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ITT: Best Posts of the Day

Started by Cramulus, April 13, 2007, 11:33:09 PM

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Anna Mae Bollocks

It is.

Truth tends to piss people off more often than not, though. Oh, well.

Keep us posted, Alty!
Scantily-Clad Inspector of Gigantic and Unnecessary Cashews, Texas Division

Salty

The whiny little bastard has disowned me, more or less.

Unfriended me, doesn't want to ever hear from me, see me, or speak to me ever again.

:lulz:
The world is a car and you're the crash test dummy.

Junkenstein

All in all, unmitigated victory for Alty.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Q. G. Pennyworth

Net loss for the whiny bastard.

Bu🤠ns

It'll come back to him.  Once the parts stop working as they should...YOU SHALL RUE THE DAY!

Doktor Howl

Molon Lube

LMNO


Mesozoic Mister Nigel

"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Reginald Ret

Lord Byron: "Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves."

Nigel saying the wisest words ever uttered: "It's just a suffix."

"The worst forum ever" "The most mediocre forum on the internet" "The dumbest forum on the internet" "The most retarded forum on the internet" "The lamest forum on the internet" "The coolest forum on the internet"

Nephew Twiddleton

Quote from: FRIDAY TIME on August 01, 2013, 01:41:11 AM
Quote from: hylierandom, A.D.D. on August 01, 2013, 01:36:27 AM
Quote from: FRIDAY TIME on August 01, 2013, 01:27:22 AM
Quote from: hylierandom, A.D.D. on August 01, 2013, 01:00:02 AM
QuoteArnobio Morelix, a student at the University of Kansas School of Business, found himself asking the same question, so he did some financial modeling based on McDonald's annual reports and data sets submitted to investors.

Morelix's take: If McDonald's workers were paid the $15 they're demanding, the cost of a Big Mac would go up 68 cents, from its current price of $3.99 to $4.67.

A Big Mac meal would cost $6.66 rather than $5.69, and the chain's famous Dollar Menu would go for $1.17.

"Some folks online are complaining they will not pay $2 for their Dollar Menu, but the truth is that even if McDonald's doubled salaries the price hike would not be 100%," Morelix said. "I will be happy to pay 17 cents more for my Dollar Menu so that fast food workers can have a living wage, and I believe people deserve to know that price hikes would not be as high as it is often portrayed."

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2013/07/30/how-much-would-a-big-mac-cost-if-mcdonalds-workers-were-paid-15-per-hour/

You know, I usually only get fast food if I need quick cheap eats, and I can't afford an extra 17 cents for the cheapest thing on the menu, then I may as well go home and get something out of the fridge. Totally cool with that price hike. Also, if it's $6.66 I'm more likely to get a big mac.
:lulz:
The Mac of the Beast.

:potd:
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS

Junkenstein

Quote from: Cain on July 31, 2013, 10:45:36 PM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on July 25, 2013, 09:28:04 PM
As far as I can tell from first hand observation, the problem is a combination of inertia and disinformation.  As noted above, the decision makers are not given good information, both out of fear and also out of agenda-driven underlings.  Bad decisions are therefore made.

Repeat this process many, many times, and recognize that each bad decision gets a ball rolling.  The balls keep rolling even after attention is shifted to new decisions.  The decision makers may or may not know that any given "ball" is still rolling.  Later decisions not only have their own ill-effects, but combine with the earlier "balls".

People can see and recognize this.  As a result, CEOs are not chosen for their abilities, but for their charisma and their disposability.  The board, on the other hand, is composed of survivors who are too busy trying to maintain their position by setting the CEO up for failure to actually try to avert catastrophe.

Now add into this venture capital and banks.  THIS is where you find the psychopaths. 

Imagine that there is a huge banquet.  This is a corporation.  A number of people sit down to eat at this banquet.  The suckers think the winner is the last man sitting at the table.  The bankers and the venture capitalists understand the truth; The winner is the guy who eats first.

This attitude, of course, is what leads to short range thinking (helped along by the disposability of the CEO, who has to turn a growth every quarter or be removed), and leads to taking "cost-saving" shortcuts such as seen on the BP oil platform that, you know, devoured the Southeast coast.  The capital investors from the project were long gone.  The CEO, a certifiable moron by the name of Tony Hayward, was left holding the bag.  To give you an idea of why he was chosen as CEO, his response to the disaster was to sail around it in his yacht, complaining about the inconveniences he was suffering in his personal life as a response to the disaster.

This happens in EVERY industry, with the industries with the highest gross margin being the ones most effected.  You see the CEO, you blame the CEO, but the actual villain - if there is one - is long gone by the time you look, with all the serious boodle in hand.

This is ESPECIALLY true of most banks, who themselves are looting other industries.  Paul Cassano is the best example I can think of.  He was the CEO of AIG Financial Products, and he presided over the complete and utter rape of AIG by Goldman-Sachs, resulting in the 2008 meltdown.

