Macro Matters If you want an excuse to simply tune out the news altogether and remain (blissfully) ignorant, look no further than yesterday’s dueling headlines in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times: Focus on Obama as Tensions Soar Across Mideast —The New York Times (5/19/2011) Gas Prices Fall as Mideast Jitters Ease —The...Read More
Planning for Life After, uh . . Retirement “Be smart. Save your money, get educated, buy property. Plan for life after retirement.” Guess which enlightened CEO said the above to their employees? The CEO of Exxon Mobil? Maybe Best Buy? Try, Dawn Rizos, the chief executive of the Lodge, a Dallas strip-club (albeit the high-end kind). See, “Naked...Read More
Google is near a deal to acquire Groupon, the pioneering online discounter, for as much as $6 billion. —The New York Times (11/30/2010) There’s got to be not a little irony in Groupon being bought out at something like 15x its annual revenues of $350 million. By contrast, established consumer goods companies can sell for...Read More
“We” Minus the “Us”; or,More Pronoun Confusion The bailout and stimulus that we have administered to ourselves have left us without much cushion. There may be room, and even necessity, for a little more stimulus. But we have to get this moment right.” –Thomas Friedman, “Got to Get This Right“; The New York Times (11/27/2010)...Read More
Warren Buffett’s Freudian Slip This land is your landThis land is my(?) landFrom California to the New York islandFrom the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream watersThis land was made for you (and me?). –Lyrics, “This Land is Your Land”; Woody Guthrie (tweaked by Ross Kaplan) The first time I read “Pretty Good for...Read More
So Which Is It? One side effect of a market flooded with both sales and rentals is that renters are gaining clout when it comes to negotiating, just as buyers have. –“As Sales Slump, Rental Stock Rises“; The New York Times (9/25/2010) To the chagrin of many renters . . . the balance of power...Read More
