Hmmm.

Loyal HomeFilers know that we rail often on the indefensibly high tuitions colleges are charging.

For example, see one of our all time favorite posts:
What do b-school profs and Lady Gaga have in common? 

Many pundits are predicting that high-priced colleges will be the next bubble to burst. Students (or their parents, or their companies) have been paying an increasing amount of money to get a decreasing amount of relevant learning. That’s not a good formula.

Government subsidies, student loans and “full fare” foreign students keep pushing tuitions up to levels required to support lavish facilities, expansive athletic programs, outdated delivery methods (think classrooms vs. online), and light teaching loads for faculty journalists.

Let’s see if Obama follows through on his threat … and see if it has an impact.

I’m betting under on both counts.

Universities are hot beds of liberal thinking.

No way Obama puts them in his cross hairs.

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* * * * *
Excerpted from “Nike’s FuelBand: Game Changer or Slickly Marketed $150 Monitor?”

While the large majority of athletic gear is segmented for each specific sports market, Nike announced a product that sweeps across the entire sporting landscape and can be used by any athlete at any level.

The Nike+ FuelBand, is a foray into more technically-advanced digital monitoring 

It is a rubber bracelet worn on the wrist during exercise and sports activities to measure “steps, calories, time & Fuel metric (currency measured by oxygen kinetics).”

The NikeFuel Twitter account says:

“Not only is the FuelBand a fun way to keep you active, but you can compete, collaborate & compare your activity w/each other.”

The price is $150, “about 50% more expensive than the similar Fitbit device” .

According to Nike, “The @Nike+ FuelBand syncs with your iPhone via Bluetooth, provides on-device feedback, gives you @NikeFuel experience.” Integrating Path technology with a free iPhone app and dashboard at NikePlus.com, it’s being positioned as “the ultimate measure of activity.”

The marketing pitch: “NikeFuel is the ultimate measure of activity. It isn’t bought or sold. It’s earned.” 

Edit by KJM

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• “Investment” – Spending taxpayer money on Obama re-election constituencies such as government employee unions, teachers’ guilds, and big-city political machines.
• “Children and grandchildren” – The people picking up the tab.
• “Energy” – Something that flows from good intentions, government programs, “stimulus” spending but not pipelines.
• “Exports” – That trade – and only that trade – acceptable to union bosses.
• “I” or “Me” – Center of the known universe.
• “Compromise” – Tax hikes.
• “Sacrifice” – Tax hikes.
• “Bipartisan” – Tax hikes.
• “Fair” OR “Fair Share” – Tax hikes.
• “Balanced” – Tax hikes.
• “Small business” – Those who will pay the most under my plan to tax “the rich.”
• “Special interests” – Taxpayers who do not wish to give their money to my friends.
• “There are those who…” OR “Some” – [INSERT STRAW MAN HERE]
• “Middle class” – Those who are the target of seven tax hikes in Obamacare.
• “Deficit” – What Democrats want you to focus on when what they really want to sell you is a tax hike.
• “Regulations” – The governmental leash attached to the choke collar around the neck of the economy.
• “Recovery” – This time it’s real, I swear, not like that “Recovery Summer” we had in 2010 after spending $1 trillion of borrowed money.
• “Infrastructure” OR “Roads and Bridges” – Spending taxpayer money on those states voting Democrat in ’08.
• “Affordable” – Reality for the taxpayer only after they’ve worked 224 days to pay for the total cost of government.
• “Obstructionists” – House Republican lawmakers who have actually passed a budget – NOT the Senate Democrats who have refused to pass a budget for 1,000 days.
• “Streamline” – The pretense of dieting after an all-out spending binge.
• “Wall Street” – 1. Where your IRA and 401(k) live. 2. A bauble to distract you from noticing my bailout of Fannie and Freddie.
• “Jobs” – “You want to find work on the Keystone XL pipeline? Tough luck – I’ve got a campaign to run.”
• “Profit” – Money without which jobs would never be created.

Very useful, right?

* * * * *

P.S. Americans for Tax Reform also hit on the idea of Obama Bingo … great minds running in the same track … I didn’t jack the idea from them … I jacked it from students who told me that they sometimes play Prof Bingo in class.

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There she was … in Michelle’s box for the SOUTU address.

Well, seems that cameo appearance is sparking some scrutiny.

Is she, in fact,  a tax-abused waif living from paycheck to paycheck?

According to Forbes: Warren Buffett’s Secretary Likely Makes Between $200,000 And $500,000/Year

Warren Buffet’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, served as a stage prop for President Obama’s State of the Union speech. She was the President’s chief display of the alleged unfairness of our tax system – a little person paying a higher tax rate than her billionaire boss.

Bosanek’s prominent role in Obama’s “fairness” campaign has finally  piqued curiosity.

How much does her boss pay this downtrodden woman?

So far, no one has volunteered this information.

