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Property Protection for the Virtual Nobility

“For the Executive With Everything, a $230,000 Dog to Protect It” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/us/12dogs.html?hp

The End of the Information Frontier

Introduction The possibility now exists of capturing a cradle-to-grave record of everything a person says or does. No longer must a personal history be a partial picture. Technology has made it possible to record, process, store, and retrieve all the text, sounds and images that are required to paint a complete picture of an individual’s [...]

Addendum to Transfer Pricing

Just the tip of an offshore rig. “Transocean, shifted its headquarters for tax purposes to the Cayman Islands from Houston, though a vast majority of its executives still work in Houston. [T]hen, in 2008, for tax purposes, it moved its headquarters again, this time to Switzerland from the Cayman Islands.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/business/global/08ocean.html?hp Like transfer pricing, shifting [...]

Transfer Pricing

Transfer pricing is an accounting practice employed by multinational companies to minimize their global tax obligation (see discussion of this topic in Virtual Organization). A company can book profits in low tax countries and claim expenses in high tax countries. Suppose, for example, a car manufacturer has plants in the US and Mexico and that [...]

Fighting the Debt Farmers

Since posting the piece on “Debt Farming” I have come across a New York Times article reporting on one person’s effort to take on the debt farmers. Steven Katz, an accountant in suburban Tuscon, Arizona, having been burned himself, advises others on how to deal with debt collectors. Like the character Howard Beale in the [...]

THE WAGES OF VIRTUAL SIN: Debt Farming

The sale of debt obligations to ‘debt farmers’ is a particularly insidious practice of present day business. Portfolios of unpaid and disputed bills from phone, credit card, utility companies or retailers are routinely sold to specialized firms for pennies on the dollar. This may be a very profitable operation for the purchaser if the firm [...]

THE WAGES OF VIRTUAL SIN: Financial predators

FRIAR BARNARDINE. Thou hast committed– BARABAS. Fornication: but that was in another country, And besides, the wench is dead. - from “The Jew of Malta,” Christopher Marlowe, 1589/1590 Wars and calamities breed predators. Morality is almost always a casualty of the disorder following upon conflict and social upheaval. So we should not be surprised, however [...]

THE WAGES OF VIRTUAL SIN: Diminished trust in borrowing and lending

LORD POLONIUS Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. - from “Hamlet,” William Shakespeare, 1599/1601 Few of us have been following Lord Polonius’ advice. Credit is the lubricant of the modern economy. In the throes of a major financial collapse [...]

Japanese Translation of Virtual Organization (PDF format)

Translator: Akira Kawaguchi Download the entire translation as a single ZIP file or individual chapter PDFs below. Complete Japanese Translation (ZIP file containing all chapters) Individual chapter PDF files – Forward by Translator – Profile of Translator – Preface to Japanese Translation (by Author) – Foreword (by Murray Turoff) – Preface – Chapter 1: Intimations [...]

Preface to Japanese Translation of Virtual Organization

November 1, 2005 (Original article date) Virtual organization presents two different faces to the world. One face reveals an ability to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of management, and to achieve greater flexibility of action. The other shows the dissolution of traditional relationships in the course of realizing these desirable ends. In a word, virtual [...]