Are you tired of bad news? Me too. Let me offer you a short respite from all the doom and gloom. The topic today is beauty and, specifically, a review of a book titled, Sagmeister & Walsh: Beauty. Do a Google search on Beauty and you’ll get pages of female cosmetic products. This book isn’t […]
Well, That Escalated Quickly
Two weeks ago, I wrote in this blog that the chance of a recession being triggered by the COVID-19 as being “Probable.” This situation has changed very quickly. At this point, we are way past “Probable.” We are in the early stages of a recession. You heard it here second. The stock market, which is […]
Will COVID-19 Trigger a Recession?
The media is full of news about the COVID-19 virus, including its rapid spread and the first U.S. death occurring at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland. Is the mainstream media hyping this more than they should? My friend, the microbiology professor at the UW School of Medicine, sent me an update from the Journal of Autoimmuity […]
Book Review: Spillover
This book was loaned to me by a friend who is a microbiologist at the UW Medical School. He marked three or four chapters for me to read but it was so interesting I read the whole thing. The subtitle is Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic and it serves as interesting background on […]
Ten Years a Consultant
On January 14, 2010, I officially opened my consulting practice. Today, January 14, 2020, marks ten years of working for myself. After ten years, this is longer than any W-2 job I ever had! At this point, I probably couldn’t work for anyone else! While it is challenging to have a successful practice, it is […]
Becoming a Superhero
Those of us who have a consulting practice and have decided to go it alone, rather than be part of a bigger organization, just do it all. Beside the paying work, that means the administration and business development. For those who have reserved personalities, like us accountants, that is the biggest challenge. How do we […]
Book Review: Talking to Strangers
Malcolm Gladwell is one of the most popular authors in the world. His previous titles include: The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw and David and Goliath. Talking to Strangers is his first book in six years. The gap is mostly because he commands six-figure speaking fees and has gotten heavily involved in […]
Another Great Relearning
Tom Wolfe, the author of The Bonfire of the Vanities, The Right Stuff and many other bestsellers, once wrote an article called The Great Relearning. It was about how societies sometimes need to relearn things that have collectively been forgotten. One example was San Francisco’s health clinics in 1968. Hippies were challenging the status quo […]
The Future Revisited: The Outcomes of Increasing Productivity
I remember when I was in teenager (a long time ago), hearing a pundit say, “If productivity gains continue, by the 1980s we’ll all be looking around for something to do.” That didn’t happen, of course, except it sort of did. The factories of North America were mostly automated long ago. The computer revolution that […]
The End of LIBOR
Do you lay awake at night wondering, “What will I do when LIBOR ends?” No? Me either. But if you have any financial instruments tied to LIBOR, you probably should pay a little attention to this issue. First, what is LIBOR? LIBOR is the London Interbank Offered Rate. It is a benchmark rate that indicates […]