Tuesday Reads
By Barry Ritholtz - August 31st, 2010, 4:00PM
Quite a few interesting reads on my browser today:
• Is the Death of equities exaggerated? (Marketwatch) Investors in U.S. seem to be shunning stock mutual-fund managers, not stocks
• Spreading Hayek, Spurning Keynes (WSJ)
• Top 50 US banks and thrifts by assets (SNL)
• 10 Investment Mistakes to Avoid (Bucks)
• Key gauge says stocks are dirt cheap now (AP News)
• New York Rebounds From Slump, but Unevenly (NYT)
• Absurd China Rumors, Resolved (DJMT)
• Westerners vs. the World: We are the WEIRD ones (National Post)
• Blockbuster tells Hollywood studios it’s preparing for mid-September bankrupt (Company Town)
• Call phones from Gmail (Google Blog)
• Ray Bradbury loses his shit (LA Times)
• Top 10 Lost Technologies (Top Tenz)
Whats on your browser ?
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August 31st, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Timelapse: Asteroid discoveries in our solar system from 1980 to 2010.
Lot of junk out there:
http://www.wimp.com/solarsystem/
The Stealth Greek of Options Trading: Vega
While often the lesser known and least respected of the Greeks, traders must use vega as a tool to their advantage.
http://tinyurl.com/3x4rznb
Some folks might like vega but personally, I’m crazy ’bout a Mercury
August 31st, 2010 at 4:33 pm
It’s all too predictable to see the Journal declaring a “revival” of the Austrian school. Really? Any evidence for that? And even more predictable that the Austrian schooler that is profiled just happens to be at the Mercatus Center. Since the New Yorker’s recemt article, very little of which seems to have been disputed, shouldn’t we dispense with the notion that such “scholars” are real truth seekers?
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=all
August 31st, 2010 at 4:37 pm
A follow up to the Ray Bradbury
http://www.vido1.com/AVVRnNWpmUUR1MopUTXVVP_fuck-me-ray-bradbury
August 31st, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Harvard’s Linda Bilnes says that Iraq War costs won’t peak for 30 – 40 year – http://bit.ly/bcoK9n
Today in stupid – http://bit.ly/bK1XN3
Hitchens on Beck’s rally – http://www.slate.com/id/2265515/
August 31st, 2010 at 4:55 pm
“I’m not talking about Medicare, I’m Talking about Socialized Medicine”
CLASSIC
Maxine Udall is enlightened and discouraged by a conversation with an elderly relative:
…[T]he spectre of “socialized medicine” prevents us moving to single payer, where the incentives for prudent life cycle management of risk across all age and income groups would be better aligned. Why, when we already have what is in effect single payer for the elderly and the poor, do some believe that single payer is “socialized medicine” and why do they fear it so?
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2010/08/im-not-talking-about-medicare-im-talking-about-socialized-medicine.html
August 31st, 2010 at 5:09 pm
I wish you wouldn’t give us links to things we can’t read unless we subscribe to some rag…….I wouldn’t give the WSJ a penney for anything they have to say……
~~~
BR: 1. The WSJ is an obligation/occupational hazard of working in finance. No getting away from it.
2. You can read it for free via Refer Spoofing: Read The Wall Street Journal For Free
August 31st, 2010 at 5:26 pm
moodys?
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-31/sec-says-it-declined-to-sue-moody-s-for-fraud-over-cdo-ratings.html
August 31st, 2010 at 6:04 pm
BR: Regarding: “New York Rebounds From Slump, but Unevenly (NYT)”
——-
What’s interesting from this article as they NYT’s anecdotally selects personal stories of those who seem to be immigrants. It’s a nicely placed article in that the Right Wing can think that it’s a good thing these “immigrants” are losing their jobs.
But, since we Americans are ALL IMMIGRANTS …shouldn’t we wonder about this? Since “Immigrants” are known to “work for less or cheap” just to be here to get a “let up” for their future and children’s future…if immigrants are being laid off does this mean America will no longer be the place where the “starving masses will come, to build a better future?”
