The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 65 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Parrish: Apple Lost Over $1 Billion on Apple III, Subsidized by Apple II
“In today's money, they'd lost at least a billion dollars on the Apple III, all of it subsidized by the Apple II's success.”
Les Schwab store managers out-earned most 1970s corporate executives
“By the mid-nineteen seventies, some of the store managers were making over a 100,000 dollars annually, more than most corporate executives in the 19 seventies.”
Hyundai Earned Top Credit Ratings by Finishing Projects Despite Massive Losses
“When the Ministry of the Interior assigned credit scores to the country's construction firms after the war, Hyundai's was the highest in Korea. Not because they had made money, they had lost a fortune. They got the highest score specifically because they had f…”
Vietnam War Work Provided Nearly 20% of South Korea's 1967 Foreign Exchange
“23,000 Korean workers in total. Their earnings accounted for 10% of Korea's entire foreign exchange in 1966, And nearly 20% in 1967. After five years of work in Vietnam, more than six hundred and sixty million dollars in foreign currency had been flowed back i…”
Hyundai Won a Contract Worth Half of South Korea's Entire Annual Budget
“At nine hundred and thirty-one million dollars, it was roughly half the Korean government's entire annual budget. It was the single largest construction contract ever awarded to any company in the history of the world.”
Hyundai Earned $2B From Foreign Construction Projects in 1979 Alone
“Hyundai earned two billion dollars in gross income from foreign construction projects in 1979 alone. It was now the fourth largest construction company in the world. Revenue had grown over a hundredfold in five years.”
Parrish: Henry Singleton repurchased 90% of Teledyne shares over 12 years
“Over the next 12 years, he bought back 90% of Teledyne shares. The result earnings per share exploded a 311% increase in just five years.”
Jim Clayton: Good customer service solves 90% of all legal problems
“This kind of reminds me of Jim Clayton, who said you can solve 90% of all legal problems with good customer service.”
Parrish: Pavlov found any dog breaks under stress with zero exceptions
“One, he could predict which dogs would break down easily, and which would be harder to break. Two, the dogs that were hardest to break were also the hardest to fix afterward. Three, any dog could be broken with enough stress. There were no exceptions. Four, he…”
Wozniak reduced standard floppy controller design from 22 chips to two
“Of the 22 chips in the standard controller, only two were actually needed.”
Parrish: VisiCalc initially ran exclusively on the Apple II by accident
“VisiCalc could only run on the Apple II. And this wasn't because of some brilliant strategy. It was completely accidental. The Apple II just happened to be the only computer with everything VisiCalc needed. Enough RAM to hold the spreadsheet, a proper keyboard…”
Parrish: FedEx reached $1 billion revenue within 10 years without acquisitions
“By 1979, Federal Express hit one billion dollars in revenue. The first American company to reach that milestone in under 10 years at that point without any acquisitions.”
Payroll and benefits account for 80% of typical retail operating costs
“Because payroll and benefits represent approximately 80% of a retailer's cost of operations, pricing advantage follows labor productivity.”
Teen Vogue traffic surged to 12M and print subscribers tripled
“Teen Vogue's traffic exploded from two million to twelve million. Print subscribers tripled.”
Teledyne Repurchased Over 90% of Its Outstanding Shares Over 12 Years
“In an era when virtually no companies bought back shares, Teledyne would conduct eight major share repurchases over the next 12 years, reducing the number of shares outstanding by more than 90%.”
Singleton Repurchased 8.6 Million Teledyne Shares at $200 in Final Buyback
“The same year, Singleton conducted his eighth and final major stock buyback, acquiring 8.6 million shares at 200 dollars per share, approximately 30 dollars above the market price. This reduced Teledyne's outstanding shares to just over twenty million.”
Vanderbilt's $11M fortune in 1860 likely made him America's richest citizen
“His estimated wealth of around eleven million likely made him America's richest private citizen.”
The Canadian government told Eaton's it was too profitable
“They made so much money that the government told them that they were too profitable.”
Rockefeller Relentlessly Audited Eight-Dollar Discrepancies Despite Earning Millions Annually
“Decades later, as an old man with yearly income well past three million dollars, or more than fifty million dollars today, Rockefeller caught an error of 10 dollars and eight cents in a railroad's payment to him. He had his secretary write a letter asking for …”
Standard Oil Secretly Acquired 22 of 26 Cleveland Refineries in Four Weeks
“In four weeks, between mid-February and mid-March, 1872, Standard Oil bought out 22 of Cleveland's 26 refineries.”
Parrish: Standard Oil refined 90% of US oil by late 1874
“Fully nine of 10 barrels of oil refined in the United States was now passing through Standard Oil.”
Gasoline outsold kerosene for the first time in 1910
“Just a year earlier, in 1910, gasoline, once near a worthless byproduct routinely dumped into rivers, had outsold kerosene for the very first time.”
Parrish: Rockefeller Jr. distributed over $1B after leaving Standard Oil in 1910
“In 1910, Junior made his decision and resigned from the board of Standard Oil and stepped away from the business side for good. His real life's work would be the other machine, the giving one. Over the next half century, he moved more than a billion dollars of…”
Average Korean Heights Progressively Declined Between the 1920s and 1950s
“Historians later measured Korean heights from the 19 twenties to the 19 fifties. The average Korean kept Getting shorter, year after year, a little smaller than before.”
