January 2009
118 posts
Black Swan author's rules for living
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Thanks to my buddy Steve for this absolutely fantastic list of rules for living.
Will Pelosi Bury us? Come on President Obama
“In a fateful decision, Democratic leaders merged the temporary stimulus measure with their permanent domestic agenda — including big increases for Pell Grants, alternative energy subsidies and health and entitlement spending. The resulting package is part temporary and part permanent, part timely and part untimely, part targeted and part untargeted.”
-David Brooks
I’m becoming...
Greg Mankiw's Blog: Cutler to DC →
Best and Brightest is a good thing? That phrase conjures David Halberstam’s review of the Vietnam War and kind of terrifies me.
Update: Didn’t fully read Mankiw’s comment. It would appear that he is suggesting exactly what I mentioned.
Share Your Music
So I’m always looking for new tunes to share on this blog and until now I didn’t have a great way to get suggestions. Well that has changed. On the left hand side is my new Soundcloud Dropbox. With this nifty little feature you can simply upload a cool track to this dropbox and I can then share it with my vast readership base.
Let me know what you think. I’ll be experimenting in...
This is Secret Machines “Now You’re...
Gaza Tensions Erupt at Davos Session →
At first pass I was dismayed at the Prime Minister of Turkey walking out, but given Turkey’s general pragmatism I’d be interested to see the full transcript. I am dismayed at this conflict and at the loss of life in Israel and Palestine. However, we need to stop thinking in terms of treaties and more in terms of business problems that the Palestinians can uniquely solve. Economic...
2 Senators Propose Bill to Regulate Hedge Funds →
I don’t understand why this would be a good idea. These guys are taking their own risks and those who are investing are accredited investors. Can someone explain why regulating hedge funds is a good idea?
Signals of Broader Federal Role for States →
I am a huge fan of Obama’s interest in increasing the flow of ideas through the executive branch. I’ve always said that Bush’s fundamental problem was that he misunderstood the impact of the networked economy (I honed in specifically on the changing mode of media access) and tried to maintain a traditional hierarchical decision making structure. The key to managing information...
Amazon Tops Estimates →
Good for Amazon. This is one of the coolest companies in the world because they are relentless about taking chances. Sympact is building its business off of Amazon Web Services. The value of that is that we’ve turned formerly fixed costs into variable costs that have allowed us to extend our operating runway and will most likely be a large reason for our success. Amazon rules keep up the...
Went over to RCRDLBL today on a research mission...
Media Angst: Searching for Profitable Business... →
As I’ve documented often I am of the mind that entire industries no longer have access to high margin business models that they thought they had. This has been the case since probably 2002, but because of financial engineering no one was prepared to acknowledge this difficult fact. The unfortunate reality is that much of the infrastructure of these businesses will have to be stripped down in...
Top 200 tracks of 2008 (Music Like Dirt) →
Stumbled across this best of 2008 list last night and I got to tell ya, it’s one of the more interesting compilations I have seen. I mean I love all the great hipster tracks of 2008 as much as the next person, but it gets a little redundant…This list eschews that tendency. Enjoy.
Will Detroit take taxpayer money and use it to... →
askjerves:
Yes, they will.
This is crazy!
'Veggie Love': PETA's Banned Super Bowl Ad
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My buddy Dave Ward suggested I post this and since there seems to be a fair amount of buzz around this I agreed to post it. Obviously PETA got what they needed, press without the cost of a Super Bowl Ad…nicely done PETA.
That said, who run’s PETA. It’s all naked all the time over there and I got to believe that the logical conclusion to this path they are on is to use porno to...
Arabs respond warmly to Obama interview →
I like this approach. In this media age soft power becomes really powerful. Interesting to see how it plays.
Unbuilt Buildings: Russian Peak Oil →
Not sure if this will resonate, but interesting all the same. To be clear I find the Russian oligarchs distasteful to say the least. In fact I almost prefer the Russian govt. to the Oligarchs, because at least the state doesn’t pretend to be civilized.
Therefore, it is with some sense of satisfaction that the comeuppance of the oligarchs and there Kremlin supporters has come.
This is...
F.D.R’s Example Offers Obama Cautionary Lessons →
My concern is that people think we are just going to inevitably turn this economy around and that consumers will start spending again. Hear this a lot on CNBC. Here’s the problem, where is income growth going to come from. The past 10 years most of the growth has been via home equity and credit and that leverage is gone. So when we eliminate that leverage from the system, what’s left...
This is “While You Wait for Others” by...
Save Our Subways
askjerves:
Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on defense: 8,555
Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on health care: 10,779 Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on education: 17,687 Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on mass transit: 19,795
[IPS-DC]
Yet transit is—as I type—getting shafted in the stimulus package. Meanwhile, mass transit systems all...
Will Obama Save Liberalism? →
This is an OK column, not particularly earth shattering, though absolutely true, in my mind’s eye. What’s interesting is that this is William Kristol’s last column.
“Access is so superior to ownership, or possession, that it will drive the...”
– Kevin Kelly
iPod therefore I am →
My favorite quote is:
More received wisdom: we get the culture we deserve. Cultural pessimists see the insubstantiality of today’s offerings and conclude that we are somehow being punished for our inability to concentrate properly. But think about it this way: the closer we come to a truly inclusive, all-embracing culture, art that unifies all of us, the less time we have for those rarefied,...
PELOSI SAYS BIRTH CONTROL WILL HELP ECONOMY →
Man Pelosi is brutal. Democrats need to be really careful about letting Speaker Pelosi define and advocate her agenda.
Apparently Hockey is the new hotness in indie band...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-1-25) →
Study Sees an Obama Effect as Lifting Black... →
Seriously? I mean this is great but really. I’m sort of flabbergasted.
Key quote:
“But Dr. Kingsbury wondered whether the Obama effect would extend beyond the election, or prove transitory. “I’d want to see another study replicating their results before I get too excited about it,” he said.”
My brother of WithitMusic fame turned me onto this...
The Man Who Made Too Much →
The virtues of making the opposite bet when everyone is going the other weigh and using leverage to try and go farther the other way than their competitors.
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Update: Think I’ve already posted this article as it originally ran in Porfolio awhile back. If so, my apologies.
I threatened with the Diplo remix of...
Analyst Calls Citi's 1992 Level Support →
I understand that people trade in different ways and that folks love to simplify things, but I’ve always thought that “technical analysis” of stocks is absurd. Here’s an example of that absurdity.
Citi has support levels around $2 based on it’s 1992 trading patterns. How about, Citi is in shitloads of trouble because its business model which was an fundamental trade...
Bolivia Is The Saudi Arabia Of Lithium →
Reality check on the battery powered dream.
Canadian firm enters Chicago with hires from... →
The man, the myth, the legend has decided with his team to help turn Avison Young into a real estate powerhouse. So proud of my father, who at 59, is still taking big risks so that everyday is better than the last.
Wall Street May Be Looking at Withering Wages →
Interesting.
VideUhOh: Diane Sawyer Still Obviously Intoxicated →
Awesome
This is Tallest Man on Earth singing “Into...
Why Major in Economics? →
ECON was the best major for the information economy. Wonder what the best major for the networked economy. Here’s my bet Human Computer Interaction and Poli Sci double major.
Chicago Cubs Economy →
Would have loved to have Cuban as the owner. Instead we get the father of one of my sister’s classmates. Terrific!!
Worldwide Inauguration via Twitter →
This is awesome. I love data visualizations that work…this works.
