Essays

Sale-leaseback: Corporations’ New Scheme To Steal American Homes

Maybe you are elderly and on a fixed income, or for some other reason you cannot afford a major increase in your cost of living, but you live in a Midwestern city where the cost of living is traditionally low. You’ve owned your home for years and have plenty of equity, so you should have financial security, right?

Not so fast. Private equity firms and other “property investors” have bought up homes in your neighborhood to flip them and/or rent them out, driving up house prices. Your county assessor raised their appraisal of your home, and now you can’t afford your new property tax bill. But have no fear, the millionaires and billionaires who caused this problem for you are also here to offer a solution.

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Book Reviews

Book Review: Moneyball

Moneyball is an amazing multi-genre book that is changing the way that millions of people think about sports as well as other topics. The statistics used to evaluate baseball players were not an accurate portrayal of player value. When Bill James blew that wide open with his Baseball Abstract, most of baseball didn’t notice. Those who did shrugged.

Once Oakland A’s manager Billy Beane started winning against all odds by using sabermetrics as the basis for player selection, people finally started paying attention. Even then, it took a long time for baseball to come around.

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Book Reviews

Book Review: University of Berkshire Hathaway

university of berkshire hathawayThe market is flooded with books about Warren Buffett. This is the 5th one that I have read. Some books assemble or quote Buffett’s writings; others reverse engineer Buffett’s investment strategy. Often these authors seem to be trying to convince you they have inside information or trying to indoctrinate you into the Buffett cult. University of Berkshire Hathaway is not one of those books. It has details you won’t find anywhere else, which makes it a relevant addition to the prolific repertoire of books about Buffett and Berkshire. Continue reading “Book Review: University of Berkshire Hathaway”