Month: December 2021

30 Years in America

30 Years in America

On the 30th Anniversary of my family's arrival in the United States from Soviet Russia, I reflect on my time here. After recounting the hard early days in a new country when I was "fresh off the boat", I offer perspective on how America has changed since I arrived. What I see now is, in some ways, more troubling than what I found all those years ago as a new immigrant.

This Holiday, Will Mr. Market Eat Too Much Pi? – Ep 143

There is a cryptocurrency, also named Omicron, that was up 900% on the day the new COVID-19 variant was publicized. Try as he might, Vitaliy cannot figure out what would have caused this crypto to spike that day. He muses that Mr. Market must be so...

Welch vs Bezos – Ep 142

During his tenure, Jack Welch built GE into an earnings estimates-beating-machine. There's just one problem with that: it leads to extreme short-termism, and ultimately the misallocation of capital. Contrast this with Jeff Bezos' approach of...

This Holiday, Will Mr. Market Eat Too Much Pi?

This Holiday, Will Mr. Market Eat Too Much Pi?

There happens to be a cryptocurrency, one of thousands, that is also named Omicron. I still cannot grasp the logic behind it, but that cryptocurrency was up 900% on the day the South African variant was christened. There must have been a trading algorithm or a lot of bored investors looking for the next gamble, to drive something seemingly worthless up 900%.