Economy is Linked in Strange Ways

Until this year, I had been a loyal Wall Street Journal subscriber. I usually paid less than $200 for an annual subscription, but last year, the WSJ decided to increase the price to over $300/yr. I balked. For a while, I received only the local paper. The WSJ would call me once a month--usually very early in the morning--to try to get me to renew, but the sales rep wouldn't budge on the price.

After a few months, I grew tired of the local paper and signed with the New York Times, but just its Sunday edition. Some time thereafter, the WSJ sent me a renewal request with a price I was willing to pay. Apparently, if you wait 180 days between WSJ subscriptions, the WSJ finally offers you its "old" or "original" price, which--last time I checked--is less than $200. By this time, however, I thoroughly enjoyed the New York Times, especially its "Modern Love" Sunday pieces, and was unwilling to go back to the WSJ.

Why should anyone care about my newspaper habits? Because even small consumer habits, in the aggregate, create ripple effects. When I was receiving the weekday WSJ, I would go to Panera Bread (PNRA) for coffee and a cobblestone pastry every weekday. But once I stopped receiving the weekday paper, I skipped my Panera Bread morning outing. That eliminates over a thousand dollars from Panera's annual revenue, and they did nothing to lose my business--the Dow Jones & Company (NWSA), owner of the WSJ, caused me to change my morning habits with its strange marketing strategies. Now, with a much longer and more informative Sunday paper, I spend more time on the weekend at my local coffeeshop, which is usually Peet's Coffee (PEET). Dow Jones & Company basically transferred some of my money from Panera Bread to Peet's Coffee and Tea. Yet, no one at the WSJ intended Panera to lose my business and Peet's Coffee to gain it.

What is the point of this story? Basically, the economy is extremely difficult to manage because of the potential for unintended results. When the government tries to fix the economy, it, too, creates unintended consequences. Right now, we don't know the exact nature of those consequences, but at some point, we will be able to study how the stimulus package created unintended winners and losers. I agree that Congress should limit leverage on Wall Street. At the same time, Americans are losing sight of the big picture when it comes to federal spending. For example, the portion of the federal budget dedicated to defense spending continues to increase. It is now 23% of the entire federal budget. TARP, which many Americans bitterly protested, was only 4% of the 2009 federal budget. The ever-increasing defense budget has more than just financial consequences. Over 4,200 American soldiers have died in Iraq. Over 30,000 American soldiers have been injured in Iraq. Yet, many Americans, encouraged by mass media, pay more attention to "tea parties," golfer Tiger Woods' personal life, sports, and reality television. And so it goes.

Excessive Government Pay?

The best part is the S.F. deputy police chief saying he's helped reduce the deficit because of the taxes he paid on his half million dollars salary. (Rachel Gordon, April 26, 2010, SF Chronicle)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/article?f=/c/a/2010/04/25/MNC51CLUBN.DTL

Oh, the arrogance and self-dealing.

Usain Bolt

[Update: link no longer works. Sigh.] 

Usain Bolt will never cease to amaze me: http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1078141 4x100 relay. Guess which runner he is.

Fun Tips

Here is a list of good commencement speeches and funny films:

Commencement Speeches

1. Will Ferrell's 2003 Harvard commencement speech. See if you can spot Al Franken in the audience.

2. Steve Jobs' 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University.

3. Ellen DeGeneres' 2009 commencement speech at Tulane University.

I was too lazy to add all the links, but you can find the speeches on YouTube.

Funny Films and Shows

1. The I.T. Crowd, Seasons 1 and 2

2. Adam's Apples, a Danish film

3. Wedding Crashers

4. My Cousin Vinny

Cary Grant and Grace Kelly

Just saw To Catch a Thief. Not one of Hitchcock's usual suspense films--it was very funny and had wonderfully comedic banter:

Francie: Money handles most people.

John: Do you honestly believe that?

Francie: I've proved it.

John: You're a singular girl.

Francie: Is that good or bad?

John: Oh, it's good, it's quite good. You know what you want. You go out after it and nothing stops you from getting it.

Francie: You make it sound corny.

John: Oh no, you're a jackpot of admirable character traits.

Francie: I already knew that.

John: Yes, I will say you do things with dispatch. No wasted preliminaries. Not only did I enjoy that kiss last night, I was awed by the efficiency behind it.

Francie: Well, I'm a great believer of getting down to essentials.

It's much better in the spoken word than on paper.

The Average Lawyer's Creed?

Isaiah 59:4 "No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil."

Update: a friend says that the above quote should apply to politicians, not lawyers.

Gender Gap

From NYT, April 18, 2010, Sunday Business, page 8:

Women account for just 6 percent of the chief executives of the top 100 tech companies, and 22 percent of the software engineers at tech companies over all, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology. And among venture capitalists, the population of financiers who control the purse strings for a majority of tech start-ups, just 14 percent are women.

Interesting.