— Excerpt from New Statesman - Beware those Black Swans
Another discovery today. I’m sure many of you have already read this book. I’m adding it to my reading list!
Tag Results: public
“Let us move voluntarily into a robust economy by helping what needs to be broken break on its own, converting debt into equity, marginalising the economics and business school establishments, banning leveraged buyouts, putting bankers where they belong, clawing back the bonuses of those who got us here and teaching people to navigate a world with fewer certainties. Then we will see an economic life closer to our biological environment: smaller firms and no leverage - a world in which entrepreneurs, not bankers, take the risks, and in which companies are born and die every day without making the news.”
“The United States “is a developing country in terms of rail”
Ansgar Brockmeyer, head of public transit business for Siemens
Siemens Fills Russia’s Need for a High-Speed Train - NYTimes.com
(via fred-wilson)
And why is that?! When I went to Italy, I was so impressed by the European railroad system and infrastructure that I was inspired to build a railroad company to compete with Amtrak. OK, there are obviously high costs to entry as one would have to build out the infrastructure necessary for a company to even begin transactions. So that immediately turns off private investment. The timeline is too long and initial seed so huge that is just doesn’t meet many private, real-time investment criteria. The public sector has the printing press, and, therefore, has the money to build out the infrastructure necessary, in fact, CRITICAL to the development, investments, and widespread use of rail in America. It’s the country enter this exclusive club:
Still, Russia has arrived in the high-speed club that includes Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Spain, Taiwan, Korea and China, which joined in 2007.
