“It isn’t just about the money for shareholders,” writes Martin, “or even the dubious CEO behavior that our theories encourage. It’s much bigger than that. Our theories of shareholder value maximization and stock-based compensation have the ability to destroy our economy and rot out the core of American capitalism.
Source : Forbes
Because of the one-child policy, China will soon suffer the most severe aging process in human history. The ratio of Chinese workers per retiree will plummet from 8:1 today to 2:1 by 2040. The fiscal cost of this swing in dependency ratios alone may exceed 100 percent of China’s GDP. The American working-age population, by contrast, will expand by 17 percent over the next 40 years. America’s fiscal future may not be bright, but it is brighter than China’s
Source : Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
A new Pew Research Center survey of 2,048 adults finds that about two-thirds of the public (66%) believes there are “very strong” or “strong” conflicts between the rich and the poor—an increase of 19 percentage points since 2009.
Source : Common Dreams
The groups argue that reporting of rape often focuses on the victims – their clothes, whether they were drinking alcohol, and their relationship with the perpetrator – rather than the person who has committed a crime, perpetuating myths of a “perfect rape victim”.
Source : The Guardian
Until 25 January. The Revolution happened and with it came the Age of Chivalry. One of the most noted aspects of behaviour in the streets and squares of the 18 days of the Egyptian Revolution was the total absence of harassment. Women were suddenly free; free to walk alone, to talk to strangers, to cover or uncover, to smoke to laugh to cry to sleep. And the job of every single male present was to facilitate, to protect, to help. The Ethics of the Square, we called it.
Source : Guardian
But in the end, I was right to think I was clever and smart. I have avoided making myself a target of sexist assholes by playing by their rules. I’ve done a *blinding* job of that so far.
I think I’m going to stop doing that now.
Source : Lookspring
You have to have dialogue before you can think about consensus and then possibly, change. With today’s news cycle, people seem to get swept up in the latest specific travesty against human rights and lose sight of the larger structural issues.
Healthcare, Education, Environment, Living wage, Regulation of corporations and markets & Removing big money from politics. These are my big issues, what are yours? Let’s share them and have a conversation. We might not always like what each other have to say, but it is the first step to building a consensus around a better imagined future for all of us. If all the news cycle oxygen (I include social media as part of the news cycle) is devoted to a few hot button current issues then the things that really matter seem to get no coverage, and hence no dialogue, and it becomes very difficult for people to have a point a view about them, let alone to come to a consensus.
– KP
“Hans Brasker, foreign minister of Norway, thinks it’s a great idea, and not just to slow warming. “We very strongly believe that we will have established a genuine global partnership to save the treasures of the remaining tropical forest,” he told the delegates at the South African climate talks. Norway is spending about $3 billion to make REDD happen.”
Source : NPR
Many big Wall Street firms have settled fraud cases brought by the government with a promise to never violate the same law. But an analysis of Securities and Exchange Commission documents by The New York Times found that since 1996, there have been at least 51 repeat violations by those firms. Bank of America and Citigroup have each had six repeat violations, while Merrill Lynch and UBS have each had five.
Source : NYTimes
Collected Reading 