The Nourel Roubini Halloween Facemask Inca Kola (hat tip Felix Salmon)
Government report: Data mining doesn’t work well CNet. As in, the anti-terrorist type, We could have told you that ages ago based on the experience of retailers.
As Colorado Heats Up, Water Supply Expected to Be at Risk, Says New Study PhysOrg
Pakistan facing bankruptcy Telegraph
The GOP Peddles Economic Snake Oil Thomas Frank, Wall Street Journal
Fiscal expansion? Not so fast Michael Pettis, China Financial Markets
Why JK Galbraith Got It Right Telegraph. On Dick Fuld and 1929.
Fed Watch: Only the Timing is in Doubt Tim Duy, Economist’s View
Skill-Based or Bubble-Based Wage Differentials? Mark Thoma, Economist’s View. Great question, but why is it being asked only now?
If Social Security Was a Private Corporation Then it Would Sue Tom Brokaw for Every Penny He Has Dean Baker
Why Federal Reserve Policy Is Failing Thomas Palley
Antidote du jour:
13 comments
Comments are closed.
YS:
I read Thoma comment. Read the war story at my 6 October 2008 post. Thoma says nothing my CPA buddy didn’t say decades aqo. Or for that matter, the mother of another friend of mine, I’ll call Big Al.
Big Al went to Rockefeller U, PhD and is now a professor at Harvard Medical School. In about 1982, Big Al’s mother asked me why Big Al’s sister’s friends, who were investment bankers (IB) were so well paid. Big Al’s sister was an associate at “NY Big Law” and only knew other “NY Big Law” associates and IBs. To make the story short, Big Al’s mother was appalled with the money the IB’s made given her opinion that the IB’s were not all that bright.
IB’s are well paid because they are the beneficiaries of Fed intervention to support their firms. They can always rely on the next bailout. Their business is gaming the system to the pessants’ detriment.
It’s ok, SIFMA will make this work and there will be milk in our bowl tonight. Don’t jump — stay here on the ledge with me and talk …. let’s talk about that $60 Trillion derivative market that Lehman was running and get our minds off milk, ok … it’ll all be ok, you’ll see, we have really smart people in the world that can do anything, everything! How do you think they got $60 Trillion? If they weren’t really smart, they would have $30 Trillion, so think about it, when they make more good bets, they may have $120 Trillion in derivatives and then see….
Yves,
You have the wrong link to GOP Peddles Snake Oil. This is the right Link.
I am curious as to what the experience of retailers has been with data mining.
BAM
I like it better when the cook does it.
“Great question, but why is it being asked only now?” Because the “science” of economics has only one measuring instrument – the retrospectoscope.
Yves, this a little off topic but might be of some interest to readers that appreciate gloom and doom. You have a great site, please keep up the good work…
Dinninger has one of his darkest predictions ever posted today:
S&P to 150 and then flatlines, oil to $20 with few American buyers, trucking industry collapsing, hunger, riots, uhhh…to characterize, the 187 horsemen of the apocolypse…maybe more.
To avoid all this mayhem is simple enough, according to Denninger…stop watching American Idol, the NFL and NASCAR. If Ben and Hank had only known they could have had Shrub take this stuff off TV.
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/
On the Stump?
The Stump Speech?
Tell me the one about the baby ducks again.
We got up here, now tell me how we’re going to get down again.
We climbed to the top, there was nothing here!
Where did they hide that looking glass?
Bubble Wages: Leave it to economists to obscure a simple point and rediscover the obvious. A little sociology might help their “science.”
Squeek Blab had the alien on this morning…Forbes was the guest host and his minders have taught him how to blink…Must have reprogrammed his blink sub routine.
Squeek Blab guests were all pushing to get rid of the ‘archaic mark to market model’ for banks.
Such a move would fix everything, they said. I suppose all price discovery would be taken care of by the treasury. The PPT could be expanded to employ all those working the pits…We could tune in each morning to see if we bet the right way for the day.
Can’t make this stuff up…
It would be a great stress reliever to have a link for all the pictures in the section, antidote du jour. The pictures are cute.
Excerpt from Thoma:
Over the late twentieth century, the financial sector grew rapidly, and attracted higher skilled workers at an increasing rate.
By “higher skilled workers” does the author mean people with an MBA? Just because someone managed to get an MBA doesn’t make them skilled, intelligent or talented. I look around today and I see an enormous amount of mediocrity that’s been rewarded with ridiculous sums of money and as far as I can tell, skill has very little to do with it.
Anonymous,
try cute overload for your daily dose of cuteness. Great stuff. There’s also daily kitten and puppy, I can has cheezburger, lots of other cute sites…