Most companies prepare and review financial statements and other financial information once a month. And most of my clients meet with me once a month to review that financial information. But why once a month? The obvious answer is the calendar. Sure, there are weekly reports, monthly reports, quarterly reports and plenty of annual reports. […]
Author Archive | david lightfoot
Electric Cars: An Unfolding Drama
I’m a car enthusiast and particularly enjoy BMWs. But I also enjoy watching the automotive industry, especially right now as the industry is going through the biggest change in the last century. The whole autonomous vehicle adoption is going slower than I thought it would, but the electrification of automobiles is progressing rapidly. The accepted […]
Out of Africa
From June 28th through July 11th, my wife, grandson, two relatives from Korea, and I took a trip to Kenya and Tanzania. Most people harbor a desire, since childhood I think, to see the animals of Africa in their natural setting. That was certainly true for my wife and I. We’re getting to an age […]
Book Review: Butler to the World
Despite the special relationship between the US and the UK, the UK has spent the past several decades undermining the US government and making the world poorer and less safe. While the UK is an ally of the US, it really is mostly an opportunist looking to exploit any conflicts for its own gain. This […]
A Solution to the FDIC Insurance Limits
When Silicon Valley and Signature Banks failed recently, there was a lot in the media about the FDIC insurance limit of $250,000 per person per bank. Any funds in a bank beyond that are uninsured in the case of bank failure. We all saw this point made again and again in the news. It turns […]
Book Review: Faster, Higher, Farther
This book by journalist Jack Ewing, was published in 2017. The subtitle is The Volkswagen Scandal, meaning the diesel engines manufactured by the Volkswagen Group and used in Audis, Porsches, Volkswagens and other marques of the Group. You’ll recall that these engines, marketed as ‘clean diesel,’ in fact, used software to detect when they were […]
Book Review: The William E. Boeing Story, A Gift of Flight
Rather than the Boeing corporate story, this is the story of William E. Boeing, the man. The author, David Williams, became friends with Bill Boeing Jr., who was a great source of stories about his father. The Boeing family also has a significant archive that they opened, and which has never been opened previously to […]
Book Review: Path Lit By Lightning
This book, by David Maraniss, is subtitled, The Life of Jim Thorpe. It is the latest and probably the definitive biography of Jim Thorpe, likely the greatest athlete America has ever produced. I first read a biography of Thorpe when I was in grade school. Here I am decades later reading another biography or Jim […]
“Simplicity is Complexity Resolved”
This is a quote from Constantin Brancusi, a Romanian sculptor, painter, and photographer who made his career in France. He lived from 1876 to 1957 and is considered a very influential figure in modern sculpture. And while I’m not keen on his sculpture, I do love the quote, “Simplicity is complexity resolved.” I had never […]
Book Review: I Contain Multitudes
Just before Christmas last year, this blog offered a gift to readers. That gift was a referral to the book, An Immense World, by Ed Yong. It was the most positive review I’ve ever given a book. But An Immense World was Yong’s second book, so I said I needed to go back and read […]