Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

Higgenbotham
Posts: 7436
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 11:28 pm

Re: Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

Post by Higgenbotham »

Higgenbotham wrote:
Tue Jan 31, 2023 8:26 pm
Higgenbotham wrote:
Mon Jan 30, 2023 4:57 pm
I went to school with the guy who is CEO of Boston Consulting Group. His name is Rich Lesser. When I say I went to school with him, that means he graduated in my class of 120 people from the University of Michigan in Chemical Engineering (1983). That also means I was in some classes with him for four years, particularly the upper level engineering courses.
Rich Lesser (BSE ’83), CEO of BCG, to give virtual commencement address to Michigan graduating seniors

He received an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar, and a BSE in chemical engineering, summa cum laude, from the University of Michigan.
https://che.engin.umich.edu/2020/04/29/ ... g-seniors/


Before discussing this ESG cult any further, let's post the proof.

The photo below shows:
Higgenbotham
BSE in Chemical Engineering
University of Michigan
1983
Summa Cum Laude

Same as Rich Lesser. But different.

The first point I would make about Rich Lesser, Boston Consulting Group, the WEF, Pfizer, or any other similar name recently discussed here is:

I am not wowed.

And you shouldn't be either.

They put the razzle dazzle in front of you: Harvard Business School, Baker Scholar, BSE in chemical engineering, summa cum laude, then more razzle dazzle: new mRNA technology, climate change, smarter to participate in this massive industrial transformation, blah, blah, blah.

Don't buy it. Remain skeptical. Don't be wowed.
While the periphery breaks down rather slowly at first, the capital cities of the hegemon should collapse suddenly and violently.

Higgenbotham
Posts: 7436
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 11:28 pm

Re: Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

Post by Higgenbotham »

The second point I would make is about Rich Lesser and his summa cum laude.

Let's put it this way. If I got a call about the 2 individuals who were ahead of me in the class asking whether they graduated summa cum laude, I would say you don't need to check because I know they did. Those are the only 2 I can vouch for. Neither is Rich Lesser. I know a Chevron recruiter came out and interviewed the top 3 students, those 2 and me. That was posted some years ago.

Maybe he did graduate summa cum laude. I was never impressed by anything I saw. And I wasn't impressed by the interview linked to above. In fact, I could only stand to listen to about half of it before I shut it off.

By the way, I mentioned one other individual in the class as being a shining star besides the 2 who were ahead of me. That was because not only was he very intelligent, he was beyond reproach, morally and ethically speaking. Probably he didn't graduate summa cum laude, but close. But if he said something you could bet your life he was telling the truth.
While the periphery breaks down rather slowly at first, the capital cities of the hegemon should collapse suddenly and violently.

Guest

Re: Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

Post by Guest »

The only view they are concerned with is the amount of narrative spin that can be produced castigated to affix they are agitated.
You can always tell as rule seven is utilized. Question motives. Twist or amplify any fact which could be so taken to imply that they
operates out of a hidden personal agenda or other bias. This avoids discussing issues and forces the accuser on the defensive.

Higgenbotham
Posts: 7436
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 11:28 pm

Re: Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

Post by Higgenbotham »

Before going further, there's another thing that seems pertinent to mention as an aside. There was another person in that class of 120 who became a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. To my recollection, he was unremarkable.
Mark Trudeau Email & Phone Number
President and Chief Executive Officer @ Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals

WORK

President and Chief Executive Officer @ Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals
Board Member @ TE Connectivity
Senior Vice PresidentandPresident, Pharmaceuticals @ Covidien (Medtronic Minimally Invasive Therapies Group)

EDUCATION

University of Michigan - Stephen M. Ross School of Business
MBA (Business)
1986 - 1988

University of Michigan
BSChE (Chemical Engineering)
1979 - 1983
https://rocketreach.co/mark-trudeau-email_3868414


In a nutshell, he is a disgraced CEO who bankrupted his company as a result of the opioid crisis. You can read about him here:
Crippled by opioid-crisis litigation, Mallinckrodt settlement brings company closer to reorganization

By Kevin Dunleavy
Sep 3, 2021 12:41pm

Dublin-based Mallinckrodt is on its way to completing its chapter 11 reorganization, necessitated by opioid-related litigation. This has been a summer of reckoning for many companies that aggressively marketed opioids while downplaying their addictive power.

