Michael Appleton for The New York Times
Andy Dunn, a founder of Bonobos, showed off the fit of his pants at the company’s Chelsea offices. Bonobos sells only online, but has a liberal return policy and “style ninjas” to help buyers.
From the Technology: Start-Ups section of the NYT:
On a Mission to Banish the Saggy Bottom
By CLAIRE [...]
Archive for the ‘Commerce’ Category
Bonobos in Pair Advice, or, Saggy Bottom Takedown, or, Artificial Inseam Nation
Posted in Commerce, Lifestyle, Man, Scott Lahti, Technology, tagged Bonobos, men's clothing, online retail, pants, slacks, trousers on November 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Lobbyists Losing Jobs Too
Posted in Commerce, Culture, Ethics, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S., tagged expertise, government, Lobbyists on November 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Via Outside the Beltway, Dan Eggen at the Washington Post has nice article out on how lobbyists are losing jobs. Key quotes…..
Hundreds, if not thousands, of lobbyists are likely to be ejected from federal advisory panels as part of a little-noticed initiative by the Obama administration to curb K Street’s influence in [...]
Sizing the Banks
Posted in Commerce, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S., World, tagged bailouts, Banks on November 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Simon Johnson posted yesterday on downsizing our Too Big To Fail banks. Key quotes….
Probably the best way forward is to set a hard cap on bank liabilities as a percent of gross domestic product; this is the appropriate scale for thinking about potential bank failures and the cost they can impose on the [...]
Stuff Off-White* People Like Friday, or, Under the Mistle D’oh!, or, Could I Speak With Your Manger, Please?
Posted in Arts, Commerce, Family, Lifestyle, Media, Scott Lahti, tagged Christmas, Christmas shopping, gifts, shopping, toys for big girls and boys on November 27, 2009 | 3 Comments »
*Because whatever our Scandinavigational predominance, we are 1/32 Chippewa, so said a tireless family-tree climber a decade ago, making us good to the last One-Drop Rule, Kaw-Liga
Don’t all crush each other in the mad 6am rush to buy the things we’ve assembled this past year for our first annual Christmas Shopping Guide:
Books
Speaking of which, if [...]
Bloom in Offal, or, Liffey Ways to Love Your Liver
Posted in Arts, Commerce, Lifestyle, Scott Lahti, tagged cooking, James Joyce, Leopold Bloom, meat, offal, Ulysses on November 25, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Various offal delicacies (heads, brains, trotters and tripe) for sale in an Istanbul meat market. (Wikipedia)
Since we go out of our way to include, within the modest meat portion of our diet, regular servings of chicken liver and pork liver (chicken and turkey giblets and gizzards, too), sold for around a dollar a pound and [...]
Causes of the Debt
Posted in Commerce, Community, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S. on November 24, 2009 | 3 Comments »
There has been much discussion of late about the national debt. I think this is a good thing, as it has been ignored for many years. James Kwak looks at what exactly is increasing our debt. Key quotes….
According to the 2008 report (Table 1-3), the budget from 2009 through 2018 shows an aggregate surplus of [...]
Pirate links, some recent and some older
Posted in Commerce, Law, Lynn Gazis-Sax, War, World on November 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
A blog: Modern Day Pirate Tales.
Somalia: Are Pirates Really in Pursuit of High-Value Loot?
Somalia: Pirates Threaten to Kill Old British Couple.
Wired Magazine on An Economic Analysis of the Somali Pirate Business Model.
The Enlightened Economist on three new books about pirates.
UN debates Somalia piracy strategy.
“Is Seychelles turning a blind eye to pirates?” What Rot!! (Via Global [...]
The Adman as Madman
Posted in Commerce, Culture, Humor, Lifestyle, Media, Scott Lahti, tagged advertising on November 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
You’ve come a long way, Babies, you’ll say to the pitchfolk of the world, in howling over sites which will change forever the way you think about all grocers’ and druggists’ standbys from Lysol to fresh pork:
Old Creepy Ads
”Sometimes it’s really scary what human mind can conceive for advertising.”
Vintage ads
”Hilarious, shocking and creepy advertisements from [...]
Predictive Power of the Punditry
Posted in Commerce, Ethics, Media, Nation, Public, Science, Steve S., tagged experts, predicting, punditry on November 21, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Jonah Lehrer at The Frontal Cortex has an interesting bit up on expertise. The parts I found most interesting were on punditry and mutual fund managers. Key quotes……
Look, for instance, at mutual fund managers. They take absurdly huge fees from our retirement savings, but the vast majority of mutual funds [...]
The Party of Fiscal Responsibility
Posted in Commerce, Community, Culture, Ethics, Health Care, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S., tagged change, fiscal responsibility on November 20, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Bruce Bartlett, Reagan’s former adviser, continues to write good stuff on true fiscal responsibility. Key quotes….
Recall the situation in 2003. The Bush administration was already projecting the largest deficit in American history–$475 billion in fiscal year 2004, according to the July 2003 mid-session budget review. But a big election was [...]