August 31st, 2010 at 6:11 pm
that top 50 bank list show that the top 4 have 6 trillion in deposits! wished they had totaled the entire list up. but it would appear that they have more than 50% of the total deposits
August 31st, 2010 at 6:16 pm
some hedge fund managers?
http://baselinescenario.com/2010/08/31/hedge-fund-blindness/
August 31st, 2010 at 6:33 pm
http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/orders/order20100831a1.pdf
August 31st, 2010 at 6:35 pm
BR: Your post: “THE TOP TEN TECHNOLOGIES THAT HAVE DISAPPEARED!
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-lost-technologies.php
———What an excellent post for those of us who might have missed this!
My Nominee for the “TOP TEN” would be the loss of the “ALEXANDRIA LIBRARY!”
This was a major loss for Historians and other civilizations hoping to learn from “reading back.”
———–
The Library of Alexandria,,Although it wasn’t a technology, the legendary Library of Alexandria warrants a place on this list, if only because its destruction meant that so much of the collected knowledge of antiquity was forever lost. The library was founded in Alexandria, Egypt in roughly 300 B.C., most likely during the reign of Ptolemy Soter. It marked the first serious attempt to gather all the known information about the outside world in one place. The size of its collection is not known (though the number has been estimated to be in the neighborhood of one million scrolls), but the library undoubtedly attracted some of the great minds of its day, among them Zenodotus and Aristophones of Byzantium, both of whom spent considerable time doing scholarly work in Alexandria. The library became so important that there is even a legend that all visitors to the city would have to surrender their books upon entering so that a copy could be made for storage in the great library.The Library of Alexandria,,Although it wasn’t a technology, the legendary Library of Alexandria warrants a place on this list, if only because its destruction meant that so much of the collected knowledge of antiquity was forever lost. The library was founded in Alexandria, Egypt in roughly 300 B.C., most likely during the reign of Ptolemy Soter. It marked the first serious attempt to gather all the known information about the outside world in one place. The size of its collection is not known (though the number has been estimated to be in the neighborhood of one million scrolls), but the library undoubtedly attracted some of the great minds of its day, among them Zenodotus and Aristophones of Byzantium, both of whom spent considerable time doing scholarly work in Alexandria. The library became so important that there is even a legend that all visitors to the city would have to surrender their books upon entering so that a copy could be made for storage in the great library.
READ MORE at this link: http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-lost-technologies.php
August 31st, 2010 at 6:42 pm
Then…there’s that “Bradbury THINGY!”
——
Ray Bradbury hates big government: ‘Our country is in need of a revolution’
The man who wrote “Fahrenheit 451,” “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” “The Martian Chronicles,” “Dandelion Wine”and “The Illustrated Man” has been called one of America’s great dreamers, but his imagination takes him to some dark places when it comes to contemporary politics. “I think our country is in need of a revolution.”
“There is too much government today. We’ve got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people and for the people.”
The native of Waukegan, Ill., has never been shy about expressing himself — he described President Clinton with a word that rhymes with “knithead” back in 2001– nor is he timid about correcting people when it comes to his own perceived legacy. Bradbury chafes, for instance, at the description of his work as science fiction — in the past he has pointed out that, to his mind, “Fahrenheit 451″is the only sci-fi book in his vast body of work — and despite his passion for more national space projects, he is not technology obsessive by any means.
“We have too many cellphones. We’ve got too many Internets. We have got to get rid of those machines. We have too many machines now.”
Bradbury wrote darkly about bookburning in “Fahrenheit 451,” but he sounds ready to use a Kindle for kindling. “I was approached three times during the last year by Internet companies wanting to put my books” on an electronic reading device, he said. “I said to Yahoo, ‘Prick up your ears and go to hell.’ ”
– Susan King
August 31st, 2010 at 6:45 pm
Sorry…left off the “credit” to the LA TIMES in my post:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/08/ray-bradbury-is-sick-of-big-government-our-country-is-in-need-of-a-revolution-.html
August 31st, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Thanks for the nod to the Austrian School article….
August 31st, 2010 at 7:11 pm
OH DEAR SPIRITS, RELIGIONS, WHATEVER….PLEASE SAVE ME from “GOOGLE PHONE!
