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Governance vs. Investing

I am regularly asked to speak on various corporate governance topics.  Perhaps this is not surprising since I have sat on public company boards in the US, Canada, France and England and multiple private company and charitable boards.  Add to this three years of law school, 10+ years practice as a corporate lawyer, and a Read More

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Moral Clarity and the War Against Hamas

I started to write a post about AI that I have been ruminating upon for months, but came to realize that after the heinous attack on October 7, I could not write about something as relatively light-hearted as the dangers of AI without first setting down my thoughts on this slaughter of the innocents. First, Read More

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Why I Will No Longer Visit Israel

I have many reasons to visit Israel.  Fleeing Nazi persecution a large part of my family found security and prosperity in the land that would become the modern State of Israel. More recently, I am the co-founder of two tech start-ups with major R&D centers in Tel Aviv.  Both personally and through my venture capital Read More

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1276 Views
You Pay Peanuts, You Get Monkeys

There is a colloquial English expression that if you “pay peanuts you get monkeys.”  While In the United States it is more common to imagine that monkeys prefer bananas, the meaning is not lost over the Atlantic.  Namely, you get what you pay for. I was reminded of this aphorism this past week in Singapore Read More

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The Road Back to the Protections of Roe

I have not posted in many months to this blog that I have been writing for over 15 years. This is for two reasons: First, I have been busy helping to grow two start-ups and a venture fund among other pursuits; and second, I have felt less of a need to add my voice to Read More

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Towards a Simpler and More Equitable Tax System

Tax reform is very much in the air these days.  Proposals to fund President Biden’s ambitious infrastructure plan and related reconciliation bill for “soft” projects include the adoption of a first-time wealth tax on billionaires, elimination of the step-up in basis upon death,  and a proposed minimum corporate tax levy.   I believe there is Read More

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Interview With Recorded Future on Cybersecurity

I sat down recently with The Record, the excellent publication of threat intelligence provider Recorded Future, to share the story of how I became interested and involved in cybersecurity and why I co-founded Bluevoyant LLC with Jim Rosenthal. The full interview can be found at The Record   When Tom Glocer was serving as a top executive at Read More

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Remarks to The Reuters Society

This week I had the pleasure of giving a talk to The Reuters Society — an alumni club of sorts for my favorite news organization.  As I explain in these remarks my loud opposition to  Donald Trump in my post Reuters years would have been inconsistent with the values of  Reuters Editorial that I adopted Read More

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Predictions for 2020 and Beyond

I was recently interviewed by Bluevoyant LLC, the cyber defense company I co-founded and chair, on my predictions for the post-COVID business world.  While it remains premature to proclaim the end of COVID, with novel vaccines now well on their way to market, I hazard the following.   This year, COVID-19 has disrupted businesses and global Read More

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My 2016 Letter to President-Elect Trump (revisited)

Almost four years ago I wrote a hopeful but quixotic post addressed to the president-elect calling on him to listen to his better angels (if any exist) and pivot from his divisive campaign rhetoric to a more mature, inclusive approach to governing.  Needless to say my words fell on not just deaf ears but a Read More

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The Covid-19 Pandemic, Bank Runs and Public Trust

During a crisis such as the one in which we are experiencing with Covid-19, we learn (or perhaps rediscover) how much of our world functions on the basis of trust.  Individuals also reveal their best and worse selves, but I promise not to make this another blog post about President Pinocchio.   In his widely read Read More

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Why We Hate Lawyers (but Respect the Rule of Law)

I delivered the following remarks at Yale Law School on the occasion of my 35th class reunion.  I found the school to be in robust health under the leadership of a great new(ish) dean, Heather Gerken.  I wish I could say the same about the state of our republic.    Good morning.  This may be Read More

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Can American Exceptionalism Outlive the American Century?

