2013-04-18

Links And Comments

Say what you want about the way Simon Grey has phrased his point, his conclusion is spot-on, as usual: The only way to square the fact that the most able, ambitious, and accomplished women in North America are the ones most likely to be homemakers is to realize that being a homemaker is a more attractive option for them than being a working stiff like me. Naturally neither he (presumably) nor I (definitely not, I assure you) believe that any woman who feels otherwise is bad or wrong or needs to be judged. He's not talking about the few exceptions out there who prefer working 80 hours weeks and "making partner" to working at home all day and making pie. The numbers speak for themselves: the more a woman achieves, the more likely she is to become a homemaker.

Speaking of Simon Grey, he also makes a great point about the fact that once you plant the seeds, it's okay to enjoy and discuss the flowers as they bloom.

I cringed when I read this Frank Shostak article on Bitcoin. But then I read this article about how the recent decline in the price of gold may have impacted Ron Paul's personal investment portfolio and it got me thinking a little bit. A lot of people choose to put their money where their mouths are, and this is admirable. Ron Paul walks the talk. Most people I know think that the recent decline in gold prices is only temporary, so folks like Ron Paul will probably be okay in the long run. But even so, it hurts when your portfolio takes a dip, especially if you're only a little wealthy, and you depend greatly on the performance of your investments. In some sense - especially among libertarians - Bitcoin is a substitute for gold and therefore the two markets compete with each other. If you bet on one particular horse, and that horse is falling behind, I can understand why you'd want to make the case against the winning horse in favor of your own. But I am just speculating here. (No pun intended.)

Everyone's talking about the sluggish (read: non-existent) job growth in the United States, but no one seems to want to address the elephant in the room: bad management. Earth to MBAs everywhere: Sorry, folks, but I don't think another re-org or switching from LEAN to Six Sigma or vice-versa is going to save us this time. We may need to think about firing bad managers and replacing them with competent non-managers. 

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