Yesterday, Fred wrote a post titled “Stuck In The Middle With You” about his continued support for President Obama. I feel the same way. I was excited early on about Obama’s campaign, felt that he made smart choices then, and was thrilled to see him elected. Obama took office under some of the most adverse circumstances of any president, with two wars in progress and an economy headed into free fall. Now we find ourselves not even a year later and the beginning of a withdrawal from Iraq has n...

Here are a few more observations about Germany, even though I have already been in London for a day and a half, but there is a lot going on in Germany at the moment. On Sunday, Germany held Federal elections and the results will bring about a significant change in the governing coalition. Germany will move from a CDU/CSU+SPD coalition to a CDU/CSU+FDP coalition. Now if the alphabet soup of German parties doesn’t mean anything to you, think of CDU/CSU as fiscally and socially conservative, SPD...

Yesterday, Fred wrote a post titled “Stuck In The Middle With You” about his continued support for President Obama. I feel the same way. I was excited early on about Obama’s campaign, felt that he made smart choices then, and was thrilled to see him elected. Obama took office under some of the most adverse circumstances of any president, with two wars in progress and an economy headed into free fall. Now we find ourselves not even a year later and the beginning of a withdrawal from Iraq has n...

Here are a few more observations about Germany, even though I have already been in London for a day and a half, but there is a lot going on in Germany at the moment. On Sunday, Germany held Federal elections and the results will bring about a significant change in the governing coalition. Germany will move from a CDU/CSU+SPD coalition to a CDU/CSU+FDP coalition. Now if the alphabet soup of German parties doesn’t mean anything to you, think of CDU/CSU as fiscally and socially conservative, SPD...

Walking to the train station yesterday morning, I was intrigued by this tweet from Bijan:In this age of social media, real time networks and gov 2.0, I’m hoping we will have a viable third political party at some point.which expresses his frustration with the existing two party system. Now I grew up in Germany at a time when there were at first three national parties and later four (after 1983 when the Green party first gained seats at the national level). Based on that experience, I am not s...

Walking to the train station yesterday morning, I was intrigued by this tweet from Bijan:In this age of social media, real time networks and gov 2.0, I’m hoping we will have a viable third political party at some point.which expresses his frustration with the existing two party system. Now I grew up in Germany at a time when there were at first three national parties and later four (after 1983 when the Green party first gained seats at the national level). Based on that experience, I am not s...

I still follow German politics a bit, if for no other reason than talking to my parents and friends who live there. But right now there are interesting things happening there that are relevant to US politics. Germany has federal elections coming up on September 27 and had state elections in three states last week. The state elections showed a fascinating split with two smaller parties, “The Left” (“Die Linke” and the “Free Democratic Party” (“FDP”), scoring major gains. The Left is a combinat...

I still follow German politics a bit, if for no other reason than talking to my parents and friends who live there. But right now there are interesting things happening there that are relevant to US politics. Germany has federal elections coming up on September 27 and had state elections in three states last week. The state elections showed a fascinating split with two smaller parties, “The Left” (“Die Linke” and the “Free Democratic Party” (“FDP”), scoring major gains. The Left is a combinat...

The stock marekt has had quite a run. For instance, on March 9 of this year the S&P 500 closed at 676. This past Friday it closed at 1026 for a gain of 350 points or a staggering 51%. There has been quite a bit of discussion along the way about whether this is a sustainable rally with some fairly vocal folks (such a Roubini) saying that it isn’t and that there is a risk of the economy and the markets making a second big dip. My worry isn’t so much that, but rather that we in fact managed to w...

The stock marekt has had quite a run. For instance, on March 9 of this year the S&P 500 closed at 676. This past Friday it closed at 1026 for a gain of 350 points or a staggering 51%. There has been quite a bit of discussion along the way about whether this is a sustainable rally with some fairly vocal folks (such a Roubini) saying that it isn’t and that there is a risk of the economy and the markets making a second big dip. My worry isn’t so much that, but rather that we in fact managed to w...

We have been having an interesting discussion in our village on the feasability of Internet voting for local issues. In general, I am wary of electronic voting systems because they have the potential for manipulation at large scale. I certainly think that the closed source model that has been pursued to date is completely broken. Any effort on the federal and state levels should be open source for sure and will probably be futile until we have a broader crypto infrastructure (if ever). In the...

We have been having an interesting discussion in our village on the feasability of Internet voting for local issues. In general, I am wary of electronic voting systems because they have the potential for manipulation at large scale. I certainly think that the closed source model that has been pursued to date is completely broken. Any effort on the federal and state levels should be open source for sure and will probably be futile until we have a broader crypto infrastructure (if ever). In the...

One of my favorite cartoons describing the financial crisis shows two guys standing below a “Wall Street” street sign looking out into the distance. There a wave starts to build up that over several panels of the cartoon gets bigger and bigger. The wave comes directly at the two guys as they are looking on. In the penultimate panel the wave washes over them and completely drenches them. In the last panel one guy turns to the other and says: “I totally did not see that coming.” To me it perfec...

One of my favorite cartoons describing the financial crisis shows two guys standing below a “Wall Street” street sign looking out into the distance. There a wave starts to build up that over several panels of the cartoon gets bigger and bigger. The wave comes directly at the two guys as they are looking on. In the penultimate panel the wave washes over them and completely drenches them. In the last panel one guy turns to the other and says: “I totally did not see that coming.” To me it perfec...

Two things that make for great leaders in startups are the ability to recruit and motivate top talent and honesty (with the team and with investors). Top talent is critical because that’s how stuff actually gets done and gets done well. There are so many important decisions to be made every day that they have to be delegated. Otherwise the leader becomes a complete bottleneck. Honesty is critical because if you are keeping your team or your investors in the dark about problems (or opportuniti...

Two things that make for great leaders in startups are the ability to recruit and motivate top talent and honesty (with the team and with investors). Top talent is critical because that’s how stuff actually gets done and gets done well. There are so many important decisions to be made every day that they have to be delegated. Otherwise the leader becomes a complete bottleneck. Honesty is critical because if you are keeping your team or your investors in the dark about problems (or opportuniti...

Barack Obama’s acceptance speech yesterday at the Democratic National Convention was remarkable in its clarity and delivery. Concrete attacks on John McCain and clear policy statements replaced the at times lofty oratory of some his more recent speeches. Yet it was hard to even look away for the entire duration – that’s how riveting the delivery was. And none of it involved powerpoint slides. The speech managed to be substantive and rousing at once using just words. This was such a welcome ch...

Barack Obama’s acceptance speech yesterday at the Democratic National Convention was remarkable in its clarity and delivery. Concrete attacks on John McCain and clear policy statements replaced the at times lofty oratory of some his more recent speeches. Yet it was hard to even look away for the entire duration – that’s how riveting the delivery was. And none of it involved powerpoint slides. The speech managed to be substantive and rousing at once using just words. This was such a welcome ch...

On vacation I had an interesting parenting moment. I threw my son in the pool with his clothes on, something I had done a few times before, but this time the reaction was very different. He was really upset and ran off. When I caught up with him he complained about my making him lose his “dignity” in front of others. I was a bit shocked at his use of the word in the first place, but then it ocurred to me that this provided a great opportunity to talk with him about what that even meant. We wo...

On vacation I had an interesting parenting moment. I threw my son in the pool with his clothes on, something I had done a few times before, but this time the reaction was very different. He was really upset and ran off. When I caught up with him he complained about my making him lose his “dignity” in front of others. I was a bit shocked at his use of the word in the first place, but then it ocurred to me that this provided a great opportunity to talk with him about what that even meant. We wo...