Archive | Uncategorized

Before I get into my review of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, a couple of background items. First, I had been aware of the author, Robert Kiyosaki, for some time. His pitches for his books and seminars felt like the typical hype for this type of ‘financial advice,’ aimed at the mass market. The subtitle of […]

The Fund by Rob Copeland is subtitled, Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the unraveling of a Wall Street Legend. It is basically an expose’ of Ray Dalio and the firm he founded, Bridgewater Associates, which was the world’s largest hedge fund. Dalio is a larger-than-life figure and has a couple of bestselling books. Principles: Life […]

The provocative title is no surprise from a guy known as “Maximum” Bob Lutz. Lutz is an American, born and raised in Switzerland, and probably the best automotive executive produced by America. He speaks five languages, is urbane, opinionated, usually right, and has worked for General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and BMW. To relax, he flew […]

Auditing has changed substantially over the course of my long and not-so-storied career. I’m not talking about audits by the IRS or the Department of Revenue. I’m talking about audits by CPA firms. This is what accountants call the ‘attest function.’ An independent organization, the CPA firm, issues an opinion on the veracity of the […]

Happy New Year everyone. I’ve got a few observations as we head into this new year. Christmas Deliveries Usually, we hear each year about logistic delays and late deliveries during the pre-Christmas rush. This year, I didn’t hear anything about this. USPS, FedEx, UPS and Amazon seem to have solved the issues they had in […]

My last blog post was titled, “Have We Become a Nation of Whiners?” I got a lot of responses, all positive, and most agreeing that we have and that they count themselves amongst the whiners! Okay, me too. But that got me thinking. Are things really so bad? Sure, the wars in the world are […]

Much has been written over the last couple of years about the economy and the difference between how the economy is performing and the perception of how the economy is performing. Specifically, why is there such a disparity between how the economy is doing and how people say it is doing? First, how is the […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]