Astronaut Scott Carpenter: genius, candor, service (10/13/13)
The Mercury Seven gather after survival training in Africa: from left, Gordon Cooper, Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra and Deke Slayton. /NASA image
Navy Cmdr. M. Scott Carpenter died Thursday, Oct. 10, at 88.
Interviewing Scott Carpenter in 2000 as part of a millennium project at the Concord Monitor was unforgettable. I had picked Alan Shepard for my slice of the yearlong Monitor project, which profiled 100 N.H. historical figures.
After somehow obtaining the home phone number of America's fourth astronaut in space, I called Carpenter's house in Boulder, Colo. The then-75-year-old picked up the land-line receiver and proceeded to give me one of the most candid and thought-provoking interviews I've ever had the pleasure to scribble into a notebook. The following is the complete Monitor interview, most of which has never been published before:
CC: Tell me about the competition for that first American flight into space.
Carpenter: (Shepard) was a very bright and articulate guy, but that first flight should have been mine. I remember thinking at that time that we were like the Seven Musketeers, and the camaraderie was incredible. He and John were the ones with leadership ambition. ... Al had a need to excel and curiosity. ... For Al, it was the competition. He felt for his comrades but he also had a need to be better than anyone else. Everything he did was evidence of that. He was single-minded in his pursuit of the first flight.
CC: What was the reaction among the other Mercury Seven when Shepard was chosen to be first in space?
Carpenter: I think John was most disappointed.
CC: The early astronauts played a large design role in the space program. Was engineering a key skill for the Mercury Seven?
Carpenter: Engineering was a key skill, and we were all excellent.
CC: How would you characterize President Kennedy's role in the space program?
Carpenter: It was his enduring legacy. ... We were sort of contemporaries. I had tremendous respect for him. Without Kennedy, we wouldn't have done this. He inspired it. But that inspiration outlived him.
CC: Did the Mercury Seven run wild at Coco Beach?
Carpenter: The same behavior is found in any group of young men. It was inappropriate, but that's the way it was.
CC: What is the legacy of the U.S. space program?
Carpenter: We'll get more return on that investment than we will on any other investment of that time. It played a role in bringing the Soviets down. It helped establish American technological preeminence. We had a new view, a new way of looking at the world. That's the secret of this whole venture -- the new knowledge that we brought back. It's beyond valuing.
U.S. astronaut Scott Carpenter ready to go on Aurora 7 launch day, May 24, 1962. /NASA image
Carpenter was a fellow ocean exploration and science pioneer with Jacques Cousteau in the 1960s. /Image via rolexmagazine.com
Carpenter helped test the first generation of modern underwater technology as a member of the Navy SEA-LAB project in the 1960s. /U.S. Navy image
John Glenn and Carpenter prepare for the future senator from Ohio's historic first U.S. orbital flight on Feb. 20, 1962. /NASA image
The members of the Mercury Seven were accomplished pilots in the Navy, Air Force and Marines. /NASA image
Carpenter tugs at his pressure suit after his completing the U.S. space program's second orbital mission in the Aurora 7 Mercury capsule. /NASA image
After setting an undersea endurance record in the Navy's SEA-LAB submersible living quarters, Carpenter attempts to have a conversation with President Johnson. A recording of the exchange features the aquanaut's helium-induced Mickey Mouse voice and an obviously distracted commander in chief. /U.S. Navy image
The Mercury Seven remained close friends through their lives. With Carpenter's passing, Glenn is the last of the first astronauts. /image via upi.com
Using LinkedIn to find a job: Part II (10/13/13)
whitehouse.gov image
Are you looking for a competitive edge in your job search? You can find it at LinkedIn.
I launched a quest for job opportunities in December, with LinkedIn at the heart of my networking efforts. Finding a full-time position was elusive, but I did land a part-time digital media producer job in Boston and an editorial freelancing gig at MD News, a trade magazine for medical professionals. Both of those opportunities were seized through LinkedIn contacts, and they are helping me pay the bills in combination with my part-time employment at the Portsmouth Herald.
If the time comes for me to launch a second push for a full-time job, LinkedIn would surely play a significant role. The link above describes a relatively basic, seven-step approach to using LinkedIn as a job search tool. Here are some more advanced techniques to contemplate:
- Bigger is better: Continue to build your LinkedIn network. I recently passed the 1,000-contact mark and have found the more people you have in your network, the easier it is to recruit new contacts.
