A few projects have blown up this year, demanding a lot of time and attention.
From a time perspective, something had to give — and the main casualty was the Linkfest. It was a huge timesuck, and I have been using the hours on other (hopefully more) productive projects.
However, I continue to see very interesting articles that many people have likely missed. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list or even a narrative — its actually kinda random.
No time for a full fest, but (but enough Ben Steinery!) here’s a quick flavor of what you may have overlooked:
INVESTING & TRADING
• Nasty, brutish and short (Economist on shortselling)
• Banks Find New Ways To Ease Pain of Bad Loans (WSJ)
• Mail Delivery as Economic Bellwether (Portfolio)
• Sentiment read: Are We Too Gloomy? (TBP)
• Bye, Bubble? The Price of Oil May Be Peaking (Barron’s)
•
MonoDuoline Downgrade Fallout: Muni Prices, MBIA Collateral (naked capitalism)• Two Sides to Story Define Wall Street in Cioffi’s Tale at Bear (Bloomberg)
• Smackdown:
–Lean-and-Mean Is Paying Off for the Economy (BusinessWeek)
–BW: 10.8 million jobs is trivial? (CEO Economic Update)
• Profits Plunge, Buybacks Don’t (Floyd Norris)
• New Crisis Threatens Healthy Banks (Washington Post)
• President Bush was inaugurated 7.5 years ago — and S&P500 returns are negative since (Angry Bear)
• Yes, We Will Have No Bananas (NYT)
• Podcast: China is a Giant Pac-Man (Disciplined Investor)
• Oil price conspiracy theorists: Rev your engines (Salon)
• What Happens if We’re Wrong? (Peter Bernstein, NYT)
Better title: What Happens WHEN We’re Wrong?• I did a long radio interview for World Affairs Monthly Interview covering, well,just about everything: Insanity Distilled.
ECONOMY
• CEO Economic Outlook Index (Business Roundtable)
• What Conspiracy? (TBP)
• The Real Cost of Living Index: 9.5% (Telegraph)
• A Feeble Recovery: The fundamental economic weaknesses of the 2001-07 expansion (EPI)
• The Economy Why It’s Worse Than You Think (Newsweek)
FEDERAL RESERVE• Fed’s Bear Stearns Books Look Prime for Cooking (Bloomberg)
• Walter Bagehot Was Wrong James Grant of the Fed (NY Sun)
• New Evidence of Inflation Vexes Central Banks (WSJ)
• Market Has Irrational Expectations for the Fed (Bloomberg)
HOUSING• Housing Starts Drop 32% to 17 Year Low (TBP)
• Anatomy of a Meltdown: The Credit Crisis 3 part series (Washington Post)
• Number of new UK houses being built plummets nearly 60% (Guardian)
• The FHA Time Bomb (WSJ)
• Did Bank of America write the Dodd bailout bill? (LA Times)
• Subprime Mortgages: What, Where, and to Whom? (Federal Reserve Board)
WAR/MEDIA/POLITICS/ENERGY
• THE REBELLION WITHIN An Al Qaeda mastermind questions terrorism. (New Yorker)
• Here is the US news from Bangalore (BBC)
• GOOD Guide: to the Shadowy Organizations That Rule the World (Good)
• The Case (Almost) for Drilling (Slate)
• Smart, funny, blond and British: Video: What’s not to love about Lara Logan? (Daily Show)
TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE
• Upset subscribers want Netflix to mind their peeves and queues (GMSV)
• One Third of Sun-like Stars Have Earth-Sized Planets (NYT)
• Healthy Returns – How to Live Longer (Barron’s)
• Plastics unite to make unexpected ‘metal’ (New Scientist)
• How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic (Gristmill)
• AT&T hedges bets, advertises iPhone 3G "real world" speeds of 1.4Mbps (GMSV); See also iPhone running Windows XP (ZD)
• Water-fuel car unveiled in Japan (Video)
• Diamonds on Demand (Smithsonian magazine)
• Thank goodness! — Guzzling coffee may cut heart disease (New Scientist)
• And the Survey Says… The surprisingly accurate Family Feud surveys (free WSJ)
• Ben Stein’s Expelled Exposed: a case study in antiscience propaganda (Scientific American)
• Heavyweight physics prof weighs into climate/energy scrap (The Register)
MUSIC BOOKS MOVIES TV FUN!• Steely Dan, one of the most interesting bands in America, is on Tour (TBP)
• Led Zep’s Stairway to Heaven is Worth $572 million (TBP)
• Success Story 2: Review of The Pixar Touch (NYT Review of Books)
• Music blogs’ network effect (Fortune)
• So much for Big Music’s plans for "360" (Silicon Alley Insider)
• Copyright and the World’s Most Popular Song (Research)
• How to Nap (Boston Globe)
~~~
Got a comment, suggestion, link idea? Or do you just have
something on your mind? The linkfest loves to get email! If you’ve got something to say, send email to thebigpicture [AT] optonline [DOT] net.
