psychological

World oil markets see new norms emerging

by on September 11, 2011

menafn.com…

(MENAFN – Arab News) Oil markets have travelled a long distance. $100 is the new norm. A few years back, when oil markets broke this psychological barrier for the first time, pundits were taken …

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World oil markets see new norms emerging

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Ron Ashkenas: Is Your Calendar Managing You?

by on February 3, 2011

Cross-posted from Harvard Business Online Not long ago, I was talking with a senior executive who was frustrated that some of her high priority initiatives were not moving fast enough. After exploring various reasons for the slow uptake, I asked her to look at her calendar and calculate the amount of time she personally spent on these initiatives. The answer shocked her: a grand total of two hours over the course of two months, and this was being generous. In my years of consulting, I’ve found that this disconnect between stated priorities and the actual allocation of managerial time is extremely common, and often happens without the manager even realizing it. The only exception is during a crisis or in the face of an impending deadline — when somehow the use of time magically shifts to match the short-term priority. But in the absence of crisis, managers’ schedules fill up with all sorts of lower-value activities that water down the focus on high-priority projects, change efforts, or opportunities. In fairness to managers, they probably shouldn’t be spending as much personal time on high-priority initiatives as their subordinates, to whom they may have delegated all or part of the responsibilities. But delegating is not an excuse for disappearing. If a manager like the one mentioned above wants to see progress, she needs to visibly demonstrate support for the initiative, run interference with other related groups in the company, coach the designated leaders, create a sense of urgency , and make decisions. These, and many other activities, take time. And although most managers know that they should make this commitment, they still don’t. I’ve written previously about some of the psychological dynamics of why managers spend their time on low-value activities . Through the years I’ve found that there is a very tactical, but unconscious, trap that many managers fall into: They let their calendars manage them. If you are a manager, think about how your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly schedule is constructed. First there are corporate or divisional meetings — essentially command performances — in addition to the standing and ad-hoc meetings called by your boss. Many of these are dictated by the rhythms of corporate processes such as strategic planning, budgeting, and performance management — and include countless other preparatory meetings. Of course if you are an operational manager or running a team, you also have to schedule your own meetings: staff meetings, one-on-ones, town meetings, visits to key locations, and more. Somewhere in this mix are interactions with customers, either external or internal, depending on your job. You may also be invited to staff meetings and various project review meetings which may or may not be about your own priorities. If this is not enough, many managers also attend industry conferences and briefings, leadership workshops, or other developmental events. On top of all this is the time required to actually accomplish your day-to-day job — reviewing reports, reading spreadsheets, preparing and modifying presentations, and the like. Finally — if you’re really well-organized — you might devote a little time to “thinking and planning” (although not much in the formal sense), your family, and other non-work pursuits. Collectively, the demands we face at work are daunting and require constant juggling and trade-offs. For senior people much of this juggling is done by an executive assistant and/or chief of staff, while middle or junior managers do it themselves, often with the assistance of electronic scheduling that automatically puts meetings on the calendar. Unfortunately, neither method substitutes for thoughtful prioritization by the manager herself. Without such prioritization, the outcome is often a schedule that bounces managers from meeting to meeting, trip to trip, and requirement to requirement — without a sense of how to add the most value. If you are concerned that your calendar is managing you, here’s how to start taking back control. First, do a calendar analysis. Examine the events and activities described above that apply to you, and find out how much time you are really spending on the areas where your presence will make a difference. If that’s not enough, conduct a zero-based reconstruction of your calendar to reflect a better balance of value-adding time. To do this, start by designating specific times that you will devote to your highest priorities, even if you’re not sure how you will use those times. If you find later that you won’t need all of those slots, you can change them. But if you don’t save them now, you’ll lose that choice. Next, build your calendar from the ground up. Add in the mandatory meetings that you have to attend that also add value, such as decision-making meetings or customer visits. Finally, go through the calendar and create a list of recurring meetings and other activities that seem to create less (or no) value. For each of these, ask yourself: Is the activity or meeting needed at all? If needed, do I need to attend or can I designate someone else? Can this be done less frequently? Can it be done in a different way that will require less time? These tough questions may be worth addressing with your boss, your team, or with a coach. But if you don’t address them, and continually try to zero-base your schedule, it will end up managing you (instead of the other way around). How do you get more control over your time?

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Ron Ashkenas: Is Your Calendar Managing You?

