1/24/2012

1) Whenever Ryan Lizza publishes something, I normally stop whatever it is I’m doing and read it: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/30/120130fa_fact_lizza

2) Even though, for some reason, it’s not cool to like Thomas Friedman–I do. And I liked his Monday column: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/opinion/sunday/friedman-american-voters-still-up-for-grabs.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

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Post debate thoughts:

1) Romney is a rich man. Republicans supposedly love rich men. He needs to play the, “I’m rich and I worked hard for it, therefore I refuse to apologize for my wealth, ” card a lot more.

2) Newt needs to realize that he may be a good debater, but Obama didn’t get to where he is with a tied tongue.

1/21/2012

Mitt Romney has a money problem.

For weeks the former head of Bain Capital has dodged calls to release his tax returns. His reluctance is, of course, understandable—a man’s money is his own concern. But in a system where elected officials are required to make financial disclosures (look up your congressman here: http://tinyurl.com/3bm3a6v) and where it is customary for presidential contenders to challenge their richer opponents to release theirs (see Obama’s call for Hilary Clinton to release hers in 2008: http://tinyurl.com/7ph2clw), Romney’s dithering makes it appear as if he has something to hide.

There are a number of reasons why he’d want to keep his 1040s under wraps. The US tax system wrongly favors individuals with high incomes and who have access to creative accountants. Mitt Romney claims to earn an “overwhelming majority” of his income from investments, which are taxed at fifteen per cent—ten per cent lower than the marginal tax rate for a person making $50,000. And if he were to release tax returns from the years he spent at Bain, they would reveal that he benefited from the infamous “carried interest” rule. So in a general election where income inequality will be a vanguard issue, is Mitt Romney the man the republicans want to represent them?

But as much as his past can be a burden, it is also what buttresses his campaign. At Bain Capital, Romney sought out struggling companies, then replaced ineffective managers, improved operations, and sold the presumably healthy companies to pocket huge sums of money for investors and himself. It’s this experience that gives his presidential campaign credence. This experience, he claims, imbued him with the knowledge and principles to be an effective leader.

It’s no wonder then that republicans receive his candidacy with such trepidation. On one hand, he’s the businessman and outsider that they yearn for– the quintessential capitalist with sharp business acumen. But on the other, he is the cigar-chomping rich man who makes ten thousand dollar bets in public and who says he “did not earn very much” from speaking fees last year, even though it is estimated he received nearly $340,000 for his services.

No one begrudges Romney for being rich. In fact, most people probably envy him. He certainly has qualities we’d all like to see in ourselves—determination, entrepreneurship, and self-efficacy. But we remain disenfranchised by his detachment from us after a lifetime in the upper echelon.

What’s damning is that many do not believe that he earned his wealth in an honorable way. Attack-ads paint him as corporate raider, coming in the night to pillage and suck dry any business in his path. People see him not a creator of wealth and jobs, but a bizarre-o-world Robin Hood who crumbled the homes of the poor to build his own mansion. People are still hungover from the Wall Street party that went on for far too long, and that left the country with nearly nothing to show for it. As Henry Ford said, “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.”

1/19/2011

As someone partial to business I’m really liking Nick Kristof’s defense here of banking and finance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/opinion/kristof-is-banking-bad.html?ref=opinion

1/15/2012

The last time I posted was the day before the spaceship Atlantis slipped those surely bonds of earth and made its historic final voyage into space. A few days later the ship safely glided back into the earth’s atmosphere and brought home not only the crew of space cadets, but a long history of ingenuity and innovation. The astronaut’s midnight walk from the landing strip to the transport vehicles was an underwhelming curtain call and an homage to the dreams of a baby booming generation who made science fiction a common reality. The shuttering of the space program continues to be, in my opinion, a metaphor for a larger narrative playing out across the world: the end of eras.

After toppling a murderous dictator and after nearly a decade of occupation, on December 18^th, 2011 the US finally withdrew its last combat brigade from Iraq. To some, the Iraq invasion was a prudent, humanitarian effort aimed to topple Saddam Hussein and release millions of Iraqis from the vice-like grip of a dictator. To others it was a miscalculated, conspiratorial invasion based on revenge that resulted in the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and countless more innocent Iraqis. Either way, we know the war was governed by a scorched earth policy that left the country in ruin and teetering on the brink of full blown civil war.

The day prior, Kim Jong-Il—the man who supposedly learned to walk in three weeks and talk in eight; who supposedly scored five (or by other accounts eleven) holes-in-one during his first round of golf; and who did indeed commission the kidnapping of his favorite director and actress to make films in North Korea—died of a heart attack. He left behind a quarantined country, riddled with famine and swarming with a population ignorant of humanity and equality. His son, the supreme successor, appears to be as vindictive and obdurate as his deceased father. We can only hope that this new leader, who is as young me and has nuclear capacity, is guided by a more finely tuned moral compass and rejects the ridiculousness bequeathed to him by his father.

And on smaller scales, in all of the universes in which we are the center of, daily events continue to shape who we are. For me, 2011 was the year I dealt with cancer, finished my CPA testing, and chose to find a new job. My recovery from cancer and chemo treatments taught me that I’m not as invincible as I once thought, and that if I have any hope of hanging around for a while I better take better care of my body. Passing the CPA exam marked the end of the “student” era in my life, and from now on I carry the responsibility (and the honor I’m very proud of) of being a professional who represents not only myself but everyone else who holds the same distinction. And when I left my first real job, I made the conscious decision to leave a comfortable place to take a path that I feel may lead to a more successful destination.

My point here is that the ends of eras mark new beginnings. The Iraqi people may have been left in a situation as fragile as a dry winter twig, but are before an empty work bench on which they can construct their own future. The tenderfoot North Korean leader has the opportunity to bend the moral arc of his country toward justice instead of succumbing to the inevitable fate many leaders of Middle Eastern countries faced this year. And in my own little world, I have the opportunity to take my cancer scare as a wake-up call to live a healthier life and to use my recent career opportunities to open unmarked doors.

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My New Year’s resolutions are as follows:

1- Watch one movie per week in a movie theater;

2- Watch one classic movie per month (January – Casablanca; February- Citizen Kane );

3- One biography a month (January- Steve Jobs; Feb- American Lion, Andrew Jackson)

4- Pay a little more attention to the details in my work and in my life