We can get an approximate answer by consulting IRS data on tax rates by adjusted gross income, which would approximate her salary, assuming she does not have significant dividend, interest or capital-gains income (like her boss).

I assume the tax rate Obama refers to is from her own earnings.

Insofar as Buffet (like Mitt Romney) earns income primarily from capital gains, which are taxed at 15 percent (and according to Obama need to be raised for reasons of fairness), we need to determine how much income a taxpayer like Bosanek must earn in order to pay an average tax rate above fifteen percent. This is easy to do.

The IRS publishes detailed tax tables by income level.

The latest results are for 2009. They show that taxpayers earning an adjusted gross income between $100,000 and $200,000 pay an average rate of twelve percent.

12% is below Buffet’s rate; so she must earn more than that.

Taxpayers earning adjusted gross incomes of $200,000 to $500,000, pay an average tax rate of nineteen percent.

Therefore Buffet must pay Debbie Bosanke a salary above two hundred thousand.

At that level of income, she is scarcely the symbol of injustice that Obama wishes her to project.

While we’re at it, how about a peek at Buffett’s returns?

After all, if we’re going to revamp the entire tax code off of 2 data points, let’s at least have all the data that the points have to offer.

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Thirty-some advertisers will spend upwards of $230 million just for the airtime to fight for attention in the Feb. 5 game.

At stake: the eyeballs of more than 100 million Super Bowl viewers. And the urgent need to drive all of them online to find out more, socialize and tweet with friends and ultimately buy that beer, smartphone or luxury car.

Sexy ads are slinking back to the Super Bowl.

No company has used sexual imagery more shamelessly on the Super Bowl than GoDaddy.

“We set the standard of indecency,” jokes CEO Parsons, who takes special pride in being widely accused of single-handedly bringing down the tone of Super Bowl advertising.

Truth be told, the action in each GoDaddy ad is just a big tease to get folks to go online and find out more about the company that people use to register domain names and host websites.

The ploy, which GoDaddy has used for eight consecutive Super Bowls, works ridiculously well.

But. some researchers have found that spots with sexual imagery take a 10% hit in “likability” vs. ads without racy images.

They conclude that most viewers actually prefer to see ads with kids or animals.

Yeah, right.

Watch the vid .. then you decide.

        click to view video

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I wonder if any of O’s speech writers have either read the book  or, at least followed up on the companies cited in the book (list below).

I did, and guess what?

Built to Last has been roundly criticized because many of the companies it profiled have subsequently faltered.

According to FastCompany:

Within 10 years of the book’s publication, almost half of the visionary companies on the list have slipped dramatically in performance and reputation, and their vision currently seems more blurred than clairvoyant.

At least 7 of BTL’s original 18 companies have stumbled (8 if you’re cynical about HP)

Each has struggled, and all have faced serious questions about their leadership and strategy.

Odds are, none of them today would meet BTL’s criteria for visionary companies, which required that they be the premier player in their industry and be widely admired by people in the know.

Jim Collins – one of the authors – counters that “The book never promised that these companies would always be great, just that they were once great.”

That makes more sense.  Obama isn’t saying that his America is going to become great (again) and stay great …. just that it once was great.

Now, that’s something to rally around….

* * * * *
Here’s Collins and Porras’ BTL List
… draw your own conclusions.

3M
American Express <= TARP
Boeing  <= NLRB target <= a good thing (unless you’re Team O chasing them)
Citigroup <= TARP
Disney  <= struggling since Cap Cities acquisition
Ford <= least bad U.S. car company
General Electric  <= TARP
Hewlett Packard  <= CEO turnover
IBM
Johnson & Johnson
Marriott
Merck
Motorola  <= corporate break-up
Nordstrom
Philip Morris (now Altria)
Procter & Gamble
Sony  <= lost its mojo
Wal-Mart  <= evil empire

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* * * * *

Excerpt from AdAge: “D.G. Yuengling & Son Becomes America’s Largest Brewer”

Yuengling surged last year with shipments up 16.9% to 2.5 million barrels, placing it eighth in overall U.S. market share, at 1.2%. That was good enough to nose by Boston, which owns the Sam Adams brand.

Anheuser-Busch, owned by Belgium-based InBev, still has a firm hold on No. 1, but its market share fell from 47.7% to 47.0%.

No. 2 MillerCoors, part-owned by London-based SABMiller, saw its share drop from 28.8% to 28.4%.

Third place belongs to Corona importer Crown Imports and Heineken USA kept its hold on fourth.

Yuengling’s ranking comes with some caveats. Pabst Brewing Co., which ranks fifth overall, is U.S.-owned, but outsources its brewing.

Sixth-place North American Breweries is also U.S.-owned, but a chunk of its volume comes from the imported Labatt brand.

Edited by ARK

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Why not turn it into a game …. like students do with boring profs.

Randomly post the most likely clichés to squares on 5 x 5 game cards.

