Perspective about the financial choices we are facing this week

“Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply.

Primarily, this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failures and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True, they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit, they have proposed only the lending of more money.

Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored conditions. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers.

They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.”

Sound familiar? David Gregory (MSNBC anchor) picked this one out today, and I was thoroughly impressed. This is a passage from Franklin Roosevelt’s first inaugural in 1933.

(This entire post is from a personal email from Mark Gonzales.)

Reed Elsevier and the Arms Trade

I was made aware of an interesting fact this week- Reed Elsevier, known in the library world for publishing medical, health, and other scientific journals, is also a dealer in arms.

For more on this, see the citation below. You can read one journal's request that the company stop its involvement in the arms trade, and also see the response. In short, Reed Elsevier sees nothing wrong with being involved in what it calls the 'defence industry' (we Americans use an s, the Europeans use a c).

Everybody has a right to do business, and dealing in arms is just one type of business. As Reed Elesevier notes, they are within the law to put on arms fairs. Will we ever be able to have a planet where there are no weapons? Doubtful. Will we ever get to the point where the pen is mightier than the sword? We librarians are working on that.

Source:

Reed Elsevier and the international arms trade - Reed Elsevier's reply. By: Cowden, Stephen J.. Lancet, 9/10/2005, Vol. 366 Issue 9489, p889-890, 2p; DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(05)67307-2; (AN 18170928)

Harry Potter power

Think people aren't reading? Think again. Think about Oprah's book club. She announced a book on Wednesday, today there were paperbacks of the title she chose in a local Target store (with the little round 'Oprah' sticker on it.

Or think about Harry Potter.

So far, the first six books in the series has earned Scholastic over $800 million dollars. The last book set a record for 10.8 million copies (first printing). It sold over 6.5 million copies in the first 24 hours of its release.

This next book will have 12 million copies printed, and I'd wager that over 8 million copies will be sold in the first 24 hours. Wow.

This next book will also likely push the total revenue earned for Scholastic, by the Harry Potter series, to over one billion dollars. Let me say that again. 7 books, over the course of 10 years, will have earned Scholastic over one billion dollars (we will find out later this year if my math is correct).

The information is correct, but I can't recall where I read it. I think it was a print copy of the recent Publisher's Weekly.

Steve Jobs "Thoughts on Music"

Steve Jobs making a very non-binding statement related to digital rights management in the music industry.

This will start (or rather, continue) the conversation about iPod's vs. other mp3 players. The difference is in the file types. Apple and Microsoft.

Jobs is calling for a renewed look at Digital Rights Management, known to the world at large as copyright. When companies don't care about their profits, songs won't be copyrighted. I'm not going to hold my breath.