A new report out by World Wildlife Fund and insurer Allianz warns that sea levels could rise along the U.S. coast a whopping 26 inches by 2050 as the world warms.
That would place assets worth $7.4 trillion at risk along the US coast.
$463 billion worth of those assets are in Boston, which is cited as the city with the fourth greatest risk exposure in the study.
The top three are Miami with $2.8 trillion; New York with $1.8 trillion and New Orleans with $753 billion.
The report comes several weeks before the world’s nations meet in Copenhagen to work toward a binding agreement to lower greenhouse gases from power plants, cars, and factories that are warming the earth and causing sea levels to rise.
11.30.2009
Global Warming & Boston
11.25.2009
$500 @ Birth
Here is a snapshot of an article from US News & World Report:
Imagine a world in which every baby receives a trust fund at birth.
It might sound like a fairy tale, but being born into money -- or at least into a $500 savings account -- could soon become a reality for all children born in the United States.
Lawmakers are considering a bill that would give each newborn just that, with the goal of promoting savings that would later be used for education, a first home or retirement.
The ASPIRE (America Saving for Personal Investment, Retirement and Education) Act would give each child born in the United States a $500 savings account. Low-income children would receive additional funding, and all participants could add to their accounts over time.
The purpose of the accounts, says Reid Cramer, the director of the Asset Building Program at the New America Foundation, would be to get people invested in their futures. "Having an asset has the potential to change the way people think and plan for their future, and sometimes those effects can be generated just from small asset holdings," he says, adding that it's possible for people to build significant savings over time.
The ASPIRE Act also would pair the creation of the accounts with financial literacy programs in schools.
11.24.2009
11.20.2009
$5 Hero
Stuart Frankel isn't what you'd call a power player in the world of franchising. Five years ago he owned two small Subway sandwich shops at either end of Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital. After noticing that sales sagged on weekends, he came up with an idea: He would offer every footlong sandwich on Saturday and Sunday for $5, about a buck less than the usual price.
Instead of dealing with idle employees and weak sales, Frankel suddenly had lines out the door. Sales rose by double digits. Nobody, least of all Frankel, knew it at the time, but he had stumbled on a concept that has unexpectedly morphed from a short-term gimmick into a national phenomenon that has turbocharged Subway's performance.
In fact, the $3.8 billion in sales generated nationwide by the $5 footlong alone placed it among the top 10 fast-food brands in the U.S. for the year ended in August, according to NPD Group.
Subway's low-cost franchising model and mainstream appeal have allowed it to add 9,500 locations in the past five years, for a total of about 32,000 outlets. At its current growth rate of 40 new stores a week, Subway is poised to surpass McDonald's in worldwide locations sometime early next year.
Frankel's $5 footlong idea illustrates how a huge company can wake up and eventually seize on a good idea that's not generated at headquarters. Frankel, along with two other local managers in economically ravaged South Florida, ceaselessly championed the idea to Subway's corporate leadership amid widespread skepticism.
Once it was approved, Subway's marketing team quickly generated a memorable campaign that firmly established the $5 footlong nationwide.
For Frankel, the biggest surprise from his $5 promotion was that his profit margins didn't decline. Many promotions are so-called loss leaders designed to draw customers in the hope they'll buy higher-margin items alongside the featured special. That's one reason most offers have a time limit. Frankel's food costs did rise as a percentage of sales, but that was offset by the overall boost in volume and the increased productivity of his employees, who had less down time.
From: http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/108119/the-accidental-hero.html?mod=career-selfemployment
11.19.2009
China's Influence
President Obama's trip to China has highlighted the growing influence of China in the world economy. In case you needed more visual proof (Click for a larger image):
From: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/11/14/weekinreview/15chinagready.html
11.18.2009
Free Health Clinics
On Saturday the National Association of Free Health Clinics, a nonprofit organization, sponsored a free health clinic at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.
More than 100 doctors and 400 volunteers from around the U.S. were on hand to staff two halls of the convention center that had been converted into 52 examination areas sectioned off by blue curtains.
By the end of the day, more than 1,000 people had been examined.
MSNBC producer Rich Stockwell was there to cover the event and this is what he wrote:
After watching for hours as the patients moved through the clinic, it was hard to believe that I was in America.
Eighty-three percent of the patients they see are employed, they are not accepting other government help on a large scale, not "welfare queens" as some would like to have us believe. They are tax-paying, good, upstanding citizens who are trying to make it and give their kids a better life just like you and me.
They are victims of a system built with corporate profits at its center, which long ago forgot the moral imperative that should drive us to show compassion to our fellow men and women.
Health reform is not about Democrats or Republicans or who can score political points for the next election, it's about people. It's about fairness and justice in a system that knows none. I'd defy even the most hardened capitalist-loving-conservative to do what I did on Saturday and continue to pretend that the system in place right now is working.
There are no words that can accurately describe the quiet desperation on the faces of the patients. Every single one I spoke to, and every one I heard talking with doctors, expressed their gratitude for the event and wished that they were held more often.
Over 700-thousand people in Louisiana alone have no health care, most of them with jobs that don't offer insurance. Or, worse, they have to decide whether to pay for that or food and housing. Four patients were taken out on stretchers and admitted immediately to hospitals.
I spoke with a nurse who was there not as a volunteer, but as a patient. He works two part time jobs at hospitals providing quality care to those who have the one thing he doesn't. Many of his patients share his condition of high blood pressure, but they are fortunate to have insurance to pay for him to care for them while he goes without. His situation is not uncommon, he has tried for years to get more hours at one of his jobs so he will be eligible for benefits, but it hasn't happened yet. Our system of for-profit health care can't afford to give him and others benefits- might make the stock price drop a penny or two.
