John Kay

Recommended reading on the topic of wealth destruction by fraud, John Kay "The Bezzle Years." An introductory quote to give you an idea: More than a half-century ago, John Kenneth Galbraith presented a definitive depiction of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 in a slim, elegantly written volume. Embezzlement, Galbraith observed, has the property that “weeks, months, or years elapse between the commission of the crime and its discovery. This is the period, incidentally, when the embezzler has his gain and the man who has been embezzled feels no loss. There is a net increase in psychic wealth.” Galbraith described that increase in wealth as “the bezzle.” Link: https://www.johnkay.com/2021/09/08/the-bezzle-years/

the notion of ownership in stock ownership is tenuous at best though: https://www.johnkay.com/2015/11/11/is-it-meaningful-to-talk-about-the-…

John Kay talks about Boeing in his book Obliquity (and before in this essay) [0] > ICI is not the only company for whom greater emphasis on corporate financial goals led to less success in achieving them. I once said that Boeing’s grip on the world civil aviation market made it the most powerful market leader in world business. Bill Allen was chief executive from 1945 to 1968, as the company created its dominant position. He said that his spirit and that of his colleagues was to eat, breathe, and sleep the world of aeronautics. “The greatest pleasure life has to offer is the satisfaction that flows from participating in a difficult and constructive undertaking,” he explained. > Boeing’s 737, with almost 4,000 planes in the air, is the most successful commercial airliner in history. But the company’s largest and riskiest project was the development of the 747 jumbo jet. When a non-executive director asked about the expected return on investment, he was brushed off: there had been some studies, he was told, but the manager concerned couldn’t remember the results. > It took only 10 years for Boeing to prove me wrong in asserting that its market position in civil aviation was impregnable. The decisive shift in corporate culture followed the acquisition of its principal US rival, McDonnell Douglas, in 1997. The transformation was exemplified by the CEO, Phil Condit. The company’s previous preoccupation with meeting “technological challenges of supreme magnitude” would, he told…

> Personally, I think the overt bias problem is so bad right now See, that's where we disagree. I have watched many more men get torn down in violent fashion, neglected, and excluded, than women. I think the overall tech culture sucks period, I don't think it's got nearly so much to do with sexism as you do. Like my example about the guy who mocks women speakers for being women -- and turns around and mocks another speaker for writing Java. That's a sex-related expression of general douchenuggetry. Remember that time Yehuda Katz interrupted a speaker at a meetup, said everything the speaker said was bullshit, and took over his talk? Yeah… nobody else does either. Cuz it was a man who was done wrong. My husband actually is on the receiving end of way more vitriol than me even though I'm at least 300% as visible. And I know I've sometimes received extra consideration and protection because I'm a woman. I'm not saying "Somebody pity the poor men." I'm also not saying women haven't suffered. Please don't think I am saying that. I'm questioning the root of the bad behavior, not how it feels to be on the receiving end. Since bias is all in the interpretation of data, I'd love it if there was some hard data we could compare. I don't believe there is, though. > after all, they won't have enough time to put in The best way to solve this problem isn't by writing blog posts about how women with small kids can swim with the fishes, but by killing the culture of overwork. By…

It's called "narrow banking" and apparently it doesn't make things as safe as you might think. Here's some reading: https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/regulation/199… https://www.johnkay.com/2011/06/02/should-we-have-narrow-banking/

Manufacturing fetishism: http://www.johnkay.com/2016/08/29/the-economics-and-politics-of-manufa…

Wrong, commercial passenger planes going missing are much less expensive. Commercial plane disappearance is close to a 'black swan' event (1/10years) [1]. Tyler Durden this: * search and rescue for this rare event: $50M/10year = $5M/year * cost of tracking system: $20k/year amortized cost per system * 5k aircrafts = $100M/year The airline industry as a whole has made a cumulative loss during its 100-year history. Airlines are already nationalized one way or another, like it or not. [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aerial_disappearances [2] http://www.johnkay.com/2005/09/27/airlines-and-the-canine-features-of-…

John Kay's piece today about the same issue is quite pertinent: http://www.johnkay.com/2012/08/01/8684 He's looking at how a media frenzy affects perception and laws disproportionally.

Pretty widely discussed that as a business it has never broken even as a whole. Eg http://www.johnkay.com/2005/09/27/airlines-and-the-canine-features-of-…

Personally I think looking at higher ed is looking at the wrong side of the equation. We're not in an education bubble, but a "bunge"[1] if you will - the opposite of a bubble - with regard to labor prices. In other words, people aren't overpaying for education, businesses are underpaying for human talent. [1] http://www.johnkay.com/2008/07/02/metaphors-in-free-fall-the-anti-bubb…