Hyundai's Founder Financed His Escape by Stealing His Father's Cow
“To finance it, Chung stole one of his father's cows, sold it for 70 won, and bought a train ticket to Seoul.”
Hyundai Built 13 Han River Bridges, Including Korea's First Suspension Bridge
“They would go on to build 13 bridges across the Han River alone, including Korea's first suspension bridge and its first cable-stayed bridge.”
The Gyeongbu Expressway Cut Seoul-to-Busan Travel From 15 Hours to 4 Hours
“Before the highway, the train ride from Seoul to Busan took 15 hours. The expressway cut it to four. In his first year, 3.7 million vehicles used it.”
The Hyundai Excel Was America's Number One Imported Car in 1986
“In 1987, sales hit 264,000 units. The Excel was rated the number one imported car in America both years. No car company in history had ever achieved that kind of initial success in the American market.”
Hyundai Finished the Jubail Harbor Project Ten Months Ahead of Schedule
“In February of 1979, the Jabail Harbor was officially opened. Hyundai had finished 10 months ahead of schedule.”
Chung Ju-Yung Marched His Sons 2.5 Miles to Work in Silence
“And then all of them would walk two and a half miles to Hyundai headquarters in downtown Seoul in silence. There was no conversation. There was no small talk. Just a formation of men moving through the city toward the company they all worked for. Chung did thi…”
Ken Langone Raised Early Home Depot Capital From 40 Investors at $25,000
“Ken Langone went to work, convincing 40 investors, many of whom who'd made money on Handy Dan's stock to put up 25,000 dollars each.”
Valentine dismissed Apple founders but connected them with Markkula
“Don Valentine at Sequoia dismissed them, but did connect them with Mike Marcula, 30 years old and already retired from Intel.”
Parrish: Apple II Became First Computer to Sell One Million Units by 1983
“By 1983, the Apple II would become the first computer to sell a million units.”
Jim and Joe Clayton repaid 100% of their bankruptcy debts
“Jim and Joe made a vow. They would pay back not just the 41 cents on the dollar required by bankruptcy, but 100 cents on the dollar to every single creditor. It took five years, but they paid everyone back in full.”
Andrew Carnegie built most of his wealth investing through the 1870s recession
“If you look at Carnegie, he made most of his money during the recession of the 18 seventies when everybody else stopped building steel plants and he kept going. He bought out his partners. He positioned himself to take advantage of the ensuing recovery”
Hetty Green Issued a Record $1.8M Mortgage on NYC's Stewart Building
“She offered them 1.8 million for five years, demanding the original steward building as security and taking her six percent interest in advance. At the time, it was the largest mortgage ever given on a single New York property.”
Ed Stack Secured 51% Voting Control in Dick's Sporting Goods Buyout
“Larry Shore, the young lawyer structuring the deal, suggested a two-class stock arrangement. Ed would get 51% of the voting shares. Ed would have control. His siblings would get equal equity stakes, but not have control over operations.”
Parrish: Fred Smith Led Yale DKE Alongside Bush and Kerry
“The fraternity he was president of was Delta Kappa Epsilon alongside future president George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry. He was tapped for Skull and Bones, one of only 15 seniors selected.”
Fred Smith commissioned feasibility studies to use cargo blimps for FedEx
“At one point, he seriously investigated using giant cargo blimps. His executives thought he was joking, but he commissioned actual studies. The economics kind of made sense. They could carry 250 tons at about a hundred miles an hour using cheap natural gas.”
FedEx Acquired Flying Tigers for $880 Million in 1988
“He offered 20 dollars and 88 cents a share, eight hundred and eighty million dollars total, six dollars above the market price.”
Parrish: Over 700 Bragg harvesters were sold unpatented across the blueberry industry
“They've sold over 700 of these harvesters now, about a hundred to Oxford, and the rest to competitors and other growers. But here's what separates John Bragg from ordinary businessmen. He didn't patent this invention.”
Les Schwab added 60 member dealers and $50M in sales in five years
“Within five years, 60 independent dealers had joined. They added fifty million in annual sales without Les investing a dollar in real estate or inventory.”
Les Schwab crossed $1 billion in sales with 400 stores by 2000
“From a leaky shed in Prineville to over 400 stores across seven states, all maintaining the culture he'd established in the 19 fifties. By 2000, annual sales crossed one billion dollars”
Jimmy Pattison won a Saturday Evening Post sales contest against grown men
“He even won a contest for the highest sales of the Saturday Evening Post, competing against grown men.”
Jimmy Pattison cut head office staff by 25% before 1980s recession
“He was also relentlessly focused on cutting costs in the early eighties as they were heading into the recession. And before it head, even before it hit, he imposed belt tightening across the company, personally cut head office staff by 25%. He slashed travel a…”
Anna Wintour cut Vogue's 120-person staff to 90 within three days
“While Mirabella finished her final two weeks, Anna summoned all 120 Vogue staff to her HG office. One by one. Brief interviews. Three days later, 90 people remained.”