A representative terrible article on quants

Clearly the author knows almost no computer science, statistics, or much of anything else:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/188342-model-misbehavior-the-quants-how-a-new-breed-of-math-whizzes-conquered-wall-street-and-nearly-destroyed-it-by-scott-patterson?source=hp_wc

Ridiculous Stress Test News

From the WA Post:

"The government will not require Bank of America Corp. to raise any new capital as a result of its stress test, although the company will be required to increase its holdings of common equity, the most dependable kind of capital, by about $35 billion"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/06/AR2009050602182.html?wprss=rss_business

"the most dependable kind of capital"- how much less knowledgeable could this article possibly sound?

It makes sense after you read that they are switching the gov's preferred shares to common, but not getting more, however they still seem pretty clueless.

The Dow Knows all

The Daily Show: The Dow knows all

News

The Onion is the only news network telling the truth

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/al_qaeda_also_fed_up_with_ground

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/9_11_conspiracy_theories

Divorce the 'Asset'

In the past there were always stories of divorcees who fought over the assets. Now they're fighting not to get the assets (with the mortgage included)
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2008/12/ny-times-toxic-homes-and-divorces.html

All of these 'walking away' stories seemed like media exaggeration at first but now they seem more and more legitimate.

Consultants

from the WSJ, describing the depressed holiday season:

... said Mary Delk, a director in the retail practice at consulting firm Deloitte LLP. "Retailers went from 'Ho-ho' to 'Uh-oh' to 'Oh-no.'"

That is some valuable management consulting wisdom right there. It would make a fine and witty conclusion to a powerpoint presentation.

Myths of the Financial Crisis

Here is a very interesting, 3 weeks young paper discussing some myths of the financial crises (click). Some I partially disagree with but overall it shoots down many of the conclusions being drawn by news sources from the Ted spread data etc.

The only banks with liquidity now are sperm banks

(Seen on Sproul Plaza)

Forbes Writer Gets Creative

I like this title a Forbes writer came up with: Natural Gas: Booming In The Beltway

Forbes = elementary school potty jokes

Berkeley vs. Labor Union

Berkeley has officially lost it's revolutionary spirit:

It looks like they're holding the signs because otherwise you'd think they were just more homeless. My favorite line from the article on UCB's website:

About 300 employees did not report to work, yet it is unknown how many of them
were participating in the strike.

Gotta love unions. From the article it doesn't sound like anybody has noticed their absense because many workers and custodial staff are not striking.

Obama Supports FISA

On Wednesday the FISA bill was passed with the support of Barack Obama. From the NY Times:

The measure, approved by a vote of 69 to 28, is the biggest revamping of federal surveillance law in 30 years. It includes a divisive element that Mr. Bush had deemed essential: legal immunity for the phone companies that cooperated in the National Security Agency wiretapping program he approved after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Check out "Obama Statement on FISA" from Feb 12 '08. The following is copied and pasted from his site in case it is deleted or changed:

Obama Statement on FISA
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Printable
Format
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Michael Ortiz, 202 228
5566
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today released the following statement on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Earlier today, Senator Obama voted in favor of the Dodd-Feingold amendment to repeal retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies (S. Amdt. 3907). He also supported other amendments to improve the bill, including the Feingold-Webb-Tester amendment to protect Americans from unwarranted surveillance (S. Amdt. 3979), and the Feingold amendment to protect Americans from the bulk collection of communications (S. Amdt. 3912). "I am proud to stand with Senator Dodd, Senator Feingold and a grassroots movement of Americans who are refusing to let President Bush put protections for special interests ahead of our security and our liberty. There is no reason why telephone companies should be given blanket immunity to cover violations of the rights of the American people - we must reaffirm that no one in this country is above the law. "We can give our intelligence and law enforcement community the powers they need to track down and take out terrorists without undermining our commitment to the rule of law, or our basic rights and liberties. That is why I am proud to cosponsor several amendments that protect our privacy while making sure we have the power to track down and take out terrorists. "This Administration continues to use a politics of fear to advance a political agenda. It is time for this politics of fear to end. We are trying to protect the American people, not special interests like the telecommunications industry. We are trying to ensure that we don't sacrifice our liberty in pursuit of security, and it is past time for the Administration to join us in that effort."

What about the "lessor of two evils", libertarian candidate Bob Barr? He doesn't look [politically, not just the mustache] that great either, he supported the Patriot Act, authored the Defense of Marriage Act, and supported the Iraq war. And he has at least one skeleton in his closet.

Please tell me if you think there are good reasons to vote for any candidate.

Totalitarian Olympics

The headlines about Olympic preparations are always interesting (all from the Financial Times):

"Beijing wants dogs off menu during Olympics"

"China cracks down on cars for Olympics"

"China fund managers asked to stay for Games" (to "ensure stock market stability")

"China shoots dead five ‘holy war’ militants" (who "were a pressing threat to next month's Olympic Games")

"Beijing unrepentant over Olympic motto"

"Beijing issues Olympics clapping guide"

And from NY Times: "No Spitting on the Road to Olympic Glory"

They need to chill out. I've heard dog is actually decent- and it's not like foreigners can read the menu anyway.

Terrorism and Berkeley

The prevailing (stifling) sentiment at Berkeley is that terrorism was fabricated by the Bush "regime" and propogated by Fox News to justify oil ambitions. An article in the FT today about a Taliban suicide attack against the Indian embassy in Kabul surprised me because liberal news sources favorably represent terrorists as merely fighting the oil thirst and westernizing influence of the US. Nothing like this is brought up (is anyone even aware?).

Unfortunately the reasoning behind the attack was not given, the closest thing to an explanation was implied in the statement by the Indian Foreign Ministry, "Such acts of terror will not deter us from fulfilling our commitments to the government and people of Afghanistan". Apparently the Taliban just resents any outside influence in Islamic regions.