David Sirota: The Democratic Party Elite’s General Attitude About Organized Labor

January 12, 2011

Over the last few years, we’ve learned a great deal about the Democratic Party’s attitude toward the labor movement. Through the Employee Free Choice Act debate (or lack thereof), we’ve learned that Democrats are happy to rely on union workers hard-earned money to get elected, and then happy to block major pieces of legislation that would help workers join a union. Through the Obama administration’s push for a new NAFTA-style trade deal, we’ve learned that Democratic presidential candidates are happy to sound pro-labor on the campaign trail, and happy to be anti-labor in Washington, D.C. I could go on, but you get the point: We’ve learned that the Democratic Party and labor are in neverending abuser-abused relationship. That said, it’s rare to get a truly unvarnished glimpse into the psychological attitude that undergirds that relationship. It’s rare, but as today shows, it sometimes comes out. Check out this little snippet from the Denver Post on Colorado’s new Democratic governor, John Hickenlooper, and whether he would rescind a past executive order allowing state workers to form unions: “I don’t think that executive order led to a significant increase in collective bargaining or people joining unions,” Hickenlooper said. “It was a statement that I think to a certain extent was largely symbolic, and if that’s the case, I don’t see a reason to go and immediately repeal it.” Read that statement again, just to really see what he’s saying, because it’s so honest. He’s quite explicitly saying that because the executive order “was largely symbolic” and didn’t “lead to a significant increase in collective bargaining or people joining unions,” he does’t “see a reason to go and immediately repeal it.” While it’s good that Hickenlooper isn’t “immediately” rescinding this basic right of workers, his statement logically means two not so good things: 1) If the executive order was more real (ie. not “symbolic”) and had led to more workers joining together in a union, then he likely would “see a reason” to repeal it and 2) Even though the executive order was only “symbolic” he’s saying he won’t repeal it “immediately” – but by definition, reserves the right to consider repealing it later (indeed, the only reason to include the word “immediately” is to deliberately qualify the statement so that it applies only to a specific short-term period of time). In a sense, we should thank Hickenlooper for being so honest, because it gives us a good look at how the larger establishment of the Democratic Party really sees the labor movement and the concepts of worker solidarity and collective bargaining. Unions are fine, says the Democratic Party, as long as they are providing massive Democratic campaign contributions, and as long as not too many people join them for the purposes of negotiating for higher wages, taking on corporate power, etc. But once unions get too uppity – ie. bringing back membership levels from 30 years ago, challenging corporate power, etc. – then a Democratic governor looking to appease his corporate donors is more than willing to consider unilaterally repealing the basic laws that allow workers to even try to join a union. As I said, it’s an abuser-abused relationship – right there for everyone to see.

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Alex Becker: Why Hyper-Partisans Have no Credibility on Deficit Reduction

November 27, 2010

What do Nancy Pelosi, Jim DeMint, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and conservative anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist all have in common? Easy, hyper-partisianship and a hatred of the Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction proposal. It’s not often that proposed fiscal policy draws such heavy fire from both sides of the aisle, and even more unusual for Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich to agree even indirectly. The Bowles-Simpson proposal has however, in the criticism it’s received, succeeded in making one thing glaringly clear. Neither the far left nor the far right have any credibility when it comes to deficit reduction. While they may differ ideologically, extreme conservatives and extreme liberals share the same basic philosophy about the nature of fiscal policy. Each side views its own ideas on taxes and spending, increased spending and higher taxes for Democrats, decreased taxes (though not always decreased spending) for Republicans, not as economic questions but as a moral ones. For staunch partisans, decisions on who to tax and how much to spend are all too often about being “good” or “bad” people and not economic responsibility. The inability to compromise that characterizes the far left and right in American politics means that fiscal policy is constantly framed as a false choice between two extremes. Any serious economist will say that you can’t be serious about deficit reduction, and, as Rand Paul has suggested, completely refuse to consider across the board tax hikes. At the same time, Pelosi’s opinion that the government will somehow be able to balance its budget with increased tax revenues and not touch entitlement spending is just as unrealistic. It doesn’t take an economist to see that deficit reduction will require a mix of higher taxes and lower spending, and that each party must sacrifice a few of its sacred cows. This approach however, will require compromise that falls somewhere in the political grey area between both extremes. Most hyper-partisans tend to be deathly scared of grey area and middle ground. In the end, the last best hope for American fiscal sanity lies squarely on the shoulders of moderates and young voters. Someone needs to have the courage to open up a high school economics textbook and bravely realize that we can both raise taxes and decrease spending. Young voters need to recognize that the debate over social security ultimately means very little to those who are going to be dead by 2037 anyway. Nancy Pelosi might find the Bowles-Simpson plan “simply unacceptable” and Jim DeMint might give it “two thumbs down,” but I as a young voter say the same things about the obsolete fiscal mindset that sacrifices the long term morality of a strong economic foundation for petty and ultimately meaningless short term political ideology. The policy aspects of the Bowles-Simpson proposal are certainly open to debate and even the pair themselves are honest about its imperfections. Any serious debate on debt reduction will not succeed however, unless it recognizes that the greatest morality of all has nothing to do with transfer payments to the elderly or tax cuts, but lies in a country that simply doesn’t go broke. Many take the cynical view and believe that the psychological challenges to a balanced budget, gridlocked partisanship and the fact that spending money is an addiction, are simply too great and that America will have to face a crisis along the lines of Greece or Ireland in order to restore a sense of fiscal reality. This bow to human nature may indeed be the case. There are also those however, who refuse to accept an America that succumbs to what Erskin Bowles has called, “The most predictable economic crisis in history.” There are those with the self-discipline not to be hit by the fiscal train inching towards them. Competent economic stewards do exist, but you’ll find them intelligently in the middle, not at CPAC or Netroots Nation.

