Ben Powell, SUEconomic’s faculty advisor, lectures on what we should be thankful for this Thanksgiving!

Feast and football.
That’s what many of us think about at Thanksgiving. Most people identify the origin of the holiday with the Pilgrims’ first bountiful harvest. But few understand how the Pilgrims actually solved their chronic food shortages.

Many people believe that after suffering through a severe winter, the Pilgrims’ food shortages were resolved the following spring when the Native Americans taught them to plant corn and a Thanksgiving celebration resulted. In fact, the pilgrims continued to face chronic food shortages for three years until the harvest of 1623. Bad weather or lack of farming knowledge did not cause the pilgrims’ shortages. Bad economic incentives did.

In 1620 Plymouth Plantation was founded with a system of communal property rights. Food and supplies were held in common and then distributed based on “equality” and “need” as determined by Plantation officials. People received the same rations whether or not they contributed to producing the food, and residents were forbidden from producing their own food. Governor William Bradford, in his 1647 history, Of Plymouth Plantation, wrote that this system “was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort.” The problem was that “young men, that were most able and fit for labour, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense.” Because of the poor incentives, little food was produced.

Faced with potential starvation in the spring of 1623, the colony decided to implement a new economic system. Every family was assigned a private parcel of land. They could then keep all they grew for themselves, but now they alone were responsible for feeding themselves. While not a complete private property system, the move away from communal ownership had dramatic results.

This change, Bradford wrote, “had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.” Giving people economic incentives changed their behavior. Once the new system of property rights was in place, “the women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability.”

Once the Pilgrims in the Plymouth Plantation abandoned their communal economic system and adopted one with greater individual property rights, they never again faced the starvation and food shortages of the first three years. It was only after allowing greater property rights that they could feast without worrying that famine was just around the corner.

We are direct beneficiaries of the economics lesson the pilgrims learned in 1623. Today we have a much better developed and well-defined set of property rights. Our economic system offers incentives for us—in the form of prices and profits—to coordinate our individual behavior for the mutual benefit of all; even those we may not personally know.

It is customary in many families to “give thanks to the hands that prepared this feast” during the Thanksgiving dinner blessing. Perhaps we should also be thankful for the millions of other hands that helped get the dinner to the table: the grocer who sold us the turkey, the truck driver who delivered it to the store, and the farmer who raised it all contributed to our Thanksgiving dinner because our economic system rewards them. That’s the real lesson of Thanksgiving. The economic incentives provided by private competitive markets where people are left free to make their own choices make bountiful feasts possible.

If your business has been essentially the same size for several years, inertia has probably become a much stronger deterrent to the growth of your company than any economic downturn.

Where’s the incentive for bright, ambitious younger people to want to work for your company? 

What’s the impetus for investing in new technology, systems, and approaches?

Why would a prospective customer realistically expect that you would be able to handle a big account/project? (trust you?) (believe you could?)

What will prevent you from becoming bored someday after doing essentially the same job (tasks) year after year after year?

If these questions resonate for you, ask yourself what size your company would need to be to

• be more exciting, less routine?
• require that new skills be acquired and new ideas learned?
• generate markedly increased net profit (income) for you and others?
• attract interesting well paying customers/projects?
• provide career opportunities for hard working dependable employees?
• increase your options for succession when the time comes?
• help momentum replace inertia? 

The transformation from inertia to momentum often involves expansion of the leadership team for an infusion of energy. Start there. Imagine the leadership team that you would need to truly break inertia. Do the math. What would their compensation packages add up to? What percentage of the company’s budget should be invested in executive/management compensation? OK. What size will your company need to be to have replaced inertia with momentum?

I’ll bet it isn’t incremental change like the +2-5% goals in many annual business plans.

…für eine große Veranstaltung März 2010 mit mehr als 250 Gästen.

Story from Yahoo News.

Excerpt:

A Nova Scotia court has ruled that a former university student does not have to pay back tens of thousands of dollars he borrowed from a bank.
Alfredo Abdo won his case in bankruptcy court this week, with the court concluding that the Royal Bank of Canada was at least partly responsible for what happened.

“I question whether advancing all that money at one time was prudent banking on the part of RBC,” registrar Richard Cregan said in a written decision.

Abdo was a promising engineering student at Dalhousie University in September 2004. He had good grades, a scholarship and lived at home with this family.

In his second year, at the age of 19, he borrowed $20,000 from RBC though a student line of credit. He made bad investments online, according to court documents, and he accepted an offer from the bank for another loan of $30,000 to solve his problem.

Abdo started having dizzy spells. Finding his engineering program very stressful, he switched to commerce. But he dropped out of university in his third year.

The dizziness and social anxiety never went away, Abdo said, and therefore he couldn’t work or pay back the bank loans. He filed for bankruptcy last November.

The Canadian court probably thinks that they are compassionate, good people sticking it to the corporations. But actually what they’ve done is caused the banks to think a second time about making loans to borderline cases, so that the poorest students will now be refused student loans. If the courts refuse to enforce contracts signed by both parties, then the banks just won’t enter in to those contracts.

Down in New Zealand, they have the same problem.

Excerpt:

Thousands of people with student loans are defaulting on payments, leaving the Government to chase hundreds of millions of dollars.

More than one in five borrowers – or 114,000 people – have overdue payments and thousands of students are leaving tertiary education with no qualification and big bills.

The Education Ministry’s student loan scheme annual report shows that $306 million in payments is overdue, a $100m increase from a year ago.

The substantial growth includes a big rise in the level of payments owed by people now living overseas, more than doubling to $114m.

New Zealand University Students Association co-president Sophia Blair said it was not surprising that students with loans were heading overseas and letting the bills mount. “You can earn higher wages [overseas].”

