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Thursday, March 08, 2018

Thinking in Bets

Our links and  reflections are split into New Trends, Growing Trends and Ongoing Trends, especially focusing on the New Trends...
 IN THE MAIL: Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts

How This Entrepreneur Got Funded by Shark Tank


It’s always fun to see what happens to my students after they leave class. Jeff Witten started CoinOut four years ago in my Columbia…


Rupert Murdoch’s pay TV service has little excuse for not paying tax. It is a government mandated monopoly and it spits out cash. This News Corp entity managed to eliminate $6 billion in gross revenue over three years in order to pay no tax Foxtel Cable Television Pty Limited

Engineer could have put NSW on right track before we bought $2 billion worth of new trains

Believe it or not, anyone in NSW can call themselves an engineer and there is no requirement that engineering advice be taken into account during the conception and development of major projects like this one.

'Ridiculous' tampon tax must go, Plibersek says while unveiling Labor's gender equality strategy



ATO SMSF leader replaced with KPMG exec


The ATO has appointed KMPG partner, national lead – asset and wealth management tax, Dana Fleming to the role of assistant commissioner, SMSFs. Current ATO assistant commissioner, SMSFs, Kasey Macfarlane will be moving to a new role within the ATO Private Groups and High Wealth Individuals client sector from ...

Australian man claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto sued after ...


After deceiving the Australian Tax Office (ATO), the company went bankrupt and Wright fled the country following the subsequent raid of his home by Australian authorities. Since then, he's been living a life of wealth and luxury in London with all the stolen bitcoin.  
    

Steve Schwarzman Earns More Than Record Lottery Winners Bloomberg. JTM: “For some definition of earn…”


I am reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb's new book Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life and he has some interesting things to say about risk management and human nature. From the description:


In his most provocative and practical book yet, one of the foremost thinkers of our time redefines what it means to understand the world, succeed in a profession, contribute to a fair and just society, detect nonsense, and influence others. Citing examples ranging from Hammurabi to Seneca, Antaeus the Giant to Donald Trump, Nassim Nicholas Taleb shows how the willingness to accept one’s own risks is an essential attribute of heroes, saints, and flourishing people in all walks of life.
As always both accessible and iconoclastic, Taleb challenges long-held beliefs about the values of those who spearhead military interventions, make financial investments, and propagate religious faiths. Among his insights:
• For social justice, focus on symmetry and risk sharing. You cannot make profits and transfer the risks to others, as bankers and large corporations do. You cannot get rich without owning your own risk and paying for your own losses. Forcing skin in the game corrects this asymmetry better than thousands of laws and regulations.
• Ethical rules aren’t universal. You’re part of a group larger than you, but it’s still smaller than humanity in general.
• Minorities, not majorities, run the world. The world is not run by consensus but by stubborn minorities imposing their tastes and ethics on others.
• You can be an intellectual yet still be an idiot. “Educated philistines” have been wrong on everything from Stalinism to Iraq to low-carb diets.
• Beware of complicated solutions (that someone was paid to find). A simple barbell can build muscle better than expensive new machines.
• True religion is commitment, not just faith. How much you believe in something is manifested only by what you’re willing to risk for it.
The phrase “skin in the game” is one we have often heard but rarely stopped to truly dissect. It is the backbone of risk management, but it’s also an astonishingly rich worldview that, as Taleb shows in this book, applies to all aspects of our lives. As Taleb says, “The symmetry of skin in the game is a simple rule that’s necessary for fairness and justice, and the ultimate BS-buster,” and “Never trust anyone who doesn’t have skin in the game. Without it, fools and crooks will benefit, and their mistakes will never come back to haunt them.”

THE INSTA-WIFE: “Never Trust Anyone Who Doesn’t Have Skin in the Game.” What she doesn’t mention is that she stole my copy of Taleb’s book.

Career Civil Servants Illegitimately Rule America

Example output from twelve different resizing functions

Verona Burgess: the estimates gong show.
Public servants have their own bag of tricks for dealing with over-zealous questioning, but estimates hearings can often appear like an exercise in bullying. Verona Burgess on the new faces in Canberra.
 

“But he’s not even a Democrat!”


Facebook ending News Feed experiment condemned as 'Orwellian'


United is cutting bonuses and asking employees to enter a lottery for $100,000 Quartz. “Employees of United Airlines used to get quarterly bonuses if they hit certain performance targets. Now, they’ll all be entered into a lottery, out of which one—and only one—lucky person will win $100,000.”
Judge rules Seattle homeless man’s truck is a home Seattle Times. News you can use!

The Logic of Power n+1. On Evo Morales.

Why Is Brooklyn Barbecue Taking Over the World? Munchies. One word: Globalization. But see this from 2016 on the Michelin Guidefor the horrid big picture. Controversial!



Google receives 2.4m requests to delete search results FT



A banking centre seeks to reinvent itself The Economist. “Switzerland is maintaining loose rules for crypto-businesses, even as other countries are tightening theirs.”

Sam Dastyari joins the throng of Sydney home sellers with $2.1 million hopes




Tanya Plibersek

Deputy Leader of the Opposition

'International Women’s Day Address'

Wednesday, 7 March 2018

Arrive from 11.30am, lunch 12 noon, speaker 12.30 concludes 1.30pm
 

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