Today, the team at Lighter Capital (formerly RevenueLoan) kicked off a promotion, where we commit to investing $500k in a company that applies online by 31 August 2011 (that’s 21 days and counting). We did lots of the usual things, plus some unusual things, to get the word out — press releases, blogger outreach, videos, [...]
Posts under ‘finance’
Lopsided Barbell of bank credit
At a fascinating macro talk this morning by a Goldman Sachs strategist, he mentioned a “lopsided barbell” of credit. To the biggest firms with the best ratings — think IBM or MSFT — money is basically free, with coupon yields at sub-2%. But to middle-market (say, $100M – $500M sales) and lower-end of middle market [...]
Washington State 529 Program (GET) Update and Retrospective
Just over three years ago, I wrote a post entitled “The Washington State 529 Program (GET) Offers an Overlay.” The post has since been the most-commented on the blog (many other comments having been lost when I switched to WordPress, unf.). However, the post’s original thesis (as stated in its title) is now quite wrong, [...]
The Solution to the “Carried Interest” Problem
The L.A. Times’ “Money & Co.” has a piece on the carried interest loophole for Private Equity (including V.C.). Frankly, almost nobody really understands this issue outside the industry and our advisors, but people outside of our industry are going to be reading all kinds of nonsense populist propaganda saying “soak the bastards!” as well [...]
Bubble Factors: Real Change, Easy Credit, and Self-Interested Lies
Look at “Bubble 1.0″ (as it’s known in the relatively young tech industry: the 1997-2000 tech-media-telecom bubble and the general IPO / equity bubble that went along with it). 1. A real change occurred — the uptake of Internet technology — and created some initial successes (think Netscape IPO). This got folks thinking about how [...]
Just How F’ed Is The U.S. Dollar? I’ll Tell You.
Here’s how F’ed the U.S. Dollar is right now. If you go for a bit of shopping in Montreal over the weekend these days, you probably pay with your credit card to try and get the best exchange rate. When you next get online and look at your credit card statement, you will be shocked [...]
The Housing Bubble and General Financial Depravity
Yesterday the Seattle Times brought us this gem: … the couple — with no savings and about $20,000 in credit-card debt — shopped for a mortgage to buy their 1,200-square-foot house in Tukwila last year, they heard the same thing from lenders and in a home-buying class they attended: Forget it. “You basically had to [...]
The Washington State 529 Program (GET) Offers an Overlay
Important update: This was my take on things back in 2007, when it was published. As of 2010, both my opinion and the math have sharply changed. I revisit the issue in a new post. State-administered “529 plans” for education savings are another in the series of tax dodges doled out by the Bush administration [...]
The Yen Carry Trade for Everyman, or, How You, Too, Can Unbalance Financial Markets
I was reminded by an Economist article recently about a conversation I overheard at an Asian noodle shop a few weeks back. Some guy was talking to his buddy. The conversation went, roughly: “Yeah, I just got a great deal on a boat.” “Where’d you get the money? Did you hit the lottery?” “Naw, I [...]