I know the cynics round here will scoff as usual, but I can tell the difference between my lousy CD player on its own and my lousy CD player standing on an orange crate, and that gives me sublime mojo.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

Beyoncé's new single spells economic doom | Music | guardian.co.uk

Beyoncé's worldwide hit, Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It), is not just catchy - it may spell doom for international finance.

According to findings by Phil Maymin, professor of finance and risk engineering at New York University, the more regular the beat on Billboard's top singles, the more volatile the American markets. After studying decades of Billboard's Hot 100 hits, Maymin found that songs with low "beat variance" had an inverse correlation with market turbulence. Which is to say, the more regular the song, the crazier the stock market.

And Single Ladies is very regular.

...

Some of history's steadiest hits - such as A-Ha's Take On Me - were released at times of market crash. Whereas complex songs, "with all these beat changes and stuff", seem to catch on when the markets are sedate.

"The correlation is pretty strong," Maymin argued. Weirder still, the beat variance of songs seems to predict the markets - not the other way around. According to his research, the market becomes unstable only after the charts are full of steady tunes - almost as if certain hits can cause market shake-ups.

"The turbulence of the music predicts the steadiness of the market," Maymin explained. And Beyoncé's chart dominance? Well, it may not mean good things for your pension.

Mother Jones - Dvid Cay Johnston - Fiscal Therapy

for years now, whenever I've been invited to lecture students on how our tax system works, I have asked a simple question: What is the purpose of the United States of America? The most common answer, be it at prestigious universities, elite prep schools, rural community colleges, or crowded urban high schools, is this: To make people rich.
This should come as no great surprise. For anyone born after, say, 1970, the world has been shaped by Ronald Reagan's remaking of government's relationship with private interests - a vision of lower taxes, less regulation, and maximum economic leeway for those at the top. In this view, the pursuit of wealth is the warp and weft of America; everything else will follow.

By contrast, the preamble to the Constitution tells us the nation's reason for being in 52 words that can be reduced to six principles: society, justice, peace, security, commonwealth, and freedom. Individual riches don't make the list. They are a product of American society, not its guiding purpose. Progress, then, must begin with a return to the best of the values that created this Second American Republic - one born, it's worth remembering, from the failure of the Articles of Confederation, whose principles (weak government, unfettered capitalism) found their resurrection in the economic policies of the past three decades.

h/t : the sideshow

keep to the Fen Causeway

Undercover Asset Debrief | Times | 11 Jan 2009

It is just one of many money-spinning engagements that are expected to take his earnings to £15m by July, two years since his departure from Downing Street.

Blair is now facing serious questions over his commitment as a Middle East envoy to the quartet of the United Nations, United States, Europe and Russia. ...

Dumisani Kumalo, South Africa's ambassador to the UN, said that Blair was asked last October to address the council on his progress, but has not yet done so, nor has he set foot in Gaza. ... "We wanted to know what Blair was doing in Gaza . . . we need to know what the quartet envoy is doing. He has never been to Gaza. It is now three months [since Blair was asked]."

Last week Gordon Brown let slip that his long-term rival was still on holiday - prompting Blair to embark on a flurry of broadcast interviews. ...

While performing his duties in the Middle East, Blair holds court at the American Colony hotel in east Jerusalem. He hires an entire floor of the hotel at a cost to the public purse of about £700,000 a year. ...

According to details of his schedule obtained by The Sunday Times, Blair's upcoming commitments include the climate conference in Abu Dhabi on January 21, a university talk near Boston on February 2 and a trip to a California theatre where tickets cost up to $380 each.

Blair ranks as the most expensive speaker in the world. His agents at the Washington Speakers Bureau typically charge $250,000 (£164,000) for a 90-minute speech.

He is also paid about £2m a year by JP Morgan Chase and a further £500,000 a year by Zurich Financial Services. The deal for his memoirs is worth a reported £4.6m.  

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Me haces bien - Jorge Drexler	You do me good - Jorge Drexler
Para contarte, canto.	To tell you, I sing.
Quiero que sepas	I want you to know
cuánto me haces bien.	how much you do me good.
Me haces bien.	You do me good.
Me haces bien.	You do me good.
Te quiero de mil modos,	I love you in a thousand ways,
te quiero sobre todo.	I love you above all.
Me haces bien.	You do me good.
Me haces bien.	You do me good.
Me haces bien.	You do me good.
Basta ver el reflejo de tus ojos en los míos,	It's enough to see the reflection of your eyes on mine,
como se lleva el frío,	how it takes away the cold,
para entender	to understand
que el corazón no miente,	that the heart does not lie,
que, afortunadamente,	that, fortunately,
me haces bien.	you do me good.
Me haces bien.	You do me good.
Me haces bien.	You do me good.

Most economists teach a theoretical framework that has been shown to be fundamentally useless. -- James K. Galbraith

TBG and I will be stopping in Paris on Friday evening. We'll be going to LEP's house for the night since that gives us something of a head start for the following day as we'll be driving South, but we're planning on having dinner with some ETers if it can be arranged, possibly in the vicinity of Jerome's house (that's in the 16th arr.).

Who should we expect? What time should we have dinner given that it's a workday? Any suggestions on the venue?

Most economists teach a theoretical framework that has been shown to be fundamentally useless. -- James K. Galbraith

After the Geithner endorsement, I swore I'd never go back. Well, I confess. I missed the comments.

I wonder if Madoff is employing the Scheherazade defense: each night telling a exotic story about where another 10 million dollars may be hidden, awaiting the Feds to retrieve it and return it to its rightful owners. As long as his captors are interested in the stories he tells, he avoids prison.
trader walt | 01.12.09 - 1:17 pm | #

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

They look right to me, and I think I know what broke them. Is it fixed for other people??

Overheard on facebook:

[State Rep.] is yay. recess!

[State Rep.'s friend] quick! grab the swings before the Republicans do!

Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.