There is a TV show that a lot of friends are trying to get me to watch. Its Durham, about a serial killer in Durham Ontario on the Showcase channel. Despite the upscale action and attractive cinematography, I have no interest in it. I am tired of serial killers on TV’s many Justice Is Rendered shows posing as the Law and Order Bunch or the…
I have been arguing here that there is a Capital Investment Crisis in the US because organizations and especially private equity firms are routing investments to self-aggrandizing, sure-thing takeovers which add nothing new to the economy except old line companies stripped of personnel, debt capacity, and no financial ability to adapt a long term innovation strategy. Or, like in the oil+gas industry, companies are not…
The Republican party is engaged in a massive campaign of Revanchism. They hope to rescue their wrecked political brand by hiding/disavowing their Still President and rewriting recent Presidential history + motivations. Forget for a moment that Still President Bush in his 2000 campaign promised a)to a be “a uniter and not a divider”, b) not “to engage in foreign adventurism” and c)bring fiscal responsibility and…
John McCain in the Republican corridors of power is like Rodney Dangerfield, he doesn’t get any respect. He has become the RNC-reformed maverick as seen here on the Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. In brief summary, John McCain has been forced to reverse himeself by Republican elites on many critical positions. This includes on the role and influence that evangelicals should have on politics; the desirability…
Even T.Boone Pickens, oilman and financier of the Swiftboats Smear campaign against Presidential candidate John Kerry, has recognized that there is a global contest for Energy Innovation going on right now that will determine which countries will be economically prosperous – and which countries will be playing catch up. Because the countries that perfect renewable energy sources will a)have a competitive advantage in their own…
There have been some interesting business news items recently. In the Thursday, August 14th Financial Post, there is a story by Barbra Shecter on the state of securities disclosure by Canadian businesses. Even in the polite etiquette and language of regulation, the Canadian Securities Administration declared that “significant deficiencies were found in the disclosures made by one quarter of 854 companies “. Many of the…
I have promised to feature some venture capitalists who are taking real risks and creating new jobs and businesses. This is in stark contrast to private equity and hedge funders who are playing Ponzi games or, given cheap capital, making sure thing leveraged buyouts of marginal beneficial impact to the economy. My first choice is the often controversial but also undoubtedly successful Vinod Khosla originally…
I rarely agree with Paul Krugman’s economic policy; but his placement of the center of ideas from the current Republican party is right on Denmark. Krugmaan says the Republican’s who once prided themselves as being the party of ideas – is now clinging to the notion that appeals to the simple, brute force approach to everything woeful courtesy of the Still President and sclerotic financial…
It bears repeating that American capitalism is at a crossroads. There is a coterie of financier and investors primarily of the private equity and hedge fund kind that are taking advantage of historically low interest rates and banks willingness to allow for and finance hugely leveraged (the private equity stake is typically less than 15% of total invested capital) buyouts of weakened but still viable…
The Economist has in its July 26th issue, the first of two articles on Discontent in America. The polls are in alignment. Gallup shows a strong rise in discontent in America. When asked “How do you feel about the way things are going in America ? “, close to 85% of American register Dissatisfied versus only 30% in 2001-2002 at the height of the US…
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Captain Jack Aubrey and Spymaster Stephen Maturin are the matching pieces in this historical novel. It is remarkable that English literature has two series, Horatio Hornblower and Aubrey + Maturin both set in the same era and of such great quality. Desolation Island tells you why the era of the dawning Enlightenment, European Wars and Industrial Revolution was so tempestuous... and on a prison ship voyage to Australia. Such drama!