[...]Total student loan debt had reached $10.2 billion and is predicted to grow by an average of $875m a year to more than $20b by 2022.

The report also showed about 39 per cent of students who left tertiary education with a loan did so without achieving a qualification.

About 8000 students with loans who left study in 2005 had nothing to show for it by 2007.

New Zealand, if I understand correctly is a fairly left-wing country, which probably subsidizes tuition and taxes income. So, students would be incentivized to game the system by taking out loans backed by the government, and then leaving to work abroad in more capitalist economies. Socialism encourages people to game the system and avoid taking responsibility for their own decisions.

UPDATE: New Zealand blogger Madeleine Flanagan wrote to me in an e-mail:

It’s old news, it has been the same way for years and years and that story comes out every year but as always it is interesting.

Your assessment is pretty spot on. In New Zealand student loans are pretty much available to anyone who applies for one. Acceptance at University or an alternative tertiary institution is not difficult, especially once you are over 20 as the institutions want your money – they get more funding the more students they have. Student loans are interest free and you do not have to begin repayments until you finish study. The state funds something like 75% of the tuition fees directly anyway so the loan is only for 25% of the actual cost. There are benefits available for living costs and if you don’t qualify for them you can borrow living costs and have them added to your student loan. So it is set up to make it easy to get into debt.

Being a fairly left-wing country there is a lot of regulation in the market place so of course you can pretty much always earn more overseas and once overseas the state cannot garnish your wages to get your student loan repayment.

The system has some fairly bad holes in it. For example, people who are being funded for Uni by they employer, like I was pre-accident, to study can take the cash for tuition fees from their employer, invest it and then take out an interest free student loan to pay their tuition fees. At the completion of study they then pay off the loan with the invested funds and pocket the interest – compliments of the taxpayer. Only students with cash coming from somewhere can do that as your student loan gets paid straight to the education provider apparently a lot of students with wealthy parents do this too.

As if this situation were not bad enough, organizations like New Zealand University Students Association (NZUSA), quoted below whinging about the level of pay rates in New Zealand , typically also whinge that education is not “free” anymore like it used to be when the politicians went to Uni! They argue that being educated to tertiary level benefits society so therefore society should pay for all of it (and have much higher wages).

New Zealand is crazy.

Madeleine and her husband Matt write at MandM blog.

I’ve made no progress, these past many months. Still sitting at 290ish. And now, I’m prediabetic.

How do I know?

Earlier this year, my husband was diagnosed with diabetes after he had started feeling sick nearly every day. His vision was blurring and in the evenings he was feeling woozy and sick to his stomach–as if he had motion sickness. His eye doctor spotted the signs first and advised a blood sugar test. At first he was in denial–we both were. But it kept happening, and finally he went into the doctor. Sure enough, his fasting sugar was high. Too high.

We have no medical insurance, so now he’s got a label and no insurance. Since the beginning of this year, and his diagnosis in February, he’s managed to get his eating under control, and has lost over 30 lbs. He’s brought his A1C blood test numbers out of the 8s and down to the low 6s, a range his doctor is very happy with. He’s done it without medication.

Meanwhile, I had lost 30 lbs at the beginning of the year and gained it back again. And now, I’m showing symptoms. We’ve used my husband’s testing kit to check my fasting blood sugar in the morning and its in the healthy range but in the evenings I’m not. I just had my husband check my sugar and it was sitting at 134. This weekend I spiked a 202. This isn’t good.

I have to get this under control, now before I’m full blown. How many chances is it going to take? How many warnings do I get before I don’t get anymore?

It has to stop now. I have to change my life.

“All riches have their origin in mind. Wealth is in ideas – not money.”

Some of us are born in a silver lining. It is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, I would say “just capitalize on it.” But then, there is no shortcut to success. Yes, even in our age of Quad Core and Mach 3 travel.

Not many of us seem to have the patience for anything these days. A person in front of us in a queue is often one too many. On the other hand, some believe that success in business is about finding the fastest way to achieve our business objectives. For instance, to buy talent rather than grooming them internally and so forth.

For all of us, dad and mum can only help so much, and if there is a real shortcut to success, it is the one fact that the three richest men in the world: Warren Buffet, William Gates and Carlos Helu Slim, agreed upon. It is called “hard work.”

“A poor man is not one without a cent. A poor man is the one without a dream – it’s the mind that makes a man rich.”

The point is if you are not creating value with what you do, if you are a consumer of idea and products rather than creator of value, then you may not meet success.

This editorial from South Carolina’s  News & Observer advocates an idea that isn’t new but is still radical: that financial incentives to recruit businesses aren’t worth it.  The author, Dr. Jesse L. White, Jr., writes:

The headlines on two consecutive days said it all: Dell Computer closing shop and laying off over 900 workers and Cree Inc. adding almost 600 jobs. The difference: Dell – headquartered in Texas – was lured to North Carolina with the promise of over $300 million in incentives, while Cree – a homegrown business spun out of N.C. State University technology – requested no state incentives (although in fairness Cree did get an incentive a few years back to build an expansion plant).When are we going to halt public expenditures on the “buffalo hunt” for footloose industry and instead focus our resources and efforts on the sector that produces by far most of the jobs – existing industry and homegrown business?

One of the important  ideas that the author touches, which many discussions on this topic overlook, is the issue of the opportunity costs of incentives.  Economics 101 students learn that an opportunity cost is the value of the other choice that you could have made.  When my 11 year old’s money burns a hole in his pocket (happens a lot) and he buys a new game for his DSi, he is learning that the opportunity cost will become apparently very quickly — usually the next time he sees an ad for a new Lego set or finds out that all his friends are riding skateboards.

