Gold Makes the Flag of Law Dance to its Tune

Image by Dominic's pics via Flickr

Law is a flag and gold is the wind that makes it wave. – Russian proverb

There is no man so good who, were he to submit his thoughts to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life. – Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers. – William Shakespeare

The inherent preferences of organizations are clarity, certainty, and perfection. The inherent nature of human relationships involves ambiguity, uncertainty, and imperfection. How one honors, balances, and integrates the needs of both is the real trick of management. – Richard Tanner Pascale and Anthony G. Athors

Learning is discovering that something is possible. Fritz Perls

He who learns but does not think, is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger. – Confucius

To teach is to learn twice. – Joseph Joubert

Knowing Nothing about a Great Many Things

Image by wallyg via Flickr

Knowledge is the antidote to fear. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

‘Tis not knowing much, but what is useful, that makes a man wise. – Thomas Fuller

It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill. – Wilbur Wright

Get to know what it is you don’t know as fast as you can. – Robert Heller

I have tried to know absolutely nothing about a great many things and I have succeeded fairly well. – Robert Benchley

Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject – the actual enemy is the unknown. – Thomas Mann

I’m astounded by people who want to know the universe when it’s hard enough to find your way around Chinatown. – Woody Allen

Those Pirates at Goldman Sach's are at it Again

Image via Wikipedia

A humerous tongue-in-Cheek article I'm sure stolen from another site on the internet but good for a laugh.

Could Make Prosecution Difficult, Experts Say

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA – (The Borowitz Report) Eleven indicted Somali pirates dropped a bombshell in a U.S. court today, revealing that their entire piracy operation is a subsidiary of banking giant Goldman Sachs.

There was an audible gasp in the courtroom when the leader of the pirates announced, “We are doing God’s work. We work for Lloyd Blankfein.”

The pirate, who said he earned a bonus of $48 million in dubloons last year, elaborated on the nature of the Somalis’ work for Goldman, explaining that the pirates forcibly attacked ships that Goldman had already shorted.

“We were functioning as investment bankers, only every day was casual Friday,” the pirate said.

The pirate acknowledged that they merged their operations with Goldman in late 2008 to take advantage of the more relaxed regulations governing bankers as opposed to pirates, “plus to get our share of the bailout money.”

In the aftermath of the shocking revelations, government prosecutors were scrambling to see if they still had a case against the Somali pirates, who would now be treated as bankers in the eyes of the law.

“There are lots of laws that could bring these guys down if they were, in fact, pirates,” one government source said. “But if they’re bankers, our hands are tied.”

You're Never too Bad to Win

Image by Caesar Sebastian via Flickr

Living well is the best revenge. – George Herbert

The strictest justice is sometimes the greatest injustice. – Heauton Timorumenos

The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves. – Sophocles

Society often forgives the criminal, it never forgives the dreamer. – Oscar Wilde

Anybody who gets away with something will come back to get away with a little bit more. – Harold Schonberg

The public seldom forgives twice. – Johann Kaspar Lavater

You’re never too bad to win. – Tom McElligott

Goldman Sachs Sucks - Part Two or GS, is that Pork I Smell on the Barbie?

Image by byronv2 via Flickr

An article from the Financial Times with comments from Jesses Cafe American. I believe everyone should understand the ethical standards of Goldman Sachs and the damage that they're doing to our country.

Market Manipulation, Systemic Risk and Fraud, Pure and Simple, And It Continues Today

This article by the Financial Times should remove any doubt in anyone's mind that Goldman Sachs was willfully selling fraudulent financial instruments. It appears that they were working in conjunction with Ratings Agencies, Mortgage Origination Firms, and Hedge Funds to cheat investors.

Carl Levin summarized the situation in his opening statement this morning in tying together various Congressional hearings and investigations into aspects of the recent financial crisis and the underlying frauds. It sounds remarkably like the frauds that Enron had so recently inflicted on the American public.

In particular, Congressman Levin gave a good description of the key role that derivatives played in this control fraud.

