Business
Items related to the worlds of commerce and markets
Steep Trajectory
Wed 07 May 2008 by Al Sikes
Free Lunch Writ Large
We are deep in the blame game over the housing bubble, writes Al Sikes. Mortgage brokers, banks, rating agencies, property flippers, and regulators have all made the list. Perhaps somebody should go upstream in a search for the real culprit.
The Bigger Picture
Mon 31 Mar 2008 • Responses: 1 • by Gary Moore
In the current financial climate, perspective is a critical attribute of leadership.
During the early nineties, the media, both secular and religious, convinced a large percentage of Americans that our $5 trillion federal debt was of earth-shaking proportions. (They did much the same in the late nineties during Y2K.) As Americans were living on about $25,000 on average in 1990, it is easy to see how that $5 trillion number could look like a giant in the promised land. And most people were quite surprised when I told them the White House had actually estimated that America’s net worth, after subtracting all debts owed to foreigners, was $66.4 trillion in 1990.
Confessions of a Small Business Fanatic
Mon 24 Mar 2008 • Responses: 2 • by Jo Kadlecek
'The underdogs around the block'
In this short reflection, Jo Kadlecek looks back on her experience with small businesses as a link to what is human in the capitalist system.
A Respectful Approach to Leadership Development
Thu 21 Feb 2008 by Fred Harburg
Designed for Life by Arthur F. Miller. Life (n) Media, LLC, 2007, 328pp., $25.
With the precision of a surgeon and the tenacity of a trial lawyer, befitting his origins, Arthur Miller builds the case for a unifying theory of persons in his provocative book, Designed for Life. This book provides a wake-up call to all who are involved in any human resource job and, more importantly, to leaders who make daily decisions regarding the hiring, placement, and career moves of people. Miller’s reverence for the dignity of each human life and for the Creator of the miraculous panoply of gifts and talents resident in humankind provides a stirring call to arms for leveraging diversity in the most profound sense of the word.
The prevailing wisdom with respect to selection in most organizations is the fundamentally flawed idea that people can be molded and “developed” by an organization to be whatever the organization needs them to be. This position represents extreme organizational hubris, defies practical observation of the nature of human beings, and is enormously disrespectful of the uniquely valuable people who make up an organization’s workforce.
Making a Difference
Fri 21 Dec 2007 • Responses: 6 • by Donald M. Bishop
‘Young Altruists’ Need a Broader View of Doing Good
Donald Bishop, a senior U.S. Foreign Service officer, looks at the difficulties faced by some young adults who want to use their careers to make the world a better place. He argues that they leave unexplored real possibilities to do good. It’s time to question the conventional wisdom and consider the possibilities of business, the military, and long-term overseas service as means to help the poor and suffering.
In the Interest of Character
Fri 28 Sep 2007 by Gary Moore
I was as surprised as others by the recent larger-than-expected reduction in short-term interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve Board. Frankly, about the only good I can see in it is that it was an admirable attempt on the part of the new chairman, Ben Bernanke, to bail-out Alan Greenspan’s sinking reputation among even those speculators he’s encouraged during recent years.
The World of Total Work
Thu 06 Sep 2007 by Dan Russ
Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper, Translated by Gerard Malsbary with an introduction by Roger Scruton (St. Augustine’s Press [1948] 1998), $12.
Work is consuming our lives and—Josef Pieper would say—our humanity. I have recently observed cases of two disturbing instances of what Pieper calls the “world of total work.” The first is among friends and colleagues who are wired for vacations. By this I mean that they either choose or are expected to take their cell phones and laptops with them on vacations. They do so either because they are concerned about what their superiors or colleagues would think if they ignored the demands of the office, or because they fear missing something or someone that might be crucial to their professional lives. Indeed, a friend recently observed that as she and her husband take their annual pilgrimage to the shore, each year the beaches and coffee shops are increasingly filled with people on cell phones and laptops, doing business.
Linking Liberties
Mon 13 Aug 2007 • Responses: 1 • by Theodore Roosevelt Malloch
Economics and Religion
Dr. Theodore Roosevelt Malloch explains recent data that show a connection between countries with good religious liberty and high economic liberty—and prosperity. Competition is a factor, but so is “spiritual capital.”
Believing at Work
Tue 10 Jul 2007 • Responses: 3 • by Stefan G. Lanfer
Three Models for Integrating Religious Faith and Business
Analyst Stefan Lanfer looks at the ways people integrate their faith with their work and draws on original research from his recent MBA work to suggest the consequences of different ways of thinking about belief in a professional setting.
A Reading List on Faith and Business
Mon 09 Jul 2007 by Stefan G. Lanfer
This reading list is from Stefan Lanfer’s bibliography for his 2006 MBA thesis, “Believing at Work,” which is summarized here.
