Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Slack announced yesterday that it raised $160 million at a $2.8 billion valuation. The company hasn’t spent a penny of the $120 million it raised just last October. When Slack raised that money, founder Stewart Butterfield said it was enough to last them 60 years. Besides creating a Scrooge McDuck style swimming pool, why exactly would a company take…
Just last year, Ben Bernanke was still serving as the head of the Federal Reserve—the most powerful central banking position in the world. Now, he’s going to work for a hedge fund. Is it possible—just possible—that we have a systemic problem? The “revolving door” between powerful governmental (or quasi-governmental, in the case of central bankers)…
Bravo for companies that are starting to focus on innovation again! It’s about time. But even with this renewed attention to innovation, some managers keep projects resource-starved, in the belief that scarcity drives creative invention. Although ingenuity can sometimes spring up when means are scarce, managers beware: It is a dangerous miscalculation to think that…
Just yesterday, German FinMin Schaeuble bent the truth, proclaiming that there was no sign of contagion from Grexit concerns. Today, it appears, he will be eating his words, as Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese bond spreads have exploded higher (up 15-30bps this week) amid the collapse of Greek sovereign and bank bonds. It’s not just…
Single: article; “It’s like an ever-descending spiral for you…” (Michal Dzierza / Flickr) In 1975 Susan Sontag, the American intellectual famous for On Photography and Against Interpretation, was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer and survived after a radical mastectomy, extensive radiation treatments, and thirty months of debilitating chemotherapy. In the aftermath she needed someone…
Entry Text It’s 2015, and on average, women still make 78 cents to a man’s dollar. A new report goes beyond that oft-quoted statistic, and examines this discrepancy along racial, geographical and educational lines.The American Association of University Women’s (AAUW) “The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap” report breaks down the wage gap in…
« Previous | Next » David Wessel | April 9, 2015 9:50am How much does the tax code reduce inequality? There is, for good reason, a lot of focus these days on the widening gap between the top and the bottom in the U.S. economy. Since it’s (almost) Tax Day, that April 15 deadline for…
Begin: WordPress Article Content Portfolio An iOS Lens Into Equity There is more to mobile apps than games, and Portfolio, co-founded by TechCrunch alum Ben Schaechter, wants to upend the financial application space. The company launched its iOS application three weeks ago, and has seen quick early adoption, spurred on in part with App Store love…
With Jean-Claude Juncker demanding a Unified European Army, it appears Germany is wasting no time in simultaneously boosting its own economy with warfare spending and comforting a ‘fearful populace’ with more military might. As Reuters reports, Germany plans to procure more than 100 additional Leopard 2 tanks, increasing its total Leopard 2 tank inventory by…
Paul Tudor Jones—whose net worth is $4.6 billion—is one of the most famous hedge fund managers in American history. He is a heavy donor to Republicans. And he is warning of the possibility of class-based revolution in America. Also, he has some ideas. We will say this about Paul Tudor Jones: he is not the…