The Realist Idealist

An article found in this week’s Economist, “Take a leaf out of his book,” presents a candid message to Japanese executives: it’s time to break with the past if you don’t want to break your company!
The article points out that in Japan certain cultural characteristics such as humility, loyalty, respect and consensus, which are seemingly [...]

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Yes, the pensions of the 1990’s are slowly disappearing. It makes sense - companies have been negotiating with unions and the like with promises that, as demographics have shifted (people began living longer and retiring earlier), they cannot afford over the long term.
But, it’s worse than that.
Cash invested in Pensions is tax deductible. [...]

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Just above Ben Stein’s column in yesterday’s Sunday Times (telling us that things really aren’t that bad in our nation’s economy …Bueller? Bueller? …anyone?) was a piece by Alan Blinder with the title “A Modest Proposal: Eco Friendly Stimulus”

The gist of Blinder’s proposal can be boiled down to providing “cash” to low-income Americans for their [...]

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“The current race is to see who will control renewable energy technologies, and we are in the race,” Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil told reporters. “We have the human and financial resources, and we have the will.”
Minister Khelil’s statement was made in the recent announcement that Algeria is undertaking a massive initiative to generate enough [...]

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Why and how have banks made half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income?
In keeping with the recent Realist Idealist theme of sharing information that has been incredibly useful in my understanding of the world, its history, its processes, and how things have unfolded (so that we can do something about it [...]

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I first heard Van Jones speak in 2005 in Berkeley. I still get chills recalling his call for a “new politics” a “new religion” and truly a new way of operating in society.
I’ve followed Van since then through his work with the Ella Baker Center and just saw him here today at the 2008 [...]

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Gas prices won’t be going down for a while. But at least we as consumers can ease the pain by voting with our consumer dollars, and patronizing oil companies that are devoting at least a small share of their revenue to sustainable practices.
HIP Investor has rigorously evaluated and rated the top ten oil companies (HIP [...]

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To be perfectly honest, as much as I love the products that come out, I get a little tired of writing and talking about Google and Salesforce. I really wish some other companies would develop and innovate on the same level and provide some new tools to the folks out there trying to [...]

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http://www.google.com/virgle/index.html
As we all know Earth has issues, and it’s time humanity got started on a Plan B. So in true realist-idealist fashion Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first [...]

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I’ve often felt strongly that the requirement of businesspersons, nonprofit and NGO staff, and others in the field to write an email or produce other work on time is one of the larger problems our society faces. There is simply not enough time in the day. There aren’t enough neurological connections upstairs to [...]

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