Learning to manage money is a fundamental skill for navigating the world. It is as basic as learning to read and learning to cook, and yet, it comes with a lot of baggage. An allowance is one way to learn. Yes, I wrote about high finance in Hedge Funds For Dummies. I’m writing a book about options… [Read More]
Blog
Category: Teaching Finance
An ongoing appreciation for Barbarians at the Gate
I like to show the movie Barbarians at the Gate in finance class because it is such a strong illustration of corporation finance: decisions about introducing a new product (the ill-fated Premier cigarette) and reinvesting in the bakery business; dealing with sunk costs (Premier); valuing cash flows; agency problems with management and shareholders; decisions about capital structure; and what happens… [Read More]
Calculus Made Easy, for Students and Options Traders
A while back, I interviewed a man who has degrees in both physics and economics, who taught economics for years and years, and who has great accomplishments in econometrics, the most quantitative branch of the field. Anyway, among other things, he mentioned a book that had been given to him in high school that he… [Read More]
I’m speaking at ASBPE and FinCon
I’m going to be speaking at two conferences in the next few months. The first is the American Society of Business Publication Editors conference on July 24 in New York City, where Erik Sherman and I will be talking about how to do financial research for reporting. The second is FinCon, to be held September… [Read More]
Post-holiday thoughts on the value of gifts
The enormous holiday season from Halloween to Elvismas, is upon us. Another seasonal standby is the article about the value of presents, both in religious and in economic terms. Many cultures have different ways of compelling people to redistribute wealth and/or give alms to the poor. Many of the Native tribes of the Northwest United… [Read More]