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Debbie Weil: Open Letter to BP: Three Tips on How to Use Social Media and the Web to Diffuse Your PR Crisis

July 2, 2010

The only thing bigger than the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the size of BP’s public relations disaster. Just as BP can’t control the oil spill as it seeps further and further, nor can they control what the public is saying. Just to be clear, control is the operative word. BP’s communications folks appear to be unwilling — or possibly disinterested — in getting their arms around the statusphere, the social media produced hourly by hundreds of thousands of consumers intent on talking about the company, the oil spill, the cleanup efforts, the psychological and physical devastation of the Gulf coast, the monstrous effects on wildlife and more. To wit, Google the phrase “BP Facebook” and the top result is the Boycott BP page with over 753,000 fans, as of this writing. The second result is BP America’s official Facebook page with 33,000 fans. Over on Twitter, BP has beefed up its official Twitter page and is now posting regular updates. The page has over 16,000 followers. But the fake and much funnier BPGlobalPR Twitter account has over 181,000 fans. Damning video footage from CBS’ 60 Minutes program about the explosion of drilling rig Deepwater Horizon is being re-posted on dozens of blogs. You get the idea. Hmmm. So what is a Global 100 company to do in the midst of a corporate crisis? It may seem that paying attention to blogs and Twitter and Facebook is a diversion right now. In fact, it’s not. This is where millions of us are hanging out and where many of us are forming our opinions about BP and its tarnished brand. With a few tweaks, BP could leverage its social media efforts much more gracefully and effectively to mitigate the PR disaster of the April 20 oil spill. Here’s some advice aimed at BP’s communications team as well as to BP Gulf Coast Restoration Organization CEO Bob Dudley. 1. Cut the corporate speak Bob, browse to BP’s home page and take a good hard look. What do you see? With the headline “Gulf of Mexico Response” you are in defense mode. Note the exact word: response. Instead of saying sympathetically “We know you may be concerned and have questions” you are stating “Here’s how WE are responding.” You are in full corporate mode and it’s off putting. Links to press releases line your home page along with (predictably corporate) video interviews. Dig a bit deeper and your About BP page proclaims, “Our brand — Summed up by two words ‘beyond petroleum.’” I guess you could say that. As in, BP’s brand is in a place that is way beyond petroleum right now. Deep sushi, to be precise. The Investors page makes us squirm. One of the links reads: “BP outlines plan to improve financial performance while increasing production through 2020.” Ouch. Easy fix: with a few copywriting tweaks your team could rewrite some of the key pages on the corporate site to make it sound, well, human. Humble and honest wouldn’t hurt either. Those of us following the news know that you have pledged $20 billion to clean up the Gulf Coast. Are you absolutely sure your financial performance will be improving in the next few years? 2. Copy what your detractors are doing Rather than dismiss the fake Twitter page , take a close look at how it’s written. Now adopt some of that tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecatory humor on your own social media outposts. Humor and informality are the lingua franca of Twitter and Facebook. Learn how to speak the language if you want to play in the space. You’ll be ever so much more interesting and authentic. And you’ll garner lots more followers and fans. 3. Launch a Save-the-XXXX microsite This is a time-honored corporate tradition. Make it look like you care… about sea turtles, porpoises, brown pelicans. Take your pick. These animals are among the wildlife most threatened by the toxic oil spill. Launch a Save-the-Sea-Turtles microsite, clearly sponsored by BP. Make the site informative, fun and interactive. This may not seem important right now but it could be extremely effective over the coming months and years, as you work to position yourself as a socially responsible corporation. For godsakes, you’re thinking about how to do that, right? For ideas, take a look at the Haagen Dasz Save the Honey Bees site that addresses the phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder. On a lighter note, check out Oprah’s No Phone Zone sponsored by Sprint, Liberty Mutual and General Motors. Finally, stop trying to manage this disaster as a PR crisis. “You don’t manage a disaster,” technology and social media analyst and author Charlene Li told me. “You deal with it.” You’re on the right track with your open interview with Bob Dudley on YouTube . Do more stuff like that, risky as it may feel at first, and you may find that your tarnished brand has a tiny chance.

