Archive for October, 2008
The Challenge for the 44th – Resources
October 24th, 2008 | post a comment
Whoever becomes the next president, he’ll be facing an economic crisis more threatening than any other since the Great Depression. Plus, he’ll inherit two wars, a degrading infrastructure and a declining global image. So this week we’ll try to find out what kind of leadership qualities and techniques are needed and what sort of policy challenges the next administration will have to confront. We’ll ask experts on public policy and leadership how the 44th President can begin to solve the pressing challenges of our time.
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Part 1: James Galbraith, Economist |Download MP3
James Galbraith is an economist and the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations and Professor of Government at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Most recently, he’s the author of “The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too”.
In the early 80’s, he was a congressional staffer, eventually becoming the Executive Director for the Joint Economic Committee. He has been actively involved with issues of peace and justice, serving as Chair of Economists for Peace and Security and the Director of the University of Texas Inequality Project
Part 2: Peter Block, Leadership Consultant | Download MP3
Peter Block is an author and leadership consultant based in Cincinnati, Ohio. His work has focused on leadership, community reconciliation and accountability. In 2004, he won the Members’ Choice Award from the Organization Development Network, which recognized his book “Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used” (1st edition 1980, 2nd edition 1999) as the most influential book among organizational development practitioners over the last 40 years. His other books have included “Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest” and “The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work”
His books focus on ways to create positive workplaces and communities and bring change into the world through consent and connectedness rather than through mandate and force. Peter’s latest book, Community: The Structure of Belonging, was released in May 2008. He is also a partner in Designed Learning, a training company that offers workshops designed by Peter to build the skills outlined in his books.
Part 3: Lewis Pitts, Public Interest Attorney | Download MP3
Lewis Pitts has been a public interest lawyer for over 32 years, focusing on racial and environmental justice, children’s rights and participatory democracy. He’s the Senior Managing Attorney of the Advocates for Children’s Services, a statewide project of Legal Aid of NC. He’s also a member of the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy. Lewis has appeared on Larry King Live and ABC’s Good Morning America discussing children’s rights and has been arrested six times (but never convicted) protesting nuclear power. He is the 2005 recipient of the W.W. Finlator Award from the ACLU.
The Challenge for the 44th
October 24th, 2008 | post a comment
Whoever becomes the next president, he’ll be facing an economic crisis more threatening than any other since the Great Depression. Plus, he’ll inherit two wars, a degrading infrastructure and a declining global image. So this week we’ll try to find out what kind of leadership qualities and techniques are needed and what sort of policy challenges the next administration will have to confront. We’ll ask experts on public policy and leadership how the 44th President can begin to solve the pressing challenges of our time.
Listen to the Full Episode | Download MP3
Part 1: James Galbraith, Economist |Download MP3
Part 2: Peter Block, Leadership Consultant | Download MP3
Part 3: Lewis Pitts, Public Interest Attorney | Download MP3
What happened to make things seem so bad?
October 22nd, 2008 | post a comment
Some continuing comment on the state of the financial markets around the world. For the most part, the markets haveoperated in a fairly orderly manner for most of our lifetimes. There is a small group of business leaders in conjunction with government policy makers who have kept the current system in place. Those that have been master of this system have felt in complete control and have reaped vast wealth.
Something changed. I am uncertain when this change happened. This change is a disruption of the normal operating rules. I will elaborate at a future time about what is the cause of these changes and the fallout that is rapidly occurring due to the change.
What we can see as an outward sign of the disruption of the normal flow of things is the lack of a creditable approach to restoring confidence of investors in the value of companies in all sectors of the economic system. Normally, I wouldn’t write about this type of thing in this BLOG, but the impact is so far reaching that I am writing about it everywhere. There are many who have been heralding this change. I have not taken them as seriously as I could have because most of their writing is fear based. I don’t find that useful. I did forget however, that I can gain value from listening to a fearful conversation if I look to the factors that created the fear rather than be caught up in the emotion.
Yesterday as part of the preparation for next week’s radio program on the real truth of the $700B bailout, I was talking with a journalist who was a former Assistant Secretary of Treasury in the Reagan administration. This person is very clear about the factors that are causing the current crisis. One of the things that I took away from the conversation is that the people who created the chaotic system we are trying to change were creators of the system.
As Albert Einstein was to have said, “A problem can’t be solved by the same consciousness that created it”. This situation can’t be solved by those who created it. They are digging deeper and deeper holes that generations to come will be saddled with. The prosperity we have experienced for several generations is crumbling.
What to do? That is a question that is consuming my whole attention. For the walk from here will be much different than the journey so far. I will share with you what I feel are reasonable steps for anyone who chooses to take charge of their situation rather than be at the effect of others choices.
