Eric Ashman: “A VC’s job is not to help founders build great companies. Instead, a venture capitalist’s job is to raise money from Limited Partners (‘LPs’) to invest in a portfolio of startups that will produce returns that can outperform the stock market. LPs are primarily institutional investors, such as foundations, pension funds, family offices, university endowments, and sovereign wealth funds. Those LPs view venture capital as an asset class. A part of a diversified portfolio that also invests in bonds, stocks, real estate, and commodities. That’s your startup right there, in a portfolio with 90 other startups, in your VC’s 7th fund, as a part of a diversified mix of investments in Standford’s endowment fund.”
Economist: “The corporate world has changed since the mba first became a rite of passage for high-powered executives. Management teams answer to a growing number of “stakeholders”, from employees to social activists, and face public scrutiny on their companies’ environmental, social and governance (esg) record. Simply creating shareholder value no longer cuts the mustard. One consequence of this trend is that running a modern business requires an ever-expanding list of credentials and competences. In addition to financial and digital literacy, strategic acumen and communication skills, executives are expected to be clued in on supply chains, climate science and much else besides. They must ensure that their workforces are diverse and inclusive. And as work life goes hybrid, mixing time in the office with home working, they are also asked to spend more time checking in on subordinates.”
WSJ: “President Reagan understood something neither party grasps today: that the value of the dollar isn’t a function of how many dollars government supplies but of how many dollars people demand. Money is supplied insofar as it is demanded by people who can put it to good use. Inflation arises when people have less use for money, which is why stagnation comes with it. Reagan beat inflation not by reducing the official money supply—M2 nearly doubled during his time in office—but by boosting demand for money. The great lesson of the Reagan era is that money supply is determined by investment opportunity. Absent such opportunities, no matter how much money the government gives people, they will reject it and turn it into stuff. Here is the radicalism of Reagan: Orthodox economics attempts to use both monetary and fiscal policy to manipulate the availability of dollars. Reagan used both to increase the utility of dollars.”
