The discussion around taxing wealth, and in particular billionaires, has been illuminating. Not in the sense of learning something new but rather seeing who is willing to make or defend bad takes instead of engaging in any level of critical thinking. To make it clear on where I am on this issue, I am in support of a wealth tax, although I think there is a lot of room for discussion on how to best accomplish this. There are a few takes out there though that particularly bother me. The first is...

The discussion around taxing wealth, and in particular billionaires, has been illuminating. Not in the sense of learning something new but rather seeing who is willing to make or defend bad takes instead of engaging in any level of critical thinking. To make it clear on where I am on this issue, I am in support of a wealth tax, although I think there is a lot of room for discussion on how to best accomplish this. There are a few takes out there though that particularly bother me. The first is...

The question of “How Much is Enough?” isn’t just the title of an excellent book by Edward and Robert Skidelsky, but has come to be at the forefront of political debate. We are finally discussing such topics as a wealth tax and openly questioning whether there should be billionaires altogether. At the same time we are being treated to the spectacle of one billionaire flirting with a run as an independent candidate for the US presidency and another taking to Medium to fight extortion by a publi...

The question of “How Much is Enough?” isn’t just the title of an excellent book by Edward and Robert Skidelsky, but has come to be at the forefront of political debate. We are finally discussing such topics as a wealth tax and openly questioning whether there should be billionaires altogether. At the same time we are being treated to the spectacle of one billionaire flirting with a run as an independent candidate for the US presidency and another taking to Medium to fight extortion by a publi...

I am still not finished reading “Capital in the 21st Century” but the following introduction to Chapter 11 really got me thinking:The overall importance of capital today […] is not very different from what it was in the eighteenth century. Only its form has changed: capital was once mainly land but is now industrial, financial and real estate.One of my main intuitions about the coming changes is that “information” will become more important than industrial, financial and real estate assets. O...

I am still not finished reading “Capital in the 21st Century” but the following introduction to Chapter 11 really got me thinking:The overall importance of capital today […] is not very different from what it was in the eighteenth century. Only its form has changed: capital was once mainly land but is now industrial, financial and real estate.One of my main intuitions about the coming changes is that “information” will become more important than industrial, financial and real estate assets. O...

I have been writing a lot about wealth and income inequality and I am reading Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century (review forthcoming as soon as I am finished). So it seems appropriate to ask how I feel about the wealth being created by tech startups for entrepreneurs, early employees and investors (which of course includes VCs like myself). I have hinted at this here on Continuations in the past in a post about Twitter but it is worth clarifying. I believe that a large component of ...

I have been writing a lot about wealth and income inequality and I am reading Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century (review forthcoming as soon as I am finished). So it seems appropriate to ask how I feel about the wealth being created by tech startups for entrepreneurs, early employees and investors (which of course includes VCs like myself). I have hinted at this here on Continuations in the past in a post about Twitter but it is worth clarifying. I believe that a large component of ...

Yesterday I wrote about startup wealth and randomness and got a lot of good comments. One of them led me to an important way of summarizing my argument about the role of randomness:If the world were a simulation and you ran it many times, you would see a company like WhatsApp emerge many times. But only a few of the runs would have the same founders (ditto for the name of the company, the exact implementation, etc)While I wrote the post specifically about startup founders, employees and inves...

Yesterday I wrote about startup wealth and randomness and got a lot of good comments. One of them led me to an important way of summarizing my argument about the role of randomness:If the world were a simulation and you ran it many times, you would see a company like WhatsApp emerge many times. But only a few of the runs would have the same founders (ditto for the name of the company, the exact implementation, etc)While I wrote the post specifically about startup founders, employees and inves...

At the moment I am writing about why I think the industrial system is breaking down as its main components are no longer functioning properly and sustaining each other. In particular I wrote about the growth and increased concentration of wealth and its relationship to our present day democracy. Today I want to suggest another aspect of the changes in wealth and how it relates to the allocation of capital. Let us start with a look at what the components of the financial asset side of private ...

At the moment I am writing about why I think the industrial system is breaking down as its main components are no longer functioning properly and sustaining each other. In particular I wrote about the growth and increased concentration of wealth and its relationship to our present day democracy. Today I want to suggest another aspect of the changes in wealth and how it relates to the allocation of capital. Let us start with a look at what the components of the financial asset side of private ...

Last week I introduced my view that the various interlocking components of the industrial system are beginning to break down. The first one I mentioned was that “financial markets have been allocating capital into vast asset bubbles instead of into productive investments.” To dig deeper into this claim a good starting point is to look at wealth. The following chart shows the growth of private wealth in the United States, where private wealth is the sum of household and nonprofit organizations...

Last week I introduced my view that the various interlocking components of the industrial system are beginning to break down. The first one I mentioned was that “financial markets have been allocating capital into vast asset bubbles instead of into productive investments.” To dig deeper into this claim a good starting point is to look at wealth. The following chart shows the growth of private wealth in the United States, where private wealth is the sum of household and nonprofit organizations...

In 1994 I was a student in Thomas Piketty’s first theory class at MIT. He was a young hotshot professor and I was a not so young student (in fact about 4 years older than Piketty). I still vividly remember the horror that was the first exam in this class. Piketty had vastly overestimated how well we understood the material and the English in his questions was ever so slightly off. There was groaning all around the room, myself included, and I was pretty sure I had failed the test (I didn’t – ...

In 1994 I was a student in Thomas Piketty’s first theory class at MIT. He was a young hotshot professor and I was a not so young student (in fact about 4 years older than Piketty). I still vividly remember the horror that was the first exam in this class. Piketty had vastly overestimated how well we understood the material and the English in his questions was ever so slightly off. There was groaning all around the room, myself included, and I was pretty sure I had failed the test (I didn’t – ...

Earlier this week I started writing about wealth and financial capital as part of examining how the various components of the industrial system are beginning to break down. I will have more to say about the financial capital portion of wealth in upcoming posts but wanted to first provide more data and more context. As was pointed out in the comments Thomas Piketty provides a lot of data that he and others collected and form the basis for his book “Capital in the 21st Century” (which I just st...

Earlier this week I started writing about wealth and financial capital as part of examining how the various components of the industrial system are beginning to break down. I will have more to say about the financial capital portion of wealth in upcoming posts but wanted to first provide more data and more context. As was pointed out in the comments Thomas Piketty provides a lot of data that he and others collected and form the basis for his book “Capital in the 21st Century” (which I just st...