kareem:

rahmin:

I Wanted To Change The World
By Unknown Monk, 1100 A.D.

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.

I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.

When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.

Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.

(via John Erik Metcalf)

The continuous reminder to look within for happiness, growth and meaning.

America Gets Up Early

Public Outrage

This is a nice piece on the AIG bonuses.

rickyv:

Some good commentary from BustedTees’ own Josh Mohrer. The AIG bonus outrage is to be expected from an emotional public, but that doesn’t make it correct.  The solution of picking on random people we have angry feelings towards by taxing their legally earned income 100% upsets the foundations of economics on which our entire system is built. We’re getting into very dangerous territory.

joshmohrer:

There have been two bouts of public outrage over the last few months that struck me as weird and uncalled for and theyre basically related:

—Private Jets for executives of companies receiving bail-out money (primarily in the auto industry)
—Large retention bonuses for executives of companies receiving bail-out money (primarily in the financial industry)

I understand why these two things piss people off. Everyone is hurting in this economy; if you have any exposure to any major investment vehicle, you got hurt in the last year. Job security isn’t what it used to be, you almost definitely know someone that’s been laid off, etc. Times are tough. And when times are tough, jealousy ensues. Fuck that guy, he made $10mm this year. That fucking guy, with his big fucking house, fuck him! But what they’re really saying is I wish I was that guy.

And almost everyone thinks they pay too much in taxes beacuse no one likes taxes. You pay out a big chunk of your income for some abstract greater good that’s hard to fully comprehend. Even as a long-time consumer of government services such as my stellar, way-better-than-private-options public schooling and the massive public transportation system I used to get there, or the people who pick up my garbage, put out my fires, clean my streets, protect my country, etc., I still wish my taxes were less so I had more money to buy stuff or save for the future.

So considering those two things, it makes sense that people would be pissed off at the intersection of these two issues; tax dollars going to rich people who they perceive “caused” the economic melt-down.

When financial firms were breaking records of profitability thanks to the brilliant ivy-league math quants, no one was complaining. And no one that retired and cashed out their retirement savings or closed their positions at the market’s peak in Oct 2007 (Dow was @ 14000 vs. early March 2009 @ 6500) is complaining or being asked to return their money. But now, when things are bad, everyone is noticing that Wall Street was over-leveraged and the media is using Wall Street as an icon for greed and as a punching bag.

Bitching about AIG bonuses is stupid. It’s even more stupid than bitching about earmarks in the federal budget. The actual sum we’re talking about is .1% of the TARP money. That’s like giving your kid a $10 allowance and being super pissed because he wasted 1 penny. Yes, money is absolute and its more than a % issue and $100mm+ is a lot of money, regardless of its percentage of total. But I believe it is in the public’s best interest (now that we own significant parts of all of these businesses) to keep the best talent there. Paying out a huge bonus isn’t rewarding failure. It’s incetivizing people with high market value to stay and fix the problem.

People are acting like these guys intentionally did something wrong. They didn’t. They were doing what their firms did to make money, and it turned out there was a fundamental problem with that strategy that most people didn’t foresee. No one involved in sub-prime mortgages, neither the lender nor the lendee, thought they were going to default. No one with 30:1 leverage thought they were going to crash the system. And if they hadn’t crashed the system no one would be complaining.

I want the CEO of Ford to ride a private jet because his time is too valuable to go through security at JFK. I want him getting to where he’s going as fast as he can get there so he can get his ass back in his boardroom and figure out how he’s going to revolutionize the fuel economy and fix his company. And I want him to be paid a gajillion dollars to do it, because he could get that money elsewhere. I don’t want government aided companies being forced to only pay their executives $500k, because then their executives are going to suck.

$500k is too little? I would love $500k! That’s a fortune.

Yeah, well you’re not the CEO of Ford Motor and you probably never will be.

And now that I own like 80% of it, I want the best possible people to work at AIG and fix the problems there. And I want the salaries at my company to be competitive with Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan because so that we rebound and get a fair return on our investment.

I am a registered Democrat and will be until the day I die, even if one day I make $50mm or $100mm or $1bn. Anger over bonuses and private jets is not a point on the political spectrum; it’s jealousy and misplaced anger.

The Update

So I havent been blogging in a while. I have been busy getting settled into life in ‘Merica and working on some big projects for DubCorp. The Cliffs notes update goes like this.

• I am living in Walnut Creek.
• I got rid of my office because now that I live a block away I never went to the damn thing. I prefer to work from home without pants on, and take breaks to watch Bravo.
• I have been on about 10 Match.com dates. I have a good closing rate and WC girls are hotties, but none of them have been worthy of a second date….suburban girls bore me out of my gourd. None of them travel, or have any interests oustide a 10 mile radius.
• When my lease is up in November, I will likely move to San Francisco where there is a million fun things to do all the time.
• I have re-connected with all my old pals from up here, and am now better than ever pals with StephTam, B-Pak, and of course, Peter.
• Peter and I got divorced from our business partnership, and it is good. We are still buddies, and we help each other try and be succesful in our businesses.
• On June 1 or so, I will be heading back to Berlin I think for 3-4 months of Berlin living. After being gone for almost a year, I can honestly say that being in Berlin makes me the happiest I have been anywhere, and I cant wait to get back.
• My geezer gramps passed away in October. I was in the room with him. I think I’ll realize it a few months from now because I cant believe it yet.
• I had a little health scare and need a little surgery on my stomach/esophagus. It’s no biggie. They have to do this to me. This is the same shit that my g-pa had surgery on when he was 30 ( back in 55) and died from it, but I’m pretty sure he died from a blood clot, and not the surgery itself. Knock on wood!
• I take German lessons every week. Ich kann sehr gut sprechen!

Thats it for now.

Sick Gramps

My day in New York

So I spent the day in New York today. I love this city and decided I should live here someday before I die. I think I packed the most things I’ve ever done in a city, into my 30 hours here:

Today in New York, I:

-Took 2 cab rides in real yellow NY cabs, crabby drivers included.
-Ate a greasy omelette and drank coffee in a NY style diner.
-Watched the Park Avenue mile running event.
-Went to a book fair in Central Park. bought 2 books!
-Went to Trump Tower, Rockefeller Center, Empire State, and Chrysler Buildings.
-Went to the MOMA, and saw some Jackson Pollack and Dali art.
-Saw an amazing exhibit of prefab housing, which was way cooler than it sounds.
-Had lunch in a NY style Deli.
-Watched street performers in Times Square.
-Took myself to a matinee off Broadway show, The Fantasticks, and half fell in love with the hottie female lead. I swear she was singing to me.
-Ate both a New York city hot dog AND a NY style pizza slice.
-Walked through Chelsea and the Village.
-Looked at Ground Zero.
-Looked at the Raging Bull on Wall Street.

When I got home, I mapmyrun’d it and I walked 9.8 miles today. What a fun day though. Everybody should take themselves on a self-date through New York:) Tomorrow I go to Jersey!!!