tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40214752008-08-10T15:23:45.089-07:00DiariMateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comBlogger109125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-49662488538171452542008-08-10T15:17:00.000-07:002008-08-10T15:23:45.111-07:00A glorious article from the Washington Post about the trials and tribulations of wikipedia contributors and editors trying to forge a description of Ahmadinejad acceptable to all. If you have only read bits and pieces of discussion about Wikipedia being compromised or hopeless, this article gives the sense that Wikipedia is working better than it seems. Which helps me, at least, reconcile my Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-13022689652079188582008-07-30T21:04:00.000-07:002008-07-30T21:14:42.250-07:00Gooooood call. From a coworker: let's compare the Republican National Convention official clothing...with the pants worn by Rex Kwon Do in Napoleon Dynamite.
Now: is it Vanilla Ice or MC Hammer who should demand royalties?
Update: to my shock, some people don't believe me. Stop! Collaborate and listen. Then read the news for yourself Hammer time!Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-60804420406597052432008-07-25T21:39:00.000-07:002008-07-25T21:51:14.957-07:00Is it more amazing that an Indian sociologist would research gangs in hardcore, inner-city, Chicago neighborhoods, and not only live to tell about it, or that for want of inventing a clever new word like Freakonomics, he would get a tiny fraction of the attention for it?Regardless, see his latest wonderful article on the need to reform or eliminate HUD.If you've read Venkatesh's book on gangs, Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-59058144543435829452008-07-23T21:43:00.001-07:002008-07-23T21:46:41.038-07:00Be ready to back up your words.Echoing Warren Buffett's comments that the best investment is in yourself, Google SVP Jonathan Rosenberg tells students to major in learning.I think if Google wants anyone to listen, they should put their resources where their blog is, and emphasize learning in their job posts. It's no good to say "be good at learning" but then have job postings that require, for Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-33888131899508771082008-07-04T13:11:00.000-07:002008-07-04T13:14:58.863-07:00"YouTube alone now consumes more bandwidth than the entire Internet did in 2000, said Scott Cleland, president of the Precursor Group, a technology research firm." - Portland Oregonian, June 29, 2008.I see many mentions of the growth in Internet traffic, but this one seems as tangible and relevant as any.Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-10257653423637723422007-12-15T12:17:00.000-08:002007-12-15T12:32:33.427-08:00The head slap of the week, possibly even the month, comes from Paul Krugman of the New York Times. Krugman writes on Dec 14 "the problem with the markets isn’t just a lack of liquidity — there’s also a fundamental problem of solvency." I at least will happily confess that I have been led along by all the commentary on the liquidity problems in the market. Liquidity liquidity liquidity, as if someMateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-7298337264091479052007-09-28T19:47:00.000-07:002007-09-28T19:59:24.060-07:00Just found a wonderful article about Europe's liberalizing markets that goes on to point out that competition policy set in terms of consumer benefit winds up working out better for the economy as a whole. As an example, the authors cite the EC decision to regulate cell phone network connection charges.
One wonders if Cheney's secret Energy Policy Committee took this kind of thinking into Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-22876772127988539412007-09-02T23:25:00.001-07:002007-09-02T23:44:00.808-07:00Odd things don't make the news. Like the opposition party in Japan taking over one house of parliament for the first time ever. And the SEC offering up a 1-year stay-out-of-jail-free card to proud American citizens who didn't get around to getting jobs after they got mortgages:
The SEC has announced that they will allow mortgage lenders to work out resetting mortgages with borrowers in cases Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-4126005594487398922007-08-29T21:24:00.000-07:002007-08-29T21:36:27.883-07:00Barry Ritholtz commented recently on the not-surprising rise in credit card and mortgage defaults as the US economy heads south. Humorously, he figures that people will default on their credit cards to avoid defaulting on their mortgages, while the Financial Times has it the other way around.
Regardless of who's right, it gets me wondering about a 3rd factor. This economic cycle has been odd for Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-33282570143255632512007-07-28T21:40:00.000-07:002007-07-29T20:25:12.991-07:00Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture cites this interesting discussion on the nascent US recession. In a Barron's interview, Gabelli mutual fund manager Larry Haverty says "We are not getting a classic recession, probably due to the fact that inventory management has been so much better than it was 30 years ago, largely due to computers."
As Ritholtz says, this will allow corporate America to manageMateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-49403862003393832822007-07-25T21:21:00.000-07:002007-07-25T21:35:33.672-07:00Bill Gross runs the bond funds for PIMCO. PIMCO has more than $687 billion in assets under management which is more than I have in all my pants pockets combined, so we might as well listen to him. Gross writes quoting Buffett, "society should place an initial emphasis on abundance but then should continuously strive to redistribute the abundance more equitably." Following that reasoning, Gross Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-13243304399180663552007-07-19T20:25:00.000-07:002007-07-19T20:33:54.927-07:00Me-too blogger Steve Jobs makes a great point in the process of mocking the record stores. In the long run, whole classes of retailers have disappeared or are disappearing because of the internet. First it was computer stores, because their salespeople knew less than their customers, and their customers wouldn't pay the premium for customers who knew more. Now it's record stores. Their Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-58305373015443578232007-07-04T09:00:00.000-07:002007-07-04T09:07:31.088-07:00The NY Times brings weight to a theory I've had about the Prius for quite a while. First, because it's not mentioned in the article, remember that a Prius makes no economic sense. The additional cost of a Prius vs. say a Camry swamps any savings in gasoline a customer will see. Second, more recently, you have the option of buying hybrid versions of the Accord (now discontinued), Civic and Camry. Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-57917734384333698612007-06-22T17:53:00.001-07:002007-06-22T18:00:24.639-07:00From a Los Angeles Times article on urban development: neighborhoods in Portland with mixed use and good transit have a much lower share of auto use: 58% of trips by auto compared to 87% in suburban neighborhoods. Nice to see some solid justification for light rail. Even as a great fan, the cost is cause for concern...Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-21121480798658988312007-06-13T17:38:00.000-07:002007-06-13T21:31:32.321-07:00Barry Ritholtz shows why he makes the big money with a post on reality-based inflation that goes well beyond what I had tried to do using Bureau of Labor Standards (BLS) data.