"Of special concern was Goldman’s marketing of what are known as “synthetic” financial instruments. Ordinarily, the financial risk in a market, and hence the risk to the economy at large, is limited because the assets traded are finite. There are only so many houses, mortgages, shares of stock, bushels of corn or barrels of oil in which to invest.

But a synthetic instrument has no real assets. It is simply a bet on the performance of the assets it references. That means the number of synthetic instruments is limitless, and so is the risk they present to the economy. Synthetic structures referencing high-risk mortgages garnered hefty fees for Goldman Sachs and other investment banks. They assumed an ever-larger share of the financial markets, and contributed greatly to the severity of the crisis by magnifying the amount of risk in the system.

Increasingly, synthetics became bets made by people who had no interest in the referenced assets. Synthetics became the chips in a giant casino, one that created no economic growth even when it thrived, and then helped throttle the economy when the casino collapsed."

This is also a good description of the basis of the emerging scandal in the silver market, and other commodity markets such as those that Enron manipulated, in which synthetic bets are being used to manipulate price, and improbable sales are being misrepresented under the cover of secrecy and opaque markets as actual sales, when in fact they are merely derivative bets in which the seller may be manipulating the price and taking the other side of the sale above and beyond their actual delivery of the goods. When is Gary Gensler, the Goldman Sachs alumnus chairing the CFTC these days, finally going to institute some significant reforms in the US commodity futures exchanges?

The further question one might ask is, "When is the Administration going to put the FBI and the Justice Department to work in the more serious criminal investigation of the perpetrators of this fraud, with an eye to prosecutions under the RICO statutes?"

A lack of effective regulatory response and reform to the Enron and Worldcom scandals, facilitated by the inappropriate if not pandering monetary and regulatory policies of the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank, allowed the even larger housing bubble to form, bringing the US financial system, and indeed the global economy, to the brink of calamity.

This failure on the part of the US to rein in its financial sector jeopardizes all of us, because of the position of their banks in deals around the world, but in particular because of the place of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency.

President Obama does not need the Republicans to begin serious investigation by his branch of government. Indeed, this is why he was elected, and the promises that he had made to voters.


The existing financial reform legislation being debated in the Congress is unlikely to be strong enough to prevent the next Enron-like fraud, and indeed, is unlikely to even shut down the existing frauds in the commodity markets, recently disclosed by whistle-blowers.

We suspect the Administration and the Congress are putting forward a good show for the public, even while continuing to take millions of dollars in contributions from the industry, and the very firms that are under investigation like Goldman Sachs. Firms that have been and are continuing to receive government subsidies including but not restricted to TARP funds and FDIC subsidies, while they continue to lobby against financial reform and presumably their own investigations.

This is a reform government? Don't make us laugh.

Reform is best when it is driven by a desire to see oaths and promises upheld, and justice done. It is at its worst when it is just a political deal to 'get something done' to silence the voices of critics.

As an aside, in my estimation the reporting on Bloomberg financial television is hitting new lows each day. They are so willfully unbalanced and misleading in their reporting that it beggars the mind. It is a disgraceful sham to call it journalism.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Goldman Sachs: What Hath Fraud Wrought? (Guest Voice) (themoderatevoice.com)
• Goldman's "Fabulous" Fab's conflicted love letters (financialpost.com)
• Goldman trader: His 'fabulous' emails (money.cnn.com)
• Eliot Spitzer: Questions From the Goldman Scandal (huffingtonpost.com)
• Goldman Sachs charged with fraud: the latest (telegraph.co.uk)

Becoming Extremely Wicked Doesn't Happen Suddenly

Image by victoriafee via Flickr

Intelligence is not all that important in the exercise of power and is often, in point of fact, useless. – Henry A. Kissinger

The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it makes it difficult to class them serparately. One step above the sublime, makes the ridiculous; and one step above the ridiculous, makes the sublime again. – Thomas Paine

No one becomes extremely wicked suddenly. – Juvenal

Men of ill judgment oft ignore the good that lies within their hands, till they have lost it. – Sophocles

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk. – Henry David Thoreau

Forgetting of a wrontg is a mild revenge. – Thomas Fuller

The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief. – William Shakespeare

