Interesting analysis on TechCrunch yesterday – “Can Google Get Its Mojo Back?“ It wasn’t too long ago that the world feared global domination from Microsoft, followed by the red hot years of Google, and now all the talk is about Facebook’s $50 billion valuation. That’s the beauty of it all – market players with innovation… [Read more…]
January 4, 2011
Big news early in 2011 with Goldman Sachs raising and investing up to $1.5 billion in Facebook. To do so, Goldman is setting up a “Special Purpose Vehicle” (SPV). Because Facebook is a privately-held company, it can have no more than 499 individual investors due to SEC regulations. This SPV enables Goldman to make highly… [Read more…]
December 16, 2010
All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis (Joe Nocera, Bethany McLean) – 30 year history about the run-up to the mortgage and financial crisis. Fooling Some of the People All of the Time: A Long Short Story (David Einhorn) – Hedge fund manager explains how he saw taking the short… [Read more…]
November 21, 2010
Spent the last two mornings catching up on the Charlie Rose show from this week. He did a nice job of bringing in all sides to provide perspective and opinion on the US Budget Deficit Commission appointed by President Obama. Bottom line – our standard of living and entitlements are too expensive for the tax… [Read more…]
October 28, 2010
From BusinessInsider today: http://www.businessinsider.com/19-countries-most-likely-to-default-2010-10#19-croatia-1 Over 50% of the top 19 are in Europe, many of which are former Soviet-bloc/Soviet Republics.
October 27, 2010
Pragmatic Capitalism asked the question – “Is this 1937-38 all over again?” 1937 is important because after experiencing economic growth for a couple of years, the US economy fell sharply into a great recession. (It’s a topic of debate as to whether the 1937 slowdown was a new recession or an extension of the Great… [Read more…]
October 26, 2010
A Bloomberg article today reports the view that Greece will assuredly default on their sovereign debt within three years. Serendipitously, from my reading of “This Time is Different” by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff: In the modern era, however, the idea of using gunboat diplomacy to collect debts seems far-fetched (in most cases). The cost-benefit… [Read more…]
October 24, 2010
Who knew my Sunday morning coffee with the week’s recordings of The Charlie Rose Show would include culinary genius Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton? Reich just published his book “After Shock.” While I typically don’t agree with Reich on policy, he made several excellent arguments and one-liners about economic decisions ahead: The… [Read more…]
October 19, 2010
Found the book via Megan McArdle’s recent post – “Should We Just Call a ‘Do-Over’ on the Mortgage Market?“. (The answer is a resounding “no” BTW… There are other more painful, but more effective ways to solve the problem.) Benjamin Roth was a lawyer in Youngstown, OH through the Great Depression and kept a running… [Read more…]
October 14, 2010
Came across a very good journal article today for those interested in the evolution of entrepreneurship – William Baumol’s “Entrepreneurship: Productive, Unproductive, and Destructive.” Published back in 1990, it’s an interesting read given the current unemployment levels and post-housing bust economic doldrums we’re experiencing. Baumol write that “…at time the entrepreneur may even lead a… [Read more…]
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January 10, 2011
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