Juggling Dynamite

There is little doubt that Barcelona is one of the world’s most incredible cities and Architect Antoni Gaudi’s buildings play a key role in its spectacle. The Sagrada Familia is unique and breathtaking to visit. At the same time Gaudi’s all-consuming lifetime focus (captured in his string models for starters) suggests borderline madness. For me, remarkable architecture always inspires the same moral ambivalence: is it good that humans spend so much time, money and precious, finite resources on creating ornate structures? This 60 Minutes special captures some of the wonder of the Sagrada Familia, the church under construction now for more 130 years. Here is a direct link.

“Why aren’t more women in leadership positions? Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg tells Norah O’Donnell women need to learn to “lean in.”

“In a new book that has already touched a nerve, Sandberg proposes a reason for why there are so few women at the top: the problem she says might just be women themselves. Despite the fact that women have been getting more college degrees than men for 30 years, they still account for only four percent of CEOs in America’s Fortune 500 companies and Sheryl Sandberg says that number needs to change.”

Here is a direct link.

“Copper fell for the second time in three days as imports dropped to a 20-month low in China, the world’s largest user, and exchange inventories increased.

Inbound Chinese shipments of refined metal, alloy and products were 298,102 metric tons last month, down 38 percent from a year earlier, customs figures showed today. Global inventories monitored by exchanges in London, New York and Shanghai climbed to 803,128 tons today, rising above 800,000 for the first time since December 2003.”

See: Copper slips as China imports decline.

Chart source: Cory Venable, CMT, Venable Park Investment Counsel Inc.