October 2008
79 posts
Most Stressful Day of My Young Life - I Blame CERN
Sympact is sooooo close.
In other news. Could all this economic stress be the fault of the Large Hadron Collider? If you look, the dow was at 11388 on September 19th and looked to be on the upswing. Then we shut down the thing because of mechanical problems. Perhaps the answer to the credit crisis would have been found in the collision of photons….but no, there was a mechanical failure and...
Reason why Robert Rubin Should not be Treasury... →
Arbitraging creates artificial value that leads to massive credit bubbles and consequently what we are dealing with today. Just a thought.
Dear Hayman Investors →
Mentioned this letter to my father this morning. Download it, read it and be afraid be very afraid.
Godwit fact of the day →
In other news. Godwits are amazing!
Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the... →
lookmom:
by Orson Scott Card
I’ve seen this article in a couple of different places and from a couple of different people. So probably worth a little more amplification.
Capitulation-Greenspan Style
http://mp.blogs.com/mp/2008/10/ss.html
Bailed-out Banker Compensation: A PR Disaster in... →
Ewwww. This could get really ugly. Bankers might have to take government salaries. What grade are analysts?
Why Traditional Recession Tactics Are Doomed To... →
As usual I come away from Umair feeling completely inspired to continue to scratch and claw my way to discovering new management paradigms.
Is the low Fed Funds rate to blame? →
The economy is one complex mother and this small commentary puts that complexity into stark relief. Enjoy.
Not The Next Razr: Motorola's $2000 'Aura' (MOT) →
It’s a real bummer to see one of the bastions of Midwestern commerce come totally unhinged. Unfortunately, I don’t think Android is going to save them. They just have no sense of what form factor and utilities matter, anyone can step in shit. Consistent great product development, that seems to be outside their scope.
Renault Twingo →
withitbanter:
very funny commercial.
This is brilliant-Nice pick up Garrett.
Sorry, Dad, I'm Voting for Obama →
withitbanter:
it’s true. i am.
As am I. Read about the editorials on this piece but hadn’t read it myself.
TRANSPORTATION TUESDAY: The Electric Mini... →
Looks cool!
“The next 12 months may be a period of the ‘haves and have nots’....”
– Fred Wilson
Continuing James Surowiecki Day →
Another reason for these movie failures could be their condemnation of American leadership and generally unhappy feelings towards our foreign liasions. What plays in NYC and LA doesn’t necessarily translate to nationwide success.
Debunking Boone Pickens...An Absolutely Necessary... →
James Surowiecki on Lefty Rosenthal →
My favorite quote is:
And he understood that if you took sports betting out of one environment and put it into another, you would be able to make it far more profitable. And this, it turns out, is what a lot of successful innovation really involves, rather than pure invention: identifying market opportunities that already exist but aren’t being taken advantage of.
Flashback: Middle-Class Tax Cuts →
Leave it to Greg Mankiw to find this nugget. Is it a portent of the future or just a symptom of Bill Clinton’s deep and abiding need to be loved by all.
WatchThis is amazing.
I like this rebuke of this lame meme about the end... →
If anything this crisis underscored the continuing importance/power/influence of America…IMHO.
I dig this track by Matt and Kim. It’s...
Op-Ed Contributor - Buy American. I Am. -... →
I like the pairing of this and Paul Graham’s latest posting on why to start a company in a bad economy. Enjoy both.
A Liberal Supermajority - WSJ.com →
Thought this should be noted. I love Obama…a Congressional Supermajority scares the shit out of me.
If Elected ... - Rivals’ Visions Differ on... →
I think this is an incredibly important issue, though market forces are generally terrific at driving innovation. That said, in the cult of hitting quarterly earnings innovation is oftentimes left to the side. If we can have more companies like Amazon and Google out there making mistakes and learning from them then I think we’ll be ok. I tend to be skeptical of government intervention in...
David Brooks outlines the BIG question about... →
I tend to be in the camp that thinks that his temperament is the key to his being a great President. That temperament combined with his ability to verbally articulate suggest to me that he could really make a difference.
My father disagrees vehemently and thinks we’re headed down a liberal rabbit hole which very well may devastate our country. In all truth, I am not such a fan of income...
apophenia: teens, dating, friendship, and school... →
I like this denuding of absurd linkages between widespread social change and technology that is the product, not the catalyst of this change.
Who has the better health plan? →
I am happy to say that I agree with Professor Mankiw. I have been troubled lately when I hear Senator Obama’s classification of small business. I mean a business generating $250k annually in revenues is impossibly small and is hardly a growth business. So, by Obama’s thinking once that business accelerates it growth it is punished by higher tax rates and healthcare burdens that would...
Knowledge/Power Gap and its Implications →
I think this is an interesting thought but not necessarily helpful. I would venture to say that this gap has always existed, but in the past 10 years access to knowledge and data points has increased significantly and yet this gap remains and apparently is causing more problems. I counter by saying that because this gap has closed the response to this inevitable crisis is better than the response...
The rapid growth (and destruction) and growth of... →
I like this a lot and will probably pick up Tribes, though I have a feeling I already know what it is about given that I read Seth’s blog on the regular. I wonder how outsourced marketers fit within social media?
It’s been awhile since I added a track,...
Glassbooth - Quiz to help you choose best 2008... →
Are you sure McCain is the candidate that best fits your views? How about Obama? Want to test your assumptions, take the quiz and see where you come out.
Bush’s New Copyright Czar Is Going To Do About As... →
I would like President Obama to address simple issues like this one. Point to the future with copyright policy that reflects the new means of media distribution. Artificial constraints are never solutions. Larry Lessig deserves a role in President Obama’s government.
Matt Taibbi and Byron York Butt Heads Over Whether... →
This is brutal but illuminating. I think Matt Taibbi is missing the systemic issue here and trying as any good reporter would the absolute source of all the bad. I find all of this quite disingenous, but oh well.
Panic passes but the causes remain →
Ahhh, historical precedent. The more things change, the more they stay the same. I do love Mark Cuban’s piece (quoted below this article) on differentiating taxation schemes between asset creation and financial engineering. I think intelligent policy around this difference could be a means of prolonging the period before the next boom and bust.
“Which is the genesis of our problem in the US. Its not wrong to run with bull...”
– Mark Cuban
“I understand that passing Algebra and (by prerequisite) graduating high school...”
– Dan Meyer
Aubrey McClendon - From Billionaire To Pauper
Wow! This is an amazing financial turn. Expect to see more of this in the months ahead. http://www.streetinsider.com/Insiders+Blog/Aubrey+McClendon+-+From+Billionaire+To+Pauper/4062076.html
Andy Kessler: New York Magazine: Why Wall Street...
I’ve been taking stock after last week and I think this article articulates what I found after taking stock of our current situation. http://www.andykessler.com/andy_kessler/2008/10/new-york-magazine-why-wall-street-will-prevail.html
Overcoming Bias: Why Does Power Corrupt?
Fascinating read in lieu of various corrupted folks and the growing band of “revolutionaries” seeking to unseat the corrupted. http://www.overcomingbias.com/2008/10/power-corrupts.html
Mark Pincus Blog: Fabrice explains who's really...
http://markpincus.typepad.com/markpincus/2008/10/fabrice-explain.html