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East or West, home is best for top banker
By MARGARET WAHITO,
Before joining NIC Bank, Gachora was the Managing Director – Head of Corporate and Investment Banking at Barclays Africa based in South Africa/CFM
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 27 – NIC Bank CEO John Gachora left the country in 1989 for studies in the United States, marking the start of an illustrious international career in the financial service sector.
He's now back in Kenya and joined NIC Bank last year.
Since then, Gachora has tried to remain 'behind the scenes', but this is slowly becoming impossible. Several developments at NIC bank continue to put him in the limelight with the recent being a five year Sh8 billion bond program plan and a Sh2 billion Rights Issue expected to be launched in September.
Before joining NIC Bank, Gachora was the Managing Director – Head of Corporate and Investment Banking at Barclays Africa based in South Africa. He has also served as the CEO of Absa Africa, Head of Africa for Absa Capital, Managing Director and Group Head at Bank of America Investment Banking, in North Carolina -United States, among others.
I catch up with Gachora, 46, for a one-on-one interview when he pays a visit to the Capital FM studios. And despite his strong profile his humility is dominant.
You left the global scene to come and head NIC Bank. What motivated you to come back home after being away for over 20 years?
What was inviting about NIC besides the bank's caliber of people and the board, was the fact that it was a Kenyan grown bank, with Kenyan heritage expanding into the rest of Africa. Nothing is more gratifying than when you have to come home, contribute and be that part of phenomenal growth. One thing I would point out is that as I toured across Africa and it is now very clear to me that Africa rests on four pillars. You've got South Africa as the Southern pillar, you have Nigeria as the Western pillar, Egypt as the Northern pillar and finally Kenya as the Eastern pillar. When you look at all these four pillars they are all marching towards a meeting point. South African banks have been marching upwards, Nigerian banks have been marching Eastwards, Northern Africa banks have been heading Southern but East African banks are matching a bit slower towards the centre. I think it was therefore compelling for me to come and be part of these movements towards, 'let's all meet in the middle'.
What would you attribute your growth to?
I think nothing replaces hard work. So I have certainly worked very hard and everybody who is successful in their carrier would tell you that indeed nothing replaces hard work. But besides that, there is the aspect of attitude. You know someone one time said that 99 percent of what we achieve is all about attitude; the one percent is perhaps your smartness and everything else. I have always carried this attitude that, there is nothing that I cannot do. You put me in the toughest position, I will do it. I make promises knowing that I will keep them. And I think that's another key. I have always also believed in myself while being conscious of my limitations. Besides that I have focused on building relationships. So I have had very good support and sponsors along the way. And finally in banking, you have to put the customer first, which is what I have done every time; Doing everything that I do, knowing that I get paid when the customer get what they need.
Any challenges?
Working in many cultures has been a challenge. I have worked with the American culture; Asian, African cultures and each of those are challenges but very great learning points. When I worked on Wall Street for example I was a Kenyan and one with a heavy Kenyan accent. I may hate to say it but it was big challenge in a fast talking environment. But I had to work hard to make sure they understand what I say, I understand what they say and three, to make sure that they never question my work when I deliver. But obviously the financial sector has gone through its own challenges and the economic crisis was one of them and to say the least I was in the eye of the storm. This is because I was in the area of structured finance which was hard hit. But what was important for me is that I was diverse enough that I could do other things if need be, which I ended up doing by coming to Africa.
Did you ever dream of becoming a CEO?
What has propelled me is that I look at role models, people who have done it before me and I try to make sure that any barriers are removed quickly. For example barriers of education, other trainings that you need, barriers of how you treat people, barriers of how you relate with management and others.
When I was young, I never saw myself being a CEO but I also knew that there is nothing CEOs possessed that I didn't have. I remember when I was in high school; my father who never went to school once asked me if I had joined the debating club. And I was like 'what does this old man know about debating club.' And he told me, 'in you I see a leader and as a leader, one thing you need to do is debate every day. So I suppose if I were in your shoes, I would definitely join the debating club.' This has always stuck in my mind to date, that a person who never went to school could see a leader in me and know what I needed.
What is your management or leadership style?
I would say that leadership is a changing display and you have to try different methods. When time calls for you to be autocratic you have to and when time calls for you to be consultative you have to. But at the end of the day, leadership today is changing towards consultative. You have to grow your people. The new generation is not going to work with you for life, they will move around.
The gratifying role of a leader is to know that you have developed others and the way you do this is to be inclusive, to discuss issues with them and to make sure that they feel part of decision making. Another thing is that I have to be culture sensitive. We are leading people of diverse cultures, so no one straight jacket fits them all.
How does family play a role in your carrier?
My family is very, very supporting. I mean, they put me in my place. When I go home I am just a dad. I got very young kids and they don't even know what I do, they have no idea; they don't even care. But again, my wife is very supportive. She is one of my greatest critics because she happens to be a customer of the bank. You can imagine how much criticism I get on what needs to be improved for the customers.
When we conclude the short interview, Gachora also finishes taking his cup of Kenyan tea. For him, East or West, home is best.
GET TOP BUSINESS NEWS FOR THE DAY DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
MARGARET WAHITO Margaret has been a business reporter for the past four years. She holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Communications and Public Relations from Moi University. She also holds a diploma in Film and
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John and Gui dive into the latest rumors about new Mac hardware and iOS 13. How might the design of the iPad Pro influence future MacBooks, how would a system-wide Dark Mode work on iOS, and what are our updated expectations for Project Marzipan? Also — iPhone XR review, marketing for indies, and much more.


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Tobey completed a double-double 10 The Los Angeles Kings placed
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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Former world champion Caster Semenya qualified for the 800 metres at the London Olympics on Friday. The South African eased concerns about her early season form by running 1 minute, 59.58 seconds in a provincial meet on her home track at the University of Pretoria. It was the second time she ran faster than the qualifying time of 1:59.90, making her eligible for her first Olympics when South Africas team is likely announced in July. "I have to win a gold (at the Olympics). Thats what I want," Semenya said. "My dream is to win the Olympics, and thats my plan. I feel OK because now I can run good races again, run faster. Qualifying for the Olympics, its a good step forward." The 21-year-old Semenya first ran in under 2 minutes while winning silver at last years world championships in South Korea. She failed to break 2 minutes in her first two races this year, including the successful defence of her national title, but found her form in a dominant win Friday with help from Namibian pacemaker Herunga Tjipekapora. Tjipekapora led Semenya through about 450 metres before giving way. Semenyas nearest challengers finished well behind, with Monique Stander almost three seconds back in second. Semenya burst onto the scene by winning at the 2009 worlds as a teenager in a blistering time of 1:55.45 before a gender test controversy sidelined her for 11 months. Semenya has overcome a string of setbacks since her stunning international debut. After the enforced layoff while athletics governing body reviewed the gender test results, a niggling back injury in 2010 forced her to miss the Commonwealth Games and her relationship with then-coach Michael Seme broke down just before the 2011 worlds. The 800-meter race Friday was Semenyas third under new mentor and former Olympic champion Maria Mutola, but likely her last in South Africa before the Olympics. Semenya will head to Europe next month to start her final buildup to the London Games. She is confirmed to run at the IAAF event in Ostrava, Czech Republic, on May 25 and the Diamond League meeting in Rome on May 31, manager Jukka Harkonen said. "I am very happy with the time, now I know what my plans for the European season are," Semenya said. "I dont have to rush now, you just have to be patient and wait for the Olympics." Dorial Green-Beckham Jersey . The Impact (2-6-4) host D.C. United tonight before a two-week respite from Major League Soccer, and Bernier says a tough defeat against third-place United (6-4-4) could hurt the teams morale, and undo much of their recent success. Dexter McCluster Womens Jersey . Louis Blues, having added Ryan Miller and Steve Ott from Buffalo, remain the No. http://www.titansstoreonline.com/Black-28-Marqueston-Huff-Womens-Jersey/ . "Ive got no idea," said Gibbons after the game when asked what Bautista was thinking. "Its not smart, winning baseball and Im sure he wont do it again." If Bautistas read on the situation is any indication, it seems that under similar circumstances, he would do it again. Mike Martin Jersey .com) - Olympic swimming legend Michael Phelps entered a guilty plea to a drunk driving charge on Friday in a Baltimore courtroom and received a one-year suspended sentence. Marqueston Huff Titans Jersey . But that was the last time he let a puck get past him in a successful return to the ice. Patrick Eaves scored on Detroits seventh attempt in a shootout and Howard denied Washington seven times, giving the Red Wings a 4-3 victory over the Capitals on Friday night.Los Angeles, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - The Los Angeles Kings placed forward Tyler Toffoli on injured reserve Saturday as he continues to battle a case of mononucleosis. The 22-year-old, who hasnt played since Jan. 8, was on the cusp of a career year before being struck down by illness, having recorded 12 goals and 15 assists in only 41 games. The Kings also recalled goaltender J.ddddddddddddF. Berube from their American Hockey League affiliate in Manchester as Martin Jones is not ready to return from an undisclosed ailment. A 23-year-old native of Quebec, Berube has gone 19-4-3 with a 2.05 goals- against average and .920 save percentage in 27 appearances so far. cheap jerseys cheap jerseys wholesale jerseys cheap nfl jerseys wholesale jerseys Landon Donovan Jersey ' ' '
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Home » News » You are reading »
THE JEWISH BRIGADE
by First Comics News on September 9, 2021 THE JEWISH BRIGADE2021-09-09T07:15:57-07:00 - News
In the waning years of World War II, as the tragic plight of the European Jews was coming to light in ever more horrific detail, a Jewish fighting force, known as the Jewish Infantry Brigade Group, was born as part of the British Eighth Army. Leslie Toliver, a racecar driver in the pre-war years, eagerly joined the all-volunteer force for a chance to fight with his people against those who sought to murder them.
When the war in Europe ends and the "savage continent" sits on the brink of continental civil war from chaos, terror, and famine, Leslie and the Brigade move to Tarvisio, Italy, a border triangle city perfect for covert action. While out searching for Holocaust survivors, Leslie undertakes vigilante missions in Soviet occupied Eastern Europe hunting down Nazis on the run for both vengeance and justice. With each Nazi found or refugee rescued, he looks for more information to complete his most personal mission: to find his mother and fiancée who went missing in the upheaval of the war.
By Marvano
https://www.firstcomicsnews.com/the-jewish-brigade/https://www.firstcomicsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Jewish-Brigade-logo-600x257.pnghttps://www.firstcomicsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Jewish-Brigade-logo-150x64.png 2021-09-09T07:15:57-07:00 First Comics NewsNews
The Jewish Brigade In the waning years of World War II, as the tragic plight of the European Jews was coming to light in ever more horrific detail, a Jewish fighting force, known as the Jewish Infantry Brigade Group, was born as part of the British Eighth Army. Leslie Toliver,...
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The beam mode and the output characteristics of a 2kw CW CO laser with tunable mode resonator (TMR), in which the beam mode can be tuned continously from TEM°, mode higher-order mode has been described. At the premise of no exchanging the structure of the resonator, in order to fit the beam quality for different targets of laser processing, it is the expectant goal to the people for long time to make the Laser can continuously select any output beam mode which it can be changed from TEMoi mode to higher-order mode. We ingeniously use the change of the relative location between the ray axis and the symmetrical centre of the active medium in this paper, it makes one set of resonator output several beam modes become in truth.


