SEIU on Private Equity

SEIU (Service Employees International Union) issued a cautionary and sobering report on private equity this week. "The private equity buyout industry, armed with more than a half-trillion dollars of capital, is today engineering financial deals that together are larger than the annual budgets of most of the world’s countries. This financial juggernaut is generating hefty returns to its investors, extraordinary riches for its executives, and newly relevant questions about the impact of its business practices on American workers, businesses, communities, and the nation. "

Canary in the Coal Mine

Gopher Girl isn't normally predisposed to isolationism, but the lack of basic safety standards and inspections on food imported from China is terrifying.

More on the Private Equity Bubble

When private equity firms like the Blackstone Group start marking plans to “go public”, it’s a sure sign we’re at the top of that market. Even the firms themselves acknowledge it, as this memo penned by Bill Conway, one of the founders of private equity juggernaut the Carlyle Group, demonstrates.

The Housing Bubble - Act 1

Like all speculative bubbles, fraud appears have been a bigger part of the housing boom than any casual observer imagined. The Washington Post reports on that sham mortgages appear to have been an epidemic in recent year, particularly in the high-end market. One frightening statistic cited: Mortgage fraud is up 10-fold since 2000. “Many experts have concluded that the nation's real estate boom of recent years was fueled in part by weakened lending standards that sparked excessive demand and drove up prices. Now, some are worried that the looser standards may have permitted a boom of another kind -- a big expansion of mortgage fraud… As more of these cases come to light around the nation, the question is: How much did an epidemic of fraud contribute to the frenzied housing market of recent years?”

USA: A Banana Republic?

The New York Times reports this morning that the “income gap” in the United States continues to grow. According to a study of IRS data conducted by Emmanuel Saez of the University of California, Berkeley and Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics, the top 10% of Americans now enjoy a greater share of the nation’s wealth than at any time since the eve of the Great Depression: “The new data also shows that the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans. Per person, the top group received 440 times as much as the average person in the bottom half earned, nearly doubling the gap from 1980.”

Intervals or Tempo Runs?

When it comes to improving your race times, quality (intensity) beats quantity.

Trying to do too much

This New York Times article warns of the productivity pitfalls of multitasking: "Several research reports, both recently published and not yet published, provide evidence of the limits of multitasking. The findings, according to neuroscientists, psychologists and management professors, suggest that many people would be wise to curb their multitasking behavior when working in an office, studying or driving a car."