March 2009
Strategies: Now the Long Run Looks Riskier, Too,... →
What about Professor Siegel’s finding that the stock market has produced an annual average inflation-adjusted return of close to 7 percent since 1802? In an interview, Professor Pastor emphasized that the last two centuries could easily have been less hospitable to the United States, most likely lowering the stock market’s returns. An investor couldn’t have known in advance that the United States...
Reinventing America’s Cities: The Time Is Now... →
I am also a fan of a National Infrastructure Bank, an idea that was first proposed by the financiers Felix Rohatyn and Everett Ehrlich.
The bank would function something like a domestic World Bank, financing large-scale undertakings like subways, airports and harbor improvements. Presumably it would be able to funnel money into the more sustainable, forward-looking projects. It could also...
The Quiet Coup (Simon Johnson in The Atlantic) →
“The marvel of Wikipedia — and cities — is that all the intercourse and spiritual...”
– Wikipedia: Exploring Fact City (nyt)
WatchEconomic Recovery Dashboard Not bad, though I wish you didn’t have to click “historical details” to see the charts.
footnoted.org: Penny pinching at Ford? →
Isn’t the “I need a private plane for security” stance self-reinforced by being a jackass that people want to beat up? (Sorry, never been a big Mulally fan after exposure through Boeing. Plus he’s my first tycoon CEO where I’ve happened to pick up his career moves. Most other CEOs are unknown to me, though I have a feeling I’ll age into knowing more.)
Living With Music: A Bollywood Playlist by Daphne... →
Such a great list. I’m surprised how many I already knew, though some mashup or sample or another.
The Economics of Snooping on Internet Traffic... →
“The only real motivation that anyone at A.I.G.-F.P. now has is fear. Mr. Cuomo...”
– Op-Ed Contributor - Dear A.I.G., I Quit! - NYTimes.com
about f-ing time we actually see the other side of this witch hunt (via lisawilkins)
Power to the People: 7 Ways to Fix the Grid, Now... →
WatchLate Night with Jimmy Fallon - Slow Jam The News (3/19/09) The single best part of the show.
'The Peter Principle' -- 40 years later (Women for... →
If you had some advice for anyone in the corporate America today –man or woman – what would it be?
The most important choice you can make is the boss and coworkers you will be working with – not the company as a whole (especially if it is big). If they are civilized, competent, and supportive people, you will be happy. If they are not, you will not only suffer, you will also catch the...
“For committed free-thinkers, the limitations of reverence as a philosophical...”
– Everybody’s Holocaust: Jonathan Littell’s Fictional Nazi and Postmodernity’s Double Bind - The Millions via Jaime.
“If Geithner’s taxpayer subsidized toxic public/private plan goes forward, I...”
– Let the People In « The Baseline Scenario A very interesting reader suggestion. I’d buy into an ETF with that structure. Long-term profits could ease the pain that will come through my taxes, right?
Britney Spears' "If U Seek Amy" pun was cribbed... →
slateinbrief:
Britney: “If U Seek Amy” = “F. U. C. K. me”
Memphis Slim, Stevie Moore, April Wine, Poster Children, The Script: “If You See Kay” = “F. U. C. K.”
James Joyce: “If you see kay / Tell him he may / See you in tea / Tell him from me.” = “F. U. C. K. / x / C. U. N. T. / x”
Shakespeare: “By my life this is my lady’s hand. These be her very C’s, her U’s and her T’s and thus makes...
“The prevailing educational method is consistent at all levels. It is to approach...”
– The Ruricolist: Old textbooks
“Using a HARDI (High-Angular Resolution Diffusion Imaging) scanner to visualize...”
– HARDI Scanner Says Intelligence Is Inherited (Medgadget)
WatchLate Night with Jimmy Fallon - Public Enemy with The Roots (3/16/09) Antibalas horns, too. Damn.
“‘O tempora, O mores’? O give it a rest.”
– McSweeney’s Lists: Tweets From the Roman Senate During Cicero’s First Oration Against Catiline.
How do you escape a sinking space station? →
slateinbrief:
By using a Russian-made spacecraft called a Soyuz, “a lightweight, energy-efficient vehicle that can remain docked at the space station for up to six months. “
CrossingWallStreet.com: The Roubini Portfolio →
Behold the Bank of New York Mellon contract -... →
For five months, BailoutSleuth has been waiting for the Treasury Department to provide a complete, unredacted copy of its services agreement with Bank of New York Mellon, the master custodian for the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.
We finally located one, on a web site that the Treasury Department set up to post copies of its investment contracts with banks, its loan deals with...
Nationalization and Capitalism « The Baseline... →
“As a side note, and possibly related to this post, I recalled the word...”
– NPR: Mourning What We Thought Was Already Dead Via Jaime. Awesome.
Goal of New Index Series Is to Advance Gender... →
Call me a hapless romantic, but I like using my investments to support lost causes. I have positions in both Pax World Women’s Equity Fund, Portfolio 21 and I might pick up something in these new efforts.
footnoted.org: More on Google’s option exchange… →
Given how much information Google put out to employees about the option exchange program and given how much Google stock has fallen — it was over $700 at the end of December 2007 — the only real question is why 7.3% of those eligible didn’t exchange their options.
Pitchfork: Thom Yorke to Remix DOOM →
Holy shit! (Subhead: Kanye is jealous.)
“So it looks like it is going to be an L – not a V or a U. I mean an L-shaped...”
– FT.com: An L of a recession – reform is the way out Why letters? Have we really associated the hockey-stick shape so strongly with generic business progress that its shape can’t be meaningful reversed? That seems a lot more appropriate than the flat, bottom part of an L, even when...
What Do Dreams Mean? Whatever Your Bias Says... →
Once you see how flexible dream interpretation can be, you can appreciate why it has always been such a popular tool for decision-making. Relying on your dreams for guidance is like the political ritual of appointing an “independent blue-ribbon panel” to resolve an issue. You can duck any personal responsibility for action while pretending to rely on an impartial process, even though you’ve...
“Can you at least spell “its” correctly on your way out?”
– Digital Web Magazine comment by Joe Clark.
Carbon Nanotubes Used to Stitch Materials Together... →
How does nanostitching work? The polymer glue between two carbon-fiber layers is heated, becoming more liquid-like. Billions of nanotubes positioned perpendicular to each carbon-fiber layer are then sucked up into the glue on both sides of each layer. Because the nanotubes are 1000 times smaller than the carbon fibers, they don’t detrimentally affect the much larger carbon fibers, but...
“It’s sad to know that new content will no longer sprout from this fountain but...”
– Digital Web Magazine I love Snook’s mixed metaphor. 