Gongol.com Archives: October 2008
Brian Gongol


October 23, 2008

Water News Gorman-Rupp reports record results for the past nine months

Business and Finance Should business managers need professional certification?
Absolutely, positively not. Professional licensure for managers is just about the worst possible idea -- as it would, among other things, entrench bad ideas about management as a sort of canon law within business. To paraphrase Milton Friedman, the obligation of a business is to make money. Specifically, the business should seek to make money over the longest possible time horizon. That's best done through long-term planning and patient execution of routine tasks, along with quick reaction to changes in the marketplace. Certifications and licenses would be a step in the opposite direction, suggesting that there's some form of training that makes a person a good manager, rather than a set of habits and practices.

Threats and Hazards Ukraine imposes emergency measures to keep its banking system together
Inflation is bounding upwards, and if they can't find economic stability quickly, the country could find itself moving backwards on political freedom -- and that's a scary prospect

Socialism Doesn't Work Sen. Obama would "fix" Social Security by raising taxes alone
A frightening prospect, particularly for those who still have time left to be coughing up payroll taxes. OASDI currently takes a 12.4% cut from every paycheck, and that would have to rise.

Business and Finance Is this the best that Pepsi can do?
The soft-drink company is changing a whole bunch of its logos and brand marks, and the results are profoundly unimpressive. They resort to trendy fonts and inexplicable fooling around with the classic Pepsi globe logo. It's a really bad decision.

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