Commercial Intelligence – Page 104 – Public Intelligence Blog

The ‘sharability’ of almost everything

At the beginning of 2014, Time named collaborative consumption as one of the “10 ideas that will change the world.” Collaborative consumption describes a shift in consumer values, from ownership to access. Together, communities and even entire cities are using less by renting, sharing, swapping and bartering products on a scale never experienced before. OneFineStay, for example, gives people the chance to stay in someone’s house while they’re away, whilst Freecycle allows us to exchange unwanted goods for free. These are just two examples of how collaborative consumption is transforming the way we live.

Continue reading “Jean Lievens: The Sharability of Almost Everything — One Big Idea That Will Change the World”

2014/06/012014/05/31

Matt Taibi: The Divide – American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap — Legal Immunity for the 1%, Criminalization of Everything for the 99%

01 Poverty, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Law Enforcement

A scathing portrait of an urgent new American crisis

Over the last two decades, America has been falling deeper and deeper into a statistical mystery:

Poverty goes up. Crime goes down. The prison population doubles.

Fraud by the rich wipes out 40 percent of the world’s wealth. The rich get massively richer. No one goes to jail.

In search of a solution, journalist Matt Taibbi discovered the Divide, the seam in American life where our two most troubling trends—growing wealth inequality and mass incarceration—come together, driven by a dramatic shift in American citizenship: Our basic rights are now determined by our wealth or poverty. The Divide is what allows massively destructive fraud by the hyperwealthy to go unpunished, while turning poverty itself into a crime—but it’s impossible to see until you look at these two alarming trends side by side.

Continue reading “Matt Taibi: The Divide – American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap — Legal Immunity for the 1%, Criminalization of Everything for the 99%”

2014/06/012014/05/31

Jean Lievens: Bank of England Governor – Capitalism Doomed Without Ethics

Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Resilience, True Cost

Bank of England governor: capitalism doomed if ethics vanish

Mark Carney issues strong critique of City behaviour and warns of growing sense that basic social contract is breaking down

Angela Monaghan

The Guardian, Tuesday 27 May 2014

Capitalism is at risk of destroying itself unless bankers realise they have an obligation to create a fairer society, the Bank of England governor has warned.

Continue reading “Jean Lievens: Bank of England Governor – Capitalism Doomed Without Ethics”

2014/05/312014/05/30

Yoda: Amazon Treats Books and Ideas as Common Commodity No Different from Hair Curlers Made in China

Academia, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence

Bad, this is.

How the Amazon-Hachette Fight Could Shape the Future of Ideas

While the bookseller and publisher are battling over mundane business specifics, the state of publishing hangs in the balance.

Over the past several months, what started as a quiet trade dispute has intensified and become public as the largest bookseller in the world, Amazon, and one of the biggest publishers, Hachette, battle over their next contract.

EXTRACT:

The dispute is about money, but the outcome—whether Hachette gives up on pricing and pays a little more for marketing, or not—is about so much more. Amazon equated Hachette with its other suppliers in its statement: “At Amazon, we do business with more than 70,000 suppliers, including thousands of publishers. One of our important suppliers is Hachette….” Hachette doesn't feel the same way, according to its response to the Amazon statement: “By preventing its customers from connecting with these authors’ books, Amazon indicates that it considers books to be like any other consumer good.” But, it added, “They are not.”

Read full article.

Continue reading “Yoda: Amazon Treats Books and Ideas as Common Commodity No Different from Hair Curlers Made in China”

2014/05/30

Eagle: Charles Hugh Smith on Failed US Economy — Endless Parade of Lies, Manipulations, and Deceptions

Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government

300 Million Talons... — 300 Million Talons…

Our “Make It Look Good” Economy Has Failed

When rigged numbers are the basis of our success, we have failed.

The essence of the U.S. economy is make it look good: never mind quality or long-term consequences, just make it look good today, this week, this month, this quarter: make the pink slime look like meat, make the company look profitable, make the low-quality product look good enough to close the sale, make the unemployment rate low enough to justify re-electing the toadies currently in power, make the body count of bad guys look good, and on and on–just makes the numbers look good now, the future will take care of itself.

This is, of course, an attractive lie: the future is a direct consequence of present decisions and actions. It is remarkable how quickly we latch onto the notion that an endless parade of lies, manipulations and deceptions will magically produce a warm and fuzzy future of organic growth fostered by sound investments.

Continue reading “Eagle: Charles Hugh Smith on Failed US Economy — Endless Parade of Lies, Manipulations, and Deceptions”

2014/05/302014/05/30

Nafeez Ahmed: Inclusive Capitalism an Empty Public Relations Campaign?

Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

Inclusive Capitalism Initiative is Trojan Horse to quell coming global revolt

Henry Jackson Society's pre-emptive PR offensive seeks to popularise parasitic economic growth for the few

Yesterday's Conference on Inclusive Capitalism co-hosted by the City of London Corporation and EL Rothschild investment firm, brought together the people who control a third of the world's liquid assets – the most powerful financial and business elites – to discuss the need for a more socially responsible form of capitalism that benefits everyone, not just a wealthy minority.

Leading financiers referred to statistics on rising global inequalities and the role of banks and corporations in marginalising the majority while accelerating systemic financial risk – vindicating the need for change.

While the self-reflective recognition by global capitalism's leaders that business-as-usual cannot continue is welcome, sadly the event represented less a meaningful shift of direction than a barely transparent effort to rehabilitate a parasitical economic system on the brink of facing a global uprising.

Continue reading “Nafeez Ahmed: Inclusive Capitalism an Empty Public Relations Campaign?”

2014/05/172014/05/17

Jean Lievens: Interview with Ricardo Semler Pioneer of Organizations of Free People

03 Economy, 04 Education, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence

A full interview with Ricardo Semler by the Dutch TV-show Backlight. In our episode ‘The capital power of hapiness' we made a portrait of this Brasilian business man. Here you can watch the full interview of one hour and a half. Mostly unedited, but divided in chapters.

This man is Semco's business guru, and known for his development of leadership by omission.

Offers major insights into education as well as business — structures that focus on “managing” large groups of people, especially children, are not focusing on their core mission — creating value or teaching. A society's “constraints” and blinders begin embedding at the age of two — that is the starting point for creating a Smart Nation of free spirits instead of sheep.