So, the CEO may in fact be a bad guy.  He may in fact be a psychopath.  But he isn't THE bad guy.  You never heard of the bad guy before.  Until the bad guy gets put in charge of "the recovery".

And, often, there are either a myriad of bad guy, or none at all (sometimes sheer stupidity can look just like evil...And disinformation can look like conspiracy).

BUMP.

I was asked to comment on this.  Unfortunately, I've been busy lately, which is why this has taken me a while to get to.

I would, firstly, add the tendency to groupthink into any decision-making body.  Corporations are certainly not immune to this and, in fact, the prominence of certain faddish styles, such as New Age "positive thinking" and similar, suggest that at least some corporations may already be prone to irrational assessments of reality.  Remember, at one point, a toad controlled over $10 billion in financial investments in Tokyo (link).

CEO's often suffer from a particular bias which afflicts people who are gambling with other people's money.  Their loss aversion becomes much decreased because, although their position relies on bringing in ever increasing returns, they personally have very little at stake.  In theory, this should make them more impartial when assessing risk, however in practice it tends to cause them to underrate risk and overstate the advantages of their chosen course of action.  CEOs do tend to be good at shifting blame onto others, meaning even if their gamble does fail badly enough for the board to dismiss them, they are usually not out of a job for long.

There's also the case of shell corporations, and CEOs and their allies playing the better known company to help line their own pockets.  Recall Enron, where "special purpose entities" were created, transferring billions in Enron assets to their personal control under the guide of external contracting.  Special purpose entities are most commonly used however, to hide debts and inflate the worth of the company...like one would do if, as a CEO, they had undertaken a risky gamble and it failed to pay off.

If CEOs were the principal evildoers, they wouldn't need to do this.  But CEOs answer to higher powers...the board.  And the board themselves answer to higher powers...private equity firms. 

Who are the world's major private equity firms?   The Carlyle Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Goldman Sachs Principal Investment Group, The Blackstone Group, Bain Capital and TPG Capital, to name a few.  You'll likely know some of these, but not all of them.  And when a CEO's failure is exposed, when the company looks set to fail and flounder...they're the ones who will come in and purchase their assets, often at a significant markdown.  Of course, they can also help capitalize successful companies...but success doesn't last forever now, does it?  And when it doesn't, their lawyers and investment analysts will be waiting.

Post of the month.

Come back in September.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Triple Zero

it's september just yet but

Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on August 26, 2013, 08:53:46 PM
QuoteHe might require a dose of the PD-style Discordia, but he's good people so please give it to him slowly ;-)
Ruins the effect.  It's like being run over by a steamroller.  Slowly is WORSE.
Ex-Soviet Bloc Sexual Attack Swede of Tomorrow™
e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

INFORMATION SO POWERFUL, YOU ACTUALLY NEED LESS.

Junkenstein

Quote from: Cainad on August 29, 2013, 01:23:15 PM
Quote from: Aloha Ackbar on August 29, 2013, 08:29:47 AM
WHY IS "I USED TO KNOW TWO BRILLIANT PEOPLE LIKE YOU IN HIGH SCHOOL WHO USED TO MAKE ME FEEL STUPID BUT I KNOW YOU'RE WAY TOO NICE TO DO THAT" A DEFENSE AGAINST A NONATTACK. WHY CAN'T I EXPLAIN THAT ATHEISTS POINTING OUT INCONSISTENCIES IN THE BIBLE IS A VALID CRITIQUE WITHOUT IT BEING IMPLIED THAT I'M AN ATHEIST. WHY IS IT SO FUCKING HARD TO UNDERSTAND THAT SCIENCE DOES NOT EQUAL ATHEISM AND THAT SCIENCE DOESN'T GIVE A FLYING FUCK IF THERE'S A GOD UNLESS GOD CAN BE MEASURED.

It doesn't matter where or how you poke a pufferfish. It can only respond in one way.



Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

P3nT4gR4m

I love how puffer fish always look like just the happiest little inflatable creatures you ever did see!

I'm up to my arse in Brexit Numpties, but I want more.  Target-rich environments are the new sexy.
Not actually a meat product.
Ass-Kicking & Foot-Stomping Ancient Master of SHIT FUCK FUCK FUCK
Awful and Bent Behemothic Results of Last Night's Painful Squat.
High Altitude Haggis-Filled Sex Bucket From Beyond Time and Space.
Internet Monkey Person of Filthy and Immoral Pygmy-Porn Wart Contagion
Octomom Auxillary Heat Exchanger Repairman
walking the fine line line between genius and batshit fucking crazy

"computation is a pattern in the spacetime arrangement of particles, and it's not the particles but the pattern that really matters! Matter doesn't matter." -- Max Tegmark

Cramulus

Quote from: Cain on September 09, 2013, 07:47:22 PM
Congress is full of underachievers with skinny weiners who will never amount to anything and don't even lift.