Max Keiser: We live in the age of "financial tyranny", orchestrated by the " banksters"

Some call Max Keiser a 'traitor' but America's most outrageous political pundit is about to become the most widely watched newscaster on the planet. His most popular outlet is The Keiser Report, on Russia Today (RT), and its international viewing figures, as Keiser (not a man plagued by self-doubt) isn't slow to point out, are huge. I am pro-capitalism and I am pro-free market, he says. But what you have now is not capitalism. It is a state- controlled, command and control, centralised politburo. The must read interview in The Independent, here. 

Creative for Good:How to make easier public service campaigns

The goal of the initiative, called Creative for Good, is to make it easier to produce effective public service advertising campaigns on issues like health, education and the environment. Creative for Good is being introduced by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with two partners: the Advertising Council, the nonprofit organization that oversees the creation, production and distribution of public service campaigns in the United States, and Ketchum, a public relations and marketing communications agency that is part of the Omnicom Group. See more here .

Building A Futureproof Brand? What You’ll Need In 2013.

(By Marc Stoiber). I help clients build futureproof brands, so a predictions article seems a natural fit. And because collaboration with my network of global experts is part of building those brands, I’m blessed to stand on the shoulders of giants when looking ahead.

So without further ado, let’s launch right into it.  My futureproof brand 2013 predictions (with a little help from my very talented friends).

1. The Implosion Of ‘Greed Is Good’ Brands

I leaned on my friend John Marshall Roberts for this one. John is a best-selling author, behavioral scientist and founder of Worldview Thinking. When I asked him to polish the crystal ball he told me “The individualistic worldview, focused solely on profit, is continuing to decay. Obama’s re-election gave it another kick – expect continued collapse of this worldview, and the brands it represents, in 2013.”

But will we suddenly be inundated with brands that put the humanistic worldview first? Not necessarily. “There is going to be a rise of companies that succeed against all status quo wisdom” Roberts says. Think Tom’s Shoes, with its ‘buy one give one’ philosophy. Or Zappos, selling insane service to build a shoe business…   Read the full article here .  

Banks: The Epitome of Social Irresponsibility

Financial crisis, casino gambling, outsized bonuses, rate fixing, now money laundering, etc, etc . In the last six years, the public's opinion of the banking industry has dropped by over 60 points. No wonder then that even the Wall Street Journal is beginning to call for the largest banks to be broken up. See more here .

Corporate sustainability lost some of its sexiness in 2012 ?

It was an odd year for green business, and it began with some mixed signals about how far companies were coming on sustainability. A GreenBiz report indicated that progress had slowed or even regressed, but MIT and BCG also declared that sustainability had reached a "tipping point" with more companies putting sustainability "on the management agenda." A very interesting article at HBR, here .

Is there anyone like Nassim Taleb?

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the bestselling author of The Black Swan and one of the foremost thinkers of our time, reveals how to thrive in an uncertain world in his new book Antifragile .
Just as human bones get stronger when subjected to stress and tension, and rumors or riots intensify when someone tries to repress them, many things in life benefit from stress, disorder, volatility, and turmoil. What Taleb has identified and calls “antifragile” is that category of things that not only gain from chaos but need it in order to survive and flourish.
Antifragile complements The Black Swan by celebrating systems that gain from disorder, trading away short-term predictability and micro-rationality for long-term success exploiting macro-unpredictability. It's a bold attitude, amply supported by argument and example from many fields. If anything, it is more outrageous and iconoclastic than The Black Swan. It is Taleb's most important book to date, as it closes the circle. On one level, the universe (at least as perceived by humans) is ruled by disorder, but on another level, the crucial elements are those that gain from disorder as eventually these are fitter for survival than any element, however strong, that requires order.
If you have read any of Taleb's other books, Antifragile is the best next one to read. If you have not read any,  start with Fooled by Randomness .
According to The Telegraph, “ Antifragile has annoyed fans of Taleb’s earlier works because, in turning away from statistics, his thought has become baggier, bombastic and often preposterous. Nevertheless, his work exerts a strange pull. Taleb’s aim is both quixotic and ambitious: he wants to overleap the limits of epistemology and return to the founding drama of Ancient Greek philosophy. Taleb is incisive when he writes about the original Greek philosophers and their medieval Arab followers. Plato’s Republic begins with an attack on merchants and money lenders collectively known as krematistes: the moneymakers. Plato is the perfect example of a top-down, authoritarian state-planner and his attack on the riff-raff in trade is a decisive moment in philosophy. Taleb re-energises the debate by taking the moneymaker’s part. In his heart, he remains a barrow-boy challenging the philosopher kings in the same way that, as an options trader, he once took on the academic economists. His story is similar to many other members of the statistics revolution.” See review here . And the HBR text here .

10 trends that will shape consumer behavior in 2013 and their implications for MarCom people

JWT recently released the eighth annual forecast of key trends that will shape or significantly impact consumer mindset and behavior in the near future. No need to elaborate why such trends have considerable impact in the MarCom strategy of every company in our times.

In this year’s report, new technology continues to take center stage, as we see major shifts tied to warp-speed developments in mobile, social and data technologies. Many of our trends reflect how businesses are driving, leveraging or counteracting technology’s omnipresence in our lives, and how consumers are responding to its pull. However, what should be noticed in the 2013 report, is the fact that MarCom people are for the first time pay attention  on happiness and  well-being and how businesses are addressing it for marketing and real good purpose. Happiness  was a favorite  theme in the book  ‘Nice’ Capitalism four years ago ( you can also download for free ) and a popular topic of many posts in this blog. See more about the ten trends, here . For  stories about the new breed of superior brand species, ie Nice Brands, follow us also in Twitter .