You'll note that not every item falls in with the stated 2-3% inflation. Ahem.Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-80406594665326967712007-06-03T09:49:00.000-07:002007-06-03T09:53:18.412-07:00The NY Times has an article on Google's search algorithm today. If you're thinking of competing, here's one good idea:... Google does more than simply build an outsized, digital table of contents for the Web. Instead, it actually makes a copy of the entire Internet — every word on every page — that it stores in each of its huge customized data centers so it can comb through the information Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-58140149909023706612007-05-22T21:12:00.000-07:002007-05-22T21:12:49.082-07:00Mauldin echoes recent household conversations, only with hard data:
Few people I know slice and dice the details in the data better than good friend Greg Weldon (http://www.weldononline.com). Let's look at some of the tidbits he found buried in the CPI data.
Food at home prices (different than restaurants) are rising at a three-month rate of over 8.6%, up from only 0.8% in January. Alcoholic Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-49132160412417193142007-05-20T08:41:00.000-07:002007-05-20T08:54:19.067-07:00As any critical reader of news knows, what's reported depends in part on who reports it. Understanding the bias of the reporter or reporting agency should give readers a fuller sense of the event reported.
Or sometimes it just makes you weep.
ELIZABETH M. NUNEZ, Associated Press Writer, reports that "Tens of thousands of Venezuelans marched Saturday to support a TV station aligned with opponents Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-82253532901832573582007-05-19T21:18:00.000-07:002007-05-20T12:19:16.274-07:00"The central banks of the world have largely lost the ability to control the money supply, other than by the narrowest of measures, which are increasingly less meaningful." -John Mauldin, Apr 28 newsletter.
It took me a while to start thinking this was the case. The Fed somewhat mysteriously retired the M3 money supply metric (often considered the broadest measure) late in 2005. I took this to Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-66167891209855373142007-04-26T19:52:00.000-07:002007-04-26T20:20:33.128-07:00The Economist recently reported on the vicissitudes of high-fashion companies in Italy (Tutto in famiglia, subscription required). In the article, The Economist points out that among haute coture brands, Armani stands out for remaining independent. Giorgio Armani argues that the markets overreact to seasonal results, but I see moral hazard as the bigger problem for fasion conglomerates. The Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-36979789672945615292007-04-15T13:13:00.000-07:002007-04-15T13:24:15.383-07:00For some reason, it never occurred to me that people immigrating to the USA would become less religious, but the NY Times claims US Hispanics are going to church less. The subtext here, never mentioned, it the battle for Hispanic voters between Democrats and Republicans. Dems try to attract Hispanics more with messages of social justice, while the GOP generally uses a religious angle. However, Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-56072393583402987552007-04-01T12:35:00.000-07:002007-04-01T12:35:38.710-07:00A certain internal organ I know tagged me for the 5 things you don't know about me meme. I panicked, figuring the 3 friends who read this blog would already know pretty much everything interesting I could list. I came up with one or two old tidbits, but then I had an inspiration: wait for the appropriate day to post.
I studied Chinese for a year. Still even remember a little.
I'm a vegetarian, Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-75190125458751681532007-03-29T20:18:00.000-07:002007-03-29T20:28:56.324-07:00Whoops, there went March. In my defense, it didn't seem like much interesting happened. There was the daylight saving change... Then there was that penny I saw on the sidewalk the other day. But behold, at the final minute, interesting news!
Professor Donald Shoup of UCLA writes in the NY Times that more than a quarter of traffic congestion is caused by people trying to park, and those people Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-3621812963277559742007-02-05T22:03:00.000-08:002007-02-05T22:47:02.571-08:00Stephen Roach, the ever insightful chief economist at Morgan Stanley, wrote a crisp piece on how unprepared the rich world is for the globalization it has brought to the poor world. Probably unsurprising, I would go further than Mr. Roach. He writes:Over time, each major wave of innovation has hit its critical mass of penetration considerably faster than the wave that preceded it. For example, Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4021475.post-81964705663019973162007-01-20T22:00:00.000-08:002007-01-20T22:41:26.697-08:00Most Americans believe they work more today than they did 35 years ago. Yet according to the American Time Use Survey, an ambitious project that for 41 years has been asking thousands of participants to keep detailed time diaries, Americans now have five more hours of leisure per week (38) than they did in 1965. - Can't Get No Satisfaction by Jennifer Senior, New York Magazine
Hat tip to Manano Mateuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13981483755145146522noreply@blogger.com