Category: Business

Categories
Business

Robert Rubin on the US economy

Some alarming words last night on NewsHour from former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin:

PAUL SOLMAN: So when you talk about the ’90s, when you were in the administration, as a period of a virtuous circle, where lower deficits led to more confidence, lower interest rates and so forth, you were concerned about this famous vicious circle, I take it, of higher interest rates, lower confidence and so forth?

ROBERT RUBIN: Yes, I’m very concerned about it, Paul. I think the probability that the course that we are now on, the fiscal course that we are now on is going to lead to serious trouble is exceedingly high.

PAUL SOLMAN: 70 percent? 80 percent?

ROBERT RUBIN: No, I think it’s probably materially higher than that unless it’s repaired, but the trouble is the repair of it is going to be very difficult. Alan Greenspan said about a week or two ago that our future depended on fixing it.

Rubin has a new book out: In an Uncertain World.

Categories
Business

Goodbye Condit

BusinessWeek has a scathing cover story article about just resigned Boeing ex-CEO Phil Condit. Reading it, one has to wonder what the board of directors was thinking during the relatively long tenure that Condit had as Boeing’s CEO. Amazing — and disturbing…

Flawed strategy. Lax controls. A weak board. Personal shortcomings. CEO Phil Condit lasted longer than he should have. The really surprising thing about Philip M. Condit’s resignation as chairman and chief executive officer of Boeing Co. was not that his seven-year tenure ended so abruptly on Dec. 1, but that it lasted so long.

Categories
Business Venture Capital

When the Risk Takers Come

When the risk takers come into their own – John Cook writes in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Despite the uncertainty in the current economic environment, a number of entrepreneurs and VC investors are convinced that now is an auspicious time to start a new venture.

Notes one VC: “Only good sailors go out in stormy seas. The teams and the people who are willing to head out with a new enterprise right now are good people to invest in.”

In fact, some investors point out that three current technology behemothsËœOracle, Microsoft, SunËœwere all started during a down technology cycle. The article includes a review of potential advantages for a business started during an economic downturn (e.g. less competition, greater access to intellectual capital).