Τώρα είναι πολύ αργά Κύριε Στίγκλιτζ...

To τελευταίο βιβλίο του νομπελίστα οικονομολόγου Τζόζεφ Στίγκλιτζ, («Το τίμημα της ανισότητας», εκδ. Παπαδόπουλος, 2012) που παρουσιάστηκε στις 4/12/2012 στην Ελλάδα, κρούει των κώδωνα του κινδύνου για τις εντεινόμενο χάσμα των εισοδημάτων στον δυτικό κόσμο. Στις σελίδες της ελληνικής έκδοσης η ανάλυσή του για την «καταστροφική επίδραση της ανισότητας στο δημοκρατικό πολίτευμα», εστιάζει κυρίως στις ΗΠΑ. Αποτυχημένος οικονομολόγος, αφού δεν προέβλεψε την κρίση, αποτυχημένος σύμβουλος αποτυχημένου Πρωθυπουργού, τώρα ανακάλυψε ότι η πηγή του κακού και της Αμερικανογεννημένης κρίσης είναι.. οι ανισότητες στη κοινωνία! Δεν ρίχνει μια ματιά στο βιβλίο ενός Έλληνα που την προέβλεψε πριν ξεσπάσει το 2008 και ανέφερε ως μοναδικό λόγω τις ανισότητες? Ας το διαβάσει τώρα εδω.

Τhe relationship between a politician’s salary and the effectiveness of the government they are running

 With all the scandal surrounding the salaries of MPs and the misuse of government coffers, particularly in Greece, this type of data are very revealing.

Designed by Ryan Bowman at http://www.shakeupmedia.com/, this interactive graphical tool displays the relationship between a politician’s salary and the effectiveness of the government they are running. This effectiveness is represented by a so-called Good Governance Metric, calculated by taking The Democracy Index (DCI) published by The Economist, the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI) and the Perception of Corruption Index (PCI) by NGO Transparency International.

The larger the angle from the dot representing the country to the thick yellow line, the worse the governance.  Some of the countries positioning may surprise you, others surely won’t.  Obviously this is not an exact science, but nonetheless, it’s an interesting and effective way to present such data. Data from this analysis have been used in my top in popularity article  in Greek, that appeared in BHMA newspaper on 20/02/2010. You can see the full article here. You can interact with the data in the above picture  here. 

Πάντα εδώ.. να γιατι δεν μπορουν να μας κάνουν τιποτα οι ξένοι... (.. μακροπρόθεσμα).

Πάντα εδώ.. Συγκλονιστικό σχόλιο σύνταξης στα τελευταια ΕΠΙΚΑΙΡΑ.. Ολη η ιστορία μας σε λιγoτερο απο μια σελιδα... Ισως, οτι περιγραφει ο Καζαντζακης σε πεντε βιβλια.. Μπραβο.. Διαβαστε το.. κοινοποιηστε το.. δειτε γιατι δεν μπορουν να μας κανουν τιποτα οι ξενοι..

Maria Tsakos Foundation : Our Response to Fires

Following the unprecedented and despicable fires last August on the Greek Island of Chios in Eastern Aegean, an International Congress is being organized by the “Maria Tsakos” Foundation, which is the International Centre of Maritime Research and Tradition N.G.O., at the Homerion Cultural Centre of Chios and at the Maria Tsakos Foundation in Chios on the 15th  and 16th  October.

Worth mentioning that the immediate response of the shipping, seafaring and diaspora communities and in particular the Chian one, which brings together high caliber experts from all over the world, is yet an additional  response to those “prosecuting” the Greek shipping and its benefactors, within and outside Greece.The event has four interesting sessions: “Chios and the fires”; “A scientific approach to the fires: the Chios case”; “Measures of rehabilitation from Chios’ fires”; and “Response to the fires in the middle and long term future”.

The Foundation’s activities which are global,  extend to Greece, through donations and charities. Benevolent donations have been extremely significant, particularly in Chios and Kardamyla, Captain P.N. Tsakos’ home island. You can find the full event program here. 

USA consumers show a lower trust in national business than they do in global companies.

Citizens sometimes perceive national and global companies in a different light.

Trust in global and national business is certainly correlated, according to recent research by GlobeScan. If a country’s citizens trust global businesses, they are also likely to trust its own national companies. However, in most countries, national companies are more trusted than their global counterparts. Concerns about foreign control of resources and workers, as well as national prestige, are likely to be factors in this.

There are some exceptions—as is the case of  USA that  have markedly lower trust in national business than they do in global companies. The presence of trusted and respected “household name” global companies of local origin—such as Samsung, Hyundai, Microsoft, and Coke—may be boosting views of global companies here, according to GlobeScan. At the other extreme, all the continental European countries demonstrate great mistrust of global companies. These finding need a deeper examination in order to extract meaningful conclusions. However, it seems that support the findings presented  first in the book “Nice” Capitalism, ie that Europeans brands are outperforming their US counterparts in consumer admiration and trust.

Will accelerating technology lead to economic collapse ?

Will the future be filled with cool technologies and endless opportunities or will our own creations lead to eventual doom? Martin Ford tends to think the former. Technology has seemingly endless ability to improve the health, freedom, and happiness of our lives. Even optimistic futurists like Ray Kurzweil and James Canton admit, however, that the road to advancing technology is fraught with dangers. Super viruses, artificial intelligences run amok, environmental calamity – science has its threats as well as its promises. Yet there could be one near term problem that even futurists tend to ignore – economic collapse. Martin Ford, a silicon valley computer engineer, entrepreneur, and blogger has written The Lights In The Tunnel, a book which explores the economic implications of a world which is becoming increasingly automated. See more at : http://singularityhub.com/2009/12/15/martin-ford-asks-will-automation-lead-to-economic-collapse/