Related articles by Zemanta

• Poets ranked by beard weight (kottke.org)

We're Drowning in Information and Starving for Knowledge

Image by zanzo via Flickr

It would be a great mistake to confine your imagination to the way things have always been done. In fact it would consign you to the mediocrity of the marketplace. – Harold Geneen

Big business is not dangerous because it is big, but because its bigness is an unwholesome inflation created by privileges and exemptions which it ought not to enjoy. – Woodrow Wilson

Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man. – Ronald Reagan

Intuition becomes increasing valuable in the new information society precisely because there is so much data. – John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene

Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense. – Gertrude Stein

We’re drowning in information and starving for knowledge. -–Rutherford D. Rogers

It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information. – Oscar Wilde

Related articles by Zemanta

• The good, the bad, and the just plain odd (boston.com)

No Good in Bed but Fine up Against a Wall

Image by rich115 via Flickr

Today's quotes are from a friend - Durry Garbutt

Sometimes, when I look at my children, I say to myself, 'Lillian, you
should have remained a virgin.'
- Lillian Carter (mother of Jimmy Carter)

I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not
pleased to read the description in the catalogue: - 'No good in a bed,
but fine against a wall.'
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Last week, I stated this woman was the ugliest woman I had ever seen. I
have since been visited by her sister, and now wish to withdraw that
statement..
- Mark Twain

The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good
ending; and to have the two as close together as possible
- George Burns

Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year.
- Victor Borge

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
- Mark Twain

By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you
get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
- Socrates

I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.
- Groucho Marx

My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. Every now and then she
stops to breathe.
- Jimmy Durante

I have never hated a man enough to give his diamonds back.
- Zsa Zsa Gabor

Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food
groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
- Alex Levine

My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying.
- Rodney Dangerfield

Money can't buy you happiness ... But it does bring you a more pleasant
form of misery.
- Spike Milligan

Until I was thirteen, I thought my name was SHUT UP .
- Joe Namath

I don't feel old. I don't feel anything until noon. Then it's time for
my nap.
- Bob Hope

I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it..
- W. C. Fields

We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way
through Congress.
- Will Rogers

Don't worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will
avoid you.
- Winston Churchill

Maybe it's true that life begins at fifty ... But everything else starts
to wear out, fall out, or spread out..
- Phyllis Diller

By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he's too old to go
anywhere.
- Billy Crystal

Durry Garbutt REALTOR
Lighthouse Realty Associates, Inc.
5401 A1A South
St Augustine, FL 32080
904.471.3400 Free:800.471.3401
CELL:904.687.7865
durry@youcanliveinflorida.com
www.youcanliveinflorida.com

Related articles by Zemanta

• The good, the bad, and the just plain odd (boston.com)
• 100 Years Later, Mark Twain Still an Icon (patspapers.com)

Try Biting Your Own Teeth

Image by miss_blackbutterfly via Flickr

Better to be ignorant of a matter than to half know it. – Publilius Syrus

Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects. Will Rogers

It pays to be ignorant, for when you’re smart you already know it can’t be done. – Jeno F. Palucci

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth. – Alan Watts

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not. A sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is. – Horace Walpole

The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination see in every object, only the traits which favor that theory. – Thomas Jefferson

The amount a person uses his imagination is inversely proportional to the amount of punishment he will receive for using it. -–Roger von Oech

Refuting A Sneer

Image by Fifi LePew via Flickr

A fixed idea ends in madness or heroism. – Victor Hugo

Who can refute a sneer? – William Paley

An invasion of armies can be resisted; an invasion of ideas cannot be resisted. – Victor Hugo

There are an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job. – Peter F. Drucker

Yearning is not only a good way to go crazy but also a pretty good place to hide from the real truth. – Jay Cocks

One of the greatest pieces of economic wisdom is to know what you do not know. – John Kenneth Galbraith

Ignorance is not bliss – it is oblivion. – Philip Wylie

Related articles by Zemanta

• Coca Colla hits the shelves in Bolivia (trueslant.com)
• How soaring inequality contributed to the crash (leftfootforward.org)