- Targeted approach: When recruiting new contacts, focus on the industries and organizations where you would like to work. In addition, try to make contacts with senior decision makers who could be involved in the hiring process when you apply for a job.
- Capitalize on your network: When applying for a job, check your LinkedIn network to see whether you have contacts at the employer who might be able to boost your chances. After applying, reach out to these contacts via a LinkedIn message to let them know you are trying work at their organization and you hope to cross paths with them soon.
- Two-way street: Always respond to requests for help, advice and information from your LinkedIn contacts. Supporting your contacts is not just the right thing to do, it builds goodwill. You want to have as many energized contacts as possible.
- Stay visible: Look for opportunities to post on LinkedIn or to comment on LinkedIn posts. Every time I blog on a business-related topic, I make sure it is posted on LinkedIn.
U.S. child poverty by the numbers (5/15/13)
One of the best measures of a just and compassionate society is the care afforded to its most vulnerable members. The level of child poverty in America depends on how it's gauged, but it's safe to say one quarter of U.S. children live in conditions that contrast appallingly with conditions found in the mansions of the 1 Percenters.
2010 U.S. Census data show childhood poverty spiked during the Great Recession:
- In 2010, more than 15.7 million U.S. children, 1 of 5, lived in poverty
- More than 1.1 million children fell into poverty from 2009 to 2010
- The 2010 child poverty rate, 21.6 percent, was the highest since the Census began its American Community Survey poll in 2001
- In 2011, 22 percent of U.S. children lived in homes that were food-insecure
- In 2011, 1.1 percent of children experienced the highest level of food insecurity, food intake reduced and eating patterns disrupted
- In 2011, food insecurity was twice as prevalent in households led by blacks (32 percent) and Hispanics (35 percent) than households led by whites (16 percent)
- In 2011, food insecurity was more than twice as prevalent in single-mother households (40 percent) than in married-couple households (16 percent)
- In 2010, 44 percent of children living in homes with incomes below the federal poverty line experienced food insecurity
- In a 2009 survey of 35 industrialized countries, the United States had the second-highest child poverty rate at 23 percent, just below Romania's 25 percent rate
- In 2007, the United States ranked 31st out of 35 industrialized countries in public spending on families, including tax breaks, cash transfers and services
- Compared to other industrialized countries, the absence of public services such as health insurance and early childhood education exacerbates U.S. childhood poverty (factoring in relatively weak U.S. family services, as many as one-third of American children are living in poverty)
The Great Recession's winter of discontent (4/10/13)
/Image via stltrib.com
The United States' painstakingly slow recovery from the Great Recession is facing a speed bump.
The first month after the federal sequester registered a chill in the employment market. The March jobs report showed the filling of 88,000 posts, which was about half the figure economists expected. And a survey of small businesses released this week found owners less inclined to add jobs over the next few months.
And Wall Street is bracing for first-quarter earnings reports from U.S. companies. Alcoa kicked off the quarterly report season Monday, with profits up 59 percent, but the Aluminum giant's gain was based on one-time benefits and cost reductions. And the price of the key building material is down, which indicates a possible slowdown in the construction industry.
As the rest of the earnings reports arrive over the next week, be prepared for a roller coaster ride, one way or the other.
The Dow has been trading at historic highs for two months, hitting an all-time record 14,673 points at Tuesday's closing bell. More positive earnings reports could drive the blue chip stocks over 15,000 points. Negative reports could prompt a sell-off as investors cash in or lose confidence in the U.S. economic recovery.
Enlightened management style in unexpected place (4/3/13)
I sat at the car dealership for three hours Monday waiting for my brakes to be fixed, didn't leave with my vehicle and enjoyed the experience.
The dealership has a small business office for customers, like the ones you often find at hotels. I was fortunate to share the two-seat office space with one of the most enlightened executives that I've ever met. Adam is a vice president and general manager for a national company, which is fortunate to have him on the payroll.
I got firsthand exposure to Adam's management style when he called the boss of a work crew he had visited earlier in the day. He had been alarmed at what he saw and was following up on the impact of his conversation with the work crew's foreman. After he had relayed his concerns in a non-threatening manner, Adam turned the conversation in an unanticipated direction. His top priority had been worksite safety, but he also wanted to make sure that his comments to the workers had been well-received.
"I just want to make sure your crew and the foreman don't think that I'm some guy who shows up out of the blue, barks orders, then disappears," Adam said to the work crew's boss.
