Private education companies

This is not the argument that I will, eventually (probably when I really need to procrastinate), make in a post. But it is a bit of empirical evidence. It involves a $1.6 million settlement with students by Kaplan, Inc. a for-profit educational company, a subsidiary of The Washington Post.

Here is the conclusion of an article on what is merely the latest law suit against the company.

As a result of the settlement Kaplan will pay about $500,000 to 43 students who took out loans to attend the school but who could never graduate (or get good jobs to pay off their loans) because the school wasn’t able to offer the clinic training students needed to graduate or obtain licenses.

And the degree only costs $16,000.

I especially like the part about 'could never graduate.'

.

American Business practices II

Can't really say if any of this is true but the last time we all went into the Boone Mellow Mushroom the staff was in an uproar. The name Phil Templeton was written all over the bathroom wall with various crude and improbable acts associated with him. The explanation, according to the staff?

Mellow Mushroom may be going out of business and all of its staff will be out of work. Not because of a lack of business, the Mellow Mushroom has done consistently good business as the best pizzeria in town. But the owner of the building (apparently this Phil Templeton) will not renew their lease. Instead he is going to lease it to another pizzeria that wants the location. Why? Don't know, but undoubtedly there is an interesting story out there.

That would be bad enough, but Templeton is alleged not to have bothered to tell the folks at Mellow Mushroom about this. Their first hint of trouble was when the other pizzeria called them and asked for details on when and how Mellow Mushroom was vacating the premises.

So now the Mellow Mushroom is scrambling to try to find a new location which is extremely difficult.

Nice. If true, of course. We only have the Mellow Mushroom staff's take on it. So don't jump to conclusions.

That would be wrong. I'll undertake some more investigation.

American Business practices, I

One way a business can be sure to make a bigger profit, at least for awhile, is to fire a lot of their workers and tell the rest to work harder. That's partly why we have had good economic news for the last few months with little impact on the unemployment figures. The result, as report in the Economist via The Week:

Since the recession began, the average "job footprint" - a measure of what a worker is expected to produce - had increased by a third, says the Corporate Leadership Council, while pay has stagnated. A separate survey found that 63 percent of workers feel their bosses do not appreciate their extra effort.

No, they don't. And that contributes to the anger, frustration, and lack of faith in institutions that seem to be defining the zeitgeist right about now.

Shh. Wall Street Geniuses at Work

Call me silly, but I thought that Godman Sachs, right about now, might want to hold on to all the money they still have left for stuff like, you know, business investments.

I was wrong. They have enough money to hire a law firm to try to put a blogger who posts embarrassing facts about Goldman Sachs out of business.

And you thought they were merely greedy.

And now, business journalists

As you may have seen me mention, since I repeat it at every chance, no one's reputation survived the first decade of the new century. Here, from today's WaPo, is the Project for Excellence in Journalism's annual report overall assessment of the business media's role in reporting the recent unpleasant news:

"By and large the press as an institution failed to function as an early warning system for what is now being called the biggest economic disaster since the Great Depression."

So, who do you trust? Other than tarot cards and tea leaves.

which are just as accurate as the pundits. But then, so are you. So am I. So is my dog Leo.

An Economist who got it right!

And one who now looks like a drooling idiot.

Peter Schiff looks eerily prescient back in 2006. Laffer, on the other hand, is the idiot (some of us already knew this - he grades the economy on a curve). What is so striking about this clip, aside for the fact that it is on YouTube and thus can be consulted by anyone, is how Schiff is using simple common sense. "Common" in the sense that anyone should posses it.

[sidebar: check out the discussion on whether or not women like to work, the "privilege" men have long had. The upper middle class, in the person of the pretty TV hostess, has no smallest idea of what the average person goes through to earn a paycheck - another whiff of '89.]

god, I love YouTube.

Peanuts

Remember that peanut butter plant in Georgia, the one that was shipping tainted peanut butter all over the country, even though its own tests showed the presence of salmonella.

It was much worse than we imagined.

So where was the FDA?

oh. right. government is the problem not the solution.

New word alert!

This one from Peggy Noonan: Goldsmansachs Head

I think there is an illness called Goldmansachs Head. I think it's in the DSM. When you have Goldmansachs Head, the party's never over. You take private planes to ask for bailout money, you entertain customers at high-end spas while your writers prep your testimony, you take and give huge bonuses as the company tanks. When you take the kids camping, you bring a private chef. Goldmansachs Head is Bernie Madoff complaining he's feeling cooped up in the penthouse. It is the delusion that the old days continue and the old ways prevail and you, Prince of the Abundance, can just keep rolling along. Here is how you know if someone has GSH: He has everything but a watch. He doesn't know what time it is.

Schadenfreude. Pure schadenfreude.

well, I always said that as a political analyst Noonan was a good wordsmith.

Governent ought to be run like a business!

Well, sometimes you hear that from people. Usually from businessmen who want to become our political leaders. I've worked for big business, small business, and all types of government including the Feds. Trust me on this: you do not want your government to be run like a business.

And just to be sarky and totally unfair I present these two cases for your consideration:

AIG, the insurance giant that was essentially nationalized in September, has confirmed to the Associated Press that it's paying bonuses to employees who sold credit default swaps -- the very deals that helped cause millions in losses, leading to the company's collapse.

According to news reports, the bonuses amount to $450 million -- or $1.13 million for each of the 400 staffers in the financial products unit. (from TPM)

And for you fans of peanut butter:

The Georgia peanut plant linked to a nationwide salmonella outbreak that has killed eight people and sickened more than 500 knew on at least 12 occasions over the past two years that its product was contaminated but sold it anyway, according to federal officials. (from the NYT)

In China they would shoot these guys. Of course, that would be wrong.

so how did your kids like their PBJ sandwich? yummy.

Freedom of the Internet is not free

And that can be read several ways. I once told young Clovis, my teenage computer guru, that there were lots of very smart people being paid big bucks to come up with a way to make providing internet service pay ... and pay ... pay. He seemed unconcerned.

Perhaps he should have been more concerned. Here is how one company, Comcast, is attempting to subvert the process so they can control the Internet and, consequently, charge you more for access.

BTW, notice Comcast's lame excuse for packing the hearing room.

We could call it "Ratatouille"!!

Or has that been done?

Also from AOL:

Suspicious Sprinkles

Just one week after unveiling the world's most expensive dessert -- the $25K Frrozen Haute Chocolate -- New York restaurant Serendipity 3 is shut down for failing its second health inspection in a month. Inspectors find a live mouse, multiple piles of mouse droppings, fruit flies, houseflies, and more than 100 live cockroaches.

I think I'll just get the $3.95 special at Diary Queen.

The failure of our business leaders

During the Bush years virtually every class of leadership within American society has failed. Don't know why this is, but it is so. Here is just one example of how unserious American elites have become. It's from AOL, so no link.

What Subprime Mess?

In July, as Bear Stearns execs futilely attempt to prop up two hedge funds that ultimately collapse amid the subprime meltdown, CEO James Cayne spends ten of 21 workdays out of the office, playing golf, competing in a bridge tournament and, allegedly, smoking marijuana.

I am sure that all that down time allowed him to recharge and face the problem with a perfectly clear mind. Clear ... as in utterly blank.