Genius Economist Suggests Solution to Housing Problem
John Geanakoplos, professor of economics at Yale, believes the government's plan to stem the wave of foreclosures by reducing interest payments, does not address the foreclosure problem. Instead, he proposes that banks and bondholders write down principal far enough to give homeowners some (or more) equity in their homes, which will encourage them to start paying their mortgages again and avoid future defaults.
read moreIsrael May Be Exposed To Nasty Iinternational Pressure
In the New York Times, early this June 2011, David Brooks wrote about the depraved Middle East. Syria has been a state sponsor of terror for 30 years, with habitual torture techniques (I won’t go into the sordid details). During the past few weeks Hassad has killed more than 1,000 protestors and jailed over 10,000. This is one of the most depraved regimes ever, yet Israel is being asked to negotiate with this regime and compromise, trusting that Syria will observe any peace agreement. These processes towards peace are obtuse,...
read moreWhich Executive Education School Is Tops?
Interestingly, executive education rankings by various publications produce results which seem all over the map. In fact, the results within each one of these publications may very wildly from year to year. My general news Bible happens to be the Financial Times (FT). FYI, in 2011 Harvard was #4, IMD #5, Columbia #17, Stanford #32, UCLA #36, and my alma mater MIT Sloan, #54! This seems like such BS. For example, last year MIT ranked 33. Did it really drop 21 places in a single year? (In other words 19 universities displaced it in a...
read moreRobert Reich’s Straight Talk in June 2, 2011 Financial Times
The U.S. economy. was supposed to improve by late Spring, it has not yet moved fast enough to improve employment. Housing $s continue to fall faster than in our Great Depression; where demand is concerned, there’s little, with Europe debt + Japan’s tragedy + China’s tightening, all reducing demand. The Fed stimulus has run its course and starved states continue to cut. Democrats act as though they are not in power, while Republicans hope the economy rots until election day! Does Washington think it’s on another planet?...
read moreWorst Classical Music Publication in the World?
The once prominent ‘BBC Music Magazine’ let me down in its April issue. Its cover feature, called “The 20 Greatest Conductors of All Time,” was beyond disappointing. Being a classical music jockey I could not wait to read the results. I was eager to perhaps discover what method could possibly allow any publication to define the variables which make for great conducting, and to have the chutzpah of picking the best! I steeled myself and turned the page to see the BBC’s results. The #1 winner was Carlos...
read moreStan Dale Grows Conference 600% In One Year!
Stan Dale had just joined Gartner Group in sales, the summer of 1983. His territory was New England and shortly thereafter Bell Canada was added to his accounts. The following spring he and his associates decided to do some prospecting seminars in Canada – Bell Canada was then Gartner’s only Canadian account and they were receiving only one service, Telecom (STS). It was decided to go with our strength so an ILCM (Large System) briefing was set for Toronto. They followed the usual marketing protocols of buying a list,...
read morePeggy Pedwano: Culture Breeds Pride
Peggy Pedwano was one of our most reliable and enthusiastic administrators, which is saying much given the strength of our admin, which was crucial in delivering client service. Her fondest memories of Gartner are the earliest days of everyone working together whether typing up greensheets (on IBM Selectric typewriters!), to stuffing binders, to prepare and enjoy “Gartner Gatherings”, and executive’s generosity – “always rewarding us with great things”! Peggy and others got to know one another really well, not just at work...
read moreFrom Hutton, to Oppenheimer, to Gartner
Part 1: AFTER HUTTON & OPPENHEIMER, VCs INTERVENE In early 1970 E.F. Hutton hired me as a technology analyst, despite my having little financial background. One of my early successes was a detailed and timely report on Xerox Corp., then a ‘nifty fifty’ firm with steady growth and broad popularity among institutional investors. The report raised concerns that Xerox’s growth might be slowed, and it soon seemed as though every money manager in the country was asking that I visit and elaborate. This early experience put me on...
read moreIsrael, Hamas, and Goldstone, April 2011
It’s about time that the Goldstone/UnitedNations 2009 report of the Israel-Hamas war, is recognized as having been misguided (the lengthy report, sounding as though it was meticulously researched, improperly damned Israel for attacking Gaza, claiming that Israel targeted civilians after years of Hamas rockets targeting and hitting Israeli settlements in Israel’s Negev). As you likely know by now, the Goldstone/U.N. Report has effectively been reversed by the Goldstone apology published April 1 (this past...
read moreGartner: Early “Theory G” & Sales, Part 4
Around 1986 I was still working to formalize and document how Gartner’s culture had evolved since its 1979 founding; seven years old, it continued to maintain (and fine tune) its original research methods, but now embraced sales goals as well. By the following year 1987, we published our methods internally, distributed to our employees as “Theory G”. In hindsight, the name Theory G may sound trite but the idea was to emphasize our continuing need for excellence, that we were in business to serve clients and that...
read more
