Forbes: Win By Cheating? Maybe So

By SIMON CONSTABLE

All through our early lives we are presented with a multitude of rules, most of which say the equivalent of “don’t do this,” or “don’t do that.” Sometimes we hear the command to “work long and hard,” and only then shall we see success. You get the idea.

The problem is that most of us hang on to these rules long after they should have been relegated to the same place as quaint mementos of childhood such as having our mittens physically tied to our winter clothing.

Technology entrepreneur Brian Wong has tapped into this problem with his new book The Cheat Code: Going Off Script to Get More, Go Faster, and Shortcut Your Way to Success. It was published earlier this month by Crown Business.

He attempts to dispel the idea that rule-following is the way to proceed for maximum career progress. Read more here.

TheStreet: How America Is Regaining its Startup Mojo -- And Why it Matters

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Here's some more good news for the U.S. economy: The entrepreneurial bug is back.

"For the second year in a row, key measures of new business creation in the United States point upward," according to The 2016 Kaufmann Index of Startup Activity, published in August by the Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation. "Only two years ago, the Startup Activity Index was at its lowest point in the last 20 years." Read more here.

U.S. News: Today's Investors Are Somewhere Between Skeptical and Optimistic

By SIMON CONSTABLE

A cursory look across the financial news might convince all but the hardiest investors that a crash is imminent. 

Gurus earnestly warning investors to "ditch stocks now," or something similar, are daily fare across the business side of the media. So should you be frightened and follow suit?

No. In fact, quite the opposite. Read more here.

WOR Radio John Gambling Show: Talking Economics

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Talking economics with the awesome Frank Morano on the John Gambling Show

U.S. News: Brazil Set to Escape Its Economic Malaise

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Not all of the recent drama in Brazil was caused by U.S. Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte, who got into trouble after claiming he was held up at gunpoint. Actually, for investors, the main spectacle in Latin America's largest economy was somewhere quite different: the government.

In late August, long after the athletes returned to their home countries, Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff was impeached following a lengthy process.


The good news, unless you are Rouseff, is that the political commotion may augur in a period of economic reform that could move more rapidly than previously expected. Investors have already been betting on that, and there will likely be more gains ahead. Read more here.

Photo by Matheus Câmara da Silva on Unsplash

WSJ: Are Investors More or Less Willing to Take on Risk After a Big Money Loss?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

After a big financial loss, are people going to be more or less willing to take a big risk?


For years, two seemingly contradictory theories have come down on either side of that question. A new analysis, however, suggests that perhaps there is no contradiction after all. The right answer, this analysis suggests, is: It depends.


To back up, on one side of this debate has been the theory that a previous loss can lead to increased risk taking. “A person who hasn’t made peace with his losses is likely to accept gambles that would be unacceptable to him otherwise,” psychologist Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel laureate, and Amos Tversky wrote in a 1979 paper. Read more here.

John Batchelor Show: Peter Thiel, Economics

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Recent appearance on the John Batchelor Show discussing Peter Thiel, investing, economics.