Author Archives: Felix

More voters than ever oppose capitalism. 

The rise of indexing means that fund management giants like BlackRock and Vanguard are increasingly in a position to prevent the death and displacement of millions of people. 

Defense spending has accounted for more than 3% of U.S. economic activity in every year since World War II. Think of it as a consistent and predictable fiscal stimulus.

When a CEO is forced out of a company, a lot of people hope and expect big changes. Much like Inigo Montoya in “The Princess Bride,” those people are going to have to get used to disappointment.

There are, and will be, many other successful and powerful technocrats, many of them just as capable as these two paragons of austerity. But none of them are likely to receive the kind of popular acclaim that Volcker and Rohatyn … Continue reading →

For some 350 years — from the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, which marked the beginning of the modern system of nation-states — no international court existed. Then, the WTO was created.

Increasingly, today’s CEO is merely an executive hired by the person who is really in control.

This was the week that Kylie Jenner ratified her billionaire status beyond any doubt, even as fellow 20-something Taylor Swift found herself continuing to battle The Man over rights to her own work.

“The real purpose of digital capitalism is to extract value from the economy and deliver it to those at the top.”

The world is angry.

1 big thing: The case for exchange monopolies

Never mind the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi — there’s money to be made. That’s the clear message sent by the list of grandees scheduled to attend the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia later this month.

For all that CEOs increasingly talk of their “moral duty to speak up,” those moral duties seem to be left on the tarmac whenever they hop on their corporate jet.

Capitalism works best when everybody is playing by the same rules. Right now we seem to be moving away from that ideal.

Don’t trust the markets.

“‘Jeffrey has friends who owe him favors, and they’ll be making the donations to MIT.’ ‘Favor’ was a word that was used.”

Dozens of rich and influential men surrounded Jeffrey Epstein. They knew that what they were doing was wrong. That’s why they were so secretive about it.

It’s the end of the world as we know it.

Seats on boards offered by major museums are increasingly being used to serve the narrow agendas of the ultra-rich

I am going to say something very controversial but terrorism is bad.

Everybody’s scared.

Jay Powell did his best impression this week of a Fed chair making his own data-driven decisions about where he should set short-term interest rates. The reality, however, is that the markets and the president are giving him very little … Continue reading →

1 big thing: The ECB likes inflation now

The media consumption wars are heating up.

Fake billionaires, the decline of legacy brands, volatile homes, Deutsche’s woes, Facebook’s woes, metal plastic, the downside of summer break, and even some wine content. Enjoy!