Future of Higher Ed, Private Equity’s Reckoning, Brain Tingling

Issue 373

by David Wells – Nashville TN

“There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.”
– Lenin (not John)

Stages 4 and 5 – Depression and Acceptance

Simultaneously this week, I have heard stories of folks struggling with the reality of “stay at home.”  I have also spoken with, read, and dare I say thought myself, that there is much of this new life that has become enjoyable.  From newly fit dogs getting more exercise than they’ve had in years to kids / families spending more time together, life has become simpler and quieter – a blessing in itself.  All this occurring against the backdrop of a Tennessee spring – lush with green punctuated by the bold colors of each week’s new blooms.

Content I wrote this week –

The Path of Family Wealth – Part 1

Today, we continue our series looking at the challenges of a family compounding its wealth over time.  In our first piece, “How Fast Must a Family’s Assets Grow?“  we looked at the significant headwinds facing families – from the growth of the family itself, to distributions, fees and taxes. 

Our next two pieces considered spending and its corollary, distribution rate, as the primary lever over which a family can control.  Yet the reality is that distribution rate alone is unlikely to be adequate in helping the family’s wealth to grow fast enough over time. 

In order to hit their long-term return targets, families must architect a unique investment approach. Otherwise, the wealth just dwindles away as the family grows and the wealth gets divided. In fairly short order, without additional replenishment, a sizable fortune can be reduced.

read more here

All the best,

David

Food for Thought

• ScottG – How Covid-19 is Accelerating the Disruption of Higher Education  In academia, we have been preying on the hopes and prayers of the middle class, offering parents the chance to check an instinctive box, giving their kids a better life, by sending them to college. We also encouraged them to borrow against their 401(k)s and take out mortgages to underwrite our shape-shifting from public servants to luxury brands. No more.
• Aeon – I was homeschooled for eight years: here’s what I recommend Learning at home is quite different from learning at school. It requires us to reorient how we think about learning in general, and how we approach the process with our children – maybe even with ourselves, too.
• MentalFloss – When Did Shaking Hands Become a Standard Way of Greeting Someone?
• Slate – Why New Jersey’s Unemployment Insurance System Uses a 60-Year-Old Programming Language

Business

5. II – The Day of Reckoning for Private Equity  This crisis is likely to mark the apex of private equity – irrespective of how the drama around accessing government loans plays out.
6. CapAllocators – Interview with Eric Peters of One River Capital
7. TheAtlantic – The Supermarket After the Pandemic  The coronavirus will change grocery stores, and probably not for the better.
8. DcGross – Wealth Tips for Founders  Overbearing frugality prevented me from spending any money, which creates inefficiencies. Spend like a king on speed, like a pauper on everything else.

Culture/Tech/Science:

9. WashPo – Why more men should see walking as a perfect form of exercise
10. Scientific American – Why Is My Brain Tingling?  The neuroscience of “autonomous sensory meridian response.”
11. PermanentStyle – Don your highborn cloak: Ralph Lauren, saviour?  “Reinvigorating the public’s interest, he ended up democratising it more profoundly than any of his peers – and maybe more than anyone in modern history.”
12. Mel – Inside the World of Hot Wheels Rally Car Racing – Apparently this is a thing?