Managing Director at Briarcliff Capital
Contributor's Links: Briarcliff Capital Digital Casserole
I eat Big Data for breakfast. Half artist and half analyst, I’m an interpreter bringing creative and quantitative to pattern recognition and predictive analytics. Currently Managing Director at Briarcliff Capital, an agile research and consulting firm leveraging Big Data ...more

ALL CONTRIBUTIONS

Top 27 Excuses For Horrible Q1 Economic Performance
First quarter economic performance will be bad. Every. Single. Year. With the market already blaming the "Blizzard in Boston" and a "Polar Vortex," I figured they've now run out of excuses. This list should cover them for the next 27 years.
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Culture Wars: ECB Kicks Greek Yogurt Out Of EU
What should a Grecian earn? ECB leadership is removing Greek yogurt from EUpermarkets citing "Cultural differences," and insisting the Grecian formula embrace the physically and fiscally rigorous all-liquid EuroZone Diet. (Satire)
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Ruby Tuesday: The Stupid Simple Reason Chipotle Keeps Eating Their Lunch
Forget the Ingredients, It's the Economy, Stupid!
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The Sound Of Money: The Musical! (Humor)
The Street is alive, with the sound of money. With trades they have made, for a thousand years!
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The Dirtiest Word In Startups
Personal startup experience, and a warning to aspiring entrepreneurs and those who fund them.
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A Biblical Explanation For The Wall Street Occupation
While many people can’t articulate it, the organic groundswell of this protest movement can be traced to a universal sense that a great injustice has been done to “the 99%” since the recent financial collapse.
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Comments

Latest Comments
Q1 GDP Crashes To 0.6%: Latest Atlanta Fed Estimate
7 years ago

Thanks Tyler Durden! I've been waiting for this day since Halloween to re-post "Top 27 Excuses for Horrible Q1 Economic Performance" www.talkmarkets.com/.../top-27-excuses-for-horrible-q1-economic-performance

Markets At Risk As "Tepid, Uninspiring" G20 Proves Investor Hopes Were "Pure Fantasy"
7 years ago

Good article but GREAT picture - worthy of its own meme, and begging for subtitles of what Janet Yellen is thinking. I'll get us started... "It's Middle School all over again."

STEManifesto: Want To Fix Education And STEM Skills Gap? Give Up!
8 years ago

John: Thanks for adding your insightful perspective to this admittedly complex topic. You touch on some nuances which represent just how challenging this conversation can be. However, it is at times like this that the winning arguments stand - not on feelings - but on facts like these:

"According to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economics and Statistics Administration, growth in STEM jobs was three times greater than that of non-STEM jobs over the past decade. 71 percent of all jobs in the United States will require STEM skills by 2018 and, today, there is one unemployed STEM worker for every two STEM job openings."

So, when 71% of ALL jobs in the U.S. will require STEM skills within 3 years, it doesn't take a mathematician to figure out where our educational priorities should be. My position is that we focus on tackling this big "solvable" problem first, and then take aim at the smaller - yet very real - issues you mention. Who knows, if we do it right, maybe STEM grads will perfect a robot to brew those beverages for you!

Robots About To Take Away 18 Million German Jobs, 59 Percent Of Germany's Work Force?
8 years ago

Great research and a timely article. In my 2012 book "Specialist Nation: A Survival Guide for America," I discuss the impact of robots, and introduce the concept of the "Productivity Dividend" - concluding that whether machines are viewed as "good" or "bad" depends on how the world invests the millions of suddenly available human resources.

In this article: EWG
How The New Flexible Economy Is Making Workers’ Lives Hell
8 years ago

Robert: Another brilliant insightful "hidden in plain sight" article. I've often grappled with the notion of juxtaposing the American consumers' 30-year mortgage with a flexible work environment which doesn't even provide 30 minutes of certainty. And you wonder why home ownership rates have cratered...

The Volatility / Quantitative Easing Dance Of Doom
8 years ago

Excellent piece of word art! Elegant, insightful, and riddled with relevant metaphorical references from the Torah to the Titanic. Great mix of style and substance, and the spectacle that is financial theater.

In this article: FXE, UUP, JPM, GREK
Culture Wars: ECB Kicks Greek Yogurt Out Of EU
8 years ago

Thanks Farah. I guess I've got a word with ways...