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Category: Patent Litigation
Supreme Court to Address IPR Proceedings & Willful Infringement
The Supreme Court will continue to shape patent law in 2016, addressing critical components of the widely-popular Inter Partes Review (IPR) proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and examining the standard for willful patent infringement in district court actions.
IPR proceedings provide a streamlined avenue for invalidating issued patents. In the first two years of their existence, over 4,000 IPR proceedings have been filed, with the majority leading to invalidation of one or more patent claims. The Supreme Court has now granted a writ of certiorari in its first IPR case, Cuozzo Speed Technologies v. Lee. The Court will review two key issues: (1) whether the Federal Circuit erred in holding that, in IPR proceedings, the Board may construe claims in an issued patent according to their broadest reasonable interpretation rather than their plain and ordinary meaning; and (2) whether the Federal Circuit erred in holding that, even if the Board exceeds its statutory authority in instituting an IPR proceeding, the Board's decision whether to institute an IPR is judicially unreviewable. A reversal on the claim construction issue would make it more difficult for patent challengers to invalidate claims in IPR, bringing IPR claim construction in line with the current district court standard. Such a change could reduce the draw of IPR proceedings, which have tended to favor the party challenging a patent. A reversal on the second issue could also reduce the popularity of IPRs. The potential for judicial review would increase the costs of IPRs by adding another ground for patent holders to challenge such proceedings, and it would likely reduce the number of IPRs that proceed to hearing. But even with these expected changes, IPRs would remain a viable alternative to lengthy district court actions.
On the heels of last year's decision liberalizing attorney fee shifting in patent cases, the Supreme Court may well eliminate the bright-line test for willful patent infringement in 2016. In the joint cases of Halo Electronics v. Pulse Electronics and Stryker v. Zimmer, the Court will address the following issues: (1) Whether the Federal Circuit erred by applying a rigid, two-part test for enhancing patent infringement damages under 35 U.S.C. § 284, that is the same as the rigid, two-part test this Court rejected last term in Octane Fitness for imposing attorney fees under the similarly-worded 35 U.S.C. § 285; and (2) whether a district court has the discretion under 35 U.S.C. § 284 to award enhanced damages for the deliberate copying of a patented invention. The Supreme Court may well answer both questions in the affirmative. It remains to be seen whether the Court will address many other important related issues including (1) whether willfulness is a prerequisite to enhanced damages; (2) whether subjective bad faith is sufficient for enhanced damages; (3) whether district courts should apply a totality of the circumstances test when determining enhanced damages; (4) whether preponderance of evidence or clear and convincing evidence is required; and (5) what level of review should be applied when an enhanced damage award is appealed.
This entry was posted in Patent Litigation, Post Grant Proceedings and tagged IPR, PTAB, Supreme Court, willful infringement.
←Federal Circuit Holds (Some) Patent Agent-Client Communications Are Privileged
Federal Circuit Holds Inter Partes Reviews Are Constitutional→


In conjunction with ArtScience Play and The University of Nottingham, we launched a children's activity package.We are also opening up this program for school groups who visit the museum. This pack is ideal for student groups and children aged 7-12y.os.
For group bookings of 15 pax and above, please do make a reservation at least three days in advance to avoid being disappointed.
It has come to that time of the year that we have all been dreading: GST!
We would like to encourage local school & college groups to learn about the Baba & Nyonya culture. Therefore we're giving a very special rate. Please do contact us for more information if you are a school or college teacher.
Wishing you a blessed second quarter of the year ahead and we look forward to seeing you at our house!
We have update our tour books in four languages. We hope that it will be useful as a reference for Guides, Operators, School Teachers & also vistors.
Singapore's President Dr Tony Tan and Mrs Tan paid a kind visit to our house. We were most delighted to welcome them with a short tour of the home, and some tea & nyonya kuih. Mrs Tan was a delight to chat with, and we are thankful for the opportunity to also get the Chan family members together all dressed up- nyonyas in their kebayas and babas in their batik shirts!
To ensure that you are not disappointed, please use this facility at least one month in advance. Also do view the calendar to see our peak time periods.
For guided tours, please add an additional RM4 per adult.
Click here to book a tour. We will get back to you via e-mail with a confirmation on your booking time.
Take a taxi, ride a trishaw, or walk by foot. The Baba & Nyonya Museum is located in the old district of UNESCO Heritage area of Malacca town, on Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, which is a street directly parallel to the famous Jonker Walk.
If you would like to be kept in touch with the on-goings of the museum, sign up for the newsletter here.
© 2017 Baba & Nyonya Heritage Museum. All rights reserved.


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Matt Skiba And The Sekrets 'Voices'
Matt Skiba and the Sekrets has premiered their new single 'Voices'. The track is the lead single from the band's debut album 'Babylon', which will be released Tuesday (May 8) via Superball Music. The track is going for adds this week at Modern Rock and has already received airplay on 98 Rock in Los Angeles and The Edge in Dallas. Babylon was produced by Cameron Webb and offers ten-tracks. 'Voices' is also available for purchase at iTunes. Listen to a stream of the song at Soundcloud.
May 2, 2012 rockdirt Multimedia No Comments
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Q: Trying to extract TOWN from full address string, and place a leading space before TOWN_NAME Imagine an ADDRESS table with 1 row other than PK, all the data has been scraped from a website using a tool, and TOWN is stuck to the previous part of the address, we have a lot of data gathered:
UNIT 7 MID RISKBEITH ROADHOWWOODJOHNSTONE
BELLWAY SITE HUTSCOLINTRAIVE CRESCENTBISHOPTON

We need to convert this to (using 2 rows as example)...
UNIT 7 MID RISKBEITH ROADHOWWOOD JOHNSTONE
BELLWAY SITE HUTSCOLINTRAIVE CRESCENT BISHOPTON

We have a table with a list of distinct valid TOWN_NAME which is 100% accurate and contains BISHOPTOWN and JOHNSTONE in table TOWN is TOWN_NAME, i.e.
table TOWN:
ID  DESCRIPTION
 1  JOHNSTONE
 2  BISHOPTOWN
 3  ABERDEEN
 4  GLASGOW

I've been trying to come up with a UPDATE STATEMENT that will process each ROW in ADDRESS table and insert a SPACE character before the TOWN NAME. TO do this, it can pattern match (I was thinking LIKE '%' _ TOWN_NAME so it matches then getting the no of characters in TOWN_NAME then inserting space. Trying to get the select working then can change to update

A: One way to do this is to join the tables with LIKE, and use the townname in a REPLACE:
SELECT  Address.Value
,       Town.Name
,       REPLACE(Address.Value, Town.Name, CONCAT(' ', Town.Name)) AddedSpace
FROM    (
            VALUES('UNIT 7 MID RISKBEITH ROADHOWWOODJOHNSTONE')
                , ('BELLWAY SITE HUTSCOLINTRAIVE CRESCENTBISHOPTON')
        ) AS Address(Value)
LEFT JOIN (
            VALUES('JOHNSTONE')
            ,       ('BISHOPTON')
            ) AS Town(Name)
        ON Address.Value LIKE CONCAT('%', Town.Name)

Gives:
+------------------------------------------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------------+
|                     Value                      |   Name    |                   AddedSpace                    |
+------------------------------------------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------------+
| UNIT 7 MID RISKBEITH ROADHOWWOODJOHNSTONE      | JOHNSTONE | UNIT 7 MID RISKBEITH ROADHOWWOOD JOHNSTONE      |
| BELLWAY SITE HUTSCOLINTRAIVE CRESCENTBISHOPTON | BISHOPTON | BELLWAY SITE HUTSCOLINTRAIVE CRESCENT BISHOPTON |
+------------------------------------------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------------+

Not exactly fool-proof, ofcourse, streetnames might contain the (or a) townname for example.

