Jun. 20 2010

I speak a lot at business schools, and I ask how many people are there to make money. And then I say why don’t you just quit school and be drug dealers then? Because business school is about making things for people. That’s why you should be here.
John Scharffenberger

Jul. 13 2009

Goldman Sachs may just possibly have used security access codes and built a system to acquire trading information PRIOR to transaction_commit time points at NYSE. The profitability of this split-second information advantage would have been and could have been extraordinary. Observed yielding profits at $100,000,000 a day.

WHOA. So this is not insanely far from the plot of Superman III.  Basically Goldman Sachs is monitoring the flow of stock trading information for the entire New York Stock Exchange, and making trades to their advantage in the tiny periods of time from when someone says they want to buy stock, to when they actually buy stock.

LESSON: do not buy stocks, it is over your head.

Daily Kos: State of the Nation

(via benjaminpalmer) (via mikehudack) (via asprettyasasong)

this is very real. i have a close friend who runs back-end systems at the NYSE. no way to confirm this instance but, in discussion with him, the possibility is a reality.

Apr. 05 2009

Al Zacharia, apartment broker extraordinaire

marco:

I wasn’t just paying him for 30 minutes of his time — I was saving weeks of mine.

classic argument.  i’m very much a fan of this.  i have no problem paying for something that gives me exactly what i want and need.  isn’t that why currency exists in the first place?  it’s your fault if you don’t use it to maximize the one thing you can never get more of:  time.

recently - everything, in my head, is coming back to a few key words:  authority, direction, curation, editing and value.

too many people are missing the point that amazing value might come in a package that, quite simply, saves me time.

Feb. 08 2009

If you work on something for five years, that’s more than 20 percent of your productive work life. Most people don’t think about that, but it’s the main thing I think about. I think about it all the time, much more than money. Because the only thing we can’t make more of is time.
Dean Kamen, in the fascinating fly-on-the-wall book by Steve Kemper, Reinventing the Wheel: A Story of Genius, Innovation, and Grand Ambition (via jackcheng)

Jan. 25 2009

Questions for Arthur Levitt - Money Manager

How would you describe him, personality-wise?

He was intelligent and gentlemanly with a certain amount of charm. He smiled easily, rarely lost his temper and was a good listener.

the former S.E.C. chief’s description of bernie madoff.

Nov. 27 2008

A Visual Guide to the Financial Crisis (via garr)

Oct. 28 2008

krs:

“Academic” Salaries

what is missing from this argument is how most colleges generate revenue and fund themselves.  these salaries are business decisions.  

Oct. 15 2008

Data is almost as good as money, but I don’t don’t know of a single consumer Web application where access to data is guaranteed by a third-party private entity, much less by the government.
Subtraction 7.1 Beta: A Cloud and a Prayer

Oct. 12 2008

So which country has the soundest banking system?

Canada has the world’s soundest banking system, closely followed by Sweden, Luxembourg and Australia, a survey by the World Economic Forum has found as financial crisis and bank failures shake world markets…(via financial week)
after living in toronto for a year, i always had a hunch that they knew they were doing something right.  maybe i should go back?

Oct. 10 2008

NPR: Planet Money

from the guys who brought you those TAL episodes everyone is freaking out about.  also, equally important, laura conaway (BPP alumnus) is an editor.

lets hope they don’t can this one too.