International Institute of Management

Med Jones (Yones)

 Selected Opinions, Quotes, and Lessons Learned

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(Disclaimer)

Some of the opinions expressed on this page do not represent the institute nor do they represent complete or permanent views of the author on any topic. If some opinions are shared with other authors, it does not mean the author subscribes to a certain political or economic  school of thought. The quotes  should not be taken out of context or used for, or against any single person, business or political entity. The content is shared for educational and entertainment purposes.

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On Asymmetric Conflicts

  • History is full of examples of smaller powers taking on a much larger power and winning. We see it in individual conflicts (David vs. Goliath), law (Hinkley contamination case), business (Google vs. Yahoo), politics (Obama vs. Clinton) and military (Vietnam vs. USA).  [On asymmetric competitive strategies]

  • Status, size, money, power, reputation, prestige, awards, and affiliations are all a temporary advantage that can be overcome by a persistent opponent armed with a true cause, unwavering will and a smart mind. The more powerful can win some battles, but with the right strategy the less powerful can win the war. We learned from the legal case of Robert Kearns vs. Ford Motors Inc., and later Chrysler Motors that a single creative person with a lasting stamina and no law degree can take on and win against a much larger and richer opponent armed with top lawyers. [On how to win a conflict with asymmetric powers]

On Integrity, Journalism and Academia

  • How to tell if you are being deceived or manipulated? The following signs are telltale that someone is trying to corrupt the truth or fool you: Instead of responding directly to an argument, they attempt to discredit the source or its motives.  They will minimize the grievance  of the opposing party or exaggerate their offense. They will pull rank or talk qualifications and prior achievements rather than address the question directly. They will claim that you cannot equate between them and the opposing parties, they are exceptional, superior or serving a higher purpose. They will mention  common names or affiliations to impress you or bring you to their side.  They will try to change the subject and make it about something else. They will call for the "greater good" or the "higher cause" to justify oppressing or censoring the their victim. They will attempt to attack the victim to hide their own mistakes. They blame it on the system, "everyone else is doing it", they have no other choice. They will attempt to bribe you directly or indirectly. They will straight lie and contradict themselves. If you catch them lying they claim to have misspoke or miscommunicated. If all fails, they attempt intellectually bully you, by attacking you to deter from the pursuit of truth on that subject. A journalist cannot be a successful without a full knowledge of the tactics of deception, otherwise can s/he become a tool for the manipulator rather than a guardian of truth. Ask your intuition, are they playing on your favorable biases, hiding something or not telling the whole truth.

  • We studied the science of truth and deception carefully. If you want to know if someone is corrupting the truth or hiding something, look for one or more of the dozen most common deception tactics. IIM compiled the following checklist for journalists and truth investigators:
    1. Giving a general answer to a specific question
    2. Using too much information to overload and distract the enquirer
    3.Trying to change the nature of the dispute
    4. Attacking the enquirer to deter from the pursuit of the truth
    5. Using false and/or misleading statements and blaming it on miscommunication
    6. Making up a defense that did not exist at the time
    7. Using inconsistent or contradictory or hypocritical statements
    8. Dodging or evading direct questions
    9. Using selective referencing
    10. Omitting material information
    11. Pretending to be a victim or getting offended
    12. Ending communication unilaterally to avoid more difficult questions

    Some might make an honest mistake, but if their communication exhibits two or more of the above signs, then, they are more likely than not, trying to corrupt the truth, hide something or fool you.

  • The scope of collusion and cover up of the Boston Church's abuse should not come as a shock. People in power will go to great lengths to keep it. The untold story is not the abuse - it is the corruption of the network of power connecting the church officials, journalists, lawyers, and others who participated in burying the story for so long. [On the award-winning "Spotlight" movie]

  • When academics and politics intersect, it' is usually academic integrity that suffers. An academic must make a difficult choice, become a political ideologue or keep an open and independent mind to protect against bias. Either you are a politician or an academic, choose one. [On the politics of academia]

  • There is no lasting power without integrity. You can take short cuts to gain power, but if you violate integrity, you can never keep it for long. Once you are caught, you will have to pay dearly and sometimes from the least expected sources.