• One Third of Sun-like Stars Have Earth-Sized Planets (NYT)
recent developments … one wonders if instinct, evolution or just intelligent design has us doing our best to get back to Mother Mars … or somewhere
Too bad “The Week Ahead” portion didn’t make the cut.
To quote David Letterman, “It’ll be more fun than a barrel of monkeys!”
Barry, the “new metal” link is broken. I guess you wanted this:
http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14140-plastics-unite-to-make-unexpected-metal.html?feedId=online-news_rss20
~~~
BR: Fixed, thanks!
ummmmm linkfest!
In the 18th century, hundreds of thousands of different weights and measures were in use around the world. The French alone employed about 250,000 different units of measure.
The Enlightenment and French Revolution in late 18th century spurred the idea of standardization, said Ken Alder, a historian at Northwestern University in Illinois. People could only be free if they could calculate for themselves the weight and cost of things they bought, philosophers reasoned.
Now we are back to pre-eighteenth century times with relativism having created moral bankruptcy with the “I’m okay you’re okay” mindset. Since truth is out of style, so is trust and predictability. So people will keep pulling back because they aren’t free and they certainly aren’t fools. It’s time for you big shots and little shots with an attitude to get it. YOU have destroyed our economy with your greed and selective truth telling. YOU won’t buy us with lies. I would rather starve than bend to predatory pressure. YOU can keep shooting yourself in the foot by destroying the middle class, but as they say in Texas, Payback is a bitch.
Keep reminding them about what’s real, Barry. They won’t be able to spin their crap much longer.
Mr. Ritholtz,
I greatly respect your knowledge of markets, and have learned a lot from reading your blog, but I would take the H2O car with a huge amount of skepticism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genepax
Also, when it comes to global warming, you once pointed out that one or two years of cooler temperatures does not make a trend. I agree completely with this. However, my understanding is that the earth has recently experienced several hundred years, c1300-c1850, of global coolness called the little ice age. If we have had ices ages in the past, and have had mini-ice ages in recent history. All of which took place before the industrial revolution. Why go into hysterics over global climate change now? If we have evidence of massive long term trends in climate change, why do we panic over what appears to be a normal cyclical upswing? The environmental movement is using environmental panic as a means to promote socialism. If you can show me expert environmental alarmists who are not pushing socialism, then I would give the issue further consideration. But for now, I have to be a sceptic.
Mr. Ritholtz,
I greatly respect your knowledge of markets, and have learned a lot from reading your blog, but I would take the H2O car with a huge amount of skepticism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genepax
Also, when it comes to global warming, you once pointed out that one or two years of cooler temperatures does not make a trend. I agree completely with this. However, my understanding is that the earth has recently experienced several hundred years, c1300-c1850, of global coolness called the little ice age. If we have had ices ages in the past, and have had mini-ice ages in recent history. All of which took place before the industrial revolution. Why go into hysterics over global climate change now? If we have evidence of massive long term trends in climate change, why do we panic over what appears to be a normal cyclical upswing? The environmental movement is using environmental panic as a means to promote socialism. If you can show me expert environmental alarmists who are not pushing socialism, then I would give the issue further consideration. But for now, I have to be a sceptic.
