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Monthly Archives: October 2008
Jacques Barzun approaches 101 not out
Jacques Barzun is arguably the leading commentator on education and cultural studies in the 20th century but he has a low profile since his kind of deep but ideologically disinterested scholarship went out of fashion. Born in 1907, he turns 101 in November. His reputation achieved a remarkable boost a few years ago when his massive and scholarly book Dawn to Decadence appeared in the year 2000 and quickly became a surprising best-seller. This was not entirely a new experience for Barzun because he was touched by the fickle flame of popularity in 1956 when he featured on the cover of Time magazine.
Barzun advised that Dawn to Decadence he set out to be selective and critical rather than neutral and encyclopedic. Those who have tried to read this wrist-breaking 900 page tome in bed will be pleased that he did not set out to be more informative, and that the scope of the work was only the last 500 years. The book can be seen as a contribution to the culture wars, subtitled 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present the aim is to counter those who would either build a wall against the past or, alternatively, draw upon the past to support the case of the adversary culture against the whole project of western civilisation.
Asked about the origins of his remarkable last work, and the reason why it came so far behind the main body of his writing, he explained:
When I was just beginning to teach, about 1935, I thought I would write a history of European culture from 1789 to the present. I was dissuaded from it by a friend of my father’s who was the director of the Bibliotheque Nationale. I was doing research there and he asked me what I was doing, and I told him, and he said, Oh, young man, please don’t do any such thing. You’ll write about things that you know at first hand, and you will fill the rest out with things you get out of secondary texts. There’s no need of that at any time. So I said, How long should I study original works before I begin? He said, Well, why don’t you wait until you are 80. I think I waited until I was 84, 85.
John Clarke on LNL
Comedian laureate of our bullshit drenched age, John Clarke is on LNL tonight. I love John Clarke and, on consulting others in charge of this website – including Dr Troppo – it has been decreed that tuning in is compulsory. Those who are unable to pass a comprehension test (to be administered by a bot when you next comment on the site) will be banned from the site forthwith.
Lessons to be learned
From today’s Fin.
Several causes of the financial troubles in the United States – including the non-recourse nature of housing loans – were known to be problems before the crisis erupted. Other factors – such as falls in American house prices – were foreseeable. These weaknesses werent properly addressed because of a failure of government. The same failure affects Australia.
Although enmeshed in the fall-out, Australia did not share all of Americas faults. But Australian companies do award obscene remuneration packages to executives, against shareholders interests. Kevin Rudd has promised to deal with the greed, as he characterises excessive salaries. But the government will not regulate the quantum of executive wages: the treasurer, Wayne Swan, has opposed this.
However, the government can remedy some board failures. For example, we have long known that companies which grant share options to executives have a greater propensity to employ share buy-backs. A known consequence is that buy-backs disproportionately increase the value of share options. To address this, the government should legislate against their use in executive packages. Shareholders hold shares, so should executives. Continue reading
Deposit Insurance: dealing with the wholesale ramifications
The original policy, as announced on 13 October, stated unambiguously that to ensure that taxpayers are not disadvantaged by this guarantee, the Australian Government will charge financial institutions for providing the guarantee. The charge will be similar to an insurance premium.
That particular clause, i.e. charging the protected deposit institutions for the guarantee, has still to be formally announced.
In the meantime, the Government is still dealing with the complications at the wholesale level. It recently decided that up to 1 million dollars will be free. Tim Colebatch warns that the threshold is so high as to be meaningless. He adds that there is there is only one way out — eat humble pie, admit error, fix it and move on.
There are three ways out of this mess assuming it is not all due to the global financial system and that deposit insurance has a strong influence on events in the wholesale market.
One way is to lower the lower the guarantee threshold, as Colebatch implies.
A second way of averting the backwash would be for the Government to aim for competitive neutrality where anyone could play in it, including investment in mortages.
There is a third possibility. When the Government looks again at the premium on all new deposits, it could insert another modest modification. At present, it is authorized to charge a different initial premium on all new institutions, depending on their rating. Why not make this clause also subject to scale? For very small deposits, no charge. But as the investment gets bigger, the fine grows a little up to the 1 million dollar mark. Beyond the million mark, the old figures will apply (adopt the original fee for all maturities up to 60 months – i.e. AA 50, A 100; and BBB and unrated 150).
