Orthodox is Latin for “right thinking”. Heterodox is Latin for “other thinking”. John Mauldin writes a column every Friday on his own thinking about economics, investing, and finance. On Mondays he publishes invited, guest columns by people he does not agree with entitled “Outside the Box”. Note: the differences aren’t huge. Don’t expect Paul Krugman or George Soros there.
Terry Pratchett once observed, “Where you stand depends on where you sit and which way you face.”
All of which lead me up to plugging a column by Robert Cringely on How stock market decimalization killed IPOs and ruined our economy. I see how the dynamics he talks about could effect the economy and the IPO markets. But I just don’t see them being the major factor. But he sits 2-3 hours north of Silicon Valley and looks at medium to big companies where Venture Capital (VC) is a major player. As reported elsewhere, 80% of the Venture Capital in the United States is in California. And I expect the majority of it is in the San Francisco Bay Area (Silicon Valley is at the south end of San Francisco Bay). I sit in Austin, Texas where there is only modest amounts of Venture Capital and look at the Lean Startups (where your best investors are your customers) and small enterprises with single digits to low double digits numbers of employees. In any case, it is an interesting read and I learned something.