—–
Call phones from Gmail
8/25/2010 09:40:00 AM
(Cross-posted from the Gmail Blog)
Gmail voice and video chat makes it easy to stay in touch with friends and family using your computer’s microphone and speakers. But until now, this required both people to be at their computers, signed into Gmail at the same time. Given that most of us don’t spend all day in front of our computers, we thought, “wouldn’t it be nice if you could call people directly on their phones?”
Starting today, you can call any phone right from Gmail.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/call-phones-from-gmail.html
————-
WILL WE EVER BE ABLE TO “UNPLUG?”
How many of the “Elistist Corps/Hedgies/BANKS! and those who live off them for EMPLOYMENT…really understand that AVERAGE AMERICAN WORKERS are GIVING FREE TIME..to the GOOGLE and CELL PHONE and it’s taking time away from our children, our parents, grandparents and we ARE WORKING FOR FREE as long as WE STAY CONNECTED!
THIS IS TIME from OUR LIVES that we GIVE TO THE COMPANIES WHO EMPLOY US!
We are “So Afraid”…that if we aren’t CONNECTED ALL THE TIME….we will lose our competitive EDGE!
THAT is WHAT IS WRONG…with so much of TECHNOLOGY! Much as we LOVE IT…we are ON! …ALL THE TIME!
QUALITY OF LIFE? ……a Thing of the Past…..!
But…caveat..if you tried to pry my cell phone or I-Pad, or whatever “Computer” I find to stay Connected..you would need to know that you would do it from my “dead cold hands.”
So….how can we DEAL with ALL OF THIS! ?????? It really sometimes becomes a HUGE DRAIN on FREE TIME with FAMILY & FRIENDS…and CIVIC PARTICIPATION!
Sorry for the shouting…. Just that sometimes I HATE our knew TECHNO WORLD…and VENT.
But, I’m Older…and so it’s that “Perspective” of the “Elder” thingy with me…………..
August 31st, 2010 at 7:28 pm
Yeah, i got your “economy” right here pal:
http://www.financialarmageddon.com/
August 31st, 2010 at 7:36 pm
@Andy T Says:
August 31st, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Thanks for the nod to the Austrian School article….
——–
Andy T… I read your weekly “Re-Cap” on the two “Break Off’s” from BR’s site.
Please help me with understanding of post here about FAILED Austrian Economic Theories from “Naked Capitalism” posted this a.m? I do love reading all the “traid theories,” and at one time I thought the “Austrian School” was really cool. But…I don’t think it can apply to today’s “HFT” and Manipulation of Statistics by Governments who are trying to “keep their own in power and “cover up…cover up” the best way they can to stop a REVOLUTION/BACK LASH.
As I said…I read you on the “other sites” and respect your “Elliot Wave Theory” postings which seem to be a philosophy of investing that you’ve found “works for you.”
BUT! Read this post from “Naked Capitalism” about how “Austrian School” seems to be as dominate as the FRIEDMANOMICS that brought our COUNTRY AND CITIZENS to this TERRIBLE CRISIS.
I would like to hear you rebut this article…because I know how articulate you are…and I don’t think you BULL SHIT!
——-
THIS IS JUST A SNIP…need to read the WHOLE THING…it was fascinating …and even I had some questions about it..but I’m pretty illiterate compared to all of the rest of you. But….you DO NEED us INQUISITIVES to keep Investing…so it’s good??????
