@RobertMSterling Moral agency is what makes us human. A death penalty acknowledges that a criminal is a human. It is better to be treated as a human and die for it, than to be treated as an animal and live.
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Jonathan Slonim
4.3K posts
Jonathan Slonim
@JonathanSlonim
Small manufacturing PE. Sometimes CFO. Creating value for LPs and employees. I'm married to an economist and I love history so my tweets sometimes get strange.
New York, NY شامل ہوئے Temmuz 2011
375 فالونگ1.5K فالوورز
I used to believe this.
Then I sat on jury duty for a guy who raped and strangled a 7-year-old girl.
He was a repeat offender. He had already gone to prison for a similar crime.
I now no longer believe the death penalty is inconsistent with a pro-life worldview.
Kristan Hawkins@KristanHawkins
The death penalty is inconsistent with a pro-life worldview.
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So far today I've learned how to download python, and now I'm trying to make bots that will rule the world.
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@SeanODowd15 @BigJohn043 Profit sharing bonus is usually successful if it’s implemented on an upswing. Employees learn to care about company performance because they see how it affects their paycheck.
I have no idea how an ESOP is supposed to work
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@BigJohn043 Interesting! Is that for pure play ESOP, profit sharing bonuses, or all of the above?
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Are there any credible examples where an employee equity ownership program backfires?
Almost every anecdote I remember was a smashing success
Will Schryver@Will_Schryver
How can Private Equity make money buying companies for 16x - 18x? KKR paid a premium EBITDA multiple in a preemptive bid and made 10x their money Here’s how the PE firm did it: KKR acquired C.H.I. Overhead Doors in 2015 for $685 million, ~13x EBITDA 2015 CHI Financials: $290 million revenue $61 million EBITDA (21% margin) Over the next 7 years, KKR more than doubled revenue organically, expanded EBITDA margin, and grew EBITDA nearly 4x 2022 CHI Financials: $700 million+ revenue $229 million EBITDA (30%+ margin) KKR sold C.H.I. Overhead Doors in 2022 for $3 billion, ~13x EBITDA KKR generated ~10x MOIC over a ~7 year hold period, one of highest returns on an investment for the firm in 30 years As part of the sale, hourly employees on average received $175,000, with the most tenured employees earning $800,000 The employee payout was due to KKR’s employee-ownership program the firm rolled out to its portfolio companies The operational performance, combined with the employee-ownership program (which KKR credits for the outperformance), drove the outsized returns
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I went to a public high school. I was the only one of 3,000 kids who wore a Kipah. I had a swastika sharpied on my locker and called all names imaginable, but everyone messed with everyone. It was high school. Once, Tyrell, twice my size swatted my Kipah off my head. I ran at him and punched him in the face.
He beat the absolute tar out of me.
But the next day, he passed me in the hall and yelled to his friend group, “don’t f** with this little Jew Ni**a, he a tough little ni**a”.
From then on Tyrell and I got along just fine.
Moshe Schwartz@YWNReporter
Jewish billionaire Robert Kraft's Blue Square Alliance has unveiled an ad targeting Jew-hatred that will be aired during the Superbowl this upcoming weekend.
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I am convinced that anytime I feel low energy or emotionally tired, there is something difficult I am procrastinating. Sometimes it is just a call to an obnoxious lawyer or dealing with a payroll processor. The procrastination leaches energy until I do the task.
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@Will_Schryver PE frequently fails to integrate, because they don't know enough about day-to-day operations to realize the importance.
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Private Equity doesn’t always get it right.
HVAC, Plumbing, & Electrical platform is on its 3rd CEO in 2 years, struggling, and saddled with debt.
Here’s how it started
PE Platform #1:
- Executed a rapid buy & build strategy rolling up nearly 10 companies
- Bought companies with all cash, no debt (Good!)
- Zero integration given the speed of M&A transactions (not good)
PE Platform #2:
- Acquired a few large companies but completely spread out across the country (not great)
- Bought companies with mostly debt, as little equity as possible (not good)
- Zero integration (also not good)
Platforms #1 and #2 merge figuring 1+1 =3 with synergies and reduced leverage
NewCo platform struggles to execute integration plan
CEO #1 leaves, CEO #2 steps in, and confidence is restored
NewCo continues to struggle as individual brand’s operations decline and HVAC partners leave
EBITDA declines, leverage creeps up
CEO #2 is fired
Now an Operating Partner from one of the PE firms steps in as CEO #3
Sometimes the roll up strategy that expects to 3x everyone’s investment and deliver that 25% IRR looks good in a spreadsheet but difficult to execute
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Today I learned that in 3rd grade an opinion is a "feeling you have about something you like or dislike."
