star Sarah Palin, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Gen. David Petraeus — who recently accepted a new job as the next head of the CIA — each are pegged as 16-1 candidates. That is better than former Govs. Tim Pawlenty (Minn.), at 18-1, or Mike Huckabee (Ark.), a 22-1 shot. Here are the other GOP long-shots, according the Irish bookie (who may not be as familiar with the more provincial political newcomers): Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), 28-1 Rep. Ron Paul (Texas), 33-1 Former Gov. Jon Huntsman (Utah), 33-1 Ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), 33-1 Real estate mogul Donald Trump, 33-1 Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), 33-1 Gov. Chris Christie (N.J.), 50-1 Former Gov. Gary Johnson (N.M.), 50-1 Ex-New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, 66-1 Former Sen. Rick Santorum (Penn.), 66-1 Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), 66-1 Sen. Scott Brown (Mass.), 100-1 Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.), 100-1 Businessman Herman Cain, 125-1 Activist Fred Karger, 150-1 At 1,000-1 odds, the longest shots were heiress Paris Hilton and Laura Bush, the wife of former President George W. Bush.

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La Mancha Appoints New COO and CFO

May 3, 2011

PARIS–(Marketwire – May 3, 2011) – La Mancha Resources Inc. ( TSX : LMA ) (hereinafter “La Mancha” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the appointment of Nigel Tamlyn as its Chief Operating Officer, effective May 5, 2011, and Gonzague Thomasset as its Chief Financial Officer, effective June 30, 2011.

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Video: SocGen’s O’Hagan Sees ECB Rates at 2.5% by End of 2012

May 3, 2011

May 3 (Bloomberg) — Ciaran O’Hagan, head of European rates strategy at Societe Generale SA, discusses the outlook for European Central Bank policy. He talks with Maryam Nemazee from Paris on Bloomberg Television’s “The Pulse.”

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10 Countries Where Unemployment Has Soared

April 30, 2011

Since the financial crisis first pulled the world into the Great Recession, unemployment has become a global problem. A new report released by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development entitled “Society at a Glance 2011 – OECD Social Indicators” includes data on the rising levels of global unemployment between 2007-2009, the years where the recession peaked. Many countries on the list have seen high unemployment rates for years, most notably Spain, whose unemployment rate recently hit a Eurozone record at 21.3 percent, with 4.9 million Spaniards now jobless. Other countries have trended in the opposite direction, however. Germany, for one, has watched its unemployment rate fall to 7.1 percent from 7.8 percent at the time of the report’s publication. The United States has also seen some recent improvement, albeit notably less steep than Germany’s drop. Despite these improvements, the OECD’s report finds that unemployment rates overall have increased across the globe, with the fews exceptions including Israel, Poland and South Africa. Below are the nations whose unemployment rates have risen most since the Great Recession:

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Lapham’s Quarterly: Of Apprentices and Interns

April 19, 2011

After all the talk about amputating ears and public whippings, the Code of Hammurabi pauses to consider the plight of the intern. Well, not exactly — but that ancient litany of 282 laws, inscribed on diorite some 3,700 years ago, did enjoin the master craftsmen of Babylon to pass on their trade and treat their apprentices fairly. Four millennia later, these the basic rights that interns are still fighting for. Interns, not apprentices, that is. Today, the contrast is stark, with the two groups seeming to inhabit completely different universes. The former are our favorite white-collar peons, often unpaid or paid a pittance, loaded with little indignities and unprotected in the workplace. Apprenticeships, on the other hand, represent a humane, professional model for training and beginning a career — the justified successor to the European tradition of craft apprenticeship, minus the cruelty, coercion, and familial arrangements, sensibly updated for the twentieth and now twenty-first centuries. If no longer ubiquitous, apprenticeships have nonetheless weathered the centuries. At this moment, there are nearly half a million active apprentices across the U.S. in fields as disparate as aerospace manufacturing, seafaring, cosmetology, and green energy. Still, our archetypal apprentice is a cheerful, mildly rambunctious minion, probably straight out of medieval Europe (Goethe’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice , pre-Mickey Mouse), Colonial America (Ben Franklin), or Victorian England (a Dickens novel). Indeed, the institution has long since become a central mode and metaphor for education more broadly. The Western apprenticeship tradition grew out of the medieval guilds, widely known as universitates. Some scholars assert that the first universities — early gatherings of scholars at Bologna, Paris, Oxford, and elsewhere — fancied themselves guilds of scholars, and that everything from set terms of student enrollment (inspired by indentures) to the concept of the dissertation (the “masterpiece” of a scholarly apprenticeship) drew on the model of guild apprenticeships. In the English-speaking world, a typical term of “indenture” lasted seven years; the (mostly male) apprentices usually took up their indentures, with a nudge or a shove from their family, when they were around 14 years old, the common-law “age of discretion.” These indentures spelled out mutual obligations, more or less formally — the apprentice would work for such and such a period, at tasks relevant to the craft. (There were sometimes specific prohibitions against an apprentice performing grunt work considered the preserve of servants). In return the master was obligated to teach the apprentice his trade, while also providing housing, meals, clothing, and so on. Numerous other kinds of stipulations also commonly bound both parties — that the apprentice should not marry during his term, for instance, or that the master should provide bedding or clothing of a certain quality. In Britain, the Elizabethan-era Statute of Artificers enshrined this basic setup until 1814. In the U.S., it began to come apart during the American Revolution, ironically enough since almost all of the Founding Fathers had started out as apprentices. Apparently, the revolutionary spirit broadened the discourse of freedom in a way that threw indentures into a bad light, and runaway apprentices became an intractable problem. “Go West, young man,” the Industrial Revolution, and the spread of mandatory schooling put further nails in the coffin of apprenticeship until the early twentieth century, when a coalition of enlightened employers, unions, and progressives managed to carve out the current, impressive niche. So what about interns? In the late nineteenth century, the medical profession, eagerly standardizing, started pushing aspiring doctors to endure a year or two of purgatory between medical school and professional practice, “interning” them within the four walls of a hospital. Only after World War II did the model spread decisively to Washington, D.C. and corporate America. Yet the real internship boom is only three decades old — a sprawling, unstudied, unregulated mess gone global, allowing companies in every industry to save on costs and cut corners while millions of college students (and their families) scramble and sacrifice. Every society has its gift economies — you probably don’t pay a relative for babysitting, for instance — but young people working for free en masse is something new and frightening. What’s amazing is how quickly we’ve become inured to it, how naturally we’ve accepted the idea of “investing in ourselves,” bartering for connections and resume line-items. It’s a useful reminder that the notion of work is hardly an eternal verity — more like a shifting, uneven landscape, fought over and redefined in every culture and in every age, in spite of hallowed old chiselings in stone. Ross Perlin is a researcher for the Himalayan Languages Project in southwest China. He has written on forgotten histories and disappearing languages in the U.S., China, and the former Soviet Union. His first book, Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy, will be published by Verso in May. This post originally appeared on the Lapham’s Quarterly Roundtable blog.

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Angela Haines: Immigrant Entrepreneurs Challenge the Barriers

April 19, 2011

Maria Lores-Browne, a Colombian immigrant, began dreaming about her own business during her years working as a laborer on construction sites, doing everything from pouring concrete to laying flooring. She asked herself, “How can I do this when I’m 45 or 55 years old?” So she went to school to learn how to operate heavy machinery though she was repeatedly advised “they don’t take girls.” After taking the requisite courses, she qualified to join the Operating Engineers Union, but “they were always reluctant,” she says, “to send out woman to operate equipment so they only assigned me to jobs as a watchman for construction sites.” Maria persisted because “I love running big equipment; I love the feel of the paint, the fittings, the tires, the same way many women love diamond rings.” Last fall she started Berma Construction Company. The harsh New York winter provided her with her first customer. JFK Airport hired her company to plow snow. Like Maria, who now seeks funds to purchase equipment, the biggest problems most immigrants face is access to capital. What’s particularly hard for them, says Catalina Castano, Director of the Brooklyn Small Business Development Center is that “they are unfamiliar with credit rules. Many have no credit histories, though lenders insist on credit scores. And unlike native born entrepreneurs, they frequently can’t turn to their networks for a ‘friends and family’ first round; they often can’t find a co-signer on a micro loan.” Adds Elisa Balabram, who heads a government-funded Business Center in Brooklyn, “other countries have more informal rules for doing business, so immigrants have to learn about requirements; their language problems can add to their difficulties understanding financial rules and regulations.” The Vinci Tablet Dan’s new Galaxy tablet provides an interactive learning platform with an Android operating system; it features a sturdy red silicon handle, a non toxic tempered glass screen and has no wi fi components to minimize radiation; it will be available in July. These days Dan works mainly with psychologist, educators, and artists as she develops software for her tot tablet, combining her talents in advanced technology with the creative world, a step which presumably her early teachers would have considered a more appropriate arena for women! For more on women entrepreneurs, visit www.wstartup.com

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La Mancha Announces CFO Change

April 19, 2011

PARIS–(Marketwire – April 19, 2011) – La Mancha Resources Inc. ( TSX : LMA ) (hereinafter “La Mancha” or the “Company”) announced today that its Chief Financial Officer, Agnès Russeil, an AREVA employee seconded to La Mancha since January 31, 2007, has decided to pursue further opportunities within the AREVA Group, effective June 30, 2011.

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L. Randall Wray: Budgetary Impasse: Is There an Alternative to Hoovernomics?

