Archive for the ‘business’ Category

A site we like

March 25, 2010Jon Brooks Comments Off

FraudBytes, maintained by an accounting professor and accounting PhD student, aggregates news reports on corporate governance, corruption, and general white collar malfeasance. There are 43 posts alone on Bernie Madoff, including this one on a recent Wall Street Journal article about Madoff’s being beaten in prison. The earnest tone of the blog is typified by [...]

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Skimpy severance and the law

March 16, 2010Jon Brooks Comments Off

Evil HR Lady is a blog written by a human resources professional who answers questions about the workplace sent in by readers. Here’s one from someone asking what legal recourse a family member who worked for the same firm for 35 years and was laid off with just four weeks severance might have. Laid Off [...]

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“Who the hell is John-Boy?”

March 15, 2010Jon Brooks 5 Comments »

On Grant McCracken’s blog, which “sits at the intersection of anthropology and economics,” this post argues that the American corporation is out of touch with much of the country’s population. The John-Boy Problem (Boomer managers out of touch) Let’s say we are a luxury car company. We’re doing a year-end review of marketing. We’re looking [...]

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D & D life lessons

March 10, 2010Jon Brooks Comments Off

Geeks take note: A slideshow presentation by and video of ElmoFromOK — an “open-minded code monkey” and podcaster from Oklahoma — called… All I Really Need to Know About Life, I Learned From Dungeons and Dragons View more presentations from Chad Henderson.

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If persons were treated like corporations…

March 9, 2010Jon Brooks 7 Comments »

Political cartoon from Kevin Moore’s In Contempt site.

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Lester & Charlie – Bailout Bandwagon

March 8, 2010Jon Brooks Comments Off

Lester & Charlie lend their expertise to solving the financial crisis.

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Anthem Wellpoint

February 25, 2010Jon Brooks Comments Off

“Health insurers are not that profitable; as an industry, net profits were 2.2% in 2008…(T)his is in large part due to a lack of creativity and foresight…Most insurers are not much more than transaction processors and provider aggregators.” Two interesting posts from the blog Managed Care Matters on Anthem Wellpoint, the company that became the [...]

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Debate on worker co-ops

February 17, 2010Jon Brooks 1 Comment »

An interesting debate on the discussion web site Plastic about the viability of worker cooperatives (a business model that Michael Moore touted in Capitalism: A Love Story) encompasses economics, philosophy, and business ethics. The initial post… Not a Mere Factor of Production There is this bookshop on 57th Street, South Side. Finding your way through [...]

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Local commercials

February 16, 2010Jon Brooks Comments Off

Despite all the unemployment, bankruptcy, and business failure out there, commerce continues all over America. It’s not easy for the little guy, but a company called MicroBilt, which sells data services to small businesses, is offering help. In a somewhat brilliant promotion, MicroBilt has hired a local North Carolina comedy duo, Rhett & Link, to [...]

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Harping on TARP carping

February 2, 2010Jon Brooks Comments Off

“…it is not at all clear…that a Special Inspector General should be weighing in on government policy decisions, much less predicting the housing market or economy’s future.” Yesterday we ran a post about the Special Inspector General for TARP’s Quarterly Report to Congress. The report was highly critical of the bailout’s inability to increase bank [...]

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