This was effective business leadership on display. A manager who not only saw something that he found disturbing but also tackled the problems then ensured his actions had the desired effect without damaging relationships with his workers.
I wanted to know more about Adam.
"The joys of command," I said, still peering into my computer screen.
"Yeah, workers can get really wound up," Adam replied, "I just wanted to make sure that even though I saw things that weren't right, they understood that I respected them."
"It's a sign of the times," I said. "Pretty much everybody is afraid of losing their job in this economy."
"That's definitely true," the VP said.
What followed was a wide-ranging conversation about U.S. health care reform and uncertainty in the global economy holding back job creation, raising children of color in a state that doesn't have a clue about race, and the qualities to look for in a good manager. We agreed that, at least for the time being, the United States was likely to have an essentially jobless recovery from the Great Recession. We agreed that ignorance was largely responsible for the pervasive racism our children had been exposed to in the Granite State. And we agreed that, if they take action at all, most American managers grab the most readily available object out of their tool belt when they encounter a problem: the hammer.
Here are some other insights I gained from Adam about good management practices:
- When hiring a manager, ask open-ended questions that will reveal how job candidates will react to difficult situations, which will help determine whether they will run away from problems or, when they do take action, handle challenging employees in an appropriate manner.
- Don't be afraid to call an employee out over communication that appears insubordinate, but take a tactful approach. "If I'm trying to give direction to someone and they roll their eyes, I say, 'There are at least a couple of ways people communicate beyond talking. What are you trying tell me when you roll your eyes? I know you're trying to tell me something, and it's OK to just tell me,'" he said.
- Before a manager starts tearing an employee's work apart and rebuilding it in his or her own image, it's important to understand the situation from the employee's perspective. "I'll ask, 'Help me understand why things are working out this way?'" Adam said. "I'm open to the idea that I could be wrong. And it's in everybody's interest to fully understand the situation before any changes are made."
America waking from long national nightmare (3/13/13)
Unemployment falling, housing market healing, stock market soaring, the dollar strengthening. Could this be morning in America?
The U.S. economy added 236,000 jobs in February, 70,000 more than forecast. Construction was a top job creator, with 48,000 new jobs last month, a strong indicator of the recovering housing market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has posted gains for nine days in a row for the first time in 16 years. And the dollar is strengthening against other currencies based on several factors, including growing confidence about the U.S. economy around the world.
Before you start pouring mimosas to celebrate the dawn of hope in America, uncertainties remain:
- A hot war in Afghanistan as well as brewing conflicts with Iran and North Korea.
- The impact of $85 billion dollars in federal "sequester" budget cuts and continued dysfunctional leadership in Washington.
- Europe's ongoing debt crisis.
- And the potential for continued anemic job growth as employers rely on automation, outsourcing and productivity gains to avoid hiring full-time employees.
My Internet identity thief (3/8/13)
/Image via parentdish.com
The Discover card has been getting a workout lately and someone not only swiped the card info but also my cellphone number. With that information in his not quite fully formed hands, my identity thief promptly called QVC and Staples trying to buy a laptop, then he bought a few volumes from an online comic books store.
The profile: male; age 13-19; computer proficient; gets low parental oversight, given belief that he can get away with having a new laptop shipped to his home; he's just getting started, going for laptops and comic books today will be swapped for wide-screen televisions and jewelry tomorrow.
Wall Street: Riding the 2013 bull market (3/5/13)
U.S. stocks have hit an all-time high on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones market closing Tuesday's trading at 14,253.77.
A month ago, when the Dow rose above 14,000 points for the first time in five years, this blog predicted a bull run in 2013 as opposed to the stock market collapse that followed the Dow's previous all-time high, 14,164.53 on Oct. 9, 2007.
While Bullwork remains bullish on 2013 and the Dow has already gained 8.8 percent this year, economy watchers at home and abroad should remain cautious about Wall Street:
- Beware of irrational exuberance: The U.S. economy has come a long way in recovering from the Great Recession, but economic growth and the job market remain sluggish with no indication of brisk growth on the horizon.
- There is nowhere else for investors to go: With historically low interest rates driving down bond yields and the housing market still lifting itself off the floor, stocks are the best bet for investors looking for a significant rate of return in the U.S. economy. Even overseas markets look worse than Wall Street, with the European Union riding out its debt storm, growth uncertain in China and India, and corruption casting a shadow over the Russian economy.
