British Business Leaders Write a Letter to the Editor

Dear sir ...

Nerd News: I'd Like a Tall Mocha Frappuccino, No Whip, With a Shot of Arizona State University

Here's the news blurb:

Starbucks Corp. will provide a free, online college education to thousands of its workers, without requiring that they remain with the company, through an unusual arrangement with Arizona State University, the company and the university will announce Monday. 

The program is open to any of the company’s 135,000 US employees who work at least 20 hours a week and have the grades and test scores to gain admission to Arizona State. For a barista with at least two years of college credit, the company will pay full tuition; for those with fewer credits it will pay part of the cost. But even for many of them, courses will be free when government and university aid is included.

I expect ed bloggers and commentators to start a firestorm in 3 ... 2... 1 ...

Unmentionable: French Lingerie Industry Is In Trouble

Mon Dieu!   Here's an amusing factoid that surprises absolutely nobody: the French totally outspend the Germans and Brits when it comes to lingerie.

Meet Count Anton-Wolfgang von Faber-Castell

He presides over a German pencil empire that's been going strong since 1761.

Forced Student Labor in China

"Working your way through school" takes on a whole different meaning.  Even worse, some of the students are underage.

Master and Apprentice: Women Mentoring Too Much?

Hmmmm.

LOL: On the Sale of the Washington Post

WaPo and A-Rod both cost $250 million. Difference? No one will ever accuse WaPo of taking performance enhancing drugs.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) August 5, 2013

Sir Richard Branson Loses A Bet

And how!

North Korea as Kim Family Business

Here is a bit of the analysis:

A classic 1987 study of family firm succession by John Ward of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University concluded that only 30 percent of family businesses survive the third generation, and only 3 percent survive beyond that—no matter what the culture or country. The reasons are usually the same: With each generation the heirs grow more spoiled, fail to make the transition, possess less competence, and squabble more with shareholders, professional management, and among themselves. The ravages of nepotism and an uncreative desire to preserve the status quo make such businesses weaker and weaker. 

Kim seems to fit the pattern. He badly wants to emulate his grandpa—Kim Il Sung, whose birthday will be celebrated Monday in grand style—even adopting his haircut, but he doesn’t seem to have mastered the tradecraft he learned from his dad and granddad.

Edupunk: "Stop Requiring College Degrees"

Here's an interesting opinion piece in Harvard Business Review. A bit of it as the Quote of the Day:

I think what's going on in my home industry of higher education at present is something between a bubble and a scandal. And I don't think it'll change unless and until employers shift, and start valuing signals other than college degrees.

A Producer's Thoughts on Hollywood, Politics, and Policy

An interesting glimpse into one producer's (eclectic) outlook.

Geek News: Revolutionizing Digital Privacy

There's an app for that!  Read the whole thing. There is a related thought. I also couldn't resist making this:

Here's a nice little Quote of the Day from Silent Circle CEO (and former Navy SEAL, by the way) Mike Janke: 

"We feel that every citizen has a right to communicate, the right to send data without the fear of it being grabbed out of the air and used by criminals, stored by governments, and aggregated by companies that sell it."

PREACH.  Surveillance society snooping pushing you?  Push back.  The fact that I have nothing to hide doesn't mean that you get to look at my stuff just because you can and feel like it.  The app launches on February 8.

Best Cover Letter Ever For a Wall Street Internship?

Take a look.  I like the no-BS approach!  Kudos, kid.

The 2013 Index of Economic Freedom

We're Number 10, which means we rank as "Mostly Free" instead of "Free" and got whipped by

1. Hong Kong
2. Singapore
3. Australia
4. New Zealand
5. Switzerland
6. Canada
7. Chile
8. Mauritius
9. Denmark

From the blurb about the US ranking:

The United States, with an economic freedom score of 76, has lost ground again in the 2013 Index. Its score is 0.3 point lower than last year, with declines in monetary freedom, business freedom, labor freedom, and fiscal freedom. 

Come on, people!  We have got to do better than this!

Blessed Are the Cheesemakers

Oui, mon ami.  Regulators and unions coming for your traditional unpasteurized artisan fromage?  TO THE BARRICADES!

Lessons From a 1956 Sears Catalog

Fascinating, actually!  For instance:

Sears’s lowest-priced 30″ four-burner electric range, with bottom oven, was priced, in 1956, at $129.95.  (You can find this range on page 1049 of the 1956 Sears catalog.)  Home Depot sells a 30″ four-burner electric range, with bottom oven, today for $348.00.

The typical American manufacturing worker in 1956, therefore, had to work 129.95/1.89 – or 69 hours – to buy an ordinary kitchen range.  His or her counterpart today must work 348.00/19.79 – or 18 hours – to buy the same sized ordinary range.

By the way, the numbers use the following: "[For 2012] ... the nominal average hourly earnings of nonsupervisory nonfarm private production workers in the U.S. [is] $19.79 (as of October 2012) ... For 1956 I instead use average hourly manufacturing earnings of production workers. That figure is $1.89."

No More Twinkies?

Twinkie-maker Hostess going to close?  Haters will now be reduced to using only "banana" as an insult for Asian Americans.

Elections Have Consequences: Layoff-a-palooza

Not a surprise.  More here.

"Secretary of Business" as Symptomatic

I've already mocked this, but Ricochet points out that the President's whole risible (and clueless) "Secretary of Business" suggestion is actually (and grimly) symptomatic of Obama's entire approach to business:

This is really how President Obama sees the private sector. It’s just one more interest group in need of care and feeding by Big Government. And since we already have a Commerce Department, let’s just rebrand that sucker and subject it to a little technocratic tinkering. Given this administration’s love of industrial policy — picking winners and losers — Obama might as call the position Secretary of Crony Capitalists.

Do recall, gentle readers, that crony capitalism is not the same thing as actual capitalism.

UPDATE: Well, that took no time at all.  Add this.

Taiwanese News Animators Vs. Disney + Star Wars

Yesterday the Internet blew up with the news that Disney had acquired the Star Wars universe from George Lucas for $4 billion and announced that a new Star Wars movie, Episode 7, will arrive in 2015.  (As for whether this is a trick or a treat, the fanboy civil wars are in full swing.)  Today the glorious Taiwanese news animators have come up with a response: