Assorted Links (8/2/2010)

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading lately:

Hurricane Neal: Cat. 5 – Barrons.com

online.barrons.com

“Rep. Richard Neal’s bill has foreign insurance companies worried.”

‘Dilbert’ Cartoonist Puts His Money Into ETFs – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Scott Adams uses his ‘Dilbert’ strip to mock actively managed funds and their managers.”

Connecticut Probing Pricing of E-Books – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is conducting a preliminary review of digital-book deals between publishers and sellers including Amazon and Apple, noting similarity of prices.” Hmmm… I wonder if this means that the local gas stations are also colluding, since it sure seem (to me anyway) like they also offer their products at very similar prices!

We’re Still #1 (Unfortunately) « Donald Marron

dmarron.com

“The Bureau of Economic Analysis rewrote history on Friday. Along with GDP data for the second quarter, BEA also published revisions to its GDP estimates since the start of 2007…Bottom line: The recession was worse than originally thought. The economy contracted by 4.1% from peak to trough (Q2 2008 to Q2 2009), up from the 3.9% previously estimated. The Great Recession has thus solidified its position as the worst downturn since World War II…”

Report: Unemployment High Because People Keep Blowing Their Job Interviews

theonion.com

“With unemployment at its highest level in decades, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a report Tuesday suggesting the crisis is primarily the result of millions of Americans just completely blowing their job interviews.”

Number of the Week: Default Repercussions – Real Time Economics – WSJ

blogs.wsj.com/economics

“Twenty-five percent of Americans now have a credit score of less than 600. In an economy where credit plays a central role, that presents a significant obstacle to recovery.”

Book review: Higher Education? – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Mark Bauerlein reviews Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids—and What We Can Do About It, by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus.”

Paul Rubin: A Gulf Spill Tort Primer and Why BP SHould be Fully Liable – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, economist Paul Rubin explains why BP should be held fully liable for all economic damages.”

Arthur Laffer: The Soak-the-Rich Catch-22 – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Arthur Laffer, writing in The Wall Street Journal, says few things are so clear in economics as the fact that high tax rates don’t succeed in raising revenue or increasing the burden on the wealthy.”

Crovitz: WikiLeaks and ‘War Crimes’ – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“WikiLeaks.org founder Julian Assange says he wants to protect civilians. In fact he’s endangering them.”

UTIMCO move into gold a warning | Viewpoints, Outlook | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle

www.chron.com

“The Chronicle recently reported that The University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO) invested $500 million in gold. Normally, it’s not significant news when UTIMCO allocates 3 percent of its portfolio to a particular investment, but this particular investment decision was widely reported…”

Sand Drawings :: Jim Denevan

blog.2modern.com

“Jim Denevan is an artist based out of Santa Cruz, California who travels the globe creating large scale pieces of land art. Drawn on sand, earth, and ice, these incredible works of art are both created and destroyed by the very materials that enable their existence.”

A 'Dilbert' Guide to Funds

Here’s my favorite quote (and cartoon) from an article which appeared in today’s Wall Street Journal entitled “A ‘Dilbert’ Guide to Funds”: “Mr. Adams says that from his perspective as a cartoonist, “there has to be something broken in order to get a joke out of it.” In a series of “Dilbert” comic strips that ran in 1997, Mr. Adams—who spent years in corporate America and got an M.B.A. along the way—definitely got some laughs out of actively managed mutual funds.”

Dilbert-Toon

Click on the comic-strip frame above to see the full image.

 

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A ‘Dilbert’ Guide to Funds

Here’s my favorite quote (and cartoon) from an article which appeared in today’s Wall Street Journal entitled “A ‘Dilbert’ Guide to Funds”: “Mr. Adams says that from his perspective as a cartoonist, “there has to be something broken in order to get a joke out of it.” In a series of “Dilbert” comic strips that ran in 1997, Mr. Adams—who spent years in corporate America and got an M.B.A. along the way—definitely got some laughs out of actively managed mutual funds.”

Dilbert-Toon

Click on the comic-strip frame above to see the full image.