A: Here's the code I used to recreate your example tables and a second column for NewAddress to be used later for comparison:
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS #Address
CREATE TABLE #Address (Address VARCHAR(64), NewAddress VARCHAR(64))
INSERT INTO #Address (Address, NewAddress)
VALUES ('UNIT 7 MID RISKBEITH ROADHOWWOODJOHNSTONE', NULL), ('BELLWAY SITE HUTSCOLINTRAIVE CRESCENTBISHOPTON', NULL)

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS #Town
CREATE TABLE #Town (ID INT, Description VARCHAR(25))
INSERT INTO #Town (ID, Description)
VALUES (1, 'JOHNSTONE'), (2, 'BISHOPTOWN'), (3, 'ABERDEEN'), (4, 'GLASGOW')

I then used this code which grabs the raw address and does a left join to the town list using a concat of '%' and town to match where the end of the address is exactly the same as one of the town names. I did some work to find the length of the town name, then used this to shorten the address, add a space, then put the town back on:
SELECT A.Address,
       T.ID,
       T.Description,
       LEN(T.Description) AS TownLength,
       CONCAT(LEFT(A.Address, LEN(A.Address) - LEN(T.Description)), ' ', T.Description) AS NewAddress
FROM #Address AS A
     LEFT JOIN #Town AS T ON A.Address LIKE CONCAT('%', T.Description);

This can then be used in an update statement like this, now using an inner join to only update where there is a match on the town name:
UPDATE A
SET A.NewAddress = CONCAT(LEFT(A.Address, LEN(A.Address) - LEN(T.Description)), ' ', T.Description)
FROM #Address AS A
     INNER JOIN #Town AS T ON A.Address LIKE CONCAT('%', T.Description);

