News

After my last post about Bitcoin, I got a lot of, “So… Bitcoin?”  No one has a concrete opinion on this thing except the evangelists, but everyone wants to discuss it.  Skeptics seem more concerned about staying in their lane than dragging down crypto – they don’t understand it, they don’t need it, and maybe it smells a bit fishy to them. I think crypto is an elegant solution in search of a problem and I am constantly reminded of the early internet.  We didn’t see the use of the internet at first, but today it’s a basic utility.  Here’s how I’m looking at Bitcoin right now. What is the Purpose? It’s a way to store wealth.  This is particularly handy if your centralized currency authority is devaluing/confiscating.  With fewer institutions between transacting parties (basically just the network), Bitcoin is a fast and cheap way to send money to someone…

I changed my mind on Bitcoin a few weeks ago.  A bunch of smart people had made public comments on it, generating buzz.  I was going to write up a short summary for our investment team with pros and cons, ultimately concluding that Bitcoin was garbage.  But then I did some research. I read this Letter to Jamie Dimon which is the best tutorial on crypto-currencies (maybe more accurately crypto-assets) out there. I got sucked in to Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s Hash Power podcast series and have listened to it twice now. I’m convinced that Bitcoin is a real thing that has value.  Is it worth $7,500?  I have no idea and neither does anyone else.  Crypto-assets are an uncharted territory, basically a new paradigm along the lines of the invention of the internet.  Like the internet’s early days, nobody knows where the value lies yet.  The hip thing to say now…

It’s Harvard.  The $37 billion hedge fund is Harvard. More specifically, I’m referencing Harvard’s endowment.  When Harvard announced yet another management change last year, I was skeptical.  It seemed to me that Jane Mendillo inherited a mess created by an intellectual mercenary (who left his next employer under undesirable circumstances as well).  This began a management carousel ending with N.P. “Narv” Narvekar most recently taking over as CEO of the Harvard Management Company (HMC).  Reading the latest endowment report, I think Narv might be able to turn this thing around.  He is looking to improve HMC’s culture, structure, and incentives. The Changes Culture is difficult to change in any setting, especially after so much turnover in management.  Narvekar wants to build a singular team rather than insular tribes.  Getting buy-in from people who have seen several leaders come and go will not be easy.  Narvekar does have an advantage in…

Today’s post is a departure from the norm of investment news and snark.  I’m going to share a bit about my son, William, and ask you to spend a minute of your day to think about his cause. William was born in 2010 with Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease, or ARPKD.  We spent his first days with him in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).  He was in a plastic box and a machine was helping him breathe.  These were critical days.  We couldn’t hold our son.  He was cradled by a tangle of tubes and monitoring cables.  Most of all, the sounds will stick with me.  The beepbeepbeepBOOP alert of his pulsox unit, the inflating of the blood pressure cuff every 15 minutes, and assorted klaxons and pings haunt me.  You wonder if this alert is the big one.  What’s wrong?  And we were powerless to do anything, wondering if…

Like many classic fables, the story of the frog and the scorpion can be traced back to many cultures, each with their own twist.  Aesop’s version is here. A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, “How do I know you won’t sting me?” The scorpion says, “Because if I do, I will die too.” Argentina was once the rising star of the global economy.  By 1913 it was the world’s 10th wealthiest country per capita owing to abundant natural resources and governance that emphasized economic growth.  After a military takeover in 1930, Argentina experienced constant political change.  From 1930 to 1983, the country averaged a new president every two years.  Argentina defaulted on its international debt in 1956, 1989, 2001, and 2014.  The 2001 default resulted in a highly…

Children have trouble focusing their attention.  To get my son to turn all his attention to his homework (since when do first graders have homework, anyway?), we often need to mute or turn off the TV.  Handheld screens are completely off the table for him unless we are on a long car ride.  He doesn’t have the discipline to choose substance over sparkle.  YouTube knows that he and his generation love unboxing videos and shoddy animation.  Don’t think the media isn’t targeting you the same way. As an adult, you should be immune to such base manipulation, right?  This is not the case.  Advertisers need to get you to self-diagnose moderate to severe Wandering Toe Syndrome and ask your doctor if Toeproxin™ is right for you.   How do they do that?  The adult version of unboxing videos is drama.  This used to be the domain of prime-time fictional television….