First player to score a row, a column, a diagonal or the 4 corners with “he said it” marks wins the game.

Below are the official odds on what Obama will say first.

Note My “lock” prediction isn’t even on the list: “Let me be perfectly clear” … a couple of my other favorites are bolded.

Odds   Cliché

8/1     We have more work to do
10/1     Health care reform
10/1     As I stand here today
12/1     Fundamental belief
12/1     God bless America
12/1     Crossroads of history
12/1     Defining moment
12/1     Make Washington work
14/1     Common purpose
16/1     Pursuit of happiness
16/1     Building a better America
16/1     Reduce the deficit
18/1     War on terror
18/1     It won’t be easy
18/1     Hungry for change
18/1     My civil liberties
20/1     Honor for me
20/1     I have a dream
20/1     Willing to listen to each other
20/1     Yes, we can
20/1     Don’t get me wrong
25/1     Hard to believe
25/1     I’m fired up
25/1     Withdraw our troops
25/1     There are better days ahead
25/1     Do-nothing Congress
25/1    We’ll have to make hard choices
25/1     We can be one people
25/1     A new direction
33/1     For far too long
33/1     Safe from harm
33/1     Jobs to the jobless
33/1     Reshapes our economy
40/1     Deepest gratitude
40/1     Greatness of our nation
40/1     Possibilities of this nation
40/1     Florida primary
50/1     Believe in what this country can be
50/1     Unity is the great need of the hour
50/1     In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope
50/1     We can work together to keep our country safe
50/1     Abiding faith
66/1     Brighter day will come
66/1     Publish tax returns
66/1     Washington has a long way to go
80/1     Overcome the adversity
80/1     Bloated federal government
100/1     Diversity of my heritage
100/1     Yes, we might
250/1     Life is like a box of chocolates

Source: Washington Times

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How did it get that way?

As partial explanation, I think that two well-intended legislative actions started the ball rolling with unintended consequences.

The first is Item 402 of  SEC Regulation S-K:

Item 402 – Executive Compensation. The SEC regulations governing disclosure of information about executive compensation are contained in Item 402 of Regulation S-K. Pursuant to Item 402, a public company must disclose to its shareholders information concerning compensation paid to its CEO and its four most highly-compensated executive officers (its “named executive officers”) during the last fiscal year, as well as its directors, in certain registration statements, its annual proxy statement, and certain other filings under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (“Exchange Act”).

The motivation for the regulation is clear: provide shareholders with transparency into the way that top execs were being paid.

Sounds like a right thing to do, right?

The unintended consequence: For the first time, top execs had factual benchmarks re: how they racked up relative to their peers.

Underpaid execs used the data to get pay boosts; highly paid execs used the data to maintain their spreads against their less deserving peers.

For many (most?) execs, compensation became a manhood issue … and of course, bigger is always better.

Executive comp wars broke out and escalated.

A second legislated driver was Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code:

Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code generally limits the corporate tax deduction for annual compensation paid to executive officers named in the Summary Compensation Table to $1,000,000, unless the compensation satisfies the requirements for performance-based compensation. Stock options, performance shares, and cash-equivalent performance shares granted under the Company’s stock incentive plans have generally been entitled to the full tax deductions available because the compensation has been considered performance-based and not applied against the $1,000,000 limit.

Again, well intended.

Why should taxpayers subsidize over-sized exec comp?  If companies want to pay execs more than $1 million, they can … they just can’t take a tax deduction for the amount over $1 million.

So, what’s the problem?

We,, it’s the qualifier: “unless the compensation satisfies the requirements for performance-based compensation”

To circumvent the rules, companies shifted to performance-based compensation tools … think bonuses and stock options.

So, bonuses became a larger part of comp packages and stock options became the major mechanism for “rewarding” execs.

In 1970, stock based compensation was less than 1 percent of compensation.

By 2000, it was around half of compensation.

Source

The heavy emphasis on stock options certainly provided some motivation to execs to boost share prices (that’s good), sometimes by focusing too aggressively on short-term results (that’s bad).

More to come …

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From typos to tardiness, many people and organizations act as if details just don’t matter much

Nothing could be further from the truth.

We must do little things correctly …  When each detail is attended to, and each step in the process is given careful attention, the result will inevitably be of the highest quality.

Successful people in many walks of life understand the importance of detail.

• Doctors and nurses understand that the slightest mistake or loss of focus can result in tragic consequences that carry massive liability.
• Engineers and architects know that the stability of the most gigantic structure depends on the integrity of its smallest element; a failed bolt or a misplaced pin can have huge consequences.
• Computer programmers spend their careers tightly focused on detail, as one incorrect digit in a code of millions can create an operational nightmare for the end user.

The magic behind every outstanding performance, exceptional meal, and fine piece of furniture or jewelry is found in the smallest of details.

No matter what business you are in, you will be continuously challenged by larger problems that could have been prevented if you had paid closer attention to the details at the beginning.

Think about it …

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