Worthy Ideas are Dangerous

Image by Esthr via Flickr

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. – George Orwell

A man should be upright, not be kept upright. – Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

There are three things which are real – God, human folly, and laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension, so we must do what we can with the third. – John F. Kennedy

You have to have a serious streak in you or you can’t see the funny side of the other fellow. – Will Rogers

A new and valid idea is worth more than a regiment and fewer men can furnish the former than can command the latter. – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one you have. – Emile Chartier

A idea that is not dangerous is unworthy to be called an idea at all. – Elbert Hubbard

Drinking Tea with a Fork

Image by ξωαŋ ThΦt via Flickr

A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry, but money answereth all things. – Bible – Ecclesiastes

A hasty man drinks his tea with a fork. – Chinese proverb

Let no man boast himself that he has got through the perils of winter till at least the seventh of May. – Anthony Trollope

The haste of a fool is the slowest thing in the world. – thomas Shadwell

Learn to pause – or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you. – Doug King

It is nearly always easier to make $1,000,000 honestly than to dispose of it wisely. – Julius Rosenwald

He that resolves to deal with none but honest men must leave off dealing. – Thomas Fuller

Related articles by Zemanta

• Four Bay Area Authors Crack the Big Time (francesdinkelspiel.blogspot.com)
• contentment (crcpastorchad.wordpress.com)

Drinking Tea with a Fork

A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry, but money answereth all things. – Bible – Ecclesiastes
A hasty man drinks his tea with a fork. – Chinese proverb

Let no man boast himself that he has got through the perils of winter till at least the seventh of May. – Anthony Trollope

The haste of a fool is the slowest thing in the world. – thomas Shadwell

Learn to pause – or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you. – Doug King

It is nearly always easier to make $1,000,000 honestly than to dispose of it wisely. – Julius Rosenwald

He that resolves to deal with none but honest men must leave off dealing. – Thomas Fuller

A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry, but money answereth all things. – Bible – Ecclesiastes
A hasty man drinks his tea with a fork. – Chinese proverb

Let no man boast himself that he has got through the perils of winter till at least the seventh of May. – Anthony Trollope

The haste of a fool is the slowest thing in the world. – thomas Shadwell

Learn to pause – or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you. – Doug King

It is nearly always easier to make $1,000,000 honestly than to dispose of it wisely. – Julius Rosenwald

He that resolves to deal with none but honest men must leave off dealing. – Thomas Fuller

A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry, but money answereth all things. – Bible – Ecclesiastes
A hasty man drinks his tea with a fork. – Chinese proverb

Let no man boast himself that he has got through the perils of winter till at least the seventh of May. – Anthony Trollope

The haste of a fool is the slowest thing in the world. – thomas Shadwell

Learn to pause – or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you. – Doug King

It is nearly always easier to make $1,000,000 honestly than to dispose of it wisely. – Julius Rosenwald

He that resolves to deal with none but honest men must leave off dealing. – Thomas Fuller

Misery Now Insists Upon Company

Image by blue_j via Flickr

Do not become archivists of facts. Try to penetrate to the secret of their occurrence, persistently search for the laws which govern them.

Gossips are not expected to be serious people; and they are not always expected to get the news right. They are expected simply to entertain. – Terrence E. Deal and Allen A Kennedy

We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. – George Bernard Shaw

A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth. – George Bernard Shaw

Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists upon it. – Russell Baker

No man is happy who does not think himself so. – Publilius Syrus

In about the same degree as you are helpful, you will be happy. – Karl Reiland

Related articles by Zemanta

• Author unveils the story of real Prof Higgins and Eliza Doolittle (guardian.co.uk)

The Byproducts of a Life Biologic

Image by justmakeit via Flickr

Happiness, wealth, and success are byproducts of goal setting; they cannot be the goal themselves. – Denis Waitley

Always the rationalization is the same – “Once this situation is remedied, then I will be happy.” But it never works that way in reality: the goal is achieved, but the person who reaches it is not the same person who dreamed it. The goal was static, but the person’s identity was dynamic. – Phillip Moffit

