Key Points The pandemic has led to a global reset, with a positive side effect of more women starting new businesses. Recent data from print orders and industry experts show a surge in women-led start-ups during the pandemic. Three trends suggest that post-pandemic women-led start-ups will be purpose-led, larger than expected, and making great progress on entrepreneurship around gender and … Read More
The internal rate of return is dead. Long live the IRR. “Hey, the IRR looks soooo close to the DaRC!” Michele observed. Michele is our chief technology officer at XTAL Strategies, and I had never asked him to compute and include private equity’s internal rate of return (IRR) in our lines of code before. I had handled that. Now he … Read More
Key Points: Quantitative Easing (QE) has led to significant balance sheet expansion by central banks. Research suggests a modest impact on inflation from QE. Inflation is not expected to get out of hand due to current balance sheet expansion. Jerome Powell, Andrew Bailey, and Christine Lagarde are not considered to pose a threat. I notice charts of central bank balance … Read More
Key Points – Marko Papic’s book “Geopolitical Alpha: An Investment Framework for Predicting the Future” offers insights on how investors can prepare for upcoming events and beat the market. – Papic emphasizes the importance of focusing on measurable constraints facing policymakers to determine the future, rather than being swayed by politically connected people or media reports. – The book aims … Read More
The year 2020 has been one of extremes. As individuals, governments, and industries cope with the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19, global securities markets are bracing for a high-stakes US presidential election that could differ dramatically from its recent predecessors. What can investors, asset managers, and traders reeling from the unprecedented volatility of February and March expect heading into … Read More
Key Points Morgan Housel’s latest book “The Psychology of Money” delves into the behavioral aspects of investing. Understanding greed and fear is crucial in investing. Timing and compounding play significant roles in investment growth. Risk can be what is unforeseen and unprepared for, emphasizing the importance of being prepared for unexpected events. Frugality and paranoia play a role in both … Read More
Key Points Milton Friedman’s influential editorial in The New York Times said that business’s social responsibility is to increase profits. In “These Are the Plunderers,” Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner shed light on the private equity industry’s practices and their impact on society. The book examines specific cases of malpractice by private equity firms, such as Apollo Fund’s acquisition of … Read More
Key Points Commercial considerations have influenced financial transactions for thousands of years. Modern Finance’s foundation is the illusion that radical uncertainty can be understood and exploited through the calculable risks of a small, simple, rational model. Modern Finance, powered by Modern Finance, has regularly generated financial crises, both large and small. The history of finance shows just how close we … Read More