- Watch out for Washington: The ongoing congressional gridlock over the U.S. federal budget is going to catch up with the national economy eventually. The longer the ineptitude and self-serving politicking continues, the higher the risk.
- Consumers remain key: Consumers drive the vast majority of U.S. economic activity. Most consumers have more money in their homes than in the stock market. Until the housing market is in full recovery, U.S. growth will be restrained.
U.S. housing market: It's on (2/28/13)
/Image via ibtimes.com
The housing market is surging. In reports released Tuesday, sales of new homes hit a four-and-a-half-year high in January and housing prices rose more than 6 percent in 2012.
And Ben Bernanke is on the housing market rebound bandwagon.
U.S. housing market rebounding (2/25/13)
/Image via michiganonthemove.com
There was more good news from the U.S. housing market last week, with the number of delinquent mortgages falling to a four-year low. Bloomberg reported home loan payments that were at least three months behind or in the foreclosure process fell to 6.7 percent of all mortgages in the third quarter of 2012.
It appears the housing market has not only bottomed out but also is moving strongly in a positive direction, which bodes well for the world's keystone economy.
Consumers drive the U.S. economy. The biggest investment most consumers have is a house. Until the housing market fully recovers from its 2008 meltdown, consumers are going to lack the level of confidence needed to open their wallets and start spending again.
In addition to the falling mortgage deliquencies, here are some other positive housing market signs from the past six months that Bloomberg reported:
- The percentage share of all mortgages in foreclosure decreased.
- Home sales prices rose.
- The number of distressed home sales fell. (Distressed home sales include so-called short sales, when homeowners are compelled to sell a house quickly in an attempt to liquidate assets and pay off lenders.)
- Rising home prices helped 1.9 million underwater homeowners get back to the point where their houses were worth more than what they owed on their mortgages.
For those Americans looking to time the housing market, its going to be tempting to make a move in 2013. Many home buyers can still take advantage of historically low house prices and low mortgage interest rates. Many homeowners who have been stuck in place with few potential buyers in the market finally have a glimmer of hope that they can sell their homes and move on.
Dow Jones at 14,000: Why this time will be different (2/2/13)
The last time the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit the 14,000 mark, it was the eve of the 2008 housing and financial market collapse that triggered the Great Recession in the United States. This time should be very different.
Barring a complete fumbling of the federal budget in Washington or warfare in a sensitive hotspot such as Iran, the U.S. economy is poised for the first year of solid recovery since the frightening fall of 2008. In stark contrast to the economic conditions leading upto the U.S. financial meltdown, the housing market is emerging as a strong source of economic activity in 2013 and corporations are sitting on mountains of cash, instead of being leveraged to the hilt. Detroit is selling cars again. Even the energy sector is booming, although the country may pay an environmental price in the future for all the fracking going on.
The number crunchers on Wall Street and at university economics departments hate to hear it, but psychology is far more helpful than mathematics in predicting American economic behavior in general and the stock market in particular. Consumers are a driving force in the U.S. economy, and consumers' willingness to spend hard-earned dollars is tied directly to the level of confidence they have in their financial futures. Confidence is also a key factor in decision-making at corporations, the other main driver of the U.S. economy. When CEOs are confident about the future demand for their goods and services, they invest in their businesses, hire workers and increase product inventories. When corporations forecast a gloomy economy, they dig in and down-size to weather the storm.
Fortunately for those of us scratching out a living, the psychological factors affecting the U.S. economy in 2013 are far more favorable for growth and prosperity than they were in 2007. The most significant confidence booster is the housing market, which is showing clear signs of healing after the five years of chaos and depression that followed the housing bubble implosion in 2008. In most regions of the country last year, housing prices rose, home construction increased to pre-Great Recession levels and foreclosure rates fell significantly.
The importance of a psychological boost from the housing market is hard to overestimate.
Housing is the top investment for the majority of U.S. consumers, especially the middle class. Besides the demoralized millions who lost their houses in the Great Recession there are millions more who held on to their homes but endured 50- to 75-percent declines in property values. The upward trends in home prices and home sales are returning value to family nest eggs, and should inspire a willingness to spend among consumers.
And from a purely economic perspective, a healthy housing market has a widespread positive impact on job creation, including increased demand for a host of products from lumber to microwave ovens, job growth in the construction industry, and booming business in the home services sector.