Americans have long enjoyed (or suffered from, depending on one’s perspective) a belief in our own exceptionalism.  Many nations and cultures believe in their own superiority despite empirical data suggesting that citizens of the Nordic countries are the most fulfilled[1].  However, the United States is, perhaps, unique in believing that the history of the US Read More

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A Life Well-Lived

My mother Ursula died two weeks ago at age 97.  What follows is an adaptation of the remarks I delivered at her memorial service. Ursula often said that she outlived all of her friends other than Helga. This not unreasonably troubled my mom, but as I often reminded her it  beat the most likely alternative. Read More

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Civility and the Heisenberg Principle

With civility and civil discourse under such assault these days – from none less than the President of the Unites States – I’ve been thinking a lot about how to be a better listener and how to hear other, even disagreeable points of view.   When I was a practicing lawyer and I would read Read More

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Mrs. Watanabe, Zero Growth and the AI Economy

For many years Japan has been criticized for the lack of growth of its economy, resulting in what has been labelled its ¨lost decades.¨  I argue below that far from an aging, backwards-looking country, Japan may have anticipated  (consciously or not) the winning formula for economic life in our globally warming, AI future.   During Read More

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Who Owns My Data Anyway?

  I have not written a new entry in this blog in some time as I have been very busy at work and my spare cycles have been consumed with watching and tweeting (@tglocer) about the slow car crash which is the Trump presidency.  At times it feels like The Donald is sucking all the Read More

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1672 Views
Why Trump’s a No-Show in the Hall of Shame

Shame has always struck me as a very negative emotion: Something to be avoided at all costs and a powerful force that can drive individuals to desperate acts up to and including suicide. Lately, with a nod to the Trump White House or the Pruitt Environmental “Protection” Agency, a bit more shame would be a Read More

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Badly-Behaving Older Men, Newsworthiness and the Quest for Fame

Suffering through the second of what I fear will be four years of the Trump Administration, I began to ponder what drives some men over the age of 70 to increasingly shocking behavior. In the case of The Donald it is easy enough to imagine that there are some as yet-unpublished pharmacological side effects or Read More

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ICOs, Mutual Societies and TS Eliot

I have a close friend whom I will call “Tal” who is a great tech entrepreneur with a strong track record for building applications in financial markets. Tal is smart, worldly and tech friendly. He also thinks blockchain is bullshit.   As regular readers of this blog can imagine, we argue about the significance of Read More

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3251 Views
Know Your Customer — A New Patriot Act for Facebook?

Much attention has been focused on the role of social media such as Facebook and Twitter as enablers of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in the US and the Brexit referendum in the UK. I argue here, as JFK might have, that of those to whom much is given, much is required.   Read More

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3785 Views
Blockchain, Coase and the Theory of the Firm

I have always been interested in the question of how individuals organize themselves to perform work. In this I am not alone as this issue lies at the heart of a rich vein of modern economic scholarship. The seminal work in the field was and remains The Nature of the Firm written by Nobel economist Read More

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2212 Views
Harvey Weinstein and the Need to Protect Whistleblowers

The recent revelations concerning the grotesque and likely unlawful sexual aggressions perpetrated by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein over many years have prompted me to revisit the evolving body of law concerning the rights of “whistleblowers.”   For some time the SEC and other Federal agencies have taken the position that obligations contained in standard confidentiality Read More

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Interview in April Edition of Futures Magazine

Tom Glocer’s 10 surefire wins in fintech* http://m.futuresmag.com/2017/04/15/tom-glocers-10-surefire-wins-fintech … By Jeff Joseph | April 15, 2017 How many investments in financial technology has your family office, Angelic Ventures, made? What is your primary investment thesis driving your commitment to fintech?Through Angelic Ventures I have made 40+ early stage investments, ranging from Lending Club, Zopa, CircleUp and Fundbox among Read More

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Our Problems Are Global, Our Solutions Are Local and Lacking

I am going to return in this post to a theme that I have been writing about for 10 years here and here  and here.   Unfortunately, in the intervening years the problems we face have only grown more acute and global while the responses provided by our political leaders have become more politicized and nationalist. Climate Read More

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