Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

The Facebook Economy (by Goatmug)

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I had an interesting discussion with a friend the other day when he asked me if I spent anytime on Facebook.  I answered that I didn't "do" Facebook since I was too busy.  (There are a host of other reasons of course, but that's another topic).

I asked him why he Facebooked and he suggested that he did it to keep in touch with people and to network a bit.  I told him that I had read an article recently that had stated that research is beginning to show that Facebook makes people depressed.  To my surprise, he totally agreed.

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Why I Shorted Devry

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As most of you know, I am a dyed-in-the-wool chartist. I base my decisions on charts and very little else.

There are rare occasions, however, when an investing idea is based on something more than just the chart. Such was the case with Devry, which is one of those for-profit education outfits.

Simply stated, I don't think I've ever seen a group of "customers" as unhappy with a given service as I have with the field of for-profit education. I'm not picking on Devry in particular – – there are many firms out there (ITT Institute, etc.) But as one surveys the landscape of the "graduates" from these "schools" (I am not accidentally using all these quotation marks….) it seems to be a bunch of folks that feel very ripped-off.

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