Quite a few worthwhile reads for before or after the beach! The following links are interesting, off the beaten path provocative, or just worthwhile. And because its Sunday, there is a bonus link beyond the usual 10.
Enjoy:
• How the Crowd Might Be Wrong (Barron’s) Right now the crowd looks to be gathering around the idea that the stock market will turn decidedly more volatile and risky come September and October. But parsing that notion — and the related guess that more volatility will mean a weaker market — is no easy job. And it’s made all the harder by the fact that the reliability of a key indicator — the VIX — has been called into question.
• What was in Larry Summers’ D.E. Shaw Pitchbook? (Asian Times)
• RBS uber-bear issues fresh alert on global stock markets (Telegraph) Britain’s Uber-bear is growling again. After predicting a torrid “relief rally” over the early summer, Bob Janjuah at Royal Bank of Scotland is advising clients to take profits in global equity and commodity markets and prepare for another storm as winter nears.
• Forecast: Next Year Will Arrive in 2010-ish (WSJ) In the recent past, divining the future got a lot harder. Forecasts for just about everything from gas prices to advertising stumbled badly last year as the recession delivered shocks to the economy. The spate of cloudy crystal balls highlighted an uncomfortable reality about telling the future: It is hardest when it is most important.
• Retailers See Slowing Sales in Back-to-School Season (NYT) Halfway through the back-to-school shopping season, retail professionals are predicting the worst performance for stores in more than a decade, yet another sign that consumers are clinging to every dollar.
• The GOP’s Misplaced Rage (The Daily Beast) Leading conservative economist Bruce Bartlett writes that the Obama-hating town-hall mobs have it wrong—the person they should be angry with left the White House seven months ago.
• Five New Rules for the Photoshop Era (Fast Company)
• Sony, Microsoft Face Whole New Game in Gaming (Bloomberg) The next major video-game platform may be no platform at all.
• Finance and the Flaw of Averages (Infectious Greed)
• Fun Research: When Zombies Attack! Mathematical Modelling of a Zombie Outbreak! (PDF)
What else is worth our time? Anything particularly linkworthy?
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