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text:
HomeAnswers from Switzerland?
Answers from Switzerland?
June 19, 2017 July 4, 2017 Michael Reddell New Zealand economic performance, New Zealand Initiative, Productivity, Switzerland
A month or so ago, prompted by a Herald news article talking up a New Zealand Initiative study tour to Switzerland to learn "the secrets of their success", I pointed out that Switzerland wasn't such an obvious place to look for lessons on lifting New Zealand's continuing disappointing economic performance. After all, since 1970 they were the only OECD country to have had slower productivity growth than New Zealand
and although the average productivity level in Switzerland is still much higher than that in New Zealand, it is no longer among the very best in the OECD. Denmark, Belgium, and the United States are among the countries doing much better than Switzerland, and even they don't top the rankings.
A few days later it turned out that the author of the article, veteran journalist Fran O'Sullivan, was actually participating in the study tour, not just talking it up. At the time, I noted that it would be interesting to hear, in due course, what she learned from Switzerland, while being a little sceptical as to how detached from a New Zealand Initiative perspective she would prove able to be.
In Saturday's Herald, O'Sullivan devoted a substantial article to reporting back on what was learned on the tour (this time with all the appropriate disclosures, including her partial sponsorship from one of the Initiative's member companies). Much of the article is quotes from New Zealand Initiative people. And the answer it seems, at least on O'Sullivan's summary take, is in the headline: Education key to Swiss success.
Near the start she observes of her own past trips to Switzerland
Other times I have been to Switzerland, it has been straight to Geneva to the World Trade Organisation's HQ for trade discussions, or to observe the World Economic Forum in Davos. Not to look at what underpins Switzerland's own resounding economic success.
I'm still quite genuinely puzzled at where she – or the Initiative – get this idea of "resounding economic success". I'm sure there are many things to like about Switzerland but – despite a very strong starting point a few decades ago – it just isn't one of the great economic success stories of modern times. Productivity growth has been underwhelming – to say the least – and although GDP per capita in Switzerland is higher than in, say, France or Germany, it is so mostly because the Swiss put in a lot of hours. Average productivity is higher in France and Germany, while Switzerland is like New Zealand in that total bours worked per capita are very high in both countries.
I quite like the sound of the Swiss political system – highly decentralised, lots of quite small, and competitive local authorities. It is the antithesis of something like the Auckland "supercity" put in place a few years ago by our government. But one has to wonder quite what economic gains it might have produced. The New Zealand Initiative seems dead keen on the highly decentralised system
"Private and central bankers, economists and journalists, federal and local politicians alike – in fact everyone we talked to – agreed that this was the most crucial component to the Swiss success formula," says NZ Initiative executive director Oliver Hartwich.
But when your country has had the weakest productivity growth in the OECD over 45 years, you have to wonder whether the alleged contribution to "economic success" is not mostly one of those myths that all countries have, that don't necessarily line up that well with the evidence. I'm sure the decentralised system is cherished, but in modern times it has seen (although not necessarily caused) Switzerland drifting backwards.
But the political system isn't the thrust of O'Sullivan's article. Rather, the education and vocational training systems seem to be. In fact, even Hartwich seems to agree
Concludes Hartwich: "The most important insight was the fact that a solid vocational apprenticeship is just as respected as a university degree (and sometimes leads to better salaries, too). New Zealand businesses should not only co-operate with institutions but lead the debate on the required reforms."
And a couple of quotes to give you the flavour of the rest
It may seem ruthless to stream students at an early level into academic and vocational education training (VET) streams. But Switzerland does just that.
About 20 per cent go into the university stream and the rest into the upper secondary school vocational education training stream, where students combine school learning with skills developed in the workplace.
This system serves 70 to 80 per cent of Swiss young people, preparing them for careers ranging from high-tech jobs to health sector roles and traditional trades. Both white collar and blue collar roles are appreciated. There are about 230 vocational categories.
The upshot is that Switzerland enjoys virtually full employment, the youth unemployment rate is among the lowest in developed countries and the Swiss enjoy a very high standard of living. Those doing the VET stream are not locked out from university education, which they can do at a later stage.
Asked if they could import one feature of Switzerland to New Zealand, the consensus of the visiting business leaders was that it would be the vocational training system.
ASB chief executive Chapman says any growing economy relies on a pipeline of skilled and motivated workers for momentum, and "in that context I think there is a lot to learn from the Swiss".
"The Swiss have an enviable record of high youth employment.
I don't know anything specific about the Swiss vocational training programmes, so there may well be some specific aspects that New Zealand firms, or New Zealand governments, could learn from. But as I reflected on O'Sullivan's article, the story about education etc didn't seem terribly convincing as an explanation of Swiss "economic success".
Overall employment rates in New Zealand and Switzerland are very similar (on OECD data 66.2 per cent in both countries last year). But on youth employment, Switzerland does appear to have had a consistently higher employment rate. Among those aged 15 to 24, 62 per cent of Swiss were employed last year, and 54 per cent of New Zealanders.
Employment among young people is a bit of an ambiguous indicator. After all, if young people are in full-time study (school or tertiary) they often won't be in employment at all. Youth employment rates were probably higher in both countries 100 years ago.
But what about youth unemployment: people who want a job, are looking for a job, but can't find a job? Here, Switzerland seems unambiguously to do better than New Zealand.
And what are some of the things that affects the ability of young people to get into work? Minimum wage laws are likely to be one of them. I recall the New Zealand Initiative's Eric Crampton, when he was at Canterbury University, making some very useful contributions (eg here) to the debate about the impact of the much more stringent minimum wage provisions, especially as they affect young people, that were put in place here about 10 years ago.
Readers may recall that, relatively low as New Zealand wages are, our minimum wage relative to median wages – the sort of metric relevant when thinking about whether minimum wage provisions exclude some people from employment – are very high by OECD standards (fourth highest in fact).
And what about Switzerland? Well, in Switzerland there is no minimum wage law at all. And not that long ago, Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected an attempt to establish one. Perhaps in the course of the Initiative's study tour no one thought to ask the question about minimum wages. But whatever the reason, it looks as though it could be a rather important omission. It isn't the really skilled young people who typically have difficulty getting jobs, but the less skilled and more troubled ones. Our systems works against them getting established in the labour force, while the Swiss one seems not to. As the ASB chief executive put it:
"You can't underestimate the power this has on the optimism and confidence of their youth as they look to their own future."
But I was also a little puzzled about the story that seemed to downplay the role of universities in Switzerland. I'm as willing as next person (including New Zealand Initiative members) to think that perhaps New Zealand went through a phase where too many people went to university. And a good builder or plumber will certainly earn more than many of the occupations our more-marginal university students end up in.
But what did the data show? As it happens, the OECD Economic Survey on New Zealand came out on Thursday, and they had a whole chapter on the labour market, skills etc. So I flicked through it looking for relevant charts. Like this one.
Switzerland is "CHE". Relative to New Zealand – and to the OECD as a whole – Swiss young workers (25 to 34 year olds) now have a far higher rate of completed tertiary qualifications than New Zealand ones do.
And there was also this chart
Whether for younger people or older ones, Switzerland is ahead of New Zealand, particularly in the proportions with masters or doctorates.
Tertiary Education Commissioner Sir Christopher Mace says, "to be highly qualified technically rather than academically was totally acceptable in Switzerland."
No doubt that is true – or rather I have no reason to doubt it. But a huge proportion of Swiss young people are getting strong academic qualifications.
Oh, and the OECD also makes much in their reports of the adult skills data I've written about here previously. Switzerland didn't participate in that survey, but New Zealand workers came up with some of the very highest skills (notably problem-solving skills) of any of the many countries that did participate.
Still flicking through the OECD chapter, I found another interesting chart on employment. Ideally it would be a chart of all sole parents, not just mothers, but it was part of another chart focused on maternal employment.
Switzerland is at the far right end of the chart.
Which is by way of leading into another difference between Switzerland and New Zealand – the overall size of government is a bit smaller there. Here is the OECD data on current government receipts (mostly taxes) as a per cent of GDP.
The Swiss tax take is smaller than ours, as a share of GDP, but (a) the gap seems to have been closing, and (b) at least as much of that is coming from the Swiss raising average taxes as from us lowering them. Again, if one is concerned about productivity, it isn't obvious that the Swiss experience has a great deal that is positive to teach us, even if the reasons for their weak productivity growth might well be different from the reasons for our own.
The Swiss track record with weak productivity growth isn't something new that no one had noticed before – the OECD, for example, has been offering thoughts on it for some time (eg here). So it is still a bit of a mystery why the New Zealand Initiative is touting Switzerland as a success story to emulate, or why a senior journalist is channelling those lines. Perhaps it would have offended New Zealand business leaders' sense of amour propre to have gone further east, but if there are many lesssons to be learned for us in Europe about lifting overall economic performance, it seems more likely they might be found in countries like Slovakia or Slovenia, Estonia or Latvia (all now fellow members of the OECD) where productivity is fast catching up (in some cases already has) average levels in New Zealand – and that in countries that for the whole of modern New Zealand history (ie since say 1840) have been much much poorer and less productive than New Zealand.
Travel generally broadens the mind, and almost any country can probably offers some experiences (good and bad) that visitors could learn from. I've no doubt Switzerland does too (eg about minimum wages and company tax rates perhaps) . But Switzerland's overall economic growth performance has been poor for decades, and that even with the advantages that come from being a relatively-small government place in the heart of one of the most prosperous places on the planet (northern Europe). It seems unlikely there is very much to learn from them, at least in a positive sense, about how to markedly lift the performance of another struggling country almost as far from anywhere (and from suppliers, markets, clusters of knowledge) as it is possible to be.
One could wonder whether this group of leading business people, (having gone off to learn from Switzerland, where they would have found a system with no minimum wages and much lower company tax rates, but nonetheless want to tell a story about training and education as the secrets of what they see as Swiss success) are not perhaps preparing against the chance of a change of government later in the year. All that talk in the article would, no doubt, have seemed like music to Grant Robertson's ears. Perhaps not, but I'm struggling to formulate a better hypothesis. Because the data don't really seem to fit their story.
← The OECD Survey process
The Secretary to the Treasury on productivity →
40 thoughts on "Answers from Switzerland?"
getgreatstuff says:
My own general knowledge of Switzerland was that it used to be the Financial Hub of Europe and international money launderer of the worlds hot money. It was a neutral zone during WW11 and a place of rest and recreation for German officers and a store of of Nazi stolen wealth. Its productivity decline in recent decades probably aligns with its now transparent banking sector under global pressure from Anti Money Laundering activities and its decline as the Global recipient of hot money and repatriation of stolen Nazi wealth to aggrieved nations. Not exactly the best example for NZ.
Geography has a lot to do with it. A lot of the richest parts of Europe are along the rivers Rhine and Po. http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2016/05/the_rich_heart.html
Not knocking it. In terms of places to live and work, I would put Switzerland at the very top.
Michael Reddell says:
I agree re the significance of geography (to them but also to us)
Mostly I'm sure it is a great place to live, altho I still rankle at the story i was told when on a course there, about local government restrictions on when one could or couldn't mow one's lawn.
Fran O'Sullivan says:
Michael, I missed your earlier comments.
You will find it is commonplace in media reports for the disclosure of any assistance with trips to come in reports emerging from the visit. Not in a short preview story.
You earlier wrote: "One presumes NZME is paying for her to undertake the tour, but even so. Wouldn't it normally be elementary to let readers know of your involvement when you write up the story?"
As I disclosed in a piece last Saturday, Air NZ assisted me with flights to get to Switzerland. What you chose to overlook in my disclosure was the fact that I had personally paid the programme fee. For the record this was about $9000 all up. Perhaps this did not fit your unfortunately snide insinuation?
Thanks Fran. I had assumed that the cost of the programme was greater than the cost of the airfare (given that costs in Switzerland are very high), and thought that was covered by the "partial sponsorship" comment.
Michael, the disclosure is clear.
Fran O'Sullivan funded her programme fee for the NZ Initiative's Go Swiss study tour and received assistance from national flag carrier Air New Zealand to fly to Switzerland.
The programme fee included internal travel, meals and accommodation – among other costs.
I could have given further clarification if you had done me the courtesy (first) of calling me before bursting into print.
But again – that may not have fitted with your assumptions.
Sorry, I didn't think my last comment was particularly disagreeing with anything you said. I took the disclosure at face value, wasn't trying to misrepresent it, and what you've said since is roughly what I'd have expected.
I am uneasy about journalists and media outlets getting too close to those they report on, and taking partial sponsorship is a part of that. But it is probably the established way of the world in New Zealand, and to some extent "inevitable" given the small size of the country. We presumably have different views on the merits/risks of such practices and that is fine – the issue around partial sponsorship isn't exactly central to this or the previous post. I'm sure the views you run are (when quoted) those of Initiative members, and otherwise your own considered reflections. And my bigger concern – surely apparent in these posts – is the problems with the prior assumption (Swiss resounding economic success, and whether there are lessons for us) rather than with the risks of a journalist getting to close to lobby groups.
Fran – any thoughts on the actual substance of the commentary though? Michael has identified some pretty clear themes out of the data suggesting the conclusions from the 'tour' are somewhat (considerably?) off the mark…
If NZ can't replicate the historic/geographic advantages that led to Switzerland's high relative wealth, why should we now be trying to emulate the strategies and policies that have subsequently led to the poorest productivity performance in the OECD?
