Alea

Stumbling and Mumbling

The Friday questions

In what might become a regular feature, here are some unrelated questions arising this week. Feel free to help me out:1. The government wants children to learn about the slave trade. But in 18th century England, how much different were...

FT Alphaville

The Weekender

On FT Alphaville this week, - Charts du Jaws. - Temasek is famished. - From granite to mound. - Hello, Wells Fargo? - Save our beer kegs, drain covers and road signs. - Save our economy. - The great unwind. ...

Paul Krugman

Obama's speech

I just read the text. It’s a solid attack on Republican economic management, hitting many of the same themes as the Clintons did this week (and reminiscent of Clinton’s 1992 speech — which is high praise.) And is it possible ...

Le blog d'éconoclaste

La pauvreté mondiale augmente de 40% en une journée

Rassurez-vous : c'est uniquement parce que la Banque Mondiale a modifié son calcul du seuil de pauvreté mondial, qui passe de 1 dollar par jour et par personne, aux prix de 1993, à 1,25 dollar par jour et par personne, aux ...

Abnormal Returns

Friday links: accuracy and usefulness

Fannie and Freddie employees have taken a hit in the value of their ESOP accounts.  (NYTimes.com) Without some plausible reason it is difficult to believe September is a particularly bad month for the stock market.  (Marketwatch.com) Gold seasonality ...

Going Private

The Spiral - Part V - The Board

Part V of the Going Private miniseries "The Spiral." The Board of Directors is increasingly perturbed with the Chairman and CEO, but their loyalties are difficult to shed. Self-interest also prevents any meaningful change. Meanwhile, the Chairman and CEO presents ...

The Aleph Blog

Accounting for Quality: the Quality of Accounting

Accounting is esoteric.  :(  I say this as one who has never taken an accounting course in his life, but has written papers on accounting standards, and has had to implement them in the life insurance industry, which is possibly ...

Portfolio.com: Market Movers

Chart of the Day: Palin on InTrade

Here's today's intraday chart of Sarah Palin's contract at InTrade: this is meant to show the crowd's wisdom on the question of whether she will be John McCain's vice-presidential nominee. (The times are Irish, so they're 5 hours ahead of ...