Déjà Vu is a 2006 American science fiction action film with Denzel Washington, Paula Patton and Val Kilmer. It grossed over $180 million on a budget of $75 million.
Yes, I am speaking about my late colleague Allan H. Meltzer.
I miss popping into his office, unannounced, to shoot the breeze, and, remarkably, he would actually stop working on what he was deeply engrossed in – like writing the History of the Fed – and engage enthusiastically and energetically in far ranging conversation covering movies (of course!) and political economy.
He, a serious scholar of Capitalism (simply put), and I, a playful practitioner of it!
Indeed, beyond the two IPOs in the last six months, three investments (Series B and Series C) and an exit (Onera) that I already wrote about, there are two more just in the past week!
Here is one (Veritone Acquires Artificial Intelligence Voice Creator VocaliD) that I had previously mentioned along with ArtLifting and TieScaleUp:
Dear Sridhar,
I am so grateful for your contributions to VocaliD and all your guidance and support on this journey. Lots of amazing memories including the launch in Toronto. We are excited about this next phase!
Best wishes,
Rupal
Back to Allan. I am reminded of his (May 6th 2014) WSJ Op-ed:
How the Fed Fuels the Coming Inflation
You would think it appeared today!:
To avoid the kind of damaging inflation the U.S. experienced in the 1970s and early ’80s, the Fed could raise interest rates…. But interest rates high enough to discourage borrowing and lending would likely send the economy into another damaging recession.
…the central bank doesn’t have a good model of inflation. It relies on the Phillips Curve, which charts what economist Alban William Phillips…
Two of the most successful Fed chairmen, Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan, considered the Phillips Curve unreliable. The Fed’s forecasts of inflation ignore Milton Friedman’s dictum that “inflation is always and everywhere” a result of excessive money growth relative to the growth of real output. The Fed focuses far too much attention on distracting monthly and quarterly data, while ignoring the longer-term effects of money growth…
And some side effects of the Fed policies have had ugly consequences…We are now left with the overhang. Inflation is in our future. Food prices are leading off, as they did in the mid-1960s….
Still fondly remember those times when Allan and Egon, and Marilyn and Edith, would come over to our place for dinner and drinks, watch clips of James Bond movies (like the pre-title opening of Tomorrow Never Dies) with my surround sound system blasting loudly, and discuss history, politics, economics…..whatever, well into the night.