I think it's pretty simple. Countries that have a lot of large, external-facing corporations, tend to have high incomes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Swiss_companies_by_revenue
I had forgotten that ABB when it merged had moved its head office to Switzerland. Now that is a huge Automation and infrastructure company. Even Rockwell USA does not compare in size to ABB. In NZ, ABB trades upwards from $120 million per annum compared to Rockwell NZ that does about $40 million and those numbers are from 20 years ago when I had worked for both companies in succession.
I recall Rockwell used to sell lots of Automation and industrial equipment to Carter Holt Harvey and ABB could not crack that market. So ABB came and offered a complete outsource solution by taking over the entire engineering division of CHH and changing all the equipment towards a ABB standard.
iconoclast says:
Revenue of the top 2 companies alone exceeds NZ's GDP
Luc Hansen says:
In 2005, Fran O'Sullivan was gushing over John Key's praise for the "Irish miracle" that quickly turned into an "Irish mirage," then an "Irish debacle." Now the same writer followed Key's line again, this time with Switzerland as the object of our desire.
Two points seem obvious to me about such an approach to business journalism.
The first is that I am extremely sceptical of any attempts to present any particular country as an example New Zealand should emulate. This is because, to state the obvious, all countries are different, and perhaps no countries within the OECD bear direct comparison with New Zealand, and that includes Australia. In particular, as Michael points out, Ireland and Switzerland are well established countries in close proximity to the huge economy of Europe, while we are still a relatively young, small economy and isolated, thus very much subject to the gravity theory of trade.
My second point is that writers like O'Sullivan should be astute enough to invoke a "sniff test" on the promoters of such adulation of carefully selected examples. The NZI, while I accept they strive for independence, nevertheless inevitably approach these issues from a particular ideological perspective (no criticism implied, we all do). Examples like Switzerland, Ireland and, indeed, like the oft-praised authoritarian Singapore (a favourite of Don Brash at one stage) often turn out to have scant direct relevance to New Zealand.
I worry at the tendency for some writers to adopt such an uncritical tone, especially when "embedded" with the promoters.
I would love to see such articles from business journalists that adopt at least a stance of reserving judgement, or even consciously critical, while laying out the evidence for readers to judge for themselves.
And I was surprised that this high-powered group and senior journalist arrived in a comparable country with no minimum wage and relatively low youth unemployment, and did not dig into the fiscal, education and/or cultural paradigm that allows this to work without having disaffected youths sleeping under bridges. After all, we have the latter situation even with a minimum wage! Even parts of the U.S. is making baby steps towards a more generous minimum wage, so Switzerland is in pretty stark contrast to the rest of the OECD, and it would be truly interesting to know more.
So this reader would like to see more work by these journalists at that level of bottom-up analysis rather than the broad brush "vision thing" (I think I've borrowed that from Muldoon) that so often comes to nothing.
39lumenz says:
Fran is not an Ambrose Evans-Pritchard and never will be.
Luc: Fair points.
But re Ireland – what the Key interview focused on was the tax structure to secure MCN/employment.
That was not at the heart of the banking crisis.
Thank you, Fran.
Apologies for conflating your article with Key's more general public praise of what was then still the Irish miracle.
Bob Atkinson says:
If I understand it correctly your "graph of employment rates of lone parents -v- partnered mothers" is only showing lone parents and the fact that in Switzerland they are usually working. They could be teenage single mothers or maybe in their fifties recently widowed or divorced. It would be interesting to know more since the experts say two parents in a stable relationship is the single most significant factor in whether a child becomes a successful adult (mental health, addiction, crime, education attainment, divorce and those kind of measures).
I remember reading a few years ago that Switzerland has roughly half the ratio of teenage single mothers as other European countries. The reason given being application for benefits was from the canton; asking your neighbours for charity is a disincentive.
Yes, you are reading that (part of the) chart correctly.
QC says:
Lindt v Whittakers? To close to call: I'll take both….
To Blair's point, market cap for Lindt around $22bn NZD
Whittakers??? Not so much. (although i was recently behind an Australian woman in my local suburban supermarket checkout queue, who was buying up substantial quantities of Whittakers chocolate to take back to Aus as "superior to anything on offer at home")
Just a note on minimum wage and tertiary education in Switzerland.
At least half of employees are covered by a minimum wage via Gesamtarbeitsverträge (i.e. collective contracts between trade unions and employers' organisations) or Normalarbeitsverträge (i.e. laws by the federal government for certain sectors, e.g. retail, domestic workers).
The tertiary education sector includes vocational qualifications. There are schools/exams which offer higher education specifically for those who have completed vocational training. People start working or get practical experience early on and can then specialise or prepare for leadership positions through these schools/exams. Their share of the total tertiary sector has declined from 50% in 2005 to a third in 2015. So a substantial proportion of those with tertiary qualification has gone through the vocational training track/stream.
I'm biased since I'm originally from Austria which has a similar system, but I'm a strong supporter of streaming and the dual education system. Ideally in my view we'd want to confer skills to most young people while also giving them the opportunity to get higher qualifications later.
Thanks. That is useful information.
If Austria were your home instead of New Zealand you would…
be 23.44% less likely to be unemployed
make 40.13% more money
have 8.44% more free time
be 48.44% less likely to be in prison
experience 27.35% less of a class divide
all that and it is a beautiful country judging by a day trip to Salzburg. Do they have a spare economist for the RBNZ.
vikingonmars says:
Takes me back to my young days when the schooling did just that. e.g. Hutt valley High school, basically academic but with some practical as well. Petone Tech where the trades were the focus.
But apparently the educators and the Unions knew better and so that went out the back door. There is now some moves to restore the order of things to how the world should be.
Learning is life long. Don't think so, just look around at all the oldies and not quite so old who can use computers and write code etc. All come about just lately and long long after we all left the clutches of the education controllers.
Really – don't know where you get that from
I was writing code in IBM assembler and Cobol for IBM mainframes in 1960's and 1970's, then Super-minis 1970's and 1980's
You might well have been but you were certainly not mainstream if you were. Unlike todays kids who are learning this stuff in Primary school. The 60's IBM's could do what my cellphone does now.
The reality is that most people never got to play with nor own a computer until the very late 80's and early 90's.
Call me cynical but nothing I have read from Fran or the Initiative is news and nothing it seems that could not have been deduced from a desk top right here. No need to rack up carbon miles and waste so much money unless of course it was another "old boys/girls " trip.
Ego driven it would seem. Laziness really when all the info is at the touch of a keyboard or does this actually make the point that education is the key? Being educated in the use of google and a few searches and spreadsheets.
Watched Harwich on Q+A on Sunday. Totally unimpressed. Has old ideas trotted out in a very Dutch or German way. Control , control, control.
Don't think we should give much credence to his work.
It still amuses or perhaps perplexes me why we need to rish off and look at other countries bad habits when we have plenty of open minded people and people with exciting minds and idea's that we never harness. Copying Britain, Germany, France or whoever means we just get the worst of the deal.
We need to develop our own way of doing stuff.
That's what we are being told to do by those supposedly in charge. Unfortunately they don't listen to those of us in the real NZ. Youth rates are probably the foremost example.
Minimum rates were always going to be a disaster, especially for young men, keeping kids at school when they needed workplace places is a disaster for them (Lack of mentors at a young age for many),fitting students up with loans to go to prop up many broken down teachers (especially tradie retards), is another disaster for youth. (As bad or worse than the current scam with immigrants, who clearly keep wage rates down by being here),
But no matter what noise we made the Nice Mr Key was only intent on pandering to the voters who would keep him elected.
I doubt the National Party will ever be other than socialist for ever more.
Disagree – to get a decent feel for a country you have to go there and converse with locals. Of course that applies to the Brits like myself whereas most educated Kiwis have been on OE's and as a friend who spent a decade travelling all over the world told me it didn't matter how remote a place you went to you could be sure of meeting another Kiwi there.
Will anyone propose the obvious solution on how to give NZ all the advantages that the Swiss have: close half our the universities. My suggestion AUT and University of Auckland – that would also solve Auckland's housing and transport problems. Other advantages is several billion in property and land; kids at college trying much harder to attain uni entry which might make them less ignorant; smarter manual workers; no disgruntled graduate secretaries/receptionists.
Reminder lets catch up with Switzerland and be
be 50% less likely to be unemployed,
make 80.26% more money,
spend 2.7 times more money on health care,
have 11.11% more free time,
be 56.25% less likely to be in prison,
experience 20.72% less of a class divide,
live 1.46 years longer .
Weshah Razzak says:
I just ed wanted to refer to my paper Education and Labour Productivity in New Zealand, 2010, Applied Economics Letters Vol. 17, issue 2, 169-173, which was published online in 22 April 2008, where we (with Jason Timmins) found no association between the stock of labour with vocational skills and productivity.
Most of the gains come from University and higher education in NZ and the product of university and higher education with R&D.
We can have as many plumbers, electricians and car mechanics as one can, but productivity is not going to increase. This is not how productivity increases.
Education is one factor among many. Education speeds up the diffusion of NEW technology. I cannot see how vocational training do that!
Thanks Weshah – that useful. Of course, we still need good plumbers and builders, and they can expect to earn pretty well,
I remain skeptical of university education. If a university is a machine that takes in teenagers and churns out thoughtful adults then much depends on the quality going in. Certainly there are students who do poorly at school who shine at university but they are rare. What it does do is delay starting work. Is it a coincidence that I have meet 4 programmers who I will admit to being better than me (I mean on their average day they were better than me at my best) and none of them went to university – programming is like playing a musical instrument: the earlier you start the better.
The argument that university education is the super cure for the economy is true for maybe the first 5% but becomes less true as dumber people enter the system. Politicians such as Mrs Clinton assert that a university education is worth a million dollars because that is how much a graduate earns in a lifetime in excess of a non-graduate. Nobody believes sending every child to university makes sense. There has to be a cut off point and it seems as if Switzerland has it about right. Note they may have some far brighter plumbers than us and some of them will move on to university. A combination of practical and abstract thinking may be the solution to increasing our productivity..
ABB is a Automation and infrastructure giant with a CHC91 billion or NZD130 billion in sales. These guys build factory robots. Not sure why productivity would be so low in Switzerland?
The constant refrain of Productivity
Can you please explain which is the more productive and when does the increase occur
A drainlayer employs 10 manual ditch-diggers in 8 hour days to dig ditches
Another drainlayer purchases a $75,000 digger and employs 1 digger driver to dig the same amount of trenches
If one thinks in terms of labour productivity, your second example involves greater productivity. And it frees up 9 people to do other stuff. If one thinks of GDP per hour worked, the increase occurs when the change in production patterns occurs. There is an implicit assumption that the displaced workers are in time re-employed elsewhere, as they have been now through a couple of hundred years of technological change etc.
In terms of total factor productivity it isn't possible to answer the question with the information provided.
Except that if those 9 end up being on the dole then productivity goes way down as the one doesn't earn enough and pay enough tax to keep the 9.
And there's the problem. You can replace men with machines and total. Productivity goes up for the remaining staff but if we just shift that 5 to another job productivity only improves if the displaced can produce enough to at least cover the work they previously did. If they don't then total productivity goes down. Conversely if they are employed in a more productive job then productivity goes up.
Productivity also only goes up after the cost of capital etc. is accounted for otherwise you might as well not bother (other benefits excepted.)
Needs an edit function please.
Profit only goes up after the cost of capital is accounted for, but productivity is something different.
Recall the concerns all the way back to the Industrial Revolution about technology destroying jobs. Of course, at one level it did, but in time – sometimes very quickly – those people were reabsorbed in other roles. At least on average, the new roles paid more than those that had gone before. Thus, our material living standards are so much higher now than they were 200 years ago.
Of course, not every individual is better off through the adjustment phase, and there are reasonable arguments for public support for such individuals – the price, if you like, of allowing overall living standards to improve.
Productivity went up because those displaced workers just begged on streets and therefore did not count in to productivity as they are now in social welfare. Also poor people die relatively early which means that if you lose your job around age 45, you might just be unproductive for 5 years before you die from poverty begging on streets. Therefore within 5 to 10 years of a industrial revolution displaced workers just die and disappear from the statistics.
One should be disturbed by this junket to Switzerland by a bunch of captains of industry
Education is not a tangible thing that one can observe, touch, feel, assess and evaluate. And also if these captains of industry were to arrive at the same conclusion as Fran O'Sullivan then the question arises as to what they can now do about it – nothing
The whole thing seems to be a waste of time at the same time as placing a question mark over the smarts of these captains of industry, unless of course it was just a cover for a conducted junket overseas
As I pointed out above, the income of the top two largest Swiss companies is greater than the GDP of NZ, that should have been a warning in itself – they could have simply visited those two companies alone
The question is how did their companies manage to get so big? I think it fundamentally boils down to a large domestic market, a large work force, a large capital market and lower cost of funds which still means more people rather than less. Our problem is we have NZ economists that are of the strange opinion that a cow is more productive than a person. A cow that eats and create unmanaged waste to the equivalent of 20 people is more productive than a person. 10 million cows that eat and create unmanaged waste that is equivalent to 200 million people and create only $13 billion in GDP is more productive than 1.5 million people in Auckland that create $75 billion in GDP.
Of course if you compare a company like ABB that employs 130,000 workers but generates sales of $130 billion then of course our 1.5 million Aucklanders can't quite compete in the productivity stakes.
But the first mind set problem we need to solve is to stop the idea that a cow is more productive than a person.


