I got some interesting questions via email and I thought I would share them, along with my answers. Does he feel that the economic crisis make him more or less confident in Rand’s objectivist philosophy?  Why? it hasnt changed. Im not a believer that her writings are guidelines for how governments should operate. I think…

The only way to address executive compensation and the inevitable boom and bust cycles that will happen in perpetuity in this country is to finally recognize the difference between financial engineering and investing.  For some reason no one in any of our regulatory agencies seems to want to admit or deal with the differences.  Too…

The “conventional wisdom” of internet intellectuals is that its a foregone conclusion that the future of content delivery is via the internet.  Furthermore, the same internet panel populaters seem to be of the mindset that traditional entertainment and content companies “just dont get it”.  History has written that if it can be gotten for free,…

Im going to simplify this as much as possible. I probably should have just included this in the first post. Here are the best and worst cases of Newscorp opting out of the Google Index 1. Best Case: They opt out and see an increase in revenues and commitment to their sites because people choose…

Hows that for a title.  Just thought it would be a fun day to rehash some old posts that made me look a little prescient Today the feds arrested 2 programmers that worked for Madoff. I wrote this in January: Jan 18th 2009 10:11AM Im taking a flyer here, but if they were to put…

More than a year ago I wrote a post (see below) about taxing stock transactions. I suggested 10c per share on both sides. Some of our politicians are suggesting .025pct.  There really is no reason not to do it either way. Spreads have narrowed in the past several years to pennies from nickels, dimes and…

The premise is very simple.  Over the air broadcasters, the people who bring you TV that you can get with rabbit ears, pay nothing to the government for the allocated digital spectrum over which tv is delivered. Not only do they pay nothing to the government for that spectrum, they are no longer only using…

I cant wait to get my hands on the IPad. Its going to be a HUGE hit. You can book it right now that it will be the product that kids of this generation grow up with and look back on with affection just like we did with the first video games. Video games changed…

According to the LA Times, “In written questions to Comcast and NBC Universal regarding their $30-billion proposed marriage, Sen. Franken — who has been one of the harshest critics of the deal — wants Comcast and NBC Universal to promise that it will put all its television shows online. He also wants assurances that shows…

I had a very enjoyable debate with Avner Rosen of Boxee yesterday at SXSW.  We tended to go around in circles defending our positions. His (to paraphase): the internet will do what cable and satellite do, but it will do it better. That MicroSoft and Apple among others will in the future come up with…