Until later,.
Thomas
Technorati Tags: authenticity, change management, dotherightthing, integrity, Knowing, leadership, Politics, Relocalization, Wisdom
The Real Truth Behind the Bailout
October 17th, 2008 | 1 comment
After the Treasury Department’s proposal for $700 billion to buy up the distressed assets in the financial system was approved by Congress, the markets continued their historic free-fall. Find out why this solution was the only one considered in Washington, as we explore the root causes of the crisis as well as innovative new solutions. First we’ll talk with a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury to learn how we got into this national financial donnybrook. Then, hear from an economist who has an alternative solution that offers to cost taxpayers far less and reduce the risk of moral hazard.
Listen to the Full Episode | Download MP3
Part 1: Paul Craig Roberts, Father of “Reagenomics”
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Part 2: Luigi Zingales, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business
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The Real Truth Behind the Bailout – Resources
October 17th, 2008 | post a comment
After the Treasury Department’s proposal for $700 billion to buy up the distressed assets in the financial system was approved by Congress, the markets continued their historic free-fall. Find out why this solution was the only one considered in Washington, as we explore the root causes of the crisis as well as innovative new solutions. First we’ll talk with a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury to learn how we got into this national financial donnybrook. Then, hear from an economist who has an alternative solution that offers to cost taxpayers far less and reduce the risk of moral hazard.
Listen to the Full Episode | Download MP3
Paul Craig Roberts, Former Assistant Sec. of the Treasury | Download MP3
During President Reagan’s first term, Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, earning him the title of the “Father of Reaganomics”. He is a former Associate Editor and a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and Business Week. He’s the author of Supply-Side Revolution : An Insider’s Account of Policymaking in Washington; Alienation and the Soviet Economy and Meltdown: Inside the Soviet Economy, and is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice. He’s now a syndicated newspaper columnist for Creator’s Syndicate (read his syndicated columns here). In academia, he has been the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, as well as being a Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Luigi Zingales, Professor at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business
As a professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, Luigi Zingales studies the theory of the firm, the relation between organization and financing, and the going-public decision. He was born in Italy, where high inflation and unemployment inspired his interest in becoming an economist. He doesn’t believe that economists should stay up in an ivory toward, above the fray of practical policy decision. This has inspired his work to improve the $700 billion bailout package. After the initial bailout proposal, he was a signatory of a petition by hundreds of economists to “express to Congress our great concern for the plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson to deal with the financial crisis.” He elaborates on his suggestions for a new rescue strategy in the paper, Plan B and also in an online piece for Foreign Policy magazine, entitled “Stop the Bleeding Hank.”
His book, Saving Capitalism from Capitalists, coauthored with his college Raghuram G. Rajan, outlines the regulatory framework necessary to protect the free market from powerful private interests and was acclaimed by the National Review Online as “one of the most powerful defenses of the free market ever written.” Among the awards he has received for his research are the the 2003 Bernacer Prize for the best European young financial economist, the 2002 Nasdaq award for best paper in capital formation, and a National Science Foundation Grant in economics. His work has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Finance and the American Economic Review. Zingales is also the director of the American Finance Associations and an contributor to Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian counterpart of the Financial Times and serves on the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, an independent and nonpartisan research organization focused on improving the regulation of U.S. capital markets. He’s been a member of the Chicago GSB faculty since 1992, after recieving a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Water – The 21st Century’s “Blue Gold”
October 10th, 2008 | post a comment
For the first time in nearly a hundred years, our water resources, both at home and abroad, are up for grabs. Many are suggesting the demand for water resources is becoming the 21st Century’s quest for fossil fuels. We’ll discuss not only the quality of our drinking water, but who owns it and what they are doing with it. Find out who’s trying to control our water, why this is a concern, and what you can do about it.
Listen to the Full Episode | Download MP3
Part 1: Interview with Alan Snitow, Co-Producer and Co-Author, Thirst |
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Part 2: Interview with Sam Finkelstein, Great Lakes Organizer, Food & Water Watch |
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Part 3: Interview with Stephen Estes-Smargiassi, Director of Planning, MWRA |
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Water Resources
October 10th, 2008 | post a comment
For the first time in nearly a hundred years, our water resources, both at home and abroad, are up for grabs. Many are suggesting the demand for water resources is becoming the 21st Century’s quest for fossil fuels. We’ll discuss not only the quality of our drinking water, but who owns it and what they are doing with it. Find out who’s trying to control our water, why this is a concern, and what you can do about it.
