PETER THIEL, NEVER one to keep a low profile, made his most recent set of waves with reports that he is prepared to decamp from Silicon Valley to more benign haunts in Los Angeles along with several of his companies. His rationale, according to a piece in the Wall Street Journal, is that the Valley is
Read moreSteven A. Cook
Steven A. Cook is the Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Tune in as he and Zachary share a conversation covering many interesting topics.
The Market Drop was Machine-Made. The Freakout that Followed was Man-Made
"Dow plunges 391 points as fear grips markets." A headline from two days ago? Try two years ago. Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average was down about 1,600 points, the largest intraday point-drop ever, before ending the day down a mere 1,175 points, or 4.6 percent.
Read moreThis Week’s Stock Market Drop was Machine-Made. The Freakout That Followed Was Man-Made.
“Dow plunges 391 points as fear grips markets.” A headline from two days ago? Try two years ago. Jan. 15, 2016, to be precise. The last time stocks exhibited the sharp sell-off — followed by an equally sharp run-up — that characterized the past few days. Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average was down about 1,600 points, the largest intraday point-drop ever,
Read moreWe Already Have a Wall. If It’ll Save DACA, Just Let Trump Buy a New One.
Wences Cesares
Zachary sits down with Wences Cesaras, a technology entrepreneur with global business experience specializing in technology and financial ventures. He is an advocate of bitcoin and he has said he believes that bitcoin will be bigger than the Internet.
Read moreDemonized Smartphones Are Just Our Latest Technological Scapegoat
As if there wasn’t enough angst in the world, what with the Washington soap opera, #MeToo, false nuclear alerts, and a general sense of apprehension, now we also have a growing sense of alarm about how smartphones and their applications are impacting children.
Read moreA Trade War with China Would Backfire on Trump — and America
As the Trump administration prepares to take a tougher trade stance on what it sees as unfair Chinese trade policies, China has signaled that it won’t accept such measures lying down, saying it will “resolutely safeguard” its economic interests.
Read moreWhy Tech Giants And Telecoms Should Join to Build an Internet for All
Last week’s repeal of net neutrality regulations by the Federal Communications Commission generated considerable controversy. Many characterized the decision as a win for telecom and cable companies at the expense of both consumers and content companies.
Read moreTrump’s ‘America First’ Strategy is Old Hat
Judging from their flurry of op-eds and tweets denouncing, dismissing or analyzing President Trump’s new National Security Strategy, America’s foreign policy mandarins would have you believe that the document is either dangerous, irrelevant or both. It is neither.
Read moreThe Fed’s Playbook Says Raise Rates. What if That’s an Obsolete Game Plan?
As congressional Republicans prepare to pass their tax bill , the Federal Reserve is about to say goodbye to Janet Yellen as chair. She’s had a good run: The United States and the world recovered from the financial crisis; steady, if unspectacular, growth resumed. Yet now the Fed is in an unusual spot as Jerome Powell takes over.
Read moreFed Raises Rates
The Fed raised rates another quarter of a point with a forecast of three more hikes next year. Zach Karabell of Envestnet gives his take.
Read moreSaudi Prince Plans a 'City of the Future.' Don't Bet on It
From in immemorial, rulers have built new cities to satisfy everything from security to vanity. Some of those cities crumbled into obsolescence; others blossomed into capitals of legend. The recipe for success remains elusive, but that hasn’t stopped successive generations from trying. And if recent moves are any gauge
Read moreChina’s Rise Didn’t Have to Mean America’s Fall. Then Came Trump.
It’s no secret that the People’s Republic of China is nearing completion of a decades-long project to reassert itself as a global force. Whether it’s via the “One Belt, One Road” initiative to spend billions on infrastructure spanning Africa and Asia, its formation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
Read moreHow Uber's 'Invisible' Workforce Could Affect Your Taxes
The “gig economy” is hardly new, but there’s still a yawning gap between the attention it receives and our understanding of how it is—or isn’t—altering the nature of work in America. It may be a Bay Area joke that everyone is either working in the valley or for Task Rabbit, and Uber may be the world’s most valuable startup,
Read moreTime to Revisit Growth vs. Value Debate
Growth versus value. For many years, that was one of the central debates for investors, analysts, managers, and financial advisors. Growth and value stocks seemed to be the yin and yang of stock investing, with radically different characteristics that attracted investors with different temperaments.
Read moreHow Trump Throws Away His Own Power
It’s fashionable these days to compare our present to the Gilded Age: rising inequality, labor struggling while capital thrives, an astonishingly wealthy and concentrated elite appearing to amass an inordinate amount of power. But a stark difference between our era and the last decades of the 19th century is the nature of the American presidency.
Read moreIt's Time to Reinvent the Federal Reserve
In the endless swirl of noise and controversy emanating from Washington these days, it is easy to overlook a more mundane but significant challenge facing the US government: its institutions are getting old. With the exception of the Department of Homeland Security, most substantial agencies are at least decades old and many date back much longer.
Read moreCaptains of Finance Dismiss Bitcoin at Their Peril
The financial industry today looks stable and boring, with a few megabanks ever-more entrenched and markets that may not offer the same risks and rewards as before the 2008-2009 financial crisis but which remain highly profitable for incumbents. That stasis, however, masks looming challenges to the sclerotic incumbents. Two such challenges were much in evidence this past week: Bitcoin and China.
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