Recommendation: The Amazon Echo (Game Changer)

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Much like everyone else focused on disruption, we talk about Amazon A TON. It's unavoidable. And so a few weeks back we publicly dared you all to go down the Amazon rabbit hole with us, get an Echo, and try it out. So, we followed through. What happened? Well, now we listen to TuneIn Radio(Bloomberg, CNN) in the office all day, we control our Nest thermostat with our voices, we order Ubers, Domino's pizza, get CNBC news briefings, the weather, etc. There are hiccups as the software develops over time but "voice" is the next big thing. You won't be able to speak educatedly to your clients unless you've tried it. So, in the wise words of sagemaster Shia LaBeouf, "Just Do It". You can pick up the Echo here.

What the Pros Say (Third Party Releases & Singapore)

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Third-Party Releases. We wonder why this is a subject of increased interest. Here,David Bass and Mark Tsukerman of Cole Schotz cover the issue in Delaware.

Singapore. Debra Dandeneau of Baker McKenzie provides a solid summary of the The Singapore Companies Act of 2017 which went into effect in May.

JP Morgan Summer Reading List II

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Last week we provided some Summer reads that apply to our subscribership. If you missed them, you can find them here on our website. If you don't want to take our word for it - and, we don't necessarily blame you, have no fear:  JPMorgan has now issued its Summer reading list and we thought some of the recs looked applicable...

Discounted retailers are a big part of the current distress in specialty retail. Dollar Tree is a big part of that and this book provides a snapshot of the company. You can get it here. 

JP Morgan Summer Reading List

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Last week we provided some Summer reads that apply to our subscribership. If you missed them, you can find them here on our website. If you don't want to take our word for it - and, we don't necessarily blame you, have no fear:  JPMorgan has now issued its Summer reading list and we thought some of the recs looked applicable...

According to this book, we're all just a bunch of suckers falling for the formula. This book is about the "science of popularity" and how it is disintermediating a lot. This, in part, is a cause of a lot of the disruption we are seeing. You can get it here.

What the Pros Say (Artificial Intelligence & Secured Creditor Collateral)

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Artificial Intelligence. <p> Researchers at Yale and Oxford released this interesting report about the rise of the machines. In summary, AI will be better than humans at translating languages by 2024, truck driving by 2027, and retail work by 2031. We decided to drop a little html in this segment for no reason whatsoever.<p>

Secured Creditor Collateral. Jeez...we got bored just typing that but secured creditor types might want to read what Brownstein Farber Schreck's Samuel Kidder and Michael Pankow have to say about a recent 9th Circuit decision.

Summer Reading List - Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America (Michael Ruhlman)

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There's been an overwhelming amount of activity lately in the grocery space with Central Grocers and Marsh Supermarkets the latest BK victims. This books provides an interesting look at the business with some interesting historical background and eating advice. Get it here.

What the Pros Say (Week of 5/21/17)

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Puerto Rico. Jim Millstein (video) who, after three years of working on this morass, opines on the Article III election and what he sees happening now that the Commonwealth has filed for bankruptcy. We love how he notes that the "relative priorities are so uncertain," a fact that didn't stop heaps of hedge funds from allocating portfolio space to these securities. The WSJ almost seems to take pleasure in the fact that the result is so opaque (and its almost as if Milstein wrote the opinion piece himself). Love this: municipal debt is "not without risk." I'm sure that makes a lot of triple-tax-exempt-seeking grandmas and grandpas feel great. Meanwhile, Mark Brodsky of Aurelius Capital Management takes shots at the oversight board.

Third Party Releases. We love this topic. Here, Edward Wu from Baker McKenzie LLP provides a summary of recent caselaw that "seems to have received little attention."

What the Pros Say (Week of 5/14/17)

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363 Sales. Sheon Karol of The DAK Group provides a summary of the Violin Memory sale process and offers tips on promoting optionality in a sales process. 

Amazon. Now this is a brilliant piece of marketing. The BESPOKE Investment Group has created a "Death by Amazon index which purports to show the publicly-traded direct retailers (who rely on third party brands) most at risk from Amazon.

Dodd-Frank. More criticism of the Trump administration's decision to take a look at the liquidation authority.

Puerto Rico. Shaun Burgess of Cumberland Advisors expresses concern about the Commonwealth's general obligation bonds and constitutional pledges.

Invaluable Perspective: The Upstarts - Brad Stone

How'd we get so frikken brilliant? We read a ton. Going forward, we'll be sharing recommendations that you can stash in your pocket for the 1-2 weeks a year you actually take vacation. Our first recommendation is Brad Stone's "The Upstarts" about the rise of Airbnb and Uber. We didn't appreciate their wild histories. Obama O's? A battle in China? Travis Kalanick (referring to autonomous cars): "[C]ars are coming off the road....Our cities are going to be given back to us. Our time is going to be given back to us. And there's going to be a very, very different world in terms of how we experience our cities. We are just getting started." Get the book here.