“What a Top Income-Tax Rate of 70% Would Mean for the Economy” (Barron’s) is a bit surprising, considering that the publication is targeted at the same rich investors that would g… | Continue reading
The Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Small-Cap Index Fund shows that its fifth largest holding is Canopy Growth Corp. Some sort of real estate holding company? Wikipedia: “Canopy Growth Corporat… | Continue reading
“MACKENZIE BEZOS AND THE MYTH OF THE LONE GENIUS FOUNDER” (WIRED): Admittedly, MacKenzie’s role in the history of Amazon may not be as crucial as the existence of the World Wide Web. Th… | Continue reading
At one of our dinners-for-8 on Empress of the Seas, a lively fellow told us about his life in The Villages and how he could be more popular with women if he were a dancer. He said that he was just … | Continue reading
I am attending a meeting in the shining northern capital of California and had asked a business colleague who has experience with the location to recommend a hotel. His answer: [the meeting is] ins… | Continue reading
The government that says it is working to reduce inequality eliminates low-skill low-wage cashier jobs via touch-screen ordering kiosks… (Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex cafeteria): I po… | Continue reading
… but show that they don’t value marriage per se? The jointly signed tweet from the soon-to-be-divorced Amazon founder and wife is full of mutual praise. These two people say that they&… | Continue reading
From the Circle K near our Hampton Inn in Jacksonville Beach: (Note that “EBT” is a way of accessing SNAP, formerly known as “food stamps”.) | Continue reading
“Jeff Bezos, World’s Richest Person, Announces Divorce After 25 Years Of Marriage” (Forbes): The couple lives primarily in Washington State, which requires divorcing spouses to equitabl… | Continue reading
From an email discussion group of hedge fund/bond fund managers…. I get the Financial Analyst’s Journal as part of my CFA registration. The attached article [“Demystifying Buffett’s Inv… | Continue reading
Back in the 1970s and 1980s it was conventional for software and hardware companies to have research labs, modeled to some extent after AT&T Bell Labs and IBM’s various labs. This way the… | Continue reading
“The Economics of Soaking the Rich: What does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez know about tax policy? A lot.” (Paul Krugman, NYT): The controversy of the moment involves AOC’s advocacy of a tax… | Continue reading
I’d forgotten how prominent Cuba once was on the world stage, but our guide in Havana reminded us that Cuba and Israel are still on bad terms. Wikipedia notes that Cuba was a military ally fo… | Continue reading
Folks: I’ll be working in San Francisco Monday and Tuesday of next week (Jan 14 and 15). Please email me, philg@mit.edu, if you’re interested in getting together. One possibility is dow… | Continue reading
On the other hand, we already have 580 miles of “barrier” (Wikipedia), which includes parts that look like walls and parts that look like fences. About 35 seconds into this video (Guard… | Continue reading
A couple of items from the recent Miami and cruise trip that I decided not to post on Facebook. This was going to appear underneath the caption “Elizabeth Warren’s cousin lights the men… | Continue reading
Cuba was richer, per capita, than Singapore in 1959 (Forbes) and Havana was the richest part of Cuba. As such, the city enjoyed world class physical infrastructure circa 1959: roads, sidewalks, bea… | Continue reading
Apple is in the news for disappointing earnings growth. I wonder if this is due to lack of innovation. I’ve met a lot of folks who are still using their iPhone 5S and aren’t interested … | Continue reading
Back in the 1980s, you knew that you were in a Third World country when traffic congestion made daytime trips take 2-3 times longer than they would be on clear roadsyour driver had only a tenuous c… | Continue reading
… will the New York Times blame voters’ prejudice against women or voters’ prejudice against Native Americans? Readers: How do you think our Massachusetts Senator will do? | Continue reading
Hurricane season is over so perhaps it is time to plan that Caribbean vacation. If you’re curious to visit Cuba as a U.S. citizen, you can choose between going native (hotels) and just touchi… | Continue reading
Beginning of a new year and time for some tax planning. If you’re not a U.S. citizen and thus subject to worldwide taxation, maybe it is time to move to the U.K.? The all-in tax rate for R… | Continue reading
A wealthy (through marriage) and virtuous (through Trump-hatred) friend posted while on a $1,000+/day luxury vacation on Grand Cayman: I mentioned the fundamental lack of sustainability of any econ… | Continue reading
