Marty Manley on economics, politics, technology, and culture

Archive for May, 2006

Eeyore Gore: The Sad Soul of a Vice President

Wikipedia describes the great Pooh’s favorite Democrat: "He is a pessimistic, gloomy, old donkey who is a friend of Winnie the Pooh. Eeyore is hardly ever happy and when he is, he is still sardonic and a bit cynical. His grumpiness might be attributed to the fact that his tail is affixed to his behind [...]

Sexism, the Subsidy

My mom was a teacher. Her mom was a teacher who married the son of a teacher — a guy whose sisters were mostly teachers. I married the daughter of a teacher. Today however, nobody in the family — least of all the women — is a teacher (my wife is a college dean — [...]

End State Textbook Monopolies

Good for Debra Saunders for calling bull on a bill before the California assembly mandating "age appropriate" information about the contributions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in California and American history. Saunders is nearly always the voice of sanity in Bay Area political journalism. She archives here. Without minimizing the doubtless extraordinary contributions [...]

Look to Crossover Governors for President

What do Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming all have in common? Right! All voted for Bush in 2004 and all have Governors who are Democrats. OK, how about California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont? Yep — all went Blue in [...]

"The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army" George Washington, July 2, 1776

I was fortunate to speak recently with David McCullough, author of 1776, John Adams, Truman, a wonderful volume of essays called Brave Companions, and other well rendered bits of US history. McCullough began writing for USIA in Washington, DC when it was run by Edward R. Murrow. He is now the father or grandfather of [...]

Tax Gas, Not Job Creation

The New Yorker argues the case for replacing payroll taxes with gas taxes here. The piece is badly written, stupid partisan, and contradictory but nonetheless contains useful data and ideas. Once the writer dispenses with the obligatory denunciation administration venality and incompetence, it notes that: By the time Carter left office, the consumption of foreign [...]

The Caged Virgin: Hitchens on Ayaan Hirsi Ali

News from Christopher Hitchens on the articulate, attractive, and extraordinarily brave Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Originally born in Somalia, she had been a refugee in several African countries and eventually a refugee from her own family, which had decided to "give" her in marriage to a distant male relative she had never met. Thinking [...]

Welcome to Federal University

Let’s say you are a veteran in your early twenties returning home after two years in Iraq. Your country has promised to help pay for your college education. Are you forced to attend Federal University? Most Americans and most veterans would consider the idea outrageous — we expect to go to any college or university [...]

Sarbanes Oxley: Do Costs Exceed Benefits?

Do you have the same reaction I do when you hear CEOs whine about Sarbanes Oxley? Sarbox is the law that now requires special audit and disclosure rules by public companies. This law came about because Jeff Skilling, Kenny Boy and Andy Fastow at Enron were having such a good time in 2001 that within [...]

The IPO Diaries, Days Eight and Nine: Early Returns

EARLY RETURNS Friends, Your correspondent went silent yesterday. Tuesday was a brutal 17 hour day – raising money in New York is definitely a contact sport. Seven private meetings with teams of smart, articulate, sceptical investors, a lunch speech, two updates with the capital markets banking team, a board meeting, and a late night huddle [...]

The IPO Diaries, Day Seven: Whistle Stop

Monday, May 17, 2004 Philadelphia and Delaware WHISTLE STOP Alibrians, Our "Mid Atlantic" day consisted of five high quality meetings in Philadelphia and Delaware. The finish line is in sight. Bankers and sales guys are confident; I see no reason to be. The day started with a nice surprise in the Wall Street Journal: our [...]

The IPO Diaries, Day Six: You Must Be Salesmen

Friday, May 14, 2004   Boston, Massachusetts (Part Six of the IPO Diaries) Friends and Family, Boston was packed. Six-back-to-back meetings, including a nicely attended road show lunch, before we hit our final, seventh call. It had been a long week. Everyone was tired but feeling good as we cleared security and took the elevator [...]

The IPO Diaries, Day Five: How High is Up?

Thursday, May 13, 2004 Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Part Five of the IPO Diaries) Folks, Milwaukee was a pleasant surprise. The airport has a very large used bookstore and I got a drive by glance at the Santiago Calatrava-designed Quadracci Pavilion — a museum that perches delicately on Lake Michigan like a white bird poised for flight. [...]

The IPO Diaries, Day Four: Momentum a Mile High

Wednesday, May 12, 2004 Denver, Colorado (Part Four of the IPO Diaries) MOMENTUM A MILE HIGH Folks, For the first time today, our bankers started to use a scary word — momentum. It’s one of those dangerous words that politicians, CEOs, and coaches use when we know that things are going well, but we don’t [...]

The IPO Diaries, Day Three: Flush Until Water Runs Clear

Tuesday, May 11, 2004 (Part Three of the IPO Diaries) Everybody, When exactly did bottled water become the business beverage of choice on planes, in meetings, cars, and hotel rooms? We are drinking water constantly and, when trolling for capital in La Jolla and Santa Monica as we were today, watching oceans of it out [...]

The IPO Diaries, Day Two: Stretchin'

Monday, May 10, 2004 Alibrians, Day one of the domestic road show began with incessant pounding starting just after 5 am. I was mainlining espresso in the kitchen, still in my undershirt, hoping to preserve the purity of the power tie on white. As the caffeine slowly took effect, I realize….knocking at front door… music [...]

The IPO Diaries, Day One: London

Friday, May 7, 2004 Folks, Six meetings and a rock concert for a total of seven high quality events. These meetings do not vary. Enter car on left, zoom to office building, clear security, elevator up, exchange business cards, pass out Red Herring. Pitch using portable flip slides — no computers. Answer questions. Run to [...]

The IPO Diaries: the Alibris 2004 Road Show

The Money Campaign A Daily Diary of the Alibris 2004 Road Show American stock markets have replaced commercial banks as our most important source of corporate financial capital. Today about 15,000 companies worth trillions of dollars sell shares to the public. Public companies come under the scrutiny of the Securities Exchange Commission, whose first Chairman, [...]

Where Does Talent Come From?

The New York Times Magazine this weekend featured news of the upcoming "Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance", a 900 page effort to study "expert performers in a wide range of pursuits, including soccer, golf, surgery, piano playing, Scrabble, writing, chess, software design, stock picking and darts. They gather all the data they can, [...]