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 310 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
Dick's Destroyed $5M in Guns and Accepted $250M Annual Sales Loss
“After Parkland in 2018, where the shooter had bought a shotgun at Dix, Ed made a decision that would cost at least two hundred and fifty million dollars annually. No more assault rifles. No firearms to anyone under 21. They destroyed five million dollars in ex…”
The World Bank Advised Against Building South Korea's Gyeongbu Expressway
“The World Bank told the Korean government the project was economically and technologically infeasible and would add little to Korea's development.”
Korean Business Leaders Paid 500 Million Won Bi-Annually to President Park
“He and other major Korean business leaders had been making regular payments to Korean presidents as a matter of routine, For decades. Under Park Chung-hee, it was roughly five hundred million won twice a year.”
Wozniak: Jobs hid thousands in Atari bonus money for Breakout design
“Woz writes, the whole thing used 45 chips, and Steve paid me half the 700 bucks he said they paid him. They were paying us based on how few chips I could do it in. Later I found out he got paid a bit more for it. Like a few thousand dollars than he said at the…”
Former Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli Resigned With $210M Severance Package
“He resigned under pressure With a two hundred and ten million dollar severance package that sparked public outrage.”
Parrish: Steve Wozniak Sold Cheap Pre-IPO Apple Shares to 40 Excluded Colleagues
“He took his own shares and sold them at a deeply discounted price to 40 colleagues. Who'd been left out after the IPO. He was giving away shares to people he felt deserved them. He called it the Woz plan.”
Parrish: Apple's Official Apple III Fix Was Dropping the Machine Onto Desks
“When customers called about system failures, technicians would tell them to lift the front of the computer three to six inches off their desk and drop it. The physical shock might reset the loose chips. The official fix for the computer worth thousands of doll…”
FedMart paying double competitor wages in 1957 resulted in lower operating costs
“The San Antonio retailers paid 50 cents an hour in 1957. Saul paid a dollar. Let's look at what happened. Employees could afford health care and dignity. Communities got stable families, not desperate workers. FedMart attracted the best people with near zero t…”
Schwab forced succession planning with an asymmetric 5 percent profit-share penalty
“Effective immediately, all manager shares dropped from 50 to 45%. If they appointed an assistant, that person got 10%. If they didn't, the company kept the extra five percent.”
Pattison fired his lowest-performing car salesperson every month without exception
“Two years later, Jimmy had developed what outsiders would call ruthless, but what he saw as a very necessary policy, crystallized in one brutal rule. Every month, whoever sold the fewest cars got fired. No exceptions. No negotiations. No second chances.”
Buffett: Henry Singleton Had the Best Capital Deployment Record in America
“Warren Buffett once said that Henry Singleton had the best operating and capital deployment record in American business, bar none.”
Vanderbilt Intentionally Crashed a Railroad's Stock to Secretly Acquire Controlling Interest
“Though initially dismissed, Vanderbilt quietly joined the Long Island Railroad Board, redirecting business away from the Stonington. Shareholders panicked at the high debt and reduced traffic. Its stock plummeted, allowing Vanderbilt and his allies, including …”
Estée Lauder countered Revlon by running an ad quoting leaked internal memos
“When Revsan's Ethira tried to challenge Clinique later on in the future, Estée authorized an ad in Women's Word Daily that quoted phrases from an upcoming campaign taken directly from his confidential internal memos.”
Parrish: Roaring Twenties tax revenues rose while debt fell despite lower tax rates
“The roaring twenties saw tax revenues remain stable or increase even as tax rates dropped, well, federal debt shrank considerably.”
Rockefeller's Fortune Tripled to Nearly One Billion Dollars After Standard Oil's Breakup
“Rockefeller owned roughly a quarter of every new company, worth about three hundred million the day the court ruled. His fortune skyrocketed to nearly nine hundred million just two years later.”
Hyundai Bought More Heavy Machinery Than Existed in All of South Korea
“Hyundai alone spent over eight million dollars to buy 1900 pieces of heavy equipment for the project. The entire nation of Korea at the time owned only 1400 such machines.”
Hyundai Built the World's Largest Shipyard in 27 Months
“Two years and three months after Chung had broken ground on an empty beach, the first stage of the shipyard was complete. It could build ships up to 700,000 tons. It was the largest shipyard on earth.”
Chung Ju-Yung Was Forced to Pay $181M in Government Back Taxes
“Chung fought back, but eventually he was forced to pay one hundred and eighty one million dollars.”
Kroc's original McDonald's deal took 1.9% royalty, paying brothers 0.5%
“Kroc would take 1.9% of gross sales from franchisees. He proposed two percent, but the brothers talked him down. Tell a franchisee two percent, they said, and he'll block. Say one and nine 10th, and it sounds like less. Out of that 1.9%, the brothers would rec…”
Ray Kroc built a competing store to bankrupt the original founders
“In fact, Ray would go on to open a McDonald's across the street from them and run them out of business.”
Parrish: Government Fees Account for 30% of New Home Prices in Canada
“I've seen reports, at least in Canada, that 30% of the price of a new home is basically government fees.”
Parrish: Clayton Homes retained riskiest loan tranches to enforce conservative underwriting
“I had dinner with Jim Clayton a few weeks ago, and he mentioned why they were so good at underwriting. They would Keep the very last payment, the most risky payments. This gave them every incentive to be very conservative with who they were lending money to.”
