An MBA With Some Meat to It

This is pretty cool.  Tired of being abused in the court of public opinion by terrorist-sympathizers like PETA, the National Cattleman's Beef Association has started training ranchers, butchers, and other meat purveyors in a program it calls the M.B.A: Masters of Beef Advocacy.  No, I am not making this up, and yes, it is as awesome as it sounds.  Here is the article about it.  Here's a choice excerpt:

At the Denver training, South Dakota rancher Troy Hadrick—one of the first MBA graduates—told students about one of his recent triumphs.

It came about after Mr. Hadrick learned Yellow Tail wine had donated $100,000 and pledged $200,000 more to the Humane Society of the U.S., an animal-rights group that has embarrassed the cattle industry with undercover videos of slaughterhouse abuses.

Mr. Hadrick, outraged, set a video camera on a fence post and filmed himself dumping a bottle of Yellow Tail onto his snowy pasture while blasting the donations as an affront to ranching families.

Mr. Hadrick's video went viral on YouTube—at least among fellow cattlemen, who bombarded Yellow Tail with protest emails. Chagrined, the winery withdrew its $200,000 pledge to the animal-rights group.

 I'm sorry, but how awesome is that?  I think this is my favorite part, though:

MBA graduate Suzanne Strassburger, who sells steaks to high-end New York City restaurants, hasn't tried YouTube advocacy yet, but she says the course has helped her pump up her sales pitches. "It gives me more confidence" to talk about how the meat was produced, she said. And talk she does: Beef "is my love and my passion," Ms. Strassburger said. "This is what I get up for."

 Amen, Sister.  Amen!  You gotta love people who love what they do.  And few things combine quite as tastily as steak and capitalism.  Just ask Ron Swanson.  And if you don't know who Ron Swanson is, you do not watch enough good TV.

The Tao of Steve

I have mixed feelings about Steve Jobs.  In my quasi-academic opinion, the guy is a genius at marketing and a moron at management.  His ability to provide value to customers--and to extract said value for his company--is unquestionable.  However, he appears not to have cultivated a company that can run very well without him.  As evidence consider the fact that he is away on sick leave, but still calling all the major shots.

This becomes an even bigger issue as he gets older and sicker, and as Apple eventually begins to deal with the problem of who will replace the one true CEO?  At the company's annual shareholders' meeting, a group of shareholders proposed a measure that, according to the WSJ,

requested the board adopt and disclose a detailed succession planning policy that included the development of criteria for the CEO position, identification of internal candidates and the submission of an annual report to shareholders.

 Now, normally I don't have a high opinion of shareholder proposals because, frankly, shareholders are mostly idiots.  Just because you bought three shares of Apple doesn't mean you know anything about running a company.  My policy on stock holding is that you own the rights to proceeds from the firm's business, not the right to exert any kind of control over the business.  With limited liability comes limited rights.  Sorry, I'm on my soap box again.

Anyway, the proposal doesn't sound so bad to me, given Apple's circumstances.  But of course, the shareholders themselves voted it down.  What I can't understand is why the board would resist this.  My only thought is that they have bought into the Tao of Steve (it's a movie) and, like most Apple users I imagine, secretly wish that Steve Jobs would stick around until the next millenium.  The fact is, before too much longer he will have to step down, and it would be nice for Apple's stock price if the board had any clue how they would respond to that.

Again, I don't really like shareholder proposals, but it wouldn't be a bad idea for the board to communicate that they are thinking about these things.

More About Unions

Unions just seem to be topic of the week.  Right here in good, old Indiana, the Democratic legislators have taken a cue from the whack jobs in Wisconsin and gone on vacation.  This issue here is a little trickier than in Wisconsin, which is just a bunch of whining.  The fight is over a "right-to-work" legislation that Republicans want to push through.  Democrats don't like it because it hurts unions.  Ok, so far no surprises.  The question for me is what this proposed law actually says.  I'll show you what I mean.  Here's how the Wall Street Journal wrote it:

At issue in Indiana is a so-called right-to-work bill that would give members of private-sector unions the right to opt out of unions and not pay dues.

The right to opt out of unions?  I like rights.  That sounds good.  Did they not have that right before?  Who denied them that right?  On the surface this looks like a good thing.  Then I read this from both the Indianapolis Star and that bastion of quality journalism, USA Today:

[The legislation] bars a union and company from negotiating a contract that requires non-union members to pay fees for representation.

Barring?  I don't like barring.  That sounds bad.  It seems to me that the Republicans are engaging in a major PR cover-up here, masquerading their strictly anti-union bill as an expansion of liberty.  Of course, the Democrats aren't any better, because they're just throwing a little hissy fit because the bill hurts unions.

I'm not the biggest fan of unions, but there's nothing inherently wrong with them, as long as they play by the same rules as everybody else.  If a business wants to (or has to out of necessity) contract with a union agreeing it won't hire non-union folks, so be it.  I think it's a stupid idea, but sometimes that's what you need to do in business.  Barring certain kinds of contracts is not the way to make the state more competitive economically.

Taxes Suck

I just filed my 2010 taxes.  The government sucks.  That's all.

We're Back!