We're on the right track. Now we have to hope there's enough statesmanship in Washington and places like Tehran to keep us rolling.
After peaking at 14,164 points in October 2007, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged for a year and a half, bottoming out at 6,547 points in March 2009. /StockCharts.com image
Soft drink giant Coca-Cola swallows bitter pill (1/17/13)
More than one third of Americans are obese, and sugary drinks are one of the top sources of calories in the Ameican diet.
Much like the cigarette industry denied for years that its product causes cancer, the soft drink industry has denied for years that sugary drinks are a significant contributor to U.S. obesity rates. It's long overdue and took considerable pressure, but Coca-Cola's launch of anti-obesity ads this week is apparently the soft drink industry's first step toward being honest with the American public.
Power of social media: Communications revolution (12/21/12)
The town crier brings news to the citizens of "Rome." /HBO image via blogspot.com
From the town crier to newspapers to radio to television to the Internet, innovation has repeatedly transformed the communications industry.
The first wave of online publishing innovation focused on finding ways to present existing content such as photos and video on the Web, while simultaneously experimenting with ways to connect with a paying customer base and craft content specifically for online publication. Media companies and investors have been waiting for the second wave of online publishing innovation: content and business models that grow strong naturally in the new medium.
I'm banking on social media.
The potential reach of social media makes it THE exciting new frontier in online publishing. Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, and a host of other big and small social media companies are at the forefront of online innovation. In terms of maturing its business models, social media is just getting started.
This blog has benefitted greatly from social media. In addition to daily posting, which has definitely driven up Bullwork viewership, sharing posts on Facebook, twitter and google+ is the No. 1 reason the blog has quickly risen from sporadic interest to about 200 page views per week. (Thank you, Bullwork viewers!)
Hundreds of other social media story lines are far more amazing. Facebook claimed 1 billion Friends this year. NPR recently reported on a couple using social media to find their teen daughter, who had run away to be with a man she met online. Using tips generated from social media efforts, the parents were able to help the police find their girl in New Jersey, where the creepy online guy was arrested.
Social media allows individuals and a wide range of groups and organizations a new, powerful way to engage each other socially, economically and spiritually.
Power of social media: Using LinkedIn to find a job (12/19/12)
Check out this powerful approach to using LinkedIn to wage a successful social media-driven job search. In less than two weeks: I've generated three great job opportunities, one of which I'm interviewing for next week; I've generated a dozen good job-hunting tips such as specialized job-listing Web sites that are not swamped with job applicants; I've generated several encouraging, even beautiful, comments from complete strangers in the fields that interest me; I've generated a productive, out-of-the-blue phone conversation with Senior VP at one of the companies I've targeted; and I've generated more than 15 people who have pledged to play an active networking and job-post-hunting role in my job search.
EASY SEVEN-STEP PROGRAM
1. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is set up with all the information potential employers would want to see in a resume.
2. Think fit: Target the field or fields that best fit your education and career background, as well as the geographic area where you want to work.
3. Targeting your desired geographic area as well as your field or fields of interest, boost your Connections to at least 200 people using the "People You Many Know" tool. This step will take at least a couple weeks, but bigger truly is better in this case.
4. Draft at least a couple versions of mini-cover letters to send to your Contacts via LinkedIn's email. I have had four versions of my mini-cover letter to target three fields. Tweak your versions to help avoid a form-letter vibe: personalize the versions sent to friends as well as current and former colleagues, and add some reference to a specialty of any employers that appeal to you strongly or that you know well. (The fields I'm targeting are journalism as well as health care and academic communications.)
5. Keep track of the Contacts you send mini-cover letters. I tracked each Contact query with name, employer and the mini-cover letter they received using a legal pad. But a spreadsheet such as Excel would have been more efficient. Update this list with the Contacts who reply to your mini-cover letters. Flag any responses that have generated job opportunities or job-hunting tips that require action such as sending out an application and resume.
6. Look for opportunities to broaden your social media job campaign. For example, within two minutes of this blog post going live on Blogger, it was also posted on Facebook, twitter and google+ to extend its reach to at least hundreds and potentially millions of people.
7. Then just work the market, sending out applications and resumes as a steady stream of job openings fall into your lap. Also seize any networking opportunities as they arise.
U.S. unions reach tipping point (12/13/12)
The time has come to debate whether unions should continue to play a meaningful role in the U.S. economy.
