What it takes to get hired at Google

I thought this an interesting read.

How to Get a Job at Google - NYTimes.com via kwout

Joe Stiglitz on Trust (and abuse of trust)

This piece is interesting for several reasons, among them how many course themes show up in it.  It is regrettable in that much of this ends up being cast as left-right politics.  I suppose nowadays it is impossible to avoid national politics in representing the issues.

There was another piece in the paper today of interest (on the abuse of trust issues).  This one was about Affluenza, a word I hadn't heard before (and likewise for my spell checker).  I suspect that some fraction of you will become highly successful business-wise post graduation.  I hope that success doesn't erode your concern for others and that you can keep some sense of the positive value of gift exchange, even as you do well in your business careers.

The Capture Theory In Action

It's also fair to say that the burden of evidence the courts require makes it difficult for a regulator to meet the standard.  So for the public, it is hard to tell whether capture has happened or not.

S.E.C. Tension as It Examined Mortgage Cases - NYTimes.com via kwout

Do you like creativity?

This is an interesting piece from Slate magazine.  I'd like to bring it in as part of our review on Tuesday.

Monitoring Nowadays

The longish piece on data analytics in the workplace is interesting but to me it's also frightening.  I thought it makes for a good counterpart to our discussion of monitoring in the Shapiro-Stiglitz model.

The Economics of Halloween

This is from last year, but still interesting on how the demand for candy compares with Valentine's Day or Easter.

Robert Schiller on his Nobel Prize and his disagreements with Eugene Fama

This year's Nobel offers a sense that economics has different and sometimes conflicting approaches within the same sub-field.  Some might find that disturbing, but it is actually pretty common in a scientific field where many research questions remain yet unanswered.

Sharing Nobel Honors, and Agreeing to Disagree - NYTimes.com via kwout

Nobel In Economics Awarded

The winners are Eugene Fama, father of the Efficient Markets Hypothesis, Robert Schiller, who has studied asset bubbles, particularly in housing, and Lars Peter Hansen, an econometrician who has done great work on financial markets.  That both Fama and Schiller were chosen is especially interesting as they represent something like opposite ends of the spectrum with regard to what drives asset prices.

Interesting Profile of Janet Yellen

And remarkably timely given our discussion of the gift exchange model yesterday.

Yellen’s Path From Liberal Theorist to Fed Voice for Jobs - NYTimes.com via kwout

Adam Grant on What Distinguishes Wharton

Though this piece is a bit of an infomerical for Wharton, I thought it would interest you given the last blog post and what we will be discussing in class tomorrow. Many startup companies are mentioned in the piece.  I don't know how you find a job with a startup, but it is pretty clear that those companies are much less likely to attend job fairs at campuses such as ours.

By the way, the piece is in LinkedIn.  If you don't yet have an account there, you might consider getting one.

Dividing apartment rents when bedrooms are unequal

Nice piece on algorithms for coming up with rent divisions that are "envy free."  It is not a trivial problem.  If you've had to manage the issue in your own living situation, you'll find the piece especially interesting.

‘Dear Dylan’: I’m getting ripped off in my group house! via kwout

Blame Balmer? Or was this inevitable?

Microsoft is yet another large, highly successful tech company whose better days seem to be in the rear view mirror.  Like managers in major league baseball who get fired when the team under performs, we tend to think it is the CEO's fault when a company does likewise.

For Steve Ballmer, Resistance Was Futile - Ina Fried - News - AllThingsD via kwout

More on Creative Destruction

Legacy in the tech sector can be disadvantage.  Mobile computing is now the rage.  If your old business model doesn't match the new hot use, your business will falter.

Shifting Tech Scene Unsettles Big Players - NYTimes.com via kwout

Creative Destruction

Hindsight is 20-20, but foresight is....pretty horrible.   We'll see some other examples of this in class, but this one is so well written, you can get a good preview of the idea.

How Not to Stay on Top - NYTimes.com via kwout

The Peter Principle in practice

The Peter Principle says that everyone rises to their own level of incompetence.  It's ironic but with more than a touch of reality.  For example, most of the really good teachers I knew on Campus in the 1990s are now high level administrators, as if the reward for good teaching is to teach no longer.  How they do as administrators, I'm not sure.  But I am sure it pays better.

When You Promote Someone and It Doesn't Work Out - NYTimes.com via kwout

Moral Hazard in Finance

The piece argues that five years after the financial crisis banks are still under capitalized.  Further the financial sector deliberately traffics in hard to understand/value assets, not because it is good for the economy overall, but because there are big profits to be made from doing so. It makes the big banks seem like Frankenstein's monster.

By the way, Calomiris used to be in the Finance Department here.

Did We Waste a Recession? - NYTimes.com via kwout

NIPA Changes How R&D Is Measured

The piece is mainly about a revision in how the National Income and Product accounts are measured. R&D has moved from an expense item to an investment item and that change has moved national income upwards.   But at the end of the piece there is a bit about wages and profits - bad news if you are a wage earner.

U.S. Companies Thrive as Workers Fall Behind - NYTimes.com via kwout

Measuring Performance Is Not Easy

This is an interesting piece for us.  Later in the course we'll ask why there isn't more work with explicit pay for performance.  One answer for service sector work - it's hard if not impossible to measure output.

What’s an Idea Worth? - NYTimes.com via kwout

A perfect piece for our course

What Nocera is describing is moral hazard in business practice and thus low expectations by consumers when the efficient solution would be no moral hazard and trust by consumers.

The Baby Formula Barometer - NYTimes.com via kwout

Creating the pre-conditions for trust

This is an interesting profile of a company called Airbnb.  They have achieved scale in what seems a cottage industry.  (Please pardon the pun.)   The issue for us is whether there are principles to distill from this example about how to generate trust and then sustain it.

Welcome to the ‘Sharing Economy’ - NYTimes.com via kwout