"Let no young man choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the vague popular belief that lawyers are necessarily dishonest. Resolve to be honest in all events; and if, in your own judgment, you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer. Choose some other occupation." -- Abraham Lincoln
Bonus: from Edward Murrow: "He was one of those civilized individuals who did not insist upon agreement with his political principles as a pre-condition for conversation or friendship."
Friday, March 18, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Robert Frost's Epitaph
Found an old book of Robert Frost poems: "And if an epitaph be my story, I'd have a short one ready for my own: I had a lover's quarrel with the world."
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
A Poem in San Jose
The poem below--one of the most beautiful I've ever read--is inscribed in a piece of art in downtown San Jose. If you are ever in downtown San Jose and want to see the poem, go to the Fairmont Hotel on South First Street. It is inscribed on a medium-sized, industrial-looking tableau between the Fairmont Hotel and Bijan's Bakery.
Could be
I only sang because the lonely road was long;
and now the road and I are gone
but not the song.
I only spoke the verse to pay for borrowed time:
and now the clock and I are broken
but not the rhyme.
Possibly,
the self not being fundamental,
eternity
breathes only on the incidental.
—Ernesto Galarza, 1905-1984
Could be
I only sang because the lonely road was long;
and now the road and I are gone
but not the song.
I only spoke the verse to pay for borrowed time:
and now the clock and I are broken
but not the rhyme.
Possibly,
the self not being fundamental,
eternity
breathes only on the incidental.
—Ernesto Galarza, 1905-1984
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Will Government Pensions Need Bailouts?
According to PLI's news capsules,
State pensions are recovering as the stock market improves, but they still have a long road to financial health, says a recent report. State pension systems had a funding ratio of about 69% for fiscal 2010, an increase from the previous year's ratio of 65%, reports Wilshire Associates. Still, that's not near 2007's estimated average funding ratio of 95%. "The trajectory is up, albeit it's up off a pretty low base," said Steven Foresti, managing director at Wilshire. (From WSJ, March 7, 2011, by Jeannette Neumann)
Here's what really interesting: "Over the next decade, Wilshire projects public pension plans will have a median annual return on their assets of 6.5%." If major pension/hedge funds are predicting just 6.5%, it will be interesting to see the average return for non-institutional investors. Remember: to the extent these government pension funds fail to fully fund themselves, the taxpayer is on the hook for all payouts.
State pensions are recovering as the stock market improves, but they still have a long road to financial health, says a recent report. State pension systems had a funding ratio of about 69% for fiscal 2010, an increase from the previous year's ratio of 65%, reports Wilshire Associates. Still, that's not near 2007's estimated average funding ratio of 95%. "The trajectory is up, albeit it's up off a pretty low base," said Steven Foresti, managing director at Wilshire. (From WSJ, March 7, 2011, by Jeannette Neumann)
Here's what really interesting: "Over the next decade, Wilshire projects public pension plans will have a median annual return on their assets of 6.5%." If major pension/hedge funds are predicting just 6.5%, it will be interesting to see the average return for non-institutional investors. Remember: to the extent these government pension funds fail to fully fund themselves, the taxpayer is on the hook for all payouts.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Yahoo's Shareholder Meeting (2012)
[Editor's note: this post was originally published on July 12, 2012.]
Yahoo’s shareholder meeting was bland. No slides, no video, no new trinkets—just the basic CEO pep talk plus business jargon. Apparently, Yahoo’s new catchphrase is “technology-powered media company,” which is short for, “Please stop asking us if we’re a tech company or a media company.” At this point, the only job with more turnover than Yahoo’s CEO might be your local fast food joint, but interim CEO Ross Levinsohn seems nice enough, so that’s a plus. Of course, he spewed the same pablum as every other CEO from Yahoo, but what do you expect? It must be difficult getting respect from the troops when the company won’t remove the "interim" label before the annual meeting. Still, it’s not about the CEO or whether Yahoo wants to become a media or tech company—it’s about execution. As another person wrote, “[I]t’s increasingly hard to see what Yahoo uniquely offers to its audience.” Combine a failure to execute with a failure to produce unique content or services, and you have a recipe for extinction.
Yahoo’s shareholder meeting was bland. No slides, no video, no new trinkets—just the basic CEO pep talk plus business jargon. Apparently, Yahoo’s new catchphrase is “technology-powered media company,” which is short for, “Please stop asking us if we’re a tech company or a media company.” At this point, the only job with more turnover than Yahoo’s CEO might be your local fast food joint, but interim CEO Ross Levinsohn seems nice enough, so that’s a plus. Of course, he spewed the same pablum as every other CEO from Yahoo, but what do you expect? It must be difficult getting respect from the troops when the company won’t remove the "interim" label before the annual meeting. Still, it’s not about the CEO or whether Yahoo wants to become a media or tech company—it’s about execution. As another person wrote, “[I]t’s increasingly hard to see what Yahoo uniquely offers to its audience.” Combine a failure to execute with a failure to produce unique content or services, and you have a recipe for extinction.
