Culture War On Capitalism?

AEI President Arthur C. Brooks has a must read piece in today’s WSJ titled The Real Culture War is Over Capitalism. I have been worried about this since the Bush Admin saved AIG, etc. The fact that the US Gov and the UAW are going to own GM puts us into the surreal — seriously, I might as be on acid. From Brooks:

There is a major cultural schism developing in America. But it’s not over abortion, same-sex marriage or home schooling, as important as these issues are. The new divide centers on free enterprise — the principle at the core of American culture.

Despite President Barack Obama’s early personal popularity, we can see the beginnings of this schism in the “tea parties” that have sprung up around the country. In these grass-roots protests, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans have joined together to make public their opposition to government deficits, unaccountable bureaucratic power, and a sense that the government is too willing to prop up those who engaged in corporate malfeasance and mortgage fraud.

The data support the protesters’ concerns. In a publication with the ironic title, “A New Era of Responsibility,” the president’s budget office reveals average deficits of 4.7% in the five years after this recession is over. The Congressional Budget Office predicts $9.3 trillion in new debt over the coming decade.

And what investments justify our leaving this gargantuan bill for our children and grandchildren to pay? Absurdities, in the view of many — from bailing out General Motors and the United Auto Workers to building an environmentally friendly Frisbee golf course in Austin, Texas. On behalf of corporate welfare, political largess and powerful special interests, government spending will grow continuously in the coming years as a percentage of the economy — as will tax collections.

Still, the tea parties are not based on the cold wonkery of budget data. They are based on an “ethical populism.” The protesters are homeowners who didn’t walk away from their mortgages, small business owners who don’t want corporate welfare and bankers who kept their heads during the frenzy and don’t need bailouts. They were the people who were doing the important things right — and who are now watching elected politicians reward those who did the important things wrong.

New Transportation Partnership Hits Campus

Car-sharing and carpooling have come together (h/t Springwise.com) as Zipcar and Zimride join forces on campuses. From the latest Springwise Newsletter:

There are few things more exciting to us here at Springwise than seeing good ideas come together, and that’s exactly what we had occasion to spot earlier this month. Zipcar—the car-sharing innovator we’ve covered on numerous occasions already—just announced a partnership with Zimride—also no stranger to our pages—to bring an integrated ride-sharing system to college and university campuses.

Debuting a few weeks ago at Stanford University, the integrated service combines Zipcar’s car-sharing program with Zimride’s Facebook-based carpool matching system to make it easier for college students, faculty and staff to seek, offer and share rides. Zipcar already operates car-sharing programs at more than 120 US colleges and universities. To share a ride, members reserving a car can now automatically post the date, time and destination of their trip to the Zimride campus community online. Zimride’s route-matching algorithm takes over from there, finding and notifying users looking for such a ride. Zimride members, meanwhile, can now find a local Zipcar to share through a customized campus Zimride website or Facebook application, making it possible for them to carpool even if they don’t own a car.

Office of Social Innovation — Sonal Shah

With the recent announcement of a $60 million social innovation fund and $6 billion overall for civic participation/volunteerism, the Obama Administration continues to expand its social innovation agenda.

The leader of the new Office of Social Innovation is to be Sonal Shah, formerly of Google.org — the philanthropic arm of Google.

I am just learning about Shah, but Obama gets diversity and free use of one of the top brands for innovation and entrepreneurship with her appointment (10 years ago it would have been someone from MSFT, Yahoo or Amazon). According to coverage of her first public speech at Philanthrocapitalism (h/t Phil Auerswald),

Sonal Shah, formerly a senior executive at Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, gave her first public speech as head of the new White House Office of Social Innovation. She said the doors of her office are “wide open” and warmly invited philanthropists and social entrepreneurs to come forward with innovative ideas about how to work together.

Live @ Ashoka Campus Changemaker Event

Marina Kim of Ashoka is introducing the four campuses – Johns Hopkins, U of Maryland, GMU, Cornell.

Bill Drayton about to speak. First time I am seeing Drayton live. He is saying biz and social entrepreneurs r just starting to learn to interact.

