Category: Published Articles
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A Professional Investor’s Take on the Naivete of American Compass
As a professional money manager working in public markets, I love watching how we are portrayed in popular culture. Sometimes we are the card-shark poker player staring down an opponent a la Billions, sometimes the swashbuckling economist like Jack Ryan (who does surprisingly little economics). Thankfully, however, the job is never portrayed as it actually is. I can forgive…
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“Ok Boomer…” I’m Gonna Keep Homeschooling My Children
As a homeschooling father, I am no stranger to explaining our family’s choice to home educate our children:“Yes, they have plenty of socialization with other children.”“Yes, we teach all the subjects.”“No, you can simply buy the curriculum and it tells you what to do.” By now I have the answers memorized. You can imagine my…
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Elizabeth Warren and AOC Get Everything Wrong about M&A
Arthur Schopenhauer once quipped that if it were constantly repeated with great solemnity, nothing was too absurd for people to believe. After reading the preliminary Pandemic Anti-Monopoly Act from Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, I find myself more seriously contemplating absurdity. This proposal is a study in Schopenhauer’s point: though couched in great solemnity, both…
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Should Corporations Consider Any “Stakeholders” Other Than Shareholders?
CS Lewis, the famed author of The Chronicles of Narnia, once discussed the distinction between advancing ethics and advancing knowledge of facts. In Lewis’ view, ethics changes remarkably little over the years. What changes, and changes rapidly, is our knowledge of how the world works. This advancement of knowledge informs our application of ethical norms, and it…
Franklin J. Parker, CFA 