What an utter disappointment. Clem Sunter may (or may not) know something about strategy and scenario planning, but this book does nothing to excite me. The analogy of a fox is pushed and stretched and twisted to incorporate it into every few pages with no benefit. The structure and flow of the book make it…
May 6 2010. Dow falls more than 1,000 points intraday, including a drop of P&G from around $60 to (according to some accounts) below $40. The Dow recovered most of the falls quickly, but these trades are now part of the historical time series. Banks and others using risk management tools often back-test their models…
I agree wholeheartedly with the basic premise; maybe that is the problem. As I read The Halo Effect: . . . and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers, I moved from nodding vigorously in agreement during the introduction to nodding off to sleep by the second chapter. The general themes of critical thinking,…
Islamic Banking – A $300 Billion Deception: Observations and Arguments on Riba (interest or usury), Islamic Banking Practices, Venture Capital and Enlightenment. arrived shorter than I expected at around 60 pages, and was probably longer than it needed to be. The author outlines his major points early on and supplements them with some interesting real-world…
Any company, person or country looking to invest in Africa must read Michela Wrong’s book, “In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu’s Congo” . The book details the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from its pre-Stanley (yes, that Stanley) days before east African Muslim traders…
Since my recent post outlining how the distraction Eskom’s proposed higher charges distracted us from more important considerations such as their underlying efficiency, new evidence has emerged validating another point from my original post, Mumbling in the Dark. The DA has released a confidential report outlining how Eskom has been selling heavily discounted electricity, sometimes…
In a previous post, Mumbling in the Dark, I argued that too much attention was being paid to Eskom’s proposed increased charges and too little at 5 separate points, the first being their actual cost of production. It seems that NERSA has been looking at this and has discovered some areas where Eskom was incorrectly…
The safety rules and rigorous enforcement of these regulations damages the profitability of the entire industry – just not in the way you might think. Regulations and Big Bank Buildings Why have banks historically had impressive marble-slathered floors and columns, high ceilings and ornate, heavy front doors? Would you really deposit your salary and savings…
