Author Archives: admin
Context Adds Value 02
An experiment conducted in 1985 asked people to imagine they were sitting on a beach, feeling a bit thirsty and a friend offered to fetch one for them. They were then asked how much they would allow their friend to … Continue reading
Unintended Consequences of Government Interference in the Rice Market
(710 words) How many people have to die before governments stop manipulating markets? The answer is they will never stop. There have been two major rice crises this century, one international the other national. Both caused many needless deaths, both … Continue reading
On Contrarian Stock Picking
To be a successful investor requires us to take a contrarian position. We are able to fool ourselves into thinking we are contrarian investors when in fact we are just following the herd. These are my notes from an essay … Continue reading
How to Identify Gentrifying Localities
(710 words) One property buying strategy that has been successful for the past thirty years is to buy near the center of big towns. Even though it’s a well established trend, there are plenty of opportunities. But it is still … Continue reading
The Logic of Derelict Houses
Why would you buy a house and then do nothing to it for twenty or thirty years? By nothing, I mean absolutely nothing. Nobody lives in it, no tenants, no repairs, not even clearing the mail. So much of nothing … Continue reading
Weekly Roundup 002
Sometimes it’s better not to know too much about a person, the same is true about companies. This week has been very domesticated. Shares I started to think about the company that did the capital raising last week and I … Continue reading
Embezzlement – the Dirty Secrets of Non-Profits
(aggregation) Notes from an investigative article in the Washington Post. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of public donations and government grants are drained each year from US institutions by fraudsters working within the organizations. A culture of silence … Continue reading
Athletes are the Worst Investors
(730 words) One of the few ways available for the poor to improve their financial situation is through sports. Team sports are especially accessible to the poor because of their low cost of entry and the organizers’ need to recruit … Continue reading
A History of Debt: David Graeber’s Four Ages
(1450 words) Standing back from a big, highly detailed painting usually allows us to understand it better. Trying to understand the current monetary system, it’s been interesting to read and listen to the anthropologist and anarchist David Graeber talk about … Continue reading
Putting a Face to an Issue Improves Donations.
Researchers have long established two facts about the size of donations. First, the amount people are willing to give does not depend on the size of the problem, secondly they will give more to save a single, identifiable, victim than … Continue reading