Parrish: Les Schwab built a $3B tire company while sharing 50% profits
“Les Schwab built a three billion dollar tire company in the mud and gravel towns of the Pacific Northwest. And he did it while charging higher prices than his competitors, and he did it while giving away half of his profits.”
Parrish: Jim Pattison has operated private conglomerate with zero partners or relatives
“He buys back all the public stock. He takes the company private again. He escapes the tyranny of the stock market, and for the last 48 years, he has run his company with the philosophy, no partners, no shareholders, no relatives.”
Parrish: Co-Pilots in Simulations Fail to Override Fatal Captain Errors
“Co-pilots get simulator training specifically teaching them to ignore foolish orders from boss pilots. From the captain. But even after this training, co-pilots in simulators will still allow the plane to crash because of some obvious error created by the chie…”
Parrish: Wozniak built a 28-chip home Pong a year before Atari
“To be the only person in the world with their own version of Pong at home, and he'd do it his way with just 28 chips. He completed this a year before Atari released their home version.”
Parrish: VisiCalc drove Apple sales from 1,000 to 10,000 units monthly
“Apple went from selling a thousand units a month to selling 10,000. Overnight, business people became 90% of their market.”
Clayton Homes ran a one-person legal department for 30 years
“For 30 years, Clayton Holmes operated with a legal department of one person, Jim himself.”
Hetty Green's Inheritance Case Was Among the First Using Statistical Evidence
“The ensuing court case became one of America's first trials to use statistical evidence.”
Hetty Green Was America's Wealthiest Woman With an Estimated $50M Fortune
“Her wealth during this period was estimated between 40 and fifty million, making her the richest woman in America and possibly the richest woman in the world.”
Hetty Green Multiplied Her Inheritance 20x After Taking Control in Her Thirties
“She basically took her inheritance after she got control of it in her late thirties, and she twenty-x'd it while all the chips in the world basically were stacked against her.”
FedEx Employees Worked Without Pay and Used Personal Cards to Fuel Planes
“Years later, when FedEx nearly died, employees would work without pay to save it. They'd use personal credit cards to fuel planes, not because they had to, but because Fred Smith had learned from Sergeant Jack how to earn that kind of loyalty.”
Fred Smith Raised a Record $91 Million in Venture Capital
“By late, he'd raised ninety-one million dollars in venture capital. More than any startup had ever raised at that point.”
Fred Smith Saved FedEx Payroll by Winning $27,000 at Vegas Blackjack
“Smith Flew to Las Vegas with the company's last 5000 dollars, and by Monday morning, he'd won 27,000 dollars at Blackjack, enough for fuel and payroll for another few weeks.”
Parrish: FedEx merged express and ground units after Smith resisted for decades
“Under new leadership, FedEx finally merged express and ground operations, something that Smith had resisted for decades.”
Parrish: John Bragg openly shares all funded blueberry research with competitors
“40 years ago, Bragg started funding research at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, and he never stopped. They study everything from pollination to fungal diseases to vegetation management and berry composition. But here's the kicker that'll surprise you. Th…”
Parrish: Oxford operates four separate bee divisions due to border bans
“Oxford has to run three completely separate bee operations. One in Nova Scotia, one in New Brunswick, one in Ontario, actually four, one in Maine.”
Parrish: Eastlink was first in North America to offer a triple-play bundle
“Eastlink became the first cable company in Canada to offer telephone service over cable. First in North America to bundle internet, phone, and TV into one package. The first to let customers add or drop channels in real time.”
Eastlink Won 85% Spectrum Coverage at Fraction of Major Telecoms' Cost
“When the government auctioned wireless spectrum in 2008, the big telecoms brought their consultants and committees. Eastlink brought a simple strategy, run mock auctions, develop fake-out tactics, and know exactly what you need. And they won licenses that cove…”
Sol Price Prohibited Below-Cost Sales and Loss Leaders at FedMart
“He makes a rule that nothing in Fedmark Can ever be sold below cost. There's no loss leaders, period.”
Katharine Graham Became the First Female Fortune 500 CEO
“That she would become the first woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company.”
The Washington Post's $40M acquisition of Kaplan eventually became worth billions
“The most per seant move came in 1984 when managers proposed buying Kaplan, a test preparation company, for forty million dollars. Within two decades, Kaplan's revenues would surpass those, the newspapers, and become the company's largest profit center. That ca…”
Les Schwab was the first major US tire dealer branded under his own name
“With that simple instruction, Les became the first major tire dealer in America to build his business around his own name instead of a manufacturer's brand.”
Jimmy Pattison maintains 100 percent ownership of his $16 billion conglomerate
“What is remarkable is that Jim Pattison owns 100% of this.”
Wintour's HG redesign caused subscription cancellations needing a dedicated hotline
“Subscription cancellations require a dedicated phone line.”
Anna Wintour pioneered fashion affiliate marketing with Neiman Marcus
“Anna negotiated a deal where Condé Nast got a cut of all clothing purchases driven by the Vogue website, essentially inventing fashion e-commerce affiliate marketing.”
Anna Wintour cultivated loyalty by aiding unknown creatives
“She helped designer John Galliano get his career back on track. She gave countless people who didn't have a name at the time, photographers and assistants a shot.”
Manufacturing complexity blocked competitors from reverse-engineering Intel's 1103 DRAM
“The complexity of manufacturing the 11 oh three made it nearly impossible for competitors to reverse engineer, giving Intel a multi-year advantage in the market. In effect, complicated manufacturing became their core skill.”