This morning, I woke up to find that the private server on which my site is hosted had been overwhelmed by incoming traffic. Since this has always been a nice side-project to me (throughout the day, as I work in the office I can talk about whatever is on my mind to take a break), I never bothered to put a lot of resources on the computing side. Effective as of 30 minutes ago, I activated the super cache feature, which should serve static html files to all users who do not register and login … [Read more...]
Free Trade Isn’t Always Fair Trade
September 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment
A few days ago, I wrote a five-part essay called How to Solve the Trade Deficit in response to a reader question about trade policy in the United States. The reader, Adam, responded on his blog. Here is my followup to his commentary. I Would Love to Run Trade Surpluses But It Isn't Going to Happen If the United States were to run trade surpluses, as opposed to going trade neutral, we would be accused of mercantilism (rightly). This would immediately cause our trade partners around … [Read more...]
Mental Model: Veblen Goods
September 2, 2010 By 5 Comments
In today's installment of our mental models catalog, we are going to discuss Veblen goods, which are a special type of item that would appear, at first glance, to violate the law of supply and demand relationships to prices. Veblen goods are a type of commodity, product or service for which demand increases the higher the price climbs because buying a Veblen good is seen as a status symbol, giving the purchaser social cachet. For example, a $10,000 Birkin bag from Hermès is attractive … [Read more...]
A Reader Question About the Trade Deficit
August 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment
A message from a reader named Adam about the trade deficits. I responded in a five-part essay on How to Solve the Trade Deficit. Joshua, I follow your personal blog, and find your articles very informative, it’s a great reference, and you inspire me, as I feel I am very similar to you, minus the internet business cranking out good money lol. One problem that I am constantly thinking about that this great county is facing is the trade deficit and "free" trade. Our nation really … [Read more...]
PPL Corporation Stock Risk Analysis
March 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment
This is a risk analysis of PPL Corporation stock for a friend of mine that was hired by the company. Those of you who want to know how I think about risk management are perfectly welcome to read it but it is specifically targeted so I'm not sure how useful you'll find it. I've worked my way through a few hundred pages of the PPL 10K report and I already reached several conclusions. Here are my thoughts. Take them for what they are worth. They are most certainly not recommendations, just … [Read more...]
Mental Model: Satisficing
March 18, 2010 By 1 Comment
Satisficing: A psychological and economic phenomenon that results from consumers choosing a product that meets criteria at an adequate level, rather than expending a great deal more time to find a fully optimal solution. Put another way, people are not looking for optimal solutions in their life. They are looking for a combination of "just good enough" or "better than average" weighted by the total effort or cost expenditure necessary to acquire said solution. People don't want a better … [Read more...]
The Bosendorfer Strauss Grand Piano – A Real Life Lesson in the Time Value of Money
March 10, 2010 By 3 Comments
The Opportunity Cost of a Bosendorfer Strauss Grand Piano I'm going to teach you a financial technique that can help empower you to make informed choices about your own life and keep more cash in your pocket. I've been using it since college and it's done wonders from my bank balance and investments. From the time I was a kid and had only a few thousand dollars in the bank, I have wanted either a Steinway & Sons Model B grand piano and / or a Bosendorfer Strauss model grand piano, … [Read more...]
John Templeton and Value Investing
January 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
John Templeton was a billionaire mutual fund pioneer that specialized in using a value investing strategy to buy stocks around the world. By practicing a disciplined version of Benjamin Graham's teaching on a global scale, Templeton amassed an astounding record that made shareholders of his fund wealthy and earned him hundreds of millions of dollars in well-deserved fees. Toward the end of his life, John Templeton ran his international investments from his mansion on Lyford Clay in the … [Read more...]
Earnings Yield as a Value Investing Strategy
January 1, 2010 By 6 Comments
Many famous portfolio managers that practice a value investing strategy have said they think of stocks as "equity bonds". Instead of receiving a fixed rate of return, like you would when you buy a traditional bond, you receive a variable return based on the company's underlying profit. This approach makes it easier to value a business. The most common starting point for the valuation process is calculating a financial ratio known as earnings yield. In this article, you will learn … [Read more...]
Why Income Inequality Will Always Exist as Part of the Post-Industrial Revolution Global Economy
October 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment
First: Before we begin, the education system in the United States over the past few decades has done such a poor job teaching basic logic that by virtue of the headline alone, it is statistically likely that you have already made a decision about whether or not this short essay on pay inequality is "good" or "bad". You've done this without considering any of the factual data or evidence I'm going to offer by virtue of my own experiences in finance, based nothing more on your own political … [Read more...]
I'm a private investor, author, and business philosopher who started with nothing and was essentially retired by my early twenties thanks to my first Internet startup. I went to school on a music scholarship and spend my days doing what I want and growing Kennon Green Enterprises, LLC, the family holding company. 
