Month: February 2007

First Time column

Justin Fox 1 Comment

My very first "Curious Capitalist" column is in the current issue of Time. It’s the issue that was supposed to hit newsstands last Friday, although an awful lot of newsstands haven’t figured out yet that Time now comes out on Fridays. Last Friday night with the in-laws it took three stops before we finally found a copy (at the Reston Barnes & Noble). Today at the Raleigh-Durham airport the Hudson News still had last week’s Time on display.

Anyway, the column is about hedge funds and their inevitable decline (as a group) into mediocrity. It stars Ed Thorp, about whom I offer some more detail in a blog post. And it continues what’s becoming a theme for me: That despite all my jabbering about financial markets not being efficient, I still tend to believe that, over time,  markets are actually pretty efficient. Oh well.

Some people finish their books on time

Justin Fox 3 Comments

Joefoxbook
Faithful reader Joe Fox (a.k.a. my dad), complained in a comment a few days ago that I hadn’t given his new book a plug yet. My main excuse is that I haven’t read it yet, although my shame at my relative inability to get a book done and published is probably a factor, too. (On that front, I did turn in a draft of my book a couple weeks ago. Last few chapters are still pretty wobbly, though. And my editor may tell me that’s not all that’s wobbly.)

Anyway, my dad wrote a book, Growing With America: The Fox Family of Philadelphia. It’s available on Amazon. It’s a family history, starting with the man who made the translantic voyage back in the 1600s, my namesake Justinian Fox. (At least, I think that’s where it starts. As I said, I haven’t read it, and I’m currently biding my time in the Raleigh-Durham airport with access to no more than a photo of the thing.) Justinian’s son Joseph was a big cheese in 18th century Philadelphia, and several of Joseph’s descendants were at least moderate cheeses. So this thing might be of interest to more than just us Foxes. So anyway, if you’re a member of the Fox family, if you care about Philadelphia, if you enjoy growing, you should consider purchasing it. And I’d better take the thing with me on my next airplane voyage and read it.