Jim Garven's Blog

Search
Skip to content
  • About Jim Garven
  • Jim Garven’s Home Page

Monthly Archives: June 2008

Humor

Vista Blues

June 22, 2008 Jim Garven Leave a comment

After using the so-called “Vista Ultimate” operating system for the past couple of months, I have finally seen the light and “downgraded” my notebook computer to Windows XP. Although I didn’t buy a Mac, the “Vista Blues” video hits the nail on the head!

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
Financial Crisis

Knowledge@Wharton's take on the subprime crisis

June 20, 2008 Jim Garven Leave a comment

I highly recommend Knowledge@Wharton’s new subprime crisis website,” entitled “Inside the Subprime Crisis: How Wall Street Alchemists, Ambitious Lenders, Overreaching Consumers and Enabling Lawmakers Pushed the Economy to the Brink of Recession, and How to Avoid a Repeat.”

]]>

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
Financial Crisis

Knowledge@Wharton’s take on the subprime crisis

June 20, 2008 Jim Garven Leave a comment

I highly recommend Knowledge@Wharton’s new subprime crisis website,” entitled “Inside the Subprime Crisis: How Wall Street Alchemists, Ambitious Lenders, Overreaching Consumers and Enabling Lawmakers Pushed the Economy to the Brink of Recession, and How to Avoid a Repeat.”

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
Economics, Energy, Public Policy

Drill! Drill! Drill!

June 12, 2008 Jim Garven Leave a comment

I would like to nominate Daniel Henninger, editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal, for president. His article in today’s WSJ, entitled “Drill! Drill! Drill!” provides a very clear analysis of the predicament that the U.S. faces as a result of its longstanding (30 years plus) policy of not developing domestic energy sources. Click on the video play button below to see an interview with Mr. Henninger about today’s column.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
Miscellaneous

Important books and readings

June 11, 2008 Jim Garven Leave a comment

I was recently asked by some of my students to provide a list of books and readings which I think that they ought to consider reading outside of class. I highly recommend the following set of books in particular:

1. Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, by Peter L. Bernstein.

2. A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Edition, by Burton G. Malkiel.

3. Stocks for the Long Run : The Definitive Guide to Financial Market Returns and Long-Term Investment Strategies, by Jeremy J. Siegel.

Philosophically, these books present what I would consider to be an “orthodox” view of finance, risk management, and economics; i.e., they fit well with the so-called rational choice, efficient markets view of the world.

For some heterodox alternatives, I like both of Nassim Taleb’s books:

4. Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (read this first).

5. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (the sequel to “Fooled by Randomness”).

Unfortunately, I can’t recommend any books on the topics of behavioral economics or behavioral finance; the books I know of tend to be either too advanced or too superficial for most readers. However, I do recommend the article entitled “Aspects of Investor Psychology” by Daniel Kahneman and Mark Riepe which appeared several years ago in the Journal of Portfolio Management.

Finally, I would be remiss to not also include two other favorites which are not books on finance or economics; rather they deal with the history and philosophy of applied mathematics. These books include:

6. Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences, by John Allen Paulos.

7. A Brief History of Infinity, by Brian Clegg.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Subscribe to Jim Garven's Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent Posts

  • On the ancient origin of the word “algorithm”
  • Pandemic Insurance – too little, too late…
  • Today’s required reading: The Day Coronavirus Nearly Broke the Financial Markets
  • Higher Education’s Enemy Within
  • A Movement Rises to Take Back Higher Education

Categories

Archives

A blog exploring the intersection of finance, economics, risk, public policy, & life in general

  • About Jim Garven
  • Jim Garven’s Home Page
June 2008
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  
« Mar   Jul »
Proudly powered by WordPress