Overcoming the Class 5 Rapids
This has been quite a year so far for the global economy. The collapse of the mortgage market and much of the rest of the loan market in the U.S. has spread around the world. Energy prices have soared, reacting not just to global demand and supply fears but to the extremely weak dollar (which came about in part because of the mortgage collapse), as this country slowly awakens to the ramifications of our energy gluttony. Food prices, driven in part by the diversion of farmland toward biofuels, have skyrocketed, literally starving whole communities around the world and throwing local …
From the President
One of the most amazing days of my professional life was the day more than a decade ago that I spent as keynote speaker for a conference of the people in charge of General Motors’ environmental policies and procedures in plants around North America. There were hundreds of them, many of whom had Ph.D.’s. They were very interested and supportive when faced with an unedited speaker advocating stronger environmental policies and complete disclosure of results. On another day, a visit with the General Motors’ crash test dummies, watching steering wheel columns hurtle into the surrogate humans in car seats at …
The Current Sub-prime Tsunami
There are thousands of lives that are tragically altered, and their stories do not make headlines dominated by the huge mortgage companies, banks and brokerage firms that created the greed-driven implosion and now whine about their own fate. …
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Here’s something to think about: “The 2006 “Broccoli report” showed that broccoli produced in Sweden led to 60% less greenhouse emissions than imported broccoli. And 99% of all broccoli that is consumed in Sweden is imported, with Spain and and Ecuador as major exporters. Interestingly enough, transporting the broccoli from Ecuador produced about 40% of the greenhouse gas emissions of transporting Spanish broccoli even though the broccoli from Ecuador is transported 12,000 km compared to 3,200 km for Spanish broccoli. Ecuador’s broccoli is shipped by boat to Rotterdam, by feeder boat to Gothenburg, Sweden, and then by truck to Stockholm. …
Performance
The word “performance” in modern times has produced everything from Viagra to ergogenic supplements to insider trading. …
Christmas Lights(A)
The ushering in of 2007 is behind us, with all the promises and parties, and the removal of holiday lights from lawns, bushes, trees, rooftops and windows. Not to be missed by some of us are the giant inflated Disney-like lighted characters that die rather messy deaths during the day and come to life at night. We asked one owner of four such characters why she has them crowding her lawn and she candidly said “to keep up with the neighbors”. A good friend of mine (with tongue in cheek and undoubtedly blinded by an exuberant neighbor) sent these scary …
Milton Friedman and Us(A)
Milton Friedman passed away recently at the age of 94. “Among economic scholars, Milton Friedman had no peer,” Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Chairman, said. “The direct and indirect influences of his thinking on contemporary monetary economics would be difficult to overstate.” [1] Although Milton Friedman directly attacked socially responsible investing, I mourn his passing, for he caused all of us who work with and around money to think, to stretch our imaginations, and test our theories of economic systems that would better care for and preserve the populations of the Earth and the planet itself. Importantly, for most …
A Cancer Diagnosis(A)
You learn very quickly when diagnosed with cancer – everything is relative! …
Ethics and Honor(A)
We need to take a much deeper look at our system from the investor through the corporate manager – past the worship of wealth and power to ethics and honor. …
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