What part of the word “PLANNING” don’t you get?

Joe Schmid — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:20:33 -0400

There are many business adages on the subject of planning. A couple of these maxims: “Action without a plan is a plan for disaster”. "A fool with a plan can outsma

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Joe Schmid — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:29:02 -0400

How far this year’s version makes it and what language it will contain is a matter of speculation. Factually, the co-sponsorship is down compared to 2007. The “option” language favors coercion and intimidation which is ever present in any organizing campaign; and the option language does not negate the argument.

A better question is where unionization in the US is going. Looking at the precipitous decline from its high water mark in the 50’s the model being “sold” just doesn’t offer the services and benefits that are valued.

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Joe Schmid — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:28:33 -0400

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Joe Schmid — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:01:43 -0500

Agency cost may be the most apparent symptom but layers of derivatives hedging hedges with the presumption that this mitigates risk and in turn subjugates due diligence is closer to the root cause behind the failure. I don’t agree with Shiller. The thinking behind and over reliance on VaR is naïve and reckless. Regardless whether bad people or people behaving badly the whole risk management culture and the “technology” of derivatives produced this.

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Joe Schmid — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 07:33:32 -0500

Try having your students / colleagues consider this. There has been a flood of liquidity into the global financial markets but it is being tied up in a knot by the fear to risk and or aversion to it. If what financial institutions have been doing by way of mitigating / managing risk isn’t working (a.k.a. conventional industry wisdom), those institutions need to change what they’re doing.

In the short term, government becoming the insurer of risk only gets us back to not much different then what we had before this mess.

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Joe Schmid — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:49:33 -0500

Using the term “risk management” in the context of the plethora of derivatives on which Mr. Nocera’s article is based is meaningless. The VaR metric was flawed from the get-go in that it saw the future as an extrapolation of the present. The over reliance on or anointment of a single measure, as your conclusion well points out, was even more tragically flawed.
There is a huge difference between chance taking and managing risk. The financial markets and “players” were fraught with chance taking – not risk management.

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Joe Schmid — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:51:19 -0400

Showing up for work is still a job requirement regardless of the immediate cause. Companies have (should have) a corrective action program for absences and follow it. The issue of absenteeism is being confused with the obese preface. Personal behavior only becomes an issue when it interferes with a person’s ability or other associates ability to do their job.

So rewind the statement - “Businesses that fire . . . employees who . . . miss work . . . are . . . justified . . ."