April 7, 2011

I don’t know if I can stomach much more of the posturing in Washington. We know it is all about politics. And Congressman Ryan has yet again said that budget cutting is about “morality”, not economics. The possibility that a sovereign government might be shut-down this weekend because its elected representatives will not extend a self-imposed debt limit just boggles the mind. I’m so fed up I really cannot write about that nonsense any more. Yet, the insanity has seeped outside the beltway. Even economists — who should know better — are weighing-in in favor of Washington’s budget-cutting. And not just any economists — even those with Bank of Sweden-awarded “Nobels” (mind you, not real Nobel prizes) and assorted other distinctions have come to the support of the craziest Tea Party ideas. Cutting government spending is good for growth! The fiscal stimulus package cost us jobs! Worker pensions caused the fiscal shortfall facing states! Keynes and Roosevelt are responsible for all our current problems! Time to bring back Hoovernomics! For example, in a Wall Street Journal article this week three Hoover Institute economists (Gary Becker, George Schultz and John Taylor) endorsed Republican efforts to make large federal government budget cuts. I will not address all the arguments made in defense of a “Hooverian” approach to economics. Instead I want to focus on the two main points made. These are arguments that any student of Econ 101 from 1950 up to the present day would have been able to destroy with both argument and evidence. Here are their arguments: When private investment is high, unemployment is low. In 2006, investment–business fixed investment plus residential investment–as a share of GDP was high, at 17%, and unemployment was low, at 5%. By 2010 private investment as a share of GDP was down to 12%, and unemployment was up to more than 9%. In the year 2000, investment as a share of GDP was 17% while unemployment averaged around 4%. This is a regular pattern. In contrast, higher government spending is not associated with lower unemployment. For example, when government purchases of goods and services came down as a share of GDP in the 1990s, unemployment didn’t rise. In fact it fell, and the higher level of government purchases as a share of GDP since 2000 has clearly not been associated with lower unemployment. They then supply a graph showing investment and government spending as a share of GDP to demonstrate these two points. Based on that data, these Hooverians argue that the solution is to cut federal spending and then to hold its growth rate below that of GDP. This will allow the share of government spending to fall — while economic growth will let tax revenues rise a bit faster so that the budget will move toward balance. (Indeed, tax revenue does tend to grow much faster than GDP in a boom — increasing as a percent of GDP — which is how we got the Clinton-era budget surpluses.) By framing their argument in terms of ratios to GDP, the authors provide a misleading characterization of cause and effect. It is true that high investment spending tends to increase GDP while lowering unemployment — that is the Keynesian “multiplier” at work. High growth of GDP, in turn, lowers the ratio of government spending to GDP so that we will observe a correlation between falling unemployment and a falling government share of GDP — but that is a correlation of no causal significance. When an investment boom collapses — as it did in 2006-2007 — GDP growth then falls and the government share of a smaller GDP will rise. Our Hooverians interpret that as “proof” that a rising government share does not help to fight unemployment. In fact, however, relatively stable government spending over a cycle helps to cushion a private sector “bust”. While it is hard to prove the counterfactual — how bad would things have been without sustained government spending? — it is hard to believe their argument that a loss of 8% of GDP due to reduction of private spending would not have led to a much deeper recession (or depression) without the stabilizing force of our government spending. Simply arguing that we did not get recovery in spite of the Obama stimulus ($800 billion over two years, or well under half the loss of private sector spending) will not do — it does not tell us how high unemployment would have gone in the absence of stimulus. Let us take a look at the components of GDP over the past two decades. Recall from your Econ 101 course that the aggregate measure of a nation’s output of goods and services (GDP) is equal to the sum of consumption, private investment, government purchases, and net exports (for the US that is of course negative). We can further divide investment into residential (housing) and nonresidential (investment by firms). Finally, we can divide government spending between federal government and state and local government. The following chart graphs the domestic components of GDP (net imports are left out), indexing each component to 100 in 1990. (This makes the scale easier to show in the graph, and simplifies comparison of growth by component. For example, if consumption spending doubles between 1990 and 2000, its index increases from 100 to 200.) What we see in this graph is that the slowest growing component over the two decades was federal government spending — it actually did not grow much until the term of President George W. Bush. (A substantial portion of federal government growth since 2000 can be attributed to our multiple wars, as well as to domestic spending on security in the aftermath of 9-11.) By 2010, federal government spending was just over 2.3 times bigger (in nominal terms) than its spending in 1990. This graph certainly does not appear to show that federal government spending has been growing so fast that it is “crowding out” private spending on investment. Indeed, it was only after President Bush’s spending increases for foreign wars and domestic security that we see obvious outsized booms in residential and nonresidential investment. There is no evidence that government purchases crowded out private investment spending. Private consumption as well as state and local government spending grew steadily, increasing by about 267% before the deep recession led to some retrenchment. Note that the fiscal crisis now facing cities and states will lead to continuing cutbacks in state and local government spending–the “perfect fiscal storm” I wrote about last time. And while consumption appears to be recovering by 2010, the jury is still out. Still, the overriding picture one gets is that consumption as well as state and local government spending have been growing relatively steadily, and at a pace considerably faster than growth of federal government spending. By contrast, residential investment boomed in the real estate bubble, growing 350% by 2005. It then collapsed so that it stood at an index of just 150 in 2010 (fifty percent higher than in 1990). Nonresidential investment shows a clear cyclical nature, and it too collapsed in the aftermath of the global financial collapse. Viewed in this light, it is not at all surprising that when total investment (residential plus nonresidential) is growing rapidly, unemployment tends to fall; but when investment spending collapses we lose jobs at a stupendous pace. In a small government economy, it is investment that dominates, through the Keynesian multiplier: when firms and households are optimistic, we get residential and nonresidential investment, growth, and jobs; when they are pessimistic we get recession and unemployment. This has long been the concern of Keynesian economists: investment by its very nature is highly cyclical, subject to what J.M. Keynes called “whirlwinds of optimism and pessimism”. That is not all bad. J. Schumpeter referred to the “creative destruction” that makes capitalism dynamic — waves of innovation generate new investment, wiping out firms that get left behind. But if an entire economy is whipped about by unstable investment, we oscillate between the extremes of boom and bust. That is why we need some spending that is more stable — better yet, we need a source of spending that can act in a countercyclical manner to offset the swings of investment. And that is precisely what we created in the aftermath of the Great Depression. First, we grew the federal government — from about 3% of GDP in 1929 to above 20% after WWII. As Hyman Minsky used to say, government needs to be at least as big as investment to ensure it can offset swings of investment spending. As the chart above shows, federal government spending is not subject to the wild swings that afflict investment, so it helps to stabilize GDP and jobs–if it is big enough. Second, we put in place a variety of federal government programs that help to stabilize household consumption (unemployment benefits, Social Security retirement, and “welfare” for households, firms, and farms). That is, again, reflected in the chart above–even when the financial sector crashed and unemployment exploded, consumption dipped only slightly, thanks in large part to government “transfer” payments like unemployment benefits. Note that transfer payments are not explicitly included in the chart above. Rather, payments like unemployment benefits and Social Security show up in consumption — helping to stabilize it over the course of the cycle. Our modern Hooverians would like to return to the “good old days” of President Hoover, when the government was smaller and both unwilling and unable to offset the swings of private investment spending. Back then, when investment collapsed unemployment did not go to 9 or 10 percent, it went all the way to 25 percent. When people lost their jobs, there was no “welfare” to fall back on. Hence, consumption would collapse — feeding through to lost retail sales, and on to farm products, and thence throughout every corner of the economy. That is why GDP fell in half, and why the Great Depression was so “great”. Government was far too small to stabilize spending and incomes. Sure, we got the New Deal programs that helped a bit. Unfortunately, President Roosevelt lost his nerve in 1936 in the face of budget deficits. He raised taxes and constrained spending in an attempt to reduce the deficit. In fact, the following crash in 1937 was the sharpest in US economic history — even worse than the 1929 crash. The New Deal programs, by themselves, would never have generated recovery, because they were too small–just like the Obama stimulus. Instead it was WWII that ramped up government, increased budget deficits to 25%, and increased production to the full employment level. The rest, as they say, is history. Or, at least it was. Until modern Hooverians decided to return to the completely discredited economics of the distant past. Hoovernomics would turn back the clock to ring in another Great Depression with the same old pre-Keynesian ideas that failed us in the 1930s. As I have been arguing for years, we actually have it much better than the Keynesian-New Dealers of the 1930s had: we gave up gold and fixed exchange rates. We adopted a sovereign currency. Our government faces no financial constraints. Except those that are self-imposed by inside-the-Beltway thinking. Cross-posted from Benzinga . A shorter version of this was posted earlier at New Economic Perspectives from Kansas City. I thank James Felkerson for producing the graph. L. Randall Wray is a Professor of Economics, University of Missouri–Kansas City. A student of Hyman Minsky, his research focuses on monetary and fiscal policy as well as unemployment and job creation. He writes a weekly column for Benzinga every Tuesday. He also blogs at New Economic Perspectives, and is a BrainTruster at New Deal 2.0. He is a senior scholar at the Levy Economics Institute, and has been a visiting professor at the University of Rome (La Sapienza), UNAM (Mexico City), University of Paris (South), and the University of Bologna (Italy).

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Dirty Dishes

April 7, 2011

Zagat, as we know, matches restaurant features to diners’ needs by way of scores for food, décor, service, and cost. Never does it mention the count of cockroaches in a dimly-lit kitchen, or the fact that the bathroom tiles have never known the feel of a mop. Instead we read of a dinner spot “nestled amid the brownstones” that is either “edgy,” “cozy” or “filled with hipsters.” Oh, for “the best Peking Duck in town,” or an “ambience à la Paris”! But as to the cleanliness of those hands around the throat of our Peking duck, Zagat is mute. Since last July, the Health Department’s placement of letter grades in New York restaurants served to make possible a different sort of choosing, one based not in the crispness of the table linens, or the perfect glaze of orange sauce. Finally the hungry neurotic can seek out specifics as to the sordid ecosystem of the urban kitchen. Any man or woman who has ever held a spatula understands the filth a city kitchen can attract — as does anyone who has ever gripped the pole on a subway train, held a door open at Macy’s, touched a mailbox, a stranger’s dog, a garbage chute, a taxi cab, swiped their finger across their nose, dropped a quarter in the cup of a homeless man, worn shoes inside their apartment, climbed into bed, turned off the light or taken several deep and wholesome breaths. As it is perhaps best not to read about bedbugs after 8 p.m., it may be best to avoid the specifics of a charming, four-month-old Department of Health document entitled, “What To Expect When You’re Inspected.” For those curious about the backstage area for the brand-new letter grades, and what makes the difference between clear blue “A” and filthy “C,” diners can have a grand time with the Inspection Scoring Parameters Table. This describes, for restaurant owners, a description of each “Violation” and provides examples of their progressive severity. These include cleanliness of surfaces, bathrooms and presence of lighting: “Food worker prepares food or handles utensil when ill with a disease transmissible by food or has exposed infected cut or burn on hand,” “Cans of food products swollen, leaking or rusted and not segregated from consumable food,” and, like a recipe for Shakespeare’s witches, “… house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies in clued fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.” In order to determine the severity of conditions and assign a grade, inspectors assess each offense in detail: counting cans of spoiled food, the number of dirty or broken eggs, counting live mice, flies or any equivalent evidence. A certain number of fresh mouse droppings, for instance, equal the presence of one mouse. And 31-70 fresh mice droppings in a food preparation area (or 11-30 in two areas or 1-10 in three areas), represents a violation level III, whereas “71-100 fresh mice droppings in one area; 31-70 in two areas, 11-30 in three areas; or 1-10 in four areas,” means a violation level IV. A level V must be where the mice are actually serving the food. If any one mouse ever questioned whether his vote counted, he should rest assured: A single mouse turd can make all the difference. Zagat provides an impressive capacity for searching, as do Yelp , Chowhound and New York Magazine . But once the hungry neurotic discovers the New York City Department of Health’s website , it becomes the indispensable diner’s guide. Equipped with a map, searchable by zip code, sortable and filterable by restaurant’s name, borough, score or cuisine, the guide can, with a click, turn one’s long-time favorite into the culinary equivalent of a cheating spouse. (Let us say, an uptown noodle house, a favorite, perhaps, of students out for a quick, hot meal. This noodle house may do passably well in Zagat — which tells it as it is: a dive-y place for a frenzied feed. They maybe be rude, but in an authentic way, in a way that says, “This is the city, kid. Here’s your food, now eat it and get out.” And so one might on occasion have found a cube of something veiny floating around in vegetarian soup. A tuber of some sort? A beetroot? Alas not, but beef. Oh well, let he who is without sin cast the first stone. But finally, horrifically, governmental vindication for the pathologically ill at ease. Words like “contamination” and “vermin” sing much louder than the menu’s savory adjectives. The romance is dead at the plate.) When out-of-towners talk about New York, they say quite often that eye contact with strangers should be at all costs avoided. But rarely do they mention avoiding eye contact with one’s lunch.

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Don Tapscott: The World’s Unemployed Youth: Revolution in the Air?

