Inequality is, undeniably, increasing in the United States. Wealth concentration is high and rising. The richest 1% of households in the U.S. have 29% of total wealth and the richest 20% have 77% of total wealth. Another way to frame this situation is that the top 1% have more wealth than the middle 60% of … Continue reading The winner-take-all society
Is it finally time to bet on value again?
Research Affiliates, a large money manager and research firm, has recently reaffirmed it's faith in value investing, the discipline of investing more heavily in stocks which appear cheap relative to their earnings or book value. Back in April of 2019, I wrote a blog post that explored the under-performance of value over the last fifteen … Continue reading Is it finally time to bet on value again?
Investor lessons from the Theranos scandal
I recently read Bad Blood, a great book about the rise and fall of Theranos, a venture-funded company that was once a darling of the tech world. The company claimed to have invented technology that could perform a wide range of blood tests with only a single drop of blood. The company raised a whopping … Continue reading Investor lessons from the Theranos scandal
Parsing Bill Gates’ statement on flexible work arrangements
Bill Gates is widely quoted as saying the following regarding flexible work arrangements: The competition to hire the best will increase in the years ahead. Companies that give extra flexibility to their employees will have the edge in this area.Bill Gates In recent years, more companies are hiring people under a range of different employment … Continue reading Parsing Bill Gates’ statement on flexible work arrangements
Instead of FIRE, consider this
There is an endless stream of articles discussing the Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) movement. The plan is to save a very high percentage of your working income, invest the proceeds, and then retire young and live off of investment income. There is, however, another way to achieve many or all of the benefits … Continue reading Instead of FIRE, consider this
Voting with our dollars
While climate change gets increasing attention and concern among voters, the daunting reality is that the United States has no real policies or regulations in place to substantially reduce carbon emissions. Other nations that have committed to reducing carbon emissions are far from reaching their goals. I have come to believe that a large part … Continue reading Voting with our dollars
Financial and environmental sustainability
Modern society faces a crisis of sustainability on both financial and environmental issues. Much of modern society depends on unsustainable levels of consumption. We are seeing increasing attention on environmental degradation and risks associated with climate change. Across the developed world, we are also facing a crisis of financial sustainability and these problems are also … Continue reading Financial and environmental sustainability
Common sense on climate change
We are seeing more media and discussion on climate change than ever before. This is a very good thing. On the other hand, I often feel as though the discussions are detached from reality. It seems that most of the attention on climate comes down to believers (human activity is having a massive deleterious impact … Continue reading Common sense on climate change
Rethinking earnings and consumption through life
In the United States, many people are re-evaluating the traditional model of working and saving through life. The traditional model is that you get an education and then work full-time until you exit the workforce entirely and live on a pension, Social Security, and/or savings. In recent years, the Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) … Continue reading Rethinking earnings and consumption through life
‘IRAs for all’ vs. college debt forgiveness
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have proposed massive college debt forgiveness programs. I am not in favor of these proposals, largely because of the general unfairness of having taxpayers subsidize people who have attended expensive private colleges or made other costly personal education choices. This is unfair to families that scrimped and saved or made … Continue reading ‘IRAs for all’ vs. college debt forgiveness
Geoff Considine on Finance and Economics 