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The 14th Banker: The Ritual of Reform

July 1, 2010

On the last day of June the House voted in the much modified FinReg . Perhaps sometime in July it will become law. My last posts have already made it clear that I believe the impact to be limited and much delayed. We must continue to address the critical problems that Dodd-Frank does not address. Among these are a pathological social deviancy, opportunism and plundering by many of our corporate persons. In psychology, the term ritual is used in a technical sense for a repetitive behavior systematically used by a person to neutralize or prevent anxiety. Dodd-Frank might fulfill the psychological ritualistic function. We have a problem, real wounds, real outrage, real need of solutions. Our well greased democratic process spits out an Act. We have relief from anxiety, healing, justice, and solutions. Or do we? This Act seems impotent in the face of plundering financial institutions like Goldman Sachs. Naked Capitalism discusses a NYT piece that reveals another layer of the stinky onion pulled back. When the government began rescuing it from collapse in the fall of 2008 with what has become a $182 billion lifeline, A.I.G. was required to forfeit its right to sue several banks — including Goldman, Société Générale, Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch — over any irregularities with most of the mortgage securities it insured in the precrisis years. The post and article go on to detail the web of interrelationships, conflicts of interest, and pandering by starstruck regulators, no doubt awed by the wealth and power of Blankfein and his type. Can these type of institutional managers be trusted by individual citizens? Corporate profits are on the rise, so much so that Goldman’s Abby Cohen is predicting a 16% rise in the stock market in the second half of the year. Yet, corporations are not hiring in any quantity and opportunistically lag in restoring 401K benefits cut back during the crisis. Recall with me that the 401K is the new retirement plan for most working Americans. Defined benefit plans are virtually gone for non-union, non-government employees. Those that remain are grossly underfunded. Cash Balance Pension Plans pay paltry returns and compound slowly. Some firms have also cut back on Cash Balance Pension Plan contributions. So they are not defined benefit plans, and can’t be counted on to be defined contribution plans. So have our corporate persons become a threat engendering angst? Are they rogues or products of our society? Given the pervasiveness, I posit that we can only tag them as “fat tail” outposts of corruption on a bell curve that supports that fat tail. So the only solution is to change the underlying structures which allow such a fat tail to exist. To do so, we as a society must operate with a reciprocity that includes altruistic punishment. That is, the level of cooperation in society requires some players to punish bad actors, even at some cost to themselves. So far there is no movement to do this. Therefore our reform exercise serves a more ritualistic than practical purpose.

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Libor for Three-Month Dollars Climbs Above 0.50% to Highest Since July 16

