Suppose the Johnson family makes $100,000 per year (after taxes). Yet, to maintain their lifestyle, the family spends $114,000 per year on food, clothing, utility bills, gas, school supplies, the dentist, entertainment, lawn mowing services, pool maintenance, etc. Oops. They don’t have $114,000. They only have $100,000. No problem. To bridge the gap between income and expenses, the Johnsons just...
Auction Theory
Like the rest of you, I’ve been thinking about auctions and auction theory because nothing pairs better with a beautiful weekend morning than considering the efficiency of asset pricing mechanisms and writing about it. I’m sure you’ll agree. (I asked ChatGPT to draw a picture to represent the opening sentence. This might be entirely too accurate… minus the suit and tie… and I’m not blue. But...
A Post AI World
Although launched less than two years ago, ChatGPT has made artificial intelligence accessible to the masses, transitioning AI from nerds-only tech to a mainstream audience. The extremely fast adoption of ChatGPT has ushered in a proliferation of additional large language models with real utility to businesses and individuals alike. According to ChatGPT itself, its top 10 use-cases are currently:...
Deficits, Debt, Interest, Taxes, Austerity, Waste, Inflation and The Fed
Numerous threats encompass a nation and a national psyche – some real, some existential, some external, some internal. In this post, I discuss a real internal threat, one of our own creation, completely under our control, but not under control – our national debt. Our nation’s enormous debt and persistent deficit spending significantly constrain our future economic options and form the...
A Children’s Story for Adults
Imagine a world where money is nearly free. In this make-believe world, the citizens planted a magical tree whose fruit is money. Sure, the citizens needed to water the money tree, prune it and generally care for it. They also, of course, had to pick the money from the tree as it bloomed. So, it required some work, but generally, the tree produced money proportional to the care provided, with...
Learning from Failure
While visiting family over the holidays, my cousin mentioned he most enjoys my blog posts about my pain, discomfort or failure. I’ve noticed a theme here. When others tell stories about their pain, the normal reaction is sympathy, but when I experience pain or misfortune, my friends and family have a good laugh and quite enjoy it. To keep my readers happy, the stories below highlight at least...
Flying Three Mistakes from Failure
As young adults, my brother and I bought my Dad a model airplane for Christmas one year. Included in our gift were lessons from an experienced instructor to help Dad learn to fly it. As it turns out, model airplanes are more difficult to maneuver than one might assume. Apparently, the instructor told my Dad a general rule of thumb for beginners is to fly at an altitude “three mistakes from...
Managing Risk
When I was an undergraduate at the University of Tulsa, I was at the computer lab writing my final paper for the semester. As was common, it was quite late in the evening and the computer lab was full of students cramming in that last assignment… just trying to get done. At one point in the evening, the football player a few seats over stood up to walk to the printer. On his way, he tripped over...