Feelings and thoughts/ideas are not the same thing. Opinions are thoughts.
I feel very strongly about this. ;)
For the record I generally like my 3rd grader's teacher.
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@STLChrisH OSHA meets appropriately relaxed parenting. Which wins?
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I remember being 8 years old and climbing through my dad’s warehouse when it was a 8x15 foot room.
I thought it was HUGE.
My kids will be spoiled…
They may not find their way out of this playground.
Chris Hoffmann@STLChrisH
Setup is underway at our new warehouse in STL 👌🇺🇸💯 I think this place is big enough to be our “forever home” in the region.
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@LeahLibresco @kdemontfort Our girls watched the sound of music until they were sick of it. which is too bad because it's one of my favorite movies.
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@kdemontfort I was thinking of this, but I think I want to do one movie pitting our heroes against the Nazis (who I will have to explain) at a time, and I’m starting with Sound of Music
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We are... ordering some more DVDs for the 1-3 snow days we expect.
Our kids are 6, 4, and 1.5 and our big girls have loved:
-Singing in the Rain
-Cinderella (with Brandy)
-Muppet [Christmas Carol / Treasure Island / Great Caper]
-The Court Jester
-Les Mis
Suggestions?
Capital Weather Gang@capitalweather
❄️So… what are the chances we really get hammered? This map comes from the European modeling system, which runs the storm scenario 50 different ways. Here’s what it shows right now: * In the D.C. area, about 30–40% of the simulations produce at least 12 inches of snow * The odds of a foot or more are even higher just south of D.C. That’s a meaningful signal for something potentially pretty memorable between Saturday night and Monday morning. ⚠️ Important caveat: These are just probabilities and, with the storm still several days away, these numbers can and will change as the storm track and timing become clearer. But this gives you a sense of why we’re taking this setup seriously as of Tuesday night.
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@iAnonPatriot If you have this much energy after a day of skiing, you didn't ski long enough.
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We are witnessing the end of an era for ski resorts.
Will soon to turn into Carnival Cruises. 😭😭
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Has anyone booked a flight to CVG when they intended to go to CDG?
This seems like an error that must have occurred more than zero times, sort of like the time I showed up for my flight at LGA only to discover that I was flying out of JFK that day.
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@bradleybirzer I met him in line at the airport once! The guy is wrong about so much but I love him.
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@Eli_Albrecht There’s that one time we had an army of big law divorce lawyers!
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There is a great debate raging inside of me. Is it worse when sellers are represented by their cousin's divorce lawyer or an army of 15 BigLaw lawyers? Both are so bad, but I can't decide which is worse.
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@bryan_caplan I don’t think I’m an overachiever but my standards are Churchill, Washington, Carnegie, and @tylercowen
Mainly because my parents gave me a lot of books. They never pushed me to do anything specific but encouraged me when I found things I wanted to do.
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Question for over-achievers:
How hard did your parents push you to succeed?
Follow-up:
Did your parents ever actually *discourage* your pursuit of achievement by pressuring you to become more "well-rounded" or spend more time on dead-ends like sports?
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@Eli_Albrecht That might have been a John Grisham novel to be fair…
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@Eli_Albrecht I once heard “if I think about the client in the shower I bill an hour”
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I spoke to a BigLaw lawyer-friend, discussing his hours this December.
Then, he said, well, have you heard of vibe-coding? I've been Vibe-Billing; if client is nasty or project urgent, I bill accordingly.
Nuts. I wonder how many others do that. Another reason for fixed fees.
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Training Copilot to be my GL accountant right now. it's pretty cool. And it weirdly feels like talking to a real person about problems I'm having with a journal entry.
Next step: create an agent and share it with my team so they can do month end without me.
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@bryan_caplan Skewed distribution. Customer research surveys treat 9-10 as positive, 7-8 as neutral, and all else as negative (net promotor score).
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When you rate things on a 1-10 scale, do you assume a uniform distribution, a normal distribution, or what?
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@SecretCFO since "agnostic" just means "without knowledge," I think this is a more telling description than most realize.
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You’re not industry-agnostic. You’re just not good enough at any one industry yet.
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