In this article: GREK
Ruby Tuesday: The Stupid Simple Reason Chipotle Keeps Eating Their Lunch
8 years ago

Wendell: Thanks for your feedback, and yes, I have purposely "vastly oversimplified" this equation - that was my intent, starting with the title "..Super Simple Reason..." Intelligent investors often over-think or over-look the obvious, namely that Americans will continue to act in their own best interest and continue to seek out the best of both worlds (price AND product) - and currently Chipotle is giving it to them. Yes, Chipotle does offer sit-down options, but their meteoric rise shows that consumers place a higher value on "being their own waiter" and tip themselves - rather than put that 15-25% tip in someone else's pocket. Best, Doug

In this article: CMG, RT
Ruby Tuesday: The Stupid Simple Reason Chipotle Keeps Eating Their Lunch
8 years ago

Thanks Ryan. Like I always say, "Don't listen to what consumers say, listen to what they DO." Wallets don't lie. Best, Doug

In this article: CMG, RT
The Dirtiest Word In Startups
8 years ago

Iqbal - I 100% agree! The ideal scenario seems to be either start a firm on college (as mentioned in the article) or moonlight (while keeping your day job) until you have a proven revenue model. Thanks, Doug

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STOCKS I FOLLOW

DIA SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average
GS Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
IVV iShares S&P 500 Index Fund
MCO Moody's Corporation
MHFI McGraw Hill Financial, Inc.
QQQ PowerShares QQQ Trust Series 1
SPY SPDR S&P 500

TWEETS

PERSONAL BLOG

Latest Posts
Sears FINAL Earnings Call Rehearsal – SECRET TRANSCRIPTS LEAKED!
WARNING: Sears NEXT earnings call will be their LAST! Enclosed are the leaked SECRET TRANSCRIPTS from the earnings call rehearsal one week before they pull the plug on this American icon.
STEManifesto: Want To Fix Education And STEM Skills Gap? Give Up!
America's educational system is toast. Here's my 12-Step Program for overcoming academic addiction by emphasizing a STEM philosophy to better connect "Higher Education with Hire Education." Let the intervention begin...

Work Experience

Managing Director
Briarcliff Capital
February 2011 - Present (12 years 7 months)
Briarcliff Capital is an agile research and consulting firm leveraging Big Data expertise within technology, financial, and economic domains to uncover discrete patterns and manufacture the break-through ideas that change individuals, institutions, and industries. Current responsibilities include serving as head strategist, industry research lead, and principal-level client liaison for managing projects - assuring timely completion of milestones and compliance with contract deliverables.
Chief Content Officer | CCO
DemingHill, Inc.
July 2010 - March 2012 (1 year 9 months)
Lead executive directing enterprise-wide content, brand development, and resulting strategic planning initiatives for corporate social media consulting firm DemingHill. Rewrote business plan, authored new website content, repositioned online/offline strategy documents, and composed supporting marketing collateral as part of a complete corporate rebranding initiative.

Education

Florida Institute of Technology
MBA
1993 / 1996
Economics
The King's College
B.S.
1986 / 1990
Economics
Georgetown University
Summer Program
1989 / 1989
The Fund for American Studies Engalitcheff Institute on Comparative Political and Economic Systems, Summer Program

Publications

Specialist Nation - A Survival Guide for America
Doug O'Bryon
Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
05/04/2013

In his fourth ”" and most ambitious ”" book to date, cultural anthropologist and economist Douglas O’Bryon pulls no punches as he pulls back the curtain on offensive coordinators, admissions counselors, Human Resource managers, and even the Harvard Business Review, in an ambitious, impassioned charge to protect America’s future by embracing a national brand message and accelerating our transition from generalists to specialists.

Leveraging the metaphor of the Olympic Decathlete, his book “Specialist Nation: A Survival Guide for America” confronts entrenched academic dogma, elite athletic programs, misguided economic theory, and countless years of human history “From Peking Man to Vitruvian Man to Pac-Man,” before unveiling a road-map for positioning the U.S. to successfully compete in the global marketplace through the strategic reinvestment of what he’s coined our “Productivity Dividend.”

Digital Casserole
Doug O'Bryon
Doug O'Bryon

Douglas O’Bryon's sanguine "Soundbite Laureate" pen name and moniker paints a poetic self-portrait of this adult prodigy, who enjoys nothing more than pitting man versus metaphor in a continuing fight for justice from his vantage point high above Strongsville’s suburban Serengeti. Author and artist,

bodybuilder and businessman, entrepreneur and everyman, soccer Dad and MBA grad, he is a realist, idealist, and surrealist, who considers his job done when he has blended high tech with high touch into an easy to swallow Digital Casserole, which is, ironically, also the name of his blog. He is currently working his new novel, a sequel to The Titanic.