Paul Roales

Reading of Note (January 4, 2009)

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:08:00 -0500

How a college degree became so important in American society -

“that many employers, fearing endless litigation about multiple uncertainties, threw up their hands and, to avoid legal liability, threw out intelligence and aptitude tests for potential employees. Instead, they began requiring college degrees as indices of applicants’ satisfactory intelligence and diligence.” - http://is.gd/exZk

Universal Health Care. Is Campaign Finance Reform a necessary precursor?

On the perverse incentives that political donations presents on health care reform “As is said, if you think health care is expensive now, just wait until it is free.” - http://is.gd/exZI

Unions are going to be interesting to watch as the Big 3 Bailout and the Obama intersect -

“The auto bailout is deeply unpopular with the public and the UAW’s stubbornness may reinforce the impression that unions are dinosaurs slouching toward extinction.” http://is.gd/dTqZ

“Union leadership believes the Employee Free Choice Act and related legislation could add several million members, the good news is that they are likely to be wrong. The forces I discussed earlier that contributed to the decline of unions in the US are very powerful, they will continue to operate,” - http://is.gd/dSWG

The legendary author of Clash of Civilizations, Samuel Huntington’s quote seems timely now -

“[They] say that America is a lie because its reality falls so far short of its ideals. They are wrong. America is not a lie; it is a disappointment. But it can be a disappointment only because it is also a hope.” http://is.gd/ey3H

Thoughts on how success is produced and the importance of talent vs. effort -

Malcom Gladwell: Meaningful work is one of the most important things we can impart to children. Meaningful work is work that is autonomous. Work that is complex, that occupies your mind. And work where there is a relationship between effort and reward — for everything you put in, you get something out…

If you are convinced that the work you are doing is meaningful, then curiosity, there’s no cost to it. If you think there’s always got to be a connection between what you put in and what you get out, then of course you’ll run off with a great excitement after an idea that catches your idea.

Charlie Rose: People often ask me to define leadership and I say to them what you just said all the time. You have to communicate what the mission is all the time — and how meaningful someone’s contribution is to the mission. http://is.gd/eiOt

Tax and Spend remembered as a $1T stimulus package looms

“The result of high taxes? From 2000 to 2007, says the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, the government added 54,800 jobs. To put that in proper perspective, that works out to 93% of all jobs created in New Jersey over those seven years.” http://is.gd/ey67

Interesting details on how the Gov actually issues so much debt -

“Rates are hovering near half century lows. I think that the Treasury should take advantage of the current rate structure and should issue a chunk of 50 year bonds.” http://is.gd/ey6o

The Economic Resilience of New York City – A lesson for America?

“The secret of New York’s post-1970 reinvention was that smart people, who knew each other and learned from each, innovated in ways that made billions in financial services. The same density that once served to get hogsheads onto clipper ships served to spread ideas.”

“As long as New York continues to attract and connect those people, the city will continue to thrive. “

The secret of New York’s post-1970 reinvention was that smart people, who knew each other and learned from each, innovated in ways that made billions http://is.gd/eyc3

Football scouting and education reform

“the students of a very bad teacher will learn, on average, half a year’s worth of material in one school year. The students in the class of a very good teacher will learn a year and a half’s worth of material.”

“According to Hanushek, the U.S. could close [its education performance] gap [relative to other countries] simply by replacing the bottom six per cent to ten per cent of public-school teachers with teachers of average quality.“ http://is.gd/aKBb

The competitive advantage of infusing IT in business operations

“What do Google, WalMart, and MyBarackObama.com have in common, besides their extraordinary success? They are organizations that are infused with IT in such a way that it leads to a qualitative change in their entire business.”

“competitive advantage comes from capturing data more quickly, and building systems to respond automatically to that data.” http://is.gd/dHJz