Category Archives: Curiousities

NC Readers Rule!

Have fun and compare the readership of other bloggers (hat tip Richard Smith)! Although I do consider “celebrity twitterers” to be an oxymoron…..

JPMorgan gets paid to borrow $271 billion

We know that JPMorgan is not substantially increasing lending anytime soon. And we also know that banks are recapitalizing courtesy of a steep yield curve and near zero rates, what I would call free money. What I didn’t know is how free these funds truly were. An investor friend pointed out something curious buried deep […]

Is the Bundesbank against an IMF-enabled bailout of Greece?

It seems the wheels are coming off the European experiment. Yesterday, we had a huge meltdown in Greek bonds. Media reports suggest that a recent article in German daily Frankfurter Rundschau are what triggered the latest selloffs in Greek sovereign debt (See the Telegraph’s account here; hat tip Swedish Lex). This article leaked portions of […]

Throwing in the towel on policy makers

A post by Edward Harrison. Earlier today, I had a brief e-mail exchange with Marshall Auerback in which I said that I had basically thrown in the towel on US (and global) policy makers. Early on in this crisis, I had advocated a number of policy paths which I think would have been infinitely superior […]

An Open Letter to Dr. Laura Schlesinger

Time for a change of pace. This came via e-mail from Marshall Auerback: In her radio show, Dr. Laura Schlesinger (a popular conservative radio talk show host in the USA) said that homosexuality is an abomination according to the Bible Leviticus 18:22, and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The following response is an open […]

Jon Stewart: In Dodd We Trust

Hat tip reader Carrick. Enjoy! The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c In Dodd We Trust www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

How to Stay Awake During Obama Speeches: Play Bullshit Bingo

Via e-mail: 1. Before Barrack Obama’s next televised speech, prepare your “Bullshit Bingo” card by drawing a square. I find that 5″ x 5″ is a good size — and dividing it into columns –five across and five down. That will give you 25 1-inch blocks. 2. Write one of the following words/phrases in each block: Restored our […]

Amazon is Not So Dumb

I just received this, and some of the people who helped me with the book have received similar messages:

Imaging Imperial Washington

From Marshall Auerback. One thing that amused me about this rendition is that Obama is most visible as a statue, a mere bit of decoration, albeit the one meant to set the tone (he also appears as a less consequential figure behind MIchelle): Reader Keenan pointed to the source, which includes quotes for all of […]

Brilliant Marketing Meets Dark Humor

Maybe because I was always better at the quant-y courses in B-school than touchy-feelie ones (not that B-school has the most demanding academic standards, mind you), I’ve always been a bit leery of marketing, as opposed to selling. Selling I understand, the hocus-pocus with marketing has often seemed a bit dubious to me. Yes, there […]

“Where Can I Get Mine?”

This via e-mail from reader Scott: But as someone else on the thread remarked, “He thinks he needs a ‘decoder ring’ for that?”

How Many Quants Does It Take to Screw in a Lightbulb?

Some comic relief from reader Matthew G: How many quants does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Using ten racks of co-located blade servers, one quant can detect a janitorial inefficiency, step in between janitor and light fixture, and screw in 49,500 bulbs in less than a millisecond, keeping five hundred lightbulbs of profit. […]

Some Good Early Feedback on ECONNED

Folks, I am told that authors have to do (virtually) all the marketing for their books themselves and have to promote them shamelessly the time without looking like it. Since subtlety is not my strong suit, I hope readers will cut me a bit of slack if I mistakenly go overboard. I also hope describing […]

Let Them Eat Lobster!

This may seem sorta silly, but I come from a long line of Maine sea cooks and captains (each of whom got an extra share of the catch of the fishing ships they worked on, so one can romanticize it as being entrepreneurial, but if you have ever spent any time on the Maine coast, […]