Author Archives: Tom Groenfeldt

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About Tom Groenfeldt

I write - mostly about finance and technology, sometimes about art, occasionally about politics and the intersection of politics and economics. My work appears on Forbes.com and and occasionally in The American Banker and Banking Technology in London.

Major Tech Innovation + Speculative Finance = Bubble – Carlota Perez

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Tom Groenfeldt

Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital is a slim (171 pages of text) book with a hefty punch. In it Carlota Perez charts major technological changes over two centuries that drew in massive amounts of speculative capital, created a bubble that … Continue reading →

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Archiving Some Older Material

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Tom Groenfeldt

After discontinuing blogging at techandfinance.com I took some of my favorite material and I am not posting it here on a WordPress blog…so you may notice that some of it is — not dated — let me say is has … Continue reading →

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Booking the Financial Crisis with Philip Augar

Posted on May 12, 2012 by Tom Groenfeldt

If you want to understand the current banking crisis, start with Philip Augar whose latest book about investment banking, Chasing Alpha, covers the crash and its causes.  Augar has a doctorate in history, although his recent books don’t mention it. … Continue reading →

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Can this book really be 20 years old? I found a copy while visiting and have read it again — still as hilarious as I remember, but in hindsight it seems even more on target. Visiting a Geneva money manager … Continue reading →

Posted on May 12, 2012 by Tom Groenfeldt | Comments Off on Liar’s Poker — Worth Re-Reading

Krugman is skeptical about the financial services industry

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Tom Groenfeldt

“That’s everybody’s challenge: come up with a clearly beneficial example of financial innovation without mention A.T.M.s, and no one can do it. If there are arbitrage opportunities and you’re able to spot them a few seconds before anybody else, you … Continue reading →

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How Canada Avoided the Financial Crisis

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Tom Groenfeldt

You have to admit, they completely avoided the problems the US ran into, and they are offering some advice through the pages of the FT. Chrystia Freeland , the paper’s managing editor who is Canadian, weighed in with  “What Toronto … Continue reading →

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Europe Big on Processes Rather than Decisions — Tony Blair

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Tom Groenfeldt

Tony Blair has some critical comments about the EU in his memoir, “A Journey.” “People wanted endless debates about the technical framework, tending to shy away from the core political questions: to liberalise our economy or not; to be strong … Continue reading →

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The Comfort Class and the Experience Economy

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Tom Groenfeldt

The Experience Economy is nothing new — Microsoft was deploying the concept in its financial services marketing a few years ago and in 1999 B. Joseph Pine and James Gilmore published  “The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business … Continue reading →

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What’s Education Worth in a Sputnik Moment?

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Tom Groenfeldt

President Obama said something about trying to duplicate the Sputnik concern and improve education in his State of the Union address. Andrew Hacker, co-author of “Higher Education? How Colleges are Wasting our Money and Failing Our Kids — and What … Continue reading →

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Social Networking the Old Fashioned Way – at a Pub

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Tom Groenfeldt

Richard Holway, a UK IT analyst and a founder of  TechMarketView, recalls the pre-Facebook days in his latest newsletter. “At the weekend a few old technologists like me got together and discussed the ‘good old days’ of the 1960s. How … Continue reading →

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