Annual Job Review Is 'Total Baloney,' Expert Says : NPR

It needs to be said:

This corporate sham is one of the most insidious, most damaging, and yet most ubiquitous of corporate activities. Everybody does it, and almost everyone who's evaluated hates it. It's a pretentious, bogus practice that produces absolutely nothing that any thinking executive should call a corporate plus.

The Dumbest Idea in the World

The irony is so great, far-reaching and spectacular, that it will undoubtedly go unnoticed and unfelt. And yet, here's Jack Welch, hero of the managerial class on the stupidity of share-holder value:

In an interview for the Financial Times' series on the future of capitalism, the former General Electric (NYSE: GE - News) chief said the emphasis by executives and investors on shareholder value since he spelt it out in a speech in 1981 was misplaced.

Mr Welch, whose stellar record in his two decades at GE helped make shareholder value popular, said that it was wrong for managers and investors to set consistent earnings growth and steady share price increases as their overarching goal.

"On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world," he said. "Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy...your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products."

And yet that practice has been the defining strategy of every company I have ever worked for, and as businesses have struggled quarter after quarter to reach increasingly impossible targets while cutting costs and reducing staff and laying off workers we've created an entire economy where no one produces anything of value, provides any useful service, or looks to any future beyond the near term. In the effort to increase the fortunes of the few, they've driven the business world into a ditch and feel no more responsibility than an "oops, my bad."

The Jack Welch's of the world have been wrong about everything for as long as I can remember: the never ending stock market bonanza; the unstoppable real estate boom; the banks; the free market. The list goes on and on.

The dumbest thing in the world right now is to think you can get anywhere by working for a living. Assuming you have a job at all, which thanks to Welchian business practices is increasingly unlikely.

Genre and Book Sales

This is a pretty interesting chart from a study I found here [pdf].




I'm sort of amazed that in spite of the energy and creativity that goes into so much genre fiction (particularly Science Fiction and Horror), that they hold such a small share of the market.

It's no wonder we fall so easily into these religious arguments about what is or is not real sci-fi or real horror. There isn't very much at stake.
----------------
Listening to: The Verve - Come On
via FoxyTunes

Jim Cramer Gets Serious

Ordinarily he and his show seem to exist solely for the entertainment value of the boo-yah (limited thought that might be). But now he seems to be getting kind of serious:

In the "Stop Trading" segment, Cramer said the nation's central bank is "asleep" and should immediately "relieve the pressure" on financial firms and the nation's home owners who are facing big increases in their mortgage payments as 'teaser' rates expire. Many thousands will "lose their homes," he warned. "This is not the time to be complacent."

I'm honestly shocked that he'd be making these statements. My impression of Wall Street is that it represents the most libertarian anarcho-capitalist extreme of the Christ, Capital, Consume triumverate. They put greed and profit first, and if the little guy gets squashed, too bad. Cramer on the other hand seems to be predicting the next great Depression should the Fed fail to protect consumers and homeowners. Can this be right?

I'm both confused and impressed.