text:
Tracy Twyman Interviews Peter Levenda Magickal Roots of Nazism part 1
Peter Levenda and the Magickal Roots of Nazism part 1
Originally Published in Dagobert's Magazine
Interview by Tracy R. Twyman
Peter Levenda's quest for the truth began in 1979 while reading Aftermath: Martin Bormann and the Forth Reich, by Ladislas Farago, about how Hitler's former Riechsleiter had escaped to South America after the war petending to be a priest, protected by the "underground railroad" of Nazi sympathizersthat operated and still operate all over that continent, including many if not most of the police and military. Levenda came across a description of one of Bormann's many hideouts, a Koreshisn cult compound called "Colonia Dignidad" (Colony of Righteousness), which was, as Farago described, "the weirdest encampment of the postwar world, housing a sect that combines Nazism and vodooism." Intrigued as he was by such an odd combination, Mr. Levenda decided to check the place out for himself, and actually flew down to Chile to conduct the investigation. He did manage to penetrate the compound, but only briefly, and this lead to him being chased out of Chile by a series of unidentified agents, then later fired from his job at "a large, multinational corporation that did a lot of business with the Chilean military." It also lead to the research that eventually culminated in Levenda's terrifying, spellbinding book, Unholy Alliance: A History of Nazi Involvement with the Occult.
It all started with the Thule Gesellschaft, a pagan, anti-Semitic, right-wing aristocratic society founded by a Freemason and Eastern mystic named Baron Rudolf von Sebottendorff. They met every Saturday in Munich's Four Season's Hotel to discuss things like runes (an old German alphabet), racial evolution, Nordic mythology and German nationalism. Registered under the name "Thule Gessellschaft" as a "literary-cultural society", in order to fool the communist Red Army now controlling Munich, this group had originally been known as the Germanenorden, or the German Order Walvater of theHoly Grail. According to Levenda, 'The Germanenorden had an impressive series of initiatory rituals, replete with knights in shining armor, wise kings, mystical bards and forest nymphs', including a Masonic-style program of secrecy, initiation and mutual cooperation." But they were not copying the ideological aspects of Freemasonry. As Levenda writes, "What the Germanenorden became was, essentially, an anti-Masonry: a Masonic-style society dedicated to the eradication of Freemasonry itself." Their symbol was a long dagger on top of a swastika, and their beliefs had been influenced largely by the writing s of Guido von List and Lanz von Liebenfels, two men who will feature prominently in our story. Liebenfels had founded the neo-pagan, swastika-waving "Order of the New Templars" on Christmas Day, 1907, along similar ideological lines. In that same year, occult researcher Guido von List began The List Society part of a then-developing "völkish" (folkish) movement extolling the virtues of Norse heritage, heritatge which could be traced by reading the Edda, a compilation of Icelandic legends which Hitler would later take great interest in. The völkish movement itself was based in part on the ideas of Madam Helena Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society famous for her books Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine. She wrote that humanity was descendant from a series of imperfect races which had once rules the earth, and which all had a common Atlantean origin dating back millions of years, culminating in the Aryan race, which had at one point possessed supernatural powers but had since lost them. She also romanticized about the occult significance of the swastika, of Lucifer, "The Light-Bearer", and of a cabal of spiritual "Hidden Masters" called the Great White Brotherhood, who guided human evolution from their abode in the Himalayas and who Blavatsky herself purported to channel during her many self-induced trances. And the philosophy of List and Liebenfels took this a bit further, to the extent that the Aryan race was the only "True" humanity, and that the Jews, along with a host of other undesirables, or "minderwertigen" ("beings of inferior value") were sapping the race of its strength and purity through the evil machination of Christianity, Freemasonry, capitalism and Communism. They believed that the Aryan race had come from a place called Thule, the north pole, where there was an entrance to a vast underground area populated by giants. "Among the völkish cults", writes Levenda, "it was was believed that – as soon as the Germans had purified the planet of the pollution of the inferior races – these Hidden Masters, these Supermen from Thule, would make themselves known, and the link which had been lost between Man and God would be forged anew."
There were the beliefs of the members of the Thule Gesellschaft when they met on November 9, 1918 to discuss something of immediate concern; The Communist control of Munich. After a rousing speech by Sebottendorf, the Thule Society began to prepare for a counter-revolution, stockpiling weapons and forming alliances with other like-minded groups, such and the Pan-Germans, the German School Bund and the Hammerbund. The follwing year, on April 7, a Bavarian Soviet Republic was proclaimed in Munich, causing the Prime Minister of Bavaria to run off to Bamburg in order to prevent a total Communist take-over of the government. Six dayd later the Thule-Organized Palm Sunday Putsch failed to overcome the Communists in Munich, and now the Thule members were on the Red Army's Most Wanted list. Sebottendorfgot busy organizing an army of Freikorps (Freekorps) to counter-attack. (One of the units of the Freikorps, the Ehrhardt Brigade, later became part of the German Army, and eventually, part of the S.S.) On April 26, the Red Army raided Thule headquarters and began making arrests, including the well-connected Prince von Thurn und Taxis. On April 30, Walpurgisnacht, they were executede in the Luitpold High School courtyard. The following day, their obituaries were published in Sebottendorf's newspaper Münchener Beobachter (which would evolve one year later in to the official Nazi publication, Völkischer Beobachter.) The citizens of Munich became outraged. The Thule Society organized a citizen rebellion, which was joined by the 20,000-member Freikorps, and together they marched, "beneath a swatika flag, with swastikas painted on their helmets, singing a swastika hymn." By May 3, after much bloodshed and destruction, the Communists in Munich were defeated. But there was much work to be done. The Soviet threat was still very real. Witht he help of the local police and military, the Thule began organizing a more full-scale national revolt, using connections with societies wealthy intellectuals. They also began recruiting among Germany's working class, by forming a group called the German Worker's Party, which met regularly in beer halls to discuss the threat of Jews, Communists, and Freemasons. This group would later become the National Socialist German Workers' Party – The Nazi Party, and in November 1923, they would make their first attempt at national takeoever, the failed Beer Hall Putsch, lead by a man who had originally been sent by the German Army to spy on them – Adolf Hitler.
We all know what the Nazi party went on too accomplish. What most people do not know is the extent to which those actions wer inspired by the occult beliefs of their perpetrators. As Levenda writes, "The most extreme aims of the Thule Society would all eventually become official policy of the Third Reich, while its purely metaphyscial and occult characteristics were adopted wholeheartedly by the S.S." Hitler himself was fascinated by the occult. While he was a college student he began reading Von Liebenfels' magazine, Ostara. Later in 1909, while he was living in poverty in a men's dormatory and hawking his paintings on the street, Hitler actually met Libenfels in his office, looking "so distraught and so impoverished that the New Templar himself gave Hitler free copies of Ostara and bus fare back home." Hitler's friend Josef Greiner recalls in his memoirs how obsessed young Adolf was with astology, religion, occultism, magic and yoga. Hitler loved Wagner, as we know, especially The Ring Cycle, Parsifal, Lehengrin and Rienzi. It was from Wagner that Hitler gained his affinity for knighthood, chivalry, and the Quest fo the Holy Grail, a pagan, Teutonic Grail. In 1915, Hitler was at war, and while in the trenches, wrote a poem, one which "sings the praises of Wotan, the Teutonic Father God, and of runic letters, magic spells, and magic formulas." So there is no doubt that Hitler's interest in occultism and paganism ran deep. There is doubt, however, as to whether or not Hitler actually performed any magical operations himself. According to Levenda, this was not in his nature, a nature inclined towards action, doing stuff, accomplishing things here on Earth, in the 3rd dimension. He did not have the time and the patience necessary for real spiritual endeavors. "Hitler was a paranoid", writes Levenda, "and the occult holds special attractions for the paranoid. But Hitler as a cultist? As a black-robed, ritual-performing, invocation-chanting priest of Satan? Probably not.
But Hitler as a tool of other cultists?
In fact, a number of people deeply involved in the occult would have great influence on him and play essential roles in the development of the Third Reich. It would do us well to examine them one by one.
Dietrich Eckart
Hitler, while working as the leader of the German Worker's Party, became freinds with Thulist Deitrich Eckast, who published a newspaper called Auf Gut Deutsch ("In Good German"), which "ranks with the Völkischer Beobachter as a racist sheer with intellectual pretensions." Eckart had a tremendous effect on Hitler, and was he who first introduced Hitler to all the wealthy and powerful people he needed make his crusade possible, including Henry Ford, who would later contribute "vital financial support" to the Nazi party. From Eckart, Hitler learned a great deal about the esoteric sciences, and it is said that they occasionally attended seances and talked to ghosts. Eckart, who died after the Beer Hall Putsch, is quoted as saying, "Hitler will dance, but it is I who plays the tune."
Alfred Rosenburg
Eckart protegé, and soon Hitler's as well, was Alfred Rosenburg, a man who would later become "one of the architects of official Nazi policies." One of these policies was that all of the Masonic temp[les in all of the Nazi's occupied territories were to be raided, and the goods shipped back to Rosenberg himself. This was done by Franz Six and Otto Ohlendorf, both occultists. Rosenberg was also friends with another occultist named Walther Darré, who became agricultural minister of the Third Reich. "Together", writes Levenda, "they ran around the nation drumming up support for an official state religion based on the worship of the Old Gods,a religion that included purifying the Aryan race of elements that were in the process of polluting it and dilluting the strength of its blood."
Erik Jan Hanussen
In 1932, after his Nazi Party hade lost much ground in the Reichstag, and his mistress Eva Braun had shot herself on Halloween Night, Hitler turned to his friend Erik Jan Hanussen, a well-known astologer and occulist whom he had met back in 1926. Hannusen is supposed to have taught Hitler a number of exaggerated gestures to use in puiblic speaking, ones which could been seen and understood from far away, and which would communicate a message through body language even if a person could not hear what he was saying. Hanussen had never read Hitler's stars before, but on this occasion in 1932, upon request, he drew up an astrological chart for the future Führer, and told Hitler that his troubles stemmed from an evil hex that someone had cast on him. Furthermore, he said, the only way to get rid of it was for someone to go to a butcher's backyard located in Hitler's hometown – at midnight, on a full moon – and pull a mandrake out of the ground. For those who don't know, a mandrake is a "man-shaped" root with supposed medicinal properties which, according to European folklore, will emit an ear-shattering scream upon being uprooted. Sometime a dog would be sent on a suicide mission to pull the root while the magician plugged his own ears. Hanussen performed the ritual himslef, and on January 1st of 1933 came to Hitler predicting that he would return to power onthe 30th of that month, "a date roughly equivalent to the pagan sabbat of Oimelc." Of course, as is known to history, that is exactly what happened. A few weeks later, during a seance held on February 26, Hanussen predicted that the Communists would make another attempt at revolution in Germany, one that would begin by setting an important government building on fire. "The next day", writed Levenda, "the Reichstag was in flames and Hitler had all the excuse he needed to go from Chancellor of Germany to Führer of the Third Reich." Six weeks later, Hanussen was mysteriously murdered.
