Next President for Sale: Cheap
Next President for Sale: Cheap The overlap between money and politics is nowhere more blatant than in the Iowa Electronic Market (IEM) . Run by faculty at the University of Iowa Henry B. Tippie...
View ArticleDebit Card Fees: There's A Pony In There
The banks are going to find a way to take our money. I'd rather be able to see what I am spending than hunt for the pony. Debit cards are a lot easier and safer than hauling around a checkbook, so I...
View ArticleIf Warren Buffett Can Have Secrets, Why Can't I?
If Warren Buffett Can Have Secrets, Why Can't I? Where's Warren? Warren Buffett recently announced he had amassed 5.4% of IBM -- without telling anybody for months. The only hint until recently was an...
View ArticleTrue Aim - Does Elvis Costello Act Against Self-Interest? Will Merkel?
True Aim - Does Elvis Costello Act Against Self-Interest? Will Merkel? Roycroft Subsumed Self-Interest for Community And who decides what self-interest is, anyway? Elvis' latest box set, "The Return of...
View ArticleIf T. Boone Pickens Isn't Too Old To Invest, Neither Are You
Miro Was 81 When He Made This Tapestry for the WTC If T. Boone Pickens Isn't Too Old To Invest, Neither Are You He's 83. Warren Buffett and H. Ross Perot are both 81. Even Gordon Gecko/Michael Douglas...
View ArticleGinni Rometty: Stick to Your Deal
Ginni Rometty: Stick to Your Deal The incoming CEO of IBM does not plan any immediate changes in strategy, yet she intends for one of the world's biggest corporations to continually reinvent itself, as...
View ArticleShowtime's House of Lies: Just That
Showtime's House of Lies: Just That Warhol: Entertaining Context to Ponder Big Issues Showtime's new series, which premiered Sunday, putatively showcases those who advise and participate in the...
View ArticleWikipedia Blackout: Grand Gesture or Grandstanding?
Wikipedia Blackout: Grand Gesture or Grandstanding? This post is not about the pros and cons of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) or PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act), tho I do have an opinion. It...
View ArticleFacebook IPO Filing: It's What You Don't Say
Miro Left Things Out Too Facebook IPO Filing: It's What You Don't Say When I try a new restaurant, the first thing I do is check out the bathroom, and not for the obvious reason. I sniff for...
View ArticleFind Hidden Messages in Earnings Reports for Fun and Profit
One of my day jobs is helping my clients interpret/decode their clients' earnings reports so they can best match money to value. Just like the who-sits-by-who in the old USSR May Day parades, there...
View ArticleRush Was A Genius
... had he been performing on an improv stage. Rush Limbaugh's latest kerfuffle, which involved him calling Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown law student who advocated for birth control, a slut and a...
View ArticleWhat Do $5 Gas, Iran And Improv Have In Common?
All three reflect the pros and cons of unified action. Even though the U.S. is or soon could be a net exporter of gasoline, we still depend on Middle-Eastern oil. Iran has a lot of it, and we're mad...
View ArticleFacebook and Instagram: Ask Don Draper
Perception vs Reality A billion dollars for two manager/stockholders and eleven employees working at a two-year old profitless company? Is this a fever dream? As you Mad Men addicts know, Don Draper...
View ArticleWhat Do the Beam Acquisition of Pinnacle Vodka and the Borgias Have in Common?
They both have to do with double entry bookkeeping. Fun topic, right? My post-grad corporate accounting class threw me for a complete loop when we studied debits and credits. I could not for the life...
View ArticleHey, Mark Zuckerberg! Are You My Friend?
Don't know about you but I have actual friends, Facebook 'friends', and Linkedin f r i e n d s, in descending order of, you know -- real friendship. The minute one of them recommends I buy something...
View ArticleSpain Is Not Uganda. Say What?
Opposite Day: Text as Image by Ruscha Spain wanted a bailout, basically $125B new debt from the Eurozone. In the middle of negotiations, Spain's Prime Minister texted his finance minister to hang...
View ArticleSoccer is Life: Germany v. Greece
Germany is 100:1 times likely to beat Greece today in men's soccer at UEFA 2012. Giorgio Karagouni, Greece's captain and goal scorer against Russia (whom they beat to make the quarters), is out for...
View ArticleObamacare: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Taxes
Much flap everywhere about Romney calling 'Obamacare' a TAX. I say, GOOD! At least it is honest. By the way, the word TAX and Obamacare are connected because the Supreme Court said they were, and...
View ArticleDeacon Blues: There's A Name For It (Besides Short Selling)
Steely Dan says: You call me a fool. You say it's a crazy scheme. This one's for real. I already bought the dream. So useless to ask me why. Throw a kiss and say goodbye. I'll make it this time. I'm...