Leadership Masterclass
Have you noticed that ‘masterclasses’ have become one of the latest victims of linquistic inflation. I recently got this invitation out of the blue and into my email inbox. I know the esteem in which I am held by some in the blogging community – so I guess it was only a matter of time. Anyway, I’m open for suggestions as to how to respond. For those of you that may be alarmed that this may have gone to my head, be assured that -even though it has gone to my head – I will not desert my duty here, conducting as I am, the very online leadership masterclass it is your privilege to be reading through these troubled times.
Dear Dr Nicholas Gruen,
I am a conference producer for c|m|s. I am currently organising the 2008 Leadership Masterclass, an event which will bring together business leaders to hear from experts on subjects such as ‘Leadership in a Downturn’ and ‘Preparing for the Inevitable Upturn’. The Leadership Masterclass will involve CFOs, CEOs and Managing Directors of leading businesses and major companies.
I would like to kindly invite you to deliver a presentation at the 2008 Leadership Masterclass – Getting Ahead in a Downturn. I have attached an invitation containing further information
To give you an overview of c|m|s, our most recent conferences have been produced for Managing Partners from leading law firms. In 2008 some of our speakers have included David Childs, Global Managing Partner Clifford Chance; David Fagan, Chief Executive Partner Clayton Utz; Danny Gilbert, Managing Partner Gilbert & Tobin; Robert Milliner, Chief Executive Partner, Mallesons Stephens Jacques. We also run events for the IT sector and courts technology. This Leadership event will bring together delegates from a range of professional services.I hope that you will consider this invitation as it would be wonderful to have you involved in this worthwhile event.
Kind regards,
Jessica
Conference Producer
C | M | S [Chilli Marketing Solutions] | Conferences – Summits – Training |
In summary, I would advise you all, not just to show leadership through the downturn (easier said than done of course) but also to prepare for the upturn.
Adam Smith on Science, Paul Krugman on intellectual charlatans: Speech to CSIRO science leaders
A few weeks ago, on the 30th of Sept to be precise, I gave a speech to ‘science leaders’ in CSIRO. Science leaders are early mid career scientists from around the world whom CSIRO have recruited. As the speech explains, Jim Peacock, the Chief Scientist whom I met when on the Innovation Review asked me to speak. I sent this to Don Arthur, who enjoyed it, so I thought I’d post it for those who might like to read it on Troppo.
I must confess to some trepidation as I stand before you.
Ive never thought of myself as an after dinner speaker. But there I was working away I was going to say innocently working away but some people who know me might find that unconvincing.
Anyway, at that point, the nations Chief Scientist rang.
He said that hed come to think of my contributions to the Innovation Review where we both sat as members as so witty that he thought that if I turned up here tonight everyone could have a good laugh.
I note he didnt say witty and wise, but then thats just as well as it halves the level of performance anxiety I might otherwise feel.
Now naturally enough, those on the Innovation Panel regard a gentle request from the Chief Scientist in the same way that members of the US Military regard a gentle request from the Commander in Chief. So I accepted his kind invitation.
Anyway, immediately I got off the phone the saying that came to my fevered and terrified mind was the one attributed to Abraham Lincoln. You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time (I think in these circumstances thats a reference to the Chief Scientist), but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
On thinking about that I nearly rang back and cancelled, but then I realised, that from what the Chief Scientist had said, all I really needed to do was fool all of the people in this room for fifteen minutes or so.
So here I go. Please dont refrain from having a few more drinks as I speak. A couple of minutes already gone! Continue reading
Uplink Down Sink
We have the choice of two uplinks for our server. One is free on agreement with the University Computer Club, our server hosts. The other is through AARNet, a network operated by and for Australian universities.
The free link, known as ‘bright’, has been on the fritz all weekend. I didn’t notice because it mostly seems to affect people who are outside of Western Australia’s internet exchange hub WAIX. My ISP connects directly to WAIX and so does the bright uplink.
Three independent reports of trouble have convinced me I’m wrong, plus advice that yes, bright is on the blink. Apparently UWA’s IT service group have been getting angry phonecalls from various parties asking pointedly what it is they’re paying bright for. (Porn, movies and music, mostly, since most of the traffic is generated in the dorms).
In any case, I have switched us over to the AARNet uplink. We generally don’t use AARNet because it costs us money and we are forbidden by the Terms of Service to use it for commercial purposes, including advertising. So at some point when bright is fixed we’ll switch back, but for now, enjoy the musty smell of internet wisdom being delivered from the ivory tower.