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…
Anonymity I am undecided about the concept of anonymity. Does it help to stay in the shadows? Is it humility in the best sense of the word? Or is it the ultimate hubris of thinking you are above the need for recognition? Is anonymity cowardly or brave in the most selfless way? Does privacy really matter as much as all the notices sent to us imply, or is it impossible in this day and age…
Experts to the Rescue I am six week into my latest expert testimony on a pension case and generated by my new Expert Witness Team of Italian/Spanish guys who have played in this field for others and are now launching their own gig. On the first case, which started in late November, I’ve put in over 41 hours so far. I like the way the team does this in that their billing rate is half…
Catching Up I had lunch with an old friend today. In actuality, this was a guy who worked for me on two occasions and worked with me on another project where he was positioned to be my #2 guy. He last worked for me twelve years ago, so since we have stayed in regular touch with one another, it is fair to say we are friends more than colleagues. There is a point in time…
Death of a Giant The news just came across this morning that Paul Volcker died yesterday at the age of 92. At 6’7” tall, he qualified as a giant of a man. But mostly, he was a giant to most of us who lived through the financial worlds of the 1970’s and 1980’s. His impact on the economic history of the United States and perhaps the world was matched by few men. As a man…
Cash Management What is cash? Cash is liquidity, money you can put your hands on at the moment you need it. In theory you want to keep only the money you absolutely need on hand in cash so that the rest of your money can be more productively employed in some form of compounding investment. I have said before and will say again that compounding is one of the greatest powers of the world because…