April 6, 2011

A common thread to the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and protests elsewhere in the Middle East and north Africa is the soul-crushing high rate of youth unemployment. Twenty-four percent of young people in the region cannot find jobs. To be sure, protesters were also agitating for democracy, wanting the full rights of citizenship and not to be treated as subjects. But nonexistent employment opportunities were the powerful catalyst. Youth unemployment is similarly dire in other parts of the world. In the UK, young people aged 16 to 24 account for about 40% of all unemployed, which means almost 1 million young adults are jobless. In Spain more than 40% of young people are unemployed. In France the rate is more than 20%, and in the US it’s 21%. In country after country, many young people have given up looking for work. A recent survey in the UK revealed that more than half of the 18- to 25-year-olds questioned said they were thinking of emigrating because of the lack of job prospects. Unemployed young people comprised a large portion of the crowd that marched in London on March 26 to protest against the economic policies of the government. Fortunately, the protest was largely peaceful. But youth unemployment will continue to stay high, and the UK government’s austerity measures are not going to help. We’re deluding ourselves if we believe the young will simply continue to be stoical and deferential to authority. Today’s society is failing to deliver on its promise to young people. We said that if they worked hard, stayed out of trouble, and attended school, they would have a prosperous and fulfilling life. It turns out we were inaccurate, if not dishonest. And then we rub salt in the wound by saying we’re in a “jobless recovery” — an oxymoron to tens of millions of young people who are having their hopes dashed. Widespread youth unemployment is one facet of a deeper failure. The society we are passing to today’s young people is seriously damaged. Most of the institutions that have served us well for decades — even centuries — seem frozen and unable to move forward. The global economy, our financial services industry, governments, health care, the media and our institutions for solving global problems like the UN are all struggling. I’m convinced that the industrial age and its institutions are finally running out of gas. It is young people who are bearing the brunt of our failures. Full of zeal and relatively free of responsibilities, youth are traditionally the generation most inclined to question the status quo and authority. Fifty years ago, baby-boomers had access to information through the new marvel of television, and as they became university-age and delayed having families, many had time to challenge government policies and social norms. Youth radicalization swept the world, culminating in explosive protests, violence and government crackdowns across Europe, Asia and North America. In Paris in May 1968, protests that began as student sit-ins challenging the Charles de Gaulle government and the capitalist system culminated in a two-week general strike involving more than 11 million workers. Youth played a key role in the so-called Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia that same year. In West Germany, the student movement gained momentum in the late 60s. In the US, youth radicalization began with the civil rights movement and extended into movements for women’s rights and other issues, and culminated in the Vietnam war protests. Young people today have a demographic clout similar to that of their once-rebellious parents. In North America, the baby boom echo is larger than the boom itself. In South America the demographic bulge is huge and even bigger in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. A majority of people in the world are under the age of 30 and a whopping 27% under the age of 15. The 60s baby boomer radicalization was based on youthful hope and ideology. Protesters championed the opposition to war, a celebration of youth culture, and the possibilities for a new kind of social order. Today’s simmering youth radicalization is much different. It is rooted not only in unemployment, but personal broken hopes, mistreatment, and injustice. Young people are alienated; witness the dropping young voter turnout for elections. They are turning their backs on the system. Most worryingly, today’s youth have at their fingertips the internet, the most powerful tool ever for finding out what’s going on, informing others and organizing collective responses. Internet-based digital tools such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were instrumental to the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. We need to make the creation of new jobs a top priority. We need to reinvent our institutions, everything from the financial industry to our models of education and science to kick-start a new global economy. We need to engage today’s young people, not jack up tuition fees and cut back on retraining. We need to nurture their drive, passion and expertise. We need to help them take advantage of new web-based tools and become involved in making the world more prosperous, just and sustainable. If we don’t take such measures, we run the risk of a generational conflict that could make the radicalization of youth in Europe and North America in the 1960s pale in comparison. A shorter version of this was originally posted by The Guardian.

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Video: London Cycle Commuter Detours to Paris-Roubaix’s Cobbles

March 29, 2011

March 30 (Bloomberg) — Tom Underhill, a sales director at Artemis Fund Managers Ltd., talks about his preparations to ride an amateur version of the Paris-Roubaix cycle race, known as the “Hell of the North,” on April 9. (Source: Bloomberg)

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Nuclear Industry Insists New Reactors Are Safe

March 28, 2011

OLKILUOTO, Finland — Halfway around the globe from Japan’s atomic emergency, engineers building a cutting-edge nuclear reactor along Finland’s icy shores insist the same crisis could never happen here. And that’s not only because Finland is seismically stable. The 1,600-megawatt European Pressurized Reactor projected to come online in 2013 in Olkiluoto, 195 miles (315 kilometers) northwest of Helsinki, is the first of its kind expected to begin operating after the Japanese disaster. It has walls thick enough to withstand an airplane crash, components designed to tolerate the extreme cold of the Nordic winter, and decades worth of new safety systems. “(We have) so many backup systems that the kind of accident like in Japan could not happen,” said project manager Jouni Silvennoinen. With the renaissance of nuclear power at stake, the atomic industry faces the challenge of persuading an increasingly skeptical public that new reactors like the EPR units being built by French company Areva in Finland, France and China are not just safer than the old ones but are virtually disaster-proof. The state-controlled company has marketed its expensive new-generation reactor technology to the United States and developing countries from India to Saudi Arabia and Brazil. Since news of Japan’s catastrophe, Areva’s shares have fallen 12.4 percent, trading at euro31.49 midday Friday. Areva CEO Anne Lauvergeon has said an EPR plant would have survived the earthquake and tsunami without radiation leaks. And French Energy Minister Eric Besson, whose country gets up to 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, insisted last week it was his “profound conviction that nuclear energy will stay in Europe and the world and be one of the core energies in the 21st century.” But that’s a tough message to sell, with explosions and radiation leaks at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in Japan eroding confidence in nuclear power. That confidence took decades to rebuild following the Soviet Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania. Shocked by the Japanese crisis, the European Union has called for “stress tests” for its 143 reactors. Germany – the EU’s biggest economy – has temporarily suspended plans to prolong the life of its aging nuclear plants and had already planned to abandon nuclear power altogether over the next 25 years. President Barack Obama, while expressing support for nuclear power, requested a comprehensive review of the safety of U.S. plants. Even China, which plans a massive expansion of nuclear energy, has said it will hold off on approving new nuclear plants to allow for a revision in safety standards. Suggesting that third-generation reactors like the EPR would have withstood the shock that crippled the Japanese plant is “sheer arrogance,” said Mycle Schneider, an independent researcher on France’s nuclear industry. “There’s no way we can say today that any plant in the world would have survived what happened in Japan,” he said. At the Fukushima plant, which began operating in 1971, the massive earthquake and tsunami damaged the critical cooling system, which overheated and began spewing radiation into the environment. For the first time, nuclear engineers were forced to head off a total reactor meltdown at three reactors simultaneously as well as dealing with overheating fuel rods in a damaged storage pool at a fourth reactor. So how could a modern reactor have avoided those problems? The principle of power generation is the same as in older high-pressure water reactors like the ones at Fukushima: nuclear reaction heats water to create steam that turns turbines to generate electricity. But technological advances have improved efficiency and stricter safety precautions have made the third-generation reactors more secure, industry officials say. New EPR plants have backup systems like diesel generators that are housed in separate buildings to protect them from any accident that might occur in the main reactor building. The plant must also have access to other sources of electricity, like gas turbines or the national grid, if the diesel generators fail to work. At Olkiluoto, four large diesel generators act as a backup if the first step of connecting to the national grid proves unsuccessful. If they don’t work, two smaller diesel generators kick in, and failing that, the new reactor can be connected to the joint backup systems of two older reactors at Olkiluoto. There are also new “protective barriers” shielding the environment from radioactive products used in the reactor. These include encasing the fuel rods in thick metal containers and having a double concrete cover and walls over the containment vessel that houses the reactor. Besides natural disasters, modern reactors worldwide must be able to withstand terror strikes and – since 9/11 – even a large airliner crash, Silvennoinen said. Situated just 200 yards (meters) from the frozen Baltic Sea, the Olkiluoto nuclear plant is elevated so that it can withstand storm surges of up to 11 feet (3.5 meters), which is considered a worst-case scenario. During a recent visit, dozens of workers in yellow vests clambered up and down stairs of the concrete buildings bordering the cylinder-shaped reactor as construction cranes swerved over its domed roof. Since Olkiluoto is the first EPR scheduled to become operational, it has been seen as a flagship for the latest generation of nuclear reactors. But the project has been plagued by faulty materials and planning problems since construction began in 2005, and it’s now running four years behind schedule. The nearby town of Eurajoki, population 6,000, in the middle of Finland’s sparsely populated countryside, has welcomed the project. It has created 4,000 jobs, even though 70 percent of them went to foreign workers. Teijo Jantunen, who lives near the town, 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Olkiluoto, conceded that the problems at Fukushima had made him think about the possibility of a nuclear accident. “But I’m not really very worried. I’m confident it will be a good plant,” said Jantunen, a 57-year-old construction manager. “I trust them despite everything.” Leo Mantymaki, who lives 6 miles (10 kilometers) away, doesn’t quite know what to believe. “They tell us that a Japan-like accident couldn’t happen here, but I’m not so sure,” the retired welder said, sitting on a tractor as he took a break from clearing snow. “What if they press the wrong button?” Jukka Laaksonen, director of Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, stressed that safety features must be designed according to local conditions, and said a major flaw at Fukushima was that its seawall was too low. “EPR has much better safety systems than old similar plants but having a good plant is not enough,” Laaksonen said. “You also have to pay attention to the site conditions. If the EPR is not properly protected against a tsunami … then you never know what will happen.” _______ Associated Press writer Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

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Video: Matlack Says Hermes Kin Have Control `For The Moment’

March 25, 2011

March 25 (Bloomberg) — Carol Matlack, a reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek, discusses the fight by Paris luxury house Hermes International SCA to fend off any takeover attempt by Bernard Arnault, head of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA. LVMH now owns a 20 percent stake in Hermes, manufacturer of sumptuous silk scarves and the iconic Birkin and Kelly handbags. Matlack speaks with Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg Television’s “InsideTrack.” (Source: Bloomberg)

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UBS Accused Of ‘Cheating’ French Madoff Victims

March 23, 2011

PARIS (Reuters) – Swiss bank UBS “tricked” victims of Bernard Madoff’s giant Ponzi scheme by sponsoring a Luxembourg-registered fund that for four years fed assets directly to the fraudster without saying so in its prospectus, a Paris court heard on Wednesday. The “Luxalpha” fund was deemed safe by investors because of the link to UBS, which was presented in the prospectus as sole custodian of the assets, said Jean-Pierre Martel, a lawyer representing 78 French investors who invested 28 million euros ($39.69 million) in total in Luxalpha. UBS denies the charge. “The prospectus was saying: ‘this product is 100 percent UBS, you can go for it’,” Martel told a hearing at the Paris Court of Commerce. “Here we have investors who were shamefully cheated by one bank … with information that was wrong and dishonest.” A verdict date has been set for June 9. UBS is also fighting a $2 billion lawsuit from the trustee liquidating Madoff’s companies, Irving Picard, over its involvement in Luxalpha. Picard has said UBS’ involvement lent the funds “an aura of legitimacy” while shielding the bank from liability through secret side agreements. “UBS considers it has not committed any error. It is also a victim in this affair,” the Swiss bank’s lawyer, Denis Chemla, told Reuters during recess. Lawyer Martel told Reuters that if the Paris court decided it was not competent to judge the matter then it would be “over,” as his clients were not recognized as creditors or shareholders by the Luxembourg authorities. (Reporting by Lionel Laurent and Matthieu Protard; editing by Elaine Hardcastle) Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions

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Jonathan Littman: Chinese Brand Knockoffs: Hooking Women on the Real Thing?

