United States

Smart Links 04 March 2013
Paul Summerville • March 4, 2013

Commentary on the importance of income inequality, the alcohol taboo, the Johnson-Kennedy hate on, no more Britannica, and scandals engulf Canada.

Reaching for the stars.

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Smart Links 01 March 2013
Paul Summerville • March 1, 2013

Commentary on Winston’s archives, PIMCO’s latest monthly missive, America’s debt problem, thinking about the i-economy, climate change graphics, can the BoJ do it, and Quebec’s language wars making strange bedfellows.

The great man’s stuff. Thanks to David of London.

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Smart Links 23 February 2013
Paul Summerville • February 23, 2013

Commentary on America’s medical system, you so don’t want to go there.

Charlie Rose -- Steven Brill

 

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Smart Links 22 February 2013
Paul Summerville • February 22, 2013

Commentary on the two Americas, snow, legalisation, civil war, US dollar renaissance, and the Canadian slowdown.

The Roosevelt and Regan Republics and why $15 a week matters.

New Yorker -- The Walmart Test: Payroll Taxes and the Social Contract
If you were to write a social history of America through the story of business, what would be the most significant companies in the years since the Second World War?

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Smart Links 21 February 2013
Paul Summerville • February 21, 2013

Commentary on the top 50 disruptive companies, dangerous business, the return of a bad idea, Simpson-Bowles 2.0, and the equality journey.

Shaking it up.

MIT Technology Review – 50 Disruptive Companies 2013
It might be easier to explain the 50 Disruptive Companies project by starting with what it is not.

 

The 50 Companies

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Smart Links 11 February 2013
Paul Summerville • February 11, 2013

Commentary on why China’s political system works (and liberal-democracy is failing), US trading short term politically motived cuts for smarter long term entitlement cuts, Nordic entrepreneurial energy, parts of the world are getting better for animals and bad diet.

This really is the other side of the debate.

 

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Smart Links 05 February 2013
Paul Summerville • February 5, 2013

Commentary on the shadow of 1914, comic genius, rising stock market, the joy of capitalism, recovery in the US housing market, New York’s fight over teacher evaluation, Australia in Asia, and how the smoking ban killed bingo.

More history.

 

Financial Times -- The shadow of 1914 falls over the Pacific
China, like Germany 100 years ago, fears the established power is intent on blocking its ascent.

Harold Ramis.

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Smart Links 03 February 2013
Paul Summerville • February 3, 2013

Commentary on America’s baby bust, China’s worry, tipping, history lessons, times are tough, the awful legacy of Nazi treasure, and being idle no more.

America’s falling fertility rate and what it means.

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Smart Links 01 February 2013
Paul Summerville • February 1, 2013

Commentary on Britain in Palestine, the smoke over Athens, And God created the world in six days, US GDP deconstructed, the Nordic model, when your values clash with your company, and the lesson of Ontario’s female, lesbian, grandmother Premier.

Pining for the old Mandate days.

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Smart Links 31 January 2013
Paul Summerville • January 31, 2013

Commentary on the great wolf extermination, who has the stomach to raise taxes and cut spending, Japan examined, a summary of the history of ‘Indian’ removal in the United States, cashing out on bad weather, wonderful Manet, Japan’s blindness, and seven years on.

Human beings are great at stuff they put their minds to.

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Twin Virtues: Inequality of Outcomes & Equality of Opportunity©

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Ultimately, the most successful societies find the balance between the twin virtues of inequality of outcomes and equality of opportunity.
 
The new politics must marry the twin virtues of unequal outcomes and equality of opportunity.
 
When too few get too much everybody ends up with less.
 
Can it be that striving for equality of opportunity however imperfect the process not only benefits the individual but also creates benefits for the society as a whole that are unintended but wonderful?
 
Economics must be a 'moral enterprise' as much as politics claims to be. Economic outcomes need to be framed in terms of right and wrong not just efficiency if only because these often align in surprising ways.
 
My vision of Canada is that any Canadian child from a family of limited circumstance can expect to have a chance at lifetime of unlimited opportunities.
 
Tax policy should be founded on the principle of generating steady tax revenues sufficient to maximise environmentally sustainable economic growth in order to fund fair government.
 
Public policy should be designed to decrease inequality before the law and increase equality of opportunity.
 
Capitalism is not the problem; the problem is what we do with capitalism.
 
Content is always more difficult to argue than conspiracy.
 
Let the state regulate and the market operate (most things).
 
Welfare strategies are best designed as a hand up not as a hand out.
 
Political debate should not be fact free fighting.
 
Explanation lasts longer than eloquence.
 
Always favour empowerment over dependency.
 
The most enduring public figures are embraced for the causes they fought for and not the concept of themselves they hoped others would remember them by.
 
Find your voice and don't be the echo of somebody else.