Kick the Dogma

New Ep is Up! Bankers brought the global economic system to its knees in 2007 and nearly did the same in 2020. Both times, the US government bailed out the banks and left them in control. How can we end this cycle of trillion-dollar bailouts and make finance work for the rest of us? Busting the Bankers' Club confronts the powerful people and institutions that benefit from our broken financial system—and the struggle to create an alternative. Today we have Professor Gerald Epstein, author of Busting the Bankers’ Club: Finance for the Rest of Us. It was a great talk, about the history of banking regulation, the revolving door between government and industry that poisons our financial system, central bank independence, a fascinating concept called public banking, and my favorite topic, bailouts, what does that word even mean, who is getting bailed out, and WHY. Listen up, Jon Stewart and the Daily Show, you should have Professor Epstein on, because that last question boils down to privatization of profits and socialization of losses, a favorite topic of Mr. Stewart’s. Follow Professor Epstein on LinkedIn or at UMass Amherst. Buy the book here or wherever books are sold.

Today we talk to historian, fund manager, and author Daniel Peris. In his fourth book, The Ownership Dividend, Daniel makes the persuasive case that we are on the verge of a major paradigm shift for investors in the U.S. stock market. Dividend-focused stock investing, he explains, has been receding in popularity for more than three decades in the U.S.; once the dominant investment style, it is now a boutique approach. That, argues Peris, is about to change. Daniel Peris is a fund manager at Federated Hermes, but leans heavily on his academic and professional past as a historian to allocate capital. You can follow Daniel here on LinkedIn, and here on X. Buy The Ownership Dividend wherever books are sold, including here. (New intro music by Gregor Quendel sourced at Pixabay)

New Ep is up! Today we have Michael D Smith, Professor of Information Technology and Marketing at Carnegie Mellon, and the author of the new book, The Abundant University: Remaking Higher Education for a Digital World. College has been in the news a lot the last few years, mostly due to the skyrocketing cost and the student loan debt crisis. Also, the Varsity Blues admissions scandal and some recent chaos in college rankings by publishers trying to stay relevant in the space. It just reeks of an institution ripe for disruption. As you’ll hear, the Internet is something that has been expected to transform higher education for a long time. I think this is a when not an if, and the when might be right now. Follow Michael on the Carnegie Mellon website here, and LinkedIn here. Buy the book where ever books are sold, including here on Amazon.

New Ep is up! Today we have our first returning guest, Dr. Amy Finkelstein, economics professor at MIT, co-author (with Liran Einav) of today’s subject, the book We’ve Got You Covered: Rebooting American Health Care, but also co-author of Risky Business: Why Insurance Markets Fail and What to Do About It, the subject of an interview from earlier this year. Amy and her co-authors are experts in insurance generally, and health insurance specifically. I mention that because in the interview I rave about this being a textbook example of Edward De Bono’s lateral thinking and blank page creativity, which seem to come most often from “outside the box.” What I meant by that was as much as she’s studied health insurance, Amy hasn’t worked in the health care industry for 20 years or worked in public policy in Washington. So, from that perspective, I suggest she lacks institutional bias and has an outsider’s advantage. The title undersells what the book is offering, which is a blueprint for, I believe, the best way to run health care in America, which is universal coverage with free, basic coverage for all. That’s a tease, there’s so much more to it, and the book provides evidence from around the world including not just countries from Europe to the UK and Norway to Singapore and Australia, but also states like Massachusetts and Oregon, to support the authors’ research. And, I know I always say this, but in this case it’s especially true because of the enormity of the subject matter, but you do really have to read the book. With that said, the most elegant solutions are often the simplest, and by that measure, Amy and Liran have crushed it again. The solution, the final product if we could start from scratch, is amazingly straight forward. One more thing to entice you into reading the book. If you start from first principles as the authors did, you find that there is actually a lot more consensus on the building blocks of this recommended framework from the right, left, and middle, than there is disagreement. Other than me screwing up the term “supplemental” insurance and instead saying “premium” a couple of times, it’s a clean interview, thanks to Amy’s mastery of the subject. If you can overlook that error, and apologies for any confusion that causes, you’re going to leave the interview miles ahead of your friends, family, and work associates on the subject. But don’t be greedy. Share it with all of them! And send it to you representatives in Washington. Read more about Amy here, and coauthor Iran Einav on X. Buy the book here or at your favorite bookstore.

