Free Republic

Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008 System under stress at Toyota Criticism is surfacing about the potential social costs of the carmaker's labor practices By YURI KAGEYAMA The Associated Press TOYOTA, Aichi Pref. (AP) Toyota Motor Corp. has long boasted a stellar reputation for super-efficient production that has become the lore of countless business success books. Past and present: Hiroko Uchino, the widow of Toyota Motor Corp. employee Kenichi Uchino, who died of overwork, is seen with a family photo at her house in Anjo, Aichi Prefecture, in July. AP PHOTO But recently, criticism is starting to surface in Japan about the...

Nothing the National Park Service (NPS) proposes ever surprises me, and neither did this latest article published in the February issue of BioScience magazine, which NPS researchers foster reintroducing wolves at many sites across the country. Dan Licht, NPS biologist for the Northern Plains Region led a team of five researchers who authored the paper published in BioScience. He is quoted by the Associated Press as saying, “If there’s lots of food, they’re happy … an intensively managed dozen, ten (wolves) — we think that is doable with today’s technology.” Licht predicts that wolves could become “stewards” in keeping game...

EXCERPTS ONLY ... CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR COMPLETE ARTICLE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you always do as you always did, you will always get what you always got." So goes an old saying. And so goes the American economy. The problem has become the solution. Americans are now getting from their government what they got from their corporations. The automobile companies are collapsing because of their short-term perspectives and so the government has provided one bailout projected to last a few weeks, and here comes another. We call this a financial crisis or an economic one, but, at the core, it is...

The Canadian Press VANCOUVER — SNIPPET: "Khaled Nawaya, a flight instructor, was arrested by Canada Border Services agents when they found $800,000 in gold coins and other currency in his car and pockets on Oct. 6, as he crossed into Surrey, B.C., near Vancouver." SNIPPET: "He'd been living in the U.S. since he was 17 and had gained approval for permanent residency in Canada. Besides the gold, Canadian agents found a ring bearing the insignia of Hezbollah, which has been listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government since 2002. They also seized 9/11 conspiracy theory-themed DVDs and a...

In 1995 the federal government began transplanting Canadian gray wolves into Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. That program touched off a fierce range war that continues to rage, pitting farmers, ranchers, hunters, conservationists, outdoor recreationists, and rural folk against the major environmentalist lobbying organizations, government bureaucrats, the big-city media, and urban politicians. After being protected for 14 years, limited hunting seasons have finally been allowed for wolves this fall, and around 150 wolves have been taken thus far. Wolf advocates are howling that the permitted hunts are "barbaric" and that those who kill wolves are "murderers." A coalition of radical environmental...

There have been 14 serious mountain lion attacks in California, three of which ended in death, in the past 23 years. The three people killed were Barbara Schoener, 40, a wife and mother of two children; Iris Kenna, 56, a high school counselor; and Mark Reynolds, 35, a bicycling enthusiast. Among the injured were a 5-year-old girl who lost an eye and was partially paralyzed; Anne Hjelle, 30, a former U.S. Marine and physical fitness instructor; and Jim Hamm, 70, a retiree living in Humboldt County. It’s amazing how folks can distort figures. In researching this column, I went to...

A friend from a long time ago--just before the turn of the century--came up here to the Sandhills of Nebraska today, and we spent a long time reminiscencing about the Good Old Days of Reagan, Bush, Gingrich, and Bush, and speculating about when the 0bamareich's going to come crashing down. He reminded me of something I long ago had forgotten, and having been reminded of it, an old question recrudesces to the surface. Where did I go wrong? Back then, just before the turn of the century, I was records supervisor for a private contractor to Immigration & Naturalization, in...

AIRBORNE: Hunts allowed with airplanes only when it's a biological emergencyWASHINGTON -- Alaska's predator control program to kill wolves, which drew renewed national scrutiny during former Gov. Sarah Palin's bid for vice president, is under attack in Congress. Two California Democrats have introduced legislation that would all but ban the practice of shooting wolves from airplanes to control their numbers. The legislation, introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. George Miller, would force Alaska game officials to declare a biological emergency that shows the imminent collapse of a species without the program. Even if the state could demonstrate such an...

Bogus Theories, Bad for Business The follies of ‘management science’ and the consulting that promotes it. By PHILIP DELVES BROUGHTON Three years ago, Matthew Stewart published a ­provocative article in The Atlantic magazine blasting modern management theory and ­education. His advice to anyone considering an MBA was “don’t go to business school, study philosophy.”The ­secrets of business, he said, were to be found in ­history, literature and the classic ruminations on life and existence, not in the half-baked ramblings of ­business academics, consultants and “gurus.” In “The ­Management Myth,” he expands the Atlantic article into a devastating bombardment of managerial...

Southern California's forest plan is in limbo following a recent court order declaring that it violates federal law, a finding that could impact measures being taken to manage the region's vast forestland and reduce the perennial danger of catastrophic fire. Last month, federal court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel in San Francisco said the plan governing operations and recreation on the San Bernardino, Cleveland, Angeles and Los Padres national forests lacks specifics about how activities such as off-road vehicle use and brush clearing might impact endangered plants and animals. The case remains open and the government is working to craft a...

