international finance

In this episode of Flanigan’s Eco-Logic, Ted speaks with Dan Brotman, Mayor of Glendale, CA. Dan has had a career in international finance, is an educator, and an activist. He was first sworn in as a Glendale City Council Member in April 2020 and was named Mayor in April 2023. Dan aims to apply his finance experience and environmental passion to create a vibrant and prosperous community for all Glendale residents.

Ted and Dan discuss his background, growing up in Philadelphia, traveling far and wide to places like Syria and Jordan after graduating high school, which sparked his interest in international development. He then attended Brown University and studied overseas in Taiwan to study Chinese.

After earning a Masters in Economics at Johns Hopkins University, Dan spent over 20 years in the field as an economist at the Federal Reserve and in various finance roles at Cisco Systems. He lived in Asia for 18 of those years, starting off in Hong Kong, then Singapore, and then in Shanghai. In 2015, Dan moved to Glendale to share his passion for economics as a professor at Glendale College. 

Alongside his academic endeavors, Dan co-founded the Glendale Environmental Coalition to push for a greater focus on sustainability. He and Ted discuss the Grayson Power Plant debate, and how the utility went from the initial proposal of 260 MW to less than 60 MW with engines that can only be operated 15 percent of the time, a huge accomplishment under his leadership!

In this episode, Michael Darko, Founder and CEO of Farrington Jets takes the private jet industry to new heights merging his skillsets in international finance with a deep-rooted passion for aviation. Enjoy a touch of humor on British slang and join the conversation as Michael shares his unique success story from being raised in the UK to Ghanian parents through to his journey of building an empire of VIP clientele. Not to be missed!

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Discover the Mod Pod with Fukunaga podcast, where Vanessa Fukunaga, a prominent female entrepreneur, engages global leaders in entertaining discussions about conquering the luxury market and driving positive change across various industries. From real estate to fashion, technology to health, these conversations explore every facet of the business world. Join us to celebrate the strength of the luxury market and gain valuable insights from the movers and shakers who are changing the rules of the game.

Blockchains and cryptocurrencies went into a spectacular meltdown in 2022. Professor Andreas Park — an expert of finance innovation at the University of Toronto — says that despite the ill tidings, businesses should keep an eye on the space...or risk missing out on a game-changing technology. 

Show notes: 

[0:00] “So I think there's a disconnect between what people are building on the blockchain and what the use cases are. There's a lot of beautiful ideas of how to streamline existing blockchain operations, how they can have some gimmicky trading tools and so on and so forth, but thinking about what business case you can solve and what value you bring to customers is a much harder problem.”

[1:08] A short journey through the recent history of cryptocurrency and blockchain. 

[2:11] What is a blockchain? What is a cryptocurrency? What is a token? And how do they work together? 

[3:17] Why Bitcoin is like Beanie Babies.

[4:16] A breakdown of utility tokens, stablecoins, asset tokens, futures and derivatives tokens, and governance tokens. 

[7:10] Crypto’s first boom/bust/boom cycle.

[8:03] The current Crypto winter, and how it compares to the 2000s dot.com bubble bust. 

[9:30] Is Cryptocurrency a Ponzi scheme? 

[10:24] To solve the current crisis, cryptocurrency needs to be more user friendly… 

[11:25] …and some regulatory support.

[12:07] But not all is lost. The dot.com bust paid dividends for some companies. Crypto and blockchain might follow the same path. 

[13:00] Crypto and blockchain is more than just a currency to be traded and sold. So what businesses should keep an eye on this space?

[14:38] “The reality is that a blockchain is a very useful piece of technology for borderless digital transfers of value. I cannot see a world in which just is not used, and this is not useful.”

Benn Steil of the Council on Foreign Relations and author of The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about Bretton Woods, the conference that resulted in the IMF, the World Bank, and the post-war international monetary system. Topics discussed include America and Britain's conflicting interests during and after World War II, the relative instability of the post-war system, and the personalities and egos of the individuals at Bretton Woods, including John Maynard Keynes and Harry Dexter White.