America is a beautiful nation that gives you the freedom to sit on your chair, hold the device in your hand, and listen to your yuppie-like and defiantly-critical music. But lately it has become far too popular to throw stones, and to point to others for blame. Last week it was President Bush and The [...]
Content Over Context I am writing this message on a machine in a place and at a time, and that has little relevance. What matters is that you are reading this message, and what would matter even more would be if this message somehow made you think something interesting or new. We share and connect [...]
That one can accomplish entrepreneurial pursuits appears before us on an almost daily basis, but it is always cool when those materializations happen close to home. This morning, my eye was caught by a TechCrunch article about an innovative company, EyeView, that just so happens to have been launched by a buddy of mine from [...]
Here are my notes on a talk that I attended this weekend at Harvard Law. The talk, entitled Positive Psychology: The Science of Positive Potential, was given by Shawn Achor, an expert on “Happiness”…sounds like a pretty sweet job to me. The basic idea is that we can impact our own happiness with a few [...]
This video I found on the excellent blog on the current crisis, In Paulson We Trust, is worth watching. It features Nassim Taleb, one of the few who anticipated the current conundrum we find ourselves in primarily be recognizing we don’t know much. More on Taleb is in an earlier post on the causes of [...]
A friend forwarded me this article (worth the read) highlighting some of the people and psychology behind the financial crisis in order to prod a response. The End The era that defined Wall Street is finally, officially over. Michael Lewis, who chronicled its excess in Liar’s Poker, returns to his old haunt to figure out [...]
I just saw this article, and I realized that like many of our ordinary conceptions, the idea of a ‘bank’ has morphed significantly over the last few months: American Express to Become Bank Holding Company The Fed’s approval for American Express was similar to the decision it made in September to transform the country’s two [...]
I’ve been meeting with some very smart investors lately, but few sound as clear-headed and direct as Jim Rogers. Here is a video on his views on where we are headed: 1) More downside 2) Inflation in the long-term 3) Bullishness on commodities It is worth a watch: addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fparanoidbull.com%2F2008%2F11%2Fjim-rogers-on-the-markets%2F’; addthis_title = ‘Jim+Rogers+On+The+Markets’; addthis_pub [...]
Perhaps this will now sound redundant, I will repeat: binary thinking is dangerous and more importantly it is inaccurate. What I mean by this is not ground-breaking, although lots of wicked-smart dudes like Godel and Sartre have pointed it out in revolutionary sounding ways. Perhaps best conceptualized in the garb of quantum-mechanics, my point is simply [...]
The Short-term Outlook is Dark. The unfortunate reality is that we are going to face tough economic times in the short term. Furthermore, certain “structural” factors in the credit markets have led me to believe that the market prices of assets (including most stocks) have more downside risk than upside potential in the short term. [...]