American business needs a lifting purpose greater than the struggle of materialism. – Herbert Hoover

In the long run men hit only what they aim at. – Henry David Throeau

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. – Oscar Wilde

The want of a thing is perplexing enough, but the possession of it is intolerable. – John Vanbrugh

Being frustrated is disagreeable, but the real disasters of life begin when you get what you want. – Irving Kristol

Image by greyloch via Flickr

There are three faithful friends – an old wife, an old dog, and ready money. – Benjamin Franklin

We shall never have friends, if we expect to find them without faults. – Thomas Fuller

Genius is little more than the facutly of perceiving in an unhabitual way. – William James

Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple. – C.W. Ceram

Genius is one of the many forms of insanity. – Cesare Lombroso

The public is wonderfully tolerant. They forgive everything except genius. – Oscar Wilde

The trouble with our age is all signposts and no destinations. – Louis Kronenberger

Related articles by Zemanta

• Essay: The Shoes of Imelda Marcos (time.com)

Hain't We Got all the Fools on our Side?

Image by NASA Remix Man via Flickr

Only the most foolish of mice would hide in a cat’s ear. But only the wisest of cats would think to look there. – Andrew Mercer

Hain’t we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain't that a big enough majority in any town? – Mark Twain

I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad. – William Shakespeare

A wise man may look ridiculous in the company of fools. – Thomas Fuller

No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions. - Charles P. Steinmetz

No man is useless while he has a friend. – Robert Louis Stevenson

Nature teaches beasts to know their friends. – William Shakespeare

Related articles by Zemanta

• William Shakespeare and The Big Lebowski: Together at Last (pastemagazine.com)
• Shakespeare Liked Drugs (manolith.com)

Cream Rises - Until it Sours

Image by Parvin ♣( OFF for a while ) via Flickr

Remember there are two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn’t work; and second, the failure gives you an opportunity to try a new approach. – Roger von Oech

Whey you are down and out, something always turns up – and it is usually the noses of your friends. – Orson Welles

The cream rises until it sours. – Laurence J. Peter

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. – Herman Melville

“Faith” means not wanting to know what is true. – Friedrich Nietzsche

To ask advice is in nine cases out of ten to tout for flattery. – John C. Collins

More people are flattered into virtue than bullied out of vice. – R.S. Surtees

Related articles by Zemanta

• 60 mirrors, one laser: Reflectius is the coolest clock ever (dvice.com)
• Obfuscation, power and corruption (cognitive-edge.com)

Belief in Facts - the Greatest American Superstition

Image by tiffanybbrown via Flickr

Perfection, fortunately, is not the only alternative to mediocrity. A more sensible alternative is excellence. Striving for excellence is stimulation and rewarding; striving for perfection – in practically anything – is both neurotic and futile. – Edwin C. Bliss

Experience keeps a dear school but fools will learn in no other. – Benjamin Franklin

Experience informs us that the first defense of weak minds is to recriminate. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Not to transmit an experience is to betray it. – Elie Wiesel

Atychiphobia, n. fear of failure. – Josefa Heifetz Bryne

A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation. - H.H. Munro

The greatest American superstition is belief in facts. Hermann A. Keyserling

In the game of life it’s a good idea to have a few early losses, which relieve you of the pressure of trying to maintain an undefeated season. – Bill Vaughan

Related articles by Zemanta

• How to overcome your worries - Timeless thoughts (teabreak.pk)
• No Noose is Good Noose (trueslant.com)

Not Everything Legal is Honorable

Image by nela.conde via Flickr

What to some is called liberty is called license in others. – Quintilian

People are beginning to see that the first requisite to success in life is to be a good animal. – Herbert Spencer

Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that is often considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business. – Robert Rice

Not everything legal is honorable. – Legal Maxims

What is left when honor is lost? – Publilius Syrus

Related articles by Zemanta

• New MSU program targets worldwide counterfeiting (sfgate.com)

Who Told Us that Ethics had anything to do with Economics?

