10 Thursday AM Reads

November 12, 2015 7:11am by

I have become unaccustomed to quiet, uneventful weeks. Lets see if it can keep rolling for two miore days. In the meanwhile, our gluten-free morning train reads:

• A History Of Insane Art Prices (Digg)
• Do People Want to be Fooled? (Irrelevant Investor) see also Underestimating the Power of Compound Interest (A Wealth of Common Sense)
• The Misery Index is worthless (Washington Post)
• Why Big Banks Weren’t Smiling During the GOP Debate  (WSJ) see also GOP Debate: Almost Every ‘Fact’ About Wall Street Was False (Wall Street On Parade)
• The Soaring Price of Vintage Ferraris (Priceonomics) but see How This Classic Car Broker Is Helping Collectors Gauge the Market (Bloomberg)

Continues here

 

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  2. VennData commented on Nov 12

    Ted Cruz thinks a journalist can come across the border and have a blog with a million followers.

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/11/politics/republican-debate-takeaways/

    Why do people call these ridiculous arguments “great debating?” Oh, maybe because Fox News moderators were too lame to call him out.

    Maybe Fox News needs to hire cheap Guatamalean Journalists instead of bleached blonde beach bimbos.

  3. VennData commented on Nov 12

    Promised Bipartisanship, Obama Adviser Found Disappointment

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/12/us/politics/ray-lahood-memoir-obama-cabinet.html

    Nice coincidental release the week after the GOP finally pulls together an infrastructure bill

    Yes the Obama narrative that he doesn’t “reach across the aisle” lives in the mind of the voter with the pride the GOP take in outbidding each other to be the one who stopped Obama more.

    It’s all very, logical.

    • intlacct commented on Nov 12

      O reached too much and squandered a year on health care with a majority when it was clear they simply wanted to delay. At least in retrospect.

      Pollution controls – cap and trade a formerly Republican idea
      Health Care – Romney/1996 Dole plank
      Foreign policy – carried over many advisers, wound down the two wars (which I hope was the Republican plan). Always asks, ‘I am doing X, Y and Z. What would you have me do differently? Boots on the ground?’ ‘No, no, no. Talk meaner to them.’
      Didn’t give in to switching out the only guy fighting the recession Bush gave us. Their proposal was to raise rates?! Oy.

  4. VennData commented on Nov 12

    LaHood’s claims Obama wasn’t bipartisan, Nice hook for the publisher. Then there’s the quote about Obama wanted to be bi-partisan for the rest of us.

    In the article the only data supporting LaHood’s claim is that Pelosi wanted to pass the economic stimulus without GOP support. Recall Republicans mocked the term “shovel ready” as the nation lost a million jobs a month. After the passage the GOP said it wouldn’t work.

    Republican’s were wrong.

    • Iamthe50percent commented on Nov 12

      IIRC, LaHood was a republican in Illinois.

  5. RW commented on Nov 12

    Brad DeLong: I guess I must be a foaming polemicist

    Ken Rogoff writes: Personally, I would probably err on the side of waiting longer but… only a foaming polemicist would deny that there is also a case for hiking rates sooner, as long as the Fed doesn’t throw random noise into the market by continuing to send spectacularly mixed signals about its beliefs and objectives. After all, the US economy is at or near full employment, and domestic demand is growing solidly…

    And I think: Inflation expectations anchored at 2%/year, wage growth at 0%/year real, the prime-age employment-population ratio far below historical norms–that does not smell like an economy “at or near full employment” to me. And so I cannot see a “very high risk that, when inflation does rise, it will do so briskly”, or agree that “only a foaming polemicist would deny that there is also a case for hiking rates” not “sooner” but “right now”…

    NB: The first comment to DeLong’s post at the main link above wins the intertubes hands-down.

    • VennData commented on Nov 12

      Rogoff make an theory tossing spreadsheet errors in THIS analysis?

      I guess if you’re a right wing economist if you can toss perjoratives.

      Thank goodness for Brad DeLong

    • VennData commented on Nov 12

      Voting has consequences.

    • kaleberg commented on Nov 13

      Maybe I’m too cynical. I remember the Charles Stuart murder in Boston back in ’89, and thinking it was the baby or the car phone. Was this their first child? If so, I’m guessing Pastor Blackburn killed her. Getting pregnant is more dangerous than we like to believe, and it’s not about the medical issues of carrying a fetus to term.

