Steve Schwarzmans Take on the Subprime Mess- May 9, 2008 Trying to buy a mortgage bank in the midst of the subprime crisis was the equivalent of being a noodle salesman in Nagasaki when the atomic bomb went off. Not a lot of noodles left, or even a person, and thats what happened to us on this deal. Story.http://mahalanobis.twoday.net/stories/4917699/ White Noise : George Soros- May 8, 2008 Three weeks ago (AMZN):<br > <img title="" height="244" alt="soro01" width="167" align="center" class="center" src="http:static.twoday.netmahalanobisimagessoro01.jpg" ><br > Currently (Bloomberg.com):<br > <img title="" height="91" alt="soro02" width="212" align="center" class="center"...http://mahalanobis.twoday.net/stories/4915132/ Random Facts- May 7, 2008 In 2006, an iPod that cost about $200 would have cost $1B in 1976 and would have been very large. Sourcehttp://mahalanobis.twoday.net/stories/4913662/ Extreme Events : Ladislaus von Bortkiewicz- May 4, 2008 Saddest thing I read today (Schumpeter): "Bortkiewicz was not a good lecturer, and his lectures, which he elaborated with a minute and conscientious attention to details all his own, were said to be delivered to rather empty classrooms. His critical acumen made people fear him, but it hardly contributed to making them love him." . FYI: In 1898 Bortkiewicz published a book about the Poisson distribution, titled The Law of Small Numbers. In this book he first noted that events with low...http://mahalanobis.twoday.net/stories/4907422/ The Mystery of Monogamy- May 3, 2008 This paper explains why modern societies are less polygynous than less-developed societies: Men in less-developed economies prefer quantity over quality =skill in wives and children. The explanation is rather intuitive. Rich men in less-developed economies are not efficient at producing quality children because they tend not to have high human capital themselves. Therefore, they have a low demand for quality children and, consequently, a low demand for quality women who can help them produce...http://mahalanobis.twoday.net/stories/4905435/ Cudgel Over the Quants- May 2, 2008 Portfolio.com: Hedge funds are dragging defectors into ugly courtroom battles over trade secrets. Eric Falkenstein isn't your typical 42-year-old hedge fund manager. Instead of trading stocks all day or courting new investors, he spends his time updating his blog, researching equity strategies, and talking to his lawyer. He's a hedge fund portfolio manager who is legally restrained from managing hedge fund portfolios. Click here to read the whole story.http://mahalanobis.twoday.net/stories/4903613/ |