Happy New Year’s Eve from St. Augustine! My hope for readers is that excessive alcohol consumption doesn’t interfere with the efficacy of their medical marijuana edibles… Back to … | Continue reading
End-of-year portfolio rebalancing time. What about this being the year of buying foreign stocks, especially emerging markets? From a banker friend: Since coming out of 2008/2009 the place to be has… | Continue reading
We have a 10-year-old Buderus GB142 wall-hung gas boiler that is suffering from myriad corrosion issues. The HVAC service folks recommend either dumping in $3,300+ for a “major renovationR… | Continue reading
Our guide in Havana said that Cuba has one of the world’s highest divorce rates and attributed this phenomenon to the real estate shortage. “People have to live with their in-laws and t… | Continue reading
If you’re planning on flying the family somewhere for Christmas… A couple of months ago at our flight school office one of our Private students was slaving away on preflight planning li… | Continue reading
The CIA Factbook says Cuba has a population that is falling in size (growth rate -0.27 percent) and older (median age 41.8; older than the U.S. at 38). This is consistent with what our guide in Hav… | Continue reading
The officers of Empress of the Seas were kind enough to host a Q&A session with passengers. The life of an officer is 10 weeks on, 10 weeks off. The company is responsible for air transport to … | Continue reading
Last Year: This year: We helped 60 sea turtles make their way from frigid Cape Cod to warm Panama City, Florida. Some photos: Merry Christmas to everyone! [Credits: Rectrix at KBED and Shelta… | Continue reading
Good news: I made it to Jacksonville without suffering the indignity of three hours on JetBlue. Bad news: the trip was officially scheduled to depart on Friday, thus making this a three-day journey… | Continue reading
Massport enabled a direct comparison of religions with this display at Logan Airport: 10′ Christmas tree and 10″ menorah. That settles it! A hearty Merry Christmas Eve, then, to all rea… | Continue reading
There is no better contrast than going to Art Basel before getting on a cruise ship. The venue in the U.S. is adjacent to Miami’s Holocaust Memorial: A Swiss bank is a sponsor, but they’… | Continue reading
“Eliot Spitzer snuck me into his apartment in a suitcase: ex-mistress” (New York Post): The former escort, who got paid up to $5,000 a night, also griped that Spitzer could be a slacker… | Continue reading
I’ve started reading Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer by Barbara Ehrenreich. She’s an interesting writer. Years ago … | Continue reading
Two of the most popular political ideas in the U.S. right now are expanded immigration and socialism. While on the ground in Havana it struck me that maybe Cuba provides a good laboratory example. … | Continue reading
“Planned Parenthood Is Accused of Mistreating Pregnant Employees” (nytimes) is about an employer that prefers non-pregnant to pregnant employees: Discrimination against pregnant women a… | Continue reading
One thing that I’ve learned from going to public lectures on astrophysics or planetary exploratoration is that people with no sci/tech education love science and hate engineering. The more ir… | Continue reading
… but they apparently hate the Trump Winery. A promotional email from info@trumpwinery.com was flagged by the Gmail system as spam. (If you want to start a conversation at a New Year’s … | Continue reading
“Officials Say Trump Has Ordered Full Withdrawal of U.S. Troops From Syria” (nytimes) is welcome news for me. One of my hopes in voting for Obama was that he would be able to say “… | Continue reading
“Women May Earn Just 49 Cents on the Dollar: A new study suggests that the gender wage gap is much wider than previously thought” (Atlantic) is kind of interesting. Note that it is a &#… | Continue reading
One thing that I’ve learned from trying to keep in touch with my parents via Skype and FaceTime is that multi-purpose devices, such as smartphones and computers, don’t work well for oct… | Continue reading
It is time for the family winter trip to Florida. Due to the fact that it is too cold to swim in the ocean even in Miami, we’re going to Jacksonville Beach and St. Augustine (kids can enjoy p… | Continue reading
One thing that I have learned from being an expert witness in the U.S. court system is that there are seldom any surprises at trial. Everyone who will testify has already been deposed for 7 hours (… | Continue reading
One interaction from Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland (fortunately my mom has escaped): Brenda the nurse: “I’m from Kenya.”Mom: “I was there in 1988.”Brenda: “It was a lot nicer then.”Me: “H… | Continue reading
“Mom Dresses Six-Year-Old Son As Girl, Threatens Dad With Losing His Son For Disagreeing: A Texas custody case splits a 6-year-old child’s gender identity in two.” (Federalist): In thei… | Continue reading