December 2011
1 post
'Twas the Night 'Fore Christmas (2011 edition)
‘Twas the night ‘fore Christmas, just after I had retired to bed; I was reflecting on how mankind had become somewhat mad; I was pondering on mysteries that made me somehow sad; It was quiet; there was nothing but silence to be heard.
‘Twas suddenly that the silence was punctuated by a loud thud; I rushed downstairs and there I saw a little being, covered in mud. Clad in a red...
May 2011
1 post
“Much like Charlie Sheen, who seems to believe that all publicity is good...”
– David Einhorn (Greenlight Capital Investor letter)
December 2010
1 post
'Twas the Night Before Christmas
‘Twas the night before Christmas, while I strolled along a woodland trail; The breeze was punctuated by a stench that made the air stale. On the horizon was a bizarre being that looked awfully frail; It appeared to have rending claws and a spiny extended tail; It was adorned in straw, and sauntered at the pace of a snail.
Tugging behind it were revolting people, clad in garments coloured red;...
September 2010
1 post
Why Africa has a high HIV/AIDS infection rate
Note: The use of racial/gender references does not imply bias or discrimination. This blog post is just a dispassionate interrogation of scientific data.
A map of the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the world:
I’ve been browsing through Nicholas Christakis et al’s book entitled Connected: The Surprising Power Of Our Social Networks, and I think I now understand why Africa has a...
June 2010
1 post
Jaggers: The Fall Of An Illustrious Zimbabwean...
Jaggers Wholesalers Zimbabwe was founded in 1910 by an Englishman named Messr. John W. Jagger. It opened its first branch in Bulawayo, and its sales team traveled around the country by ox-drawn carriage, peddling goods imported from South Africa.
By 1998, the entity’s branch network had exploded to fifty-two branches that were scattered across Zimbabwe. And thanks to a substantial equity...
May 2010
1 post
“Many of these good-looking girls are not high-class assets worth 100 cents on...”
– Bill Gross
April 2010
6 posts
“In 2006, the Venezuelan government needed to spend about $2.5 billion to...”
– Patrick Esteruelas
“We are comfortable taking credit default swap positions in certain sovereigns,...”
– Paul McCulley
“Outside of the Agency MBS sector, we see some attractive buying opportunities in...”
– Paul McCulley
“Europe’s recovery is delayed by deflationary headwinds: Our forecast for...”
– Paul McCulley
“We believe the U.S. is in the second stage of a three-stage recovery. The...”
– Paul McCulley
“We expect a desynchronized recovery, with less leveraged emerging economies...”
– Paul McCulley
March 2010
34 posts
“On another occasion, Aneurin Bevan, a leader of the Labor party and a committed...”
– Barton Biggs illustrating one of Winston Churchill’s witticisms in Wealth, War and Wisdom
“You think you can embarrass your only true ally in the world, to satisfy some...”
– Tom Friedman
“One of the key lessons of a complex adaptive system is that you can’t...”
– Michael Mauboussin
“Experts are right less than half the time, and they are worse than dart -...”
– Philip Tetlock
“Expert opinion on politics, economics, and business should be ignored as random...”
– PhilipTetlock
“Over the last 5yrs, $200 bill of speculative money has gone into the rare metals...”
– Bart Chilton
“Having institutions that are too big to fail also creates competitive inequities...”
– Ben Bernanke
“The costs to all of us of having firms deemed too big to fail were stunningly...”
– Ben Bernanke
“The realization that you have significant limitations can be hard to digest. But...”
– Professor Bottger
“It is easy to criticize the competence of those with greater responsibilities...”
– Professor Bottger
“The further executives advance in leadership, the more they must deal with...”
– Professor Preston C. Bottger
Brain food: the psychology of heroism (The... →
psychotherapy:
Of all the virtues, heroism is now the most remote. Heroes are either mythic or historical characters (Achilles or Gandhi) or they are superhuman (Spider-Man, or even 9/11 firefighters). What they are not is one of us. Our age has role models and it has celebrities, but it has no room for heroes.
Fighting to revive heroism is Philip Zimbardo, the septuagenarian who is probably...
“When traditional religion collapses people still need spirituality,So they...”
– Sanal Edamaruku
“Forecasters as a group will almost certainly miss the onset of the next...”
– Alan Greenspan
“If people think you care whether their children live or die, you don’t have to...”
– Bill Clinton
“If a start-up company is able to develop a technology that generates electricity...”
– David Anthony
“There are some cultural differences. To be honest, Chinese people tend to listen...”
– Hongmei Zhang
“As China’s place in the world rises and it gains strength economically and...”
– Julian Wong
“To keep global warming from rising above 2 degrees Celsius, the world would have...”
– Nobuo Tanaka
“Toyota did not grow through mergers or acquisitions, it did so organically. This...”
– Joel Kurtzman
“Toyota has always been the least vertically integrated of the automobile...”
– Joel Kurtzman
“Eiji Toyoda allowed leadership to permeate the organization. He listened to his...”
– Joel Kurtzman
“Much of what has been called the Toyota Way was based on the continuous...”
– Joel Kurtzman
Communism Increases Men's Beauty Premium In The...
I must say that I’ve just watched one of the most riveting episodes of the Tribal Odyssey series. This particular episode featured a nomadic tribe called the Wodaabe.
The Wodaabe tribe, a small sub-group of the Fulani people, continually traverses across stretch of desert territory that lies within the geographic boarders of Niger. And, it has cultural practices that are at opposite poles...
“The alternative to optimism is not pessimism, which can be equally delusional....”
– Barbara Ehrenreich
“In 2006, the runaway bestseller The Secret promised that you could have anything...”
– Barbara Ehrenreich
“Any effective multilateral system depends largely on the willingness of its most...”
– P.B.W. Rayment
Case Study That Chronicles The Fall Of Polaroid →
“Jonathan faces considerable pressure from some within his government to have...”
– Sebastian Spio-Garbrah
“A 2009 study done by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and...”
– Paul Otellini, Intel CEO
“The things that are not conducive to investments here are [corporate] taxes and...”
– Thomas Friedman and Paul Otellini
“Hey, if you’re going to get mad at me every time I do something stupid,...”
– Homer Simpson
“Government bailouts and guarantees such as those evidenced and envisioned in...”
– Bill Gross
“Twenty years of accelerated globalization incrementally undermined the real...”
– Bill Gross
February 2010
69 posts
“My biggest fear is that you are all living in the past. Instead, be a part of...”
– Jeff Immelt
“The “new currency” for business is no longer cost cutting, but...”
– Jeff Immelt
“Before I go to bed each night I rethink how I could have done things differently...”
– Jeff Immelt
“While it worked, the CDO thus was instrumental in expanding access to mortgage...”
– Rob Litan