TOKYO — For almost two decades, Japan has been held up as a cautionary tale, an object lesson on how not to run an advanced economy. After all, the island nation is the rising superpower that stumbled. One day, it seemed, it was on the road to high-tech domination of the world economy; the next it was suffering from seemingly endless stagnation and deflation. And Western economists were scathing in their criticisms of Japanese policy.
I was one of those critics; Ben Bernanke, who went on to become chairman of the Federal Reserve, was another. And these days, I often find myself thinking that we ought to apologize.
Now, I’m not saying that our economic analysis was wrong. The paper I published in 1998 about Japan’s “liquidity trap,” or the paper Mr. Bernanke published in 2000 urging Japanese policy makers to show “Rooseveltian resolve” in confronting their problems, have aged fairly well. In fact, in some ways they look more relevant than ever now that much of the West has fallen into a prolonged slump very similar to Japan’s experience.
via Apologizing to Japan – NYTimes.com.
Put Together a Productive Team with Jeff Bezos's "Two Pizza Rule"
When you’re heading a collaboration of any kind, the number of people you bring on board can change how effective your team’s output is. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, suggests employing the “two pizza rule” to help keep yourself from including too many people.
Rachel Gillett at business blog Fast Company explains that it’s as simple as it sounds. Imagine you’ve ordered two pizzas for glorious consumption. Now how many people could you reasonably feed with those two pizzas? That’s how many people should be involved in your team project. It should be somewhere between five and eight people, which is a pretty safe range when it comes to possible collaboration downfalls.
via Put Together a Productive Team with Jeff Bezos’s “Two Pizza Rule”.
Was SC justice partial in BCDA-SM Land issue?
Justice is (NOT) for sale, maybe.
Time to revamp the supreme court.
Judicial overreach
In its MR filed in September 2014, the BCDA broadened its case with a new argument: that the Court has encroached upon the powers of the executive. It built its case by showing that questions hounded the integrity of the previous process and that it was within the powers of the Office of the President to “exercise control” over all the executive departments – including changing the mode of disposition of government properties.
‘…the haste and the reckless manner by which the TROs were served and re-served create an impression of bias and manifest partiality in the minds of the respondents and erode their faith in the Honorable Court.’ – BCDA
When he took over, President Aquino suspended the privatization and development of the 33-hectare property via competitive challenge or “Swiss Challenge” as part of a wide-ranging policy review and due diligence process. Fort Bonifacio was not singled out; the Food Terminal Inc complex and the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway were subjected to the same rigor.
In 2012, Aquino decided that the Bonifacio property should be opened to public bidding.
In its narration, the BCDA said that “a shadow was cast on the integrity of the process” because the previous board appeared to have rushed approval of the unsolicited proposal of SM Land days before the May 2010 elections.
“The undue haste by which the award was made was a cause for concern of the newly appointed directors and for President Aquino himself,” the BCDA wrote.
Moreover, the offer of SM Land was way below the market value of the land. The BCDA cited the recent appraisal by Cuervo Appraisers placing the cost of each square meter at P78,000. Besides, the BCDA pointed out, SM Land can participate anew, this time in a public bidding.
via Was SC justice partial in BCDA-SM Land issue?.
Why Middle-Class Americans Can't Afford to Live in Liberal Cities – The Atlantic
In a recent article, Kolko divided the largest cities into 32 “red” metros where Romney got more votes than Obama in 2012 (e.g. Houston), 40 “light-blue” markets where Obama won by fewer than 20 points (e.g. Austin), and 28 “dark-blue” metros where Obama won by more than 20 points (e.g. L.A., SF, NYC). Although all three housing groups faced similar declines in the recession and similar bounce-backs in the recovery, affordability remains a bigger problem in the bluest cities.
Super-Liberal Cities, Super-Unaffordable Houses
Trulia
“Even after adjusting for differences of income, liberal markets tend to have higher income inequality and worse affordability,” Kolko said.
Kolko’s theory isn’t an outlier. There is a deep literature tying liberal residents to illiberal housing policies that create affordability crunches for the middle class. In 2010, UCLA economist Matthew Kahn published a study of California cities, which found that liberal metros issued fewer new housing permits. The correlation held over time: As California cities became more liberal, he said, they built fewer homes.
“All homeowners have an incentive to stop new housing,” Kahn told me, “because if developers build too many homes, prices fall, and housing is many families’ main asset. But in cities with many Democrats and Green Party members, environmental concerns might also be a factor. The movement might be too eager to preserve the past.”
via Why Middle-Class Americans Can’t Afford to Live in Liberal Cities – The Atlantic.
Personal Finance For Engineers – Business Insider
Last month, Wealthfront’s Adam Nash gave a speech at Twitter headquarters entitled “Personal Finance for Engineers.”
Personal finance can be a “noisy” field, with a lot of investing aphorisms thrown around as fact.
And because engineers understand and prefer math, as Nash describes them, they tend to think they are being rational with their money … even when they are not.
Given the imminent IPO, and the windfall that will accrue to several employees, this is an important lesson.
Nash’s presentation is a solid intro and useful refresher into the world of personal finance, especially for the more quantitatively-inclined.
via Personal Finance For Engineers – Business Insider.
