Much attention has been focused on the role of social media such as Facebook and Twitter as enablers of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in the US and the Brexit referendum in the UK. I argue here, as JFK might have, that of those to whom much is given, much is required.   Read More

I have always been interested in the question of how individuals organize themselves to perform work. In this I am not alone as this issue lies at the heart of a rich vein of modern economic scholarship. The seminal work in the field was and remains The Nature of the Firm written by Nobel economist Read More

The recent revelations concerning the grotesque and likely unlawful sexual aggressions perpetrated by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein over many years have prompted me to revisit the evolving body of law concerning the rights of “whistleblowers.”   For some time the SEC and other Federal agencies have taken the position that obligations contained in standard confidentiality Read More

Tom Glocer’s 10 surefire wins in fintech* http://m.futuresmag.com/2017/04/15/tom-glocers-10-surefire-wins-fintech … By Jeff Joseph | April 15, 2017 How many investments in financial technology has your family office, Angelic Ventures, made? What is your primary investment thesis driving your commitment to fintech?Through Angelic Ventures I have made 40+ early stage investments, ranging from Lending Club, Zopa, CircleUp and Fundbox among Read More

I am going to return in this post to a theme that I have been writing about for 10 years here and here  and here.   Unfortunately, in the intervening years the problems we face have only grown more acute and global while the responses provided by our political leaders have become more politicized and nationalist. Climate Read More

  For 19 years I worked for a company that was and remains the antithesis of fake news. From its founding in 1851, Reuters has sought to produce accurate, independent and well-sourced journalism. There have been moments when Reuters fell short of this ambition, and its best editors and journalists have always been conscious that Read More

Dear Donald, I am writing you this letter because I love our country and, despite your hateful rhetoric, I suspect that you do as well. Since I doubt you do much reading other than fanzines about yourself, I don’t expect you to read this or the many other unflattering (but true) posts I’ve written about Read More

I was invited by the New York Federal Reserve Bank to moderate a panel at its annual Culture Conference on the challenges and opportunities that FinTech is raising for the culture of financial institutions.  As this is a topic that has long interested me I was happy to accept.  At tomorrow’s session (October 20, 2016) the Read More

With this week’s passing of Shimon Peres the world has lost a warrior for peace – as full of contradictions as those words suggest. Much has been written and eulogized about this truly great man. He was an optimist; he was naïve; he was an egoist; he was a wonderful grandfather; he sought lasting peace; Read More

In a recent post, Liz Spayd, the newly appointed Public Editor of the New York Times, asked the open question as to whether Times readers see the paper as being overly liberal.  In particular, supporters of Donald Trump have complained that New York City’s traditional journal of record has a “relentless bias” against the Republican Read More

Let me begin what may prove to be a controversial post on the battle between billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Peter Thiel, and the irreverent online publication and media holding company, Gawker Media, with a full-throated commitment to freedom of expression.  Throughout my 19 years at Reuters and beyond, I have zealously defended the right Read More

US Presidential candidate Donald Trump has been accused by opponents of being a pathological liar.  While no friend of The Donald, as posts to this blog will attest, I decided to do a bit of research as to whether Trump had been accurately diagnosed.  I conclude he has not. Mr. Trump is not a pathological Read More

Bad facts make bad law. This well-worn legal aphorism may well describe the state of American privacy law if the FBI is successful in its bid to compel Apple to write a special version of its iPhone operating system to provide a “back door” into one of its legacy devices.   Ostensibly, the question presented Read More

Passent les jours et passent les semaines Ni temps passé Ni les amours reviennent Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine I have always loved Apollinaire’s poem, Le Pont Mirabeau, for capturing the flow of time like the flow of the great river through Paris. The tranquility and humanity of poetry was a natural refuge Read More

I have resisted the temptation for several months to follow-up on my post likening The Donald to a member of the Kardashian Klan, but his comments this week seeking to ban, even temporarily, the entry of all Muslims into the United States now compel me to write. As his campaign for President has maintained loft Read More

I felt I should let a little time pass since the loss last week by the New York Mets to the Kansas City Royals in the “World” Series. The time to perhaps let my sense of disappointment drain out from what had been a reservoir of hope. The time also to see the emerging outlines Read More

I have been devoting substantial time and attention this year to understanding bitcoin and the blockchain, and meeting with the start-ups and established institutions seeking to apply these technologies to the financial markets. In this I am hardly alone. While I find the invention of a new currency independent of central bank control and possessing Read More

It was bound to come to this. At the intersection of sound bite politics and celebrities who are famous for being famous, comes Donald Trump, comb-over and mouthpiece extraordinaire. There are so many amusing angles from which to criticize Mr. Trump, it is difficult to know where to begin. I start with The Donald’s business Read More

This is admittedly, even for me, a strange existential question. Perhaps this is not so unusual. We tend to be interested in the things we spend a lot of time on — thus are born hobbies. In my case, as attested in these pages,that drives me to write about my family, media and technology, financial Read More

The resignation this week of the talented Dick Costolo ‎ as CEO of Twitter raises the question of whether a mere leadership change at the company is needed or a complete product, strategy and investor relations re-think. First, I need to declare that I’m a huge fan of Twitter the service. It is a brilliantly Read More

When Twitter’s first quarter results were inadvertently released early, investors did not learn about the disappointing results from Bloomberg, Reuters or another traditional news source. Selerity, a six year-old start-up, obtained the scoop. Nor was this a story of intrepid reporting or carefully developed inside sources; it was Selerity’s powerful web crawler which located the Read More

Last week I gave a series of talks at the Ambrosetti Finance Forum in Lake Como Italy. In addition to being a beautiful location to enjoy the arrival of Spring, the old world charm of the Villa d’Este was the perfect backdrop to discuss the differences between European and US venture capital. Twice a year, Read More

I was so outraged and offended by the recent attacks in Paris and by the series of beheadings and burnings by ISIS that I have felt unable to write about these painful subjects. Oddly, it was President Obama’s comments last week at the National Prayer Breakfast that encourage me to break my silence. At this Read More

I have been waiting to write about the purported North Korean cyber attack on Sony Entertainment until the story pauses long enough for a considered judgment. I’m now convinced that this moment of reflection is not imminent so I will record my thoughts to date this Christmas Eve. First the conclusion: As soon as the Read More

My post today is about a man whom few of the readers of this blog will know unless they are active in investment banking are close followers of Democratic Party politics or like me attend the same parent-teacher meetings. Antonio Weiss is a successful investment banker at Lazard Frères who has been nominated by President Read More