10 Weekend Reads

December 26, 2015 7:00am by

Well, did you get what you wanted? (I know I did!) Brew up a rich foamy cup of cappuccino, and settle in for our longer form, weekend reads:

• The 50 Best Investing Insights of 2015 (Fund Reference) There’s enough good stuff here to keep you busy for days!
• Less Risk, More Return: The curious tale of less-liquid stocks. (Morningstar)
• How to Be the Ultimate Contrarian Investor in 2016 (Bloomberg)
• Can a French Friar End the 21st-Century Slave Trade? (Vanity Fair)
• You Can Have Millions Of Subscribers On YouTube—And Still Be Flat Broke (Fusion)
• Who Won 2015? (Vulture)
• A Fight for the Soul of Science: String theory, the multiverse and other ideas of modern physics are potentially untestable. At a historic meeting in Munich, scientists and philosophers asked: should we trust them anyway? (Quanta)
• Why ISIS has the potential to be a world-altering revolution (Aeon)
• Hillary Clinton Is Whitewashing the Financial Catastrophe (The Nation) see also Is America Is Moving Left? Republicans may have a lock on Congress and the nation’s statehouses—and could well win the presidency—but the liberal era ushered in by Barack Obama is only just beginning. (National Journal)
• The Best Eleven Minutes in Sports in 2015 (New Yorker)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Harry Shearer of the Simpsons.

 

2015 Stock Market Report

Source: Fidelity

 

 

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  1. ilsm commented on Dec 26

    In this conflict the moral is far more than Napoleon supposed. Fighting NGO/ISIS terror with state terror is like pouring water on a grease fire.

    The drones, the past 14 years, with the Fox News photo op GOP candidates screaming for unfetter collateral damage, aka carpet bombing and no rules of engagement, prove terror cannot work on a “moral” threat. While Hillary calls Iran the “enemy”.

    Extremist Islam has beaten state terror that supposes to defend the brutal “west”.

    The west’s arms dealers are making out like bandits.

  2. RW commented on Dec 26

    If I could promote a resolution for the entire nation (and make it stick) it would be …
    Avoiding Projects Pursued By Morons 101
    There is much made by people who long for the days of their fourth form debating society about the fallacy of “argumentum ad hominem”. There is, as I have mentioned in the past, no fancy Latin term for the fallacy of “giving known liars the benefit of the doubt”, but it is in my view a much greater source of avoidable error in the world.

  3. VennData commented on Dec 26

    Political Dark Money Just Got Darker

    ​”…The court majority in the 5-to-4 decision should have been watching this month when the Republican-controlled Congress, which has firmly bottled up all campaign disclosure legislation, voted to further cripple disclosure at two of its most vital points…”
    ​
    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/26/opinion/political-dark-money-just-got-darker.html

    The GOP / WSJ Opinion page / Fox News / Rupert Murdoch Family argument is “Well you can’t stop people from spending their money the way they want to.”

    Sure you can. Put them in jail if they violate legislated caps that Republicans refuse to legislate. Then you won’ see third generation candy-ass Republicans giving money to the GOP Media Machine finances to continue to keep The Base ignorant.

  4. VennData commented on Dec 26

    Nonsense from Beinart:

    “…George W. Bush wiped this com­munity out. Partly, he did so by root­ing the GOP more firmly in the South—Re­agan’s polit­ic­al base had been in the West—aid­ing the slow-mo­tion ex­tinc­tion of white South­ern Demo­crats that had be­gun when the party em­braced civil rights. But Bush also des­troyed cent­rist Demo­crats in­tel­lec­tu­ally, by mak­ing it im­possible for them to cred­ibly cri­tique lib­er­al­ism from the right…”

    Based on what? That is a ridiculous brazen claim. See everyone compromise Obama made through Democrats rejection of Beerbie Sanders

    “in the late 1980s and the 1990s, cent­rist Demo­crats had ar­gued that Re­agan’s de­cisions to cut the top in­come-tax rate from 70 per­cent to 50 per­cent and to loosen gov­ern­ment reg­u­la­tion had spurred eco­nom­ic growth. When Bush cut the top rate to 35 per­cent in 2001 and fur­ther weakened reg­u­la­tion, however, in­equal­ity and the de­fi­cit grew,
    Inequality started with Reagan. That numbers provve it.

    • VennData commented on Dec 26

      What he misses due to his stupid belief Reagan’s cowardly retreat from Lebanon was “good” That Reagan’s allowing companies to stash profits offshore with no tax was good. Reagan’s rasicm was good to “build” the GOP Southern majority. That Reagan’s financial deregulation that led to the the destruction of the S&Ls was good. And the list goes on and on and on.

      Reagan was a shit President. Beirnart’s right that Bush was worse.

      But what he misses is that Obama has split the GOP. The Base wants government shut does, walls, police brutality. The Establishment that created that thinking with their high-priced marketing shticks knows better.

      Obama split the GOP, not the Democrats. The Democrats have never been united enough to spilt.

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