The National Association of Scholars (NAS) held its 13th general meeting at the Washington Marriott this weekend. I just returned. Steve Balch, who founded NAS in 1987, did an outstanding job in organizing the conference and attracting speakers, who included Ward Connerly, Victor Davis Hanson, Herb London, Greg Lukianoff, Anne Neal, Abigail Thernstrom and Congressman Thomas Petri. The conference had many high points, to include Ward Connerly's and Victor Davis Hanson's two talks each (all of which were phenomenal). For me, the most poignant discussion was that of Greg Lukianoff, director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). Greg outline a litany of abuses involving speech codes since 2007. It is depressing that today's colleges and universities continue to suppress speech.
Also excellent was the debate between Peter Wood of NAS and Cary Nelson of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), which represents the left-wing viewpoint. Wood got the better of Nelson, but Nelson is to be complimented for his integrity in participating in the debate and the entire conference. I was glad to see that the AAUP was interested enough to send a speaker.
Steve Balch is retiring this year, and he deserves considerable praise for founding and making the NAS a vibrant reality.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
A Modern Management Parable
H/t Don Rubenstein who e-mailed this:
A MODERN PARABLE . . .
A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (Ford) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.
On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.
The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.
Their conclusion was the Japanese had eight people rowing and one person steering, while the American team had eight people steering and one person rowing.
Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.
They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.
Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to four steering supervisors, three area steering superintendents, and one assistant superintendent steering manager.
They also implemented a new performance system that would give the one person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners, and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes, and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.
The next year the Japanese won by two miles.
Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India.
The End.
Here's something else to think about:
Ford has spent the last thirty years moving most of its factories out of the US, claiming they can't make money paying American wages.
TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US. The last quarter's results:
TOYOTA makes $4 billion in profits while Ford racked up $9 billion in losses.
Ford folks are still scratching their heads.
------------
A MODERN PARABLE . . .
A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (Ford) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.
On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.
The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.
Their conclusion was the Japanese had eight people rowing and one person steering, while the American team had eight people steering and one person rowing.
Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.
They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.
Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to four steering supervisors, three area steering superintendents, and one assistant superintendent steering manager.
They also implemented a new performance system that would give the one person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners, and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes, and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.
The next year the Japanese won by two miles.
Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India.
The End.
Here's something else to think about:
Ford has spent the last thirty years moving most of its factories out of the US, claiming they can't make money paying American wages.
TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US. The last quarter's results:
TOYOTA makes $4 billion in profits while Ford racked up $9 billion in losses.
Ford folks are still scratching their heads.
------------
Exchange on Possible Hyper-Inflation Due to Bush, Bernanke and Obama
Jim:
Tripling the money supply! Really?
How... what's the word here... "nice".
Mitchell, then kindly explain how this would not lead to really rapid and really massive price increases as the currency is devalued because it is 3x less scarce. Even gold will go down in value if suddenly huge hoards of it are suddenly found laying in the ground. This is what happened to the Spanish when they started import/stealing all the gold from the New World. Suddenly, it wasn't worth as much back in Europe.
My response:
A couple of points. The monetary base is not the same as the money supply. The Fed deposits cash in banks. The banks then can lend out a multiple of the reserves. The banks can lend out five or six times the deposits, but they haven't been lending out that much. The money stock is about 2-3 times the reserves. So a tripling of reserves can triple the money supply but it won't if the banks don't lend out a multiple of 3 times that amount. The question is, are the banks really in trouble or have they cried wolf?
If they are in trouble and need this large infusion of reserves, will the Fed remove the reserves once the trouble passes? If the answer is "No, the banks are not in trouble, they are just crying wolf," or "No, the Fed won't remove the reserves once the trouble (if any) passes" (and have you heard a clear description of the trouble--or have you just heard over and over that there is trouble but no one says clearly what it is?) then, yes, there could be a tripling of prices.
A better analogy than the Spanish is the Germans in the 1920s or the post-Revolutionary War Continentals, which ended up being worth 2 cents on the dollar. America, believe it or not, invented paper money inflation back in 1776. We can do it again, yes we can, yes we can.
Tripling the money supply! Really?
How... what's the word here... "nice".
Mitchell, then kindly explain how this would not lead to really rapid and really massive price increases as the currency is devalued because it is 3x less scarce. Even gold will go down in value if suddenly huge hoards of it are suddenly found laying in the ground. This is what happened to the Spanish when they started import/stealing all the gold from the New World. Suddenly, it wasn't worth as much back in Europe.
My response:
A couple of points. The monetary base is not the same as the money supply. The Fed deposits cash in banks. The banks then can lend out a multiple of the reserves. The banks can lend out five or six times the deposits, but they haven't been lending out that much. The money stock is about 2-3 times the reserves. So a tripling of reserves can triple the money supply but it won't if the banks don't lend out a multiple of 3 times that amount. The question is, are the banks really in trouble or have they cried wolf?
If they are in trouble and need this large infusion of reserves, will the Fed remove the reserves once the trouble passes? If the answer is "No, the banks are not in trouble, they are just crying wolf," or "No, the Fed won't remove the reserves once the trouble (if any) passes" (and have you heard a clear description of the trouble--or have you just heard over and over that there is trouble but no one says clearly what it is?) then, yes, there could be a tripling of prices.
A better analogy than the Spanish is the Germans in the 1920s or the post-Revolutionary War Continentals, which ended up being worth 2 cents on the dollar. America, believe it or not, invented paper money inflation back in 1776. We can do it again, yes we can, yes we can.
What is An American?
I just received the following e-mail from Chaim Rosen, an outstanding Brooklyn College student.
>>Written by an Australian Dentist
To Kill an American
You probably missed this in the rush of news, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.
So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is . So they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)
'An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish , Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.
An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.
An American is Christian , or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.
An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world.
The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.
An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.
When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!
As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan .
The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, temp est tossed. These in fact are the people who built America
Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11 , 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.
So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo , and Stalin , and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself . Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.
Please keep this going! Pass this around the World. Then pass it around again.
It says it all, for all of us. Please do not just delete. Pass it on first.
Thanks!
>>Written by an Australian Dentist
To Kill an American
You probably missed this in the rush of news, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.
So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is . So they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)
'An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish , Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.
An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.
An American is Christian , or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.
An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world.
The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.
An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.
When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!
As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan .
The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, temp est tossed. These in fact are the people who built America
Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11 , 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.
So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo , and Stalin , and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself . Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.
Please keep this going! Pass this around the World. Then pass it around again.
It says it all, for all of us. Please do not just delete. Pass it on first.
Thanks!
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