March 21, 2011

Her eyes dart back and forth as she leans forward on a stool and gracefully unties the leather roll. Half a dozen gleaming women’s luxury watches on the glass counter, each worth thousands of dollars — if they were real. We can see and touch them, but she’s poised to snatch them up in a second. “You want Rolex? Omega?” she asks me, noting my hesitation. “I give you best price!” Just then my friend whispers to her: “They’re coming.” With the deft hands of a Vegas card dealer, she sweeps up the loot and slips it under the counter. Seconds later, two police sporting the red armbands stroll by the empty counter. It’s just another Sunday afternoon in Shenzhen China’s Luohu Commercial City, a gargantuan shopping mall a stone’s throw from the Hong Kong border. A well known Hong Kong joke goes like this: Locals hop the train to Shenzhen to buy fake luxury brands, while mainland Chinese flood Hong Kong to buy authentic goods. There’s ample truth behind the saying. Hong Kong rivals Milan, New York or Paris as a destination for the world’s most expensive luxury brands, and local authorities have made extensive efforts to drive cheap counterfeits farther underground. But in reality they are not far away. After a week in Hong Kong on business, I’m concluding my visit with a brief trip to Mainland China. Fortunately, I’m making the trip with two veterans: Friends from San Francisco working here for a year in Hong Kong. “Mrs. Jones” is not only a successful professional woman, but a talented international shopper, accompanied today by her bemused husband. My goals are three-fold. I’ve always wanted to visit a communist country, hope to score gifts for my wife and daughters, and want to see and understand the counterfeit trade first-hand. Counterfeiting top brands is a hotly contested issue, especially if it’s your brand. When it comes to software, movies, and other intellectual property it’s hard to view it as anything but theft. But interestingly, when it comes to fashion, anecdotal evidence is emerging that Chinese counterfeits of international brands may be having an unexpected effect. Some market experts are arguing that Chinese women who first buy fake Prada or Louis Vuitton bags, for instance, later upgrade to the real thing. Can counterfeits act like gateway drugs? You buy your first knock-off handbag for $60 and then a year later find yourself driven to drop $2,000 on the real thing? At first glance, the idea sounds sacrilegious, but evidence is emerging that this phenomenon seems to be happening to middle class Hong Kong and Chinese women. What about American women? What about this American man? It may sound far fetched, but is it really that crazy an idea? What if a little up-front loss on counterfeiting is returned by a steady percentage of shoppers who get hooked on high-priced fashion? George Orwell is one of my favorite authors, and having read 1984 multiple times, I approach the border with a curious mixture of anticipation and fear. The train from Shatin, New Territories to Shenzhen is just a half hour, and we disembark and begin the process of entering China. I need to complete a Hong Kong departure card and China arrival card, and pass the scrutiny of two security checkpoints. Once through, I pull out my trusty iPhone and am about to snap some photos, when Mr. Jones advises restraint. “The security officers might detain you and confiscate your phone,” he says. “Especially if you accidentally take their picture.” I put away my phone, and then Mr. Jones reveals another little known border secret. “Do you see what the guards are holding in their hands?” he asks. Small black devices are cradled in their palms. “Those are temperature guns,” he explains. “If you’re more than one degree above normal they can quarantine you indefinitely in China.” Being quarantined in China does not sound like a good idea. I’ve entered another world, and am a long way from home. Without noticing it, my friends have slipped ahead in the surging crowd. We’re walking over a broad enclosed bridge that crosses the muddy green Shenzhen River to communist China. The high stone wall and barbed wire is on the Hong Kong side of the river, summing up all you need to know about communism. Something deep within me clicks, and it’s as if I’m Winston Smith, the doomed protagonist of Orwell’s 1984 . Panic grabs me. Where is my passport? I stop and furtively search my pockets. Did I drop it? Was it stolen? My friends, blissfully ignorant of my dilemma, walk on into China. A frantic minute passes, then two. I’m alone in China without a passport, and then I find it right where it should be — next to my wallet. Suddenly we are outdoors facing the eclectic skyscrapers of nearby downtown Shenzhen. Ahead lies the aptly named Luohu Commercial City. This is not a shopping mall or center. It’s a full-on indoor shopping city, a frenetic maze of escalators, elevators and tiny glass enclosed shops and booths. Festooned with banners and lights this seven-story shopper’s beehive boasts 32 escalators, 16 elevators, and a phenomenal 1,280 shops. Once inside, the shopkeepers start clutching my arm, and selling hard. “Mister, you want iPad?” “Mister, you like watch?” “Mister, good deal for you.” Sales pitches come from every direction, but nothing is quite what it seems. I had foolishly imagined all the counterfeit brands would be on display. But that’s not how it works at all. Mrs. Jones, who has been living in Hong Kong for more than six months, has a system. On her first trip, she started with one vendor, built a relationship, and then created a friends and family plan. A bright sparrow of a woman named Lily dressed in black holds court at a small counter stuffed with strands of pearls and Chinese watches. A few weeks before she met all the phony branding needs of Mrs. Jones’ mom. An assistant pulls up three stools for us. None of the watches in the glass case appeals. Omega is what we want, and after Lily scans the area for cops, she pulls out a leather satchel and lays out several, including the elegant women’s Aqua Terra. She tempts me with a Rolex, but I too prefer Omega, and so, after a little rummaging around behind the counter, out comes the Omega Speedmaster, which retails for $3,500. Five minutes later, a hundred feet away, three cops in full uniform begin marching down the aisle. Lily’s lookout casually walks toward her, ahead of the troops. She sweeps the watches off the counter. A couple of minutes later the cops are gone, and the watches return. Mrs. Jones understands the game. The woman’s timepieces would retail for more than a grand each. Lily wants $30 apiece for them, and Mrs. Jones returns with her best opening line. “Lily, I live here,” she laughs good-naturedly. “That’s much too expensive.” Mrs. Jones takes the clunky, oversized calculator from Lily — every shopkeeper has one — and divides the price by three to $10 U.S., and hands the calculator back to Lily. “I no make money on this,” Lily responds, looking at the calculator and shaking her head. So begins a friendly calculator tug of war, which ultimately results in a price of $12 a watch. The Omega Speedmaster starts at $80, and Mrs. Jones quickly cuts it down to $37, which she advises me to walk away from. But what can I say. I’ve always wanted an Omega. The handbags are another matter. Fortunately my sixteen-year-old e-mailed me images of her favorite brands. I hand Lily the printout, and out comes a massive catalog from beneath the counter. Lily flips through and finds the Louis Vuitton women’s purses, picks up a landline phone and makes a call. Ten minutes later, a young man in a black sports coat strolls up, glances around and hands her another leather satchel, this time containing four wallets. Retail ranges from nearly $400 to $1,500 — if they were real. Mrs. Jones quickly halves the price on the $400 wallets from $30 to $15. Lily is stubborn on the $1,500 patent leather one, (wrapped in felt in a nice box). Mrs. Jones haggles it down to $30. After Mr. Jones picks up his three elegant custom sport jackets, (each about a fifth of what they’d cost in New York), we enjoy a pleasant Chinese lunch, and then cross back to Hong Kong. I’m carrying Omega, Louis Vuitton, Longchamps, silver bracelets and silk scarves. Chinese customs is friendly as can be. Half the people are returning with large suitcases and oversized bags — and yet no one is stopped. We walk the bridge back to Hong Kong and I drift as far as possible from the temperature guns. But I’m not quite home free. That night I take the Singapore Airlines red-eye back to San Francisco, and get stuck in the line with the chatty customs officer. I mention I’m a Contributor Editor at Playboy and that amuses him and he inquires about Hugh Hefner’s sex life. It’s going swimmingly well until he stares tellingly at my wrist, “Where’d you get the Omega?” What should I say? If I say it’s real, he may assume I just bought it and owe import duty. And if say it’s a Chinese phony? Like most Americans, I don’t really know the rules. Later, I’m surprised to discover that my fears were unfounded. Our government is largely ambivalent about tourist purchases of minor counterfeit fashion items overseas. As long as you don’t go hog wild it’s perfectly legal to bring counterfeit fashion brands into the U.S. According to Customs Directive No. 2310-011A dated January 24, 2000, “Customs officers shall permit any person arriving in the United States to import one article, which must accompany the person, bearing a counterfeit, confusingly similar, or restricted gray market trademark, provided that the article is for personal use and not for sale.” The only limitation appears to be that you can only import one of each counterfeit good: one Rolex, one Mont Blanc pen, and so on. If only I’d know this in advance I wouldn’t have had to make up such a silly story. Now, if I can only figure out how to switch my Omega from Hong Kong time!

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Air France Faces Manslaughter Charges For 2009 Crash

March 18, 2011

PARIS — A French judge filed preliminary charges Friday against Air France over a 2009 crash that killed all 228 people aboard a jet that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean. Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said the decision is “unfounded.” Judge Sylvie Zimmerman filed the preliminary charges Friday, a day after doing the same against Airbus, the maker of the doomed jet. Preliminary charges allow investigating judges to continue their probe before deciding whether to send the case to trial. Air France Flight 447 dived into the Atlantic on June 1, 2009, amid an intense, high-altitude thunderstorm while flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The cause of the crash remains unclear, and may never be determined without the “black box” flight recorders, somewhere in the ocean depths. A fourth search operation aimed at looking for them starts next week. Automatic messages sent by the Airbus 330 jet’s computers show it was receiving false air speed readings from sensors known as pitot tubes. Investigators have said the crash was likely caused by a series of problems, and not just sensor error. “We are protesting this,” Gourgeon told reporters at the courthouse. “It seems to us that it is unfounded.” Air France and Airbus will finance the estimated $12.5 million cost of the new search effort, in which three advanced underwater robots will scour the mountainous ocean floor between Brazil and western Africa, in depths of up to 4,000 meters (13,120 feet).

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Sean Black: Diary of a Silicon Valley CEO

March 9, 2011

It’s a well kept secret that startup CEO’s spend an inordinate percentage of their time selling. From raising money to recruiting talent to landing new customers and even negotiating an office lease, CEOs sell something to someone every day. To prove my point, I started keeping a diary of my day-to-day as an Internet startup CEO. Here’s a sampling of my week: Monday: Murphy’s Law I have a meeting with one of the largest banks in the world. It’s only a 7-minute cab ride from our edgy downtown office in Union Square to their imposing glass tower on Park Avenue, but it feels like I went through a time space continuum under the Helmsley Hotel. As the cab lets me out I see suits pouring in and out of the building and become painfully aware that I am wearing the standard issue startup uniform of dark blue jeans, a button up shirt and a sports jacket. I just broke a basic sales 101 rule — dress to mirror your audience. Feeling underdressed and a little self-conscious, I shoot up to the 50th floor in one of a maze of elevators. To appreciate this story it’s important to know that we are in the business of selling web-based applications that help companies socialize sales across their company and customers, so having Internet access to demo our apps is kind of critical. We sit down in a meeting room with a window that peers freakishly into the next building where dozens of meetings are on display seemingly for our entertainment. I fire up my Mac to start a demo, only to discover there is no WiFi in the building. I spot an Ethernet cord on the wall and plug it in, but its dead. I whip out my Verizon wireless card, but the buildings’ thick walls render it useless. As we turn the corner my host’s office to try her computer I see what looks like a government issued mainframe sitting on her desk and can’t help but think of that scene from the movie A Christmas Story where the kid drops the lug nuts and blurts out “Ohh Fuuuuddge”. She turns on the big white box and I half expect a few clunks and some smoke to pour out. Instead, something far worse — a five-year-old version of the Internet Explorer browser struggles to come to life. The Internet connection is so slow the page slowly paints from left to right across the screen. I type our URL into the browser to see what looks like a war-torn version of our slick new website that clearly isn’t built to backward support a five year old browser. That’s it; I shut her computer off, open PowerPoint on my Mac and give her an old school presentation. As I leave her office I take comfort knowing I am headed back to my George Jetson high-tech world downtown alive to sell another day. Tuesday: Dirty Sexy Money I spend the morning working on my book Dirty Sexy Money — How to Build Sales at a Startup . In addition to being provocative, the title pokes fun at the fact that the Internet startup world is full of entrepreneurs who dream of making lots of money, but who naively think they don’t need to sell their wares because if they build it customers will come. Anyway, I get on a call with our public relations consultant to sell her on my idea of throwing an underwear-only book launch party for the New York tech community at the Penthouse Mansion, now owned by someone from my business school alma-mater. After picking her jaw up off the floor she spends the next 15 minutes telling me why that is not such a great idea. We’ll see who wins that sale in a month or two. Meanwhile, I’m shocked to get an email from the woman at the bank asking for a copy of the presentation to send to her team — redemption is at hand, or so it seemed. I send her a link to the presentation using our own application that tracks when someone opens it and the number of minutes and seconds they send on each slide, like Google Analytics for presentations. But she can’t open it on the “oh fudge” computer. So I send her a link to our super fun animated demo video on YouTube, but the bank bans employee access to social media. It’s a scary reminder that social media marketing isn’t as mainstream as the propaganda machine would have us believe. Alas, I am forced to email a PowerPoint and miss another opportunity to demonstrate our own product. Wednesday: Sky’s The Limit Our law firm Cooley gave me a conference room on the 48th floor of the Grace building across from Bryant Park. I walk into the room to see New York City sprawled out in front of me; the Empire State Building reaching for the sky, the sun glimmering off the Hudson River and the Statue of Liberty is off on the horizon dwarfed by the distance. I am thankful I can do my job from anywhere in the world (except a bank) and that I don’t have a “real job” where I have to show up at a cubicle at 9am everyday. The sweeping view of New York is the perfect inspiration to work on my book totally undistracted. Of course, I’m distracted an hour later by my attorney Bo, but it’s a welcome distraction as I asked him to stop by to talk about SiliconCEOs, a peer group I am putting together and want Cooley to sponsor. The idea is to get CEO’s of fast growing venture backed Internet companies in New York (Silicon Alley) and the Bay area (Silicon Valley) together each month so we can candidly and confidentially help each other build amazing companies. My company has the good fortune of being backed by top tier investors like First Round Capital and Accel Partners, so we have access to plenty of great CEO’s. We just need a sponsor so we can pay for gatherings. Before I leave Bo agrees to allocate a good chunk of his marketing budget for the cause — score one for the team! Thursday: A Window Closes I wake up to an email from Jeremy Stopplemen, founder & CEO of Yelp. I asked him to come speak at our next SalesSchool event and talk about how he built Yelp’s inside sales team to over 300 salespeople that now drive most of Yelp’s reportedly $100M a year in revenue. Not surprisingly, the Yelp sales machine never came up in any of the press a few months ago around Yelp refusing Google’s $500M buyout offer. I tried to sell Jeremy on the idea that this was the perfect venue to give back as well as give the Yelp sales team the credit it deserves. We did a similar event at NYU in December that was a huge success with almost 400 RSVPs from the New York tech community. Unfortunately, Jeremy’s response was “I don’t think this is a fit for us, but appreciate you reaching out”. Oh well, you win some and you lose some. Friday: A Few Doors Open I wake up to two great emails. One is from MIT offering to host the next SalesSchool on campus next month. The second is from the VP, Sales at Boston based Hubspot Mark Roberge accepting my invitation to build the event around Hubspot’s amazing sales team. We agree the event will likely sell out in an hour of releasing tickets. High off that bit of good news and a little too much Starbucks I grab a cab to met one of our advisory board members for breakfast at the Pain Quotidian on 5th Avenue and 8th Street. It’s one of my favorite blocks of Greenwich Village lined with beautiful pre-war buildings and anchored at one end by the Washington Square Park Arch. The fact that the arch, modeled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, has been standing in that spot since 1892 acts as a sort of pinch reminder that I live in this amazing city. Our advisor is the president of popular and fast-growing online media company and I am meeting with him to ask him to speak at the first SiliconCEO event about how his company socialized selling throughout the company. They literally made sales everyone’s job from founder down through the ranks, culminating with the announced sale of the company for several hundred million dollars. He agrees to do it — score! I am off to my next meeting with a serial entrepreneur friend that writes a popular blog to get his advice on writing a regular post about what its like to sell the dream every day as founder & CEO of an Internet startup. He proceeds to warn me that to do so successfully would require writing in the first person, exposing intimate details about myself and being on the opposite side of safe. Saturday: Exposure or Exposed? Inspired by friend’s advice and story I start writing this diary. I try to reveal as much as possible about just a few of the best and worst things that happened to me this week. I am taking a lot of risk by sharing these intimate details. I have to admit that I am a bit worried that I might tip my hat to our competition, piss off the people I mention (sorry Jeremy) or that my investors will think I’m an idiot for showing my cards. This is why there aren’t any other CEO’s writing this type of stuff for public consumption while they are still in office. But I am equally excited not only by the idea that exposing my day-to-day can help other current or aspiring entrepreneurs realize they are not alone on the startup roller coaster, but also we might gain far more than we have to lose by tapping into the wisdom of the crowds, open sourcing solutions to some of our initiatives and challenges and race past our competition. At least, that’s the story I’m going to sell to my board if all hell breaks lose after this article is live for all to see. Wish me luck!

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Video: JPMorgan’s Frenkel Sees U.S. Recovery Proceeding Slowly

March 4, 2011

March 4 (Bloomberg) — Jacob Frenkel, chairman of JPMorgan Chase International, talks about global banking regulation, U.S. employment and growth. He speaks from Paris with Andrea Catherwood on Bloomberg Television’s “Last Word.”

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Beth Arnold: Letter From Paris: Designing Women

February 28, 2011

“Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.” — Gore Vidal WORDS TO LIVE by–and even more important when one lives in a foreign land. Think of Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation . Sooner or later every expatriate feels lost–and must rediscover who she is and express herself in a meaningful way. The women I’m about to present uncovered their entrepreneurial spirits and became designers. They transformed their self-identities–their individual styles–into products that organically fit them as well as their new lives abroad. I’d like to point out that what these designing women did not do was put products on the market just to make a buck, which seems to be the name of the game throughout what has become our throwaway culture. The high road of honesty, beauty, and principles–on every level–which also transcends into true style has been replaced with a mass superhighway of products that manipulate and push people’s buttons. A cheap thrill. Never forget: There is nothing more attractive–nothing more stylish or deeply, spiritually important–than authenticity. I was knocked out by each one of these women for reasons you’ll soon understand. Meet designers … 1) Kasia Dietz Kasia Dietz designs a line of one-of-a-kind, reversible handbags, totes, and clutches that are “made in Paris with love.” Ms. Dietz first began designing the bags a few years ago while she was still working full-time in an advertising career in New York. Mixing her passion for art, design and fashion, she came upon the idea of taking raw canvas and printing it–creating ‘wearable art’–with an added element of reversibility. “I …designed the ‘minimalism’ and ‘nature’ collections,” said Ms. Dietz, “and set up a website with the help of a friend. From there things took off!” Among others, the Japanese loved them, and she did quite well with sales. “During this process,” says Ms. Dietz, “I uncovered my mom’s prints that were collecting dust since the late 1970′s and incorporated them into my designs.” When her mother, Barbara Dietz (originally from Poland), was expecting her, she began to carve wooden blocks with designs of flowers, animals, zodiac signs, and more–and then print T-shirts with them (as well as bedsheets, flared pants, etc.). With the help of Barbara Dietz’s P.R. and marketing skilled husband (and Kasia’s father), the hand-made prints were a big hit with clients like Bloomingdale’s and Bergdorf Goodman. I love the roundness–and familial comfort–in this story, since Ms. Dietz has brought her mother’s art back to life–and uses her family name in memory of her father who passed away almost 20 years ago. Then, in 2007, the tall and slim creator took a break from normal life and traveled the world, always keeping a mindful eye on design, fabrics, colors, and art. “When I moved to Paris in August, 2009, I had the desire (and finally the time) to continue designing, considering I had collected 13 months of inspiration from my travels and was living in what can certainly be considered a fashion capital. But getting started was very tough, not to mention intimidating with my lack of contacts and poor language skills. I spent many afternoons carousing the garment districts of the Sentier and Montmartre looking for fabrics and a manufacturer.” She relaunched her site on December 1st, and sales are steadily growing. “My plans are to continue designing timeless reversible bags and totes, clutches, purses, etc. in fabrics that inspire me as well as printing my own canvas bags as in the latest ‘Paris’ collection. Perhaps a NYC and London collection and more designs incorporating travel.” Me, I’m a bag lady and could have a different one for every occasion. If I had to choose? I’m eyeing the Right Bank bag, since I’m a Right Bank girl. I could also be tempted with one of the number of my arrondissement. Naturally, Ms. Dietz’s love of travel and design are apparent in her bags, which can take a girl anywhere, whether she’s out on the town or planning a weekend away. For Kasia Dietz’s collection, go to www.kasiadietz.com . Select bags will be sold in NYC at Gramercy Project, 240 3rd Avenue, NY 10013. (Montage via Kasia Dietz. Other photos by Beth Arnold.) 2) Michelle Guiliano Necessity is the mother of invention is a phrase that could have been coined for Michelle Guiliano who designs functional gear and technical clothing for babies, so parents–like herself and her husband–who thrive on outdoor activities will feel confident in taking their little ones on outside adventures with them. In fact, Ms. Guiliano’s designs are so on target that her company BolderKidsTM Ltd. was named a Finalist in the 2011 ISPO (International Sports Business Network) BrandNew Awards that were held in Munich last month. Ms. Guiliano and her Danish husband, Jesper Westfall (pictured below), moved to Zurich 10 years ago, and their two boys were born there before they bought a house across the Swiss-French border in Divonne-les-Bains, France. She is an amateur endurance athlete, triathlete, and former rowing coach for Columbia University who became fed up with the inferior outdoor clothing products available to her kids when they were under the age of four. “It was a bit too reminiscent of being an athlete 20 years ago and having to buy a men’s small for any performance fabrics,” said Ms. Guiliano, “which, then, alas didn’t perform for women because without the right fit all is lost. Here we are again with an underserved niche market segment–babies and their outdoor loving parents. Well, I got motivated to build something great to get everyone outdoors with greater safety, comfort, and style.” She founded BolderKids in March, 2009. Hand-sketching the first designs for the Go Farther Performance Infant Carrier Collection, Ms. Guiliano used paper and plastic bags to make the first prototypes. She united the most practical elements of timeless Scandinavian design with Schoeller bluesign approved ecological performance soft shell fabric (made in Switzerland) to create her mittens, boots, and infant carrier. These handy products may have been too late for her own sons, but families with babies and young children can benefit now. Ms. Guiliano was heartened to see the international community recognize that even the youngest outdoor explorers need clever design and quality innovation. And you’ve got to love her brand’s cool slogan: Play Hard. Go Far.© What a great baby present for lovers of the outdoors! By the way, this is a tri-lingual family. Welcome to the new global world! Check out her video that demonstrates the infant carrier system: ISPO BrandNew Awards . For more on BolderKids, go to www.bolderkids.com . Ms. Guiliano’s mountain climbing sons, Peter and Andrew (BolderKids photos via BolderKids) And last though certainly not least… 3) Kirsten Hovenier and Mikée Westerling Crossing the border into Switzerland, one finds a much different style than exists in France. Kirsten Hovenier and Mikée Westerling can tell you all about the Swiss and their clean and fresh design, their wonderful materials and solid craftsmanship. These designing women are using original, up to almost one hundred-year-old Swiss army blankets to create handmade and cozy pillows in different sizes, sturdy footstools, agenda covers, firewood holders, duffle bags, napkin rings, totes, and more to stunning effect. Ms. Hevenier and Ms. Westerling, both from the Netherlands originally, have lived in several countries but moved to Switzerland with their families in August, 2007. They discovered the handsome army blankets, developed a great love for them, and began using them in their own homes. They turned the blankets into cushion covers for the sofa, took the blankets with them for long Swiss summer evenings, and used them for picnics on the banks of Lake Geneva. Everywhere they went, people loved them. Ms. Westerling and Ms. Hevenier have a great story to tell: “In the late 19th century until the early sixties, the Swiss army produced the covers for a war which, fortunately, never happened. The blankets were stored in caves in the Swiss Alps, which served as military depots. The traditional production ceased in the sixties and blankets remained in stock: brand new and unused, but at the same time, pure vintage, a rare combination! And DEKEN discovered this hidden treasure.” I am thinking what lucky girls they were, but it took more than luck to start their company. Ms. Westerling had worked as an interior designer while Ms. Hevenier had been a management consultant. But once their idea for using the Swiss blankets to create casually chic, handsome products for the home was hatched, the whole plan was laid out within two days. Thus DEKEN–Dutch for blanket–was born. These Swiss army blankets are beautifully distinctive: gray-brown with the typical red and white cross and sometimes even a stainless steel coin or seal. Because of reliable Swiss quality, the blankets are indestructible–and marked with the initials of the maker and the year in which the blanket was made. Each blanket is different. I can tell you I’m lusting for some of that gorgeous Deken myself! To see more of the Deken collection, check out www.deken.ch or www.swissarmyblanket.com . Deken is also sold in Camps and Cottages in California. (Photos via DEKEN) In cooperation with KarlenSwiss, Ms. Hevenier and Ms. Westerling have expanded the DEKEN collection with bags, cushions, and footstools made of the Swiss, Antilles and Dutch mailbag. The KarlenSwiss collection will be in stores in the US. * Where there’s a will, there’s a way. And these designing women have found theirs with their own impeccable style. Beth Arnold lives and writes in Paris. To see more of her work, go to www.betharnold.com. She believes in creativity. Crack your world open with it.