  • In my career, I learned not to confuse celebrity with competency or integrity with ideology. Some of the most famous and idealistic people are not nearly as competent or as honest as they appear to be. When the stakes are high, they will more likely corrupt the truth and rationalize unjust enrichment or power gain at the expense of others.

  • There are no left or right journalists. There are left and right propagandists. Journalism, by definition, is independent; its sole function is to seek the truth, not present or validate half-truths. Truth or corruption are not exclusive to any single group. A telltale sign of biased, mentally captured, or corrupt journalists is overwhelming criticizing  one political party and being silent or apologetic for another for the same actions.  If you want to know which lobby captured a group of journalists or a media outlet, look at the balance of coverage, who do they report on, and more importantly who do they not report on. Unfortunately, in this day and age, the only way to find the full truth is to read opposing media outlets and try to distinguish facts from opinions. This is not an easy task. Smart investors, can see that there is a real business opportunity for an open and balanced media. They can succeed only if they reign their own affiliation biases and that is hard to do. An even better opportunity is to create a media business that assess the credibility and journalistic integrity of each political reporter [On journalistic bias]

  • How to tell if a journalist has integrity? Identity, political or ideological affiliation is never a consideration in their reporting or censorship. The role of a journalist in the society is to speak truth to power, not to protect certain powers at the expense of the truth. [On journalistic integrity]

  • The rising popularity of "fake news" is not due to the Internet, it is more due to the political bias resulting in the lack of balanced reporting, integrity and trust in power-connected mainstream media. The law of media balance dictates that if you censor opposing points of views in your media, you will create an opportunity for the rise of another media to restore the balance, even if that media is unbalanced and riddled with fake news. Truth cannot be buried for long, it will find a way to manifest itself in all forms, including arts, fiction and sometimes even in what they call as "fake news" websites. [On balanced reporting]

  • If you are open-minded and smart, sometimes, you can see a truth in some "fake news" and the lies in some "real news". [On true vs. fake news]

  • The sudden fear of "fake news" on social media has less to do with the truth and more to do with the control of narratives or capturing your mind. Media is a tool of power. The powers in control of mainstream media are losing control to new independent media sites, and they will do everything they can to prevent the distribution of that power. They will pretend that they care about the public interest and the truth; they will find a way to pressure the executives of the popular social media sites to censor content and control information under the disguise of fighting "fake news". They pretend that most people are stupid and that they are the guardian of truth. However, without open and equal access to information, there is no truth or real democracy. If I were to choose between open media polluted with some fake news vs. controlled media with no fake news, I will always side with the open media. The power to choose should be in the hand of the user not the executives of the social media or the lobby working behind them. If social media executives repeat the same mistakes of the mainstream media, they will create an opportunity for a competing media to take away their subscribers.

  • The powerful elites love people's democracy as long as they are winning elections, but when the people elect an anti-establishment outsider, then those people are less intelligent, less moral, misinformed or manipulated and they must find away to nullify the election and bring  back their own representatives for the "good" of the country.

  • The powerful elites love free speech and free media as long as they control the narrative, when the opposition voices become more popular, then they use the excuse of few extreme fringe voices to filter and censor critical opposition voices the "poison" and "misinform" the public opinion.

  • If you think that academia is a shining example of integrity, think again. No industry is immune to corruption. We have experienced more corruption of truth, collusion, tribal behavior, and even academic cartels than the industry would like to admit. [On Academic Corruption]

  • In general, we have seen some implicit bias in academia to reference certain sources instead of others; the bias is usually in favor of celebrity authors, authors at intergovernmental organizations, certain universities, journals with high impact factors, and certain academic, political, and other affiliations. This selective referencing usually comes at the expense of original sources. Proper enforcement of academic research standards, by integrity offices and editors may help fix this issue. [On academic bias]

  • The most common technique used by sophisticated plagiarists to disguise the kidnaping of the work of another author is to "reverse-engineer" an idea in a paper by citing individual knowledge elements in other earlier publications, but leave out the author of that idea. This way, they can show that they arrived at the same solution on their own and justify their ill-gotten academic or financial gains. If they are famous or have a large sponsoring platform, they might overshadow the original author in the number of citations and financial credit.
  • [On plagiarism]

  • In our experience, we have seen how the public is influenced by a well-orchestrated government lobbying and media campaign, especially when endorsed by leading academics at inter-governmental organizations.

