John Oliver on retirement plans

John Oliver on retirement plans, advisors and fees.

His conclusion:  Index Funds.    Now where have you heard that before?

MSFT buys LinkedIn

I guess I didn't see this one coming.   http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-13/microsoft-to-buy-linkedin-in-deal-valued-at-26-2-billion-ipe079k9

I was looking back at my blog posts from 2011, and I was convinced that LinkedIn was overvalued then.  I think it still is, but you'd have done pretty well if you bought the stock at the IPO.  That's why I'm an indexer and not a stock picker!

R&D expenditures - then and now.

Here's an interesting article comparing R&D expense in 2006 with now.

http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-04-29/amazon-and-facebook-are-big-spenders-on-r-d


Top R&D today:
Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Intel and Apple.

Top R&D in 2006:
Ford, Pfizer, GM, J&J, Microsoft, IBM, Intel.

Radiohead - it's all about taxes.

Radiohead the band has an incredibly complex corporate structure, comprising of numerous individual companies.  As a colleague of mine has been known to say: "I bet there's a tax story in there somewhere".

Read about it here: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/29/radiohead-corporate-structure-firms

Yahoo's black hole

How can you be worth -$8 Billion?

Ask Yahoo.  http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-yahoo/

Should students use laptops in the classroom?

Step into any classroom and you'll see rows of students with laptops open tapping away at their keyboards.  Some of these students are taking notes, some are checking facebook or instagram.

Aside from distractions, I've wondered whether laptop usage is a good thing or not.  Turns out, the evidence is pretty clear.   We shouldn't use laptops for note taking.

Here are a few articles...

Scientific American reports that deeper understanding comes from handwritten notes:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret-don-t-take-notes-with-a-laptop/

See also:
http://lifehacker.com/the-benefits-of-writing-by-hand-versus-typing-1778758792

Laptops are a distraction to not just the owner, but also other students: http://www.rcinet.ca/en/2013/08/20/new-study-shows-computers-in-class-distract-both-users-and-non-users/

And one Prof even writes about being a Luddite:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/04/28/confessions-of-a-luddite-professor/

I think that we should seriously consider imposing laptop bans in classrooms, but also encourage online students to be low-tech and keep notes using pen and pencil.

John Oliver on Puerto Rico's debt woes

Turns out that there is more to their problems than meets the eye.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt-mpuR_QHQ

Gawker on Pension Fund Fees.

Gawker media on pension fund fees (and NC in particular).

http://gawker.com/retirees-are-handing-wall-street-billions-for-no-good-r-1767496764