Oddly Relevant Nov-20-2012

A Trillion-Dollar Transfer Of Wealth Is About To Hit Silicon Valley: As the market cap of the old-guard companies selling to the enterprises—Oracle, SAP, Microsoft to name a few—exceed the trillion mark, they are about to get hit by a tsunami of competition as smaller, more nimble rivals rush into the market offering cheaper and better solutions. [Note: faulty logic of the author, large corporations dominate in reliability, the cornerstone for enterprise solutions. I see more M&As though]…Source: http://readwrite.com/2012/11/20/a-trillion-dollar-transfer-of-wealth-is-about-to-hit-silicon-valley

U.S. Dark pool trades up 50%: Grown by almost 50% in 3 years, the US dark pool as well as other off-exchange trading now account for nearly 1/3 of total market volume according to CFA survey. Additionally, it found that about 18% of total volumes of trades were executed on broker-dealers' own trading desks. Such a growth posts concerns on market integrity. [Note: A fair charge to turn floods into unruffled streams, why not?]…Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/19/business/us-dark-pool-trades/index.html

California high-speed rail: cheaper, slower: The California High-Speed Rail Authority will take 12 more months (2017+) to finish construction, less weekend and overtime work, and an estimated $150m in savings for taxpayers. That's good news—and good government. [Note: projection still stands at $68 billion dollars total. More like expensive and slow?]…Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2012/11/california-high-speed-rail#comments

A hedge fund manager’s reappearance after 5 years of “meaning-of-life” search: after losing 95% of his net worth in the 07 crash as his fund plunged into oblivion and trusting Madoff, Florian Homm, a German fund manager once known as the “Steamroller”, spent 5 years in Colombia to find a meaning of his life and tried not be found by dubious characters trying to collect a reward of or $1.9 million. [Note: so many gems in this article]…Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/business/global/after-5-years-of-hiding-a-banker-reappears.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Sandy, interactive before and after images: [Note: amazing in a bad way]…Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/specials/hurricane-sandy-before-after-photos/