Google wants to flood your body with tiny magnets to search for disease | The Verge
Google’s ambition to cure death is beginning to take shape in a new product from its Google X division. Andrew Conrad, the head of the company’s life sciences division, today announced the details of an effort that would use nanotechnology to identify signs of disease. The project would employ tiny magnetic nanoparticles, said to be one-thousandth the width of a red blood cell, to bind themselves to various molecules and identify them as trouble spots.
Google’s nanotechnology project, which would also involve a wearable magnetic device that tracks the particles, is said to be at least five years off, according to an accompanying report in the Wall Street Journal. The company is still figuring out how many nanoparticles are necessary to identify markers of disease, and scientists will have to develop coatings for the particles that will let them bind to targeted cells. One idea is to deliver the nanoparticles via a pill that you would swallow.
“FUNDAMENTALLY, OUR FOE IS DEATH.”
More than 100 Googlers are now working on the project. “We’re trying to stave off death by preventing disease,” Conrad said on stage at WSJD Live. “Fundamentally, our foe is death. Our foe is unnecessary death. Because we have the technology to intervene, and we should expend more energy and effort on it.
via Google wants to flood your body with tiny magnets to search for disease | The Verge.
Two schools of thought on the Bangsamoro bill
We can certainly have a successful nation without help from our countrymen from the south but why handcuff ourselves with such a restriction. If you are concerned for ours and our children’s future then this is something that we also need to understand and have an active part on shaping.
MANILA, Philippines – Concerns over the constitutionality of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) are centered on these questions: Do you choose to read the Constitution broadly or restrictively? Are you open to the concept of “asymmetrical relationship” between the envisioned Bangsamoro and the central government or are you not?
With these comments, lawyer Oscar Franklin Tan, co-chair of the Philippine Bar Association, summed up the main points of the House ad hoc committee hearing on the bill with former justices and legal experts on Tuesday, October 28. (READ: Legal experts take on Bangsamoro bill)
via Two schools of thought on the Bangsamoro bill.
Google wants to flood your body with tiny magnets to search for disease | The Verge
Nice. Hope this becomes reality!
Google’s ambition to cure death is beginning to take shape in a new product from its Google X division. Andrew Conrad, the head of the company’s life sciences division, today announced the details of an effort that would use nanotechnology to identify signs of disease. The project would employ tiny magnetic nanoparticles, said to be one-thousandth the width of a red blood cell, to bind themselves to various molecules and identify them as trouble spots.
Google’s nanotechnology project, which would also involve a wearable magnetic device that tracks the particles, is said to be at least five years off, according to an accompanying report in the Wall Street Journal. The company is still figuring out how many nanoparticles are necessary to identify markers of disease, and scientists will have to develop coatings for the particles that will let them bind to targeted cells. One idea is to deliver the nanoparticles via a pill that you would swallow.
“FUNDAMENTALLY, OUR FOE IS DEATH.”
More than 100 Googlers are now working on the project. “We’re trying to stave off death by preventing disease,” Conrad said on stage at WSJD Live. “Fundamentally, our foe is death. Our foe is unnecessary death. Because we have the technology to intervene, and we should expend more energy and effort on it.
via Google wants to flood your body with tiny magnets to search for disease | The Verge.
Real Love Is a Choice | Seth Adam Smith
I’ve heard it said that real love is an unconditional commitment to an imperfect person.
It’s true.
When all the butterflies have fluttered away and your wedding day becomes a distant memory, you will discover that you’ve married someone who is just as imperfect as you. And they, in turn, will come to learn that you have problems, insecurities, struggles, quirks–and body odor–just as real as theirs!
Then you will realize that real love isn’t just a euphoric, spontaneous feeling–it’s a deliberate choice–a plan to love each other for better and worse, for richer and poorer, in sickness and in health. Of course, you don’t choose who you’re attracted to, but you definitely choose who you fall in love with and (more importantly) who you stay in love with.
Our society places a lot of emphasis on feelings. We are taught that we should always follow our feelings and do whatever makes us happy. But feelings are very fickle and fleeting. Real love, on the other hand, is like the north star in the storms of life; it is constant, sure, and true. Whenever we’re lost and confused we can find strength in the love that we have chosen.
via Real Love Is a Choice | Seth Adam Smith.
Filipinos most sought-after architects in Singapore | Inquirer Business
Nice new for our Architects!
Singaporean Theodore Chan can’t help but comment about the “ubiquitousness” of the Filipino overseas worker. “You guys are all over,” he chuckled good-naturedly.
He meant that in a positive way. The president of the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA), and the director of CIAP Architects Pte. Ltd., hastily added that he had nothing but admiration for the skills and knowhow of Filipinos, especially in the architectural field.
“Singaporean architects have taken interest in the Philippines because a lot of your architects work in our offices. I would say that 90 percent of our workforce in Singapore are dependent on foreign technical expertise, and of which maybe 70 percent are of Filipino origins,” Chan told Inquirer Property during a panel discussion on Sept. 9 at the Master’s Hall of Yuchengco Museum in Makati. The panel also consisted of other leading Singaporean and Filipino architects.
via Filipinos most sought-after architects in Singapore | Inquirer Business.