10 Monday AM Reads

August 10, 2015 7:45am by Barry Ritholtz

Back from the wilds of Maine, happy to return to some actual bandwidth, forthwith: our morning train reads:

• Income Hunters: Where to Invest When Rates Rise (Barron’s)
• Cannabis: Silicon Valley’s hot new sector (FT)
• Television rises while TV stocks sink (USAT)
• Netscape changed the internet—and the world—when it went public 20 years ago today (Quartz)
• No, It’s Not Your Opinion. You’re Just Wrong (Houston Press)

Continues here

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Iamthe50percent commented on Aug 10

There’s a paywall at Barron’s. Could someone do a quick summary?
Jojo commented on Aug 10

The opinion article was excellent!
Jojo commented on Aug 10

Since they seem to be able to replicate anything in Star Trek replicators, why can’t they replicate things of value, such as money (does money still exist) or perhaps gold/platinum, etc.?
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Star Trek Economics: Life After the Dismal Science
206 Aug 3, 2015 8:00 AM EDT
By Noah Smith

I grew up watching “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (easily the best of the Star Trek shows). There’s one big, obvious thing missing from the future society depicted in the program. No one is doing business. There is almost no one buying and selling, except for a few species for whom commerce is a form of traditional religion. Food and luxuries are free, provided by “replicators” — machines capable of creating essentially anything from pure energy. Recreation, provided by virtual reality, is infinite in scope. Scarcity — the central defining concept of economics — seems to have been eliminated.

Is this really the future? Is it possible? Is it something we want? Periodically, economists and economics writers struggle with this question. Back in 2013, Rick Webb and Matt Yglesias theorized that as society gets richer and richer, capitalism and free markets will still exist, but will simply recede into the background. Others have described Star Trek not as a socialist paradise, but as a libertarian one. A writer named Manu Saadia is even writing a book about the topic.

So let’s think about the economics of Star Trek. What we’re really thinking about is how to get to economic utopia. It’s an important question.

…

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-08-03/star-trek-economy-and-life-after-the-dismal-science
VennData commented on Aug 10

Fed ‘close’ to hiking rates, economy near normal: Lockhart | Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/10/us-usa-fed-lockhart-idUSKCN0QF1R620150810

Screw Megyn Kelly. Every Republican should to apologize to Obama