——–
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/08/william-black-theoclassical-law-and-economics-makes-the-law-an-ass.html
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
William Black: Theoclassical Law and Economics Makes the Law an Ass
By William K. Black, Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One
Here are two examples that illustrate how false, but so influential and harmful these Austrian nostrums have become through teaching falsified economics to thousands of lawyers. Austrian law and economics is based on suppositions that have long been known to be false. Dickens famously had Mr. Bumble (in Oliver Twist) respond to being informed that the law supposed him to be responsible for his wife’s behavior by remarking that if the law supposed such an absurdity then “the law is a ass.” The dominant law and economics text on corporate law for years was by Easterbrook and Fischel. Judge Easterbrook is a colleague of Judge Posner on the 7th Circuit and Fischel was for a time Dean of the University of Chicago’s law school. They assert that “a rule against fraud is not an essential or even necessarily an important ingredient of securities markets” (1991: 283). Their book was written after Professor Fischel, as a consultant to three of the most notorious control frauds of the 1980s, tried out their theories in the real world – and found that they failed catastrophically. Fischel praised the worst frauds. Fischel & Easterbrook did not disclose to their readers that their theories were falsified in the real world. Note how extreme their claim was, the utter certainty of the claim, and the lack of any data supporting the claim – a claim they knew to be false. The taught students that, in the context of securities, we did not need:
1. Any laws against securities fraud
2. The FBI and the Department of Justice
3. The SEC
4. Any rules against fraud
5. Any ability to bring civil suits
Fraud is impossible because securities markets are “efficient” and act as if they were guided by an “invisible hand.” Markets cannot be efficient if there is accounting control fraud, so we know (on the basis of circular reasoning) that securities fraud cannot exist. Indeed, when Easterbrook and Fischel try to explain why the securities markets automatically exclude frauds their faith-based logic becomes even more humorous. They claim that honest securities issuers send one or more of three “signals” of honesty to guide investors to purchase their securities – and that only honest firms can send any of these three signals.
1. Hire a top tier audit firm
2. Have their CEO own a substantial amount of stock in the company
3. Cause their firm to have extreme leverage
In reality, accounting control frauds “mimic” each of these signals and each signal aids their frauds. Easterbrook and Fischel’s ideas are not merely wholly ineffective against accounting control fraud – they are outright criminogenic. That is why Fischel praised the real world accounting frauds when he was a consultant. Each of the three massive accounting control frauds that Fischel praised sent each of these three signals – and they sent them years before Easterbrook and Fischel wrote their book and made claims they had seen repeatedly falsified by Fischel’s fraudulent clients without warning their readers.
Note the continuing damage that these three law and economics dogmas about “signaling” honesty had in the current crisis. Regulators continued to treat professionals as if they were “independent” and provided expert judgments on which regulators should rely. Basel II, for example, reduced capital requirements dramatically if the rating agencies gave a high rating to a toxic mortgage derivative. Economists, criminologists, and reality had long falsified the claim but theoclassical law and economics never challenges its foundational dogmas.
Easterbrook provided a classic example of faith-based law and economics’ misplaced faith in private professionals in a decision that prompted Robert Prentice’s wonderful article: The Case of the Irrational Accountant: A Behavioral Insight into Securities Fraud Litigation (2000). The plaintiff alleged that he was the victim of a securities fraud that the outside auditor had aided. Easterbrook’s opinion stated that the plaintiff should not be allowed to engage in discovery designed to support this claim because it would be “irrational” for an audit firm to aid a securities fraud. Easterbrook’s logic is so irrational on so many different levels that it proved a treasure trove for Professor Prentice. In the interest of space, consider only four aspects of why Easterbrook’s logic fails. First, Easterbrook is the one who co-authored the textbook claiming that serious securities fraud cannot occur. That makes him someone that cannot admit that fraud exists. He certainly doesn’t want plaintiffs finding facts demonstrating fraud. Second, the same textbook claimed that only honest corporations could hire a prestigious audit firm. He premised this (long falsified) dogma on the claim that it would be irrational for an audit firm to give a clean opinion to a control fraud. If the plaintiff had been allowed discovery and demonstrated the falsity of this dogma it would falsify Easterbrook’s entire thesis. Third, theoclassical economics rests on even more fundamental dogmas – economic actors are supposed to act rationally and almost entirely to maximize their self-interest. Empirically, even economists have long known what non-economists have always known – these dogmas are often false. Why should a plaintiff not be permitted to discover evidence that accountants act irrationally? Fourth, Easterbrook assumes away reality even if we assume rational behavior. The “auditor” acts through humans called audit partners. Audit partners gain income, power, and status within the firm primarily by bringing in large clients. Accounting control frauds understand this and select audit partners that will give them clean opinions. They also put prospective audit partners in competition with each other to intensify the “Gresham’s” dynamic that turns market forces perverse and causes bad ethics to drive good ethics out of the profession. Top economists had explained why this dynamic explained why S&L accounting control frauds had consistently hired top tier audit firms and been able to get clean opinions from them despite the fact that their financial statements were fraudule
