My favorite scene in the movie Jerry Maguire has Tom Cruise’s Jerry at the breaking point, berating Cuba Gooding Jr’s character to “help me help you!” Jerry is a former star sports agent on the brink of losing everything (including his mind), who is left with a one last client, a talented, chip-on-his-shoulder Wide [...]
Posts Tagged as ‘economic downturn’
January 13, 2009
The bar is rising
The more people I talk to who have recently lost their jobs, the more I see how challenging it will be to find new, meaningful work in the current economy. The good news is that this won’t last forever, and if you’ve always thought that you might make some sort of shift – whether into [...]
January 8, 2009
The psychology of real
Today I was talking about the economy with someone who I respect a lot. She said that we still don’t know how much of what’s going on in the economy is real and how much is psychology.
I respectfully disagreed. What strikes me most about this economic crisis is that what’s psychology is real. There’s no [...]
January 7, 2009
Buddy, can you spare a Banker?
A friend in finance pointed out to me today that there are probably “more than 100,000″ newly-unemployed bankers (including investment banks, hedge funds, private equity) in New York City right now, trying to figure out what comes next.
This is bad news for NY-based nonprofits, who are feeling the double-whammy of Wall St. donations drying up [...]
December 18, 2008
Another data point: Merrill Lynch
If you’re curious about exactly how out-of-whack incentive pay (bonuses) got in recent years on Wall Street, check out this recent NYTimes article called, “The Reckoning: On Wall Street, Bonuses, Not Profits, Were Real”, especially this tidbit that gives an order of magnitude on bonuses:
Clawing back the 2006 bonuses at Merrill would not come close [...]
December 12, 2008
Smile in the face of Madoff
It’s really struck me in a new way this week how serious this financial crisis is. Maybe it’s just the other shoe dropping on this new reality; or maybe it’s because, on top of everything , the former chairman of the NASDAQ, Bernard Madoff, is accused of $50B out-and-out fraud in a Ponzi scheme of [...]
December 10, 2008
Is Generosity a Luxury Good?
A “luxury” good is something you consume more of as you have more money (economists call them “superior” goods, a subset of “normal” goods). For example, as people get wealthier, they spend proportionally more on Tiffany rings, Hermes scarves and nights at the Ritz Carlton, and less on Kay Jewelers, Wal-Mart, and Best Western.
I’ve been [...]
December 8, 2008
Alert the press!! Weingart Foundation breaks new ground
If I were writing for the NY Observer or some other similarly sensationalist newspaper, I’d write a headline that says:
“Nation Stunned: LA-based Weingart Foundation Places Trust in Nonprofit Grantees”
This is absolutely, positively not meant to be a dig on the Weingart Foundation. To the contrary, they deserve praise. As the LA Business Journal reports, the [...]
October 29, 2008
What’s the right career move in the midst of an economic meltdown?
Take a chance.
Really, things are bad in the economy anyway. It’s a hard time to get a job. Why not take a stab at that wild idea you’re hoping to get to…someday?
Not long ago I was invited to speak to a career panel for college seniors and recent grads. I find it tough to give [...]
