Swarfblog

Who Needs Your Grandmother’s Silver

Remember your mother’s or grandmother’s silver service for 12 that she only used once or twice a year when the whole family showed up? Remember when nobody else in the family would take it when she passed away–because who had the space or the desire to show off fancy dishes

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The “What if” Question

I have spent my entire business life identifying price anomalies and taking advantage of them to make money. “Buy low, sell high” is my secular

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Tools of Justice

It’s the American Horatio Alger story. Invent the next Xerox machine and get rich. Or get screwed. Dan Brown was a smart Irish kid from

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47 Years

Today is my 47th wedding anniversary. “So what?” you may say. But if you have some curiosity about the marriage of a blogging trader in

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Feeling Steady?

I talk to clients in the machining business almost every day. I often ask the perfunctory question, “How’s business?” and I usually get the perfunctory

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Grecian Earn

I’ve probably been complicit in tax fraud. Certainly not illegally; I’ve always paid Uncle Sam every dollar he says he’s owed. Where I suspect I

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Immigrants Welcome

Just got back from Spain and Scandinavia last week, traveling on business with a little bit of pleasure thrown in. During my travels it was

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