Links of the day

What's So Special About Debt-Financed Dividends?...the author questions the rationality of same, and I agree...if your company has cash in the bank, then pay dividends; otherwise you have no basis to pay dividends...

Wolfowitz is right on corruption..."At the heart of what Wolfowitz is doing is a campaign against corruption. Fighting corruption and poor governance is vital in the fight against poverty. After all, if money goes to Swiss bank accounts rather than building roads or providing vaccines, how do the poor benefit? Wolfowitz's work has involved, for example, banning 58 firms and individuals from competing for World Bank contracts, and the removal of World Bank staff who have acted corruptly. Where countries have failed to tackle corruption, money has been withheld. This is the right strategy for the Bank"...amen!...

e-coli gets its day in the sun...the Adam Smith Institute Blog points to an MIT study that proceeded as follows: "Intrigued by the prospect that a single piece of DNA is really all an organism needs to harvest energy from light, the researchers inserted it into E. coli. They found that the microorganisms synthesized all the necessary components and assembled them in the cell membrane, using the system to generate energy. "All it takes to derive energy from sunlight is that bit of DNA," says Ed Delong, professor of biological engineering at MIT and author of the study"...amazing...as the ASI blogger points out, "it could be that we're about to acquire a new way to turn sunlight into power"...exciting stuff...

Is There a Science of Success?...Arnold Kling discusses a book The Science of Success (SOS)...which promotes management advice made up of five "dimensions":

1. Vision

2. Virtue and Talents

3. Knowledge Processes

4. Decision Rights

5. Incentives

interesting...

The Fraud in the Housing Bubble...nice summary of the issues by Beat the Press...

Truck Shipment Slowdown Confirms Weakening Consumer Spending..." U.S. trucking shipments declined by 1.7 percent in February compared with a year earlier, an industry trade group said. The American Trucking Associations, in a monthly report released Monday, said shipments have declined on a year-over-year basis for eight straight months. Its truck tonnage index rose 1.6 percent from January, however. Because more than two-thirds of all manufactured and retail goods in the U.S. are carried by truck, the industry is considered an important economic bellwether."