More of the read at:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/08/william-black-theoclassical-law-and-economics-makes-the-law-an-ass.html
——–
August 31st, 2010 at 9:12 pm
I strongly recommend people read anything that Drew Benson from Bloomie is writing about Argie bonds, currency and commodities-simply the BEST stuff in English on a very challenging subject. For example:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-31/peso-heads-toward-longest-losing-streak-since-peg-busted-argentina-credit.html
Good information woven into a narrative that strives to synthesize. Bloomberg should adopt the principles implicit in his reporting and adapt them to EVERY report on EM bond, currency and fiscal policy issues. Plus he chooses the most flattering photographs of Klishtina…she’s a beaut (si es que te gustan las máscaras mortuarias)
Will Argentina rework its rules on corporate bonds? Will Nestor stop being such a wall-eyed pinko commie? For answers to these mysteries and other conundrums, tune in to…
BTW, walleye, mmmm, good…go to St. Paul, Mn, find the Tavern on Grand and ask for walleye…mmm
August 31st, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Key gauge says stocks are dirt cheap now
August 31st, 2010 at 9:24 pm
@Init4good Says:
August 31st, 2010 at 4:55 pm
“I’m not talking about Medicare, I’m Talking about Socialized Medicine”
CLASSIC:
Maxine Udall is enlightened and discouraged by a conversation with an elderly relative:
…[T]he spectre of “socialized medicine” prevents us moving to single payer, where the incentives for prudent life cycle management of risk across all age and income groups would be better aligned. Why, when we already have what is in effect single payer for the elderly and the poor, do some believe that single payer is “socialized medicine” and why do they fear it so?
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2010/08/im-not-talking-about-medicare-im-talking-about-socialized-medicine.html
@Init4good Says:
August 31st, 2010 at 4:55 pm
“I’m not talking about Medicare, I’m Talking about Socialized Medicine”
CLASSIC
Maxine Udall is enlightened and discouraged by a conversation with an elderly relative:
…[T]he spectre of “socialized medicine” prevents us moving to single payer, where the incentives for prudent life cycle management of risk across all age and income groups would be better aligned. Why, when we already have what is in effect single payer for the elderly and the poor, do some believe that single payer is “socialized medicine” and why do they fear it so?
—————————–
That’s a frustrating question “Init4Good”….
and this from article you posted makes it more frustrating…what you ask….. :-(
—-
From Article:
….”I gained some insight into this recently when an elderly relative started complaining about “Obamacare” and how it would lead to “socialized medicine.” Knowing the person had heart surgery courtesy of Medicare and was receiving ongoing monitoring and care, I said, “I didn’t realize you were so unhappy with Medicare.” To which I received the reply: “I’m not talking about Medicare, I’m talking about socialized medicine.”
“How is Medicare different from socialized medicine?” I asked.
“Medicare isn’t socialized,” came the reply. “I pay for it. I pay every month and when I’ve had surgery, I’ve had to pay some of it. Medicare is like any other insurance.”
“Well,” I said, “I know you’re paying a premium for Part B and I know there are copayments and deductibles, but Medicare is a government run health insurance program.”
To which the reply was: “But I’m talking about socialized medicine. You know that whenever the government gets involved in anything, it never does a good job.”
“I had no idea you were having problems with Medicare.” said I. “I always had the impression you were pretty satisfied with it. And with the VA, too. I know you’ve used the VA for some care recently. What problems have you had with Medicare or the VA?”
“Well, none with Medicare or the VA, but I’m not talking about Medicare. I’m talking about socialized medicine.”
“So you’re happy with Medicare?”
“Yes.”
“Would you mind if your [adult] children could buy into it? Your son is unemployed. Would it be OK if he could buy into Medicare?”
“Well, sure. As long as he has to pay like I do.”
You were all wondering how someone could say, “Keep your government hands off my Medicare?” Well, there you have it. Now that I’ve told you, I’m still not sure I understand it. It was one of the most frustrating and at the same time enlightening conversations I have had in a long time. The person with whom I was conversing is intelligent, educated, and not senile.”
August 31st, 2010 at 9:40 pm
BR..RE your AMAZON “PRIME” Problem….Glitch having to do with this???? Will be interesting to see how they could compete with “Netscape.” What does Amazon have in their library that folks would want to go with them..when “Netflix” is pretty comprehensive in their offerings.
