ideas

Interest in Principles?

After hundreds of billions of bailout dollars and a litany of ensuing debacles, our banks are not the pride of the nation.  Bankers are more maligned than used-car salesmen, it seems.  Bank regulators have been completely overhauled and the aftermath of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau won’t be written for…

Is Corporate Social Responsibility “hypocritical window-dressing”?

The New York Times ran an interesting story in the Business Section this weekend, titled, “First Make Money; Also Do Good.”  Basically, it argues that corporate philanthropy is small potatoes and corporate social responsibility not much more than disingenuous marketing (“hypocritical window-dressing” according to Milton Friedman).  Citing Harvard’s Michael Porter’s…

Dynamic Accounts

Why is it that my search engine can anticipate what I’m going to search for after just a couple keystrokes, my music player can string together 1000 songs based on a couple preferences, and my car can adjust whether I like to go through a turn in second gear, but…

And the Winner is…. GoalMine

Over 600 underbanked missionaries, mercenaries, bankers, regulators, entrepreneurs, investors CEOs and middle-managers descended upon New Orleans last week.  Together, they represent the single most qualified and discriminating judge of what is hot and what is not in our sector.  After watching live demonstrations and Twitter-guided Q&A with the finalists in our Core Underbanked…