For Mallinckrodt, which filed for bankruptcy last October, the company is one step closer to reorganization, as it revealed it has reached settlements with creditors that would reduce the company’s debt by roughly $1.3 billion, Mallinckrodt said.

Backers of the reorganization now include holders of 84% of the company’s unsecured notes, lenders holding $1.3 billion in outstanding loans and two organized groups of entities with opioid-related claims against the company.

“With this additional support, we are continuing to build consensus for our restructuring plan,” company CEO Mark Trudeau said in a release. “The support of these important stakeholder groups reinforces our confidence that this is the best path forward for Mallinckrodt and its creditors, enabling us to preserve value.”

In October of last year, Mallinckrodt agreed to a $1.6 billion settlement with 47 states and territories to resolve claims over its role in the opioid crisis. It also agreed to pay the U.S. government $260 million to absolve a claim that it underpaid rebates on Acthar Gel, a hormone treatment to relieve inflammation.

RELATED: Mallinckrodt investors stream for the exits as opioid-tied bankruptcy talks mount

A bankruptcy court will hold a confirmation hearing later this month to consider approval of Mallinckrodt’s restructuring. If okayed, the company said it expects the reorganization to take between 90 and 150 days.

Bankruptcy has become a common tactic for companies that profited from the opioid crisis. Earlier this week, a bankruptcy court in New York approved Purdue Pharma’s $4.5 billion settlement, which excuses the company from future opioid litigation. Some states say they will appeal the result.

Another company, Insys Therapeutics, filed for bankruptcy in 2019 and saw its founder, John Kapoor, convicted of a scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe opioids and defraud insurers into paying for them.

In July, Johnson & Johnson and distributors Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen and McKesson agreed to a $26 billion settlement to shield them from future litigation in a deal yet to be finalized.
https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/cri ... -closer-to
Scandal-Hit Mallinckrodt Emerges from Bankruptcy with New CEO & Strategic Plan

Patrick Burton
on 07.07.2022

US generics giant Mallinckrodt, which declared bankruptcy in 2020 after a stream of litigation regarding its role in the opioid epidemic and underpaying Medicaid rebates for its drug Acthar, has announced a new strategic plan and CEO as it emerges from its “restructuring process.”

Controversy on Controversy

The USA’s largest opioid manufacturer, Mallinckrodt has been heavily implicated in aggressively marketing its painkillers and fuelling a nationwide opioid addiction crisis, with a US Drug Enforcement Agency database showing that one of its subsidiary companies provided 28.9 billion oxycodone pills across the US from 2006 to 2012, more than 80 for each person in the country.

This led to a host of lawsuits from 50 states or territories representing thousands of plaintiffs being brought against the company and an agreement being struck for Mallinckrodt to pay USD 1.6 billion to trusts in instalments over several years and comply with an “operating injunction” on its opioid marketing.

Added to this were allegations that the company had price gouged and underpaid rebates for its drug Acthar, which spiralled in price from USD 748 a vial in 2001 to USD 40,000 by 2017, causing the US government’s Medicare Part D program for the elderly to spent over USD one billion on that drug alone. The criticism that Mallinckrodt received was compounded by the fact that the company had completed a tax inversion to Ireland back in 2013 to avoid US corporate taxes.

Mallinckrodt agreed to pay USD 260 million over seven years to the federal government over the Acthar allegations, which – when added to the USD 1.6 billion in opioid payouts – forced it into a reorganisation bankruptcy (whereby Mallinckrodt retained possession of its assets and drew up a reorganisation plan) back in 2020.

A New Beginning…

However, in a recent press release, the firm’s board chair, Paul Bisaro, heralded “a new beginning for Mallinckrodt,” adding that, “we emerge well-positioned for long-term success, with a substantially stronger capital structure and major litigation matters permanently resolved.” Mallinckrodt claims to be the first company to have permanently resolved opioid litigation on a global scale.

Today, with a USD 1.3 billion debt reduction and USD 250 million in cash, Bisaro added that “the top priority for our new Board is working alongside management to review the business and develop a go-forward strategy to drive sustainable value for our patients, customers, partners, team members, shareholders and other stakeholders. We are focused on thoughtfully establishing a plan that builds on our innovation-driven therapies pipeline, capitalizes on Mallinckrodt’s core strengths and positions the Company for long-term sustainable growth.”

