The Big Picture - Macro Perspective on the Capital Markets, Economy, Technology, and Digital Media

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Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.

18 Responses to “10 Thursday AM Reads”

1. Mark Down Says:
   December 29th, 2011 at 8:09 am

   Ma, what’s a recession ? Wednesday, they closed Disney and 2 other parks for overcrowding!

2. Greg0658 Says:
   December 29th, 2011 at 8:25 am

   fyi – Margin Call was shot in 17 days of 2008 in NYC almost all at 1 Penn Plz or 250 W33rd St on the 47th floor .. cost about 3.5M and is $2M in the black (roughly) .. BloombergMedia filled the computer screens up all prettylike

3. drtomaso Says:
   December 29th, 2011 at 8:43 am

   That Ron Paul piece is kinda frightening. He may or may not be an antisemite, but some of the commentors defending him on that site clearly are.

4. Greg0658 Says:
   December 29th, 2011 at 8:55 am

   I did that M.Call post from memory (ie the writer/directors dvd overtalk) .. and have since done some surfwork .. try the 42nd floor and it was set in 2008 but shot in summer 2010 .. I was thinking thats a “long time in the can”

   see for more info:
   http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2011/10/post-1.html

   ps – just double checked the $#s and its in there

5. End of Corn Ethanol? | The Big Picture Says:
   December 29th, 2011 at 9:02 am

   [...] listed these two articles in the morning reads, but I am so delighted over this that I had to make sure you did not miss this: Congress has [...]

6. Moss Says:
   December 29th, 2011 at 9:03 am

   How about doing the same for the criminal bankers!

   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/8982059/US-eyes-first-BP-criminal-charges-over-Gulf-oil-spill-report.html

7. Breezy Says:
   December 29th, 2011 at 9:07 am

   RE: How Cash Has Corrupted Congress

   This article missed the very important Pay To Play requirements for members of Congress. Positions in Congressional leadership must, in essence, be purchased at very high cost. The significance of this is, representatives who have safe districts are not free to vote their own conscience.
   For example, my Congressperson, lives in a “safe” district where she could raise all she needed for reelection in small donations from people living in her district. But, she is forced to pay a large amount (in the 2008 election cycle the cost was $800,000) to hold her chief deputy whip position. Thus she is forced to go to the big money donors.
   For a full explanation see: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/04/our-polarized-and-money-driven-congress-created-over-25-years-by-republicans.html

8. acme Says:
   December 29th, 2011 at 10:05 am

   The Ron Paul article was terrifying, but also hilarious in its own way. “He’s not a racist / anti-semite / homophobe, HE’S JUST OLD! Most old people are scared of gay people and won’t use their bathrooms!”

9. Jim67545 Says:
   December 29th, 2011 at 10:17 am

   I guess you subscribe to Barons and WSJ. For those of us who do not, your referencing subscriber only content is not useful.

   ~~~

   BR: Is it your suggestion that I DON’T reference subscriber only content (WSJ, FT, Barron’s) because you don’t subscribe?

10. Bob is still unemployed   Says:
    December 29th, 2011 at 10:56 am

    I suspect if the actual number of tickets sold, as opposed to revenue, were charted; we would have seen a larger shrink factor over the years.

11. willid3 Says:
    December 29th, 2011 at 11:06 am

    amnesia part of the cause of great recession? or looking at the past with rose colored glasses also part of it?
    http://www.cnbc.com//id/45802725

12. tradeking13 Says:
    December 29th, 2011 at 11:08 am

    Occupy Wall Street: The Lego Set (YouTube)

13. willid3 Says:
    December 29th, 2011 at 11:29 am

    the value of pensions?
    http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/12/29/the-social-benefit-of-pension-funds/
    why is finance so opaque? is that a feature or a requirement?
    http://www.interfluidity.com/v2/2669.html
    http://worthwhile.typepad.com/worthwhile_canadian_initi/2010/01/finance-as-magic.html

14. MorticiaA Says:
    December 29th, 2011 at 12:53 pm

    Just started reading The Little Book of Sideways Markets. Good book and quick holiday read.

15. LLouis Says:
    December 29th, 2011 at 3:07 pm

    A look into a specific case of child-slave laboring in Burkina Faso (western Africa),
    an article by Cam Simpson for Bloomberg (csimpson13@bloomberg.net)

    Clarisse Kambire, a smart 13 year old girl, who learned to speak french by herself in the streets,
    doesn’t go to school anymore, because she is an “enfant confié” (foster child), her parents abandoned her, and an aunt gave her to her older cousin (Victorien Kamboule, 30 year old).

    Most of the farmers of Burkina Faso don’t have farm animals, instead they use children. And to respect the protocols of fair trade, the farmers are told its ok to use children as long as they’re not their own children and aged over 6 years old.

    “…all of Burkina Faso’s organic crop from last season was bought by Victoria’s Secret (LTD)”
    Some lingerie sold by Victoria’s Secret used to come with booklets about fair trade: ” “Good for women,” read a booklet accompanying a white thong covered with blue and lavender daisies. “Good for the children who depend on them.” ”
    But not anymore: ” Today, such Burkinabe fiber is blended into lingerie at a much-reduced level, allowing the company to spread it across most of its cotton underwear lines ”

    ” Fairtrade International started a review in Burkina Faso after Bloomberg News raised questions … adding it would begin a training program for farmers. … the UNPCB (National Federation of Burkina Cotton Producers) never gave Fairtrade a copy of the 2008 study it co- sponsored on child labor… ”

    ” An executive for Victoria’s Secret’s parent company says the amount of cotton it buys from Burkina Faso is minimal, but it takes the child-labor allegations seriously… “Our standards specifically prohibit child labor,” she said (Tammy Roberts Myers) “We are vigorously engaging with stakeholders to fully investigate this matter.” ”

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-15/victoria-s-secret-revealed-in-child-picking-burkina-faso-cotton.html

    So while Victoria’s Secret top models enjoys earnings of tens of millions of dollars each year, and ” … supermodel “Angels” helped it set record sales and profit in the third quarter of 2011 “,

    Clarisse is earning an absolute zero money, she is whipped each day by Victorien (who was also an enfant confié) to plow the fields (area of several football fields) in scorching heat, she doesn’t eat each day, doesn’t sleep well because of the heat and nightmares… her future doesn’t look bright at all compared to the future of Victoria’s Secret clothings, a cash cow for the parent company Limited Brands.

16. Jim67545 Says:
    December 29th, 2011 at 8:54 pm

    BR: You may, of course, do as you like. I was merely observing that without subscriptions the content is not available. You could, I suppose, paraphrase the article or quote the salient point(s) but again, that is up to you.

17. arogersb Says:
    December 29th, 2011 at 9:47 pm

    The Ten Most Annoying Management Terms Of 2011
    http://www.businessinsider.com/the-ten-most-annoying-management-terms-of-2011-2011-12

18. formerlawyer Says:
    December 30th, 2011 at 2:23 am

    @Bob is still unemployed

    Does “attendance” not equal tickets sold?

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