Lara Logan, British? Uh no. Try South-African rather.
~~~
BR: Its the British accent that does it — but South African is even better — less uptight attitude, better dentistry.
large caps into small and mid, it has longer-term bullish implications and doesn’t bode very well for the masses who seem to be looking for 1300 on the S&P. I noticed even the bullish Carl Futia has joined the 1300 fray recently. With so many wanting a major selloff from here odds are it will be a minor one.
wow very interesting…a 10 year bear market coming?
http://www.wallstreetjournal.com/story/?4544
New Crisis Threatens Healthy Banks does not have a link.
~~~
BR: Fixed
I seem to be having some Firefox 3.0 issues . . .
Neither does the one about Earth-Sized planets on the NyTimes.
Good effort otherwise!
~~~
BR: Fixed . . . Man, am I rusty, or what?
Hey think linkfest is tough on you. How about all of us here in the blogosphere trying to read ALL those articles ;-)
Hey think linkfest is tough on you. How about all of us here in the blogosphere trying to read ALL those articles ;-)
Full-fledged or not, I’m grateful the linkfest
is back. Thanks!
Some thoughts from the shower:
I think they should be called sublime mortgages because people’s money went straight from a solid to a vapor
Brody,
“The environmental movement is using environmental panic as a means to promote socialism.”
Your queries were reasonable, albeit confused, but easily answered. However, this line tips you over from skeptic to gullible and uninformed. Have you actually READ anything pertinent ?
.
Lara Logan.
Oh man, I could listen to her talk all night long.
She was the substitute host for Bob Schieffer one time on ‘Face the Nation‘. She was AMAZING. Extremely knowledgeable. Asked insightful questions, and actually followed them up, to the chagrin of her guests.
CBS should make her the permanent host.
.
VJ,
Maybe I am gullible, and uniformed, but you did nothing to rectify that situation. As far as lazy goes, who is the one using ad hominem attacks?
I do take back the socialism comment. I guess the carbon tax, or carbon cap-and-trade would be closer to fascism than socialism. Either way, I do not see economic libertarians supporting either one.
Wiki:
“Fascist governments instituted state-regulated allocation of resources, especially in the financial and raw materials sectors.”
“Their policies manifested as a radical extension of government control over the economy without wholesale expropriation of the means of production.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism#Economic_planning
Brody,
“Maybe I am gullible, and uniformed, but you did nothing to rectify that situation.”
What, am I running an online handholding service ? Are your fingers broken ? It would be different if it were some obscure issue, but as Mulder used to say: The Truth Is Out There.
Try searching this blog archive. There were several lengthy threads on the subject.
Barry occasionally links to relevant articles, including one in this very thread:
* Climate Change: A Guide for the Perplexed
* Union of Concerned Scientists: Global Warming Science
* How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic
“As far as lazy goes, who is the one using ad hominem attacks?”
YOU.
“I do take back the socialism comment. I guess the carbon tax, or carbon cap-and-trade would be closer to fascism than socialism.”
Fascists were RightWing.
~~~
Oh, and after you’ve done some initial reading, you might want to check with the CLIMATOLOGISTS / CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENTISTS at the following signatories to the ‘U.N. Climate Change Panel‘:
* Australian Academy of Sciences
* Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and the Arts
* German Academy of Natural Scientists
* Brazilian Academy of Sciences
* Royal Society of Canada
* Chinese Academy of Sciences
* French Academy of Sciences
* Leopoldina, Indian National Science Academy
* Indonesian Academy of Sciences
* National Academy of Sciences (US)
* Royal Irish Academy
* Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Italy)
* Academy of Sciences Malaysia
* Academy Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand
* Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
.
Thank you for the links.