Weekend Reading Links 9/22/17

Weekend Reading Links 9/22/17

I just got back from a great trip to New York City.  I was asked to go out for the week to work with our office out of Tarrytown (30 miles north of NYC) so I took the opportunity and went out early with the wife to do some touristy sight-seeing.

To be honest, I did not think I would like New York all that much.  The stereotypes of the rude fast-talking, fast-walking people is not really my style, but I was excited to visit either way.  Unfortunately, things did not start off well.  We flew in Friday night and when I grabbed my bag off the carousel the handles felt wet.  I smelled it and it reeked of beer.  Turned out my entire bag got soaked through with someone’s beer.  Everything, including my work clothes, which I picked up from the dry cleaner that day to take on this trip, were completely soaked!  The Spirit Airlines Baggage service lady was not very helpful either.  Thankfully after a little public shaming on Twitter, I was able to get things worked out.

 

After that little adventure and a bit of orienting I have to say my opinion changed pretty quick.  We stayed down in lower Manhattan which was great and started Saturday morning with a tour of the 9/11 museum.  The rest of the weekend was basically a lot of walking and taking pictures.  We didn’t do any clubs or shows or fancy dinners.  We ate breakfast from the bagel cart at Zuccotti Park and had crepes at a great little spot in SoHo.  The people we met were all very pleasant.

 

 

I look forward to going back and visiting again soon.  I’ll plan to spend a little more time there and try to connect with some NY Twitter peeps.  I’ve definitely been converted to a fan.

 

Here is the short list of things that I found interesting this week:

Going with the New York theme, here is a really interesting article from Katie Richards (@ktjrichards) in AdWeek on the Fearless Girl from a marketing perspective.  We’ve all seen the statue and doubtless seen some social media opinions on it, but this is the genesis and results. – Fearless Girl Stole the World’s Heart, but What Did it Do for the Client’s Business?

By the way, I shared this photo on Twitter of my 3 year-old watching TV which I thought was funny.

 

 

 

Tadas Viskanta (@abnormalreturns) with a great post on ESG investing. ESG – Don’t let the Perfect be the Enemy of the Good

 

While it’s sad when a beloved celebrity passes, the public nature of their lives sometimes continues into the afterlife – or into the execution of the estate anyway.  Some important estate planning lessons can be taken away from the examples left. Take this post from WealthManagement.com (@wealth_mgmt) on do’s and dont’s of disinheriting kids from wills, courtesy of Jerry Lewis. – Jerry’s Kids Get Cut Out … Or Do They?

 

This is a potentially really important update for global investors that did not seem to get much press via Reuters (@reuters) – ECB Launches New Reference Rate After Failed Reform

 

From the CFA Institutes blog Enterprising Investor (@Enterprising) a recap of a speech made by William Goetzman, Yale professor, financial historian, and author.  I bet you didn’t know that writing is a financial innovation. – Finance: How It Made Civilization Possible

 

John Shanley (@john_shanleyCFP) on why the 4% rule may be outdated – A Deeper Dive Into the 4% Rule

 

James Picerno (@jpicerno) writing in the Capital Spectator blog with a reminder that investors are often their own worst enemies – Investor Returns vs. Market Returns: The Failure Endures

 

In books, I just started reading the Chernow Rockefeller biography Titan.  I have paused my revolutionary era education and have skipped ahead to the Gilded Age.  Next up I have House of Morgan, and then a broader overview with The Tycoons.  I am still looking for one more book to round it out.  I’m thinking of going with either Dark Genius of Wall Street, the Jay Gould bio, or American Colossus by H.W. Brands.  Let me know if you have any recommendations.

After this foray into Gilded Age history I’m thinking of doing a dive into the economic classics.  I’ve never read Wealth of Nations, Keynes’s General Theory, or Road to Serfdom.  Unlike a lot of people on Twitter and in the blog-o-sphere I’m not a fast reader so all this will likely take me into next year.  Especially because I do take the occasional detour, like I did with my last book, Garry Kasperov’s Deep Thinking.

 

And finally, a cool video of Elon (@elonmusk) being Elon.  Who else creates and distributes a montage of all their spectacular failures?  

 That’s all for now.  I start teaching again next month and I have a million students in this class (14 as of right now, but that feels like a million to me) so I am not sure how the writing will fare.  I do have a post coming out soon rebutting a NY Times article which suggests endowment boards under $20million should not hire any advisors and just buy a stock index and a bond index and call it a day.  I had way to many problems with it to address in a tweet so I had to go long form.  There will hopefully be a book review or two coming soon as well.

 

Drop me a line and let me know what you think!