The amazing Slashdot dupes
IT website Slashdot, is well known for repeatedly posting the same stories. Most readers no longer even comment on this — or even notice. I am therefore keep an online record of the worst examples . (more…)
Comments disabled
The unpredictability of house prices
House prices are very sensitive to comparatively small changes in supply and demand. This, together with undertainties in the long term forecasts, makes long term prospects very uncertain. (more…)
Why your IT department is incompetent
Complaints about IT are common. It is not difficult to find examples of gross incompetence. So why does it happen? (more…)
Directors’ pay vs management theory
The justifications for spectacularly high pay for the upper ranks of management, particularly when in the form of options, are that high pay is needed to attract talent, and that performance related pay is needed to align directors interests with those of shareholders. There are flaws in this argument. (more…)
Corruption: a simple test
Given the reluctance of governments to investigate bribes paid to foreign governments, I want to suggest some simple tests for those who want to know if a particular company pays bribes. (more…)
Comments disabled
Open source: what investors need to know
I have blogged about open source before, but not specifically from an investors point of view. Because this is not a subject that most investors are familiar with, I am going to make this a basic introduction. (more…)
Try India
Whenever I see the many articles discussing the risks of investing in China, like this list at Interactive Investor Blog, my immediate reaction is, why not invest in India. (more…)
Technology drives consumers to irrationality
Technology, and the development of technological products, undermine free market mechanisms. One, of many, reasons for this is the problems consumers face in making a choice about purchases. Does this affect the assumption that consumers are able to make informed and rational decisions, which is required by the argument in favour of free markets? (more…)
Pointless EU bureaucracy
I was going to write about why people are irrational, but the sheer stupidity of the EU bureaucracy trumps ordinary irrationality. (more…)
Comments disabled
Making money by giving away
The advocates of ever stronger copyright and patent laws claim that these are the only way to give people an incentive to create new works and inventions. Here are a few examples that show otherwise, mostly of how people make money by giving away. (more…)
Comments disabled
Feed