Oddly Relevant May-27-2013

What Better Place’s bankruptcy tells us about the future of electric cars: It’s an Israeli company that once hoped to revolutionize the auto industry with its innovative battery-swapping stations (instead of you charging your car). The cause of its demise largely rests on the high start-up CapEx to put the stations in-place without having custom cars in place. [Note: it’s a fantastic business idea, but perhaps just a bit too ambitious and early]…Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/27/what-better-places-bankruptcy-tells-us-about-the-future-of-electric-cars/

The 12 technologies will drive our economic future (and how hyped they are): Since renewable energy has made it to the final Disruptive 12, it might be unfair to call it *the* most over-hyped technology ever (that would be Google Wave; or Segway; or Microsoft 8; or ...), especially since part of its contribution shows up in carbon levels rather than profit statements. But it does suggest that automation might deserve more attention. Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/mckinsey-names-the-most-over-hyped-and-under-hyped-major-technologies-out-there/276190/

Financial innovation for once works for the investor: The Vanguard akins the ETF to other ground-breaking technology adaptations; but here’s a quote to my liking by Josh Brown: “the ultimate irony of this rush into index products and plain vanilla beta is that excellent opportunities will be created for active managers by the competitive vacuum. Inefficiencies will once again become bountiful in the absence of people looking for them – stockpickers will find themselves alone on the beach, metal detector in hand, once again.” Source: http://abnormalreturns.com/financial-innovation-for-once-works-for-the-investor/

How Benjamin Graham Revolutionized Shareholder Activism: Enter the Northern Pipeline Affair: post Standard Oil’s 1911 break-up, Graham discovered that one of ParentCo’s children, Northern Pipe Line Co, held $95 per share in railroad bonds and other liquid assets w/ a stock trading at $65. He amassed a 5% stake and petitioned for support for 3 years, eventually received support on 40% of the company’s shares, and had the company distribute $70 per-share of excess liquid assets to Northern Pipe Line shareholders. In 1932, he wrote, shareholders “have forgotten also that they are owners of a business and not merely owners of a quotation on the stock ticket.” [Note: In a world of increasing usage of index baskets, have most also forgotten that stocks are, in their essence, not pieces of paper but instead ownerships of real, breathing companies?]…Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-17/how-benjamin-graham-revolutionized-shareholder-activism.html