100 Attributes/Behavior of Entrepreneurs

Found this via Enternships.com. Apparently it is making the rounds on Twitter two years or so after its original publication. Here is the original post. As the author, GL Hoffman, writes, “Here are one hundred characteristics and attributes of people who start companies—some born of experience, education or birth. Most can be learned by study and practice.”

Here are a few:

22. Sales in number one, two and three on the priority list. You should plan on spending most of your time worrying and working on your sales efforts. Nothing else much matters. A sale happens when someone pays you for your service or product. Don’t get too excited if the marketing focus group says everyone will buy one. Get excited when someone pays for it.

75. No one cares as much about it as you do. Your new company will consume you, and even most of your employees. Realize that most other people will not have heard about, or even care that you have a brand new widget. Your big dilemma about increasing prices?…they won’t even recognize it or care. As one old curmudgeon told me once, “we are nothing but pimples on the ass of progress.” I got the message.

Ashoka Changemaker Campuses Commencement

This April 24th, the Ashoka Changemaker Campus Program will complete its pilot year. Participating schools were GMU, University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins, and Cornell. I will be attending the event as a “Mason Changemaker Campus Fellow” for my work with Family Fantasy Sports and college savings awards and education.

The event will take place in the Hopkins’ SAIS building and will feature Ashoka founder Bill Drayton and other social entrepreneurship luminaries. I am looking forward to the event.

BTW, the Mason Changemaker Team has made huge strides this past year. Currently, the Mason Nation is considering making social entrepreneurship part of the schools 5 year accreditation plan — the Quality Enhancement Plan. For those who know higher ed policy making administration, and accreditation, this is a big deal.

You can read the full plan here, the title is: “Social Innovators and Social Entrepreneurs: 21st Century Leaders of Change”. Here is a synopsis,

Competition and Independence Lead to Better University Research!

InsideHigherEd.com has good coverage of NBER’s recent investigations into research at Universities in the US. While much of funding is based on a peer-review system, much is also based on earmarks by elected officials.

From Doug Lederman:

Examining the interplay of university research output, the governance of research institutions, and how they are funded in the U.S. and Europe, the researchers conclude that when presented with an increase in outside funding, public universities use that money more productively if they have more autonomy and more frequently compete with private universities for research dollars.

While the researchers frame their study primarily to inform the discussion about how Europe might alter its system of funding scholarly science, their conclusion has implications for state and federal officials deciding how to allocate their own grant money. That’s especially true on the hotly contested terrain of peer reviewed, competitive studies vs. those earmarked, or mandated, by lawmakers.

Pretty interesting stuff in my opinion with important implications for research driven universities and entrepreneurial opportunities. Again, this highlights a key to US strength and support for the thesis that the University offers a frontier like space where competition and liberty are more often the norm.

Here is a link to the original paper at NBER. The title is, The Governance and Performance of Research Universities: Evidence from Europe and the U.S.

Katz on American Entrepreneurship Education

Working on a ‘theoretical’ higher education policy paper related to the place of entrepreneurship education on campus?

Right now I am reading an important paper by Jerome A. Katz of Saint Louis University from the Journal of Business Venturing 18 (2003). Paper is an overview of entrepreneurship education in the US, title is: The Chronology and intellectual Trajectory of American Entrepreneurship Education 1876-1999.

Here is a snippet from the paper:

“While entrepreneurship education in American business schools ma be reaching maturity, demand in other markets is growing. Since the late 1990s, demand for entrepreneurship trade books has nearly doubled each year” (p.295)

U of C MBA Students Launch App Firm

According to a tech blog at the still standing Chicago Tribune, 2 university of Chicago Booth School of Business 1st year students have launched a iPhone/iTouch app firm called Bump Technologies. Their first app allows iPhones/Touch users to ‘bump’ each other in order to share information (like a fist bump). From the piece by Eric Benderoff:

The new iPhone app, called “Bump,” transfers data from one iPhone to another (or an iPod Touch) simply by bumping each other. While one person holds an iPhone, he “bumps” hands with another user holding her iPhone. Then detailed contact information or just select data, such as a phone number, is shared.

The company says information is exchanged in less than 10 seconds.