Difference of Opinion

Goes to show Twitter opinions are a dime a dozen.

February 7th, 2010

Austin’s Red Line Death

At the Technology Futures Inc Conference held this past week at the Courtyard Marriott downtown, a friend asked me what that “nearby train station” was for. Was it a way to get around Austin?

Sadly, the answer – for the past 2 years and counting – is NO. Sure it looks impressive, connecting to the Austin Convention Center and all. Unfortunately I explained, that’s all it connects to in downtown. No UT, no 6th Street, no Lady Bird Lake trail, no Whole Foods, no Warehouse District, no condos, no Capitol…nothing. OK she continued, so it connects to shopping places like the Domain? Not even the freakin’ Domain. So where does it go? Well, a bunch of parking lots in
the burbs. Who all want to go to the Convention Center? EXACTLY, I said.

Maybe it’s time to admit utter failure of tax dollars at work, as is put aptly here.

January 18th, 2010

Sandy Leeds at His Finest

Most of the financial news coming out of the blah-osphere is downright monotonous. A jobs report here, earnings announcement there. If you’re not watching CNBS 18 hours a day (God help you if you are) the dots don’t exactly connect on their own. At least that’s my experience.

Anyway, there’s some help out there for you, if you’re like me. Sandy Leeds, Professor at the McCombs School at UT-Austin, writes a new(ish) blog called Leeds on Finance, essentially summing up the day’s financial news and putting it all into context. This is not unlike what the McCombs Investment Fund (which Leeds oversees, BTW) is tasked with doing. Watching the currents, planning future moves down the road. On top of it all he’s a really funny and cutting writer. Take this excerpt:

The WSJ reports that many bank employees are very unhappy that a large component of their compensation will be stock that they will likely have to hold for three years.  Some claim to have liquidity issues.  I’ll be interested to see how this plays out.  I think that they should fill some basketball arenas with people who don’t have jobs, have quit looking or have accepted part-time employment rather than full-time employment.  It shouldn’t be difficult to find people to sit in the arena, since one in six Americans fall into one of these categories.  Then, the bankers should be allowed to tell the audience their woes.  Lets hear all about their liquidity issues and how they had nothing to do with our economic problems and how their bank was not rescued by the bailout.

Burn!

Honestly, add this guy to your feed already.

January 12th, 2010

This Is Not How You Want To Be Remembered

From the news of Bruce Wasserstein’s death (WSJ.com):

No plans for a memorial service have been announced. Wednesday evening, about 50 Lazard partners got together at the companys office near the top of Rockefeller Center to hold a quiet memorial for Mr. Wasserstein, said two people in attendance. As several more partners listened in on a conference call, Mr. Golub read from the press release. One or two others said some words about Mr. Wasserstein. Then the group held a moment of silence before a person in the room said, “Okay, lets get back to work.”

How about that legacy!

October 15th, 2009

MIddle seat death

I just celebrated my 18-month anniversary at the “new” gig, Duff & Phelps. Of course, I love it here. Plenty of things that make the work an absolute joy — challenging work (you tell me how much 750,000 telephone poles are worth), demanding clients (if they didn’t care they wouldn’t ask questions), and smart coworkers (the learning never ends).

Of course, the downsides of financial valuation are there. Top of my list has to be travel, in particular, short-notice travel and the all-too-common middle seat that gets assigned. It’s terrible! Not only is there no way to use a laptop, but inevitably you’re fighting for two armrests and of course you will only win one at a time, so the other arm gets to sit neatly tucked into your body, a perfect recipe for pit sweat you know you’ll have to address before the big meeting. Yeah, not fun.

Anyway, it’s no surprise that people would rather rather have their teeth drilled instead of traveling in a middle seat. I feel ‘em. If anything I’m grateful for Southwest wherever they fly — at least if I can’t get a window or aisle seat, it’s my own fault.

Ah, the banalities of a career where you’re wanted.

July 5th, 2009

DJ Schools

Ever wanted to pick up the mic and rock tha party? For those that didn’t get into the game early, it’s not too late to hit the Deejay Schools. Admittedly, this is a LIFE LONG DREAM of mine. Too bad you can’t make money with it, but at least the perks are nice when you’re en fuego. Hehe.

June 7th, 2009

Monetization? No rush.

I enjoy reading these articles on the hunt for Facebook and Twitter revenue, purely for the comedic effect. Oh SURE, there’s no rush to make money…after all, they’re just trying to flip it in a few years, so let “monetization” be the next guy’s problem.

Truth be told, there is a little money being made…by the support network. The cloud computing firms that host the Facebook apps, the developers selling the Twitter iPhone apps. Unfortunately, it’s just ancillary income on the scale that Facebook and Twitter need to make to satisfy their cost of capital.

May 23rd, 2009

Journalism’s Future

A refreshing viewpoint on the future of journalism from the editor of MIT’s Technology Review. Respecting the fact that journalism in 5, 10, 20 years isn’t a giant sucking abyss, or worst yet, a nonprofit endeavor. There is money to be made.

May 4th, 2009

Sustainability is about more than recycling milk jugs

Stories like this one on tons of released drugs tainting US water can really make you re-think what sustainability means.

April 19th, 2009

Fair value accounting: not so bad after all

There is an excellent write-up at The Baseline Scenario recapping the SEC’s defense of fair value accounting and mark-to-market in particular.

The SEC should be applauded — even during these times of Ponzi schemes and short sale schizophrenia — for having the sensibility to keep fair value accounting in place during the height of the myopia. There were a LOT of people supporting its suspension on a daily basis, from CNBC talking heads to Wall Street Journal opinion articles. Thankfully, the SEC understood the alternative was worse.

January 4th, 2009