10 Friday AM Reads

What? Another weekend is here already? But you can’t leave for the Hamptons just yet — our late Spring morning train reads will see you through:

• Michael Lewis on Dick Thaler, the Economist Who Realized How Crazy We Are (BV)
• 11% of hedge funds manage 92% of total industry capital (CIOsee also The Billion Dollar Club (TRB)
• Lehman Brothers ex-CEO blames everyone else for financial crisis (Politico)
• Why Do Former High-School Athletes Make More Money? Research hasn’t yet borne out whether sports breed go-getters or whether they attract kids with a knack for navigating the professional world. (The Atlantic)
• Everything Google just announced at its I/O developer conference (Quartz) see also All the Cool Stuff Google Just Announced, Ranked by Coolness (Slate)

Continues here

 

 

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    • willid3 commented on May 29

      but its in the cause of freedom! and its only because of women that we have to take these steps

  1. hue commented on May 29

    When Will Self-Driving Trucks Destroy America? (beelzebub http://bv.ms/1FkgbdF) shedevil is against the basic income, imagine that when she gets one from the Kochs

    I Fooled Millions Into Thinking Chocolate Helps Weight Loss. Here’s How. (io9 http://bit.ly/1LNP6UD)

    How a Freelance Illustrator Who Makes $16,000 a Year Does Money (the billfold http://bit.ly/1AC70IX) Life Coaching For Life Coaches: Why I’m Quitting (the billfold http://bit.ly/1FebD7v)

  2. VennData commented on May 29

    Russian special forces soldiers captured in Ukraine feel abandoned by Putin

    ​http://www.businessinsider.com/r-special-report-russian-fighters-caught-in-ukraine-cast-adrift-by-moscow-2015-5

    ​This is the guy the GOP likes.

    http://www.politicususa.com/2014/03/07/jon-stewart-nails-conservatives-love-affair-vladimir-putin.html
    http://mediamatters.org/video/2014/03/03/on-fox-giuliani-praises-putin-hes-what-you-call/198316
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/08/25/why-u-s-conservatives-love-russias-vladimir-putin/

    Not that arrogant bastard Obama who works until he gets our last man.​

    http://www.cbsnews.com/bowe-bergdahl/
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-the-obama-administrations-debate-over-freeing-sgt-bowe-bergdahl/2014/06/03/470a0f8e-eb4f-11e3-93d2-edd4be1f5d9e_story.html

    I wonder who the troops will fight for next time?

    • willid3 commented on May 29

      well obviously there cant be any Russian special forces in the Ukraine, cause no Russian troops were involved
      i figure conservatives ‘love’ Putin because they want the US to look like Russia.

  3. DSS10 commented on May 29

    Your government at work…..

    “More than once this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission was close to securing a landmark accounting fraud case. Then it came undone, the result of divisions within the S.E.C. And now the case might be back on track — that is, unless it’s not.

    Behind the scenes at the regulator, an extraordinary political battle has disrupted the case against the Computer Sciences Corporation, forcing on-again, off-again negotiations that at times have imperiled the case altogether. This week, the agency explored new ways to break the stalemate, including a reduction of the penalty that Computer Sciences would have to pay, according to lawyers briefed on the matter….”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/29/business/political-fights-throw-sand-in-gears-of-sec.html

    • Ralph commented on May 29

      You seem to be confusing government operations with partisan political bullshit

    • willid3 commented on May 29

      so the ‘cops’ on the beat arent”? wonder how they works for the party of law and order?

  4. RW commented on May 29

    WRT the Bloomberg article “What Will Happen to a Generation of Wall Street Traders Who Have Never Seen a Rate Hike?” Paul Krugman links us to the most appropriate responses:

    A. What do markets want?

    The markets want money for cocaine and prostitutes. I am deadly serious.

    Most people don’t realize that “the markets” are in reality 22-27 year old business school graduates, furiously concocting chaotic trading strategies on excel sheets and reporting to bosses perhaps 5 years senior to them. In addition, they generally possess the mentality and probably intelligence of junior cycle secondary school students. Without knowledge of these basic facts, nothing about the markets makes any sense—and with knowledge, everything does.

    B. Why are interest rates so low?

    If you asked the person in the street, “Why are interest rates so low?”, he or she would likely answer that the Fed is keeping them low. … But what matters most for the economy is the real, or inflation-adjusted, interest rate … The Fed’s ability to affect real rates of return, especially longer-term real rates, is transitory and limited. Except in the short run, real interest rates are determined by a wide range of economic factors, including prospects for economic growth—not by the Fed.

    NB: Short version, the putative inexperience of traders is a red herring — judging by Bloomberg and financial punditry generally, experienced financial professionals don’t have a macroeconomic clue either — and, if rates are ‘artificially’ anything, they are artificially high; e.g., they would be nominally lower if they could fall below zero.

    • rd commented on May 29

      Fuld still believes Lehman Bros was not bankrupt or insolvent.

      If I hold $1,000 worth of stock and it drops 60%, then I am a victim of volatility, but I am not bankrupt as I still have $400.

      However, if I own the $1,000 in stock on 50% margin and it drops 60%, then my broker sells them with a margin call, and I am now in the hole $100 with $0 in assets. That means I am bankrupt.

      I don’t think Dick Fuld understands this. He thinks if it used to be worth $1,000 then it should still be counted as $1,000 (well maybe $800) and the margin call is a temporary setback and the broker is clearly being unreasonable.

    • willid3 commented on May 29

      except this experiment isnt being run scientists but by politians

  5. rd commented on May 29

    No. 1 reason to buy ETMFs is apparently because they do away with many of the costs of mutual fund structures: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/4-things-to-know-about-the-fund-industrys-new-opaque-creation-2015-05-28

    Vanguard S&P500 Index Fund Investor Shares has a 0.17% expense ratio. I don’t think the mutual fund structure and trading costs is the reason the typical mutual fund ER is about 1%.

    I did enjoy the analogy of an ETMF to a rubber nail though. I will have to remember that one.

  6. rd commented on May 29

    The GOP have hired Lewis Carrol as a campaign strategist. If the Supreme Court agrees with the GOP plaintiffs that subsidies only apply to state-run exchanges, the GOP plan to blame the Democrats and Obama for the loss of insurance subsidies for millions of Americans because they incompetently wrote a law that could be challenged by the GOP.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/05/29/morning-plum-gop-set-to-blame-dems-for-yanking-health-coverage-from-millions/

    • Whammer commented on May 29

      Yep, better to blame Obama than to just fix it, which could easily be done if they weren’t psycopathic rat bastards. No offense intended towards psychopathic rat bastards…..

  7. VennData commented on May 29

    Hastert Rule: always take out less than $10K.

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