Wilhelm Gutberlet
There was also another astrologer, a shareholder in the Völkischer Beobachter who had been Hitler's close friend since the days of the German Worker's Party in 1919. In the memoirs of Walter Schellenberg he is described as "a Munich physician who belonged to the intimate circle around Hitler. Gubarlett believed in the 'sidereal pendulum', an astological contraption , and claimed that this had given him the power to sense at once the presence of any Jews or persons of partial Jewish ancestry, and to pick them out in any group of people. Hitler availed himself of Gutberlett's mysticpower and had many discussions with him on racial questions.
A friend of hitler's from way back, he had been arrested at the Beer Hall Putsch with him in 1923, and had transcribed Hitler's Mein Kampf (originally titled Four and a Half Years of Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice) while they were both in prison. He later became Hitler's Deputy Führer. He was an "intimate" of the Thule Society and was way into the occult. Hess introduced hitler to one of his profesors, Karl Haushofter, a man with an interest in astrology who claimed clairvoyance. Haushoffer later came to weild considerable power in Germany by founding the Deutsche Akadamie, and by heading the University of Munich's Institute Geopolitik – "A kind of think tank – cum – intelligence agency", according to Levenda. He was vital in forming the Nazi alliances with Japan and South America, and was responsible for the adoption of the Lebensraum ("Living Room") policy, which stated taht "a sovereign nation, to ensure the suvival of its people, had a right to annex the territory of other sovereign nations to feed and house itself."
Himmler and the S.S.
The S.S. (Schuzstafel) was originally formed as a personal bodyguard to Hitler, and numbered around 300 when Heinrich Himmler joined. But when he rose to its leadership in 1929, things changed a bit. Four years later, membership had soared to 52,000. He established headquarters at a medieval castle called Wewelsburg, where his secret inner order met once a year.. According to Walther Schellenberg's memoirs,"Each member had his own armchair with an engraved silver nameplate, and each had to devote himself to a ritual of spiritual excercises aimed mainly at mental concentration…. The focal point of Wewelsburg, evidently owing much to the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, was a great dining hall with an oaken table to seat twelve picked from the senior Gruppenfühers. The walls were to be adorned with their coats of arms." Underneath this dining hall there was kept a so-called "realm of the dead", a circular well in which these coats of arms would be burnt and the ashes worshipped after the "knight" had died. (There are tales of Himmler using the severed heads of deceased S.S. officers to communicate with ascended masters.) In addition to this, each knight had his own room, "decorated in accordance with one of the great ancestors of Aryan majesty." himmler's own room was dedicated to a Saxon King Henry the Fowler, whose ghost Himmler sometimes conversed with.
Outside of the inner order, SS officers were discouraged from participating in Christian ceremonies, including weddings and christenings, and celebrated the Winter Soltice instead of Christmas. The traditional day of gift exchange was switched to the day of the summer solstice celbration. Writes Levenda, "These ceremonies were repleate with sacred fires, torchlit processsions, and invocations of Teutonic deities, all performed by files of young blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryan supermen." Although Himmler admired the ceremonial nature of Catholocism and modeled the S.S. partially on the Order of the Jesuits, he also despised Christianty for what he considered its weak, masochistic nature. He held further resentment because of the persectution of German witches during the Inquisition.
Himmler, along with Richard Darré, was responsible for absobing The Ahnenerbe Society "a kind of seminary and teaching college for the future leaders of the Thousand Year Reich", into the S.S. The Ahenenerbe was devoted to some odd völkish studies, each of which had a subdivision dedicated to it: "Celtic Studies", Externsteine (near Wewelsburg), where the world-tree Yggdrasil was supposed to reside, Icelandic research; Tibeten research, runic studies; a strange new twist on physics called the "World Ice Theory", an archeological research in an effort to find evidence of past Aryan presence in remote locations all over the world, such as South America, giving rise to "Aryans discovered America" stories. Another theory propounded by Himmler was that babies that had been conceived in cemetaries would inherit the spirits of whoever was buried there, and actually published lists of cemetaries that were good for breeding because of the Teutonic heroes resting therein. Himmler was obsessed with the concept of the Holy Grail, and hired researchers to try and prove that the Grail was actually a Nordic pagan artifact.
The Allied Occult Offense
According to Levenda, "Himmler was obsessed by the idea that British Intelligence was being run by the Rosicrucian order, and thqtn occult adepts were in charge of MI5." Whether or not that was true, the Germans were certainly not the only participants in the war using the power of magick to their advantage. Levenda provides the details of a "Cult Counterstrike" organized by the intelligence agencies of the U.S. and Britian, an effort centering around the "most evil man in the world", the Great Beast 666, Aleister Crowley.
Crowley had gone to live in New York during WWI after being rejeted for military service by the British government, and began writing "pro-German propaganda" for a mgazine called The Fatherland, published by George Viereck. Crowley took over as editor. He later claimed that he had really been working for British Intelligence, because "his articles were so outlandish that the journal was reduced to absurdity, a caricature of serious political discussion, which would help the British cause more than harm it." There is some evidence to suggest that Crowley was working for MI5 during this time, spying on his fellow OTO initiate Karl Germer, a German intelligence agent, ao perhaps his excuse for working for The Fatherland is sound. Whatever the case, he was definitely hired by MI5 during WWII. Crowley had become friends with author Dennis Wheatley, well-known for a number of fiction and non-fiction books based on the occult who had once worked for Winston Churchill's Joint Planning Staff. He had been introduced to Crowley by a journalist named Tom Driberg, who would later become a spy for MI5 as well, and who would come into possession of Crowley's diaries shortly after his death in 1947. Wheatley also introduced Crowley to yet another MI5 agent, Maxwell Knight. Knight was the real historical figure behind the fictional character "M" in all the James Bond novels, written by Knight's friend in the Department of Naval Intelligence, Ian Fleming. Crowley met Knight for dinner at Wheatley's house, and it was there that Crowley agreed to take them both on as magick students. Later, Ian Fleming dreamed up a way to use Crowley's expertise in a scheme against the Germans. The scheme involved an Anglo-German organization known as "The Link", a supposed "cultural society" which had once been under the leadership of Sir Barry Domville, Director of Naval Intelligence from 1927 to 1930. The Link had been investigated by Maxwell Knight in the 1930s because of its involvement in German spy operations, and was soon dissolved after much incriminating evidence was found. As Levenda describes, Fleming "thought that the Nazis could be made to believe that the The Link was still in existence, they could use it as bait for the Nazi leadership. The point was to convince the Nazis that The Link had sufficient influence to overthrow the Churchill government and thereby to install a more pliable British government, one which would gladly negotiate a separate peace with Hitler." The suggestion came in the form of fake astological advice passed on to the gullible Rudolf Hess, who was already under the delusion that only he could talk the British into peace with Germany, and that it was his destiny to do so. One of his staff astrologers, Dr. Ernst Schulte-Strathaus, under British employ, encouraged Hess to make his mission to England on May 10, 1941 a significant date because of a rare conjuntion of six planets inthe sign of Taurus. The Duke of Hamilton was also enlisted to let Hess know that he would be happy to entertain him should he plan to go through with such an endeavor. So Hess, a trained pilot, embarked on a rather dangerous solo flight to the British Isles, parachuting into Scotland donned in various occult symbols, where he was immediately arrested by the waiting Brits. Accoding to Levenda, "Fleming tried to obtain permission for Crowley to debrief Hess in order to develop intelligence on the occult scene inthe Third Reich and particularly the Nazi leadership." But this permission was denied, and Hess spent the rest of his days in prison not being much use to anybody. Levenda finds this suspicious, for "What could have been a major propaganda coup against the Nazis went utterly wasted, as if by tacit agreement on both sides."
After Hess' arrest, Hitler denounced hi as a crazed madman, and began persecuting astrologers and occultists in his own domains more so than ever before. Crowley continued trying to help the Allied cause, but most of his ideas were rejected. One, however, while initially dismissed, was later implemented. This involved dropping occult pamphlets on the German countryside that predicted a dire outcome for the war and depicted the Nazi leadership as Satanic. A fogery of a popular German astrological magazine called Zenit was created and dropped onto enemy battlefields. It was set for full-scale distribution, buit the delivery was intercepted by the Gestapo before it could be completed.
Besides Crowley, there were other occultists involved in the fight against the Third Reich. One of Crowley's protegés, Jack Parsons, who was the Head of the Agapé O.T.O. Lodge in California as well as a charter member of both Cal-Tech and the Jet propulsion Laboratory, invented the "Greek Fire" rocket propellant which was widely used by the United State Navy between 1944 and 1945. According to Levenda, it was "a solution that could have only come from someone with a working knowledge of the arcane lore of alchemy and magic." (Parsons later killed himself in an accident involving fulaminate of mercury. He had been driven crazy and proclaimed himself the Anti-Christ after becoming involved with one "Frater H", who was actually a spy sent by Naval Intelligence to infiltrate the O.T.O. That spy's name was L.Ron Hubbard!) There was also a Golden dawn intiate named Sam Untermyer, an attorney and wealthy philanthropist once called a "Satanist" by a British newspaper. Untermyer started the "Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League to Champion Human Rights" and the "World-Anti-Nazi Council, which both promoted the boycott of German products. He also donated money to the hunt for Nazi agents coming into New York. And with the help of a man named Richard Rollins, he started a secret society called "the Board" which engaged in couterespionage agaisnt Nazi group who were recruiting in the United States.
The World War II that Levenda describes is a magick war, and a holy war, a war in which both sides consider themselves to be fighting the forces of evil. It is a war operated behind the scenes by mystical adepts using their esoteric knowledge of symbolism, astrology, meditation, astral travel, clairavoyance, and mind control agasint the enemy. A war inspired by age-old beliefs in the Elder Gods of Europe's ancient past. In the pages that folow, Mr. Levenda discusses that war with the editor of Dagobert's Revenge.
DR: Your book is all about how occultism, esoteric beliefs and secret societies inspired many of the leading figures in the Nazi party. You also detail how several people in the upper echelons of the Golden Dawn and the OTO were involved in espionage – Karl Germer and Theodor Reuss for German Intelligence and Crowley for the British. And certainly we know that a number of occult societies throughout history, such as the Bavarian Illuminati, various Masonic sects, The Knights of Malta, The Templars, etc., have been involved in espionage and political revolution. What do you think draw occultists into the field of spying and revolutionary activities?