  8. Jojo commented on Nov 12

    Re: Multi-tasking
    ————-
    Agreed! I know personally that when I have to concentrate, it is best to focus on a single task.

    One example I thought of might be in modern open plan offices where most seem to wear headphones while they perform their work, listening to music, talk radio, whatever. Might the potential lack of focus explain buggy programming code and poor general focus?

    I think it might make sense to ban work distractions like listening to music, video, etc. while working.

    • rd commented on Nov 12

      There are facts to check?

  10. Jojo commented on Nov 12

    [roflol]
    ————-
    Ben Carson would not abort baby Hitler
    By Eric Bradner, CNN
    Wed November 11, 2015 | Video Source: CNN

    Story highlights

    Ben Carson said he would not support aborting a baby Adolf Hitler
    Jeb Bush had said he would indeed kill baby Hitler — but wasn’t asked about abortion

    Washington (CNN) No, Ben Carson would not travel back in time to abort baby Adolf Hitler.

    “I’m not in favor of aborting anybody,” the retired neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate said Tuesday night.

    …

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/11/politics/ben-carson-would-not-abort-baby-hitler/index.html

  11. VennData commented on Nov 12

    Here’s the Future. Your Future – Johnny Rotten

    Ben Carson Made Money With the Help of a Felon Convicted of Health Care Fraud | Mother Jones

    http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/11/ben-carson-alfonso-costa-healthcare-fraud

    ​DONALD TRUMP: The Dummies at the Wall Street Journal Owe me an Apology.​

    http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-wsj-tpp-apology-2015-11

    Marco Rubio’s Credit Cards.

    http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/elections-2016/marco-rubio/article44189745.html

    TED CRUZ: The Whole World’s on Fire!

    http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/watch-ted-cruz-year-girl-worlds-fire-29681741

    JEB BUSH: I’d go back in time and kill Hitler as a Baby.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/11/11/stephen-colbert-jeb-bush-should-think-twice-about-going-back-in-time-to-kill-baby-hitler/

  13. VennData commented on Nov 12

    “…Chuck Rosenberg, chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said that smoking marijuana should not be considered medical treatment on Wednesday, calling the notion a “joke.”

    http://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/06/dea-chief-medicinal-marijuana-is-a-joke.html

    But owning guns is a great way to protect yourself. And our prisons are wonder rehabilitation facilities for criminals. And a few drinks is OK, never led to anything untoward.

    Hey Ted Cruz, remember to slash this guys budget to zero, regulate drugs and tax them.

  16. rd commented on Nov 12

    Interesting analysis of Theranos. The baffling part about Theranos to me is that it is trying to compete had-to-head with existing techniques for blood analysis but apparently the investors never checked out its claims? It would not have been difficult for the investment teams to have drawn blood samples of themselves, sent the traditional ones to an outside lab, and watched as the Theranos technicians analyzed their samples. A couple of dozen samples would probably have been enough to demonstrate if there were fundamental issues or not.

    http://aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com/2015/11/runaway-stories-and-fairy-tale-endings.html

  17. Singmaster commented on Nov 12

    I think you can file this under very, very bad calls.

    http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/11/bloomingdales-apologizes-holiday-ad-date-rape-joke

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/12/what-a-creepy-bloomingdales-ad-tells-us-about-americas-understanding-of-rape/

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/bloomingdales-holiday-ad-draws-backlash-for-appearing-to-promote-date-rape-1447349483
    Who in marketing thought this was a good idea?
    How many layers of approval did it go through?
    I swear I stared and stared looking for “Spike” jewelry or something – anything – to explain it.

    In the meantime, REI is giving its employees Black Friday off paid.
    Great for them but CEO was skewered for not offering a living wage, wrong headed incentives and more when he went on Reddit.
    Oops.
    http://qz.com/547572/the-ceo-of-rei-went-on-reddit-and-said-to-ask-him-anything-hundreds-of-disgruntled-employees-obliged/

  18. RW commented on Nov 12

    Need a special treat for that paleontologist with a sweet tooth? How about a chocolate fossil modeled on an apex carnivore’s business end?

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