Senate Hearings on the Bitcoin

Bitcoin could be regulated as a commodity if market volatility continues, academics and financial industry players warned at a Senate hearing today.
Speaking at a subcommittee hearing organized by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, a representative from a financial industry technology round table also called for more regulation for virtual currencies.  Bitcoin Regulation

Is the Bitcoin the Same as Gold?

Mayer’s Employment Practices at Yahoo Crushing Morale

It is a brutal management technique in which bosses grade their employees’ performance along a “vitality curve” and sack those who fall into the lowest category. Known as “ranking and yanking”, it had its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s. In America its popularity faded somewhat after it was seen to have contributed to the fall of Enron. Now it is back in the headlines.  Mayer: who’s for the chop next?   Employee Atmosphere Yahoo Style

Marissa Mayer's Human Resources

The European Financial Crisis Prevails:

One third of Europeans are on the outside of the economic recovery.

Intrum Justitia ABPress releaseThe European financial crisis prevails: One third of Europeans are on the outside of the economic recoveryThe results of Intrum Justitia’s European Consumer Payment Report 2013 show that one third of the European consumers find themselves in a troublesome financial situation; as many as 27 percent said in the survey that they didn’t have enough money for a dignified existence. The reason behind the financial problems among European Consumers differs, creating a divide between then northern and German speaking Europe and the southern and eastern Europe.
The European financial crisis prevails
European Payment Index 2013 

The European Financial Crisis Prevails

Tweaking or Overhauling Economics Education

The financial crisis left huge numbers of financiers, traders, brokers, investment-wizards and hedge-fund fixers dazed by the sweeping tide of a storm for which they lacked the understanding and breadth of ideas to predict, let alone combat.

A soft burn of neglect suddenly raged into a fierce inferno, exposing the inability of those inside the industry to make responsible decisions. Economics, as the art or science of observation and prediction has proved disastrous in preparing the human world for the consequences of its own actions.

At the core of the current financial system lies a flaw. Economics is a field that holds more than theories of how to make money, endorse GDP growth and create an ever-growing economy. Yet these aspects lie remote and untouched by financial and commercial leaders.   Educating Economists

Economics Education

Assets Count in European Banks

Euro or no-euro, union or not, these questions underlie all discussions of the state of the economy in Europe.  Europe’s ability to deal effectively with the next financial crisis risks being undermined by the “impossible” committee-led governance plaguing its banking watchdog, the chief regulator has warned.

Andrea Enria, who chairs the European Banking Authority, said the benefits of crucial bank stress tests to be carried out over the next year could be impaired if decision-making was not streamlined and nationalist tendencies contained. The EBA had to move away from consensus- based governance traditions, he said.  Assets Count in European Banks

Banking Regulation

Prostitution Flourishing as a Profession in Germany

The oldest profession came under attack from the radical feminists and the left decades ago.  Different countries have approached ‘the problem’ differently.   Under the Social Democrats, who will be Angela Merkel’s new coalition party, the profession was made more attractive and theoretically safer.  Merkel’s party is not so enthusiastic about their approach.  Who knows what will happen.  One thing is for sure. Even in bleak economic times, people in this profession can find work.  Prostitution Flourishing in Germany

Prostitution in Germany