I wrote earlier about how superstar investor Anthony Bolton is shimmying down the retirement home drainpipe to head East, where he will find companies for his new Special Situations China Trust.
But should we back Bolton’s adventures with our money?
I thought modern retirement was meant to be an exciting affair – cruises around the Maldives, skiing holidays in Peru, and kinky parties where the plucky OAPs put their bus passes into a bowl and take a lucky dip.
Although I may have misread the brochure.
In any event, it’s not exciting enough for Anthony Bolton, the superstar Fidelity fund manager, who will see ‘Britain’s Warren Buffett’ chiseled on his grave.
Imagine you could rub a lamp and a genie would appear offering to buy some proportion of your future lifetime earnings for £1 million.
How much would you give up?
- 1 per cent?
- 20 per cent?
- 50 per cent?
One man who believes in fairy stories is James Layfield, an entrepreneur who tells the Financial Times he will give up 10 per cent of his lifetime earnings for £1 million:
“I believe that this is the true sprit of entrepreneurship,” the 36-year-old said. “I am my own commodity.”
The offer is for a slice of Layfield’s entire lifetime earnings, although a clause would allow him to buy out his investor for a multiple of the original investment.
He is currently in negotiations with one wealthy individual.
I wouldn’t be negotiating, I’d be plying the fool with drink to get the million pounds signed over as fast as possible!
Last night I saw rock star economist Joseph Stiglitz pimp his new book give a lecture at the London School of Economics.
When I say Stiglitz is a ‘rock star’, I refer not only to his 2001 Nobel Prize, his stint as chief economist at the World Bank, or his string of professorships including his current gig at Columbia University.
I also mean:
- Last night’s queues of hundreds of young people that stretched around the block
- The post lecture signing of his new book, Freefall, which was as much a scrum as you’d see at the Brixton Academy
- The glamorous after-party, which I wasn’t invited to, mainly because it was hosted by the UK Prime Minister
There is also knuckle-dusting rivalry here to rival The Stones Vs The Beatles.
Stiglitz is loving the fall from glory of the ultra-free market economists who held sway in the 1980s and 1990s, and he has only scorn for former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan.
My regular roundup of the week’s blog and financial site links.
I suspect most of you caught the market turmoil this week. The financial journalists certainly relished the chance to scare their audiences witless again.
No, surprise given everyone is still nostalgic for the credit crisis.
Let’s keep this in perspective. Year-to-date:
- The FTSE is down 6.5%
- The S&P is down 4.5%
That’s just noise, not a new Apocalypse.
