Category Archives

Archive of posts published in the category: Business

Guilded Colleges

from The New York Times, Stop Universities From Hoarding Money by Victor Fleischer excerpt SAN DIEGO — WHO do you think received more cash from Yale’s endowment last year: Yale students, or the private equity fund managers hired to invest the

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Commerce Between Consenting Adults

from Uber Crashes the Democratic Party by William McGurn in The Wall Street Journal (gated):  Marco Rubio, who last year sided with Uber over regulators in Miami, accused Mrs. Clinton of trying to “regulate 21st-century industries with 20th-century ideas.” Jeb Bush pointedly traveled

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Mysteriously Unexploited Opportunities

from Cafe Hayek Don Boudreaux writes An Intellectual Identifies Yet Another Mysteriously Unexploited Profit Opportunity Excerpt: I believe that I’ve put my finger on what ails the American economy!  The people who possess the information, insight, wisdom, and vision to

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Uberal Opportunities

From the Washington Post The future of new business is disrupting old business by Barry Ritholtz excerpts: There are many lessons to be learned from Uber, the taxi- ­ and car-hailing start-up that came out of nowhere and is valued at

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Uber and DUIs

In LA Weekly Dennis Romero writes IS UBER REDUCING DUIS IN L.A? In a vast, 4,000-square-mile county, it’s hard for many folks to get around without a car. And that has meant that DUIs have become a much-feared epidemic. But

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Public Workers vs the Public

Amity Shlaes reviews “Government Against Itself: Public Union Power and Its Consequences” by Daniel DiSalvo in the Wall Street Journal: Excerpts: The facts: Public-sector unions are not underdogs. Since 2009, membership in unions such as the American Federation of State,

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Politically Disruptive Technology

from Bloomberg, Is Uber Democratic or Republican? by Emily Greenhouse notes that Marco Rubio noted the impact that Uber has on the youth’s perception of regulation. The students in my class were genuinely intrigued by this innovative service and wondered

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Liberal Inequality

The most profound level of inequality and bifurcated class structure is found in the densest and most influential urban environment in North America— Manhattan. In 1980, Manhattan ranked seventeenth among the nation’s more than 3,000 counties in income inequality; by

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Thoughts on Lower Oil Prices

At first glance the dramatically lower oil prices is great news because just about everyone we know will have more money in their pocket at the end of the week.   The middle class and the lower income will feel

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An Economy of Trust

In a few previous posts I explored the dynamic of new commercial enterprises like Uber (read Uber Libertarians in American Thinker)  that defied the ability of the regulatory state to deal with the rapid development of very large commercial communities.

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Great Investment Advice

16 Rules for Investors to Live By by Morgan Housel in The Wall Street Journal. my 3 favorites: (all are worthy and valuable tips) Most bubbles begin with a rational idea that gets taken to an irrational extreme. Dot-com companies

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The Uber Factor

I  flew into Houston Hobby Airport a few days ago, touched the Uber App (i had set up some time ago).  I put in the destination and It said there was a ride two minutes away.  I learned that even

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Protecting the Entrenched

The government’s protection of the entrenched is most noted by local efforts to ban Uber and the Tesla distribution model.  Of course, like most protectionist legislation, the stated objective is to protect the public, but the end game is to

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Why Tax Cuts are Disproportionate

Kevin Williamson writes Blue Voodoo in National Review. Excerpts:  The cartoon version of conservative economic thinking — that we should subsidize gazillionaires in order to create work opportunities for yacht painters, monocle polishers, and truffle graters — is fundamentally at

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The Future of the Auto

I called the Tesla dealer in Atlanta for a test drive. Test drives were booked a week in advance; two weeks if you wanted to test drive on a Saturday.  If I ordered an S model it would be November

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Virtue and Keynesian Policy

In a Charlie Munger interview he discusses the necessity of social virtue for Keynesian policies to work.  Societies like ours, the Germans, or the Japanese have the virtues required for Keynesian stimulus to work.  Greece on the other hand lacked

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Feeding a Culture of Envy

During the question and answer session of the annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting one from the audience asked about fuller disclosure of compensation of more than the top executives as required by the SEC.  Since there were so many managers getting

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A Business vs The Stock

  One of the better questions submitted during the annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting concerned the poor track record of most conglomerates.  Few succeeded for any length of time. Warren’s response was illuminating. Many conglomerates were just tricks played with the

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A Community of Capitalists

I attended my first shareholders’ meeting of Berkshire Hathaway in Omaha this weekend.   My investment manager, Gary Watkins (Banyan Capital), has been a shareholder and regular attendee of these meetings for some time.  I had heard of these meetings as

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