links for 2009-03-27

  • What about the rest of us who lead meaningful, even wonderful, lives but have neither the desire nor perhaps the stomach for politics, entrepreneurship or the life of a starving artist or single-minded scientist? Perhaps then, the notion of legacy needs to be re-examined. Sure, it can be something concrete that exists long after you are gone. But as countless teachers (the good ones, anyway) prove every day, a legacy can also involve touching minds and hearts. To distil the idea to its simplest possible element, I would argue that you don’t even have to be a teacher to leave behind a legacy: You could be a homemaker like Prabha auntie.
  • Their trust in the honesty and competence of bankers is all very pre-1998 Japan. A more hands-on, show-us-your-books-now approach is needed. Only then will the White House know the true extent of the crisis, and which bankers are hiding what.
    It took Japan about five years to regain control over its financial system after the Asian crisis. It’s also worth noting that even today banks are reluctant to meet Japan’s credit needs. Getting America’s bankers to fess up now is a priority.
    Two, start firing people. The trouble with putting off the nationalization of banks is that it delays getting rid of the executives who helped create this mess. Also, AIG’s argument that it needs to retain the best and brightest with big bonuses is bunk. Look no further than Thailand and South Korea.
  • Here are some of my favorite books to read to and with children, especially girls. Why especially girls? Because it's important that girls encounter lots of examples of girls that break the mold. These books are full of girls who are honest, flawed, smart, and strong. They make us love them, and they make us love ourselves.
    You could give these to girls to read by themselves, but then you'd miss the fun.
  • Here’s a scenario that is familiar to anyone who has ever set foot in Wal-Mart, CVS, Rite-Aid, or any of a dozen other major retailers. After you have made a purchase, collected your bags, or packed everything into a shopping cart, you head for the exit. Just as you approach freedom an alarm sounds (usually a sequence of ugly, electronic grunts) and a robotic voice (always female) announces: “Please return to the checkout.” Other customers immediately look in your direction, and an employee begins to approach you. What’s your next move?
  • When I got back to transcribe the conversation, I realized that every single sentence was fully formed, enlightening and substantive. I just kept re-reading it. And it was about leadership and life, not basketball. He said things like, "Don't forget, Steve, the most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother."
    So when I saw the transcript, literally I thought, "This is a book!" I called Coach with a great deal of enthusiasm to tell him about my intentions. He was polite, and said no. But I couldn't get it out of my head, so I called him back in a week. And he said he had a lot of things on his agenda, and he was serious, even though he was in his 80s.
    But I kept going back, and eventually wrote him a letter. I tried to convince him with all the usual arguments — money, visibility. He didn't care. Then I remembered that he had said, "I am a teacher." So I sent him a note that said this book is an opportunity to teach. He agreed to work on it.
  • Yesterday, the government body, NACAS (National Advisory Committee on Accounting Standards) NACAS, announced that the compulsory adoption of AS 11 would be deferred until 2011. Newspapers report this as a major relief for India Inc.
    I guess it is, if a fig leaf is seen as protection against the cold. The losses are real, unless you see the rupee rebounding sharply against other world currencies. I don’t. More importantly, governments should be pressing for tighter standards of transparency, not abetting more cover-ups. Ambiguous accounting is also discriminatory – it favours the larger investor with more resources, who can delve deeper into a company’s numbers and track its borrowings. The smaller investor looks at the headline results and takes decisions based on them. A government which claims the Right To Information (RTI) Act as one of its fulfilled election promises has no business to be helping companies cover up their mistakes in the hope that they will fade into the night.

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