Ok, now that I've been enmeshed in school for a year and a half, I feel like I finally have enough of a handle on things to devote 10 minutes every couple days to discussing current events with the interwebs. As such, I'm bringing back The Money Speech. For those of you who have missed my flurry of questionably insightful comments, this is for you. For the rest, well, you probably didn't read my blog anyway, so we're all set. So, sit back and enjoy as I occasionally pepper your brain with disconnected thoughts on what's going on in the world today. Because, frankly, the world's too f*cked up these days not to comment on it. (This is a family blog)

To get us going, I will simply offer a rambling tirade about these protests in Wisconsin:

You know what Wisconsin public servants? Grow up. Right now. Seriously, I'm tired of this sh*t. You pay way less toward your health insurance than practically anyone in the private sector. You get a defined-payment pension which no one gets anymore because it's a fiscal disaster of an idea. "You mean we actually have to contribute something to our own retirement account? How unfair." Yes, time for you people to start acting like grownups and actually pay for some of your time past age 55!

Here's the bottom line, and this message is for all my friends who fall asleep at night dreaming blissfully about getting sick in Canada. If you want the government to provide something, get ready for the government to actually make decisions for you. You want them to provide schools? Get ready for education to become a matter of public opinion. You think teachers' benefits getting cut is bad? Take a trip down to Texas where voters have decided that the entirety of science can be learned from the first ten pages of Genesis. Another vocal group down there wants to teach children that America was founded by a poor black child from Mexico City.

Wait, why stop there? Now that the government is going to be more entwined with healthcare than ever before, we have Republicans redefining rape so that they will have to pay for fewer abortions. Isn't democracy awesome? But it's so great that we've put the government (a.k.a. idiot voters) in charge of all this.

Boy that felt good. I'm glad to be back.

Score One for the Good Guys

Prime capitalist institution, BB&T, has asserted itself as a healthy, thriving bank amidst a sea of faltering behemoths. Now, as the economy starts to show signs of life, the bank is breaking out of the gate and gobbling up its weaker competitors who made destructive lending decisions back in the day.

On Friday, BB&T acquired most of Colonial Bank Corp.'s deposits and assets through the FDIC's seizure of the bank. (Don't get me started on that whole process.) This will make BB&T the 8th largest bank in the US by deposits. That's good for us shareholders. (Incidentally, size of a company is most certainly not always a determinant of success, but with a company like BB&T, added market share means more opportunities to apply its winning strategy.)

Important to all friends of Objectivism, however, is the heightened profile of the bank. Take, for example, this WSJ article about the purchase, which mentions capitalist ubermensch John Allison, as well as Objectivism. Here's a slice:

Before Friday, BB&T had about $152 billion in assets, 29,000 employees and operations in more than 11 states. It will purchase an additional $22 billion in assets in the Colonial deal. Mr. Allison, an adherent of Objectivism as practiced by author Ayn Rand, shaped the bank's behavior around his philosophical outlook.

"BB&T Values," a 30-page guide to the company's 10 core principles, written by Mr. Allison, asks employees to practice "reason," justice," "productivity" and "independent thinking."

Employees are encouraged to adopt these principles at the nearby BB&T University training center.

The bank also has long opposed government intervention in the private sector, refusing to lend to any landowner who acquired property via eminent domain. BB&T did accept federal bailout money last year, but was among the first to pay it back. The day the company got approval to return the capital, executives, including Mr. King, cheered.

Other than the fact that the authors neglect to mention that BB&T was forced to take the money, this is very good coverage for the bank, Allison, and the philosophy. It implies that the bank's guiding philosophy put it in a position to be able to succeed in the current business environment.

Very positive stuff.

The West Bank Has A Stock Exchange?

This is a really heart-warming op-ed from the WSJ written by the Israeli ambassador to the United States. It's called "The West Bank Success Story," and in it, Ambassador Oren discusses the progress that the West Bank has made economically just in the last year. I want to include an extended excerpt here, because I think what he says is extremely important.

Since 2008, more than 2,000 new companies have been registered with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Where heavy fighting once raged, there are now state-of-the-art shopping malls.

Much of this revival is due to Palestinian initiative and to the responsible fiscal policies of West Bank leaders—such as Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad—many of whom are American-educated. But few of these improvements could have happened without a vastly improved security environment.

More than 2,100 members of the Palestinian security forces, graduates of an innovative program led by U.S. Gen. Keith Dayton, are patrolling seven major West Bank cities. Another 500-man battalion will soon be deployed. Encouraged by the restoration of law and order, the local population is streaming to the new malls and movie theaters. Shipments of designer furniture are arriving from China and Indonesia, and car imports are up more than 40% since 2008.

Israel, too, has contributed to the West Bank's financial boom. Tony Blair recently stated that Israel had not been given sufficient credit for efforts such as removing dozens of checkpoints and road blocks, withdrawing Israeli troops from population centers, and facilitating transportation into both Israel and Jordan. Long prohibited by terrorist threats from entering the West Bank, Israeli Arabs are now allowed to shop in most Palestinian cities.

Considering the state the West Bank has existed in for half a century under the tyranny of religious rule, this is amazing news. For anyone familiar with the region, or who has even gone there and seen what the West Bank looked like (I was there at the end of 1999), the concept of shopping malls, movie theaters, foreign cars, and even a stock exchange is baffling.

I also find it to be an interesting example of how important the rule of law is. For years, the Palestinians have wavered somewhere between fascist centralized control and a sort of anarchic psychopathocracy. Introducing a consistent protection of individual rights, those of the Palestinians as well as the Israelis, is integral to forging an economic relationship between the two peoples. The possibilities for peace that arise from the scenario are enough to bring tears to one's eyes.

Oren also notes the contrast with Gaza, where the psychopaths continue to reign supreme, spending their money on rockets instead of shopping malls. Perhaps one day, if the West Bank pursues a pro-capitalist policy, enforcing property rights, the two regions on either side of Israel will become another study in opposites like East and West Germany or North and South Korea.