Optimism is a curse

Many banks applied a haircut to all of their Greek bonds, including the long-term ones not covered by the proposed exchange. But some banks, including BNP Paribas and Société Générale in France and Intesa Sanpaolo in Italy, decided to carry the long-term bonds at full value, on the theory that it would all work out and that European governments had promised not to force exchanges of longer-dated bonds… On Thursday, the average trading price for such bonds was about 37 percent of par value. The market has good reason to be worried about the French banks. They own $57 billion in Greek sovereign and private debt — more than all German and British banks combined. And they have well over half a trillion euros in Spanish and Italian debt, most of which is trading at a substantial discount to par, if it trades at all.

Kul höst de kommer ha i Paris… Kan tilläggas att Lagarde slutat prata om att man måste kapitalsera europeiska banker. Förtroende är alltså nu så lågt att man slutat prata om uppenbara problem i hopp om att de skall försvinna.

(Source: blogs.reuters.com)

Strategy = coherent action backed by an argument

Despite the roar of voices equating strategy with ambition, leadership, vision, or planning, strategy is none of these. Rather, it is coherent action backed by an argument. And the core of the strategist’s work is always the same: discover the crucial factors in a situation and design a way to coordinate and focus actions to deal with them.

— The Perils of Bad Strategy, McKinsey

Jag är så trött på strategi-, vision- och måldokument som säger allt och ingenting. Varför kan folk inte lära sig att styrdokument bara är meningsfulla om de säger något konkret.

Bra artikel Alex, tack för tipset.

Bra och pedagogiskt. Tack för tipset Viktor.

Tim Cook, the most powerful gay man in the world

Tim Cook is now the most powerful gay man in the world. This is newsworthy, no? But you won’t find it reported in any legacy/mainstream outlet. And when the FT‘s Tim Bradshaw did no more than broach the subject in a single tweet, he instantly found himself fielding a barrage of responses criticizing him from so much as mentioning the subject. Similarly, when Gawker first reported Cook’s sexuality in January, MacDailyNews called their actions “petty, vindictive, and just plain sad.”

But surely this is something we can and should be celebrating, if only in the name of diversity — that a company [Apple] which by some measures is the largest and most important in the world is now being run by a gay man.

- “Don’t ignore Tim Cook’s sexuality”, Felix Salmon

Kan inte hålla med mer. Visst, det är inte relevant för Cooks förmåga att leda Apple. Men, och det är ett stort men, jag tycker det är viktigt att visa upp förebilder.

castic:

Bilder den 5 augusti. Xilamuren, drygt två timmar bussresa nordöst om Hohhot, Inre Mongoliet.