The Bureaucrats Gone Wild Edition

Posted on May 28, 2017 by Felix

Slate Money on corruption in Brazil, Saudi Arabia’s oil prices, and Paul Romer’s war on Bankspeak.

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Just how bad is Mike Bloomberg’s $75 million donation to The Shed?

Posted on May 24, 2017 by Felix

Today in rich people giving their rich-people friends millions of dollars to do rich-people things: New York’s Number One Rich Person, Mike Bloomberg.

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Uber has no incentive to keep cars empty

Posted on May 21, 2017 by Felix

After reading Eric Newcomer’s Bloomberg piece on Uber pricing, Marshall Steinbaum wrote a short tweetstorm about what it implies for Uber’s incentives, which I suspect is exactly wrong.

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The Spinning Wheels Edition

Posted on May 20, 2017 by Felix

Slate Money on the auto industry, artificial intelligence, and Apple’s new headquarters.

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Give Non-Citizens the Vote!

Posted on May 17, 2017 by Felix

Realistically, non-citizens will never be able to vote in federal elections. But that’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to vote in immigrant-heavy cities like New York.

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A few notes about the Spotify stock-market listing

Posted on May 14, 2017 by Felix

I really like the idea of direct listing, especially for companies which don’t need to raise additional capital (or who don’t mind doing so on the secondary market). It helps to marginalize Wall Street investment banks, for one thing, which is generally a good thing.

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Material World

Posted on May 14, 2017 by Felix

My review of Pascal Bruckner’s “The Wisdom of Money”

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The Disappearing Edition

Posted on May 13, 2017 by Felix

Slate Money on the mortgage interest deduction, the volatility index, and Snap’s first earnings report after going public.

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The Talking TED Talks Edition

Posted on May 6, 2017 by Felix

Slate Money on Cathy O’Neil’s TED talk, what goes on at TED Talks conferences, and the industry of highly paid speeches.

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Facebook: We’re not just sexist, we’re also innumerate!

Posted on May 3, 2017 by Felix

There’s a particularly dismal genre of arguments which basically say that “after accounting for the sexism in our company, we have found that there’s no sexism in our company”. And this one is a doozy.

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The Pointless Vanity Edition

Posted on April 29, 2017 by Felix

Slate Money on Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s substantial payout, Sheryl Sandberg’s new book on grief, and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s massive data project.

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Trump’s Tax Plan Is a Straight Up Multibillion-Dollar Gift to the Rich

Posted on April 26, 2017 by Felix

It not only makes the rich richer, it also makes the plight of everybody else even more precarious, because it institutionalizes an incentive to not get a stable, full-time job.

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The Pet Cause Edition

Posted on April 22, 2017 by Felix

Slate Money on PetSmart’s acquisition of Chewy, Arconic CEO Klaus Kleinfeld’s resignation, and Portland’s decision to divest from all corporations.

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Activist Jane Jacobs Won Historic Battles. How Did She Lose the War?

Posted on April 21, 2017 by Felix

Jacobs shows us that the radius of grassroots activism can be very small, and that the real-world effects of compelling analysis can also be decidedly limited.

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The Liquidity Edition

Posted on April 15, 2017 by Felix

Slate Money discusses South Africa’s credit rating downgrade and how markets are responding to recent economic events in unpredictable ways.

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Education, Health Care, Debt: Welcome to Our Crowdfunded Dystopia

Posted on April 12, 2017 by Felix

Give if you wish, and if you can afford to. But when you do, you’re encouraging those who ultimately want to see such private actions replace the democratic norms upon which our society was built.

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The “You Say Beeta, I Say Beta” Edition

Posted on April 8, 2017 by Felix

Slate Money discusses the popularity of smart beta investing and potential racial bias in auto insurance.

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How Not To Invest $1 Billion in Diversity and Inclusion

Posted on April 7, 2017 by Felix

Let’s encourage the Ford Foundation to maximize the amount of good it can do in the world now.

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This Staggering Chart Reveals the Reality of Black-Owned Banks

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Felix

If you really squint you can see the assets of black-owned banks in green.

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The Pour Decisions Edition

Posted on April 1, 2017 by Felix

Slate Money gets tipsy talking to Bianca Bosker, author of Cork Dork, about the economics of wine.

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Be happy when your favorite restaurant raises its prices

Posted on March 26, 2017 by Felix

Next time you see your favorite restaurant raise its prices, be happy for them: it’s a sign they’re succeeding in this toughest of industries.

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The Thinx Twice Edition

Posted on March 25, 2017 by Felix

Slate Money discusses Thinx founder Miki Agrawal’s sexual harassment allegations and how venture capitalist J.D. Vance is looking to invest in startups—in Ohio.

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Hannah Black’s intervention against white supremacy is perfect for the Whitney Biennial

Posted on March 23, 2017 by Felix

Schutz’s painting remains exhibited on the Whitney’s very expensive new walls. But that doesn’t mean that Black hasn’t successfully accomplished exactly what she wanted to achieve.

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Villains, antiheroes, and dystopia: How Hollywood’s blockbusters helped me understand Trump

Posted on March 21, 2017 by Felix

There’s a manic millenarianism to much of Trump’s support, a revolutionary fever dream where the rich are overthrown, the working classes take over, and where enormous amounts of blood run in the streets.

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How to bribe Trump’s White House

Posted on March 14, 2017 by Felix

In a Trump White House full of gazillionaires, there are lots of holdings that can’t easily be valued, and that give mysterious Chinese companies lots of ways to transfer wealth into the pockets of the powerful.

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