Full disclosure – Jigar Shah and I are old friends and colleagues and I’ve had the privilege of working as a consultant for nearly a decade at Generate Capital, a brilliant creation of Jigar, Matan Friedman and Scott Jacobs. On my evening walk I listened to https://open.spotify.com/episode/3s0MatwSPXnYNxrAhdP58K?si=S2IpQPSIRF2eLV3xRWJpCw – a very good podcast from Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson with […]
Tag: CAPITAL
If The Stork Brings Babies…What Does The Economy Bring?
The stork isn’t carrying the full bag of money any more…any more than the banks are. Private Credit is growing and growing at a pace that both causes concern as we watch these largely unregulated behemoths move through the economy and excites us as they transact with higher risk tolerance and generally more creativity than traditional […]
Ya Gotta Play the Cards You’re Dealt!
While that maxim has been used hundreds of times, in 1868 the first print version said: “As in a game of cards, so in the game of life, we must play what is dealt to us, and the glory consists, not so much in winning, as in playing a poor hand well.” It’s a motto I […]
America’s FICO Score…
…just went down – again. Yup, it’s unanimous that S&P, Fitch and now Moody’s have downgraded US debt. The effect is no different than your FICO score – your cost of borrowing goes up and you have fewer lenders willing to finance your house or car and give you a credit card and the same will happen […]
As full of spirit as the month of May
Yup, May is definitely shaping up to be full of spirit – whether it’s spirit as in a spirited set of circumstances for us all to do business or spirits as in the ghosts of economies past that may come to haunt us. Heck, maybe it’s the spirits we might need to quaff to get […]
How About Some Reading… A Roadmap for the Future
I am an economist by education and that means I can point lots of directions simultaneously. Candidly, they call it “the dismal science” for a simple reason: The term “the dismal science” is based on the pessimistic predictions of Thomas Malthus, (granted 1834 is a long time ago), who believed that population growth would always outpace food […]
It’s A New Day
It’s -6°F as I write this on January 20th in Denver with about 2” of new snow on my driveway. Those of us who have lived in Denver all our lives call this “Stock Show Weather” – that frigid time during our National Western Stock Show and yes, it’s cold! And yes, it’s a new year and a […]
It’s always interest rates…the cost of money!
The cost of money drives everything. It ultimately determines the price of your home mortgage and that complex inverted lease funding your next solar project. It can accelerate growth and employment on to the Rocketship Inflation or crush them into dust. These are unassailable facts. What is not so clear is where those rates are going under President Trump’s […]
What to do when you really need your project approved!
Getting your next project approved is a bit like dating: You need to present yourself positively and professionally at the first night out ‘cuz you do not get a second chance to make a first impression. Candidly, this rule of thumb applies to the full range of project applications we see from the $30 Million transaction we’re […]
Forecasting the Economy v. Ski Season
I live in Colorado and ski season accounts for $4.8 billion of our state’s annual economy. It supports more than 46,000 year-round jobs and generates $1.9 billion in labor income so it’s darned important to us – including my aging knees that have been skiing since I was a kid. So, when I get it in […]