Levinsohn’s short speech highlighted Yahoo’s many partners,
including NBC, ABC, and Spotify. I may have misheard him, but Levinsohn said that more than half of the
videos viewed online came from Yahoo, which prompted a surprised look from one employee. Yahoo believes its election and Olympics coverage will attract traffic. Levinsohn also mentioned the consumer several
times, stating, “Consumers want interesting and informative online experiences,”
and “It [all] has to start with the consumer experience.” In other words, he said nothing new or unique. Of course a public company that seeks consumers
and viewers has to satisfy them. Which
is why Yahoo’s conduct over the last five years has been so comically tragic: Yahoo
bungled its transition to a new email format (also botching its calendar feature);
entered and promptly left the social media space via Yahoo Pulse; couldn’t provide
a consistent selection of online media content, ceding that audience to Hulu
and YouTube; couldn’t properly manage copyright infringement claims to prevent viewers from clicking on unplayable videos; and made the term “quality assurance”
MIA. In addition, Yahoo’s videos lack captions,
whereas both YouTube and Hulu have some form of online captioning. It could be worse—just two years ago, Yahoo’s homepage
seemed to resemble the National Enquirer or TMZ, prompting some viewers to
wonder whether Yahoo’s latest strategy relied on Kim Kardashian, Octomom, Justin
Bieber, and hordes of lobotomized or low-IQ viewers. Thankfully, Yahoo has reversed its descent
into becoming the world’s largest online tabloid. However, it now seems to be aiming for the “World’s
Largest Linkfest of Content Already Seen by Everyone under 40 on YouTube and
Facebook,” but as I said, things could be worse.
Today, the CEO focused on Yahoo’s various partnerships with
other media companies as well as its access to “700 million viewers,” but Yahoo doesn’t seem to understand that a) it doesn’t matter how many viewers you
have if none of them are particularly loyal; and b) relying on content and
partnerships from other companies with their own websites isn't a viable long-term strategy. As I told the
CEO during the meeting, “Think about it.”
If Company A--which has a vested interest in promoting its own websites
and content--decides to partner with Company B, which is a mere
portal for Company A’s content, what will happen? Company A won’t license its best content to
Company B and will use its leverage as a content provider to take as many
users from Company B as possible and make them loyal to their own website(s). It’s as if CNBC decided to partner with Bloomberg
by linking to Bloomberg articles, thinking, “Well, if I got Bloomberg, Fox
Business and a bunch of other business content, then people are sure to come
here instead of going to those websites instead.” But of course, CNBC focuses
on creating its own unique content and attracting its own viewers. To the extent CNBC thinks Bloomberg, Fox
Business, or the Motley Fool has an interesting idea, they do a story
themselves instead of just linking or deferring to their competitors’ websites
or channels. In essence, Yahoo’s
business strategy seems to be “As many eyeballs as possible, regardless of user
time spent on the page or the quality of content displayed” (see Kardashian/Octomom
reference above). It’s a sad state to be
in for a company that was once a top Silicon Valley innovator (Speaking of
which, am I the only one who remembers Yahoo’s funny commercials for its personal
ad service?)
Yahoo’s latest mis-step?
Hackers from “d33ds” disclosed about 400,000 user passwords, including many
from Yahoo. I downloaded the file to see
if my emails were hacked, too. They
weren’t. It looks like almost all the
passwords taken are from deactivated accounts, so Yahoo got lucky this
time. And it wasn’t just Yahoo emails on the
list—I saw hotmail and even gmail accounts apparently compromised. Besides, few of the exposed passwords had any capitalized letters, which violates Online User Security 101. The hackers are definitely cheeky, though—they
ended their email/password list with the following quote: “Growth begins when
we begin to accept our own weakness.” -- Jean Vanier
The Q&A session was short. One shareholder asked about Yahoo’s role: was
it a TV station, TV studio, or ad agency?
The CEO said Yahoo wanted to create a good overall
consumer experience. A CalPERS
representative said the state’s pension fund supported the Board but not the
way Yahoo was awarding compensation to its executives. Another shareholder rightfully criticized
former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel’s compensation of $
600 million, which seems
grossly high given Yahoo’s current stock price.
Some final notes: Julia Boorstin from CNBC was there. I didn’t like her, but her cameraman was nice. Cory Johnson
from Bloomberg was also there and looked like his usual professional self (did
you know he founded the hip hop basketball magazine SLAM?). I prefer Bloomberg, which has a more serious
outlook than CNBC. Maybe the “eyeballs at
any cost” strategy works on TV, which is more visual and less interactive. It might explain the mismanagement of Yahoo
all these years by big-media executives. Boorstin asked me about the interim
CEO issue (yawn) and the Facebook/Yahoo deal.
According to TechCrunch, the deal occurred “without money changing
hands,” so I responded to her question with another question she should have been asking: “How much money is
involved?” She didn't seem to catch my point. So much for television media as an enlightening Fourth Estate.
Disclosure: I own
shares of Yahoo, but my positions may change at any time. My hunch is that a
private equity fund will buy Yahoo at some point or the company will increase shareholder value by
splitting up or selling off its various parts.
Keith Ellison and Common Sense
"The best defense against extremist ideologies is social inclusion and civic engagement." Shameful that some people smeared Mohammed Salman Hamdani and recanted only when confronted with his dead, heroic body. More from Rep. Keith Ellison here: Ellison's transcript of prepared remarks for March 10, 2011 Congressional hearings.
Every generation has its Joseph McCarthy, and it appears ours will be Rep. Peter King. Kudos to Rep. Ellison for his common sense.
Every generation has its Joseph McCarthy, and it appears ours will be Rep. Peter King. Kudos to Rep. Ellison for his common sense.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Ralph Ellison on Finding Himself
The journey of self-realization is long, windy, but worthy:
"All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naïve. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: that I am nobody but myself." -- Ralph Ellison
"All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naïve. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: that I am nobody but myself." -- Ralph Ellison
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