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Video: D’Arvisenet Says U.S. Should Face Pressure on Low Dollar

February 18, 2011

Feb. 18 (Bloomebrg) — Philippe D’Arvisenet, global chief economist at BNP Paribas SA, discusses the outlook for Group of 20 talks on currency imbalances. He speaks with Francine Lacqua in Paris on Bloomberg Television’s “On The Move.”

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Video: ING’s Condon Says G-20 `Too Large’ to Solve Imbalances

February 18, 2011

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — Tim Condon, the head of Asian research at ING Groep NV, talks about the outlook for this weekend’s Group of 20 finance ministers meeting in Paris and inflation levels in Asia. He speaks from Singapore with Linzie Janis on Bloomberg Television’s “Global Connection.”

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Paul R. Epstein, M.D., M.P.H.: Taxing Financial Speculation, Raising Funds for Critical Needs

February 15, 2011

Levying a tiny tax on financial transactions could help build a healthier and more stable future. Political discontent simmered for decades in Egypt, but soaring food prices helped push public frustration past the boiling point. As the political drama there continues to unfold, it’s critical to address the complex financial and environmental dynamics that have driven global food prices to record levels . Rising oil prices and the shift from food crops to biofuels are part of the problem. But two other factors deserve increased attention — climate change and financial speculation. Extreme weather events — like the heat wave that sparked fires across Russia’s breadbasket last summer — are tightening supplies. The impacts of severe weather in one area on distant nations (witness the food riots in Mozambique last summer as Russia cooked) emphasize the limits of adaptation. And changing weather patterns, with more droughts, floods, severe hurricanes, and winter weather anomalies, are predicted to increase in a warming world. Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, warns that for each degree of temperature increase, crop yields are anticipated to drop by 10 percent . He notes that, with climate change and altered weather patterns, come growing water scarcity, desertification of once-arable land, and the inundation of globally important farmland — such as the Mekong and Red River deltas, which produce most of Vietnam’s rice. Experts also blame an explosion of speculation in food commodity markets for food price volatility. The original purpose of these markets was to help farmers and food processors lock in predictable prices so they could make smart business decisions. The financial speculators that now dominate the markets don’t intend to buy or sell grain or meat. Their interest lies in capitalizing on food shortages and price volatility. Thanks in part to deregulation , the speed of this global gambling can lead to boom and bust cycles that are detached from the actual value of food. The G20 finance ministers, who will meet this week in Paris, have an opportunity to take bold steps toward tackling both of these underlying causes of the food price crisis. French president Nicolas Sarkozy, currently the G20 chair, is pushing for an international agreement to adopt taxes on financial speculation that could generate massive revenues for urgent needs, including climate programs in developing countries. Here’s how this would work. A tiny levy would be charged on each financial trade, including every sale of stocks, bonds, foreign currency, credit default swaps, commodity futures, or other derivatives. Because trillions of dollars worth of transactions occur every day, even a small tax of 0.05 percent could raise more than $600 billion annually . Directing a portion of this revenue to programs to combat climate change and support global health programs would dwarf current public contributions. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, financier and philanthropist George Soros backed the idea of using some of the revenues from such a financial transactions tax (which supporters often refer to as an FTT) to fight climate change. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is another strong proponent and is exploring the possibility of moving ahead with a “coalition of the willing” rather than waiting for all G20 countries to get on board. Other financiers and governments would do well to follow the path of enlightened self-interest. The UK showed how shifting funds from finance to industry could be good for business when it took actions in the early 1990s to reduce high interest rates that were stagnating money in bank savings. Soon after, its economy took off. In a recent study, the International Monetary Fund found that taxes on financial speculation are not only technically feasible but that most G20 countries (and many others) have already implemented some form of an FTT. For example, the London Stock Exchange has long levied a 0.5 percent stamp tax on all stock trades. Though the Obama administration hasn’t yet endorsed the idea of taxing financial speculation, there is support in the U.S. Congress. In the last session, members introduced several bills to create various types of financial transactions taxes. Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) is poised to re-introduce legislation that would put a levy on foreign currency transactions to generate revenue for deficit reduction and for global public goods, like the clean energy transformation. As the G20 meets, advocates in 20 nations around the world, including the United States, will carry out a variety of actions to send a message to G20 leaders to support levying a FTT. No one regulatory mechanism will solve all of the problems of food insecurity, climate change, and financial instability. But, with national budgets strapped and the financial sector benefitting handsomely from the global economy, it becomes even more important for speculators to do their fair share. A tax on financial speculation could be the first of many innovative mechanisms to link the economy with the environment and help build a healthier, more stable, and more secure future.

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Jean-Benoit Bataille Joins KBM Group as Head of Paris Operation

January 26, 2011

RICHARDSON, TX–(Marketwire – January 26, 2011) – KBM Group, the global leader in knowledge-based marketing solutions, announces that Jean-Benoit Bataille has joined the company as head of its Paris operation.

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Video: Bronfman, Messier Convicted in Vivendi Case in France

January 21, 2011

Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) — Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Jean-Marie Messier and were found guilty by a Paris court of criminal charges related to Vivendi SA’s near-bankruptcy after a $77 billion acquisition spree while they led the company. Messier was fined 150,000 euros ($200,000) and Bronfman 5 million euros by a panel of three judges at a hearing today. Messier was charged with misleading investors during his tenure as Vivendi’s chief executive officer. Bronfman, currently chairman of Warner Music Group Corp., was charged with trading on inside information while he was vice chairman of Vivendi. Bloomberg’s Gregory Viscusi reports. (Source: Bloomberg)

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Dean Singleton Steps Down As MediaNews President

January 19, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO — MediaNews Group Inc., the owner of the San Jose Mercury News in California, The Denver Post and more than 50 other newspapers, plans to replace William Dean Singleton as its CEO so he can focus on exploring possible combinations with other publishers while his successor tries to make more money on the Internet. The CEO search announced Tuesday is part of a shake-up that includes the departure of Singleton’s top lieutenant, Joseph Lodovic IV, who is retiring as MediaNews’ president immediately. The changes come a year after MediaNews’ parent company, Affiliated Media Inc., filed for bankruptcy protection. A reorganization plan approved 10 months ago wiped out most of the company’s debt in exchange for relinquishing ownership to dozens of lenders led by Bank of America Corp. Singleton, who co-founded and became CEO of MediaNews in 1983, emerged from the reorganization with an 11 percent stake in the company and a keen interest in buying other troubled newspapers, which might create new market opportunities for his stable of dailies. He believes newspapers will be available at steeply discounted prices because publishers’ revenue has plunged in the past four years amid a deep recession and intensifying competition for advertising dollars from the Internet. Those challenges drove more than a dozen other publishers into bankruptcy protection during 2008 and 2009, and several of those are now controlled by lenders and distressed debt specialists that aren’t expected to remain long-term owners. Freedom Communications Inc., one of the publishers now controlled by lenders after getting out of bankruptcy protection, said in November that it would mull offers for its newspapers and television stations. Its newspapers include the Orange County Register in southern California, a market where MediaNews already owns several newspapers, including the Daily News in Los Angeles. Although he hasn’t publicly mentioned any potential targets, Singleton has left little doubt that he intends to be a buyer. “Consolidation will be another key component in the new media model,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press last year. Singleton, 59, also is chairman of The Associated Press, whose revenue has declined the past two years after lowering its fees for newspapers and broadcasters. MediaNews, based in Denver, got into trouble largely because it borrowed heavily to help finance deals before the Internet and the recession combined to devour its advertising revenue, its main moneymaking source. The company’s new chief executive will be expected to be an Internet-savvy leader who can engineer changes that will enable the newspapers to make more money online. “These measures will strengthen the company’s performance in its core markets, and continue the transformation of the business from a print-oriented newspaper company to a locally focused provider of news and information across multiple platforms,” the company said in a statement. Singleton will still be CEO until a replacement is hired, after which he will remain MediaNews’ chairman. He will also remain chairman and publisher of The Denver Post and The Salt Lake Tribune. Gordon Paris, a MediaNews board member, will take over Lodovic’s responsibilities until a replacement is found. The company also is looking for a chief revenue officer, a newly created position. Michael Sileck, another director, will fill that role until the company hires someone on a permanent basis. MediaNews’ board is getting a makeover too, with the addition of three directors to replace departing members: Lodovic; Howell Begle Jr., MediaNews’ general counsel; and Jon Huntsman, founder of chemical manufacturer Huntsman Corp. Two of the new board members have ties to Alden Global Capital, a distressed debt specialist that has been acquiring stakes in newspapers during the downturn. The new directors are venture capitalist Heath Freeman, a managing director for Alden Global; Bruce Schnelwar, another Alden Global managing director who is also the firm’s chief financial officer as well as executive vice president and CFO of Smith Management LLC; and Eric Krauss, who was most recently CFO of Action Sports Inc. ___ Dana Wollman reported from New York.

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Paris property prices continue to surge, France stable in Q3 2010

January 14, 2011

Apartment prices in Paris and vicinity surged during the year to Q3 2010, while prices for the rest of France were generally stable.

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Video: D`Arvisenet Sees Rising `Willingness to Hire’ in U.S.

January 7, 2011

Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) — Philippe D’Arvisenet, global chief economist at BNP Paribas SA, talks about the outlook for U.S. employment. He speaks from Paris with Andrea Catherwood on Bloomberg Television’s “The Pulse.”