As White points out,

Imagine if the South in general and North Carolina in particular had put all of the money spent on industrial recruitment into education, training and small business support. We would be watching even more Quintiles, Cree, PPD, Southern Seasons, Performance Bicycle and other homegrown entrepreneurial success stories all across North Carolina. And, although there are no silver bullets in economic development, homegrown businesses are more likely to stay put, invest in the local community, provide stable civic leadership and keep the control and wealth local instead of away at some remote corporate headquarters.

Two of my principles of sustainable economic development are that one-shot solutions almost never work, and that one of the most important things that any economic developer can do is to grow local businesses - for all the reasons that Dr. White identified.

Imagine, if we invested in growing what sprouts in our communities instead of exhausting our resources trying to transplant one exotic species, how much more growth would we enjoy?

http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/columnists_blogs/other_views/story/184804.html

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Blij met onderstaand verslag van een Incentive ingestuurd door een klant.

In september vertrokken wij met 40 deelnemers voor een hele bijzondere reis georganiseerd door Moja Croatia naar Kroatië. Op de luchthaven van Keulen stond de reisleidster van Moja Croatia ons op te wachten bij de incheckbalie van German Wings. Nadat we onze bagage hadden ingecheckt was het tijd voor de eerste kennismaking onder het genot van een kopje koffie. Na een prettige vlucht landde we precies op tijd op de luchthaven van Zadar. Van herfstweer kwamen we in heerlijk zomerweer terecht, na een korte rit kwamen we in ons hotel aan. Een klein en mooi familiehotel gelegen aan het strand. Het avonddiner genoten we met elkaar op het terras.

De volgende dag hebben we kennis gemaakt met de lokale gids en vertrokken we richting Skradin. Per boot gingen we richting naar Skradinski buk ,naar de beroemde Krka watervallen. We bezochten een ethno tentoonstelling en de oude molens aan de rivier en genoten van een heerlijke lunch op een boerenhoeve, bij dé Kroaten thuis.

Dag 3 bestond uit een boottocht naar de beroemde Kornati-eilanden, we hadden ook deze dag schitterend weer waardoor de zee een prachtige schittering gaf. De Kornati-eilanden behoren tot het één van de nationale parken van Kroatië, en zijn absoluut een bezoek waard als men er in de buurt ( omgeving Zadar) is. De lunch genoten we met elkaar in een restaurantje in Telašćica bay. Daarna bezochten we de Telašćica kliffen. In de avond keerden we moe maar voldaan terug in het hotel waar we ons diner kregen.

De volgende ochtend na het ontbijt met de bus na het nabijgelegen Obrovac, eerste dronken we temidden tussen de lokale bevolking op een gezellig terras een kopje koffie, daarna richting Kaštel Žegarski voor een adembenemende kanosafari naar Muškovci. De kanotocht duurde ongeveer 3 uur en de natuur die wij daar te zien gekregen is zo ongelofelijk mooi, doordat alle gasten verrukt waren van datgene wat we ook nu weer aan moois te zien gekregen waren er genoeg pauzes ingelast om veel mooie plaatjes te maken. Na de kanotocht genoten we van een lunch op een boerderij met heerlijke prsut (lokale gerookte ham), kaas, olijven, vijgen, brood en lekkere wijn. Tegen de avond terug naar ons hotel voor het diner. De vijfde dag was een ochtend ter vrije besteding, gebruik gemaakt van het strand en gezwommen in de zee die nu nog 22 graden was. In de middag brachten we met elkaar een bezoek aan Zadar met onze reisleidster en een professionele gids. Onze reisleidster vertelde dat zij het liefst zo veel mogelijk met lokale gidsen werken,dit ter bescherming van hun (Kroaten) eigen werkgelegenheid en omdat lokale gidsen toch over het algemeen veel meer weten van alle in’s en out’s. Fijn vonden wij wel dat onze Nederlandse reisleidster voortdurend erbij was, dat gaf toch wel dat stukje toegevoegde waarde, zeker omdat zij zo vertrouwd is met Kroatië en er al zo lang komt, zij wist ons zoveel te vertellen. Na een mooie wandeling startte de avond panorama cruise rondom de stad Zadar en omgeving. Aan boord van het schip kregen wij een lichte avond maaltijd met verrukkelijke Dalmatische specialiteiten. De volgende dag vertrokken we voor een bezoek aan het bergendorpjes Krasno en Kuterevo, alwaar een wildreservaat is voor beren en we gingen naar Smiljan, een historisch dorpje en de geboorteplaats van de bekende wetenschapper Nikola Tesla. Een dag ook weer waar we zoveel moois te zien kregen. De natuur is Kroatië is zo ongekend mooi, nooit geweten dat dit land zoveel mooie natuur heeft. De een na laatste dag was een dag ter vrije besteding, als afscheid werden we in de avond getrakteerd op een dorpsfeest op een boerenhoeve, we genoten van de lokale specialiteiten, er as live muziek en we dansten de hele avond door. Een mooier afscheid van deze bijzondere reis konden we ons niet wensen. En dus namen we de volgende dag met moeite afscheid van een prachtige reis in een schitterend Kroatië. Zie ook: www.mojacroatia.nl

Vous êtes un Comité d’Entreprise, Etudiant ou un Groupe d’amis, sollicitez RSO la Plagne pour organiser votre séjour, mini séjour ou votre week-end à la montagne

Avec toute l’équipe de professionnels RSO la Plagne, profitez du formidable terrain de jeu qu’est la montagne pour partir a la découverte. de nouvelles sensations et de paysages exceptionnels en toute sécurité Nous vous proposons une multitude de formules adaptées au plus près de vos besoins afin que vous profitiez au maximum de votre séjour.