Image by Sapphiren via Flickr

The greatest right in the world is the right to be wrong. – Harry Weinberger

Regrets are as personal as fingerprints. – Margaret Culkin

To mourn mischief that is past and gone is the next way to draw new mischief on. – William Shakespeare

Morality is the best of all devices for leading mankind by the nose. – Friedrich Nietzshe

A clever theft was praiseworthy among the Spartan; and it is equally so amongst Christian, provided it be on a sufficiently large scale. – Herbert Spencer

Ethics is not a branch of economics. – Yerachmiel Kugel

A criminal is a person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation. – Howard Scott

The Mother of the Screw Up

Image by Lutz-R. Frank via Flickr

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. – Charles Kingsley

Indifference and apathy have one name – betrayal. Salvatore Quasimodo

Unless you can find some sort of loyalty, you cannot find unity and peace in your active living. – Josiah Royce

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. Ralph waldo Emerson

Assumption is the mother of screw-up. – Angelo Donghia

Great blunders are often made, like large ropes, of a multitude of fibers. – Victor Hugo

None but the well-bred man knows how to confess a fault, or acknowledge himself in an error. – Benjamin Franklin

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Library of America: Too Frisky? (americanfiction.wordpress.com)
• Woe of Tyrants Look to Ralph Waldo Emerson for Inspiration (noisecreep.com)
• "What is success? To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection..." (hitenshah.name)

Zeal without Knowledge is Fire Without Light

Image via Wikipedia

If you are going to be a bridge, you’ve got to be prepared to be walked upon. – Roy A. West

Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate. – Thomas Jones

The truth is forced upon us, very quickly, by a foe. – Aristophanes

To make an enemy, do someone a favor. – James McLaughry

The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity. – George Bernard Shaw

There is nothing harder than the softness of indifference. – Juan Montalvo

Zeal without knowledge is fire without light. – Thomas Fuller

Related articles by Zemanta

• Daily Dialogue -- April 11, 2010 (gointothestory.com)

Stranger than Kiwi Birds at Mating Time

Image by Constance Wiebrands via Flickr

Entrepreneurship is the last refuge of the troublemaking individual. – James K. Glassman

The best person you interview isn’t necessarily the best person for the job. – Robert Half

Supervisor-subordianate relationships are undoubtedly among the oddest forms of human interaction. They are even stranger than kiwi birds at mating time. – Jeffrey G. Allen

Just being available and attentive is a great way to use listening as a management tool. Some employees will come in, talk for twenty minutes, and leave having solved their problem entirely by themselves. – Nicholas V. Iuppa

Anyone who says he isn’t going to resign, four times, definitely will. – John Kenneth Galbraith

It’s amazing how many people ruin their backs by sitting endlessly at their $3,000 computer in a $3 chair. – John Bear

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work. – Peter F. Drucker

Related articles by Zemanta

• The homeless pay the price | Sasha Abramsky (guardian.co.uk)
• How soaring inequality contributed to the crash (leftfootforward.org)

Proud that they are not Proud?

Image by Durotriges via Flickr

Conceit is the finest armor a man can wear. – Jerome K. Jerome

Conceit is God’s gift to little men. – Bruce Barton

Self-approval is joy accompanied with the idea of one’s self as the cause. – Baruch Spinoza

They are proud in humility; proud that they are not proud. Robert Burton

The trouble with true humility is, you can’t talk about it. – Michael C. Thomsett

The most difficult secret for a man to keep is the opinion he has of himself. – Baruch Spinoza

Before you tell someone how good you are, you must first tell him how bad you used to be. – Semon E. Knudsen

Related articles by Zemanta

• Stress and the key to coping with it (telegraph.co.uk)

To Pay Any Price for Economy

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always decides it is his duty. – George Bernard Shaw

People want economy and they will pay any price to get it. – Lee Iacocca

The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing. – Jean Baptiste Colbert

It is only the ignorant who despise education. – Publilius Syrus

Only the educated are free. – Epictetus

The first quality of a good education is good manners – and some people flunk the course. – Hubert H. Humphrey

Acrocephalic – Pertaining to pointed heads. Josefa Heifetz Byrne

Related articles by Zemanta

• Revisiting conspicuous consumption (sethgodin.typepad.com)