Below you'll find a list of all posts from 2019
At the Foundation Financial Officers Group conference in San Francisco on October 3, 2019, Vineer Bhansali, founder and CEO of LongTail Alpha, Inc., and prior to that a longtime portfolio manager and researcher at PIMCO, spoke on “Who (and Why) in the World Is Buying All These Low and Negative Yielding Bonds, and Can We Do Anything With This Knowledge?” …
“There’s always an easy solution to every human problem—neat, plausible and wrong.”–H. L. Mencken, in “The Divine Afflatus,” New York Evening Mail (November 16, 1917) Talking to Strangers is not about talking to strangers. It is a manual on how to avoid being victimized or bamboozled by evil, slippery, or amoral people. Well–written (Gladwell is always entertaining) and opinionated, it …
“Live long and prosper.” – Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) Does a prosperous global society need access to energy supplies that grow faster than the population? In other words, does energy use per capita need to grow for productivity and wealth to increase? Conventional wisdom says yes, but a new book tackles this question and reaches the surprising and optimistic conclusion …
A well-schooled generalist will outshine a specialist at a cocktail party, with an ability to thoughtfully contribute to conversations on any topic. But does that skill translate to better problem solving in all disciplines? That was the question David Epstein set out to answer in Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. And, as advisors, we should be particularly …
In the recent past, American investors’ views on China have rotated from unblemished enthusiasm to substantial caution. From the radical reforms of Deng Xiaoping in 1978 until quite recently, we absorbed a flood of good news from China, punctuated by the awful Tiananmen Square massacre of thirty years ago: the country had the world’s highest economic growth rate, hundreds of …
Is venture capital a good investment? For long periods in the past, the best VC firms had spectacular returns, as their outside investors or “limited partners” — pensions, foundations, endowments, wealthy individuals – participated in the emergence of great companies such as Intel, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon. But, going forward, can VC investors expect the same returns? Or are we …
with Luis Garcia-Feijóo Welcoming Remarks by Andrew W. Lo: It is a pleasure and an honor for me to welcome you to this companion volume to the 2008 Financial Crisis: A Ten-Year Review, a conference that took place on 8–9 November 2018 at the NYU Stern School of Business in New York City. All of the key stakeholders related to …
A well-schooled generalist will outshine a specialist at a cocktail party, with an ability to thoughtfully contribute to conversations on any topic. But does that skill translate to better problem solving in all disciplines? That was the question David Epstein set out to answer in Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. And, as advisors, we should be particularly …
“There’s always an easy solution to every human problem – neat, plausible and wrong.” H.L. Mencken, in The Divine Afflatus In his latest book, Malcolm Gladwell turns to a theme that matters greatly to financial advisors – preventing financial fraud and abuse. It is part of his broader inquiry into how we can avoid placing our trust in the wrong …
On May 2, 2019 Linda Strumpf, who was chief investment officer of the Ford Foundation for 17 years as well as CIO of the Helmsley Trust after that, was interviewed by Roz Hewsenian, the current CIO of the Helmsley Trust, in a lunchtime “fireside chat” at the Foundation Financial Officers Group’s semiannual meeting, which took place in Philadelphia. Linda was …
Does a prosperous global society need access to energy supplies that grow faster than the population? In other words, does energy use per capita need to grow for productivity and wealth to increase? Conventional wisdom says yes, but a new book tackles this question and reaches the surprising and optimistic conclusion that we can live better while consuming less energy …
Why don’t we appreciate and celebrate big business more wholeheartedly? Why do so many of us regard it as unfair, monopolistic, manipulative, impersonal, and exploitative, to say nothing of inefficient? In Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero, the economist and free-range intellectual Tyler Cowen poses these questions and suggests a wide assortment of answers. The answer to …
The chief goal of society should be to maximize wealth, according to Tyler Cowen, one of the most interesting men in the world. Like many accomplished people approaching late-middle age, Cowen has turned his attention to moral philosophy. In the slim volume, Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals, which can be read in …
At the Q Group on April 15, 2019 the Yale professor William N. Goetzmann presented a paper, “How Alternative are Private Markets?” which revealed the side of Professor Goetzmann that is concerned with mainstream financial research. However, as his introducer, Andrew Ang, said, Goetzmann is also a prolific author, a filmmaker, an expert on the art of the Wild West …
Disrupt. Innovate. If these words echo through your head like a familiar TV show theme song, you’ve been influenced — whether you know it or not — by Clayton Christensen. A Harvard professor, businessman, and guru of disruptive innovation, Christensen has altered our vocabulary, inspired a generation of startup entrepreneurs, and made a bundle on the speaking circuit at $100,000 …
Why don’t we appreciate and celebrate big business more wholeheartedly? Why do so many of us regard it as unfair, monopolistic, manipulative, impersonal, and exploitative, to say nothing of inefficient? In Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero, the economist and free-range intellectual Tyler Cowen poses these questions and suggests a wide assortment of answers. The answer to …
When I had the pleasure of introducing Paul Volcker at a conference, I referred to him as “the man who saved the country.” This was not hyperbole. It is hard to remember the deep trouble we were in, more than 40 years ago, when inflation reached 13% in 1979. Times were terrible. A generation’s life savings, invested mostly in bonds, …
by Thomas L. Totten and Laurence B. Siegel The central problem in achieving retirement security: Longevity risk Why is it so difficult to save for retirement in such a way that the retiree feels financially secure for the rest of his life? Why is so much effort spent on investment optimization, withdrawal rates, and other strategies designed to increase the …