 Détente – Sportif – Aventure – Team Building – Ludique – Gastronomie

 Périodes :

                        Du 03 Janvier  au 06 Février et du 07 Mars au 03 Avril 2010

Prestations: 

Nous vous proposons une palette d’activités, selon vos envies à vous de décider…

 Ski & Snowboard : Piste, hors pistes, freeride, freestyle, randonée, découverte paradiski, slalom, skiercross, boardercross, ski nocturne, descente aux flambeaux

Nouvelles glisses : Telemak, yooner, snowscoot

 Activités hivernales : Moto neige, luge, raquette, bobsleigh, parapente, ski jooring, chien de traineau

 Séminaires et Teambuilding : Olympiades, chasse aux trésors, construction d’igloo, course d’orientation, sports collectifs, escalade…

 Formation : Neige et avalanches

 Gastronomie : Soirée en refuge, babecue…

German railway company, ‘Deutsche Bahn’, has utilised an interesting incentive to help spread their online video which encourages consumers to take the train in order to help the environment.

For every view of the video below, which presents some interesting comparisons between the environmental impact of different lifestyle choices, the company pledge to donate 10 cents to the ‘Bergwald Project’, a forestry conservation charity who plant trees in Germany.

It’s an interesting and sensible approach to help spread word-of-mouth whilst promoting a responsible persona. However, it seems like they missed a trick by not incorporating any sign of embed / sharable options within the video.

Take a look (and contribute to global conservation) below:

About two years ago I started my first business venture. The best advice I got was to ensure that my product was “sexy”. That, of course, startled me until I thought further into the meaning of sexy in society. Being sexy comes with discovery, excitement, and risk. Nothing lasts unless it can keep its sexiness. In a society where sex has always been taboo, making things seems sexy is the best way to get people’s attention and in turn their money. The news has become flashy, over exaggerated, and some anchors look as if they could work as models on the side. In politics, having an affair seems like a great way to jump start your career. As I study economics, I can only think that sex seems to be society’s greatest incentive. Sex not only sells, but it is the best salesman (or saleswoman). If people cannot be convinced to change their incentives, then the rules need to change in order to make other incentives… well, better incentives.

This seems like an inappropriate way to start an article about the stock market but to me, the stock market sells sex. Why is the stock market sexy? It involves discovery, excitement, and risk. The stock market is less about financing business and more about gambling. The stock market is like a game of poker or owning a fantasy football team, except the stakes are higher. The same way people trade players for the upcoming week, a broker sells and buys new stocks to make portfolios more profitable. However, the problem I see arising is that the market is judged less on performance and more on opinion. A fantasy football league that counts projected points more than actual would not be fair. A worse problem occurs when some players know the outcome before it actually happens. Traders sometimes have inside information and can sell or buy a stock before the public knows the outcome. Isn’t this the same situation as a dealer informing a poker player of the next card in the deck before he makes his or her bets? I think so. More often than not I think the value of a company on the stock market hardly reflects their actual profitability.

The stock market is legalized gambling at its best. The stock market is a place for deceit and manipulation at its worst. I really hate to hear people say, “When the market goes down, the money invested just disappears.” This is false. The last person to sell the stock before it went down acquired all the value and left the buyer with nothing. That’s along the lines of stealing. The question is: why would you ever buy something from someone when the only reason they would sell it is because the value will go down? To the same effect, why would you ever sell something to someone when you know they are buying it because they think its value will rise? Obviously, in this transaction, one agent knows something the other person does not know. I have no problem with gambling, but when players are misinformed and even deceived there comes a point where someone in authority should step in and let people know the real rules of the game and the actual cards they are being dealt. The stock market and its players use the sex appeal of high stakes gambling to distract investors from what is actually happening to their money.

Here are my solutions to these problems:

Make information your incentive, not sexiness. The more you know the better off you are. If you feel like you are taking a risk, remember it is only a risk because you are ill informed. Other people in the market have detailed information, statistical analysis, and better resources to receive important information faster than you.

Change the way the market works by offering stock in physical products. Why should you invest in the company when you could invest in their products just the same? Companies should offer contracts, which would basically be payment plans, for products that can be publicly traded. For example, buy $10,000 worth of stock in Iphones. Now you literally own contracts on $10,000 worth of Iphones that the company can feel safe producing (making you a sort of retailer). Then, incremental payments are made to the company based on the value stated in the contract; let’s say $500 a month. These contracts can be bought or sold on the market for any value agreed to by the buyer and seller depending on the price of the actual product. For every payment you make to the company, they pay you back interest. At the end of the contract you can either collect all your Iphones (which would be silly) or let the company sell them and have them pay you back for the price it was sold. Even if the Iphone is cheaper at the end of your contract, you can make an agreement to be reimbursed part of or the whole difference plus the interest owed. The company has an incentive to do this because they receive vital information as to the demand for their products based on how much stock in the product was bought. It wouldn’t matter as much if the IPhones were left unused as long as they were paid for. Also, they are receiving payments from you that they can use to invest in technology to make production cheaper or create new innovative products. This would also reduce marketing costs substantially because the company would have to do less research.

Even if you wanted to buy a house, it would be more efficient to make a contract payment plan before you planned on buying the house. If you didn’t have the income necessary to buy it at the time, instead of taking out costly loans, you could pay for it in small increments are get it in the future. If you end up not wanting whatever product you contracted, you could always sell the contract at any time to someone else who wants it, at a gain or loss. The best part about this type of stock is the executives of the company do not decided what to do with your money; your investment goes straight to production, which means keeping employees at work. In economics, uncertainty breaks the mold of assumptions and makes analysis ineffective. However, if individuals began securing contracts on most of their purchases in the long term it would provide information that would make predicting the business cycle that much easier, allowing intervention to be more honest and informed.