Welcome to Kick the Dogma, the podcast where we interview authors of books on investing, economics, behavioral finance, and business more generally. Today’s episode is an interview with Algy Hall, author of Four Ways to Beat the Market: A practical guide to stock-screening strategies to help you pick winning shares. Algy is a journalist, and just over ten years ago he started tracking the performance of his own stock picks generated by his four screens, which are similar to the “factors” used by quants, but it’s not a black box. Algy uses them as an idea generator, from which he does deeper financial and qualitative analysis. Which, is what I think any financial advisors still trying to pick stocks should be doing, basically to improve their chances of success, and for that matter, active fund managers that aren’t finding success. Investors are, after all, odds makers, and this is a practical guide to improving your odds. You can follow Algy at Citywide Elite Companies, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and buy his book anywhere books are sold, including here. Enjoy my talk with Algy Hall!

What Tight Labor Markets Do For The Poor. Another timely book and discussion, as unemployment remains near historic lows, wages and benefits rise, and the traditionally disenfranchised enter the labor force. Specifically, the book addresses structural change that occur below an already low unemployment rate (think Peter Berezin’s kinked Phillips curve), and only at those levels of labor participation. What is Fed Chairman Powell focused on as the tightening cycle continues? Hasn’t the labor market been subjected to just another supply shock that requires a scalpel instead of a hammer? “Moving the Needle examines how very low unemployment boosts wages at the bottom, improves benefits, lengthens job ladders, and pulls the unemployed into a booming job market. Drawing on over seventy years of quantitative data, as well as interviews with employers, jobseekers, and longtime residents of poor neighborhoods, Katherine S. Newman and Elisabeth S. Jacobs investigate the most durable positive consequences of tight labor markets.” Buy the book here!

New Ep is up! Today we get to talk to Joe Wiggins, author of The Intelligent Fund Investor: Practical Steps for Better Results in Active and Passive Funds. Joe is also a senior portfolio manager, putting the tools he describes in the book to work every day. Joe and I agree that equity markets are not efficient, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are easy to beat for an active manager. I have also argued that I don’t envy wealth managers trying to pick successful active funds and their managers, because of the absence of a systematic way to do so. Joe’s book is a guide to doing just that. Beyond the book, we also talk about Cliff Asness and volatility laundering, Richard Thaler and myopic loss aversion, and Joe raises an interesting point about opportunities to create friction for the individual investor (is that a nudge or the opposite of a nudge, @R_Thaler ?) to treat the effects of loss aversion. I also share the story of how my mother the pre-school teacher was a much better investor than I was because of self-imposed illiquidity that lasted decades. Read Joe’s blog, follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn, and buy his book here.

New Ep is up! If you aren’t already excited about insurance markets, this episode will convert you. Amy Finkelstein is a professor at MIT and co-author of Risky Business: Why Insurance Markets Fail and What to Do About It. Insurance is about risk management. But the markets are inefficient, sometimes wildly so. Sometimes they “function” and other times they fail, i.e., the death spiral. Either way, the price never seems right. That’s where adverse selection comes in. Think about annuities, long-term care insurance, towing insurance (AAA), product warranties, dental insurance (boo!), pet insurance, even divorce insurance. Read more about Amy here, and follow coauthors Iran Einav and Ray Fisman on Twitter. Buy the book here or at your favorite bookstore. If you were wanting to hear more about healthcare insurance markets specifically after listening to this episode, the great news is there’s a sequel coming, you can preorder We’ve Got You Covered. Check back in June so you don’t miss that interview.

On today’s episode we have Jim Edwards, former editor-in-chief of Insider’s news division, and author of Say Thank You For Everything: The Secrets of Being a Great Manager, Strategies and Tactics That Get Results. I personally had a blast talking to Jim, I know you’ll enjoy listening to him. Jim draws from a combination of his own experiences with leadership, successes and failures, leadership styles of others he witnessed throughout his career in journalism, and research on the most current thinking about group dynamics. Most interesting I think was our digression into creative thinking, how it works, how you set yourself and others up for productive sessions, why you should dedicate time to doing it, just like you might dedicate time to working out, and why brainstorming sessions aren’t as productive as sending people off alone. Enjoy leadership lessons from Dominos and Mad Men, the importance of owning your mistakes, and communicating clearly, repeatedly, and honestly. The book contains a lot of content we didn’t get in to, such as hiring, firing, and even advice for young people just starting out in their careers. Follow Jim on Linkedin and Twitter. Buy the book anywhere books are sold, including here.

New Ep is up! Another take on ESG investing, this time more of a European perspective. I was joined by Becky O’Connor, editor of and contributor to The ESG Investing Handbook: Insights and Developments In Environmental, Social & Governance Investment. Becky is head of pension and savings at interactive investor. She also co-founded the ethical sustainable personal finance website Good With Money in 2015. Additional support and contributions came from Abundance Investment, Baillie Gifford, Impax Asset Management, Carbon Tracker, Green Finance Institute, Global Returns Project, and Federated Hermes. The book is honest, pragmatic, educational, and inspirational. A lot of great work is being done. A lot of work still needs to be done. The work must start somewhere, and so do the vernacular and standards around ESG. Enjoy! Read more about Becky at interactive investor, follow her on Linkedin, Twitter, and buy the book anywhere books are sold, including here.