————
Yahoo Business News:
Amazon trying to offer subscription TV, movies
Amazon in talks to develop subscription TV, movie service
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Amazon.com Inc. is talking with major media companies about offering unlimited views of older TV shows and movies online, as it struggles to stay relevant to consumers flocking to Apple Inc.’s iTunes a la carte store and Netflix Inc.’s all-you-can-eat subscription plan.
Amazon has approached several companies, including Viacom Inc., Time Warner Inc., and Sony Corp., three people familiar with the matter said Tuesday. They requested anonymity because the talks are ongoing.
The talks are at an early stage and focus on offering TV shows and movies that have already been available on home video, according to one person.
Amazon intends to link the service to its Amazon Prime membership, a $79 per year plan that gives customers discounted shipping costs. But some media companies are averse to having their offerings potentially perceived as freebies, another person said.
A spokesman for Amazon, which is based in Seattle, said the company would not speculate on future business deals.
News of the talks emerged in The Wall Street Journal, a day before Apple is expected to announce a new TV offering and a revamped iTunes. An Apple spokesman also declined to comment.
Apple has also been talking with several media companies and is nearing a deal to offer recently aired TV shows from The Walt Disney Co.’s ABC and News Corp.’s Fox for 99 cents. The shows could be downloaded but would expire 48 hours after purchase. They are intended for fans who want to catch up on shows even on airplanes or other places without wireless Internet service.
Apple is also expected to cut the price of its Apple TV device. Pre-empting the move, Roku Inc., whose set-top box allows Netflix subscribers to watch older movies and TV shows, cut the prices of its basic high-definition device by $30 to $69.99 on Monday.
Many companies are trying to bolster their online offerings but media companies are being careful not to upend lucrative existing businesses, including that of selling TV shows as reruns to other channel operators or TV stations.
Time Warner in particular is trying to preserve the business of monthly cable or satellite TV subscriptions by pushing its “TV Everywhere” plan. In the plan, it gives paying subscribers of upper tier channel plans unlimited online access to the current season of shows such as TNT’s “The Closer.”
Meanwhile, Hulu, the online video service jointly owned by Disney, News Corp. and NBC Universal, kicked off a $10-a-month subscription TV plan in June. It offers episodes from the current and past seasons of many ABC, Fox and NBC shows such as “Glee,” “The Office,” and “House,” although subscribers still have to watch advertisements.
CREDIT:
AP Business Writers Rachel Metz and Michael Liedtke in San Francisco and Jessica Mintz in Seattle contributed to this report.
August 31st, 2010 at 9:49 pm
TakBak04:
Thanks for reading my work. I’ve read this entire entry from Mr. Black. I’m honored that you think I can respond to this diatribe, but I have to ‘duck’ this one.
This fellow seems to be taking ‘aim’ in several different directions and also seems to be ‘mixing up’ various schools of thought between “the law” and the actual Austrian school of economic thought. Mr. Black has a serious obsession with Easterbrook and Fischel. I don’t know these people or their works but some of the commenters on the article pointed out that they were actually from the Chicago school of economics? If that’s the case, then this guy is really spewing venom in all the wrong places if he’s trying to slam the Austrians for “all the bad things” that have ever happened.
“The dominant law and economics text on corporate law for years was by Easterbrook and Fischel. Judge Easterbrook is a colleague of Judge Posner on the 7th Circuit and Fischel was for a time Dean of the University of Chicago’s law school. They assert that “a rule against fraud is not an essential or even necessarily an important ingredient of securities markets” (1991: 283).”
I don’ t know of any Austrian economist that would suggest there should be no fraud statutes as they relate to securities markets. It’s sort of ridiculous. Now, if you asked me if I thought we needed an SEC….well, that’s a different debate. :-)
If some noteworthy Austrian has made the claim that we don’t need any fraud statutes, then I’ll just “pull a Barry” and tell you that my views are actually a ‘fusion’ of all the best parts of the various theories.
heh heh.
I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a huge “counterpoint” to that rabid essay from Mr. Black. This is one of the reasons my browser doesn’t click on Naked Capitalism much anymore–it has become more progressive/populist political crap than anything else.
