I learned from my wife the concept of the “feedback sandwich,” by which she means if you want to give someone an important piece of critical advice, it’s often most strategic to cushion the blow with a compliment to start, and a compliment to finish, with the criticism nestled in between. Michael Scott in Scranton, [&hellip

Markets work great, if the goal is to 1. Maximize total output; 2. Encourage innovation; 3. Reward maximum effort; 4. Reward talent; and 5. Use resources most efficiently. As a result, limiting markets tends to impair one of more of the above, valuable, outcomes. Also, non-market solutions to problems often produce sub-optimal results in one or more [&hellip

“Daddy,” began the little princess plaintively, “I’m bored.” The poor thing is trapped in her tower for the Summer months. Wizarding school ended the first week of June, and will not start again until next Fall. Also, it’s a Sunday and her 4-year old sister, the other little princess trapped in the tower, naps deeply [&hellip

I read Rishi Narang’s Inside the Black Box as a kind of primer on quantitative trading, in advance of reading Michael Lewis’ Flash Boys. Need for a primer on quantitative trading I need a primer before reading Flash Boys for several reasons. I was an ‘over-the-counter’ institutional bond guy, rather than a participant in the exchange-traded [&hellip

A friend sent me a link this morning to an article about Square Capital’s small business cash advance business. The credit card processing company Square claims to use credit card receipts data to prompt it to advance money – within as quickly as 24 hours from the request – to existing small business customers, even [&hellip