Listen to the Full Episode | Download MP3
Part 1: Interview with Alan Snitow, Co-Producer and Co-Author, Thirst |
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Alan Snitow is a filmmaker, author and journalist, whose interest in water rights and water resources began while working in California’s Central Valley picking raisins. Along with his partner Deborah Kaufman, he’s produced the award-winning films “Thirst”, “Secrets of Silicon Valley”, and “Blacks and Jews.” Early in his career, he spent eight years as the News Director for the renowned Bay Area community radio station, KPFA-FM, where he was awarded the Best Newscast Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He has also spent 12 years as a news producer at KTVU-TV. He is currently a Board member of the Film Arts Foundation and a member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
Part 2: Interview with Sam Finkelstein, Great Lakes Organizer, Food & Water Watch |
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Food and Water Watch is a Washington DC-based, non-governmental organization working to stop water privatization and to reform the factory farm and agribusiness industries. They lobby to help municipal water supplies avoid degradation due to a lack of funding, while countering corporations efforts to take control of public water sources.
Along with an international coalition of advocates for water rights, Food and Water watched helped push for the Great Lakes Compact, which recently passed the Congress and was signed by President Bush. They have also worked on a local level, such as when, along with community groups, they successfully returned Stockton California’s water supply to public control.
Part 3: Interview with Stephen Estes-Smargiassi, Director of Planning, MWRA |
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When you think about your tap water as a commodity, you might notice that it is delivered and picked up from your house, every day, at a relatively tiny cost. But you might not realize there is a vast networks of pipes, reservoirs, people and testing that goes in to ensuring that your tap water is safe, reliable and tasty.
As director of planning for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, Stephen Estes-Smargiassi has to ensure the safety and satisfaction of millions of customers. Unlike other businesses, there’s no room for error, and unlike corportations who make money off bottled water, there’s no effort to maximize the profit margin. But consumers must realize that water supplies need constant upkeep to fight against disrepair, because if they are allowed to degrade, the public health of whole metropolitan areas will be threatened.
Music:
Cool Water – Sons of the Pioneers
Cool, Clear Water – Bonnie Raitt
Small Business Resources
October 3rd, 2008 | post a comment
Small Businesses make up over half of the economic output of the United States. Today we’ll ask: How do you start them? What makes them successful? What does it take to stay competitive? We’ll start by meeting the winner of an award for being “Best Small Company to Work for in America.” Then, we’ll meet the owner of a neighborhood coffee shop in Kansas City that was challenged by a Starbucks moving in next door. Hear how they managed to keep their small business successful even when a giant chain store showed up. Also, host Thomas White explains what he’s learned from his experience starting small businesses himself and helping other businesses succeed.
Lauren Dixon is founder and CEO of Dixon Schwabl, an advertising and public relations firm. This year, the Society for Human Resource Management designated Dixon Schwabl as “#1 Best Small Company to Work for in America”. As CEO, Dixon is in charge of the overall strategy and managing the growth of the firm with local, regional and national clients.
Founded over 20 years ago, Dixon Schwabl has become one of Upstate New York’s top communications, marketing and public relations firms. Lauren began her career as an on-air reporter and anchor at WOKR TV in Rochester, before going on to her career successfully growing her small business to be a premiere marketing and communications firm.
Interview with Lauren Dixon | Download MP3
Jon Cates of Broadway Café in Kansas City
Broadway Cafe and Roaster’s have been at the same downtown Kansas City location for the past 16 years. In the late 1990’s, Starbucks moved in next door and provided a challenge for the small independent coffee house, run by Jon and his wife Sara. After they managed to outlast Starbucks, they were faced with the decision of how to expand. They decided that the best idea was to focus on roasting of the best gourmet green coffees. They’ve now roasted over 150,000 bags. While they haven’t opened up chain retail shops all over the city, they have expanded to include a dedicated roasting location with a full-service carry-out espresso bar. The Broadway Cafe has succeeded over the years by sticking by their dedication to the quality of the coffee and the needs of the customers.
Interview with Jon Cates | Download MP3
Small Business – Making it Work with Less
October 3rd, 2008 | post a comment
Small businesses make up over half of the economic output of the United States. Today we’ll ask: How do you start them? What makes them successful? What does it take to stay competitive? We’ll start by meeting the winner of an award for being “Best Small Company to Work for in America.” Then, we’ll meet the owner of a neighborhood coffee shop in Kansas City that was challenged by a Starbucks moving in next door. Hear how they managed to keep their small business successful even when a giant chain showed up. Also, host Thomas White explains what he’s learned from his experience starting small businesses himself and helping other businesses succeed.
Listen to the Full Episode | Download MP3
Part 1: Interview with Lauren Dixon, CEO Dixon Schwabl | Download MP3
Part 2: Interview with Jon Cates of Broadway Café in Kansas City | Download MP3
Part 3: Interview with Thomas White | Download MP3
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