"Soros goes on to say that as the crisis in the Eurozone only worsens, the American financial system will continue to be hit hard. On the way to a full-blown collapse, he cautions, Americans should expect society to alter accordingly. Riots will hit the streets, says Soros, and as a result, “It will be an excuse for cracking down and using strong-arm tactics to maintain law and order, which, carried to an extreme, could bring about a repressive political system, a society where individual liberty is much more constrained, which would be a break with the tradition of the United States."
George Soros predicts riots, police state and class war for America
"I believe in copyright. I benefit from it. I don’t want it to go away. I love that we have laws and people to enforce them. But if I had to give up one thing, if I had to choose between copyright and the wild west, semi-lawless, innovation-fest that is the internet? I’ll take the internet every time."
Just heard a huge blast. My windows shook. What’s going on?
"
Can social unrest be the next step after more or less peaceful OWS, Occupy Wall Street. (Even the Council on Foreign Relations had an exploration of OWS’ significance this week.
There is no debate over the generally accepted finding that over the last 30 years “the fruits of economic success have become increasingly unevenly distributed in the U.S.” The latest figures show that there is “rising income inequality, very slow economic growth and high unemployment.” If 1% of Americans now take 25% of the nation’s income– double the amount of 25 years ago in the mid-1980s– then you can understand the rise of Occupy Wall Street and the depressing spectacle of 45 million people on food stamps and below the poverty cutoff line ( less than $22,000).
"http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlenzner/2011/11/17/capitalism-at-a-tipping-point/
"Admonishing CEOs (and investors) to ignore the expectations market and refocus on delighting the customer isn’t going to work, says Martin. It’s as likely to be “as effective as admonishing frat boys to stop chasing girls."
"
“We must shift the focus of companies back to the customer and away from shareholder value,” says Martin. “The shift necessitates a fundamental change in our prevailing theory of the firm… The current theory holds that the singular goal of the corporation should be shareholder value maximization. Instead, companies should place customers at the center of the firm and focus on delighting them, while earning an acceptable return for shareholders.”
If you take care of customers, writes Martin, shareholders will be drawn along for a very nice ride. The opposite is simply not true: if you try to take care of shareholders, customers don’t benefit and, ironically, shareholders don’t get very far either. In the real market, there is opportunity to build for the long run rather than to exploit short-term opportunities, so the real market has a chance to produce sustainability. The real market produces meaning and motivation for organizations. The organization can create bonds with customers, imagine great plans, and bring them to fruition.
""Although Jack Welch was seen during his tenure as CEO of GE as the heroic exemplar of maximizing shareholder value, he came to be one of its strongest critics. On March 12, 2009, he gave an interview with Francesco Guerrera of the Financial Times and said, “On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world. Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy… your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products. Managers and investors should not set share price increases as their overarching goal. … Short-term profits should be allied with an increase in the long-term value of a company."
Peter Goodspeed: If sanctions against Iran fail, war may be inevitable
The European Union joined the United States Monday in launching an economic war against Iran to force it to abandon a suspected nuclear weapons program.
By imposing an embargo on Iranian oil exports and freezing assets of its central bank, EU members hope to cut so deeply into government revenues Tehran will agree to accept international safeguards on its nuclear program.
But the sanctions themselves may be the penultimate step before a possible military attack.
Western leaders like Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, have insisted stiff economic sanctions are necessary to avert a possible war with Iran.
But if sanctions fail, war may inevitable.
(The Nimitz-class aircraft carriers USS John C. Stennis, left, and USS Abraham Lincoln. Photo: REUTERS/U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kenneth Abbate)
"
The “real market,” Martin explains, is the world in which factories are built, products are designed and produced, real products and services are bought and sold, revenues are earned, expenses are paid, and real dollars of profit show up on the bottom line. That is the world that executives control—at least to some extent.
The expectations market is the world in which shares in companies are traded between investors—in other words, the stock market. In this market, investors assess the real market activities of a company today and, on the basis of that assessment, form expectations as to how the company is likely to perform in the future. The consensus view of all investors and potential investors as to expectations of future performance shapes the stock price of the company.
"