Soros has been betting against the Euro since March, shorting it for US dollars.
Again, the central bankers are fighting a losing battle.
Sooner or later there will be a similar attack on sterling and eventually the greenback.
The transferance of private debt to sovereign states has created a level of currency volatility which is the closest thing to paradise for aggressive currancy trading.
Sacca is a mega impressive guy, when presenting on Google based material. I've seen him present his own lowercase capital stuff since he left and it lacked the wit and insight which he is famed for; infact one presentation was damnright lame, bring a horse to water nonsense. He needs to employ an script writer like his Jesus, Obama, if the Sacca-brand is to continue.
Agree that you need a little overconfidence sometimes.
But perhaps the fact that there are more support systems around (move back in with parents, social benefit), means that we as a generation never grow comfortable with risk in the first place, and thus can never be truly confident with it.
Major problem with the business plan competitions I've been to is the IP. One Conversation went:
presenter: its a great idea.
judge: so what is it.
presenter: i can't really say, just trust me.
On the flip side, when a friend of mine won a competition he then couldn't patent it, as he had declared it in a room full of people.
As a result, most of the more open competitions tend to focus on quirky ideas, that could not be patented anyhow. I often find they are little more than pr exercises to lift the profile of the entrepreneurs society and/or business school, not bad in itself, i guess, but I always get more of an institutional feel about them.
"Gradually, I was descending into the strange social isolation of my colleagues. I spent less and less time with normal people and more time with people from the bank."
I enjoyed this article, because it suggests that, for all their occupation of what they thought to be 'the real world', bankers were living as bubble-like an existence as a fourteenth-century monk.
I have found it difficult to entirely forgive The Economist for some woefully incorrect predictions (they were big on Goldman Sac's prediction for $200 oil, and did not see the credit crunch in any shape or form or give space to those who did [and there were a number]). Now they issued a lukewarm 'apology' at the start of this year, all good and well, but still it was delivered with their habitually self-satisfied, borderline arrogant tone.
This may sound odd, but in a way everything you have said suggests you are on the right path. Yes, you may have to ditch this particular project, but the fact that a) you are open and real about it and b) you have a respectful attitude towards your partner, suggests that you have a good team, which is really important.
Be open with your partner and suggest you both work together on another idea - theres lots out there.
In the past I have lost faith in a project, it hurts a bit but you get over it. Much worse is losing faith in a startup partner.
Santa's finished, then. "Dear Barack Obama, for Christmas this year I want..."
From over here in Europe, these Obama-pleading articles do come across as unamerican - we always thought that if the Yanks wanted to change things, they just did it.
This article is more reminiscent of a pleading courtier at a thuggish Medici court.
In my experience, there is no point doing anything unless you spend at least twenty minutes just getting into it first. This is how long it takes me to get into a 'concentration/focus' zone.
Yep, in the past I would go through a month of exercise addiction at the gym or pool, then do nothing for the next four months. I've been off-road cycling (mountain biking would be a hyperbole for south-east england) for four years now, non-stop; its a great thing to discover an activity you enjoy so much, and the exercise becomes an added bonus.
Interesting that the article mentions Michael Birch, UK born but as they point out made it in SV - then again, Birch has invested in some uk based web startups.
SV has it all, really, except one thing, which America lacks in general: a culture of quality. Europe has this, and as IT growth slows down for good, there will be more lucrative opportunities in fixing existing technologies that were originally rushed out in the US.
The lottery nature of the academic job market has been publicised for a while now; there is no longer any excuse for phds to grumble that they were lied to about a paradisial ivory tower.
Although I think the US phd system too much of a commitment in terms of time, there is much to be said for a fully-funded 3-4 year phd in the uk, especially if started when your in your early twenties. The flexibility of humanities phd schedules gives you more opportunities to learn a new skill than many jobs would, e.g. programming, or maybe to start a small company.
I knew about the 'doctoral pipeline leading to nowhere' before I started my phd, and this encouraged me to get involved in the enterprise culture during my postgrad studies.
Whilst the limited job opportunities for humanities phds are increasingly publicised, it should also be pointed out how difficult, isolating, and depressing the process of doing the phd can be, for many students. I believe there is ample justification for whining on that issue.
I'm not a hacker, but work with a at times very awkward programmer, who often sends out emails which are a monument to pedantry. Reading this article makes me more understanding.
On the flip side, should one be worried if they are working with a programmer who is not awkward, then?
I ran an E-commerce company, and we had to fly in some of our products (jewellery). UPS were extortionate - they misquoted me on the phone, and my mistake was not getting it confirmed over email. DHL are fine, in my experience.
In the long term, I should have been more organised so that I had time to ship the products in.
The problem is that the april fool's web jokes/hoaxes have been overtaken by media wnkers (see the guardian newspaper's attempt). It used to be original in the early google days, but now its just another example of the redundant, thoughtless nonesense that only a pr executive can produce.
I've been in the hubs at Kings X and Angel - Kings X is new, and has everything you would expect; Angel is at the top of a long flight of stairs, not refurbished to such a high standard but I get the feeling there's more of a community there, although more based in the fashion and media industry sectors. The person who set it up is a good old boy, totally genuine, and the rates are ok.
Too true. Then again, should teachers try to be the students friend? When I was teaching I saw way too many young teachers more concerned with being popular, whereas actually the kids seemed to respect the teachers that kept a firm dividing line. There's something very sad about an adult trying to get social assurance from children.
Entrepreneurship has been cool for a while now - and is now a part of the establishment - all the major universities have jumped on the entrepreneurship bandwagon, and governments avidly promote their support for entrepreneurs.
So becoming an entrepreneur can now be a socially validated choice. But is this a good thing? Historically, entrepreneurs have come from the disenfranchised - religious nonconformists, immigrant communities - people who are forced to find another way of making money because they could not get on using traditional social paths. They can change the world because they have always seen it partly from the forced perspective of an outsider.