Dive into the archives.
- Titanic Flaw in Reality Testing
Reporting on Davos, Simon Johnson presents a grim picture of CEO reality. What is even grimmer is that it lines up squarely with Gillian Tett’s report last week on the need, among CEO’s for therapeutic bonding, with Davos as group therapy. The incursion of clinical psychology into the world of corporate finance is insidious. It [...]
- The Essential Psychology Within Financial Investment
We know corporations are legally bound to maximize self-interest. What about investors? The act of investment is in “laying out money or capital in an enterprise with the expectation of profit” ( wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn). Investment in financial markets occurs through the purchase of financial instruments. Profit is expected is through some combination of interest, income, and [...]
- twitter’s dynamic organization
Its been productive in linking me to thinking (writing) in areas of interest. And its follower-following network allows quick blasts to all and sundry. Here’s my first thought: dynamic principles about individuals and groups certainly apply. The same way a business or corporate entity follows a shortened human developmental line from start-up to mastery and [...]
- Agility at the Edge: Initial Hypothesis on Chinese Leadership
Today’s New York Times reports on Xi Jinping, next in line to assume leadership of China. Xi’s rise has been founded on ” political acumen, family connections and ideological dexterity”. Nice combination. Political acumen and ideological dexterity translate to “agility”, that critical capacity for negotiating turbulent environments as Chinese political power has become more diffuse. [...]
- Bitterness, Happiness and the Clash of Methodology
Had a jangled kind of deja vu tonight, reading an article by Professor Stephen Kinsella called “The Economy of Bitterness”. Sounding alot like NAMA, the Irish “Bad Bank”, Professor K proposes a fanciful economy for pricing and shucking-off the units of bitterness that bring those little clouds of night to the brightest of our days. [...]
- On Twitter: Productive Narcissism
I am a late adaptor. A post-Luddite. Yesterday, I sent my first tweet. And my wife now claims that she is a “twidow”. There is some truth to this. I’m fascinated by the bricolage: the carnival and the possibility. This morning, having replied to a posting sent from an Irish academic, he and I exchanged [...]
- Aporia: On knowing. On not knowing.
It is 8:05 AM: my cup of coffee and Financial Times are before me as I prepare for US markets to open. Andrew Hill, writing the “On management” column today, presents a chilling precis on BP and the snail’s pace of corporate culture change with far wider implications for investors: “A safety survey of the [...]
- The Electronic Herd and the Market as Open System
The current sway, within market systems, of what journalist Thomas Friedman called “the electronic herd” has revolutionized the way in which retail investors must approach the market. No longer are the benchmarks of financial statement analysis and technical analysis sufficient to judge the attractiveness of equity offerings. Rather, because of sudden and turbulent shifts of [...]
- Locating Reality and the Shock of Financial Statements
Larry brought the monthly letters sent by his investment advisor together with his monthly profit and loss statements. Though the firm’s profits had soared since the market crash a couple of years ago, and accounts remained 18% below their 2008 high, the shocker was that since 2005, Larry had been losing .75% of his investment [...]