May 24, 2010

By Keith Jenkins May 24 (Bloomberg) — The rate banks say they pay for three-month loans in dollars rose above 0.5 percent for the first time in 10 months amid concern that the creditworthiness of financial institutions is deteriorating. The London interbank offered rate , or Libor, for such loans advanced today to 0.51 percent, the highest level since July 16, from 0.497 percent at the end of last week, according to data from the British Bankers’ Association. The dollar Libor-OIS spread, a gauge of banks’ reluctance to lend, widened to the most since July 30. Libor more than doubled this year as the European debt crisis fueled concern that the quality of banks’ assets used as collateral may be impaired. The three-month rate may climb to 0.54 percent by the end of the week as the trend “shows no sign of stopping just yet,” said Peter Chatwell , an interest-rate strategist at Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank. “We’ve gone through the psychological level of 0.5 percent,” said Chatwell in London. “Some of the spreads which measure banking stress, although not scary, suggest a trend higher.” Three-month Libor is a benchmark for about $360 trillion of financial products worldwide, ranging from mortgages to student loans. Dollar Libor is set by 16 banks in a daily survey by the BBA before 11 a.m. in London. Contributing banks provide estimates on how much it would cost to borrow in 10 currencies for periods ranging from a day to a year. Libor-OIS Spread The dollar Libor-OIS spread increased to 27.9 basis points from 27 basis points. The spread, which compares three-month dollar Libor and the overnight indexed swap rate, surged to 364 basis points, or 3.64 percentage points, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008. Evidence is mounting that some financial institutions are facing stress. The Bank of Spain put CajaSur, a lender based in Cordoba, under a provisional administrator two days ago. The bank lost 596 million euros ($748 million) on 426 million euros in revenue last year. “There’s some concern that things are moving away from the euro zone and may be moving into the banking side,” Chatwell said. “These are barometers of stress. Counterparty risks are rising, banks are showing some strain and that increases concern in the market, which exacerbates the problem.” The three-month rate increased for the 12th consecutive week last week even as the European Union announced an almost $1 trillion backstop to aid its most indebted members. Among the measures announced, the U.S. Federal Reserve reopened dollar currency swaps with major central banks to alleviate funding pressures facing the euro-region lenders. Euro Rate Falls WestLB AG contributed the highest dollar Libor rate today, at 0.565 percent. The German state-owned lender , which was bailed out during the financial crisis, said last week its first-quarter profit slumped 82 percent after a decline in the value of European government bonds hurt trading results. HSBC Holdings Plc gave the lowest rate, at 0.44 percent. The BBA strips out the four highest and lowest rates received, calculating the average of the middle eight. The three-month rate for euros , or euro Libor, slipped to 0.634 percent today, from 0.636 percent on May 21. The three- month euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor, advanced to 0.697 percent, from 0.695 percent, according to the European Banking Federation. That’s the highest since Jan. 5. To contact the reporter on this story: Keith Jenkins in London at kjenkins3@bloomberg.net

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Thai Army Moves to Enforce Curfew After Ending Mission to Disperse Rioters

