Before I explain the extreme danger we are in, I wish to offer two of my favorite quotes.
The first quote comes from the president of the division where I once worked. I saw it in a magazine. It needs a bit of back-story first though. We'd just gone through one of the biggest frauds in the history of the stock market (it was before Enron and Worldcom). It was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal for a good month. There had been layoffs. Morale was in the toilet. So what was the quote?
We have a fun environment with creativity and fun.
I don't think I have ever laughed so hard. What the heck was "fun" doing in there once, much less twice? Hahaha!
On to the second quote. I'm reminded of it quite often, especially when watching the financial news on TV.
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you. - Eric Hoffer
Fun! Creativity and fun! The lack of "fun" is clearly what the president of my division feared most, and for good reason. Dark gallows humor was the only fun we had. I'm reminded of one team walking by my door. They'd just been laid off. One said, "Dead men walking." We all laughed, but nervously.
So, that being said, imagine what I think when I read the following quote.
Excerpt: 'The Innovation Zone'
That's our job and the purpose for this book, to re-innovate and by understanding not just how to innovate products and services but how to innovate innovation itself.
What the heck is innovate doing in there four times, two of which are back to back? It isn't just that sentence though. I'd encourage you to read the entire article. It's not long. It's an innovate, re-innovate, innovating, and innovation extravaganza. By my count those words are mentioned over 50 times! Keep in mind this is just one small excerpt from his book, lol.
Just how messed up are we? It's taking a fun environment with creativity and fun to a whole new level. It's a level I never thought possible.
Don't answer. I already know. We're seriously messed up. Here's one more quote from the article.
We are surrounded by more useless inventions than at any other time in history. Affluence seems measured by the number of things we can accumulate and then drag to the trash bin.
I hear that. We have an innovative environment with creativity and innovation no doubt. If we can simply translate the overwhelming successes of financial innovation into every other aspect of our lives, we'll all be eating cat food from the comfort of our cardboard boxes in no time.
Stag,
ReplyDeleteFrom the article:
It is not the sort of innovation we have become accustomed to, which focuses on products but rather one which focuses on new business models that extract greater value from social networks, collaboration and process.
Greater value? The entire social networking model is based on advertising. If people can no longer afford as many "actual" products, what exactly will they be advertising? The airline and auto industries can't make money long term selling actual products, so it follows that we have to "innovate" shams that sell nothing.
Looks to me like we are trying to re-innovate the pet rock. Despite its huge success, the pet rock never fully unlocked all the value from the world's rocks. That value is still out there man, just waiting to unlocked! You might want to put your retirement on hold given the massive size of the value unlocking opportunity. And this time it could be global!
Ninety nine percent of the time financial "innovation" is code for financial sham. It's comforting to hear Bernanke hint that our eCONomy desperately needs to re-innovate our innovative financial shams.
NEW YORK, June 4 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's plan to purchase troubled assets from bank balance sheets is likely to help jump-start the lending and securitization necessary for a healthy economy, Tim Ryan, chief executive officer of the securities industry's main lobbying group, said on Thursday.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/qwt399
Oh yeah transfering the losses from the banking pimps to the taxpayers and our soon to be insolvent goverment so they can start gambling again is the sign of a healthy eCONomy.
It just keep getting stranger and stranger.
Kevin
Kevin,
ReplyDelete"Looks to me like we are trying to re-innovate the pet rock. Despite its huge success, the pet rock never fully unlocked all the value from the world's rocks. That value is still out there man, just waiting to unlocked! You might want to put your retirement on hold given the massive size of the value unlocking opportunity. And this time it could be global!"
LOL!!!! Indeed!
"Oh yeah transfering the losses from the banking pimps to the taxpayers and our soon to be insolvent goverment so they can start gambling again is the sign of a healthy eCONomy."
I'm sort of counting on the idea that the government won't admit it is insolvent until I'm dead and buried. Arrogance for the win! Otherwise, the government might not pay me interest on TIPS, or worse not pay me at all.
Can you picture Geithner ever admitting that the Treasury can no longer take the strain though? Or Bernanke saying that the miraculous printing press prints money at essentially infinite cost?
A quadrupling of general prices I could easily see though, if gold and/or history is any indicator. I just hope it will be measured with a calendar, and not a stopwatch.
It makes me think of the film "Better off Dead" starring John Cusack. He is on the top of a mountain getting ready to ski down it and his friend Charles (the actor that played Booger in "Revenge of the Nerds") snorts snow to ge high. He comments "This is pure snow! Do you know the street value of this mountain!!". Hence, he has innovated the price of the mountain! What's hard to get?
ReplyDeleteGYSC,
ReplyDeleteLove that movie!
"Go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way, turn." - Charles
Easier said than done! Just ask Bernanke!
"I could be at home drinking this killer egg nog my brother makes with lighter fluid!"
ReplyDeleteWas worried you may not have seen that one.
Alright, now I have to write tonights post.