What do You See When You Look Out the Window?

One of my favorite reading spots in Forbes magazine is the last page entitled “Thoughts on the Business of Life.” It always struck a chord with me because, after a whole batch of serious, well-written articles on economics and business, Forbes’ editors always insert a few aphorisms that make a person stop and think in another dimension.

The very last comment in the lower right-hand corner of the “Thoughts” page is always reserved for a pericope from Scripture. I like that: Some big, bad, aggressive NYC editorial types that are not afraid to go on record by reserving the last word in the magazine to the Good Book.

In one of those quotes, Larry Summers, former President of Harvard University and currently Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, reflects that:

“When I look out the window at my backyard, I can’t think of anything interesting to ask. I mean, it’s green, it’s growing – but nothing occurs to me that any concentrated effort of thought could possibly enlighten.”

Mr. Summers concludes with, “Whereas in economic, statistical, or mathematical kind of things, I can ask lots of questions.”

Do you detect, as I do, a deep sense of imbalance and artificial bifurcation between those two statements? Here, presumably, is one of the brightest lights in the Obama string of luminaries telling the world that, when he looks out at nature, all he sees is a blank canvas – no matter how hard he tries. But put a few numbers and formulas in front of him, and the man’s mind starts to crank.

He says that he can’t come up with any relevant questions about the outdoors, questions that a mere child could pose such as, “Where does grass come from? Why is it green? Why is there earth underneath it? Why is the grass there?”

It reminds me that some of us, no matter how high our IQ might be are so internally oriented, that we fail to recognize the natural clues to something greater than ourselves, no matter how obvious the prompts. If an observation cannot be codified, bracketed within a formula, fed into a computer and the results analyzed, it holds no attraction.

No big deal, you might think. But Larry Summers is the man who, as Harvard President, addressed an audience of his peers, sincerely explaining why women don’t hold as many key posts as men "in tenured positions in science and engineering at top universities and research institutions."

Summers explained that, among other factors, this has to do with "the different availability of aptitude at the high end.” By this not-so-cryptic phrase he meant that according to his research and analysis, more men than women have high IQ scores and that this, therefore, accounts for why fewer women hold high-level posts in science and engineering. A year after presenting his assumptions and conclusions, Summers resigned from Harvard.

This is the man who has the President’s ear on decisions that affect your economic future right here in Bridgewater, New Jersey. I wish that this expressive ivy-league-trained man would go out to the White House lawn one day soon, sit down under a warm sun, and try to conjure up a few meaningful questions about how his actions will have a personal impact on the lives of nearly 305 million Americans, actions that defy codification, statistical analysis, and definitive prognosis.

Note: You can find Mr. Summers’ statement in the November 2, 2009 edition of Forbes magazine, now on newsstands.

Was It Just a Father’s Day Fluke?

If you found yourself at the Bridgewater Commons Mall on the Saturday before Father’s Day, you would have been hard pressed to think that there is a recession still swirling around us. The parking lots were full of cars; traffic was speeding in lanes around the perimeter; and, inside, it looked like the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

Priscille has justifiably been after me to get a new suit (haven’t bought one since I left AT&T), and she had spotted some good advertised Macy’s values in the local press. When we arrived at mid-afternoon, Darryl, the associate in the men’s department, told us that a line of shoppers had formed at the very onset of the morning opening. At 3:30 pm, there was still no sign that shoppers were worn out.

It looked like there’s still plenty of money flowing in these parts. But I was quickly brought back to reality when Priscille told me of a conversation that she had with another wife, while waiting for us guys to try on our outfits.

The lady is a school teacher, and her husband had just been laid off: Both were shopping at Macy’s to buy him a business suit so that he would look his best at job interviews. Sort of brings everything back down to earth, doesn’t it?

I remember back in January, when the newly-minted Obama administration twisted every arm in Washington, intoning that billions in stimulus money would be needed to revive the economy. It would save or create three to three and a half million jobs we were promised.

Don’t bother about how to count all those ‘saved’ jobs. Employment numbers have since gone south steadily by the hundreds of thousands each month. On Saturday, we learned about one of those casualties at the Bridgewater Commons Mall.

If you are the one losing your job, the unemployment rate is 100%.