Last week, I heard Chicago Reader columnist Ben Joravsky talked all about tax increment financing, the current complication in the City of Chicago’s budget. Originally designed to help improve blighted neighborhoods, the TIF program has turned into a slush fund with little transparency and a lot of potential for corruption. For example, the 53rd Street… [Read More]
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World’s cars per capita declining
I’ve been doing a lot of demographic research recently, on markets emerging and otherwise, and I found something that completely surprised me: the number of cars per capita in the world has declined. I was sure it would have gone up, which shows why you have to go to the facts rather than trying to… [Read More]
Paying for College: Free colleges
Yes, there are free colleges. There are not many, and they are not for everyone, and some may not be free much longer, but they do exist. What are they? The first three, and maybe the best known, are the U.S. Service Academies: Air Force Academy, West Point, and U.S. Naval Academy. The next two… [Read More]
Listen to me on the Money for Lunch radio show
I was on the Money for Lunch radio show on Monday. If you’d like to listen to it, it’s here.
Crowdfunding for investors and entrepreneurs
Let me start out by saying that the SEC hasn’t finalized all of its rules on crowdfunding. Under the JOBS Act of 2012, the SEC is to set rules allowing businesses to attract investments from small investors. The model is Kickstarter, but with one huge difference: Kickstarter does not raise investment capital. Instead, the funds… [Read More]
