Two weeks ago at the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa, I was reminded of something my friend and former colleague, Dr. Chris Hartshorn, likes to say: “We need more surgeons and fewer patients.” Since the 2008 downturn, we have been inundated with people wanting to talk about all of the problems in the world. However, we have seen very few solutions to these problems. With the exception of Simpson-Bowles offering a reasonable start to solving the debt/growth challenge in the United States, there have been far too little alternatives offered to simply complaining about it being the other guy’s fault.
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In his New York Times column of October 2, “More Money Than They Know What To Do With,” Andrew Ross Sorkin highlights an upcoming challenge facing the private equity industry: If the current glut of excess capital is not deployed over the coming 1-2 years, the money will need to be returned to investors.
An natural first reaction would be to think, “Fantastic, the market is short on capital, which has the potential to make a lot happen in a stagnant economy.” While this is certainly true, it is critical to ensure that capital gets deployed in a responsible way; otherwise, in five years investors very well might pick their heads up to realize they are sitting on a fraction of what they invested.
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There is a fascinating bubble about to burst, but this one could be incredibly positive. Over the last decade large corporations have continued to accumulate massive cash balances, despite raising dividends to an all-time high according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.
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Over the last few years, much has been written about the demise of the United States as an innovation engine.
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Last week I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Lux Executive Summit in Boston. As many of you know, I was part of the initial team at Lux Research and have had the pleasure of attending 7 Summits. So, what did we find out?
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After spending 7 ½ years helping to build Lux Research, I’ve decided to enter the next phase of my career at Harris & Harris Group. I’ve been asked many times, “Why are you making the move?”
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