…And a New Face at the Top

Part of this reorganisation has seen the end of Mark Trudeau’s near decade-long tenure as CEO and the appointment of Icelandic national Sigurdur (Siggi) Olafsson.
https://pharmaboardroom.com/articles/sc ... egic-plan/

Next, I will talk about what happened to the shining stars in the class of 120 who should have ended up in positions of responsibility and why I think they didn't.
While the periphery breaks down rather slowly at first, the capital cities of the hegemon should collapse suddenly and violently.

Cool Breeze
Posts: 2935
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2020 10:19 pm

Re: Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

Post by Cool Breeze »

I can relate to this as I got an advanced degree (I've reported this before) from a blue blood institution that is now a joke, in my estimation (regarding woke-ism and their endowment, which they do nothing to help people with, but rather continue to gouge undergraduate and professional students alike). Still, other people are impressed because it was hard to get into the place. Education is a joke because it's not about smarts or wisdom, it's about being a good little follower, do what I say, read what I read, and faithfully regurgitate. Women are phenomenal at this as they actually care about social interaction and shaming. Over 50% of my class was female. Most, I would bet, only work part time in the profession these days (unless they were butt ugly). I had good undergrad stats, but not great, and my school didn't inflate grades. I was on the cum laude spectrum too, but lower than Higgie. How many of my classmates were smarter than I was, you might ask? Maybe 3-5%. Maybe. I ended up in the lower half of the "achievement" in that class, because I didn't want to kiss egocentric docs ass when I rotated, or didn't know the game as well (which I can take as my fault). Mostly, these educational trajectories are "being in the know" and "playing the game." No one in my family was in the game, so I didn't know that most of all of this stuff, especially regarding standardized type tests, is getting good study materials, which = proper questions and similar question types. Those are required, regardless of how "smart" you are, because the tests are not based on knowledge, really at all. They are more about indirect knowledge and logic exercises with the substrate being whatever your topic is (SAT is like this too).

Anyway, my point is that the educational system is a game, and the last part of the game, as Higgie points out, is marketing.

That's what most of modern American nonsense is: marketing. You think people care if a product actually works? No, the point is, convince people it works (or that it is "good" or a "right" or the right thing for group XYZ). Then move on to something else after you've sold it.

Higgenbotham
Posts: 7436
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 11:28 pm

Re: Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

Post by Higgenbotham »

The shining stars in the class of 120 were not the ones you read about. A summary of the 3 previously mentioned.

Number 1
Double majored in ChE and EE, recognized as the smartest person in the class, no education beyond BS, currently senior engineer at IBM, has been there 28 years, name listed on over 40 patents

Number 2
PhD in chemical engineering, most recently worked as an engineer at an oilfield services company, currently interested in discussing new opportunities, name listed on 2 patents

Number 3
No education beyond BS, senior engineer at General Mills, has been there since graduation.


Some of this information is from the internet and some from correspondence.


The next thing to discuss is why these 3 very high achieving individuals didn't advance into management positions of responsibility. There are several possibilities:

1. Michigan was already in a dark age when they were on campus. Many dark age behaviors were evident on campus and these 3 individuals avoided that. They took a look around and determined it would be best to isolate themselves in a technical role at a corporation. That way they could continue to live a moral life while being able to more than adequately support themselves and their families.

2. The economy was pretty bad when we graduated and job opportunities in the field were the worst since the great depression. Nonetheless, some companies came onto campus to recruit a very small number of the best people they could find for the long term and to have little competition in doing so. That definitely applied to Number 3, in my opinion. When the best and brightest landed those roles, they decided to hold onto them.

3. People who are very good at what they do tend to enjoy what they do and keep doing it. Versus someone who finds out they are not very good in the field and decides to do something different, like get an MBA.

4. Companies tend to not want to promote the employees who are most prolific. Companies need good engineers and there aren't that many really good engineers. I've found this to be especially true in sales. Sales is really the lifeblood of most companies. Rarely will a company make their best salesman a sales manager.
While the periphery breaks down rather slowly at first, the capital cities of the hegemon should collapse suddenly and violently.

aeden
Posts: 12353
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 12:34 pm

Re: Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

Post by aeden »

You indications match the variations seen. In 1979 it was the dark ages as CNC came in.
That implementation was a death sentence as the whales swallowed us whole and wholesale slaughter ensued.
We had been content when it totaly imploded 1991 as it paid for its terminal sins seen coming.
Then the predators moved in as the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985
secured ay least a shread of looted pension funds.
As conveyed they terminated up and down the food chain and kept the technicians
while sigma six projects introduced another level of arrogated and shuffle as lateral transfers observed.
We knew what was coming and over eighty percent did not even understand as the market
simply crushed then.