…Growing Your Inner Capacity to Lead, with co-author Jennifer Garvey Berger. Jennifer joined us from the French countryside for a wide ranging interview that covered her background, her business with co-author Carolyn Coughlin, and what breathing, sleep, laughter, and evolutionary biology have to do with your on-the-job performance and leadership capabilities. You can locate their company’s website Cultivating Leadership here. Buy the book on Amazon or wherever you buy your books. Jennifer can be found on Linkedin and Twitter. Carolyn is also on Linkedin. Other books we talk about during the episode include Why We Sleep (Walker), Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers (Sapolsky), and Deep Survival (Gonzales). Enjoy!

New ep is up! An interview with Samuel Evan Milner, economic historian and author of Robbing Peter to Pay Pau: Power, Profits, and Productivity in Modern American. Mr. Milner has a degree in history from Harvard, master’s degrees in history and philosophy from Yale, a PhD in history from Yale, and more recently, a J.D. from University of Chicago Law School. Think about how much inflation generally and wage inflation specifically are in the news today. Overlay 900 lb corporate gorillas, and you understand the relevance of this story from the last century to today’s environment. From the back jacket: “Concentrated market power and the weakened sway of corporate stakeholders over management have emerged as leading concerns of American political economy. Samuel Milner provides a historical context for contemporary efforts to resolve these anxieties by examining the contest to control the distribution of corporate income during the mid-twentieth century. During this “Golden Age of American Capitalism,” apprehension about the debilitating consequences of industrial concentration fueled efforts to ensure that management would share the fruits of progress with workers, consumers, and society as a whole. Focusing particularly on wage and price determination in steel, automobiles, and electrical equipment, Milner reveals how the management of concentrated industries actually understood its ability to distribute income to its stakeholders as well as why economists, courts, and public policymakers all struggled to curtail the exercise of that market power at its source.” Buy the book here, and follow Samuel on Linkedin here. Full New Books Network interview here.

New Ep is up! This one has the potential to deliver the highest potential return on either 60 minutes or $20 to any parent thinking about helping a child with college. No joke. Think about it. The three biggest investments you could make in your life are for your retirement, for a home, and if you have children and decide to help them, their college education. The top line cost of 4 years of private college is over $300k. That’s just the first kid. But it doesn’t have to cost you that much. So, if you know of anyone that’s expecting a child or has a child that is looking at college but hasn’t taken off yet, please forward them the link to this podcast. Author Ann Garcia is both a Certified Financial Planner and the parent of twins that have gone through the college application and financial aid application process. She brings the full weight of her professional and personal experience to bear on the topic of How To Pay For College: A Complete Financial Plan for Funding your Child’s Education. Again, if you know anyone from -9 months to +18-years old please share this podcast episode with them. Then buy the book here. Check out Ann’s How To Pay For College website here, and the website for her registered investment advisory here. Follow Ann on Twitter. And, follow Ann on Linkedin. The Kick the Dogma podcast can be found on the KTDpod.com website, as well as Spotify, Amazon, Apple, and Google.

The book is an 800-year history of inflation. Three hundred pages in 35 minutes, with as much of the author’s original work quoted or referenced as possible. Learn the recurring themes in all Four Waves starting in the 12th century and ending (but not really) in the 20th century. Demand-side shocks, supply-side shocks, wages initially keeping up with inflation, then real wages falling, creating unsustainable inequality. Is there anything new under the sun? Not pandemics, climate volatility, or war. Listen and find out about the recurrence of stagflation, the importance of inflation expectations, and where we are in the Fourth Wave. The third installment in our Inflation Series, starting with the Feb 1 Morning Kick, continued in the March 4 Weekend Kickoff, and ending with this summary of The Great Wave, which you can buy here. Follow us on Twitter and Linkedin.

“Let cannabis be kale.” The licensed weed business is more than about states generating tax revs, it’s about supporting small businesses, social justice, and more. Ag economists Dan Sumner and Robin Goldstein explain The Blunt Realities of Cannabis Economics. I share a story from my firefighter days, we talk about reading books in bars, and we compare California, Colorado, and Oklahoma. KTD short available on KTDpod.com as well as Spotify, Amazon, Apple. Full interview available at New Books Network. Buy Can Legal Weed Win here. Buy The Wine Trials (Robin’s other book) here. Vanderbilt University Medical Center held a panel on medical marijuana, CBDs, and Delta 9 called In the Weeds shown on YouTube, or at the VUMC website. Just found this documentary on a Vanderbilt alum and the 30 year journey towards legalization. Looks interesting! Follow Robin on Twitter here. Find Dan at UC Davis. Follow Kick the Dogma on Twitter and Linkedin.

