Investment/Trends

Philadelphia Borrows $50 Million So Its Schools Can Open on Time

"Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said the $50 million was necessary to provide the minimum staffing needed for the basic safety of the district’s 136,000 students. In June, the district closed 24 schools and laid off 3,783 employees, including 127 assistant principals, 646 teachers and more than 1,200 aides, leaving no one even to answer phones. For a number of years, Mayor Michael A. Nutter and the City Council have been working, with some success and a fair amount of taxpayer pain, to shore up the city’s finances, which have been troubled by mounting debt, a shrinking tax base and unfunded pension and health care obligations to retirees." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPhiladelphia Borrows $50 Million So Its Schools Can Open on Time

Philadelphia Borrows $50 Million So Its Schools Can Open on Time

"Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said the $50 million was necessary to provide the minimum staffing needed for the basic safety of the district’s 136,000 students. In June, the district closed 24 schools and laid off 3,783 employees, including 127 assistant principals, 646 teachers and more than 1,200 aides, leaving no one even to answer phones. For a number of years, Mayor Michael A. Nutter and the City Council have been working, with some success and a fair amount of taxpayer pain, to shore up the city’s finances, which have been troubled by mounting debt, a shrinking tax base and unfunded pension and health care obligations to retirees." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPhiladelphia Borrows $50 Million So Its Schools Can Open on Time

This is What Budget Cuts Have Done to Detroit … And It’s Freaking Awesome

"If our public servants are right, then chaos, anarchy and lawlessness should reign in Detroit now, right? Well, not exactly. Dale Brown and his organization, the Threat Management Center (TMC), have helped fill in the void left by the corrupt and incompetent city government. TMC now has a client base of about 1,000 private residences and over 500 businesses. Law enforcement isn't the only 'essential government service' that the private sector is taking over. The Detroit Bus Company (DBC) is a private bus service that began last year and truly shows a stark contrast in how the market and government operates." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThis is What Budget Cuts Have Done to Detroit … And It’s Freaking Awesome

This is What Budget Cuts Have Done to Detroit … And It’s Freaking Awesome

"If our public servants are right, then chaos, anarchy and lawlessness should reign in Detroit now, right? Well, not exactly. Dale Brown and his organization, the Threat Management Center (TMC), have helped fill in the void left by the corrupt and incompetent city government. TMC now has a client base of about 1,000 private residences and over 500 businesses. Law enforcement isn't the only 'essential government service' that the private sector is taking over. The Detroit Bus Company (DBC) is a private bus service that began last year and truly shows a stark contrast in how the market and government operates." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThis is What Budget Cuts Have Done to Detroit … And It’s Freaking Awesome

Carl Icahn, Takeover Man: 60 Minutes

"At age 76, Carl Icahn is still shaking up corporate boards, criticizing management and demanding board seats. His hedge fund was one of the top performers in 2011 and has a long term track record of approximately 30%pa. His conglomerate Icahn Enterprises, invests in rail cars, retail, gaming, energy and automotive. He insists that most public companies around the world are very inefficient and most can be improved with the correct strategies. A Princeton drop out he is now one of the longest standing and most successful corporate take over artists in the world." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCarl Icahn, Takeover Man: 60 Minutes

Solar power to trump shale, helped by US military

"US marines go to war in Afghanistan with solar cells embedded in their rucksacks, efficient enough to recharge lithium-ion batteries for radios and greatly lighten loads. Field patrols will soon have almost weightless solar blankets as well. The US Naval Air Weapons Station already relies on a 14 megawatt array of solar panels in California's Mojave desert for a thrid of its power.The US Navy will derive half its energy supply from renewables by the end of this decade, according to a report. It may be a stretch to say that the US Naval Research Laboratory is the vanguard of the world's green revolution, but not a big stretch." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSolar power to trump shale, helped by US military

San Francisco split by Silicon Valley’s wealth

"Heated bidding wars — especially in a half-mile radius of shuttle bus stops — have broken out, causing rents to soar, even double in some cases. Along shuttle routes, trendy new restaurants that serve high-end food and spirits have taken the place of corner stores and mom-and-pop businesses. Anti-Google graffiti has turned up here, and activists recently held a small anti-gentrification rally at which they smashed a Google bus piñata. Ted Gullicksen, executive director of the San Francisco Tenants Union, said he fears that the techies are permanently inheriting the city and won't pack up and leave as they did after the 2000 dot-com crash." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSan Francisco split by Silicon Valley’s wealth

Detroit’s Amazing Pop-Up Anarchy

"Detroit pop-ups are not your conventional, temporary businesses such as those unsightly suburban fireworks stores, or the usual Christmas or Halloween retailers. Instead, the city has attracted art galleries, food and beverage cafes, coffee shops, clothing boutiques, tea houses, vegan restaurants, yoga workshops, antique stores, bike stores, and mercantile-type retailers. Pop-ups are a temporary arrangement, often with a defined start and end time for business operations. Detroit is the perfect place for these temporary pop-up businesses." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDetroit’s Amazing Pop-Up Anarchy

Shares in Incorporated Co-op Cities Might Be the Next Big Thing

"Those who own property in a city—houses and businesses, say—probably come the closest to qualifying as its shareholders, but they do not own undivided interests in the city as a whole. Perhaps then we should not be surprised that, like unowned property everywhere, many cities suffer looting, abuse, and neglect. How can we improve this state of affairs? Here, as elsewhere, the public sector can learn from the private sector about how to tap the power of shared equity. Two lessons, in particular, bear our attention: Workplaces resemble cities and worker-owned businesses thrive." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingShares in Incorporated Co-op Cities Might Be the Next Big Thing

The Long Tail, Revisited

"In 1988, a British mountain climber named Joe Simpson wrote a book called Touching the Void, a harrowing account of near death in the Peruvian Andes. It got good reviews but, only a modest success, it was soon forgotten. Then, a decade later, Touching the Void started to sell again. Random House rushed out a new edition to keep up with demand. Booksellers began to promote it next to their Into Thin Air displays. A revised paperback edition, which came out in January [2004], spent 14 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. IFC Films released a docudrama of the story to critical acclaim. What happened? In short, Amazon.com recommendations." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Long Tail, Revisited