Friday, May 1, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Facebook Brain Drain
College students who use Facebook spend less time studying and have lower grade point averages than students who have not signed up for the social networking website, according to a pilot study at one university.
More here.
More here.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Reflexive Rebound
the famed reflexive rebound that occurs between the down-legs of the secular bear market, as so eloquently referenced in Rule #8 of Bob Farrell’s Market Rules to Remember (it goes like this – “Bear markets have three phases: sharp down, reflexive rebound, and a long fundamental drawn-out decline”). By “reflexive rebound” what is meant is a real bear market rally that can last between four to eight months and have the capacity to rebound between 25% and 50%, as opposed to the countless flashy but not particularly tradable rallies that typically last four to eight weeks and post a 10% to 20% bounce.
full post here.
full post here.
Negative Interest Rates
WITH unemployment rising and the financial system in shambles, it’s hard not to feel negative about the economy right now. The answer to our problems, however, could well be more negativity. But I’m not talking about attitude. I‘m talking about numbers.
NY Times article here.
NY Times article here.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Finally...
For the comfort and well-being of all customers aboard United flights, we have aligned with other major airlines' seating policies relating to passengers who:
- are unable to fit into a single seat in the ticketed cabin;
- are unable to properly buckle the seatbelt using a single seatbelt extender; and/or
- are unable to put the seat's armrests down when seated.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Dubai is NOT Where it is At.
"Before I came here, I didn't know anything about Dubai law. I assumed if all these big companies come here, it must be pretty like Canada's or any other liberal democracy's," she says. Nobody told her there is no concept of bankruptcy. If you get into debt and you can't pay, you go to prison."
Full story here.
"On the night of December 31, 2008 alone more than 80 vehicles were found at the airport. "Sixty cars were seized on the first day of this year," director general of Airport Security, Mohammed Bin Thani, told DNA over the phone. On the same day, deputy director of traffic, colonel Saif Mohair Al Mazroui, said they seized 22 cars abandoned at a prohibited area in the airport."
Full story here.
Full story here.
"On the night of December 31, 2008 alone more than 80 vehicles were found at the airport. "Sixty cars were seized on the first day of this year," director general of Airport Security, Mohammed Bin Thani, told DNA over the phone. On the same day, deputy director of traffic, colonel Saif Mohair Al Mazroui, said they seized 22 cars abandoned at a prohibited area in the airport."
Full story here.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Lehman Does it Again
It's sort of odd that Lehman is "sitting on 500,000 pounds" of yellowcake uranium. Not because it is odd for firms not directly in the business to own an interest in the element. This is quite common actually as uranium futures are actually traded now. What is unusual is that Lehman would seem to have taken physical delivery- a scenario which would imply licensing and a host of regulatory headaches that seem silly when you can trade cash settled futures contracts if you really want to play the metal. In any case, Lehman acquired the stuff "under a matured commodities contract." (Read: The contract expired and they were forced to accept physical delivery). Now they are stuck with a pile of the stuff in Canada- where no one wants it, and in a down market.
Doh.
Tax Freedom Day
As of April 13th, the average American has earned enough (including medicare, fica, Social Security, and taxes) to cover their 2009 tax burden. Theoretically, from April 14th and on is when you actually start earning money.
Link.
Link.
Facts About Marriage
Take two children, one growing up with married parents in the United States, and one growing up with unmarried parents in Sweden; which child has the higher likelihood of seeing his parents’ relationship break up? Answer: the American kid, because children living with married parents in the United States have a higher probability of experiencing a breakup than do children living with unmarried parents in Sweden. That’s how high our breakup rates are.
Full interview with Book Author here.
Book by Andrew Cherin here.
Full interview with Book Author here.
Book by Andrew Cherin here.
Spring
Did you know that in 1965 the U.S. Department of Agriculture planted a particular variety of lilac in more than 70 locations around the U.S. Northeast, to detect the onset of spring — in turn to be used to determine the appropriate timing of corn planting and the like? The records the U.S.D.A. have kept show that those same lilacs are blooming as much as two weeks earlier than they did in 1965. April has, in a very real sense, become May.
Book here.
Book here.
Lobbying
In a remarkable illustration of the power of lobbying in Washington, a study released last week found that a single tax break in 2004 earned companies $220 for every dollar they spent on the issue -- a 22,000 percent rate of return on their investment.
The study by researchers at the University of Kansas underscores the central reason that lobbying has become a $3 billion-a-year industry in Washington: It pays. The $787 billion stimulus act and major spending proposals have ratcheted up the lobbying frenzy further this year, even as President Obama and public-interest groups press for sharper restrictions on the practice.
From Washington Post.
Trivia Question
What and when was the deepest economic collapse in any non-communist, non-wartime, fully industrialized country since the 1930s?
Answer here.
Answer here.
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