EVERYBODY's Model is Wrong…Some Just MORE than Others

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  • on March 29th, 2009

I am off to Toronto and Montreal this week for my yearly ‘Le Tour’ trip with high school and college buddies. It’s the 8th year that a group of 40 of us get together to pull hamstrings and complain about our backs.

Have not been in the blogging mode so have decided to go back and start finishing the hundreds of posts I have started over the last year.

Today’s rewrite is inspired by a post (from a while ago) Fred Wilson wrote about Economists and Models . Great links so read them. I have an economics degree and I always hated the damn courses. They just were easy and I was lazy.

I am sooooo sick of the word ‘SPEND’. I am especially sick of these two words together ‘GOVERNMENT SPENDING’ .

This crisis of confidence could not have come at a worse time, but we created it. We waste, we hate, we lie, we ignore. We need a government and leadership that turns these 4 characteristics upside down. I believe the markets and confidence are broken until we get leadership that truly focuses on these issues domestically.

We need more teachers and less government employees and lobbyists.

We need more music and less executives.

We need more public companies and less bankers.

We need more ideas and honesty and less regulation.

I am reminded of the great Seinfeld episode where George decides to do the OPPOSITE of every instinct. Good things start to happen. I am thinking about the same thing now as it relates to spending. Even if the government is talking about spending, how about shutting the f##*k up and teach Americans a little bit about saving and investing.

I love Lou Reed and his original white rap. I generally start all my plane flights listening to 4 or 5 of my favorite Lou Reed songs/riffs. Today, ‘Strawman’ hit me hard.

If you read this blog you know I have been downsizing since 2005. Home, cars, employees (until lately), office size etc…

As Lou Reed says: ‘ Does anybody need another million dollar movie, does anyone need another million dollar star, does anyone really need a 60k car, does anyone need another president, does anyone need another politician caught with his pants down and money sticking out of his hole.’

We have lived rather large for a very long time. We went ‘ALL IN’ in a ‘TOO BIG TooFail’ mentality at precisely the wrong time.

In reality, the new world is about being small, under the radar, as I wrote a few months back, being “Too Small to Fail’.

The next generation of the web is all about too small to fail. Ebay is not too big to fail. They are failing at many levels. Yahoo…too big, too many VP’S; Time Warner…gag.

The new world will be about community, small ones…POWERFUL ones. Communities that share and ones that are civil. The tools have all been built and now the communities are starting to thrive. With today’s tools like Twitter, you can get the social network you deserve. It is a powerful, leveragable force of nature and it is upon us. Stocktwits has as many subscribers on twitter as Wall Street Journal and we are 5 months old.

Take the time and crank this song from the Arctic Monkeys each day. Young people, hard rock in a classic way. It always gets me ready to crank. ‘From the Ritz to The Rubble’.

Perfect title for what has happened in America. Now we need to write the song from the ‘Rubble to the Ritz’.

The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.

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