The Ice, Man, Always Wants Rings, or, Kiss Me Skate
Posted in Arts, Commerce, Media, Scott Lahti, tagged diamonds, Zales on November 20, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Debt Distorting the Economy
Posted in Commerce, Nation, Public, Steve S., tagged distorting markets, Toxic debt on November 18, 2009 | 1 Comment »
James Surowiecki has written a concise, readable piece on the toxic effects of debt upon our economy. Key quotes….
The government doesn’t make people go into debt, of course. It just nudges them in that direction. Individuals are able to write off all their mortgage interest, up to a million dollars, and companies can [...]
I made a new blog-
Posted in Arts, Commerce, Community, Culture, Humor, Lifestyle, Media, Mind, Moro, Public, Self, World on November 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
It’s called Adventures in Desperation. It’s an account of my busking experiment. (Don’t worry, I haven’t given up on finding more secure employment, but I still have some time on my hands and I might as well spend it outside.)
News from the countries of the East African Community
Posted in Commerce, Health Care, Lynn Gazis-Sax, War, Woman, World on November 16, 2009 | 2 Comments »
I promised a news round up from the countries of the East African Community, so here it is, a couple of days late.
A survey of citizens of countries of the East African Community reports that harassment at border posts is one of the chief obstacles to economic integration.
Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda are expected to be [...]
Fishbowl Saints
Posted in Arts, Commerce, Culture, Ethics, Humor, Lifestyle, Scott Lahti, Self, tagged Christian Lander, Stuff White People Like on November 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
From a Sunday Times (UK) profile of Christian Lander, creator of the popular social-satire site Stuff White People* Like:
*Affluent, upper-middle-class, “independent”, guilt-ridden, ethically exhibitonist left-liberal White People
Body Shop, Burt’s Bees, Innocent smoothies; these are WP [White People] companies that all started out ethical and then sort of became distracted by turning rather a neat profit. [...]
Free vs Competitive Markets
Posted in Commerce, Community, Culture, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S., tagged Regulation, rent seeking on November 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »
John Kay at the Financial Times has a short but very good piece up on markets and rent seeking. He first very ably defines and describes rent seeking. If you only occasionally dabble in reading economics, this is good stuff.
You can become wealthy by creating wealth or by appropriating wealth created [...]
Banker’s Prayer
Posted in Commerce, Community, Ethics, Humor, Public, Steve S., tagged Goldman on November 12, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Via Ritholtz. He calls it the Lloyd’s prayer.
THE LLOYD’s Prayer
Our Chairman,
Who Art At Goldman,
Blankfein Be Thy Name.
The Rally’s Come. God’s Work Be Done
On Earth As There’s No Fear Of Correction.
Give Us This Day Our Daily Gains,
And Bankrupt Our Competitors
As You Taught Lehman and Bear Their Lessons.
And Bring Us Not Under Indictment.
For Thine Is The Treasury,
The [...]
Gas at $300 a gallon, Maybe only $45
Posted in Commerce, Community, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S., War, World, tagged Gas in Afghanistan, war costs on November 12, 2009 | 2 Comments »
From Noah Shachtman at Danger Room, I learned that gas in Afghanistan costs at least $45, maybe $300, per gallon. Most of this comes from shipping costs. We use an average of 22 gallons per soldier per day. Key quotes…
Wanna know why the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are so expensive? Here’s [...]
Government Improving Health Care
Posted in Commerce, Community, Health Care, Nation, Public, Science, Steve S., Technology on November 12, 2009 | 2 Comments »
David Leonhardt has been writing some of the best articles out there on health care. His article on Intermountain Healthcare was superb. The Intermountain system is one of those low cost high quality organizations, maybe the best. Like the Mayo Clinic and Kaiser, it has salaried physicians. The biggest difference [...]
African Ingenuity Blogwatch: Windmills, T-Shirts, Robots, and Women in Business
Posted in Commerce, Lynn Gazis-Sax, Technology, World on November 11, 2009 | 1 Comment »
AllAfrica.com has a briefing on Securing Food Production in Africa, with stories on everything from William Kamkwamba’s homemade windmill to Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa to agroforestry to genetically modified crops.
Speaking of William Kamkwamba, Win a Copy of William Kamkwamba’s Book!
Robot Contest in Nairobi.
Women in Business: Africa’s Secret Weapon.
Gahaya Links: the story of [...]
The Cost of No Health Care Reform
Posted in Commerce, Community, Health Care, Nation, Politics, Public, Science, Steve S., tagged Deaths from lack of health care, health care costs on November 9, 2009 | 5 Comments »
There were two very interesting articles out on health care this weekend. One of very high quality that everyone interested in reform should know about. The other has some flaws but brings up interesting thoughts.
First, Wilper, et. al. have published in the American Journal of Public Health the best, recent study [...]
WalMart and Health Care
Posted in Commerce, Community, Health Care, Public, Steve S., tagged health care costs, signaling on November 7, 2009 | 8 Comments »
Did you ever wonder why there is no WalMart equivalent in health care? I have. While the current emphasis in the health care reform effort has been on expanded coverage, it is health care costs which need to be addressed in the long run before only the most well to do [...]