View ArticleThis Brew's For You: Craft Beer Economics for Your Labor Day Pleasure
Let me first say that I do not drink, though my husband does. This post was inspired by a forced-march to Meantime Brewry in Greenwich, UK, where I was treated to a three-hour plus session watching...
View ArticleLessons From Showtime's Web Therapy for Draghi and Zuckerberg
Being an improv person, I love Web Therapy (Showtime, 10:30 PM Sundays) . The brainchild of Lisa Kudrow, this 1/2 hour masterpiece centers around a therapy 'modality' invented by Dr. Fiona Wallice...
View ArticleDid Video Kill The Radio Star? Romney's Waterloo.
OK, so the man said some things that were inflammatory, when viewed through a certain lens. But now he has a choice to make: embrace or deny both what he said and the media which conveyed it. For my...
View ArticleWould You Eat the Dog? : Five Questions You Won't Hear Asked Tonight
1. You are attending the first State Dinner in North Korea, at a crucial time in U.S.-North Korea relations. You are sure you are being served Fido. Would you eat the dog? With apologies to dog lovers,...
View ArticleHeeeere Cliffy-Cliffy-Cliffy: Bring on the Fiscal Cliff!
Think 'rapture' when the pious ascend to heaven. Think the Redskins and the Nationals doing well, even for a moment, SIMULTANEOUSLY. Think automatic government cutbacks and tax increases at the same...
View ArticleTurtle for Thanksgiving : College Football Econ.
This Saturday, the University of Maryland will play at North Carolina (3:00, ESPN 3) for one of the last times. The Terrapins have announced they are leaving the Atlantic Coast Conference, which they...
View ArticleMortgage Interest Deduction: Take My Toaster Oven. Please.
Up for discussion in the fiscal cliff ballyhoo is elimination/reduction of the mortgage interest deduction. The housing industry is up in arms, calling it a kick in the breadbasket for middle income...
View ArticleZipcar: Keep Driving Me Crazy. Please.
Far too often small companies sacrifice their competitive distinctiveness when they get acquired. In hopes that life is not just a series of cool things turning to junk, I offer the following...
View ArticleLance Armstrong Guesting on Showtime's 'Shameless?'
This show, which I love, can well be read as a treatise in economic theory. The set-up is six kids, from about 3 to 20 something, living in a Chicago slumlet. Most are attractive, and/or intelligent....
View ArticleEconomics Lessons from the New Pre-Raphaelite Exhibit (Twinkies, Anyone?)
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) were the bad boyz of English painting. Inspired by work created three centuries before, they sought to move forward by looking back-- a credo rich with economic...
View ArticleRooting for the Underdog: Florida Gulf Coast and ....Microsoft?
As any NCAA Men's basketball fan knows, the most fascinating Cinderella at the Big Dance is Florida Gulf Coast University. Their 78-68 victory over the mighty second-seeded Georgetown Hoyas last...
View ArticleIt's All Based on Trust
It’s All Based on Trust ( William Hurt as Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, in Emmy-nominated Too Big To Fail) Quick … how do you know trust when you see it? My little company helps clients find good...
View ArticleFed 'Twist' a/k/a Me First a/k/a Bad Improv
Every improviser dreams of getting a call from Lorne Michaels, a text from Seth Meyers, or a shoutout from Tina or Amy (who of course have moved on but surely still have pull...). But too often we...
View ArticleInaction = Death, in Markets and in Improv
Inaction = Death, in Markets and in Improv As Forbes’ readers know, nobody makes money unless somebody does something. If trading stopped. Dead. Right now- (pause for dramatic effect) – pretty soon...
View ArticleRepatriation Tax Holiday: Fun For Some Or Fun For All?
Repatriation Tax Holiday: Fun For Some Or Fun For All? The latest Congressional proposal to declare a tax holiday on repatriated earningsis more than a little counter-intuitive, yet not without...
View ArticleThe "N Word" in Finance and in Improv
The “N Word" in Finance and in Improv In finance, it’s “ nationalization”. In improv, it’s “no”. Belgium and France just announced they would “n word” part of Dexia, Belgium’s largest bank, by buying...
View ArticleWho Should Get Paid To Occupy Wall Street?
Who Should Get Paid to Occupy Wall Street? The general rule I try to follow when advising my clients on what to charge, is that good deals happen when theone getting paidgives back more in value than...
View ArticleMargin Call: Heartless Bankers Need Love Too
Margin Call: Heartless Bankers Need Love Too This new movie illustrates a fundamental trade-off inherent in investing and in improv. It’s also thoughtful, entertaining, and just provocative enough to...
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