Standards

Sam Seder with Harold Myerson, on how the South's rules govern the economy.

Myerson sees recent economic history repeating that of slavery, with "high value work" done elsewhere and America's South as a pool of low-end labor. In relative terms, Chinese labor costs are now actually higher than those in the U.S., where wages continue falling as international corporations locate to southern states. The South's historically anti-union climate combines with such current practices as using temporary workers to depress wages and avoid paying benefits.

"The South remains hard-wired for a low-wage economy," says Myerson, in its ethos of racism and all profit going to one class. And it is Southern labor standards that are winning, as GOP control in northern states replicates southern labor laws and vote suppression.

Then there's the show segment starting after 28:00...

Sam sets the background: the legality of investment advisors having no duty to protect their clients' interest, and a current Senate Committee hearing on proposed reform. Then the hearing clip, in which Elizabeth Warren calmly and expertly demonstrates how a slimy corporate exec can legally bilk teachers and firefighters of their pensions. She accomplishes this by asking some simple questions he won't answer—

Mr. Scheider, I just want to understand your company's advice in these cases. Do you believe that people like these firefighters from Florida who are near retirement and have secure pensions with guaranteed monthly payments should move their money into riskier assets with no guarantees, just before they retire?

More from Susie Madrak—

He never directly answered her very direct question, even though she asked a version of it three times. The closest he came was to argue "each situation is very different," and that his firm offers its risky investment opportunities to people who could benefit from it, like retirees on the brink of death.

"I"m sorry, are you suggesting that these 238 people were weeks away from dying, and that's why they all got this advice?" Warren asked, referring to the number of people Primerica was forced to settle with to the tune of $15.4 million in 2014.

Video of the complete Q and (non-)A here.

The Majority Report clip is followed by extended riffs from host and producers, all getting into character as slimy corporate President ("not the CEO").

Time-wasting: Guaranteed and PatenTED

Spotted on the library book shop's giveaway shelves—

Actually, I spotted it months ago: back when Morning Huddle was held daily, its script cobbled together by someone with all too many dates to fill. At the time, I felt quite relieved to know Patton was unlikely to be among the current crop of management consultants whose wisdom would be cribbed to produce daily scripts.

On the other hand, a mere one-minute sounds much better than the present routine. Now that it's Weekly Huddle, the boss expects a full week's padding to be stuffed into the pointless gathering.

Well, his agenda is what he hinted at last week: Simone Legree's group huddles for an hour, "to exchange information and discuss problems"... Now we must compete with them. Therefore, we were told any kind of presentation will do ("It doesn't have to be about work; it could be something you're interested in...")

After he dropped these hints, his assistant (helped by someone marginally more plugged into management lingo) planned today's festivities: subjecting the group to a TED Talk.

Cruel and unusual huddling, I call it. The session started with ten minutes of impressive technological action: a third person's unsuccessful fumbling with the controls of a giant monitor, until the official organizers decided to give up and project the video by other means. The main event was introduced by the marginally more sophisticated of the two: "Has anyone heard of TED? It's a non-profit that sends around YouTube clips that are ...[pause for grasping] ... educational..."

It also just so happens (as she mentioned) that the faculty's LEAN taskmaster had sent this particular TED to the whole department. (Nothing says streamlining the operation as well as having your entire staff spend time this way.) Of course, this is the process by which my co-workers keep up with the latest: they snap to attention upon learning a superior is gung-ho about some lame cliché that's news to them.

This was the Talk.

The Good Leaders including a couple of Heroic CEOs, but it's mostly military who "make you feel safe."

This earlier military hero seems to have had a bit of a temper problem with some underlings. And it must have really set him off, that his men got their bad ideas from "The Jews."

It would seem he kept his promises.

Leaders do mark their territory; it seems he was, uh, manly about it. A bit different today, at least where I work.

The previous Dear Leader marked his turf this way. And my absolute favorite: instead of keeping to institutional tradition that the space remain discretely unmarked, the toilet across from the Chairman's office suddenly sprouted a sign reading, Executive Rest Room... Below that, a repeat in braille—just to be sure no uppity blind person wander in and take liberties.

The newest Dear Leader's real estate grab.

At my office-in-exile, it appears the ego of our unit's leader was adequately messaged today by TED. The payoff: he let us leave for tomorrow's holiday an hour early.