With less than 10 hours to go before the polls open for the 2012 Presidential election, I thought it would be a good time to remind you about the importance of using cartograms to study business, political, and socioeconomic data. Cartograms should be a constant tool in your intellectual toolbox that you utilize to overcome…
The most recent statistics on household income, net worth, and unemployment, sorted by education level, are really interesting. Following our discussion about the splits that have emerged along geographic fault lines in the electoral body, I thought it would be important to highlight the economic differences and how enormous the income inequality is for the…
As you probably know by now, The Walt Disney Company has acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. in a $4.5 billion deal. The studio owns franchises such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Half will be paid in cash and the other half will be paid in newly minted shares of the company, diluting the existing owners. However, the terms are so favorable that, frankly, it looks like George Lucas took a much lower price than he could have gotten elsewhere solely to have Disney protect the brand, given the latter’s reputation and massive resources. Not even including the cash that Lucasfilm itself produces, Disney could pay for the acquisition in less than 6.7 months using the money generated by its vast empire.
It is remarkable how much more enjoyable your life can be when you refuse to participate in situations that you know are going to end poorly, or work with people in environments that you know are going to cause problems. When you see something like this on the horizon, employ the Grandpa Simpson strategy. In…
The New York Stock Exchange is set to reopen today after having been closed for two consecutive trading days as Hurricane Sandy made landfall on the Eastern seaboard. The last time this happened due to weather was in 1888, when a blizzard shut down the city. It could have been much worse. The lesson: You…
The past day or so, some prominent bloggers have been attacking Mitt Romney for using something known as a charitable remainder trust as a way to lower his tax bill. As someone who is voting for President Obama, let me tell you flatly: This is nonsense. The people demonizing Mitt Romney for his use of…
In Switzerland, there is a 207 year old private bank called Pictet & Cie that caters to the the richest of the rich. It has total assets under management of of 373 billion Swiss francs, or just shy of $400 billion in United States terms.
I often get messages from some of you expressing a desire to invest but not wanting to sign up for a life buried in balance sheets or income statements. The good news: In investing, you can do extremely well if you have a few good, big ideas in your lifetime. You don’t have to become a master of everything. You just need to understand what you are doing, focus on it with the persistence of a pit bull, and be patient during the periods when there is nothing attractive to do, content to sit on cash. There is no need to master every industry, or spend your evenings pouring over the disclosure documents of a pharmaceutical giant to make money. It isn’t necessary.
How to Remain Detached from the Stock Market and Treat Your Investments Like Private Businesses When I was much younger, I kept seeing Benjamin Graham’s famous allegory called Mr. Market mentioned by great economists, investors, and financial historians. I bought a copy of The Intelligent Investor to figure out why everyone was so enthralled with a book…
Whether or not a person is capable of waiting for rewards, and thus succeeding in things that require long-term planning such as investing, money management, completing higher education, and sticking with difficult projects for the promise of richer payouts, may not be due to willpower alone. In a new study, researchers Celeste Kidd, Holly Palmeri,…