Category: Business Advice

Business Advice Memoir Politics

Ay Caramba!

By Rich Marin | by Rich Marin

When I awoke to the news alert from the Financial Times that President Trump had announced a U.S. invasion of Venezuela resulting in the capture, seizure and removal of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, presumably to some U.S.-controlled location, I was not totally surprised. I then watched this morning as Trump and Secretary of “War” Hegseth, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio standing behind nodding, spoke about the unprecedented aggressive military action. Something Hegseth…

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Business Advice Politics

Punching Above Your Weight

By Rich Marin | by Rich Marin

Lets get real for a moment. We’ve all seen the various economic and demographic projections for 2050. We know that there are three winners in terms of economic output. They are, unequivocally and with no particular order, the United States, China and India. If you look at current population level as a guide (all economists understand the relationship between population and economic growth), this makes sense. In rank order, based on 2025 data, the ten…

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Business Advice Memoir Politics

The Wizards of Oz

By Rich Marin | by Rich Marin

Australia just launched what is being called the world’s first ban on social media for children under 16. It takes effect today (December 10, 2025). What the law does is that it prevents Australians under 16 from creating or keeping accounts on age-restricted social media platforms. That means the government is deactivating a huge number (over 1 million) of social media accounts that transgress that standard. There are no parental consent exceptions. Even with parental…

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Business Advice Memoir

On the Waterfront

By Rich Marin | by Rich Marin

In 2011, while I was trying to launch a hedge fund that would have bought defaulted mortgages from the FHA at levels attractive for them and, we thought, very attractive for us. We had an enlightened plan to fix a lot of the broken mortgages that were the detritus of the subprime collapse. It seemed both noble and profitable and our story was compelling enough to attract $1.5 billion in capital from one of the…

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Business Advice Memoir Politics

Reloading Latin America

By Rich Marin | by Rich Marin

In 1985 I was running the largest merchant banking unit in my bank, something called the New York City Division. It was what all my peers aspired to do, but I found it sort of boring to be doing things like helping ITT do its next acquisition or helping Ron Perlman at Revlon reshape his juggernaut. I was asked to go up to talk to our Vice Chairman, who said the Management Committee wanted to…

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Business Advice Love Memoir

Sweating Equity

By Rich Marin | by Rich Marin

My dear friend Frank is the guy who mentored me in the handling of private equity investment. He was a venture capitalist long before it was even known how cool it was to be a venture capitalist. Frank is a Marshall Scholar who attended the London School of Economics just when America was entering the 1960s. He did a stint in the Army like any good red-blooded American male did in those days, but luckily…

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Business Advice Memoir

Bedside Manner

By Rich Marin | by Rich Marin

I am more focused on personal healthcare than I can remember ever being. One obvious reason is watching my brother-in-law struggle with his various maladies and the healthcare system’s back-and-forth about how best to handle it. I’ve seen the importance or specialist expertise in immediately fixing problems. I’ve seen specialists contradicting one another as to the state of their patient, perhaps overly focused on their specialty without adequate consideration of the bigger patient issue. I’ve…

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Business Advice Memoir

Quiet Enjoyment

By Rich Marin | by Rich Marin

One of those great conflicts that regularly afflicts me (and probably other liberal-minded sorts) is how to balance the Good Samaritan aspects of the ethos I try hard to consistently espouse and the lifestyle we live and like to maintain. I long ago determined that I am no Sister Teresa that insists on living my life with no creature comforts. I look to Pope Francis, someone who most would agree chose, even as Pope, to…

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Business Advice Memoir Politics

The Way of the World

By Rich Marin | by Rich Marin

Tonight I am entertaining Kim’s family for the second night. They are here to honor the death a few days ago of her and their sibling. Unfortunately, since everyone grieves differently, some in the family are simply not ready to convene, so its all a bit of a broken play. Kim is at her final dress rehearsal for her show, which plays tomorrow and Saturday. She is going through a lot this week, so I…

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Business Advice Memoir

Waterwise Gridlock

By Rich Marin | by Rich Marin

With the AWS cloud storage outage that occurred yesterday, we are probably all wondering if we should be paying more attention to the AI and data center buildout issues that are being written about every day. I am also seeing more articles about how the data center demands on both power grids AND water supplies are starting to impact communities. Data centers use staggering amounts of both electricity and water and both are starting to…

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