Given the intense political animus on display in Washington in recent weeks, it is hard to imagine any rational policy agenda emerging from the chaos. The optics of a new president being installed with thousands of federal troops standing by after a disputed election takes me back to my days working in various African countries.“The Stimuli and the People”
Test Blog
Staying Afloat When the Bankruptcy Tsunami Hits, Part 2 – By Neil Peretz
Given economic conditions and continuing public health concerns heading into 2021, it is looking more and more likely that a tsunami of bankruptcies are on the horizon. Don’t be caught off guard. There are things you can do in advance once you become a creditor to make sure you are well positioned to get the“Staying Afloat When the Bankruptcy Tsunami Hits, Part 2 – By Neil Peretz”
Staying Afloat When the Bankruptcy Tsunami Hits, Part 1 – By Neil Peretz
Dear Clients and Friends, We are going into the new year with economic uncertainty. Neil Peretz (a bankruptcy expert that I’ve worked with on multiple occasions) shares his insights on how to deal with customers that owe you money. We hope that everyone does well, but, some of you may have to deal with“Staying Afloat When the Bankruptcy Tsunami Hits, Part 1 – By Neil Peretz”
Ghost Town, Peak Valley, and the Apocalypse
Ghost Town? A few weeks ago, I took my car to the mechanic in Downtown San Francisco. It was a nice day, with nothing else to do and, contemplating the assorted possibilities of COVID exposure in an Uber or public transport, I decided to walk home – a distance of about 6 ½ miles. It“Ghost Town, Peak Valley, and the Apocalypse”
Who Shot the Sherriff?
I returned to the states in March, and as I walked through an airport that seemed to have suffered a neutron bomb strike, I knew life would be different for a while. I wondered what distractions would appeal to people locked in their apartments for weeks on end. One that did not occur to me“Who Shot the Sherriff?”
The Fed: Love Minus Zero/No Limit
In the dime stores and bus stations People talk of situations Read books, repeat quotations Draw conclusions on the wall Some speak of the future My love she speaks softly She knows there’s no success like failure And that failure’s no success at all – Bob Dylan 1965 How much does the Fed love us?“The Fed: Love Minus Zero/No Limit”
The Incorporeal Economy
In October 2006, Netflix launched a contest. They offered a $1 million prize to any team that could improve their movie-recommendation software engine by 10%. Netflix’s global hackathon eventually engaged 30,000 engineers loosely organized and endlessly re-organized into hundreds of self-selected teams attempting to optimize their competitive profile. The winners took almost three years to“The Incorporeal Economy”
The Central Planners and the Virus
“Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.” – Milton Friedman When the COVID–19 virus began traveling the earth, the ideas that were lying around dated from the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918 and the depression“The Central Planners and the Virus”
Crossing the Political-Economic Divide
How do entrepreneurs assess political risk? Other than Mark Zuckerberg, do they even think about it? Are technology companies and social networks on the side of the populists? Division is in the air. Everything I read and everything I hear is about the great global divide. The populists are rising up against the elites. The“Crossing the Political-Economic Divide”
The Labor Constraint
A few years ago I managed an NGO that served 20,000 subsistence farmers in Mali. I was surprised when I first arrived to find many of our farmers planting less than half their land. They might have 10 hectares but were planting only 2 or 3. The reason? Not enough labor to get it done“The Labor Constraint”