Business follows whatever incentives are most popular amongst their consumers. Consumers need to send the message that fairness, education and information, and stability is in high demand, not risk.

Alex Kalish is pursing a joint BS/MS in Economics at Suffolk University.

Salve gente, Aurea Agencies Ltd. è lieta di informarvi che la società costruttrice nell’UAE della quale siamo fieri di promuovere con esclusiva per l’Italia:

THE FIRST GROUP vince il “CNBC ARABIAN PROPERTY AWARDS”!

Il CNBC International Property Awards (CNBC Proprietà Premi Internazionali) è aperto ai professionisti di proprietà residenziali e commerciali in tutto il globo. Celebra i livelli più alti di conseguimento delle società che operano nei settori della proprietà ed industria dei beni immobiliari.

I premi sono divisi in regioni che coprono: America, Asia, Europa e Africa, Arabia e Regno Unito. I Partecipanti entrano nella competizione nazionale ed attinente e sono giudicati da un’equipe estremamente esperta e professionale che copre una serie intera di discipline delle proprietà.

Nel concorso “2009 CNBC Arabian Property Awards” THE FIRST GROUP si aggiudica quattro premi impressionanti per le categorie seguenti;

Il più Bell’Appartamento Residenziale per The Bridge
L’Eccellente Architettura Residenziale per The Matrix
Il miglior Sviluppo Residenziale per i suoi quattro edifici a Dubai Sports City.
Migliore Sviluppo Marketing.

Avendo vinto quattro premi al livello Arabo, THE FIRST GROUP competerà in seguito sul palcoscenico mondiale nelle categorie:

Il più bell’Appartamento (The Bridge Penthouse).
Migliore Sviluppo Marketing.

visita le nostre proposte immobiliari a Dubai.

Rimani aggiornato sulle novità del nostro blog, potrai avere informazioni sui passaggi chiave e le idee proposte delle nostre proprietà immobiliari nei mercati emergenti? Registrati, inserendo i tuoi dati nel campo collocato sotto!Lascia un tuo commento e se vuoi il numero telefonico un nostro consulente ti ricontatterà direttamente.

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Hey if you already have AT&T Wireless, and you have a Mastercard Credit Card or Debit Card, hey, bonus free $20.

Enjoy…

With the new wave of political thought in the air, it seems that one trend stays the same: the majority of the intelligent population tend to stay out of politics.

“Dwayne,” one may say “intelligent in what sense?” Let me be sure to cover my base, saying that I am in no way insulting our current leaders’ mental capacity. I will be the first to say that many of our politicians are much smarter than I am (and thankfully I can comfortably say that about our current President).

I am referring to human behavior. From my outside and perhaps too businesslike view, below are a few reasons why I believe the “intelligent” stay out of politics.

1. Government is Inefficient
From the community level, all the way up to the federal, if you want something done quickly, do NOT go into politics.  All of the rules, regulations, operating procedures, and “watchdogs” (as well as the lack thereof) are so counter-productive, that nothing gets done. The phrase “red tape” and “bureaucracy” belong in the government realm for a reason.

2.  Want to Please Everyone, but Protect the Minority?
Our system is built on the thought that the minority must be protected against the majority. That’s where the Electoral College came from. That’s where the House of Representatives and the Senate came from. So, how are we supposed to expect fairness and equality? Fairness according to whom? The system? The majority? Or the minority? You decide. Oh wait…

3. Too Many Hands in One Pot
Everyone wants to have a say in something. Do we really need a bunch of egomaniacs who think they know what’s best for their constituents (when in reality they are more worried about reelection than actual policy)? I am not implying that I know a better system, but I would much rather sit outside and enjoy the show.

4. Government is Entangled with Economics…Ahh!
Once again, there is a place for government to interfere in certain business practices. It can be a consumer, and it could also be a competitor. But for it to disallow certain practices?  Come on now, the market (if we believe in free enterprise, of course) should be able to decide the winners and losers. Oh wait…enter today’s financial crisis. Government “by free enterprise, uh, we meant-” nope, no excuse needed. You all in charge can be replaced. Thank you democracy.

5. The Private Sector is in Charge Anyways
Ah yes, Capitalism. Until government policy is no longer affected by the Corporate powers-that-be, why go into politics? I have never seen a group of people so willing to be puppets.

Now here is where I contradict myself, and willingly so. Human nature needs order. Thankfully, our government gives this population the perception of order, which is fantastic. The theory of public citizenship is wonderful, and democracy-giving people the power and belief that their vote matters- is sorely needed. So, although my views of the political arena is poisoned with what I would consider as reality, I am very thankful for those who think otherwise.

Cheers,

DW

Having read Adam Jacobs’ The Pathologies of Big Data and Stefano Mazzocchi’s Data Smoke and Mirrors I found myself asking: what is the motivation for people to publish linked data, and in turn to consume it (sounds funny you think? well, just because the data is available doesn’t necessarily mean it is useful or actually used

Ok, so let’s start with a nice statement from Adam’s ACM article:

Here’s the big truth about big data in traditional databases: it’s easier to get the data in than out.

Yup, I think I agree and I guess the same is true for Linked Data. There are tons of ‘cheap’ ways to publish in RDF (for example, regarding relational databases, we’re currently try to define a standard). However, there is still a need for high quality data and high quality links between the data items in order to allow the data to be used sensibly in applications!

Right, so my hunch is that for data providers there are a couple of reasons to publish their data in an open and easily accessible way, but I guess one main reason may be that due to providing the raw data, one can simply cut costs. Rather than writing a Web application that serves humans and offering an additional Web service/API (such as flickr or delicious did) , one can expose the original data directly via Linked Data and open up the possibility for others to develop cool applications on top of it (see also our recent work in this direction).