  • On Economics and Economists

    • There is no scientific discipline with so many conflicting views and opinions like economics. Unlike physical scientists, economists cannot seem to agree on some of the most fundamental concepts of economics. They appear unable to  distinguish between their own opinions, biases and facts. Some of them appear to form political-academic cartels to promote common political interests and ideologies rather than science. The politically savvy among them rise to the top and go on to cause a lot of damage, never taking responsibility for their own mistakes and always blaming it on other economists, externalities, and schools of thought.

    • When I was young, my parents told me that if you make fun of others, you might end up like them. So, I never made fun of others, except for economists. Today, I'm being branded as one. Despite the heavy cost to my self-esteem, it is still fun to make fun of them (or us) every now and then.

    On Predicting the Housing Bubble, the Great Recession and Recovery

    • Like others, I have been subject to academic arrogance and ridicule, there are economists who could not bring themselves to believe that someone unknown outside their profession with all the brilliant scholars could have succeeded where they failed. One reaction I got, "I'm an economist and never heard of him". Now that is  arrogance based on ignorance. To be fair, there were some open minded economists, who are not burdened by their egos and groupthink biases. In this profession, you will find that only a few who will give credit to someone else, it is simply hard on the ego.

    • Do you wonder why most economists could not predict the economic crisis of 2008, let alone, solve the most important lingering economic problems? It is not the lack of intellect, it is the outdated academic curriculums and decision models. They do not fully understand some of the most basic units of any economy, namely, the entrepreneur, the enterprise, investors and investments. Unfortunately, most economists who advise governments on economic policies, never started or managed a business in their life. So, how do you expect them to give proper advice without real-life knowledge of the complex business decision models, including managing investments, risks and opportunities. Most economists are well-versed in theories and statistics, but unlike engineers and doctors they are not trained to diagnose the root causes of complex problems, and unlike entrepreneurs they do not have the level of creative thinking and real-world problem-solving experience. Solving complex economic problems requires a neurosurgical precision. Would you choose a medical theorist who never practiced medicine in real life to operate on any one's brain?

    • Since 2001, the U.S. economic growth has been largely fueled by rapid increases in asset prices (housing bubble) and consumer debt, rather than development projects, which result in non-sustainable debt-driven growth... Due to the housing bubble in recent years, U.S. homebuyers took on more debt to buy overpriced homes, thus reducing share of disposable income. Many Americans refinanced their homes during the real-estate boom to pay for living expenses. With the expected housing bubble bust, Americans could lose a significant part of their wealth and savings...The slowing economy will lead many small businesses and individuals to go bankrupt... [Working Paper The U.S. Economy Risks and Strategies 2007-2017 and Reuters Interview]

    • The worst thing that could happen to any economy is the loss of confidence. [Warning on the impact of the housing bubble burst, subprime crisis and bankruptcies leading to the Economic crisis of 2008]

    • The general economic decline cycle will bottom in 2009 and we could see stability sometime in late 2009 or early 2010, then we will be back to modest recovery in late 2010 or early 2011. However, the real estate, construction and financial industries will bottom out in 2010, the recovery could start in 2011. [On forecasting the recovery in 2009]

