It was January 4, 1877 and the world’s richest man had just died. Cornelius “The Commodore” Vanderbilt had amassed a fortune of over $100 million over the course of his lifetime as a railroad/transportation pioneer. The Commodore was of the belief that splitting the family fortune would lead to ruin, so he left a majority…
Given the importance of wealth in this day and age, the decision to take a portion of your hard-earned money and make an investment should not be an easy one. After all, we all know that it can be a risky endeavor, which requires special knowledge and expertise in a highly volatile market. One way…
With the banks getting a rogering at the current Royal Commission where the only people who are surprised that the banks treat their customers like shit are the banks themselves, who reward such behaviour and politicians who want lucrative directorships and consultancy with banks when they leave politics. Combined the touted changes to dividend imputation much has…
Jeff Yass was always a little different from his peers — a brilliant young man taken with poker and horse racing and the power of rational decision-making. He’s used all of it to turn his company — Bala Cynwyd’s stealthy and mysterious Susquehanna International — into one of the world’s most lucrative and powerful financial…
Whilst cleaning out my music collection and making certain it was all available to me digitally I came across this single. One of the most underrated singer/songwriters Australia has produced I remember seeing him in some shitty venue on the Mornington Peninsula more years ago that I care to remember….
I have had occasion recently to hop a plane without my usual travelling companion (LB)- this has caused me to spend more time watching people and making observations about the travelling experience. When did hats become a default fashion item in the lounge and I am not talking about your ubiquitous baseball caps which are…
I friggen hate daylight saving – it is simply another social policy for which there is no evidence… One hundred years after Congress passed the first daylight saving legislation, lawmakers in Florida this week passed the “Sunshine Protection Act,” which will make daylight saving a year-round reality in the Sunshine State. If approved by the federal…
Like many traders, I read Market Wizards as a kid. If you don’t know it, it’s a collection of interviews with the most legendary traders of the 1980s.Back when I first read it, I really had no idea what the hell I was doing. I read it, thought I got it and moved on. But I didn’t…
Chuck Feeney today is a man of no property. He and his wife Helga live in a modest rented apartment in San Francisco. He has no car or luxuries of any kind. Actually, come to think of it, he has a very nice watch. It is plastic and cost about $15. There are no trophies or…
I have been saving this piece from the Brisbane Times – my lack of alacrity in looking at it and commenting on comes down to simply not know what to say since it operates from a point of view that is totally foreign to my own. In the past week, bitcoin took a dramatic tumble after…
British paratroopers sit across from themselves in the same aircraft that dropped them during the D-Day invasion.
When I was like four years old, despite my mother warning me not to, I put my finger on a hot stove. The stove was red and bright and shiny and I knew yummy food came from it, so the allure was irresistible. That day I learned an important lesson: really hot things suck. They…
