Monday, January 28, 2008

Panels and Presenters :: Duke Career Conference

Panels and Presenters :: Duke Career Conference

I had a great time on Saturday participating as a panelist in Duke's Alumni Career Fair on the entrepreneurship panel. It was really fun to meet the other alumni and current Duke students interested in making a difference via entrepreneurship.

My good friend Kim came with me to the conference and was on the Heath Care panel. We took in all the changes at Duke since we left and also wandered around Duke Gardens remembering our college days!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Lobby 10 Consulting

"Lobby 10 Consulting is a boutique technology consulting firm specializing in the fields of:

* • BIOTECHNOLOGY
* • MEDICAL DEVICES
* • PHARMACEUTICALS


Lobby 10 is dedicated to providing competitive advantage through technological innovation. Our technology insight and focus on innovation ressult from strong ties with the world's leading academic research institutions. Thus we strive to create value and build trusting and long lasting relationships with clients."

Thursday, January 10, 2008

2008

Well, I'm back in Cambridge after the holiday trip to Ohio for Christmas and then a trip last week out to San Francisco.

Hard to believe it's a new year. I was talking about New Year's resolutions with Tracy Binegar while back in Marietta and I like her approach of trying to make improvements all year long but then using the opportunity at the end of the year to do a review and get rid of what's not working and think of new approaches.

I think overall work/life balance is probably the area to try to make improvements in for this year. I'm starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel of this PhD program and that makes it exciting to work harder towards finishing. But I also sense that there is still a long road ahead to be done so I do want to keep some balance and perspective. It's hard to know though whether to try to balance better or whether to just be "ok" with the balance being more towards work for right now.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Democrats: More Than Health Care - New York Times

Democrats: More Than Health Care - New York Times

Democrats: More Than Health Care

By DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: January 2, 2008

Perhaps you have heard that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have come up with different health care plans. Hers would require every American to own health insurance. His would not.

That difference is the only one between the two candidates on any domestic policy that has received much attention. (Think about it: can you name another?) Outside of health care, the campaigns — and we in the media — have focused on more exalted concepts, like experience, change and judgment.

But there really are some other important differences between the candidates. When you look at their policies as a whole, you see that Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama have actually laid out two competing economic philosophies. The fight over health insurance is just one part of their disagreement.

Compared with all the other candidates — Democrat and Republican — Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama occupy roughly the same place on the ideological spectrum. They’re both somewhat to the right of John Edwards, who favors a more muscular brand of government intervention to help the middle class. And they are well to the left of every Republican.

But the differences between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama can’t be neatly captured with the standard language of right and left.

The easiest way to describe Senator Clinton’s philosophy is to say that she believes in the promise of narrowly tailored government policies, like focused tax cuts. She has more faith that government can do what it sets out to do, which is a traditionally liberal view. Yet she also subscribes to the conservative idea that people respond rationally to financial incentives.

Senator Obama’s ideas, on the other hand, draw heavily on behavioral economics, a left-leaning academic movement that has challenged traditional neoclassical economics over the last few decades. Behavioral economists consider an abiding faith in rationality to be wishful thinking. To Mr. Obama, a simpler program — one less likely to confuse people — is often a smarter program.

Bending Ears on Economics as ’08 Nears - New York Times

Bending Ears on Economics as ’08 Nears - New York Times

Bending Ears on Economics as ’08 Nears
By LOUIS UCHITELLE

On the campaign trail, Barack Obama and John Edwards are aggressively pitting themselves against Hillary Rodham Clinton in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. But when it comes to something as fundamental as economic policy, the lineup quietly shifts: It is Senators Obama and Clinton against Mr. Edwards.

The shift is evident in the candidates’ senior economic advisers. While both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama have turned to moderately progressive advisers to help them elaborate their own preferences, Mr. Edwards is charting a different, more populist course.

“If you want to have some esoteric debate about economic theory, you end up justifying free trade or supply side economics,” said Leo J. Hindery Jr., a cable-television entrepreneur now engaged in private equity who is serving as Mr. Edwards’s top adviser on economic issues. “What we do for Edwards,” he said, “is give him policy advice based on specific concerns that he has.”

This is not the 1960s, when Walter Heller famously instructed John F. Kennedy in Keynesian economics, or the late 1970s, when Arthur Laffer popularized supply-side economics as Ronald Reagan ran for office — each gaining fame as a teacher of presidents.