    • My main concern is that the recovery was created by an accounting trick; they took the bad assets off Wall Street and (effectively) put them on the government's balance sheet. It is merely a psychological trick to rebuild confidence in the financial markets. It worked!..Wall Street recovered, but the US tax payers and main street businesses will have to pay for it through higher taxes, higher interest rates, inflation or a combination that will eat future profits and spending power, thus hindering growth rates for a long period of time. The only hope for a real US recovery is from the private sector, US companies selling new innovations globally in industries such as nano-tech, biotech, and converged media. The real economy, Clinton's surplus and recent US wealth was built by entrepreneurs and companies such as Apple, Google, Boeing, and GE. The future will not be different. Only an innovation-driven economic growth can attract foreign investments, generate enough revenues to pay the debt and re-energize growth again.  [On the drivers of real long-term recovery in 2011]

    • When you try to predict another crisis or lack of it, you can never underestimate the stupidity or genius of the leadership's decisions. [On Predicting Economic Crises]

    • Therefore, in the short-term there is little risk of another crisis, but the US leadership should not forget that global competition is growing. The superior gap of manufacturing, services, knowledge and innovation is diminishing. In the long-term the dollar will eventually be replaced as the international trade and investment currency. If they do not fix the national economic problems in the short-term, we will all face a bigger crisis in the mid and longer terms. Make no mistake, US will recover; it is just that the road to recovery is rocky with potential setbacks, and we have to pay for our mistakes like everyone else. [On the long-term risk to the US economic problems.  2011]

    • Because there are many uncontrollable variables, no one can forecast the future with 100% accuracy; however, by refining your investment decision-making framework and processes and by cleaning your information inputs, you can increase your success rate significantly. You only need to be more right than wrong to be a successful investor. [On investment best practices]

    • I'm against abolishing the Fed; however, I advocate for major reforms. The solution to our economic problems does not lie in  demonizing entire banking system, but in restructuring the global financial system to improve governance, transparency,  and accountability.

    • IIM is not a fan of expensive stimulus packages. It instead favors job creation through funding of small businesses. The most cost-effective and quickest method to stimulate the U.S. economy is to support job creation through US small businesses and innovation development. U.S. Census Bureau statistics show that 98 percent of all U.S. firms have less than 100 employees. These 27 million small businesses create over 85 percent of all new jobs and employ over 56 percent of all private sector workers. The focus of development programs should be innovation development, export and employment support. This solution would be a less of a burden on the taxpayers; it can be implemented without too many new legislations, and would have a much faster positive impact on the economy. [A sustainable economic recovery policy]

    • Despite accurately forecasting the housing bubble burst and stock market crash of 2008, the great recession of 2009 and recovery of 2010-2011, we advise investors against investing based on our forecasts. Unlike physics and engineering that are based on physical laws, economic forecasting is inherently uncertain or unreliable. All of our opinions are at best guesstimates that can and do change after a day, a week, a month, or a year. The main problem with economic forecasting is that the global economy is a complex, dynamic networked system and is a product of human psychology (and emotions). One major natural event or political decision can accelerate or delay a cascade of events and changes the entire forecast in the short-term or long-term. Our forecasting model is not perfect and we do make errors. Still, our goal is to be more accurate and less wrong. [On the accuracy of economic forecasting,]

    • The economic and political polarity of raising or reducing taxes, free trade vs. trade war, economic expansion and contraction cycles, and other factors can and do change our forecasts. We call it  "Polarity Forecasting", which includes interest rate polarity, taxation polarity, stock market polarity and so on; that is we attempt to forecast the polarity frequency and duration of interest rate and the stock market value, as more likely than not, to rise and decline over the long-term.


    On States' Socioeconomic Integrity Theory

    On Virtuous and Vicious Economic Cycles Theory

    On Information and Education

    On Strategy

    On Globalization

    On Economic Forecasting and Investing

    On Investment Management

    On Government Management Best Practices

    On CEO Leadership

    On Gross National Wellbeing (GNW) Policies

    On Economic Policies

    On the New World Order, Crises and Conflicts

     

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    For bio and media information, please visit Med Jones' Bio page

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    Contact Information:

    • For speaking and consulting engagements, please contact the International Institute of Management
    • Please note that Mr. Jones is available for media interviews related to happiness economics, economic development and well-being, he does not give economic forecasting or investment related interviews. For investment think tank services, please contact the Institute.

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