For the past couple months I've been using a link page here on my web server to maintain my bookmarks. It makes me grumpy I've had to do that, but for whatever reason the powers that be at the various web browser companies decided that we didn't need bookmarks anymore. I can barely remember what I had for breakfast, so URLs are a hopeless dream, so I had to create my own alternative. It's funny thinking about how optimistic we were about the future back when the web was going to be created by all of us, and tools to make everything easy were going to democratize the web. Instead the web is perhaps an even more opaque place than it was two decades ago.
:: David (12:39 in Arkansas, 19:39 in Paris) - Comment
:: Saturday, August 24 2019 ::
It's tremendously funny to me to look back and see that my last post was on Brexit. That was 8 months ago, and other than the Prime Minister nothing has changed.
Adding to the mess, of course, is the fact that the American president couldn't crash the economy harder if he was actively trying. The yield curve is inverted, the Dow was has fallen 1810 points in the last two months, including over 600 today, etc.
I decided to go all-in on gold for a little while - we can check back in and see how that works out for me in six months or a year. I can't imagine the economy not slowing significantly at this point. But I've been wrong before - I expected the American economy to slow well before it did in 2007/8 (to be fair, not very many people did well with that one).
In the meantime I'll keep soldiering on. My summer trip (to Iceland) was amazing, Paris is upcoming, and my work as an accountant is going apace - a steep, steep learning curve to start, but coming together now.
:: David (3:48 in Arkansas, 10:48 in Paris) - Comment
:: Tuesday, January 15 2019 ::
This morning I taught the first session of my annual 'contemporary issues in business and entrepreneurship' class, which is a really long way of saying 'Business 101'. Introductions, syllabus, that sort of thing. But the most exciting thing in the history of business was happening today, and I really couldn't say a thing. Why? Because it's the Brexit vote. The one that either (a) will decide the fate of business in the UK, Europe, and maybe elsewhere for a generation, or (b) won't matter because they'll find some way around it all. Or perhaps (c) won't matter because Brexit won't happen.
It's crazy to me that something this important is being run like a carnival sideshow. I've been constantly befuddled by the way the UK has seemingly from day one confused itself with a much larger country that could dictate to the EU.
And I'd have loved to tell the students about the vote today, but frankly it takes much more than a single class period to explain what the heck is going on anymore. And it's truly a shame that it's all so complex, because it seems to mean that very few of the many people who will be affected actually have even a partial understanding of the issues.
While I was writing this, the vote went against the Prime Minister, quite dramatically, and a motion of no confidence was put forward, so the PM might even be changed before Brexit goes through. It's all madness.
:: David (18:56 in Arkansas, 1:56 in Paris) - Comment