A jobless recovery

Isn't that an oxy-moron? The recovery has begun? Tell that to the millions of people out of work for months if not years.

"The United States economy has lost more jobs than it has added since the recovery began over a year ago." http://nyti.ms/bHbYcI

9.11.10

Thinking about the people who went to work on a sunny September day and never came home.

The Senators Who Gave Us 15 Million Unemployed Want to Deny Them Benefits

By Dean Baker, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research

It is amazing how people in Washington are so forgiving -- of each other. We have close to 15 million people unemployed and more than 8 million people under-employed because the folks managing our economy were incompetent.

In spite of the efforts of economists and policy types to portray the cause of the economic collapse as being complicated, it wasn't. It was really really simple. Prior to the downturn the economy was being driven by an $8 trillion housing bubble. This led to a boom in residential construction. (A separate bubble in commercial real estate led to a boom in non-residential construction.) The equity generated by the housing bubble also led to a surge in consumption, with the saving rate falling to almost zero at the peak of the bubble.

It was inevitable that the bubble burst. Bubbles do that. They lead to an over-supply and eventually we run out of suckers willing or able to pay bubble-inflated prices for houses. The collapse caused the economy to lose $1.2 trillion in annual demand from the private sector. Annual construction spending fell back by close to $600 billion and consumption fell by roughly the same amount as a result of the loss of housing wealth.

There is no mechanism that allows the economy to easily replace this much demand. Hence we were guaranteed a severe downturn, without massive amounts of spending by the government.

For the rest of the article go here: http://huff.to/d2myQi

Never stop questioning

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.

-Albert Einstein

TheGreat Leaders Conference is coming together! 10.7.2010

The Great Leaders Conference will honor well-known CEOs as Great Leaders in Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Advocacy, Social Media, and Innovation. The event will raise awareness for CSR, and demonstrate how business leaders use their social influence to give back. The Conference will shine a light on the accomplishments of these great CEOs, and inspire other business leaders to initiate socially responsible programs.

The Great Leaders Conference is a CSR event. Proceeds from the Conference will fund 15 libraries for Room to Read, providing books and learning environments for 50,000 children in some of the poorest regions of the world.

The GLC is an invitation-only event for C-Suite and Senior Executives from across all industries.

I am honored to have the opportunity to work for BRANDfog in developing Talent for the Great Leaders Conference, NYC. www.brandfog.com

World M.S. Day 5.26.2010

Why World MS Day?
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, often disabling disease. It is one of the most common disabling neurological conditions amongst young adults in the northern hemisphere. Over 2,000,000 people in the world have MS. The aims of world MS day are to raise awareness and mobilise the global movement

How can I help?
The focus for World MS Day this year is employment. You can take our employment and MS survey (we will release the results on 26 May 2010), take part in an MS society activity, organise an activity, or donate.

http://www.worldmsday.org/home

How it's Done in other Countries

Health Care is not just for the Lucky or the Wealthy
Plenty of countries get health care right: http://bit.ly/cqZuPx

MS Awareness Week is March 8-14, 2010

National Multiple Sclerosis Society wants you to move it! MS Awareness Week is March 8-14 and there are so many ways to move it toward a world free of MS!

http://tinyurl.com/y9l5tq8

Using CSR To Attract (and keep!) Millenial Workers

This is re-printed from Helping Hand Rewards
http://tinyurl.com/yaptqyy

by Hinda Incentives

The unconventional is slowly becoming conventional.

According to an article by The Economic Times, more young entreprenuers are opting for less conventional career paths, looking to pursue social missions using for-profit business models. Many people agree that younger entreprenuers are a model for necessary change in how we do business. Not only making money, but helping others and creating better sustainability in the process (also known as social enterprises). These business ideals are becoming more and more mainstream with Generation Y and Millenial workers. It’s the ideal that business is no longer just about making money but making the world a better place in the process.

There are several other like-minded workers that have a passion for sustainability but without the ability to pursue their own private venture. What makes this sort of talent choose which organization they want to work for? For these folks, an organizations involvement in social responsibility will have a huge impact on how they ultimately choose (and more importantly remain with) an employer. How a company gives back, whether it be through volunteer time, money, or using fair trade products as corporate gifts, influences a person’s view and/or loyalty toward that organization.

How are you using social responsibility to maintain employee engagement and loyalty?

What You Put Your Attention On...Grows Stronger in your Life: Nathan Myhrvold, inventor

Nathan Myhrvold, inventor

In Nathan Myhrvold's world, mosquito repellent is so old-fashioned.

The inventor, former Microsoft Corp. executive and CEO of Intellectual Ventures is developing a prototype device that would create walls of lasers that are impenetrable by malaria-causing mosquitoes.

Myhrvold demonstrated the technology at the TED Conference and said lasefortresses could surround health clinics in the developing world.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/02/16/ted.people/

TED2010: Ten fascinating people you've never heard of:

Temple Grandin, autistic professor

Temple Grandin sees her autism as a gift, not a disability. The professor at Colorado State University, who has become a prominent animal rights activist, spoke at TED about how people's brains work in different ways -- and how that's something that should be appreciated, not stigmatized. Grandin, for instance, thinks in pictures, "like Google for images," she said.

She also grabs hold of details, a brain function she feels could help politicians.

"I get satisfaction out of seeing stuff that makes real change in the real world," she said. "We need a lot more of that and a lot less abstract stuff." One of her biggest real-world accomplishments, she said, was that a mother recently told her that her autistic child had gone to college because of Grandin's inspiration.

Grandin's life also is the subject of an HBO film.

TED2010: Ten fascinating people you've never heard of: Philip Howard

A partner in the New York-based law firm Covington & Burling, Philip Howard is a crusader against the excesses of his own profession. Howard, author of "Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans from Too Much Law," gave a blistering talk at TED about how "the land of the free has become a legal minefield."

He cited the Florida school district that banned running at recess as an example of how "people no longer feel free to act on their best judgment" for fear of getting sued. "People are acting like idiots," he said. "For law to be a platform for freedom, people have to trust it."

Howard pushes for policy changes in health care, education and other fields through an organization he founded, Common Good, which describes itself as "a non-profit, non-partisan legal reform coalition dedicated to restoring common sense to America."

TED2010: Ten fascinating people you've never heard of. 1. Esther Duflo, poverty economist

A 37-year-old MacArthur "genius" award winner, and professor at MIT, Esther Duflo sidesteps the grand armchair debate about whether charitable aid to poor countries does more harm than good. The French economist has been a champion of using random trials, like those used for prescription drugs, to test whether some aid policies work in the real world.

Such tests have shown, for example, that giving a kilo of lentils to a family in India to get them to immunize a child against disease sharply increases the rate of immunizations. The same approach can be used to study the merits of giving out free bed nets to fight malaria and to examine ways to get children in developing countries to go to school.

Wall St. Weighs a Challenge to a Proposed Tax

"President Obama urged the financial lobby to stand down when he introduced the tax proposal last week: “Instead of sending a phalanx of lobbyists to fight this proposal or employing an army of lawyers and accountants to help evade the fee, I suggest you might want to consider simply meeting your responsibilities.”

What a concept. Meeting your responsibilities.