May 20, 2010

By Daniel Ten Kate and Supunnabul Suwannakij May 20 (Bloomberg) — Thai security forces struggled to clear rioters from high-rise buildings and extended a curfew as protests spread outside Bangkok a day after the forced surrender of anti-government demonstrators left 15 people dead. “Physically we can rebuild Bangkok quickly, but I don’t know how long it will take to cure the psychological damage,” Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said in an interview with Channel 7. “We will never forget May 19 in our lifetime.” Fighting continued today after 39 buildings burned in Bangkok and armed groups remained in high-rises in the downtown commercial area, army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd told reporters. There are about 13,000 protesters rallying in as many as 20 provinces outside Bangkok and the government is trying to prevent unrest from spreading, he said. The government extended a 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew in a third of the country for the next three days, he said. Reports of disturbances in northeast Thailand, home to many of the Red Shirt demonstrators, underscore the widening social rifts that may thwart political reconciliation. “Clearing the demonstrators is the easy part,” said Duncan McCargo , a professor of Southeast Asian politics at the University of Leeds. By relying on force, “authorities have lost the opportunity to shape the aftermath of the protests and risk provoking an even more alarming conflict.” Collapsed Building A more than 10-hour fire at the Central World shopping and office complex has left the building in danger of collapse, Thanom Onketpol, an adviser to Bangkok’s governor, said by phone. Three other structures in the downtown area were still burning as of about 1 p.m., he said. One fire damaged the stock exchange, he told Thai PBS television. The death toll from yesterday’s clash is 15 people, the Bangkok Emergency Medical Service said on its Web site, after officials cited an additional fatality earlier in the day. The benchmark SET Index rose 0.7 percent yesterday before the exchange announced it would close for the rest of the week. Japan’s two largest automakers, Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. , suspended production in Thailand yesterday, citing ongoing violence. Toyota doesn’t expect to resume operations for a few more days, spokesman Paul Nolasco said today. Honda hasn’t decided whether to restart tomorrow, spokeswoman Yuki Watanabe said in Tokyo. Ten Bangkok Bank Pcl branches were damaged, together with two outlets each of Kasikornbank Pcl , Krung Thai Bank Pcl and Siam City Bank Pcl, Thanom said. Protesters also torched a city hall in Udon Thani province and seized a government building in Khon Kaen . Fire, Grenades Protesters also set fire to a Siam City branch north of the main protest site and fought security forces with grenades, INN reported. Authorities will protect communication and transportation systems in “various areas,” government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said in a broadcast. Security been increased around embassies and tourist areas, he said. U.S. State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid condemned the violence and urged both sides to resolve their differences democratically. Sixteen people died and 81 were injured in clashes yesterday, including 9 bodies found at a temple in the protest zone, the Bangkok Emergency Medical Service said. Security forces found weapons caches in the central Bangkok protest site occupied by demonstrators since April 3, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said last night. He vowed harsh punishments for “terrorists” vandalizing the city. Temple Shelter About 800 children, women and elderly protesters took shelter last night in a temple between two burning shopping malls, Thai PBS television network said. Street battles in the past week between security forces and demonstrators contributed to Thailand’s deadliest political turmoil in almost two decades. The health ministry said eight people were hurt in clashes outside Bangkok. Exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra , to whom many of the protesters express loyalty, said the decision to surrender prevented more casualties. “I appreciate the Red Shirt leaders’ move to save lives by surrendering to police,” he said on his Twitter account. Thaksin, a 60-year-old billionaire, won over the poor in the northeast of the country by giving them cheap health care and loans. The demonstrators, angered by one of Asia’s widest income gaps, say Abhisit, 45, embodies a privileged class of military officers, judges, bureaucrats and royal advisers that sits above the law. Address Inequality Abhisit’s five-part proposal to end the national divide includes measures to safeguard the monarchy, address economic inequality, ensure an independent media, create a body to investigate political violence and assess ways to change the constitution and disputed laws. Thaksin, who was ousted by the Thai army in 2006, fled the country in 2008 before a court sentenced him to two years in prison for helping his wife buy land from the government while still in power. Since 1946, when King Bhumibol Adulyadej took the Thai throne as an 18-year-old, Thailand has seen nine coups and more than 20 prime ministers. Only two of 17 constitutions since absolute monarchy ended in 1932 have mandated parliaments that are entirely elected. The king, who is revered across the nation, has been in a hospital since Sept. 19 and hasn’t spoken publicly about the current demonstrations. Abhisit’s party hasn’t won the most seats in a nationwide vote since 1992. He was picked by legislators in December 2008 after a court dissolved the pro-Thaksin ruling party for election fraud. The decision coincided with the seizure of Bangkok’s airports by protesters wearing yellow shirts who oppose Thaksin. To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok at dtenkate@bloomberg.net

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Pfizer, Medivation Drug May Help Huntington’s Disease Patients

February 8, 2010

By Shannon Pettypiece Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) — A 27-year-old hay fever treatment being studied by Pfizer Inc. and Medivation Inc. for Alzheimer’s disease may also help patients with Huntington’s disease. The drug, called Dimebon, improved mental functioning and awareness in patients with Huntington’s, a degenerative neurological disorder that runs in families, according to research released today by the Archives of Neurology. The study of 91 patients, which was funded by Medivation, showed minimal side effects, researchers said. The findings are encouraging because there are no treatments for the psychological effects of Huntington’s which affects about 25,000 people in North America, said Karl Kieburtz , lead author of the study and professor of neurology at the University of Rochester in New York. Symptoms of Huntington’s typically start in middle age and include muscle twitching, depression, aggression, loss of orientation and memory. A larger, long-term study will be needed to see if the benefits were from the pill or by chance, Kieburtz said. “It is really a shot in the arm for us,” Keiburtz said in a telephone interview. “There is a suggestion of efficacy and that, along with the fact there had been improvement in cognition in Alzheimer’s patients in a prior trial in Russia, has led us to think there might be something here.” Withstand Stress Scientists believe Dimebon may help Huntington’s patients, as well as those with Alzheimer’s, because of its effect on mitochondria, parts of cells that help convert food into energy, the study said. Previous laboratory findings showed Dimebon improved cells’ function and helps them withstand stress. The study evaluated 91 patients who took either Dimebon or a placebo for three months and was primarily designed to evaluate the pill’s safety. In the study, patients taking Dimebon were more likely to correctly answer questions about what year it was and where they were, count backward, and recall words over a short period of time. The drug didn’t appear to have an impact on a broader assessment that measured motor function, cognition and behavior. It also didn’t show a benefit when researchers measured cognition in the Huntington’s patients using a test developed for Alzheimer’s patients. Medivation, based in San Francisco, and Pfizer of New York are working on a study involving 350 Huntington’s patients for six months that is part of the third and final stage of testing required to get U.S. regulatory approval. Results from a separate late-stage study in Alzheimer’s patients are expected to be released in the first half of this year. Russian Company Medivation acquired Dimebon, which has been used since 1983 to treat hay fever in the former Soviet Union, from a company formed by Sergey Bachurin, a researcher at the Institute of Psychologically Active Compounds, in Chemogolovka, Russia. The drug was first identified as a candidate to protect neurons when the Russian Academy of Science, in Chernogolovka, Russia, started in the early 1990s to screen libraries of compounds for their ability to block a key brain receptor. Belief in the drug was bolstered when researchers found it improved learning in brain-damaged rodents. To contact the reporters on this story: Shannon Pettypiece in New York at spettypiece@bloomberg.net ;

