Shattered's 2016 post mortem: Small money smarter than big money donations

The lesson learned in the 2016 Republican primary campaign of Jeb Bush and finally Hillary's loss in the election, described in Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign, is that easy money raised from elites kept front runners from reading the pulse of the not so elite electorate. Bernie Sanders for example raised big money from many small donors. Donors who then feel committed to volunteer, promote to others and finally vote. But a campaign based on small donors requires a clear message that motivates, something that Jeb nor Hillary never could get around to after mingling with so much easy money.  

Trump to acquaint them with the virtues of Federalism

Two headlines today, Fighting Trump on Climate, California goes Global and Rather Than Shrink Subway Delays MTA Seeks to Fund Expansion, exemplify the National Control vs Federalism division in our politic. Governor Jerry Brown has a mandate to keep Los Angeles' air clean and a local authority pushing clean air and fuel economy requirements that California according to our Constitution has the right to do. That it convinces other States to follow its lead is their right as well. That Scott Pruitt, who used to argue States Rights when railing against the EPA, now argues for National Control when heading the EPA is a priceless example of power selecting ideology of convenience. That the New York City subway, a public good solely in its environs, is controlled and funded by Albany, the State Capitol, is a micro view of why Federal power is inefficient at determining how to allocate resources correctly. Its an example that Progressives in New York City ought to study when thinking of Washington power exerting the same dull hand to Urban vs Rural, Coastal vs Central, and cooperative vs belligerent parts of the country.

New York Times headline article of 27 September 2017 U.S. Climate Policy: Made in California reaffirms this post. Progressives' distaste for Trump to acquaint them with the virtues of Federalism, a tool formerly used by retrograde Southern politicians to stall progressive policies, to develop local solutions in rich States and Cities bypassing Washington all together.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Donald

Watching Frontline tonight with Steve Bannon declaring the mission is the deconstruction of the Administrative State. Well, he has done it.  Central government’s work has been brought to a standstill by the Constitution’s antibodies unleashed against a malignant Presidency.  Rather than bemoan the fact that there are over five hundred un-appointed posts in the Administration’s cabinet, rejoice that the levers of power are not being pulled at his behest. Rejoice that his tweets have paralyzed his Republican majority in Congress thereby slowing the flow of useless one size fits all legislation emanating from that body.  Rejoice that Cities and States are now free to ignore Washington and direct their resources to a better living and economic environment for themselves.

Trump's jawboning shook Ford out of a poor investment

Ford's New Chief Executive Has History of Turnaround Stories and the primary one is Jim Hackett turning around Steelcase, an office furniture maker, by making the company "think more about furniture’s full role in a working environment, bringing in sociologists and anthropologists to help designers understand how people work." Ford needs a fundamental rethink, not trend following. A re-read of The Machine that Changed the World describing Toyota's development of just in time production techniques is suggested. The book ends with the vision of making product just in time to the customer's want. The industry currently is content to carry inventory where a sixty day supply of a model is considered tight and a ninety day supply loose. This was true in 1990 when the book was written as it is today. Apparently the industry has not done anything about reducing to just in time car production and delivery to the customer problem, not even Toyota the example in the book, not even to thirty days tight and sixty days loose progress one might have expected.
Mark Fields put forth plans for EV and self driving cars which is all well and good when added to a machine that makes and sells just in time, but Ford wasn't as suggested by the abandoned Mexican plant dedicated to making small cars. Trump's jawboning shook up management enough for them to rethink the project despite the sunken costs and thereby saved Ford from a loser investment, loser where overbuilding unwanted product is a profit killer. Mexico was a volume increasing investment that a 'World Changing Machine' of just in time product making and delivery would have signaled not to make.
Automakers, not just Ford or even Tesla, need to improve on just in time production and selling so that they are consistent in sales, profitability and treatment of their workforce. Ideally some assembly plants which could make trucks, SUVs and or sedans with very little change over time to smooth over changes in the market. Its the core problem that needs solving, especially for the majors with annual U.S. sales having reached a 17 million optimum level.        

Is there a Corporate Sclerosis caused by ETF's tenuous shareholder relationship?

Index Funds Unused Clout: Their Votes is a tree instead of the forest view that utterly fails to answer how the clout is to be used. How is an ETF to survey its individual holders of its individual positions so as to vote their interest? It can't, and so it votes with the Board of Directors.  Which brings up another issue which could use some scholarly research, what is the effect of stock ownership multiple times removed?

Doesn't Uber understand its a human resource developer?

Allies Turned Rivals in the Race to Build a Better Driverless Car is an example of how in business success comes from knowing what you are about.  Here we have a battle between Google and Uber over driverless cars and their development.  Google is a software developer while Uber is a human resource developer. From recent headlines its apparent that Uber is less than focused on its core mission. Driverless is going to take years and once its developed how does Uber take advantage of it with their expertise to put the underemployed to work? Sure, being the next Blockbuster is a worry but people drivers have a long future especially in the underdeveloped world.

Kurds to die in battle or thru cleansing Raqqa for Sunnis to predominate

Barnard & Kingsley's Memo from Turkey, Arming Syrian Kurds Could Come at a Cost misses the point on the biggest cost, the squandering of a valuable ally for peace in the region. The Kurdish desire a nation of their own. Its what drives their pesh merga to fight so fiercely, particularly two summers ago when retaking Kobani, a predominately Kurdish city in north eastern Syria, back from ISIS. With the conquest they came with a positive Kurdish political union to govern their own and a perfect fit with their ultimate goal. The retaking of Sunni Raqqa from ISIS using Kurdish fighters against the will of Turkey and other twisted agendas does nothing for their goal of nationhood and sets them up to fight to their death either in battle or afterward thru the cleansing of Raqqa to let Sunni Arabs predominate.    

Bottom up organizations don't have whistle blowers

John Allison's The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure describes the BB&T Bank and its operating style which appears to be the polar opposite of 'Too Big To Fail' top down directed major banks that are poison to their customers, employees and ultimately shareholders. James Stewart's They Exposed a Scandal But Merited Just a Footnote  describes how whistle blowers are contained at Wells Fargo. I'll bet BB&T's bottom up style doesn't have whistle blowers because the problem is noted and fixed long before it gets to the point someone thinks its necessary to go report outside.

With the 'Deplorable' in charge Progressives need to flip over to the #Libertarian side

Michael Bloomberg and Carl Pope Climate of Hope suggests you ignore the blowhard in charge and develop local market driven solutions to improve the environment in every way. FDR and his progressive followers never thought that big government would ever have as its leader such a deplorable person as what we now have controlling their Authoritarian mechanism.  For their own peace of mind and survival they need to flip over to the Libertarian side of the aisle.

Revenge fomented by our gunslinger antics will bite us with another 9/11

Sonia Kennebeck's National Bird confirms what was always suspected, that many of our drone attacks are careless blood thirsty shots at innocents.  It's haunting that it came under the Obama's thoughtful and lawful cover and the thought that haunts is the certainty the revenge fomented by our gunslinger antics will come back and bite us with another 9/11.