My last exchange there was over some ‘hysterical’ rantings by NC on Robert Benmosche/AIG and the fact that the CEO should be grovelling at the feet of the NY AG and all government officials. When last I checked in November, Yves would have fired Benmosche immediately and publicly caned him for his insolence….
Funny stuff in retrospect.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/11/aigs-benmosche-learns-he-cant-push-uncle-sam-around-so-threatens-to-quit.html
August 31st, 2010 at 10:28 pm
And this is why we will never have real reform or bailouts for citizens.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-bailedout-banks-spent-163M-apf-3740278544.html?x=0
We need a real Howard Beale.
August 31st, 2010 at 10:29 pm
@Andy T….Thanks for your input. I do realize you maybe “meld” the theories and take what works for you.
“NC” is pretty gritty and dogged. But, she is trying to “change the system.” Maybe that makes one go a little OTT sometimes.
Anyway..you are always a good read…
August 31st, 2010 at 11:04 pm
Memo to Obama (Must Read)
“… Just as the earnings of leveraged investors like banks are starting to suffer due to zero rate policy, so too the spending by all manner of savers, from retirees to companies and not-for-profits to municipalities, is falling too. Fed Chairman Bernanke and the other members of the FOMC are killing the real economy to save the banks — but none of the benefit flowing to the banks is reaching U.S. households. In fact, the Obama Administration has been providing political cover for the Fed to conduct a massive, reverse Robin Hood scheme, moving trillions of dollars in resources from savers and consumers to the big banks and their share and bond holders …”
http://blogs.reuters.com/christopher-whalen/2010/08/31/memo-to-obama-time-to-break-the-refinance-strike-by-the-big-banks/
September 1st, 2010 at 12:10 am
TakBak, Andy, the views of *some* “free market” thinkers remind me of a couple of Eric Hoffer quotes:
- “It is the fate of every great achievement to be pounced upon by pedants and imitators who drain it of life and turn it into an orthodoxy which stifles all stirrings of originality.”
- “The Greeks invented logic but were not fooled by it.”
These quotes are not completely on point. But, they’re somewhat appropriate. Basically, some people took some simple (practically “econ 101″) ideas and then ran wild with them (“EMH”, “market will police itself”). Even though econ 101 texts warn you they make some really big assumptions (“people are rational”, “information is freely available”) in order to at least “start the discussion somewhere” and *teach*, some people seem to want to extend this market fundamentalist “logic” to the irrational world around us.
September 1st, 2010 at 1:46 am
Ray Bradbury believes that the top problem of America is nothing is being done to colonize the planets. Problem #2: Too Much Big Government.
Sigh… This is getting more and more depressing with every passing day.
I used to think that the Glenn Beck infatuation was relegated to old white hicks who are uncomfortable that there is a black President. I will be the first to admit, I was wrong. His brand of misinformation and pure lies appeals to even the brightest minds.
September 1st, 2010 at 3:41 am
“Floating in Space: The Minimalist’s Desk”
http://lifehacker.com/5626678/floating-in-space-the-minimalists-desk
Darpa’s Star Hacker Looks to WikiLeak-Proof Pentagon
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/08/darpas-star-hacker-looks-to-wikileak-proof-the-pentagon/
Also, before I emailed you yesterday, I was going to post my prediction for the Apple event today that Apple would be developing a way to take over the Hulu and/or Netflix market. Sounds like that might not have been far off.
Apple to Live Stream Press Conference — to Apple Customers Only
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/08/apple-live-stream/
“Apple late this afternoon announced plans to live stream its Wednesday music event, where many expect the company to introduce upgrades for the iPod and Apple TV. The stream will only be viewable to Apple customers.
In a press bulletin, Apple said it would be streaming its event using “Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards,” even though the viewing requires a Mac running Snow Leopard, or an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad running iOS 3.0 or higher.
Some technology observers speculate the live stream will accompany Apple’s release of a new version of iTunes capable of streaming live video and TV rentals.
Wired.com’s Gadget Lab will be live blogging the event, which commences 10 a.m. PT. Stay tuned for our coverage. Meanwhile, read our predictions of what to expect at the event.”
check out the link to the predictions.