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`Overpriced’ Basquiat Flops at $74.2 Million N.Y. Contemporary-Art Auction

November 11, 2009

By Lindsay Pollock and Philip Boroff Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) — A 1983 graffiti-inflected Jean- Michel Basquiat painting that didn’t sell at Christie’s International’s New York auction sat propped up against a wall alongside two shipping crates at the company’s headquarters, a casualty of aggressive estimates. The 16-foot-wide Basquiat, the projected top lot at last night’s auction, was expected to fetch at least $9 million. An Andy Warhol, with the second-highest estimate, also went unsold. Some works sold for much more than their projections, pushing the auction’s final tally to $74.2 million, within the $61.5 million to $88 million target. Still, it was Christie’s smallest New York evening contemporary-art sale since May 2003, down 81 percent from the market’s peak 2 1/2 years ago. “There is zero tolerance for overpriced or overestimated work now,” said dealer Lucy Mitchell-Innes, president of the Art Dealers Association of America. “The results are in line with the broader market. There is interest in buying, but it is more disciplined.” Of 46 artworks offered, 39 sold. The surprise top lot was Peter Doig’s 1996 “Reflection (What does your soul look like),” depicting an image of the artist’s brother in a pond; it zoomed past a $6 million high estimate to fetch $10.2 million after heated competition among four bidders. The seller bought it for about $11,000 the year it was painted, said Gordon VeneKlasen, director of the Michael Werner Gallery , one of Doig’s dealers. Modest Expectations With the art market laid low a year ago by the world financial crisis, expectations going into last night were modest. “I was surprised at the buoyancy of the sale,” said collector Gilbert Harrison , chief executive of Financo, Inc., a boutique investment bank. The saleroom was standing room only. Some dealers cited the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s 62 percent rally from its March low for the renewed confidence. “The fear has dissipated,” said Peter Sahlman, an art advisor. “You can see the psychological change.” Christie’s opened the auction with a collection of small- scaled choice paintings and drawings from the late avant-garde composer John Cage and his companion, choreographer Merce Cunningham , all gifts from artist friends. Cunningham died in July. The works, which are being sold to benefit the Merce Cunningham Trust , were tagged with drastically low estimates. The most important was a geometric abstract gray 1980-81 Jasper Johns painting, “Dancers on a Plane” estimated to sell for up to $2 million. The painting sold for $4.3 million to an anonymous phone bidder; Johns had given the painting to Cunningham as a gift in 1981. ‘Vase of Flowers’ Other strong performers included Jeff Koons’ 1991 wooden sculpture of a blooming bouquet titled “Large Vase of Flowers,” from an edition of three, which sold for $5.7 million, within the $4 million to $6 million presale estimate. The seller was art publisher Benedikt Taschen , dealers said. Taschen bought the Koons at Christie’s in London in 2000 for $999,322. An Andy Warhol portrait of Michael Jackson went for $812,500, above the $700,000 high estimate and nearly three times what a similar piece sold for at Christie’s in May. The anonymous seller of the Basquiat, “Brother Sausage,” was Greenwich, Connecticut-based collector Peter Brant . In an interview, Brant, who’s embroiled in a divorce from model Stephanie Seymour , confirmed he consigned the piece; estimated to sell for up to $12 million, it received no bids. ‘Tunafish Disaster’ Another major flop was Warhol’s 1963 “Tunafish Disaster,” estimated to fetch up to $8 million, which also received no bids. “Tunafish Disaster” was consigned to Christie’s by dealer Robert Mnuchin of L & M Arts, who got the painting from Brant, according to the tycoon. The painting’s subject is lifted from a 1963 article in “Newsweek” about two housewives who contracted a fatal case of botulism from a can of tuna. Sotheby’s auctions a smaller “Tunafish Disaster” tonight at its contemporary-art sale. The painting was “too sophisticated, too intellectual,” for most collectors, said Christie’s International Co-Head of Contemporary art, Brett Gorvy , in a press conference. Estimates don’t include commission. To contact the reporters on this story: Lindsay Pollock in New York at lindsaypollock@yahoo.com ; Philip Boroff in New York at pboroff@bloomberg.net .

