After reading Michael Lewis’ The Big Short this weekend, it’s clear that some people saw the collapse of the residential mortgage market coming. This American Life had a story this weekend about another investor who also saw it coming: Magnetar Capital. (A magnetar is a neutron star with a magnetic field 100-1000 times stronger than … Read more »
Tag: This American Life
Incentives, Productivity and NUMMI
I recently listened to a great show from This American Life. They covered the story of New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI). General Motors and Toyota opened NUMMI in 1984 as a joint venture so Toyota could start building cars in the US. Toyota showed GM the secrets of its production system and how Toyota … Read more »
Weekend Book Review: The Informant
I’ve had Kurt Eichenwald’s The Informant on my reading list for a long time. It dropped farther down the list after seeing the previews for the Steven Soderbergh movie. Why read the book when you can watch the movie? What raised my interest was hearing a great radio segment from This American Life that tells … Read more »
Compliance, Van Halen and Brown M&M’s
You may have heard the story about Van Halen’s banning of brown M&M’s from its dressing room. I chalked it up to the pampered life of rock stars. (Especially, when compared to the more mundane life of a chief compliance officer.) I just listened to the latest episode of This American Life which revealed that … Read more »