Category: Money

My blog used to have just two readers, and I wrote a lot of random stuff. These days I seem to have acquired some 30 readers or so, and I feel a bit of pressure to make these posts actually interesting. That tends to reduce the number of postings, which of course is not a…

The merger between AOL and Time Warner, the biggest merger in U.S. history, happened ten years ago. It is now generally considered to have been the worst merger of all time. Hindsight is 20/20, but I clearly remember that when I first read it I thought it was a joke. I was working in Silicon…

There is a disagreement as to just what caused the Great Depression, but the general problem once it started was one of liquidity: there was not enough money available. This led to price deflation, which led to people saving their money rather than spending it, which led to people not buying things, which led to…

Today is Blog Action Day, and this year’s topic is poverty. According to the Gospel of John, Jesus famously said “For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.” This may have been intended as a reference back to Deuteronomy 15, in which Moses said that every seven years all…

My current understanding of the typical hedge fund is that there are certain dates when you are permitted to request a redemption. The hedge fund must then give you your money back within six to eight weeks. Some hedge funds have gates, which are limits on the amount of money you are permitted to withdraw.…