Marty Manley on economics, politics, technology, and culture

People

Billionaire Amazon CEO works in his own warehouse.

He looks like a leprechaun and laughs like a hyena, but do not ever underestimate Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. Back in 2006, Amazon accounted for 5.1% of all online sales. Now it accounts for 6% and it's cash flow more than doubled. The company ranks 8th in the Fortune 500 for ten year [...]

Can Ron Bloom Save the US Auto Industry?

As mentioned in an earlier post, I think very highly of Ron Bloom, the Steelworker Financial adviser just named by President Obama as the non-czar car czar. Ron and Diana Farrell of the National Economic Council will head up the task force that will oversee the restructuring of our car companies. Both are first-rate appointments. [...]

Bicentennial of Heroes

Today two of my heroes celebrate their 200th birthdays. Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were both born on February 12, 1809.  Neither Lincoln nor Darwin were especially popular during their lifetimes and for different reasons, both were often caricatured as apes. Lincoln may be remembered as our greatest President, but he was also one of [...]

Man from A Place Called Phoenix

Bill Clinton famously campaigned as a man from A Place Called Hope. More impressive, perhaps, is the man from a place called Phoenix. Recall that the capital of Arizona is named for the mythical bird that manages to ignite itself at the end of its life, reduce itself to ashes, and arise young and reborn. [...]

"Brick Walls Let us Prove How Badly We Want Things"

Some universities have been asking faculty to give the last lecture of their life. It’s a wonderful forcing device: take an hour and tell us everything important that you have learned. For Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-science professor, it was more than a forcing device. The 46 year old father of three small [...]

Chauncey Bailey and Oakland's Nation of Islam

Friday was another gorgeous day in the Bay Area — the latest in a summer of perfect days. Alibris had a company picnic at the beach in Alameda featuring small children armed with water balloons. I enjoyed cycling home on a bike I have been slowly assembling for a few months. I passed through Oakland’s [...]

Hitchens vs. God and Islamic Jihad

Our crack shot, karate-chopping, head-bashing action-hero Christopher Hitchens calls a spade a damned shovel in today’s Slate. His piece, entitled "Don’t Mince Words: The London car-bomb plot was designed to kill women" begins Why on earth do people keep saying, "There but for the grace of God …"? If matters had been very slightly different [...]

"No Power in the Market and No Voice in the System"

Bill Gates’ Harvard commencement address is being circulated widely in Silicon Valley — and with good reason. He gave an outstanding speech (rather, he wrote an outstanding speech — he cannot deliver a speech to save his life). In the tradition of commencement speeches, Gates reminded grads of their social obligations — a noblesse oblige [...]

BDS Spreads as Blair Prepares to Step Down

Timothy Garton Ash, one of Europe’s most astute political observers, recently described the extreme reaction of dinner guests to unpopular political leaders. …The sole duty of any self-respecting commentator is to interrogate and then indict Blair – as if he were a cross between Radovan Karadzic, Augusto Pinochet and Adolf Eichmann…As at many a London [...]

"Rather Be Miserable With Than Without It"

"Rich man he say he would guessMoney can’t buy happinessPoor man he say he don’t doubt itBut he’d rather be miserable with than without it." — traditional Calypso ditty Michael Spence is a ridiculously accomplished scholar. Some years back, he won the Clark award given to the nation’s best economist under 40. After serving as [...]

Scooter and Skilling: Fools or Felons?

Start with my prejudices, which many people share. I do not especially like Dick Cheney’s aide Scooter Libby or Enron President Jeff Skilling. Both strike me as men who chose to advance narrow and unworthy goals: the sharp-elbowed, mean-spirited, zero-sum politics of the Cheney/Bush White House or the creation of an energy trading giant built [...]

David Petraeus, Rock Star General

Throughout the ages, great countries have honored their great warriors. School children are taught the names of our nation’s war heros: John Paul Jones, Ulysses S. Grant, Clara Barton, Billy Mitchell, Alvin York, Jimmy Doolittle, Douglas MacArthur. Great warriors are celebrities — and should be. Can an army general be a celebrity these days? We [...]

Never Apologize, Never Explain?

Why do most leaders have a hard time apologizing when they screw up? Harry Truman, long one of my favorites, concisely summarized the prevailing wisdom: "Don’t ever apologize for anything". I’m probably missing a chapter here, but why not? P.G. Wodehouse, creator of Jeeves, suggested a reason in The Man Upstairs: "It is a good [...]

À la Recherche du Temps Perdu

Cities concentrate people, wealth, culture — and memories. In New York this week, I walked by an Indian restaurant and recalled a lunch almost twenty years ago with friends who tried to persuade me to come work on Wall Street. Across from the restaurant stood a former men’s club where I pitched an IPO fifteen [...]

Quick, the Invisibility Cloak!

Arrived in London to find 17-year-old Daniel Radcliffe making damned sure that he doesn’t get type cast for his film role as Harry Potter. Radcliffe is upstaging the recent announcement of the final Harry Potter book by preparing to appear on the West End stage in a revival of Peter Shaffer’s controversial play Equus. This [...]

The Speech

It is by a considerable distance the finest American speech of the twentieth century. In its staging and phrasing, it consciously evoked the finest American speech ever, delivered nearly one hundred years earlier nearly one hundred miles away. Watch it, or read Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech to hundreds of thousands of people who gathered [...]

To Infinity and Beyond: Steve Jobs Does it Again

Every year at this time I make a habit of watching the finest business presentation on the planet: the Steve Jobs keynote address at Mac World. The event is held nearby, but I watch the film to see Jobs present new results, products, and businesses. On Tuesday Jobs keynoted MacWorld 2007. He is surely one [...]

A Freak of Nurture

Michael Lewis on Race, Class, and Football Michael Lewis (author of the must-read Liar’s Poker and Moneyball as well as the somewhat less terrific New New Thing) recently published The Blind-Side: Evolution of a Game. Despite the title, this book is only partly about football. Lewis likes to describe an industry undergoing a fundamental transformation [...]

American Oracle: Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman died today at age 92. Seems like he was just getting started. Friedman was easily one of the dozen most influential thinkers of the 20th century. He was a founding father of modern monetary policy. In his hugely influential magnum opus A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 written with Anna J. [...]

They’re Tryin’ To Wash Us Away: Randy Newman at Carnegie Hall

I got two pleasant musical surprises while in New York on business this week. Last night a friend snuck me into an event with Sting, who was signing his new CD at a local Barnes & Noble. Sting turns out to be short, fit, and pretty nice for an Irish rock star who got a [...]