There were several interesting business news stories yesterday but I didn't have time to blog them so here we go with bullets. Today we are adopting the "royal we" for the blog even though we usually don't. We aren't sure why.
- This blog doesn't usually cover The Economist because of its non-use of bylines. We are making an exception today because this article on the incredibly prolific Nigerian film industry and the social problems it is causing in Africa is really interesting. But we aren't making a habit of it.
- We were annoyed by this Gary Weiss article from Portfolio.com on a health industry PR man writing a tell-all about fighting Obamacare. The annoyance doesn't have anything to do with the journalism, it's an excellent article on the practice of issue public relations and worth reading unless you're already an expert in such things. We were annoyed because we oppose Obamacare and the article takes a snide attitude that company leaders using PR to fight for what they believe in is bad - and implies that the other side wasn't also using spin to make their point. That is b.s. - the pro-side also spun like a centrifuge (remember when it wasn't supposed to increase the deficit?) It was a fair fight and making it seem like the anti-socialized medicine side isn't entitled to advance their side of the argument is pernicious.
- Fortune ran its annual "Worst of the Year in Business" piece yesterday. What's interesting is that many of the missteps weren't just bad business decisions but compounded by the result of bad PR. Tony Hayward and BP feature prominently.
- Steven Rosenbush of Portfolio.com had a great story about how the taxi commission and tax regimens in New York City have reduced the noble independent cab driver from a mini-small business to a virtual indentured servant. It is somehow entertaining to read even though the subject is basically how guys who used to control their own somewhat limited destinies have had their freedom stolen from them.
- Julie Schmitt of USA Today mystifyingly dedicated a long article to how homeowners are fighting foreclosure by demanding paperwork from their lenders, something that has been covered almost daily for months.
- David Streitfeld contributes an article on how a California law intended to protect homeowners from unscrupulous lawyers claiming to be able to help them fight foreclosure has actually stopped troubled borrowers from securing legitimate representation. The two stories both deal with paperwork problems in home lending - but USA Today's contained no information we didn't already know while The New York Times' uncovered a dramatic and troubling new side to the story.
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