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Indonesia’s Child Survivors Struggle After Quake’s Destruction of Padang

October 5, 2009

By Soraya Permatasari Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) — Eleven-month-old Chika Balqis is among the survivors struggling to cope after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake destroyed her home on Sept. 30, killing hundreds of Indonesians in West Sumatra province. “She used to be a quiet, cheerful baby,” said Chendra Neli, her 39-year-old mother. “Ever since the earthquake, she’s been difficult.” Their home in Toboh Kuranji village, 58 kilometers (38 miles) from the epicenter, was among at least 29,686 destroyed in Padang Pariaman district. Chika’s mother carried her out moments before their wood and brick structure collapsed. Now “she doesn’t sleep at night and she also doesn’t sleep much in the day,” Neli said in an interview in front of her crushed home. The infant is among hundreds of children whose lives have been dislocated after the nation’s second major earthquake in less than a month devastated the coastal city of Padang and nearby villages. In addition to providing food, clean water and shelter, aid agencies are trying to ease the psychological trauma. “Children are quite scared to be inside their houses,” Angela Kearney, the United Nation’s Children Fund representative in Indonesia, said in Padang. “They remember the shaking and some of the aftershocks. So it takes some time to make them feel safe again.” Unicef is among 35 international and non-government organizations helping quake victims in Padang, the National Disaster Management Agency said on a notice board at an operations center in the capital of West Sumatra province. Others include World Vision, the Australian government’s AusAID and Habitat for Humanity International. There are about 4,000 volunteers working in Padang now. Hope Fading Rescuers said hope of finding more survivors is fading. The death toll as of 9 a.m. yesterday was 603, the National Disaster Management Agency said on its notice board. At least 30,630 homes were destroyed in the city, it said. “Many thousands” remain trapped under crushed buildings, the United Nations said in a statement on its Web site. The earthquake, with an epicenter 79 kilometers from Padang, leveled homes, mosques and hotels. Casualties are greatest in the city with about 800,000 residents because high-rise buildings collapsed, trapping people, said Gagah Prakoso, spokesman for the Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency . Governments around the world have provided money and other aid such as medicine, tents, food and search teams with sniffer dogs. In coastal Sungai Limau village, also in Padang Pariaman district about 70 kilometers from Padang city, 45-year-old Elfi Ariyani recalled the disaster while holding her naked three- year-old son. ‘Earth Shook’ “I was outside when the earth shook violently followed by a loud noise,” she said. “The next thing I know, the whole house crashed in front of me. I screamed and screamed because my son was still inside the house sleeping in his room. Luckily we could save him,” she said, showing her son’s swollen leg. “He can’t walk. I haven’t seen a doctor yet because the hospital is so far away and I don’t have anyone to take me there. No one has come to help.” As the rescue phase ends, Unicef plans to help children deal with the upheaval by getting them back to school and giving them equipment to play, Kearney said. Unicef is bringing in recreation kits, including soccer balls and skipping ropes. Children who survive disasters often have nightmares that prevent them from returning to normal life, she said. “These things are not something that you should wait until everything is over, it should happen right now,” Kearney said. Children need “the kind of sports, the kind of music that brings joy,” she said. In Toboh Kuranji village, Chika’s single mother Neli points at the pile of rubble 10 meters away that used to be her family home. “What we have on now is the only thing left, everything else is destroyed,” she said. “I was so lucky that I got her and her sister out in time,” she added, pointing at Chika and her seven-year-old sister. “I didn’t have time to salvage anything.” To contact the reporters on this story: Soraya Permatasari at soraya@bloomberg.net .

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