Category: Economics

How $1bln Evernote Went From Silicon Valley Darling to Deep Trouble

Depending on where you stand, Evernote is either a sinking ship or a maturing company going through a normal transition cycle. But most people we spoke to seem to agree that the company has failed to take advantage of its red-hot growth and make enough money from much of its huge user base — and is starting to show early signs of being an ailing unicorn.

It’s a sobering reality check about the business challenges that can derail even the hottest tech sensations.

I am fed up of Evernote. Iterations after iterations, their apps are clunky as ever.
But to be fair, all other services of this kind (OneNote, Quip…) are worse.
So I am stuck with Evernote, anyway.

→ Business Insider

The Art World’s Biggest Lie: A Dealer Apologizes for Collecting as Investing

Adam Lindemann :

Just over the horizon was a whole new group of people who would change the game. Appearing as if from nowhere, like a biblical swarm of locusts: The art advisors. When I wrote my collecting book, there were just a few of them, influential and very knowledgeable, so I included some (Mark Fletcher, Thea Westreich, Sandy Heller among them). But, in the last few years, advisorshave popped up literally everywhere and now outnumber collectors 2 to 1. There are almost as many of them as yoga instructors.

The art-advisor phenomenon is a direct result of the change in the way buyers view their art buying. Today, the “collecting” audience no longer needs to be convinced their money is being well spent; they have bought into the art-as-investment thesis hook, line and sinker. So, in the same way you hire an investment advisor to manage your portfolio, and a management consultant to streamline your business, you now must hire an advisor to help you decide what art to “invest” in.

Gone are the days of “I simply must have it,” today there are two serious types of buyers. The mega art buyers who want international trophy art, who have no budget limit and only want the artistic equivalent of oceanfront property. Then there’s the hot money players: Wise guys, hooligans and celebrities. They go for what’s hot, what’s going to make them look smart and make them fast money.

Credit : Hanna Barczyk

→ The Observer

Liquidity : Never There When You Need It

Markets are dominated by a few large investors, creating problems of concentration. Similar portfolios and strategies exacerbate risk and the problems of illiquidity if a large number of participants or very large holders wish to exit positions at the same times.

Investors are frequently market following trading the momentum, buying when prices go up and selling when they fall. They are users rather than providers of liquidity. Their buying creates the illusion of active trading when markets are rising but suck liquidity out when prices fall.

→ EconoMonitor

The Smartest Economist You’ve Never Heard Of

A great portrait on a man, I ought to say, I only knew by name rather than by its accomplishments and work at the IMF.

In a profession in which reputations are made by mastering subjects that have become increasingly narrow and technical, the variety of topics Blanchard has studied and written about is extraordinary. Indeed, it is because of that breadth that Blanchard acknowledges he is unlikely to win a Nobel Prize. “I did not fundamentally change our view about anything,” he said, wistfully but with no sign of regret. “I tried to provide useful insights on many things rather than obsessing about one.”

→ The Washington Post

Wall Street Banks Admit They Rigged CDS Prices Too

Tyler Durden :

Here is a system that ultimately allows banks to control the pricing for the instruments they use to bet against securities that they themselves create. This is just part and parcel of a never-ending paper wealth creation machine which generates billions in fiat money profits without creating anything in the way of tangible value and before it’s all over, this financialization of the US economy will likely end up bringing the world to its knees unless someone, somewhere puts a stop to the madness.

Is there anything left to be manipulated ?

→ Zero Hedge