Fascinating… (and well worth the 20 min)

If you are not familiar with Nassim Taleb, definitely Google him.

Thought the following picture tells an interesting story.  What do you think?

Here is the full article.  The most interesting ideas, I thought, were:

Challenges the idea that Republicans are the “rich person’s party”.
Presents an interesting motivation for Bush’s tax cuts (hint: it isn’t that he believes in small gov’t or less taxes).
“The first duty of a [...]

I like to get in the head of the “other side” - for example, when I was an auditor, I wanted to figure out what client management was thinking when they chose not to record a liability for an obvious loan, or when I took my cell phone back to Verizon within their “30-day No [...]

I was walking yesterday and overheard a single sentence of a conversation between three guys.  The first guy said, “They don’t understand that the only way to restore freedom is to temporarily take away all their rights.” The other two guys agreed.  I have no idea of the context of this sentence, but I would [...]

Read an interesting article about a “turn-around expert” named George Cloutier who just released a book called Profits Aren’t Everything, They’re the Only Thing. Naturally, a title like this is going to stir criticism from the same people who will attack the “Greed is Good” theme. But after reading about him more, I like what [...]

I’m on vacation = I’m in a really good mood.  Further, as has been discussed in emails between site authors, I have not been following the news that much = in a really good mood.  Strange??
But to keep with the theme of blurtdaily, I’d like to do some complaining…
1. I hate it when my laziness [...]

Haven’t really posted in a bit due to 80+hour work weeks and if I hear the words “health care” again, I’ll throw up.  But today, I was inspired. Wait, wrong word… today I was motivated.  Wait, still not there… today I was incensed!  There we go.
The cover of USA Today reads “For Feds, more get [...]

If there is one thing I can absolutely say I support President Obama on… its his commitment to technology.   I think electronic medical records are a great idea even if they do not provide any cost savings (as recent studies suggest).   I think non-gasoline based cars are a great idea, even if they [...]

Late night commercials are the best!  Natural remedy healing, sell us your gold, sell us your ten-year settlement payout for a lump sum NOW, and the Snuggie (shout-out to Jason and Elise)!
The settlement payout commercials always get me thinking, which is not very productive that late at night:

I wonder what rate they use to discount [...]

Let’s talk about what its like to do business with the government versus the private market.

Example 1:
The WSJ today (non-Op-ed for once ) discusses recent government involvement in the management of GM.  For example, as part of the plan to cut costs, GM proposed to close and cut ties with 1,300 under-performing dealerships.  But [...]