Those who believe unions play a key role in checking corporate power and protecting worker rights should take notice of what is happening in Michigan, a U.S. union stronghold for nearly a century. If union clout can be whittled down in Michigan, it can happen anywhere in the country.
The percentage of U.S. workers who are union members has slumped to a 70-year low, falling under 12 percent last year. Union membership peaked at about 35 percent of the work force in the 1950s, when the modern industrialized U.S. economy was at its zenith in terms of growth and global competitiveness. As union ranks have thinned, the income and net wealth gap has widened between the rich and everyone else in American society, with the process accelerating over the past two decades.
I worked in a unionized workplace for six years. For the past seven years, I've had a handful of conversations with coworkers where a union-related subject has arisen. The line of discourse has varied (there was never even nascent talk about forming a union) but the reaction has been universal. To one degree or another, my coworkers have been uncomfortable to even discuss the topic of unions in general and union organizing in particular. You know the I-don't-want-to-get-in-trouble vibe. It's one of the first things we learn in elementary school.
Try it in your workplace. If a union-related topic comes up in conversation, watch how the level of discomfort and even fear increases the longer the conversation continues. If workers don't feel comfortable even talking about unions, then there will be no unions.
For those who feel unions have outlived their usefulness, it's time to make your case for union extinction. Make the case that unions were needed for creating the weekend, abolishing child labor and correcting other corporate and government excesses, but they now do more harm than good.
Spitzer's madame and the Great Recession (7/31/11)
"Inside Job" also raises a key point on the eve of the 2012 presidential election: It may have been deregulation-happy Republicans who allowed the financial industry to run amok, but there's reason for alarm in President Obama employing meltdown-tainted officials in his administration and the Justice Department's unwillingness to pursue criminal charges against shameless meltdown swindlers. . . .
And Eliot Spitzer's madame describes how financial industry executives would expense her services.
2008 financial meltdown perps walk (7/8/11)
It's best to have tough hands if you work in the financial industry nowadays. How else could you endure all the wrist slapping, handwashing and high-fiving that's sweeping board rooms from one end of Wall Street to the other?Last month, JPMorgan Chase became the latest financial firm to squirm out of swindling clients at a cost that amounts to only a tiny fraction of its annual profits. In addition to paying a $154 million fine for a hedge fund scheme, the bank's Wall Street division is admitting bid-rigging from 1997 to 2006 and paying a $211 million settlement with municipalities in 25 states.
JPMorgan reported a $17.37 billion profit last year.
"School districts, nonprofits and municipalities in this case were all defrauded by Wall Street," California AG Kamala Harris, one of 25 attorneys general involved in the bid-rigging case, said of the settlement deal. "This settlement brings a measure of restitution, justice and closure to the victims."
JPMorgan is the third bank to cut a bid-rigging deal in recent months. UBS paid $160 million in June and Bank of America paid $137 million in September.
And JPMorgan was fined $154 million in June for a 2007 hedge fund scheme, with victims including a not-for-profit Lutheran insurer and a manager of General Motors pensions.
JPMorgan's fine and settlement are relatively small measures that combine wrist slapping, handwashing and banker high-fiving as essential ingredients. The bid-rigging settlement amounts to 1.2 percent of the bank's profit last year, and the firm is shamelessly bidding for absolution by blaming the scheming on a mid-level executive who pleaded guilty in the scams.
Investigations linked to the 2008 financial industry meltdown that severely damaged the U.S. and global economy are bearing fruit. But most shoppers would pass on this rotten harvest.
Financial industry fines and settlements for fraud perpetrated in the leadup to the 2008 meltdown will likely amount to a few billion dollars. In contrast, the national and world economy remains hobbled with losses, debts and financial needs measured in trillions of dollars. The U.S. housing market -- the 2008 meltdown flashpoint and backbone of middle class wealth -- remains in shambles and poses a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to economic recovery.
The value of a survival-of-the-fittest approach to a healthy marketplace is ingrained in American business mythology. Weak and flawed businesses presumably fail, their assets are redistributed and stronger businesses step forward to serve the market. Wall Street is apparently immune from this kind of evolutionary pressure: The same institutions and individuals who brought down the economy remain in place, waiting to collect their next bonus check.
PBS Frontline has produced several excellent documentaries on the financial meltdown, and they're well worth your time:
The Warning
The Card Game
Breaking the Bank
Inside the Meltdown
Maybe I was wrong about needing tough hands on Wall Street. A hard heart seems more useful.
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