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.

Majority voting is inconsistent & cyclical

Condorcet's voting paradox demonstrates how solid democracy's foundation truly is.

Persons 1,2,3 are voting for candidates A,B,C with the following individual preference lists:

Person1: A>B>C

Person2: B>C>A

Person3: C>A>B

Using a majority voting rule, we can see that A would beat B, since A>B in two out of three peoples' preference lists. Similarly, B>C and C>A. 

But then A>B>C>A which is obviously unreasonable. 

The Dow Knows all

The Daily Show: The Dow knows all

Irrationality

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

Math, with a capital 'M'

from UC Berkeley's job board:

Employer:	Cutler Group LP
Division:	N/A
Title:	Trading Analyst
Qualification:	Qualified applicants must be self-motivated, have a history of superior academic achievement, and possess a strong aptitude in Math. For the Trading Analyst role, special ....

How unimpressive.

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.