On the other hand, data consumers benefit from a single (RESTful) API with a uniform data model (RDF, in case it isn’t that obvious , which in turn enables simplified development of applications and allows the reuse of data (just like the BBC doesn’t have to maintain the artist and song data themselves anymore, but reuses MusicBrainz data).

Let me know – what is your incentive to publish/consume Linked Data?

I’m proud to have served my nation in the uniform armed services, having done so voluntarily. I think every young American should do similarly. And, I believe our nation should provide significant benefit to those whom so choose.

Some years ago, I envisioned what I called a “234 Plan,” which would:

1. Double pay grade for two years up to pay grade E-3 for initial enlistees;
2. Require a minimum of Four Years of service;
3. Pay for four years of higher education, up to and including Ph.D., with the ability to transfer benefits to first-degree relatives;

and perhaps most importantly,

4. Provide such income as federally Tax-Free, forever.

At current pay rates, that would be slightly under $76,000 for a period of two years at pay grade E-3 – not a bad nest egg. And then, there’s the 30 days paid vacation, head-to-toe health care, incentive/bonus pay for skills, BAH (basic allowance for housing), and a host of other remunerations and fiduciary potential – all of which are added to Basic Pay, thereby increasing take-home pay. Potentially, managing money wisely, a young enlistee could emerge from a four year commitment with very nearly $125,000 in pocket, VA health benefits, GI Bill benefits, and more.

The money could be used wisely, or squandered. But the principle would forever be federally tax-free – and I think it should be at the state level, as well. It’s well known that young enlistees have high levels of “disposable” income. But WISE fiscal management could yield significant benefits to them individually, and by extension, to our nation.

Part three of the plan I envisioned – higher education – was implemented when President Obama signed the Post 9/1 G.I. Bill, providing the most comprehensive expansion and provision of educational benefits our troops have received since F.D.R.’s presidency.

I recollect a report entitled “Young Virginians: Ready, Willing, and Unable to Serve,” having read and saved it September 2, this year. It was authored and advised by an impressive cadre of Generals, Admirals, field-grade officers, and senior executive NCOs, from all branches of the service, and “supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, and Pre-K Now, campaign of the Pew center on the States.”

Interestingly, NPR has only recently reported on it.

The problems the report addresses are from a thorough examination of Virginia, though it’s findings can be extrapolated to the United States at large.

According to the report, the three greatest problems disqualifying American youth from service to our nation include:

1.) Criminality – felony and serious misdemeanor offense;

2.) Education – failure to graduate high school, and low achievement in reading & math, 30% unable to pass the Armed Forces Qualification Test; and

3.) Health – specifically obesity, although asthma, eyesight, hearing, mental health, ADHD and additional health problems factor in, thereby disqualifying over half of all young adults.

Additional disqualifiers include single custodial parenthood, and drug or alcohol abuse.

These are all social ills.

“Mission: Readiness – Military Leaders for Kids is a bipartisan, nonprofit, national security organization of more than 80 retired generals and admirals,” whom “accept no funds from federal, state, or local governments,”  and “call on all policymakers to ensure America’s security and prosperity by supporting interventions proven to help America’s youth succeed academically, stay physically fit, and abide by the law. Pre-K Now collaborates with organizations and policy makers to lead a movement toward high-quality, voluntary pre-kindergarten for all 3- and 4-year-olds.”

In recent political history, social programs have been an “easy target” for many of the Republican stripe whom have seriously reduced or eliminated such programs’ funding, effectively or outright killing the very programs that could have done much to have prevented these anathemas.

Ironically, prison construction and maintenance is a capital expenditure. And of all the world’s nations, ours has more incarcerations per capita than any other, having exploded (doubling 2.5 times) since 1980 (though incarcerations remained relatively stable since 1920, according to the U.S. Department of Justice).

How’s that THAT for the so-called “Reagan Revolution?” It sounds more like a “Contract on America” rather than “with America,” to me.

Wonder why no more.

Governance is much more than infrastructure expenditures, and military readiness includes a strong social component.

Our Constitution calls it providing “for the common defense,” by promoting “the general welfare,” to “secure the blessings of liberty.”

Healthcare is an integral and unequivocal part of that equation… as we can now painfully, and plainly see.

I suppose it would be apropos and germane – though perhaps trite – to conclude with a line from advertising: “You can pay me now… or, pay me later.”

On Top of the World

(Poem by Dean Alfange)

This is a simple & powerful poem depicting the individualistic principle of man, his right to freedom & choice, to live a life of his own choosing, to enjoy the fruits of his own labour, to stand tall & be counted for all his actions, to do the right things by his conscience, to undertake all things big & small in the final reckoning of what it means to be a Man! It shows the strength of character – a citizen that any nation would be proud to have!  (P. Chong)

Dean Alfange

I do not choose to be a common man

It is my right to be uncommon if I can

I seek opportunity not security

I do not wish to be a kept citizen,

humble & deluded

by having the State to look after me.

I want to take the calculated risk,

to dream & to build, to fail & to succeed.

I refuse to barter incentive for a dole

I prefer the challenges of life to dole

I prefer the challenges of life

to the guaranteed existence;

the thrill of fulfilment

instead of a stale Utopia.

I will not trade freedom for beneficence

nor my dignity for a handout.

I will not cower before any master

nor bend to any threat.

It is my heritage to stand erect, proud & unafraid,

to think & act for myself,

to enjoy the benefits of my creations

and to face the world boldly,

and to say: “This I have done”.

All this is what it means to be a MAN.