Former General Electric Co. Chief Executive Jack Welch is putting his name and money behind a little-known educational entrepreneur, injecting some star power into the budding industry of online education. Mr. Welch is paying more than $2 million for a 12% stake in Chancellor University System LLC, which is converting formerly bankrupt Myers University in Cleveland into Chancellor University. It plans to offer most courses online. Chancellor will name its Master of Business Administration program The Jack Welch Institute. Chancellor's leading investor is Michael Clifford, an entrepreneur who has launched two publicly traded companies in the past year: Grand Canyon...

Reporting from Sacramento -- In this economy, every state is hurting. Unemployment is in double digits, tax receipts are taking a dive and deficits are piling up. But, once again, California seems to be in a class of its own when it comes to financial dysfunction. The problems here eclipse those elsewhere. California has the distinction of being the only state that is constantly running out of cash. California is the only one pleading with the federal government to backstop an emergency borrowing plan. California is the only state that never completely closed its deficit from the last economic downturn...

Now that we are in the middle of a real estate disaster there is a great hue and cry for regulatory reform. We were here before in the early 1990's. The answer on that occasion was real estate appraisal licensing. Now the thrust is on Appraisal Management Companies (AMC's). Licensing did and does have some potential to address the proper evaluation of collateral for loan purposes. In the intervening years, however, it was subject to what is known in political science as "regulatory capture*". The emphasis in the New York State Attorney General Andres M. Cuomo proposal on Home Valuation...

While everyone is distracted with the Pelosi Reid Obama artery–choking, cardiac arrest, Pork Barrel Spending Bill, congress is sneaking-ly trying to pass the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. Left-wing environmentalists are behind this bill to purposely undercut current progress toward affordable domestic energy. Essentially they will be stealing 300 million barrels of proven oil and 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from any future use.

10 Cars That Damaged GM's Reputation (With Video) GM's current precarious situation didn't come about overnight. There are arguments to be made that various government regulations led to the disaster and that management can't escape much of the blame, and there are plenty who contend it was a series of disastrous union labor contracts that have put the company at risk. But there's one thing everyone agrees on: Over the past few decades GM put some truly terrible products out on the market. Unreliable, uninteresting and flat ugly, these were cars that simply destroyed GM's reputation.... 1. 1971-1977 Chevrolet Vega...

The seeds of decline are sewn when great corporations are at their zenith. It is then that they become bureaucratic and wasteful, and start promoting management based on committee approval rather than creative dynamics. At their peak, corporations are dismissive of creativity. Team players are valued over inventive mavericks. Consultants and systems are revered because they absolve managers of making hard decisions. The conditions for failure are thus assured. Sometimes corporations disappear like the once dominant Pan American Airways, or they struggle on in diminished state like Western Union. Creative people leave companies when they suspect that the arteries are...

Jim Manzi has done some of the best analysis of the proposed bailout of GM, Ford and Chrysler--or, one should more properly say, bailout of the United Auto Workers, otherwise slated for extinction. Here, he addresses the theory that the Big Three are in the midst of a turnaround, and if we only keep them afloat a while longer, they'll be profitable again. This chart pretty much says it all:[go to site for chart] AutoSales713.gif Bob Cunningham, meanwhile, does some basic arithmetic: As of the close of business on Friday the market cap for General Motors was about $1.9 billion,...

It's the Catholic Church, Not Corporation Approaching the Church with a business-school mindset ignores that the priesthood is a calling and not a career, says BW reader Thomas Szyszkiewicz By Thomas A. Szyszkiewicz Catholic bishops are having a hard time finding candidates who can manage as well as they preach, but they're also finding it hard to find ones who can preach, period. The preaching is primary, and management way down on their list of priorities. After all, Jesus didn't say, "Go out to all the world and manage well." That's not to say the Catholic Church should ignore sound...

Anger management for womenWe regard irritability in men as a sign of status. But in women, we see it as a sign of incompetence Clare Longrigg guardian.co.uk, Friday July 11, 2008 Hillary Clinton's occasional irritable outbursts on the campaign trail were accompanied by a sound of tut-tutting from observers: she can't hack it; she's not in control. Had she been a man, these outbursts of anger would have been interpreted as assertiveness, intolerance of fools, a sign of status. A Yale psychologist who worked in Clinton's office has produced a report demonstrating that while people accept anger in men, in...

Here are some additional qualities that embody superior leadership. Great leaders surround themselves with greatness. They actively seek out the best possible people and hire them to fill all key positions within their organizations. Great leaders know that surrounding themselves with excellence is a direct reflection on their own character, abilities, and effectiveness as leaders. They understand that their own success and the success of their organizations depend mostly on hiring and promoting the best qualified, ethical, skilled, responsible, mature, and productive people and giving them the proper resources, authority, and freedom to do what’s needed for the long-term benefit...