When people first take an interest in finance (beyond balancing a checking account and buying a few stocks here or there) the first big revelation they have is that paper money is, in and of itself, worthless.  Really it's just a piece of paper, not even blank so you can write on it, not even big e...

 There is something magical about creating something.  It makes your soul grow, and life richer.Snatching an idea out of the ether, letting it percolate in your brain for a bit, and then giving it form is extremely gratifying.  You're turning something ethereal into something physical and substan...

Responsibility is a rare thing. Pure, unqualified, unadulturated "I will take care of that" is one of the rarest commodities I know of. Typically what you get is qualified responsibility.  "I'll take care of that IF blah blah blah" or "I'll take care of that AS LONG AS blah blah blah".  Maybe, pos...

I don't know what my most embarrassing moment is, but I think you'd be REALLY hard pressed to find one that could possibly top this, possibly in all of human history: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0106091vail1.html...

One of the key issues that will drive the speed of economic recovery is what's going to happen to SMB's? Regardless of what you've been told, large businesses and the government do not employ most of the people in this country.  Roughly 80% of the jobs come from small and medium businesses. That ma...

Peter Rip wrote a post about VC and the economy where he writes: This firestorm is like the Year 2000 cataclysm, with a powerful difference.  Like 2000, there are questions about the ‘death of venture capital’ the ‘death of the consumer’ and the ‘death of the Web.’  It’s all bullshit...

I want to quickly point out one very important thing that most people don't realize: The Federal Reserve Manages Your Expectations. They don't set interest rates, the market does that.  The only useful tool they have is psychological.  They manage expectations.  And they are not shy about this fa...

One of the major themes for the new year will be risk aversion.  Not just your plain vanilla variety risk aversion but quaking-in-your-boots-run-for-the-hills style outright fear of risk. Over recent years risk appetite has gone parabolic, people being willing to take on more and more risk and thro...

Every year I enjoy writing a post with my predictions for the next year.  It's a nice way to empty the old thoughts from my brains so there's room for new ones.  Plus I leave a trail of blog posts so I can see how my thoughts change from year to year. In retrospect I've realized that each year ten...

 IWantSandy, one of my favorite Web services, is shutting down on December 8th.  This was a really cool service that would act like a virtual assistant for you, reminding you of things you need to do, people you need to call, etc... everything a good REAL assistant does.  I have had it hooked up ...