Two Very Funny Videos

This is a first: I'm posting links to a couple of very funny parody videos that make fun of a couple of REALLY big Internet companies.   

The first is a jab at Amazon, which is now promoting next day and same day delivery.  How could they top that?   Think about it.  Then watch the Youtube video.

The second one takes a shot at Google, that company that keeps coming up with all sorts of things we didn't know we needed until they came up with it.   Like the car that drives itself and that email system that doesn't ever throw any messages away even if you put them in the "Trash" and any number of other innovative products.   Here's another one: this video explains how Google will help you get rid of those clunky smart phone keyboards and really start multitasking. 

If you don't find these videos funny, I'd like to hear why not.

Placating Poppop

So I had sole custody of my #2 grandson for a few hours this afternoon and fortunately, he agreed to actually sleep through his nap time for part of the custodial period.  After the nap, we had a snack, told a few jokes, and turned him loose in the toy strewn family room for a while. 

During his subsequent ransacking of the family room, I offered to read Nathaniel a book.  I attempted to entice him with one of his least favorite books, "Jumbo."   It's not one of my favorites either, but it was just a prop, and I kept asking hm if he'd like me to read him a book.

"Do you want me to read you a story?   How about we read a book?   Don't you want me to read you a book?  C'mon, Nathaniel, let's read a book."

This went on for several minutes until he went over to one of the bins in the family room, rummaged around in it for a moment or two, and fished out a book.  He turned around and began to walk across the room toward me with a big grin on his face.  

Nathaniel handed me the book, turned around, and walked away to resume ransacking.  His message was clear and didn't involve speaking or sign-language: "Here you go Poppop.  Here's a book.   Knock yourself out." 

He apparently had more important things to do.  I will recognize that smile the next time I see it plastered across his face.
 

Bad Day For Individual Investors

Moxyvote.com has announced it's shutting down.  This web site provided a way for shareholders of corporations to sort of band together to vote on issues important to the shareholders, on topics covering anything that corporations do (or should do).   The people who run the site announced that despite working for 5+ years on regulatory change, they are shutting down because the needed changes haven't happened.  One change that was needed, is regulatory support that would enable shareholders to require their brokers to link proxy voting with Moxyvote.  Without that, the critical mass of shareholders that could band together on voting via Moxyvote is limited.

Beyond shareholders banding together to exercise proxy voting, there seems to be another unmet critical need (IMO): direct communication with other shareholders.   When we read of outrageous actions by corporate boards, such as the recent Duke Energy CEO contract from which the CEO "resigned" after one day, resulting in the CEO collecting up to $44 million, shareholders need a way to communicate with each other.   We can't act as a group if we can't consult with each other and formulate appropriate responses.   We now are limited to making proposals considered at annual meetings, but if shareholders could easily discuss issues with fellow shareholders, we wouldn't be limited to simply reacting to Board of Director controlled proxy ballots.  We could pressure corporate boards on timely issues, like CEO compensation.  Without a site like Moxyvote.com, there's little chance of that level of shareholder communication existing.  

There is a perception that corporate boards and top management, holding huge quantities of corporate stock, can act in their own best interest in "enhancing share value" and, therefore, their own monetary profit, over individual shareholders, who are largely reduced to merely being along for the ride.  One example is a board decision to pursue being bought by another company, thereby resulting in massive payouts to holders of large quantities of stock, as opposed to small individual shareholders who may be more interested in long-term growth than cashing out their holding.  Individual shareholders are essentially voiceless and have no leverage to substantially influence corporate board behavior.  

Provisions of Dodd-Frank, like "say on pay," are little more than window dressing.  In truth, individual shareholders are voiceless.

What Happened To The Future?

Americans have always had faith in the future, that it would be better than the present, and way better than the past.   That's been the foundation for generations of Americans who believed that if they worked hard and focused on a goal, they could improve their lot in life as well as secure their children's future.  This notion has been used as a way to distinguish America from "those other countries" where economic mobility was difficult, if not impossible, to improve.

Apparently, that's not actually the case, and it's questionable if it ever was.  As recently reported on Marketplace, according to research conducted by Pew's Economic Mobility Project:

(the project) has calculated that about 60 percent of Americans whose fathers’ incomes were in the top fifth, stay in the top two-fifths themselves. And the same is true at the bottom. About 65 percent of those from the bottom fifth don't make it past the bottom two-fifths by the time they're adults.

What's this mean?  It means that your economic future looks pretty much the same as your father's was.   Whether you started at the bottom or the top of the economic ladder, you'll probably stay there.  

What could be worse than that?  Another researcher has compared the economic mobility, the ability to change your economic status, of Americans and citizens of other developed countries.  Guess what?   Our belief that we're better off than others in our ability to move up the ladder is unfounded as well

Miles Corak is an economist at the University of Ottawa. He's compared the U.S. to other rich countries, and found that Americans have less mobility across generations than Canada, Australia, and most of Europe.

I find this research very disturbing, both from the standpoint that our children seem to be trapped in whatever economic rung of the ladder that their parents occupy (of course, it's not so much "trapped" if you're nearer the top rung), as well as the realization that the United States, land of opportunity, offers less economic opportunity than most of Europe.

Has our "future" changed or was it an illusion all along?