Audits and Impact Reports report nothing. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FlBwymwaAAI ... name=large as does not exist.
As before in such an atmosphere of camaraderie and opportunity, some may have chosen not to dwell on a possible repeat
of the fatal blasts of ...
Scaling inputs cannot meet reality as 2x and in cases 4x to ramping inputs for what is not even viable in actual carbon inputs anyways.

Higgenbotham
Posts: 7436
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 11:28 pm

Re: Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

Post by Higgenbotham »

During the descent into a dark age, it seems the social breakdown comes first, followed by the economic breakdown. One of the catalysts to the recent social breakdown was to uproot people from their established places and make their existence nomadic. This was promoted by slogans such as "you need to go where the opportunities are" or "get an education and a better life", things like that. This process sort of fed upon itself; for example, people are uprooted and, as a result, spend more dollars with corporations whose business models are indirectly based on uprooting people, which in turn results in even more people being uprooted. As an example, let's say you own or work for the general store in a small town, a unique store. You are probably going to be working and living in that small town your whole life. But if Wal-Mart comes into town and uproots that store, then you are likely to become one more corporate nomad moving from place to place and frequenting businesses whose names you recognize. I referred to that process a bit here:
Higgenbotham wrote:
Wed Dec 14, 2022 10:32 pm
Another thing that relates to that is there is a moral code in rural areas versus a moral code in urban areas. I witnessed this conflict as I grew up. My grandparents spent their entire lives in a rural area; my parents spent until age 18 in a rural area and 34 working years in a city. They couldn't wait to get the hell out. As kids, my sister and I went back to their home every year and were immersed in rural culture for a week. I think part of the huge divide in this country has to do with the fact that more and more families have spent several generations in the city and have not been exposed to rural culture in any meaningful way at all, as my sister and I were.
Higgenbotham wrote:
Sun Dec 25, 2022 1:06 am
I said there are two opposite modes of living in the United States. The first is an expectation that you will spend your entire life in one area with other people who will spend their entire lives in that area. The second is an expectation that you will go to high school in one place, college in another place, then career in several places (no longer at one company) with sole focus on that. Everything else is something in between. The first mode engenders real connections while the second mode engenders transactional relationships. An example of a transactional relationship would be something like, "I have a buddy who is also 420 friendly. He finds me really good dope cheap and I fix all his computers." The best example of a transactional encounter I can think of is prostitution. Also, in a big city, encounters are briefer. That's not to say there isn't some overlap.

I told her in the second mode of living, people are taught from an early age to look to the next step in their progression and to primarily engage in transactional relationships as a means to get to that next step. A high school kid might be told to be friendly to the teachers because they will be writing college recommendations or whatever. They would not be encouraged to be friendly to teachers they genuinely like and not be friendly to teachers they genuinely do not like. And so on when the kid gets to college. I should add as an aside that girls are better at that than boys. I told her that while coping with the stress of getting from step to step, people who find themselves in the same boat will bond somewhat. But they know those bonds are likely temporary and will be broken when they get to the next step unless there is a practical reason to keep them. I also told her that people who have lived in transactional relationship mode for several generations do not even know how to live differently and can't. Many do not understand what a real connection is.
During the early stages of this breakdown, many of the new corporate nomads gathered together in suburbs of large cities and, being first generation nomads, attempted to re-create the kinds of social bonds that were present in the places they came from. This worked pretty well for a time, until those people died off and the second and third generations stopped doing this. I think this was described best in a book called Bowling Alone and thought it had been discussed here, but don't find anything offhand. I'll continue to look for that.

Also, during the early stages of this breakdown, there were economic losers and beneficiaries. The beneficiaries were the corporations who could cookie cutter their outlets across a previously interesting and varied landscape, producing the forlorn, bland, and ugly architectural landscape that now exists across America. McDonalds perhaps being one of the first and best examples. During the heyday of the expansion of McDonalds, along came the "great investors" who realized they could make a lot of money investing in this concept, people like Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch. Lynch described what he called the "ten-bagger" which was a stock where you could invest a dollar and that investment would multiply quickly to 10 dollars as these corporations cookie-cuttered their outlets across the country. Expanding in this way made a corporation hungry for capital and there was a class of people who got rich providing it, including many corporate nomads who recognized what was happening from observing their own lives. However, many more missed the boat, even though it was somewhat obvious.

