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Ask an Ex-Banker: Home Loans and Home Equity Lines of Credit
Q. Dear Banker, My wife and I are planning an addition to our house. We need the additional space, but I do not want this project to stretch our overall budget. Since I have a specific idea of how much...
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Interview Part II: Pawn Shop Owner Fights The Good Fight
This audio interview is a continuation of an earlier interview with Shirley, in which we talked about her pawn shop, and the customer service they offer that banks rarely offer. In this portion of the...
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The Natural Gas Revolution Part VI – Has It Killed Renewables In Our Lifetime?
Here’s my hypothesis[1]: The abundance of cheap domestic natural gas – what I’m calling the Natural Gas Revolution – makes “renewable” energy sources like wind and solar financially untenable, and...
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Video: Interview with Pawn Shop Owner turned Politico
Taking a break from commenting on Wall Street, the Dow’s highs and personal finance topics, I recorded a show yesterday with San Antonio, TX-based smart commentary site, Plaza de Armas. A friend and...
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Book Review: The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Why do some American cities diversify, improve, innovate and grow? While other cities – most recently and egregiously Detroit – stagnate, shrink, and ultimately fail financially? I’m way outside of my...
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Real Estate and the Efficient Market Hypothesis
Editor’s Note: A version of this appeared in the San Antonio Express News. Dignowity Hill is a historic neighborhood in San Antonio balanced precariously - for the moment – on the cusp of hipsterism,...
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Book Review: The Mystery Of The Invisible Hand
Looking for a last minute book to purchase this holiday season for the bright business or economics student in your life? Perhaps the student in your life appreciates mixing economic theory with...
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A Leader for San Antonio: Mike Villarreal
Mike Villarreal studies the data I have something to say about the San Antonio Mayor’s race. My friend Mike Villarreal is running and he is by far the best candidate. He supports data-driven financial...
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Las Vegas Tourists And The Downtown Project Antidote
Who Killed Las Vegas? I’m the one with the shirt on I recently stayed at a hotel and lost money at the poker tables in Las Vegas[1] situated squarely in the downtown monoculture of the Fremont...
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Las Vegas Downtown Monoculture Problem
I recently visited Las Vegas, NV. I did this in part to lose money at the poker tables, and in part to check out the Las Vegas “Downtown Project” that I’ve read about in recent years. I visited with...
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Downtown Revitalization – The Limited Role of Government
I wrote previously about the Downtown Project for Las Vegas NV that I think folks in my hometown should pay attention to. I enjoyed visiting the nascent Las Vegas Downtown Project because it made me...
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Downtown Revitalization – The Role Of A Billionaire
In downtown Las Vegas Nevada recently I visited a small business that is the opposite of everything we normally associate with Sin City. The small business made me think about the role of both...
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Minimum Wage Caveats and Local Update
I recently wrote about how I worried minimum wage hikes in the city of Los Angeles could hurt the same people the law is supposed to help. Two caveats go with that thought. First, I might be wrong....
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Apollo Global Purchases Rackspace – My Take on Texas Public Radio
I went on Texas Public Radio on Friday to comment on the news that Leon Black’s Apollo Global had agreed to purchase San Antonio cloud-hosting firm Rackspace for $4.3 billion. Post read (61) times.
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School Finance And My Tax Bill
I got my real estate tax bill in the mail recently, and noted with horror that more than half of my annual chunk of flesh goes to my local school district. That chunk for schools got 16 percent bigger...
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Organic Waste – My Kind of Green
When I think about environmental action, my mind goes to the words we commonly use – particularly “sustainable” and “green.” And like the Princess Bride’s Inigo Montoya, I do not think these words mean...
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Book Review: The Lean Startup
What’s the most important thing to do when starting a company? How about this: Don’t try to build the company. Instead, try an experiment. A confluence of events and conversations have me re-asking...
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Need Transparency Taken To Eleven
In my last post I mentioned the terrible scores Houston and San Antonio governments received for transparency in their economic development programs, according to a report by Good Jobs First. One...
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Elements of a Tech/Startup City
Here’s my thesis, which won’t make me popular in some parts: My city’s no tech startup hub. Not even close. So the question is: What’s the missing thing that would make a city a tech hub? I asked a...
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Apollo Global Purchases Rackspace – My Take on Texas Public Radio
I went on Texas Public Radio on Friday to comment on the news that Leon Black’s Apollo Global had agreed to purchase San Antonio cloud-hosting firm Rackspace for $4.3 billion. Post read (66) times....
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