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Vivian Norris: Entrepreneurs and Investors Will Make a Better World for All of Us

December 14, 2010

Although small businesses in the US have suffered setbacks because of the financial crisis, they are starting to become more positive again as reported by the National Federation of Independent Business’ index of small business optimism increased in November. And that optimism is in itself what sets entrepreneurs apart from others. You have to have a lot of passion and a huge amount of focus to get a small business started. You also usually need a loan from a bank, investors, or for the poor, a microloan. Entrepreneurs, whether the poorest of the poor in the developing world, or those in the US and Europe who have more access to capital, are the engines which make our economies work, not only on an international or national level, but also on a very local level. Helping entrepreneurs around the world are business angels, such as those found at Keiretsu, which supports entrepreneurs in the US and internationally. According to Jack Bays, co-president of Keiretsu Forum Paris and London: The ongoing economic crisis has had wide-spread implications, but one group that has suffered severely has been small start-up companies who rely on investment by individual business angels to bring their ideas to reality. The founders of these new companies have worked long hours and invested their hearts and souls in their initiatives. These companies may be small today but they fuel economic growth for the future, improve lives with new products and services, and over time transform society in a positive way. Angel investing is a critical factor in the survival of these small companies, and therefore needs to be encouraged as a necessary part of the economic cycle. I decided while attending LeWeb Technology conference 2010 outside Paris last week to focus purely on entrepreneurs whose work exemplified this passionate approach to business, as well as concrete ways to make our lives and our world a better place. I did not visit the PayPals or Microsofts or Googles but rather spoke with those smaller, web-related start-ups, which, whatever their size, however long they have been around, well-funded or newly created somehow made me feel my life and the lives of others would be richer, because of what they provided and because their founders were extremely passionate. And that is the key to entrepreneurship, being passionate. Beyond that, one can never truly fail. The experience itself is worth it. One company I have been following for some time is Tagattitude , created by technology entrepreneur, Yves Eonnet, who, in addition to being a tech guy, likes to keep things simple. He is also a huge fan of Muhammad Yunus’ social business ideas. Yves’ company takes their technology, and a simple cell phone, and creates payment systems which are already at work in parts of Africa, as well as Pakistan. The phone itself becomes both the credit card and the cash register. I love this street vendor video . Why is his company different, beyond its simplicity? The payment mechanism is not tied to a telecom, and thus remains independent. As mobile phones become our bank accounts, content distributors and information sources, this is increasingly important. Furthermore he helps small businesses thrive and conduct their own business! Two fantastic examples of companies started by entrepreneurs built on amateur passions: photography and sports. I always find it wonderful when people can take what they love most, their hobbies, and make them into a business, because you know they are going to work hard and remain passionate which is what is needed especially during tough times. It was obvious that Mike Kerns loves not only Fantasy Football but also amateur sports and communicated that during our interview. He is the co-founder and CEO of Citizen Sports, maker of social and sports-related applications found on the Facebook, Android and iPhone platforms, Kerns joined Yahoo! when Citizen Sports was acquired in 2010. Kerns obviously understands that the sports is better when you can interact, participate thus a natural for Social Media … (heck, some guys can ONLY communicate when talking about, expressing themselves through sports!). And though Yahoo! has recently been through a rough patch, I think Citizen Sports is one area where they may have the competition beaten. His is one of the success stories many entrepreneurs like to hope for, if they do decide to one day sell their companies. As for one of my own loves, photography, it kills me to see professional photographers and photojournalists unable to make a living anymore. And for all those amateurs who are now able to do more thanks to digital photography, this site is beyond inspiring: www.fotopedia.com . Their recent partnerships with UNESCO and US National Parks make you both want to visit the sites and become a photographer yourself if you are not already. What is remarkable is the detail and refining of perspective made possible by new cameras and digital technology thus lending itself to the internet experience. The Chinese photographer, Quang-Tuan Loung spent ten years photographing the National Parks and the result is a stunning collection of 3000 photographs . The company itself was started by a passionate amateur photographer, Jean-Marie Hullot along with another Microsoft alum, Christophe Daligault. In this case, the business model allows for the purchase of professionally made prints of the photographs, making sure the photographer retains rights and earns fairly from each work. The National Parks series in particular harkens back to Ansel Adams and the documenting of what is so very precious, that pristine (for now) nature…almost a kind of visual John Muir. Another company I happened upon by chance at lunch when I sat down at a table with one of the founders of Rent2Buy, which started in the US, and which has a blog I like. The reason I liked this company and what I heard from its owner was that it seemed to be a win-win for both consumer/potential buyer and the seller. During the financial crisis there are indeed opportunities and one part of this company helps both those selling their homes, who are having a hard time finding buyers, and those who cannot yet buy, or who have gone through a tough time, to build up both a positive credit history as well as a down-payment as their rental payments go towards the purchase of the property they are renting. Worst case scenario, you rented it and lived in it. Best case, you are buying a home in an affordable way and not throwing away money on a rental, and are not going to become another subprime default tragedy. This company has been increasing listings around the world and creating strategic partnerships. Perhaps my favorite entrepreneur at LeWeb was a young Frenchman from Toulouse, only 22, who is passionate about cooking which he learned from his mother and grandmother. His social network for food buffs is already thriving. His Facebook page jaimecuisiner (I love cooking) has over 22,000 friends and he recently purchased www.cuisiner.com. If I had to take a bet on a young entrepreneur who is willing to give it his all and absolutely loves what he does, while remaining 100% true to his French love of cooking roots, it would be Benjamin Moreau. I will be following him carefully … he exemplifies both the hyper-local and international appeal of how the internet can be utilized to create a business model. If there was one common thing linking the entrepreneurs I met, it was that uplifting, optimistic feeling of individuals taking their passions and turning them into realities. In each case, these entrepreneurs are making our world richer not only because of the new businesses being created, but because I was convinced that they each wanted to add something entirely new to human experience, be it through social media, increasing human transactions which lead to a better quality of life, or simply the beauty of nature brought to a huge audience or the pleasure of sharing a recipe for a well-made meal. In other words, entrepreneurship is about creativity, combined with a sense of endless possibilities. That in itself is why the future needs people and businesses like these.

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Gas Prices March Toward $3 Per Gallon, A Two-Year High

December 10, 2010

A dime more a gallon may not sound like much, but it adds up to $40 million more out of the driving public’s pocket. The rising price of oil has pushed up gasoline prices. Crude has climbed about 5 percent in the past 10 days, and on Tuesday it topped $90 for the first time in over two years. On Friday, benchmark oil lost 58 cents to settle at $87.79 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The retail price of gasoline could go higher, even if oil prices level off. Gasoline supplies have been affected by unexpected refinery shutdowns in the West and Midwest. “There has been a good deal of unscheduled maintenance recently, and that has made … gasoline markets nervous,” energy consultants Cameron Hanover said. Analyst Phil Flynn with PFGBest in Chicago said the shutdown of a refinery in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, contributed to tight supplies on the East Coast, which could add a couple of cents a gallon to gas prices there. Oil and gasoline prices are unlikely to fall significantly if demand picks up. On Friday The International Energy Agency raised its forecast for global oil demand for this year and 2011. IEA, based in Paris, thinks consumption in North America and emerging Asian countries, especially China, will be greater than it previously expected. If that happens, IEA said OPEC could boost supplies as prices rise. In 2008, OPEC raised production levels as oil shot past $100, on its way to a record $147 a barrel. The Organization of Oil Exporting Countries meets this weekend in Ecuador. “Pre-meeting statements by OPEC ministers suggest the group is planning on a quick agreement to roll over existing output targets,” IEA said. In other trading on the Nymex, heating oil fell 0.93 cent to settle $2.4575 a gallon, gasoline gave up 3.12 cents to settle at $2.3093 a gallon and natural gas dropped 1.8 cents to settle at $4.417 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, Brent crude fell 51 cents to settle at $90.48 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

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Edward Muzio: Your Reorganization: Better Left Undone?

November 19, 2010

Reorganization is the drug of choice in many workplaces, and it isn’t hard to see why. Take an organization of people, put someone in a leadership position, and introduce a confusing, far-reaching, ill-defined problem. The leader, feeling the need to live up to his or her title, quickly realizes that the problem is bigger than any one person. If the problem arose in the current state of things, a new future state is needed to solve it. After all, it was Albert Einstein who said that “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” How can you argue with Einstein? And so, the pressure to involve the group, to improve the system, and just to do something leader-like combine, naturally drawing the well-meaning leader to take action on the system. Let’s look to the organizational chart! We will see how things look, and where we can make improvements. To make the lure of the drug even stronger, a line of impressively-credentialed internal and external consultants is standing by to help. Any of them is happy to offer expert insight into possible changes. Whether or not their help is used, their existence lends credibility to the strategy. Credible it is! It’s logical, it feels natural, and it’s much more comfortable than sitting around doing nothing. But there is a terrible, fatal flaw with “the reorg” hiding in plain sight: The org chart has nothing to do with reality. Making changes to a human system based upon an org chart is like planning a drive through Los Angeles by consulting a map of Paris, drawn on a cocktail napkin, by a fifth grader. Consider its history. The org chart is a leftover from long before today’s information age. The first one is believed to have been drawn in the mid 1850s by a railroad superintendent named Daniel McCallum to optimize track construction over long distances. Back then, the organization was top-down and hierarchical. Each worker was a point in the process, and higher-level individuals had broader views of the systems than their subordinates within them. Today’s information age workplace is completely different; Therein lies the problem. Consider the following picture: an org chart on the left, today’s reality on the right. Both images display an overall manager with three supervisors, managing three subordinates each. But the “org chart” completely misses all of the other communication links within the organization and outside of it, which together comprise the majority of information movement. There’s a parallel here. Those of sufficient age may recall the popularity of the “telephone tree,” a prior generation’s tool for information transfer to parents of schoolchildren. Each parent was assigned a position in the tree. When a piece of information — such as a snow-day cancellation — needed to be quickly disseminated to everyone, you would receive a call from your “superior” in the tree, and then you would call your “subordinates” with the update. Each person would make only a few calls, and the information would cascade quickly down the hierarchy. If this doesn’t sound familiar to you, it’s because some years ago e-mail killed the telephone tree. With e-mail, any group member can disseminate information instantly, to some or all of the others, with the click of a button. One parent schedules a pizza party for everyone; another asks half the group for help with fundraising; Four individuals living in the same neighborhood collaborate to arrange a carpool. This new method of communication was adopted rapidly, because it was easier. It rendered the phone-tree obsolete. Perhaps a few schools keep the phone-tree around today. But if you were to attempt to understand a group of parents by studying the phone tree, you would be missing most of the story. That is precisely what an org-chart-based reorganization does. Reorganizers study an obsolete, inaccurate, non-representative, infrequently-used map of a system, and then implement a set of changes to that system based upon the conclusions drawn from the faulty map. In other words, they review the left half of the figure above, and use it to make changes to the right half. Then, in what is perhaps the most insidious step of all, they redraw the inaccurate map — the new org chart — based upon the expected results of the changes, rather than upon the reality of the new situation. To really understand this, consider a situation in which two individuals are removed from the organization. As you can see below, the org chart fails completely in its purpose of adequately representing the real impact to the crystalline network of this change. And yet, the “new org chart” in this scenario will be drawn exactly as it is shown on the left, with the removal of two “boxes.” It will be used going forward as the basis for understanding the system, regardless of what happens in real life. What happens in real life is decidedly different! Person two and person four, for example, are both members of Person one’s staff. Previously, they had little direct contact, and no direct link. But somehow, Person 10 had become a de facto interface between the heads of two departments. When Person 10 departs, this link will be one of more than fifteen broken links in the figure. The looming chaos is completely hidden by the false sense of order implied by the org chart. Most of us have who have been a part of an organizational change have experienced this phenomenon. A seemingly insignificant person retires, for example, and the resultant confusion takes months to sort itself out. Conversely, a manager with an important title changes jobs, and nobody seems to notice. The lesson is clear: No matter how long and hard the org chart is studied, changes to it produce shock waves and impacts that differ wildly from predictions. This is not at all surprising when you realize that the predictions were based upon a faulty map. And yet, for some reason, we keep repeating the same behavior. Sure, an org chart may be useful for defining reporting relationships, assigning responsibility for the completion of annual performance reviews, and for articulating the path of flow for top-down informational bulletins that require live delivery from management. But the next time you’re planning on making wholesale, system wide changes based upon your org chart, I strongly suggest that you stop, think again, and find a different solution to your problem. LA is a big city, and that fifth grader’s map of Paris isn’t going to keep you from getting lost.