It now appears this stage has been winding down for some time. Again, there are those who recognize this. I posted this awhile back for another reason, but will repeat it here with the relevant part underlined:
Higgenbotham wrote:
Thu Dec 29, 2022 6:05 pm
Trump-supporting billionaire Home Depot founder says 'nobody works anymore' because of 'socialism'

Many reasons have been thrown about as to why the U.S. is still in the midst of a historic labor shortage, including a decline in fertility rates, older workers retiring in droves, the lingering effects of COVID-19 infections, and of course, worker demands for fairer pay and more expansive benefits.

But Bernie Marcus, the billionaire co-founder of Home Depot, says it’s really simple: People just hate capitalism now. Because of “socialism,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times published Thursday, “nobody works. Nobody gives a damn. ‘Just give it to me. Send me money. I don’t want to work—I’m too lazy, I’m too fat, I’m too stupid.’’

In today’s business climate, Home Depot may have been able to only open 15 or 16 stores, Marcus said, compared to the 2,300 locations the retailer currently has scattered around the U.S. For Marcus—an unabashed supporter of former President Donald Trump, often to his own company’s chagrin—the reasons behind today’s unfavorable environment include the current administration and the “woke” establishment’s involvement in business.

In the wide-ranging interview, where Marcus—worth over $5 billion according to Bloomberg—touched on everything from his reputation as a prolific philanthropist to his inclination for Milton Friedman’s business-first interpretation of economics, the former CEO lamented capitalism’s slow demise in the U.S. while criticizing the “woke people” he thinks are eradicating free speech.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/ ... 259be365f6
The question is, given the end of this era, what has been coming and is now well over over the horizon? I think for the answer to this we have to look at the early history of Bill Gates and Microsoft.
While the periphery breaks down rather slowly at first, the capital cities of the hegemon should collapse suddenly and violently.

Higgenbotham
Posts: 7436
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 11:28 pm

Re: Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

Post by Higgenbotham »

aeden wrote:
Thu Feb 02, 2023 9:17 pm
You indications match the variations seen. In 1979 it was the dark ages as CNC came in.
Yes, that was part of what sent Michigan and Rockford, Illinois over the cliff. I think Rockford was the machine tool capital of the US prior to that and its economy and social fabric got blown to smithereens.

By the way, while many consider you to be a bot, it's observations like this that indicate you are not a bot.
While the periphery breaks down rather slowly at first, the capital cities of the hegemon should collapse suddenly and violently.

Higgenbotham
Posts: 7436
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 11:28 pm

Re: Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

Post by Higgenbotham »

As an aside to the above, this was when the definition of quality was, let's say, adjusted. Quality no longer primarily means you get something really good. It primarily means, for example, as you travel across the country and go from McDonald's outlet to McDonald's outlet, it means you know what you are going to get and it will be very close to being the same thing.
quality
1 of 2
noun
qual·​i·​ty ˈkwä-lə-tē
pluralqualities

1
a
: peculiar and essential character : NATURE
her ethereal quality
—Gay Talese
b
: an inherent feature : PROPERTY
had a quality of stridence, dissonance
—Roald Dahl
c
: CAPACITY, ROLE
in the quality of reader and companion
—Joseph Conrad

2
a
: degree of excellence : GRADE
the quality of competing air service
—Current Biography
b
: superiority in kind
merchandise of quality

3
a
: social status : RANK
b
: ARISTOCRACY

4
a
: a distinguishing attribute : CHARACTERISTIC
possesses many fine qualities
b
archaic : an acquired skill : ACCOMPLISHMENT

5
: the character in a logical proposition of being affirmative or negative

6
: vividness of hue

7
a
: TIMBRE
b
: the identifying character of a vowel sound determined chiefly by the resonance of the vocal chambers in uttering it

8
: the attribute of an elementary sensation that makes it fundamentally unlike any other sensation
https://www.merriam-webster.com/diction ... %20generic.

This change in concept was pushed heavily by the cookie-cutter corporations and business schools starting in the 1970s and is well documented.
While the periphery breaks down rather slowly at first, the capital cities of the hegemon should collapse suddenly and violently.

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