I’ve spent copious amounts of time on financial history and trying to understand how money and debt work at a granular level. Still learning. You may not care about these kinds of details but as you’ve probably noticed they care about you and there’s no escape. History offers perspective and suggests that this time is […]
Debt, Inflation, Capitalism, and the Denarius. Read More »
Is this a business article? Yes. But politics, economics and history are going to rear their ugly heads. Let’s put things in the context of history none of us were around to experience, because you’re going to live this context for some years to come. In some number of months things are going to begin
I should really be analyzing Kathmandu and the BOA deal. I will- I’m actually ready to start writing about Kathmandu- but wanted to take a short detour. I’ve come across three articles I recommend you read. The first two are from The Robin Report and the third by a geopolitical analyst by the name of
Fashion in Games, 3D Printing (kind of), and Some Historical Perspective Read More »
SGB Media published an article last week called, “What’s Causing the Delays in Back-To-School Buying?” Here’s the link to the article. If you read the article (you should- SGB does a pretty good job), you’ll find a discussion of the factors said to be causing the delays- the usual suspects. I’d like to offer
Why is Back to School Shopping Slow? Read More »
Why Did The Great Recession Happen? If you’ve ever looked at the suggested reading list on my web site, you know that I read some stuff that’s not related to business and certainly not to our industry. Not directly that is. But I think it helps me understand the environment we operate in and perhaps
Why Did The Great Recession Happen? Read More »
I want to talk about taking a long term perspective, unforeseen consequences, not learning from history and maybe confirmation bias. A couple of things have serendipitously come across my desk as the same time that made me renew by thinking on these issues. I seem to find my best business lessons everywhere but in business
The Wallons and Skate Longboards Read More »
I was reading Zumiez’s 10-Q and conference call and came across a question from an analyst (Sharon Zackfia from William Blair) on labor scarcity and wage pressures. Here’s what she asked: “I guess I’m curious from a labor standpoint kind of as labor gets scarcer and scarcer and wages are going up, how — what
Here I go again- telling you stuff I think you need to know but that’s kind of unpleasant to hear. I’d love to help you ignore it (come to think of it, I’d love to ignore it too), but it’s just not in my DNA.
Some Perspective on GDP Growth Read More »
While I’m quite sure you should no longer be segmenting your customer group strictly by age, it’s still true that somewhere between a lot to many or even most of them are coming from the so called millennial generation. So what think and how they’re doing matters to us. For many of them, the Great
Why Are Millennials Still in the Basement? Read More »
We’ve all heard the phrase, “Taking away the punch bowl.” As far as I know, it originated in the 1955 speech of Fed Chairman William McChesney Martin, which is presented below in its entirety. I suspect that most people, if they take the time to read it and have just a little knowledge of current
What the Hell Happened? A Look Back to When the Federal Reserve Did Its Job Read More »