On today’s episode we have a discussion about the evolution of human behavior and how it can be used in engineering, corporate strategy, marketing, and so much more. Sam Tatam joined us from Sidney to talk about his new book Evolutionary Ideas: Unlocking Ancient Innovation to Solve Tomorrow’s Challenges. It is such an interesting book, the most rewarding and thought-provoking book I’ve read this year. If you can imagine a bunch of overlapping circles for disciplines such as behavioral science, evolutionary biology, psychology, marketing, business strategy and product design, you would find this book right in the middle touching them all. Sam shows how behavioral science and evolutionary psychology can help us solve tomorrow’s challenges, not by divining something the world has never seen, but by borrowing from yesterday’s solutions – often in the most unexpected ways. Buy Sam’s book here, and follow him on Linkedin and Twitter. Follow Kick the Dogma on our website, Linkedin, or Twitter. Full interview at New Books Network.

All About ESG. That is, investing based on environmental, societal, and governance criteria, and it’s exploding. ESG has taken over from SRI, or socially responsible investing, and interested investors need to understand both impact investing and sustainable investing. But there’s a new book out by Sam Adams and Larry Swedroe that does a fantastic job bringing it all together. After going over some current activity on ESG on social media from Cliff Asness, Alpha Architect, and William Green’s podcast, as well as a clip from the KTDpodinterview with Robin Wigglesworth, we get into an abbreviated discussion with Sam and Larry about their book. The complete interview is available on New Books Network. The new book is the Essential Guide to Sustainable Investing: How to Live Your Values and Achieve Your Financial Goals with ESG, SRI, and Impact Investing, can be purchased here. Larry has written a bunch of other books, and currently writes three newsletters for Evidence Based Investor, AlphaArchitect, and Advisor Prospectives. Sam can be followed on the website for his company Vert Asset Management, as well as Linkedin. I referenced two papers from AQR that can be found here from 2017, and more recently on shorting here, and check out William Green’s Meet the Masters interview with Aswath Damodaran through We Study Billionaires – The Investors Podcast Network. Here’s a link to the paper on returns and momentum in ESG rankings called Sustainable Investment – Exploring the Linkage between Alpha, ESG, and SDGs. KTDpod is also available on Amazon, Apple, Spotify, Google and Stitcher. Here is a direct link to the Robin Wigglesworth interview. Follow Robin on Twitter and Linkedin, and buy his book Trillions, you won’t be disappointed. Follow KTDpod on Twitter & Linkedin as well. Sam and Larry’s book talks about Iroquois Valley Farms, but you can learn more about the private REIT on the IVF website. #ESG #SRI #LarrySwedroe #SamuelAdams #VertAsset #RobinWigglesworth #AQR #CliffAsness #WilliamGreen

Check out the full interview on New Books Networks. Buy the book on Amazon. Follow Mary on Linkedin and NPR’s Planet Money. From the host of NPR's Planet Money, the deeply-investigated story of how one visionary, dogged investor changed American finance forever. The Bond King: How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost it All, is the story of how Bill Gross turned the sleepy bond market into a destabilized game of high risk, high reward; founded Pimco, one of today's most powerful, secretive, and cutthroat investment firms; helped to reshape our financial system in the aftermath of the Great Recession--to his own advantage; and gained legions of admirers, and enemies, along the way. Like every American antihero, his ambition would also be his undoing. Follow Kick the Dogma on Twitter and Linkedin. And listen and sign up for notifications on our website KTDpod.com.

Today’s topic is the intangible economy, what it means for competition, policy, inequality, and so much more. For fifty years, the percentage of investment in corporate America and elsewhere allocated to intangible assets has risen slowly but steadily as a percentage of the total. An increasingly intangible rich economy has a meaningful impact on the way companies are valued, how startups are financed, how economic data is measured and reported, and the effectiveness of policy makers’ tools to manage the economy. A paper from McKinsey states that over the past 25 years the share of total investment in intangibles increased by 29 percent in the United States and ten European countries. Rising investment in intangibles has been linked with increasing total factor productivity of entire economies. This could indicate that the deceleration of productivity growth over the past decade partly reflects a slowdown in investment in intangible assets. That is one of the many contentions of co-authors Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake in their fascinating new book Restarting the Future: How to Fix the Intangible Economy. I caught up with Professor Haskel for the New Books Network, and here is a portion of that discussion. New Books Network Kick the Dogma

Kick the Dogma wraps up its first quarter. Enjoy this quick look back at prior episodes, with updates on performance, inflation, and coverage of the yield curve inverting between 2’s and 10’s. What does that mean? What are better indicators of coming recession? Enjoy, and have a great weekend. Look out for our first guest host interview on New Books Network available April 5. The subject, Jon Haskel, co-author of Restarting the Future: How to Fix the Intangible Economy.