In today’s crazy world we can’t know everything, so we depend on Experts. But it seems to me, that like other things, Expertability is being dumbed down. A number of public figures come to mind, among them, Politicians Cable News Personalities Radio Talk Show Hosts They really are experts in their chosen fields, which is … Continue reading
It’s a safe bet that this photo of Muammar Qaddafi was not taken by his official photographer. Perhaps the Economist used this photo in their article of Military Coup Leaders to get in a dig at Colonel Qaddafi during the week that Scotland and the UK were taking heat for releasing Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the … Continue reading
Last week the Economist published OECD data showing the change in gas taxes for a number of countries. As you can see, the jump in taxes for some countries is pretty astounding. I‘ve always admired the Economist’s data presentations, so I decided to see how difficult it is to duplicate their techniques. So I started … Continue reading
I’m really proud that we scooped the NY Times by 3 months on a story they published today. And while we called them Death Bonds, the Times’ headline beats around the bush: Wall Street Pursues Profit in Bundles of Life Insurance On the other hand the Times article is very in-depth and up-to-date. When we wrote … Continue reading
On Monday we speculated that McDonald’s Big Mac would come to replace our Dollar as the world’s premier reserve currency. Then on Tuesday The Wall Street Journal ledes their Money & Investing Section with: Decades from now, the crisis of 2008 mightn’t be remembered as the last days of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, but as the … Continue reading
We are predicting that The Big Mac will soon be taking on a expanded role in Global Finance as an alternative candidate to the US Dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Not a week goes by now without another Global financial indicator being tied to the Big Mac. You will recall that this all began … Continue reading
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One lesson I’ve learned over the years is to ask the right question. Which is not what’s happening these days as politicians wring their hands over the huge pay packages being granted by financial firms that have been bailed out by the government. They’ve even appointed a Pay Czar. Give me a break. The right … Continue reading
Just an observation about a new-to-me turn of phrase. Obviously… It seems like every time I see a press conference these days, a not insignificant number of answers begin with the phrase “obviously…” I think it’s a symptom of what media communication has become. The latest version of political correctness, or perhaps a stab at … Continue reading
And I thought the people who publish books were a whole lot smarter than the people who publish music. My Bad! The recent product recall of George Orwell’s 1984 from those Amazon Kindles showed us that anybody can get wrapped up in their DRM underwear. But everyone is getting their panties in a bunch over … Continue reading
It really is a small world; who would have thought… Everyone knows about Bernie (Madoff). And the people who read this blog are at the cutting edge because they also know about Dan Ariely, who was the subject of a post last month. Dan is a Behavioral Economist and the author of the best selling … Continue reading