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Why Do Piston Rings Keep Getting Thinner?
The classic Hollywood line is you can't be too rich or too thin. While full-figured starlets may now be finding favor in tinsel town, the too-thin line is still in vogue when it comes to piston rings. It wasn't all that long ago when state of the art racing piston ring thicknesses hovered between 1/16-inch and 0.043-inch. The current state of production engines now employs ring thicknesses of 1mm and even down to 0.8mm. Since 1 mm equals 0.039-inch, that places an 8mm top ring at barely 0.031-inch. The benefits to thin rings are multifold and worthy of discussion.
The supporting mechanical reasons for this rush to be too thin are nearly universally beneficial. Let's start with a discussion of how a ring actually seals to the cylinder wall. If you've ever assembled an engine you know that piston rings need to be compressed slightly to fit into the cylinder and it requires a bit of effort to shove the piston down, especially if the piston is fitted with the old standard 5/64-inch ring package that was almost universally used for engines right up to roughly 20 years ago.
When the radial depth of the ring is reduced, so is the tension. Gas ports are one way to get a ring to seal well on the combustion stroke, while reducing friction on the other three strokes (intake, compression, exhaust).
The effort required to push the rings against the cylinder wall is generated by the ring's radial tension. A given load is required to create sufficient sealing against the cylinder wall. Basic physics tells us that the larger the ring face area touching the cylinder wall, the more radial tension is required to achieve the desired load. This greater outward tension creates more friction as the piston travels up and down the bore.
Conventional wisdom holds that roughly 50 to 60 percent of the total friction generated by a typical internal combustion engine can be traced to the piston and rings. Even more amazing is that a solid 50 percent of the piston and ring friction can be traced to just the rings. So, we're talking about measurable gains for anyone looking to reduce friction as a path toward "free" horsepower. The potential gain is even greater for engines with increased stroke because the piston travels a greater distance, creating more friction.
In some applications JE custom ring services grinds and laps rings to custom thickness. They can also back-cut and coat rings for racers looking for that something extra.
Given that a large percentage of friction occurs in the interface between the piston rings and the cylinder wall, even the OE's are paying attention. Production engines like the Gen III/IV LS families have addressed this by reducing ring thickness down to 1.5mm. The current gasoline direct-injected LT4 supercharged Corvette engines are now fitted with an even thinner 0.8mm / 0.8mm / 2.0mm ring package.
Taking this one step further, we calculated the actual contact area of an older 5/64-inch (0.078-inch) ring for a 4.00-inch bore cylinder and then compared that to a more modern 1mm (0.0393-inch) ring by calculating the circumference times the face thickness. To make it simple, we assumed a ring with a zero gap. The actual contact area numbers are less important than the difference in in contact area expressed as a percentage. The smaller 1mm ring produces nearly a 50 percent reduction in area.
There is only so much real estate on the crown of a piston. In addition to reducing friction, thinner rings make stroker pistons with very short compression heights possible.
It makes sense that just making the rings thinner would reduce friction, but the benefits are even greater. A specific ring thickness must create a given static load or pressure against the cylinder wall to help it seal. A thicker ring requires more outward (radial) tension because of its larger surface area. But by reducing thickness, this allows the designer to also reduce the radial pressure to compensate for the reduced surface area in contact with the cylinder wall.
This may be difficult to grasp so let's use an analogy. Let's say you weigh 200 pounds and decide to take a walk in deep snow in the woods. Standard shoes sink into the snow, but snow shoes with a larger contact area create a reduced load per square inch. Applying this analogy to a thinner ring (a smaller contact patch on the cylinder wall) calls for a reduced total load since the contact area is smaller. The thinner ring demands a reduced axial load so the thinner ring's load per square inch is similar to that of the older, thicker version, albeit without the friction tax.
JE custom ring services such as grinding, lapping, and coating were previously top-secret Pro Stock and NASCAR-grade tech.
Within the three-ring package on a typical automotive piston, the oil rings create the highest individual tension or load. This load is applied through the design of the middle portion of the ring called the expander. Recent improvements in expander design have reduced the friction while still allowing the ring to remove oil from the cylinder wall.
Drag racers have known for decades that one way to minimize friction is to reduce the tension of the oil ring by using an expander designed for a slightly smaller bore. While this does reduce friction and improve power, the tradeoff is increased oil consumption. This is generally not a problem for a limited use drag race engine but certainly not a wise move for street or endurance engines.
Modern rings are made from stronger material and can have profiled faces that assists in sealing and oil control.
A HOT ROD Magazine test in which the Westech Performance Group, led by Steve Brule', dyno tested a 377-ci small-block Chevy fitted with a set of JE pistons configured with a 5/64- / 5/64- / 3/16-inch standard performance ring package. This 377ci engine was configured with a 4.155-inch bore and a 3.48-inch stroke. With the average power recorded over three runs, they disassembled the engine and replaced the pistons with an identical set machined for a thinner 1.2mm / 1.2mm / 3mm JE Pro Seal ring package. The results revealed a peak horsepower improvement of 6.8 hp and a peak torque increase of 3.8 lb-ft on an engine making 458 hp and 433 lb-ft of torque.
Just as this stack of coins illustrates, cylinders are often not straight. Even if machined perfectly straight, under operation, cylinder pressure and loading in the block can distort them. This is especially prevalent in aluminum engines with thin sleeves.
While many were surprised that the improvement increase was not a greater number, there are several factors at work here. The peak horsepower numbers were generated at 6,000 rpm. Had this engine generated peak horsepower at higher engine speeds, the results would have been even greater. Another variable is stroke. As Perkins mentioned in his story, had this test been performed on a longer stroke engine like a 4.25-inch stroke big-block, the results would have been commensurately greater.
Thinner piston rings are made from carbon steel, which allows them to be stronger than thicker, cast iron rings, while still reducing friction.
This trend toward thinner rings also enhances ring seal because the thinner ring has a better chance of sealing to a cylinder bore that is usually not completely round or concentric. Think of a cylinder bore under dynamic load as a tall stack of dimes. When measuring cylinder bore, imagine that you are measuring it in the area occupied by just one of those dimes. If the bore is measured in several places, the diameter may read the same which many would then assume "proves" the bore is round over its entire height. However, when the cylinder is viewed from the side, the bore may in fact be more in an S-shape as opposed to being perfectly "square" top to bottom. Assuming the bore is distorting under load, a thinner ring will have a much better chance of conforming and sealing to that S-shaped cylinder wall.
For reference, here is a racing-style top ring as compared to a well-worn dime.
Any discussion of "thin" rings must also include what the ring engineers call axial ring width – or the width of the ring as viewed from the top. The SAE has established a standard automotive piston ring axial width using the formula bore diameter divided by 22. So a 4.00-inch bore / 22 = an axial width of 0.182-inch. However, reducing this standard width lowers the radial ring tension even further. Often this is done to improve strength in race pistons where the ring package is very close to the top of the piston, leaving very little room between the back side of the top ring and the valve relief.
Being rich and thin are often associated with fame and rock star status, but when it comes to thin rings, that's just something that will make your engine a bit more powerful. And that's just a whole lot more fun.
Piston Ring Thickness Chart
This chart lists the more popular ring thicknesses. Engineers call this dimension axial height – but that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.
Top and 2nd Rings Oil Rings
Ring Thickness (inches) Ring Thickness (inches)
5/64 0.0781 3/16 0.1875
1/16 0.0625 3mm 0.1179
1.5mm 0.0589 2mm 0.0786
1.2mm 0.0471
This article was sponsored by JE Pistons. For more information, please visit our website at www.jepistons.com
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