The potential and the plight of the middle manager | Mortgage demand falls to the lowest level since 1995 as interest rates near 8% | Billionaire Tom Steyer says the crusade against climate change depends on one thing: Business fixing the problem. 'We have to win in capitalism' | Pets Allowed

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� � � � � � The potential and the plight of the middle manager - The Economist    Nothing turns on management theorists more than conflicting incentives. (If the idea of an aroused management theorist has ruined your breakfast, sorry.) They ruminate on financial motives—the adverse impact that individual bonus schemes might have on team collaboration, say. They churn out studies and books on the competing interests of shareholders and the executives who act on their behalf. A new paper, published by Achyuta Adhvaryu of the University of California, San Diego, and Emir Murathanoglu and Anant Nyshadham of the University of Michigan, casts fresh light on the problem. It shows that clashing incentives are not always financial, and that conflicts can occur even between different levels of management. In the process it underlines that a much-mocked group deserves to be taken far more seriously. The authors examined the decisions of middle managers at Shahi Exports, one of India’s largest garment-makers. The firm has about 70 factories, where multiple teams of cutters, sewers and finishers produce clothing. In their study the academics tracked which team supervisors were being recommended for soft-skills training by their own managers, and then looked at the effect of that training on productivity and retention. Continued here � � � � � � Don't like ads? Go ad-free with TradeBriefs Premium Mortgage demand falls to the lowest level since 1995 as interest rates near 8% - CNBC    Mortgage rates last week rose for the sixth straight week, causing demand for home loans to drop to the lowest level since 1995. Total application volume fell 6.9% compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's seasonally adjusted index. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) increased to 7.70% from 7.67% and points decreased to 0.71 from 0.75 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment. That is the highest rate since November 2000. The rate was 6.94% during the same week one year ago. Continued here � � � � � � Billionaire Tom Steyer says the crusade against climate change depends on one thing: Business fixing the problem. 'We have to win in capitalism' - Fortune    Billionaire Tom Steyer, who rose to national prominence during a short-lived presidential run in 2020, says the climate change crisis is so far-reaching and global that only those largely responsible for the problem—businesses—can now fix it.   “We’re now at a stage where we have to get this done, and that is up to business,” Steyer told Fortune. “Businesses’ function is to serve the needs of society and get done what is needed.” After his Democratic presidential campaign, Steyer returned to his roots as an investor. He cofounded Galvanize Climate Solutions, alongside longtime investor Katie Hall. Continued here � � � � � � Pets Allowed - The New Yorker    What a wonderful time it is for the scammer, the conniver, and the cheat: the underage drinkers who flash fake I.D.s, the able-bodied adults who drive cars with handicapped license plates, the parents who use a phony address so that their child can attend a more desirable public school, the customers with eleven items who stand in the express lane. The latest group to bend the law is pet owners. Take a look around. See the St. Bernard slobbering over the shallots at Whole Foods? Isn’t that a Rottweiler sitting third row, mezzanine, at Carnegie Hall? As you will have observed, an increasing number of your neighbors have been keeping company with their pets in human-only establishments, cohabiting with them in animal-unfriendly apartment buildings and dormitories, and taking them (free!) onto airplanes—simply by claiming that the creatures are their licensed companion animals and are necessary to their mental well-being. No government agency keeps track of such figures, but in 2011 the National Service Animal Registry, a commercial enterprise that sells certificates, vests, and badges for helper animals, signed up twenty-four hundred emotional-support animals. Last year, it registered eleven thousand. What about the mental well-being of everyone else? One person’s emotional support can be another person’s emotional trauma. Last May, for instance, a woman brought her large service dog, Truffles, on a US Airways flight from Los Angeles to Philadelphia. At thirty-five thousand feet, the dog squatted in the aisle and, according to Chris Law, a passenger who tweeted about the incident, “did what dogs do.” After the second, ahem, installment, the crew ran out of detergent and paper towels. “Plane is emergency landing cuz ppl are getting sick,” Law tweeted. “Hazmat team needs to board.” The woman and Truffles disembarked, to applause, in Kansas City, and she offered her inconvenienced fellow-passengers Starbucks gift cards. Continued here

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