Beaten by the Market I am spending more and more time these days working as an expert witness in investment management cases. One thing keeps coming up over and over again and that is the value or lack thereof of active management versus passive management. In simplistic terms, for readers who are not financially-focused people, the simple issue is whether people can consistently beat the market or whether the market will always dominate and make…
A Bear in the China Shop Right now there is an area of central China that is quarantined with its residents “blocked” from exiting and all entrances and goods for it are closely monitored to and from the province of Hubei and specifically the large cities of Wuhan and Huanggang. Over twenty million people are inside the quarantined zone. To put that into perspective, that is more than the population of the entire country of…
The Art of Doing Father/son scenes always mean a lot to me. It may be because I had so few, if any, with my father, or it may because I try to do so many with my sons. Obviously the two are connected, but I still find they drill deep with me. Baseball seems to be a common landscape for these interactions given its prominence as an aging, but still inter-generational common ground. The first…
Connections Being in the midst of this last week in New York City before moving to San Diego has meant that I have been taking all the offered lunch and dinner appointments with friends and colleagues that want to send me off with good wishes. Since most of those folks live, work or just hang out in midtown, it means I have been shuttling back and forth all week, but have told myself it’s…
Skating on thin ICE Those of you who follow my stories know that I am running a company that is trying to save the world one hydrogen molecule at a time. We used to be a much different company that was trying to save the world one ammonia molecule at a time. I don’t think many of my readers remember their high school chemistry so hydrogen is H2 where ammonia is NH3. You may think…
All-In My son-in-law emailed me yesterday with a business question. I am officially an advisor (compensated with some granted shares) to his start-up company, which he is launching on his own time while doing his day job. Therefore, I feel obliged to give him pragmatic business advice that tries to separate itself from my father-in-law role and the issues that might affect my daughter and two granddaughters. His start-up is like many of the things…
Selling Futures Greta Thunberg has spent the week in Davos at the World Economic Forum. Knowing her, she probably rode her bike there from Stockholm and is probably camped out on a ski slope (Swedes are a hearty bunch and Swedish climate activists are especially hearty). My calculations suggest it would take her a week to cycle there, so I bet Greta would do it in five days. She would probably give speeches along the…
Riding on the City of New Ordeals I can’t help myself. I am a child of the sixties and Arlo Guthrie is never far from my consciousness. Consider yourself lucky that I am not ready to give you my rendition of the Alice’s Restaurant Massacree in four part harmony as Arlo would say. My pal Arthur “Living Legend” Einstein, a founding member of my motorcycle gang knows Arlo well enough to have sold him his…
Kublai Khan and Citizen Kane I’ve had quite a weekend. One day was totally dedicated to my kids and grandkids. They wanted to check out the American Dream, which is the newest metro-area attraction brought to you by the people who brought the Mall of America to Minnesota. That’s a family called the Ghermezian’s, and they bought the old Xanadu project that got mothballed in the 90’s. Xanadu was intended to parlay a location near…
Kabuki It’s the early 1600’s and the city of Kyoto, the Imperial seat of the Japanese Empire, is all agog over a new dance drama that portrayed the comedy of private life. This was all too entertaining for the cultured members of the audience who needed to maintain their regal composure. Unfortunately, they were watching the performances in the red-light district with a diverse crowd of Imperial members, shogunate disciples and even lowly merchants. The…