Dean Alfange

An American statesman born December 2, 1899, in Constantinople (now Istanbul). He was raised in upstate New York. He was Professor Emeritus at UMass Amherst and a leading figure in various pro-Zionist organizations (between other actions, in November 1943, he appeared before the House of Representatives and addressed them on the rescue of the Jewish people of Europe). He died in Manhattan at the age of 91 on October 27, 1989.

The next step/ waiting maybe wrong

                                               in dark matter

An other thing/ a rung on a dark ladder

A nothing/

As it happens/ not to happen

The next step/ leg stiff/ fixing to flex

to a leg lift/

I’m fixing to find/ A gift of intentions

To move me to move/

given/ attention enough

to move on/ away from the station

IF the average Australian wonders how hundreds of Sri Lankans have recently managed to reach our waters without detection, there is no mystery on this side of the Indian Ocean…. From The Australian. Full story

This site may contain information about: sea temps. The blog is also related to: water currents.

IF the average Australian wonders how hundreds of Sri Lankans have recently managed to reach our waters without detection, there is no mystery on this side of the Indian Ocean…. From The Australian. Full story

This site may contain information about: sell boat. The blog is also related to: big boat.

Everyone knows that technology changes quickly.  So it’s surprising (at least to me) that licensing metrics for software are so difficult to change.  Purchasing contracts, license agreements, and license enforcement tend to lag technical milestones.  Sometimes this is a good thing – for instance, everyone waited out the predicted move to 64-bit servers during the development of the Itanium processor.  At other times, licensing metrics are not compatible with IT practices that develop due to technology – you license per-Ethernet port and they buy per-device.

Consumer packaged goods don’t usually have to keep pace with technical changes.  Cars are licensed per unit, not per cylinder, seat, or window.  In many ways software is licensed “per cylinder” which makes it susceptible to fundamental changes.  Think of the impact hybrid technology or turbo chargers would have on a per-cylinder vehicle licensing model during the current green movement.

What to disrupt when you’re disrupted

We’ve pointed out that people and organizations are change averse.  Potentially the only group more averse to the risk associated with change are the lawyers and contracts personnel that have to refine sales agreements into actual recognizable revenue.  Any change to a license metric raises the risk of damaging revenue streams, renegotiating existing contracts with customers, liability exposure, and unintended consequences.

If you’re a public company, your investors and board may vote to prevent metric changes – meaningful or not.  If you’re a private company, you might have the main stakeholders in your office more frequently than is comfortable for you and anyone else within earshot.

So when a fundamental market or technology shift occurs, whether you anticipated it or not, a progression of events occurs.  Each event may have a different sense of urgency associated with it.  I’ve loosely structured these events as follows (they are not a linear progression):

1. Detection
2. Assessment and internal product impact
3. First response (i.e. “we’re investigating it”)
4. Longevity determination
5. Business impacts (new business, existing customers, internal training, CRM, development)
6. Choosing what to disrupt
7. Use case development and forecasting
8. Testing with real customers and sales people
9. Rollout planning
10. Announcement and implementation

It’s not really a 10 step program.  It could be more or less.  It’s also an iterative and parallel process (unless you’re a Cylon and can forecast everything appropriately on your first assessment).

At the heart of this process is picking what you need to disrupt in your product and licensing program in order to respond appropriately.  Product managers will very likely have a mental list of possible disruptive changes that could be applied in any given situation.  This comes from intimate familiarity with existing licensing metrics and their involvement in the sales cycle.  Customers usually enthusiastically share licensing shortcomings with sales people and product managers.  I’ve never heard a customer say “Gosh, that licensing program you have exactly fits our situation!”

If you have a few product managers, it is important to develop an internal understanding of any disruptive change across all your products.  That means each product manager shares their disruptive ideas and they assess the impact of the relevant scenarios on their products.

There isn’t a need for consensus in this exercise – there is a need for communication, sharing the details, and estimating the impacts. 

Remember: there is no magic licensing metric that will serve all products and all customers equally.  It’s not a democracy – someone must decide what to disrupt and how to do it.

Finer points of metric disruptions

If the product managers, business development, and sales force are engaged, early detection of disruptive forces in technology, the market, or in customer buying patterns should be possible.  The real trick is understanding whether the disruptive change actually applies to your business and whether or not a response is needed.

Examples:

• Multi-core CPU’s and virtualization – if you license per-CPU or per-machine, you had better have a response before customers start rolling out new hardware.
• New competitors – if some other company has dipped into your market (accidentally or otherwise), understanding how they are engaging your customers may lead to a disruptive change.
• Buzzword compliance – long ago it was “open systems”, “year 2000” (Y2k); recently it was “application service providers” (ASPs), “web services”, and “service oriented architecture” (SOA); today it’s “software as a service” (SaaS), “the cloud”, and the “real-time enterprise.”
• Deployment of something new that removes barriers – wireless sensors, broadband availability, or digital content distribution infrastructure.

Is this potential disruption relevant to your business?  Is this disruption transient, or is it the real thing?  Is this disruption relevant to your customer base?  Can you use this disruption to corner the market?

While change is hard, sometimes your company and products are well situated to take advantage of the opportunity.

Don’t get caught flatfooted.  Develop a response to a disruptive force and share it appropriately.  Your response doesn’t have to be an actual change to products or licensing metrics.

No matter what, if that disruption is big enough to catch the attention of the IT or industry rags, your customers will eventually ask you about it.  Whether they’ll do anything about it is always unclear.  Sometimes these are “buyer persona” items and will never play a real role in your software or their business.  However, if you can’t check that box, you may not make that deal.

