Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
We’re celebrating a not-so-new journalistic trend, and oh is it ever a hot one. Lazy journalist hunts down lazy egghead researcher willing to fasten his good name to the idea that…drum roll please…Americans work too much.
Americans work too much (from 1902!).
Here, Google it yourself. Fun for the whole family. Just don’t work too hard at it.
Oh and by the way, now that we’ve started our second century of oh-so-fashionably carping away about what know-nothing spiteful chubby workaholics the damn yankees are, and we’ve elected a new Hope-and-Change iPresident Replacement Jesus who’s gonna be fixing all that and making us a lot more like Europe — this just might be a good time, doncha think, to examine how Europe’s economy is doing?
Europe’s Economy Worse Than Expected
Europe’s souring economy will soon affect its social systems.New economic data released on Friday shows that Europe’s economy is actually doing far worse then many economists originally thought. Germany is now in the deepest recession of any major economy. Italy, Austria, Spain and the Netherlands are suffering the worst slump since World War ii.
During the first three months of this year, Germany’s economy shrank by 3.8 percent, the largest drop since Germany began keeping gdp data in 1970. Austria and the Netherlands shrank by 2.8 percent, Italy by 2.4 percent, Spain by 1.8 percent and France by 1.2 percent.
Across both the eurozone and the whole European Union, gdp fell by 2.5 percent in the first quarter. Comparing year-on-year data, the eurozone’s gdp fell by 4.6 percent, and the EU’s by 4.4 percent.
These numbers caught many economists by surprise. A Reuters poll of 45 economists predicted that Germany’s economy would contract by only 3 percent. Dominic Bryant of bnp Paribas said that the actual fall of 3.8 percent was a “truly terrible number.” Both the German government and economists are predicting that the economy will shrink around 6 to 7 percent in 2009—the biggest fall since World War ii. Year-on-year data shows that Germany’s economy shrank by 6.7 percent in the first quarter.
Italy, Germany, France and the Netherlands have experienced four consecutive quarters of economic decline. And these numbers are causing analysts to rethink their predictions on the economy. The recession in Europe began earlier and has become deeper than many originally expected.
One last thought. There is an undertone permeating some of these linked articles, I mean the snotty ones about Americans working way too much, that — not only do we work too much but we’re cranky and mean toward those who do not.
Anyone seen any of that? My observations have been mostly the reverse, actually…people who don’t believe in a solid work ethic, aren’t even willing to say they don’t believe, they just heap all this constant criticism on Americans who “work too much.” Anyone see, lately, a sanctimonious preachy doofus-dad movie in which the small-dee dad figures out at the end, “I’ve been such a dumbass, I need to work more“? I’ve seen much of the reverse, wherein small-dee dad figures out working is what makes him a dumbass. Small-dee dad needs to goof off more. Anyone see some egghead articles heaping derision on the Europeans for not working hard enough? Anywhere? Anything like that?
For the most part, when I see people telling other people what to do with regard to a work ethic, it’s to tone it down. Folks who work harder, don’t spend too much time yakking at other people who don’t work hard, to work harder. They’re generally too busy…working.
All for now. I gotta get ready to go to work.
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Anecdotal remark… (as usual)
I did a three-month consulting gig for a large multi-national re-insurer in London’s City back in the mid-90s. Our kick off meeting/lunch was held in an upscale restaurant and ALL the client staff got rip-roaring drunk… so much so that the rest of the work day was called off. My team and I spent the afternoon getting our security access-badges and other administrivia done, so it wasn’t a total loss for us. Flash-forward to the next morning, when my counterpart… a director in the IT division at Client HQ… pulled me aside and told me that our reputation preceded us and for me to NOT expect him or his staff to work the same hours as we did. Seriously.
So. We hit the door at 8:00 sharp every day (oh-dark-thirty for the Brits, rather leisurely for us), they rolled in around 9:30-ish (emphasis on the “ish”), broke for lunch at noon, came back at 2:00 and left around 4:30. We, OTOH, were forced to leave NLT 6:00 pm, when the building literally shut down… AC, lights, everything. I kid thee NOT. That was a most-interesting three months, lemmee tell ya. But it wasn’t that way everywhere. Whereas I spent about 90% of my time on the client’s prem, I noticed our Brit subsidiary worked US-like hours during my occasional visits there. That was probably because about a third of management were US expats. It all depends on the culcha, dontcha know… about which: both the Americans and Brits at our UK subsidiary LOVED bitching about how “loose” things were on The Continent, by comparison.
/anecdotal remark
- bpenni | 05/21/2009 @ 14:11Forgot a most-important detail. The client… who ultimately rejected our findings/recommendations… was acquired in a hostile take-over about a year after we finished our consulting gig and the entire IT staff at Client HQ were let go. Heh.
- bpenni | 05/21/2009 @ 14:15