Politicians continue to tell us we are the most compassionate and caring people, and clearly we have done much good in the world. I left the event overwhelmed by the hard work and dedication of the volunteers, doctors, nurses, other medical professionals, as well as ordinary citizens who came to help. I am left with one overwhelming question: what does it say about us as a nation of people who can live in a country so rich and yet allow this to continue?
From: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33975919/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann
For more information on the amazing work done by the National Association of Free Health Clinics: http://www.freeclinics.us/
11.17.2009
Buying Grades
GOLDSBORO, N.C --
A North Carolina school is being accused of selling grades for a program that awards extra test points for monetary donations to the school.
Susie Shepherd, principal of Rosewood Middle School in Goldsboro, said the scheme designed by a parent advisory council offers 10 extra points on two tests of the student's choosing in exchange for a $20 donation to the school.
Rebecca Garland, the chief academic officer for the state Department of Public Instruction, said she fears the program sends the wrong lesson about buying grades.
However, Shepherd said the program does not amount to selling grades because extra points on two tests are unlikely to have an effect on a student's final grade.
She said it is incorrect to suggest "one particular grade could change the entire focus of nine weeks."
Shepherd said no donations have yet been collected.
http://www.timesoftheinternet.com/127967.html
11.13.2009
World's Most Powerful
Forbes Magazine has released its list of the World's Most Powerful People:
1) Barack Obama - United States President
2) Hu Jintao - President People's Republic of China
3) Vladimir Putin - Prime Minister Russia
4) Ben Bernanke - Chairman Federal Reserve
5) Sergey Brin and Larry Page - Google Founders
6) Carlos Slim - CEO Telmex
7) Rupert Murdoch - Chairman News Corp
8) Michael Duke - CEO Wal-Mart
9) Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud - King Saudi Arabia
10 ) Bill Gates - Microsoft Founder & Former CEO
My Thoughts:
- Carlos Slim is a relatively unknown person to most Americans even though he is the 3rd richest man in the world and basically runs the the entire telecommunications industry in Mexico
- At first glance I thought the Google founders were too high on this list, upon further review, they might not be high enough.
- Will the President of China eclipse the President of the United States on this power list in my lifetime? I have to think that the odds are higher than one might think.
11.12.2009
Quite the Gap
Here are the countries with the biggest gap between the rich and poor.
The percents are the share of income owned by the poorest 10% and the richest 10%.
#1 Hong Kong
Poorest 10%: 2%
Richest 10%: 35%
#2 Singapore
Poorest 10%: 2%
Richest 10%: 33%
#3 United States
Poorest 10%: 2%
Richest 10%: 30%
#4 Israel
Poorest 10%: 2%
Richest 10%: 29%
#5 Portugal
Poorest 10%: 2%
Richest 10%: 28%
From Business Week
11.10.2009
90's vs 00's
With the decade coming to a close I recently overheard a very interesting discussion surrounding the quality difference between the movies of the 90s and the movies of the 00s. The consensus was that the quality of the movies from the 00's has lacked in comparision to the 90s.
Movies of the '90s
Titanic
Schindler's List
Silence of the Lambs
Pulp Fiction
Forrest Gump
Saving Private Ryan
Shawshank Redemption
American Beauty
Braveheart
Jurassic Park
Fight Club
The Matrix
Good Will Hunting
Movies of the '00s
The Departed
Brokeback Mountain
Slumdog Millionaire
Lord of the Rings
The Pianist
Gladiator
No Country for Old Men
A Beautiful Mind
A Dark Knight
Million Dollar Baby
Crash
The final conclusion was that at some level TV shows of the 00's, that act like movies, in that they must be watched in sequential order, have become big budget productions that rival and may exceed the quality of Hollywood Blockbusters:
Sopranos
24
Lost
Mad Men
Six Feet Under
West Wing
The Wire
What are your thoughts? Has big budget TV replaced movies in production extravagance and quality?
11.09.2009
11.05.2009
Perception
Here is an e-mail that is making its rounds online regarding perception...
On a cold January morning in 2007 at a Washington, DC Metro Station there was a man with a violin who played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes.
During that time approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
After 3 minutes, a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.
4 minutes later: The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.
6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
10 minutes: A 3-year-old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time.
This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.
45 minutes: The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.
1 hour: He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world.
He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.
Two days earlier, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each.
This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the Metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.
The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made....how many other things are we missing?
Quite the interesting story.
For reference here is Joshua Bell's biography via his Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Bell
11.04.2009
Hypocrisy on the Public Option
From The Street.com:
Evan Bayh, the junior senator from Indiana, is in the middle of a heated debate in the Senate on whether a public option should be included as part of President Obama's health care reforms. An organizer of a group of so-called Senate Blue Dog Democrats, to date, Bayh's been a staunch opponent of any changes to the status quo in this debate.
Bayh is at best naive and disingenuous, and at worst supremely hypocritical in pushing his views as those of his voters.
His wife, Susan Bayh, sits on the board of WellPoint HealthCare in her hometown of Indianapolis. Over the last six years, Susan Bayh has received at least $2 million in compensation from WellPoint alone for serving on its board.
Evan Bayh, Susan Bayh and WellPoint seem to share almost identical views on health care and the current public option debate. Bayh recently refused to commit to voting for cloture on a bill with a public option saying: "It's not fair to ask people to facilitate the enactment of policies with which we ultimately disagree."
WellPoint spent $2.6 million in campaign contributions in 2008 for Democrat and Republican candidates. (Evan Bayh himself received more than $500,000 in campaign contributions from the health care industry in 2008.)
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10618234/4/evan-bayh-hypocrisy-on-the-public-option.html
11.03.2009
11.02.2009
Slow Day at the Office
Five colleagues record themselves simultaneously singing the Backstreet Boys.
The video speaks for itself:
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