Big Tech
Cory Doctorow is one of the leading chroniclers of enshittification -- the process by which Big Tech and other monopolies have shittified their products to make more money -- and why it happened and what needs to be done to change it. He writes a blog which is free, no advertising, no
Institutional Investing
CALPERS Has Underperformed a 60/40 Index Fund by 50bps per annum - For the Last 40 Years Think about that. Nearly forty years of returns below what could have been achieved for almost nothing and lower volatility. But instead the ~$450B California state pension fund has missed out on tens
Economy
Return Advantage of Stocks over Bonds Has Shrunk to Lowest in 15 Years But US Endowments' Equity Beta Likely Highest Ever A review of the asset allocation history of the largest American endowments shows that the amount of equity risk currently being taken is at the highest level in
Big Tech
Gee, it kinda sorta seems like Lina Khan has gotten under the skin of the WSJ Editorial Board. What is it about young female Democrats enforcing anti-trust laws for the first time in decades that seems to really IRRITATE them. The gist of all of their rants is, "
Corporate Crimes
For decades, Wall Street and their servant, BigLaw, have owned the SEC. When banks and traders were charged with crimes, their BigLaw fat cat lawyers would sit down to "negotiate penalties" (how many average Americans get to negotiate penalties when they break the law?) with BigLaw fat cat
China
Double-digit returns for PE are highly unlikely the next five to ten years while massive return dispersion means many LPs will see outright losses. Institutional investors’ love affair with private equity reached new heights in 2021 while bears are nowhere to be seen. Everyone, simply everyone, loves private equity
China
I don't usually pay much attention to quarterly GDP releases but China's Q3 report is interesting for two reasons. One, it’s completely consistent with an economy that hasn’t meaningfully rebalanced away from a heavy reliance on government-directed investment spending, despite years of talk
Corporate Crimes
The nauseating saga of the Boeing 737 Max two deadly crashes in October 2018 and March 2019 is a perfect example of how American corporations are barely regulated and even when their products cause hundreds of deaths, there is essentially zero punishment. There are thousands of young Black men in
China
Dear Mr. Dalio, Thank you for raysplaining the latest developments in China in your two recent posts on LinkedIn, here and here. Since I’m an American, I obviously know nothing about China, have never been to China, don't know anyone in China, don't know anyone
Criminal Justice
There's so much death and suffering in the world these days (unless you're a 5' billionaire with a rocket ship and a cowboy hat), we are struggling to process news about other disasters, other suffering, other crimes. One such crime is the murder of more
Big Tech
Below are excerpts from another great Matt Stoller piece, this one about how $2,000/hour Big Law attorneys help their clients, corporations and private equity funds, get illegal mergers approved by a formerly toothless FTC. Now, with Lina Khan at the helm of the FTC, sleazy fat cat lawyers,
Humor
Writing a blog post summary of another summary of an academic paper may seem to be ridiculously derivative but bear with me, this is crypto. And whenever I think of crypto, I can't help but thinking about the immortal Jerry Lewis in The Nutty Professor. Don't