“Indeed, as we begin the twenty-first century, the money and traditional economies are slowly destroying their own support system. Increasing demands of the two economies are surpassing the sustainable yields of the ecosystems that underpin them. For example, one-third of the world's cropland is losing topsoil at a rate that is undermining its long-term productivity, fully half of the world's rangeland is overgrazed and deteriorating into desert, and the world's forests have shrunk by about half since the dawn of agriculture and are continuing to shrink.” WorldFirstsLongTwoTermHalfSupportEconomyLandCenturyExampleDemandLosingThirdsTwentiesRateProductivityForestsTraditionalDesertDawnLong TermYieldDestroyingContinuingAgricultureShrinksEcosystemsUnderminingSupport SystemsSurpassingDeterioratingTopsoil Author:Stuart L. Hart
“It's hard to overemphasize how important Ford's deregulation was. True, most of the benefits took years to unfold-rail freight rates, for example hardly budged at first. Yet deregulation set the stage for an enormous wave of creative destruction in the 1980s.” YearsFirstsImportantHardCreativeStageExampleBenefitsDestructionRateWaveEnormousRailDeregulationCreative Destruction Book:The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World Source: The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World
“For example: (1) As if governed by Newton's First Law of Motion, an institution will resist any change in its current direction; (2) Just as work expands to fill available time, corporate projects or acquisitions will materialize to soak up available funds; (3) Any business craving of the leader, however foolish, will be quickly supported by detailed rate-of-return and strategic studies prepared by his troops; and (4) The behavior of peer companies, whether they are expanding, acquiring, setting executive compensation or whatever, will be mindlessly imitated.” IfsFirstsLawCompanyLeaderStudyExampleReturnBehaviorProjectsInstitutionsPreparedRateCurrentsAvailableFoolishSettingSettingsCorporateFundExecutivesTroopsPeersExpandingCravingCompensationStrategicNewtonAcquisitionLaws Of MotionExecutive Compensation Book:Warren Buffett on Business: Principles from the Sage of Omaha Source: Warren Buffett on Business: Principles from the Sage of Omaha
“Although humans have existed on this planet for perhaps 2 million years, the rapid climb to modern civilization within the last 200 years was possible due to the fact that the growth of scientific knowledge is exponential; that is, its rate of expansion is proportional to how much is already known. The more we know, the faster we can know more. For example, we have amassed more knowledge since World War II than all the knowledge amassed in our 2-million-year evolution on this planet. In fact, the amount of knowledge that our scientists gain doubles approximately every 10 to 20 years.” KnowsWorldYearsHumansWarFactsLastsGrowthKnownMillionsModernExamplePlanetsEvolutionAmountCivilizationGainsScientistRateDuesFasterWar Of The WorldsClimbsWorld War IiWorld War IExpansionRapidsScientific KnowledgeMore KnowledgeModern Civilization Author:Michio Kaku
“Many politicians and pundits claim that the credit crunch and high mortgage foreclosure rate is an example of market failure and want government to step in to bail out creditors and borrowers at the expense of taxpayers who prudently managed their affairs. These financial problems are not market failures but government failure. ... The credit crunch and foreclosure problems are failures of government policy.” WantProblemGovernmentStepsPolicyExamplePoliticianEconomicsClaimsRateAffairFinancialCreditDebtExpensesTaxpayersMortgagePunditsCreditorsBailCrunchGovernment PolicyBorrowersForeclosureMarket FailureFinancial ProblemsCredit Crunch Author:Walter E. Williams
“I wish and will continue to wish, that the German people should learn that by reason of practical examples afforded by their ability and work, they are not a second-rate or inferior people in comparison with others. On the contrary they are their equals according to all true standards of values and therefore entitled to equal rights in all respects.” PeopleShouldReasonValuesWishAbilityRightsExampleEqualStandardsRateContraryPracticalsComparisonInferiorsEntitledEqual RightsSecond Rate Author:Adolf Hitler
“Evolution is the fundamental idea in all of life science, in all of biology. The key to our being here now is time, 4.54 billion (Earth) years of time. Nuclear fission wasn't discovered until long after Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace published their original books and papers, for example. Our ability to measure atomic masses wasn't developed until long after their deaths. These features of nature enabled us to reckon the age of the Earth and compare it with speciation rates here.” YearsLongBookIdeasAgeEarthAbilityExampleKeysEvolutionPaperMassOriginalsFundamentalsRateNuclearBillionsCompareFeaturesBiologyPapersFissionNuclear FissionSpeciation Author:Bill Nye
“I love the fact that Oprah Winfrey comes out number one [most admired women], regardless of who you are, because she has achieved so much in the business world. I think Republicans, for example, when Republican women rate her higher than Hillary Clinton, they obviously don't care that she supported Barack Obama.” ThinkingWorldFactsCareNumbersExampleHigherRepublicanWho You AreClintonRateDon't CareBarackBusiness World Author:Michel Martin
“There's only one thing that all of the central banks control and that is the base, their own liability, and they can control that in various ways. They can control it directly by open market operations, buying and selling government securities or other assets, for example, buying and selling gold, or they can control it indirectly by altering the rate at which banks lend to one another.” WayGovernmentOne ThingSecurityExampleGoldRateVariousSellingOperationsBuyingAssetsLiabilityCentral BanksBuying And Selling Author:Milton Friedman
“The Great Recession is not imaginary, and the effects loom large. There was an article in the NYT about the galloping death rate among white men in middle age. Higher than among any other demographic, etc. Mostly death by drugs, alcohol, or suicide. Many of them rural. My feeling is that it's many people who haven't been able to get back into the work force. Reg Morse is an example of the problem.” PeopleMenFeelingsProblemAgeAbleForceWhiteMiddleEffectsHavensExampleHigherDrugSuicideRateAlcoholEtcGet BackArticlesImaginaryWhite ManMiddle AgesRecessionsDemographicsGallopingGreat Recession Author:Rick Moody
“...the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the "impossible," come true.” ShouldMindFirstsStillsTwoIdeasPhilosophyAbleAbilitySawsImpossibleExamplePositive ThinkingAdultsTestsFunctionRateDeterminedPositive AttitudeHopelessHopelessnessImprobableKeep A Positive AttitudePositive Mind Author:F. Scott Fitzgerald
“More than half of Americans have changed religions at least once in their adult lifetime. This is - the rate of religious conversion here is much, much higher than it is anywhere in Europe, for example.” ReligiousHalfExampleChangedHigherAdultsEuropeLifetimeRateConversion Author:Susan Jacoby