Business and the nose

The Economist recently had an article about the 'salaryman' of Japan. Well, we know that the US has been trying to impose its worker-unfriendly methods on our partners, so the salaryman is being replaced by part-time workers who get nothing in the way of benefit, essentially creating a whole generation without the means to care for their future.

Gosh, are we proud of that or what?

Similarly, many have worked for US business and have had their dreams shattered at a point in their life where possibility of recovery was virtually nil not that an earlier point would be any more ethically palatable.

If one looks at the median income line for the US, it has flat-lined, in real terms, for the past few decades. Yet, during the same period (and in the same graph), note the top 5%. Looking at the top 1.5% is even more dramatic. That old thing of getting rich has really taken hold.

But, and this is a big but, many whose pockets are bigger are financial gamers. One wonders why this might be; well, not wonder, as the tools and systems are better leading to the inevitable exploitation of such; it's just that those who care and want to make things better can't seem to catch.

Well, the nose and truth engineering are apropos to this.

Remarks:

10/11/2011 -- Business has stunk for a long while. The protesters can smell the rankness.

Modified: 10/11/2011

Financial nose

It's obvious that we'll need this. However, there are many issues to address, such as motivation, measure, etc.

We can look at the general market issue or address specifics such as retirement (where the motive is not richness so much as moderate wealth (beyond sustenance)).

Remarks:

12/13/2008 -- Much water has passed under the bridge. But, new types of revelations continue to arise.

10/27/2008 -- Yes, things fell apart for several reasons: fiction, leverage, and more.

10/11/2008 -- It keeps getting more interesting.

08/24/2008 -- One example where we see a 9 to 1 increase off of $100K is equivalent to a reserve ration of 10% which can be considered a historically low figure for the reserve or a high multiplier. This notion is related to leveraging in the sense of creating something out of nothing from one view. Of course, as argued before, the lowering of the reserve ration goes hand in hand with increasing use of mathematics through growing computational prowess which can exacerbate the Minsky ponzi tendencies, as we've seen of late. If we're going to model the economy via computation, why not base it on some physical analog, like energy (no endorsement intended)?

Modified: 12/13/2008