Category: Investing
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Q & AI
As a freelance financial writer, I was curious about the threat of my imminent obsolescence with the arrival of ChatGPT and similar generative AI chatbots. In an informal experiment, I asked ChatGPT a few questions that are typical of the kind of questions I answer in my freelance assignments, which consist largely of topics in…
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Books read in 2015
Obviously I read far too few books this year. From the best to the least best: Ben Yagoda, The B-side: The Death of Tin Pan Alley and the Rebirth of the Great American Song A very interesting history of the evolution of popular American music, particularly with its insights in the twenty years following World War II. Tom…
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Big themes at Morningstar Investment Conference 2012
Several themes emerged at last week’s Morningstar Investment Conference: Don’t panic 1: “It’s hard to imagine the Eurozone coming apart” (Michael Hasenstab, Franklin Templeton) Don’t panic 2: “For China to experience a hard landing would require two unlikely near-term events… a massive overtightening error, and a banking crisis” (Michael Hasenstab, Franklin Templeton) The best growth…
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Neologisms
The “Keeping Our Word” campaign from Eagle Asset Management, now offline, looked suspiciously (and coincidentally, I’m sure) like my “Neologisms” ads for Deloitte & Touche of nine years ago. I have to admit I’m a sucker for invented words, so I admire Eagle’s approach which consists of these new coinages: perfonomy — the addition of…
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Fault Lines : Raghuram G. Rajan
Another take on the economic crisis: somewhat dry and academic but quite thorough. The most illuminating idea was a refinement of the distorted compensation incentives that poison Wall Street. Rajan’s idea is an employee’s performance bonus held in long-term escrow to ensure it does not blow up a too-big-to-fail bank employer within a year or…