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Stacie Nevadomski Berdan: Living Abroad Has Its Challenges

November 16, 2010

Living in a foreign country excites the imagination, ignites the adventurous spirit, and inspires you to explore. It can also scare the pants off you. Learning to live in another country is more than simply learning to get to the office, making yourself understood in a local language, and eating different food. You have to learn how to do many new things while unlearning old that have become second nature. You must accept your new home on its terms — not yours. Living abroad successfully also involves a subtle but important change in your expectations of yourself and others. More importantly, you have to cope with the loss of identity and familiarity and get along without some of the personal perks in your life that provide encouragement, meaning and fun ! And so every now and then when I read a piece about an expat sent abroad who discovers that “it’s not what I expected” or the spouse gives an ultimatum “me or the job” as noted in this article on ” What To Do When Relocating Abroad ” in Forbes , I’m baffled. Was it the allure of Paris? Didn’t anyone tell the spouse that although there may be opportunities to ride in Paris — similar to those in New York City — but that it’s not the wide open grasslands of Texas? With the sheer cost involved, both financial and human capital, why are companies still making mistakes in choosing employees and not working with both the employee and spouse/partner to make sure it’s not a career buster? Most of the large corporations I consult with on global relocation and cross-cultural management issues have wised up to the importance of preparing professionals. So, too, are employees. Although a stint abroad can do wonders for fast-tracking your career as I wrote in my book Get Ahead By Going Abroad , it can also be a career buster if you turn down an assignment, leave early, or don’t adapt or adjust to deliver for the company. According to HR professionals I’ve worked with, a spouse’s reaction to the relocation is the number one reason such international transfers are successful or not; a spouse’s happiness is critical to your ability to do your job. I know. My husband was a “trailing spouse” — a terrible term — when we moved to Hong Kong years ago. He left a job as a researcher/writer at Washington, D.C.-based environmental think tank to follow me and my career. He had rough ride at first, trying to find a job working on environmental issues (no green movement in sight at the time) and so he reinvented himself as a travel writer. It was a great gig that took him all over Asia spending time in the Kingdom of Brunei, watching the orangutans in the forests of Borneo, and biking through most major cities in China. But he had to make it work. He did it for me and, when my three years was up, he asked that I not extend or move on to Tokyo or Kuala Lumpur. I agreed despite my desire to continue globetrotting. I grew to appreciate that because we had left our network of family and friends behind, the two of us became everything to each other, which was a bit overwhelming. Moreover, it’s usually even harder on the spouse because the employee has work, colleagues, activities — an instant culture into which to assimilate. A partner has to begin everything from scratch — that’s tough enough with an in-country relocation and even harder in another culture, possibly even a second language. But we can learn from others. In Get Ahead By Going Abroad , I interviewed more than 200 professionals who moved abroad, soliciting common advice on issues critical to a successful stint working abroad. One of these is to make sure that you and your spouse take a look-see trip if at all possible. Imagine yourself living there, how would your life fit into your new home city. What would be different, perhaps the same. And then, once you move, another critical piece of advice involves how to handle your first week on the ground because many times this first week sets the tone for the overall experience, kind of like first impressions; they’re hard to get over. To enhance a great first impression, make sure you do the following six important things the first week on the ground without going into the office, if at all possible: Nail down your personal must haves , be it a gym, a massage therapist or a particular brand of coffee, appreciate the importance of those “little things.” Make contact with at least one other international contact , who can be an on-the-ground source of information and assistance. Make sure you have at least one local contact because sometimes only local help will do. Familiarize yourself with the transportation system be it your own car, the subway or a system of commuter trains. Set up house with the clothes you have, photos and stock the fridge to begin to make it like home. Explore your new home , get a feel for the place, stroll the streets, be a tourist. But it doesn’t stop here. There’s practical advice on the first month, the first year and so on — even practical and tried-and-true tips on ensuring a successful return. Others have done it and successfully. Why not profit from their experiences to ensure the best outcome for your international assignment. It could be the difference between fast-tracking your career and fast-talking to save it.

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French Women Lose Battle To Stop Renault From Calling Their Electric Car ‘Zoe’

November 10, 2010

PARIS — It could be the French version of “A Boy Named Sue” – a car named Zoe. A judge ruled Wednesday that the automaker Renault can call its new electric car Zoe, much to the chagrin of some French women and girls with that first name. Parents of two children named Zoe Renault (pronounced ZOH-eh ruh-NO) had argued in court that their children could end up enduring a lifetime of teasing and annoyance – just like the fictional youth named Sue in the famous Johnny Cash song. The families, who are not related to the car company, wanted Renault to choose another name for the model. “There’s a line between living things and inanimate objects, and that line is defined by the first name,” lawyer David Koubbi told The Associated Press in an interview. “We’re telling Renault one very simple thing: First names are for humans.” But a judge found against Koubbi’s clients in a fast-track proceeding, ruling that the parents would only have a case it they could prove that naming the car “Zoe” would cause the children “certain, direct and current harm.” Koubbi said he would appeal the decision. He insisted that while it’s clear the Zoe Renaults of the world would be most affected by the release of the car – slated for 2012 – all of France’s estimated 35,000 Zoes would feel the sting. “Can you imagine what little Zoes would have to endure on the playground, and even worse, when they get a little bit older and someone comes up to them in a bar and says, ‘Can I see your airbags?’ or ‘Can I shine your bumper?’” Koubbi said. The lawyer said Renault named it the Zoe ZE because of the electric-powered auto’s zero emissions. Renault, one of France’s two main carmakers, has already given several of its cars female first names – including its compact hatchback Megane and its mini Clio. Both are popular girls’ names in France, but there was no organized opposition to either name. The fight over Zoe, which means “life” in Greek, has gotten considerable media attention in France, where a petition on a Facebook page called “Zoe’s not a car name” has garnered more than 6,000 signatures. First names are a serious matter in France, which formerly restricted parents’ choices to a specific list of traditional names. The rules have since been loosened, but even today officials can oppose parents’ choices on the grounds that ridiculous names can hurt their future. In June, Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn said he was aware of the issue and wanted to avoid any controversy that could potentially hurt the car’s sales. “We don’t want our car to come on the market with a name which is a handicap,” he told Europe-1 radio. Still, a Renault official emphasized that there’s no plan to change the car’s name. “We ordered several studies that showed that it’s not a handicap for the car, so there’s no reason to make any changes,” said the official, who declined to give his name in accordance with company policy. “We’re very happy with the judge’s decision.” Attorney Koubbi said the two Zoes at the heart of the case are 2 and 8 years old and their parents were not seeking any damages. Koubbi, who has represented French celebrity clients, took the case on a pro bono basis. Why? Because his stepdaughter’s name is Zoe. ___ Associated Press writer Pierre-Antoine Souchard in Paris contributed to this report.

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French Senate Passes Pension Cuts To Raise Retirement Age

October 23, 2010

PARIS — Under pressure from the government, the French Senate voted Friday to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, a victory for President Nicolas Sarkozy after days of street rage, acrimonious debate and strikes that dried up the supply of gasoline across the country. The vote all but sealed passage of the highly unpopular measure, but it was unlikely to end the increasingly radicalized protests. The coming days promised more work stoppages and demonstrations by those who feel changing the retirement age threatens a French birthright. Sarkozy made overhauling the money-losing pension system a centerpiece of his project to modernize France. Undaunted by weeks of strikes, he ordered measures to unblock fuel depots and refineries to get gas flowing again to desperate motorists. “History (will remember) who spoke the truth,” Sarkozy declared during a visit Friday to a factory in central France. “What do you expect of a president? That he tells the truth and does what must be done.” With about a quarter of gas stations on empty – down from a third earlier in the week – motorists have been forced to reinvent their lives, particularly at the start of a school vacation period Saturday. Hours before Friday’s vote, riot police forced the reopening of a strategic refinery to help halt crippling fuel shortages. The impact on the crucial energy sector was an ominous specter for whole sectors of the economy. Employment Minister Laurent Wauquiez said this week that 1,500 jobs have been lost daily since the strikes began in earnest on Oct. 12. Friday’s vote came after some 140 hours of debate, with senators casting ballots by hand into a large green urn, approving the bill 177-153. The measure is expected to win final approval by both houses of parliament next week. Sarkozy’s conservative government cut short the debate via a constitutional article that accelerates the process – and gives the government final word on which of more than 1,000 amendments will get into the bill. He accused strikers of holding the French and their economy “hostage.” Speaking before the Senate vote, Labor Minister Eric Woerth said the day will come when opponents of the change “will be grateful to the president, to the government and the parliamentary majority for having had the courage to fully assume their responsibilities.” Leftist critics called the move a denial of democracy by an increasingly confrontational president. “No, you haven’t finished with retirement. You haven’t finished with the French,” said Socialist Sen. Jean-Pierre Bel, alluding to an apparently unflagging determination by unions, now joined by students, to keep protests alive – even through the upcoming week of school holidays. Students planned to block schools Tuesday, and unions scheduled strikes and protests for Thursday and again Nov. 6. Sarkozy says overhauling the pension system is vital to ensuring benefits for future generations. Many European governments are making similar choices as populations live longer and government debts soar. But French unions say the minimum retirement age of 60, in place since 1982, is a hard-earned right and maintain the working class will be unfairly punished. Many fear it is also a first step to dismantling an entire network of benefits, including long vacations and state-subsidized health care, that make France an enviable place to work and live. Guy Fischer, a Communist senator, denounced the pension overhaul as “brutal, unjust and inefficient.” Like other critics, he said that under the proposal, 85 percent of costs are paid by workers, leaving companies off the hook. The legislation phases in the new system, with retirement at 62 in force in 2018. It also raises the age for retirement with full benefits from 65 to 67. Hours before the Senate vote, helmeted riot police in body armor shoved striking workers aside to force open the gates of the Total SA refinery at Grandpuits, east of Paris, one of four refineries in the Paris region. A bastion of resistance, Grandpuits had been shut down for nine days – one of the nations’ 12 refineries on strike. “The strikers have opened the valves,” said Franck Monchon, a delegate of the hard-line CGT union. Protesters symbolically burned a coffin after the police intervention. Despite the government’s efforts to conquer union resistance, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said it would take several days to end gasoline shortages. The government began unblocking fuel depots days ago and is allowing tanker trucks on the road on Sunday, when they are normally forbidden. It has ordered oil companies to pool fuel to ensure gas stations are stocked. The prime minister convened oil industry executives Friday to review the country’s lagging fuel supplies. The head of the national petroleum industry body, Jean-Louis Schilansky, says it is struggling to import fuel to make up for the shortfall, because strikers are also blockading two key oil terminals, in Le Havre and Marseille. Dozens of tankers remained anchored in the waters off Marseille, unable to unload. “The problem isn’t so much finding the oil; it is getting it in to the country,” he said. “If the depots and refineries remain blocked, we will not make it.” Nevertheless, Schilansky insisted that France has weeks or months of fuel reserves. Marc Touati, head economist for Global Equities, was somber about the consequences of prolonged protests by the fuel sector, saying such a scenario could wipe out between 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points of economic growth. The government predicts economic growth of 2 percent next year, after 1.5 percent in 2010. Violence around student protests have added a new dimension to the volatile mix. “It is not troublemakers who will have the last word in a democracy,” Sarkozy told workers at a factory in the Eure-et-Loir region, promising to find and punish rioters. “If we stop companies like you from working, who will pay?” ___ Duclos reported from Grandpuits. Associated Press writers Angela Charlton and Greg Keller and AP Television News reporters Jonathan Shenfield in Lyon and Oleg Cetinic in Paris contributed to this report.

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Video: CGT’s Naillod Says French Strikes Supported by Residents

October 19, 2010

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) — Marie-Christine Naillod, a representative of France’s CGT labor union, talks about the strikes by workers in protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to raise the retirement age. She speaks from Paris with Andrea Catherwood on Bloomberg Television’s “The Pulse.”

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Video: French Strikes Escalate on Pensions, Sarkozy Holds Firm

October 19, 2010

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) — Bloomberg’s Ryan Chilcote reports from Paris on the escalation of strike action by unions protesting against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to raise the retirement age.

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