If it’s real, introduce it

The phases of this plan must be treated like a New Product Introduction – even if it requires no new features or software releases.  Major items include:

• Impact on your product – does it need to change?  What are the long-term implications to your current product’s trajectory?
• Development – what needs to change, and when can it happen?  This is a disruption, so it’s not part of your roadmap.  Even if it’s a terminology change, there may have to be an out-of-cycle release (urgency-dependent of course).
• Price list – how do you adapt your pricing?  Is it a new pricing column, or does it impact current licensing too?
• Revenue – if you’ve changed or augmented your price list, you need to forecast the business impact.  Validate in steps: internally in spreadsheets amongst your team against test cases you’ve developed, then involve a few sales people for pipeline impacts and real use cases, then business stakeholders, and finally, if you have a customer advisory council, attempt to validate the changes with them (accuracy may vary).
• Contracts – will this change create new contracts?  Will customers decide to migrate to this new scheme?  Will it be compulsory?  Are there revenue recognition changes?  What risks are forecasted?
• Marketing – do you need to announce this change?  What collateral, web site, or other updates are needed?
• CRM and manufacturing – implement the new changes, create part numbers, and create the required bill of materials (BOM) for both order processing and delivery.
• Training – whether it’s messaging, talking points, product manuals, or simply familiarizing the sales and business development teams with the new arrow in their quiver, you will get asked a lot of questions.  Hopefully you have prepared for that through your test scenarios and early involvement of some sales people in your revenue impact assessments.
• Preparation for changes – the law of unintended consequences rules the day.  You may have to retrench quickly after initial roll-out, so have a Plan B ready.

In case of emergency

There are many disaster scenarios that may be unavoidable. 

What if you have no data about revenue impacts?  This can be because of ad-hoc product bundling and order entry that doesn’t itemize revenue on a per-product basis.  Or perhaps it’s an entirely new product where no comparables exist and actual demand is unknown.  This exercise may also uncover significant issues such as weird sales discount practices, problems in your CRM and BOM implementation, and of course outlier pre-existing contracts.

What if you give away the farm accidentally?  Sometimes a licensing or pricing change may be good for new customer acquisition, but may unintentionally damage your ongoing software maintenance program (e.g. price list changes suddenly “give away” another existing product, or clever customers exploit a loophole you couldn’t close). 

It’s important to frame your roll out correctly.  Give yourself and escape hatch in case your pricing must self-destruct.  Some equivocation is acceptable – maybe it’s a limited time discount program, or a pilot program for a single industry or set of customers, or perhaps it’s a “product adoption” promotion.

Sometimes a disruptive change is beneficial beyond your expectations.  An example I walk past every day in New York’s East Village is referred to as “Dollar Pizza”.  You stand in line, hand over a dollar, you get a slice of basic cheese pizza.  A little more than a year ago, this pricing scheme was introduced as a “Grand Opening Special”.  Thanks to the proximity of NYU, the line for Two Brothers’ pizza is out the door from 10AM ‘til the wee hours of the morning.  A constant flow of pizza ingredients go into the shop, and no pizza stays out of the oven longer than 10 minutes (I’ve done repeated non-scientific observation).

The question for hungry, perhaps inebriated students is now: are other pizza slices 200 to 450% better than Two Brothers’? 

Is there a “dollar pizza” strategy you’ve overlooked?

I am often surprised at how many people do not know how real estate agents are paid and the selling power of the commission.  The commission is different for the seller and the buyer.

In Missouri, only the seller pays the commission.  The entire commission is split between the listing agent and the buyer’s agent, with the listing agent receiving a larger portion.  Each agent’s broker will then take a chunk of the agents’ commission and then the agents get paid. 

For example, say a seller agrees to a 6% commission and their home sells for $100,000.  Here is the breakdown:

Total commission:             $6,000 

Split between the agents:  Maybe 55% for the listing agent = $3,300, 

                                        45% for the buyer’s agent = $2,700. 

Most agents start out at roughly a 50/50 split with their brokerages.

                                        Listing agent will be paid a total of $1,650

                                        Buyer’s agent will make $1,350. 

For the listing agent, deduct the cost of advertising, brochures, and postcards (because the agent usually paid for those) and the commission is even smaller.  If the home doesn’t sell, the listing agent will lose money.  There are also expenses for the buyer’s agent.

If a buyer has never purchased real estate before, they may not know that they are not responsible for paying their agent.  Buyers, do not be afraid!  The commission is one cost you do not have to worry about.

Note to sellers – a higher payout to the buyers agent could be a good incentive for agents to show your property, especially for properties in the lower price ranges.  A good agent will work just as hard to sell at $100,000 property as $700,000 one but get paid less money.  Agents are hungry – get their attention!

Probabilmente chi ha proprietà commerciali a Dubai, è informato dell’apertura il 3 novembre di una conferenza, la Borsa Dubai Investitore International Conference New York 2009, incoraggiata da Goldman Sachs, Nasdaq Dubai in cooperazione con Citigroup Mercati Globali e il Mercato Finanziario di Dubai.

Essa Kazim, presidente della Borsa di Dubai ha detto: Il New York Based International Investors ha mostrato grande interesse nel meeting organizzato con diverse imprese commerciali di Dubai che riflette l’appetito enorme verso la nostra collettività.

Aggiunge che l’attesa è presentata come un’opportunità esclusiva dai due cambi avvenuti a Dubai.

1. Guadagnare dall’economia regionale che si spande.

2. Incentivi manifestati che, non essendoci a Dubai il capital gains o l’imposta sul reddito, contengono un rischio di cambio minimo.

C’è una certa quantità di managers a New York che si presenta alla conferenza di novembre, con un volume di riunioni che avvengono con società di Dubai sui due cambi conseguiti.

L’ordine di crescita per Borse Dubai è preso dal Piano Strategico Dubai 2015.

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