Anyone who has ever worked with data knows that making certain the information is “clean” is much more important than what you do with it. Brilliant analysis of inaccurate data may make heroes (Chamley, Prescott, etc.), but it doesn’t make sensible policy. Witness the release of “public” data from the state of Texas. Jeremy once […]

For Mother’s Day, as it were, xkcd presents The Lawrence H. Summers Memorial History of Math and Science. Buce at Underbelly does this, probably saving me the trouble of a post. (Consider this a SlothBear moment.) The problem I want Drek the Uninteresting—or anyone else who knows the research—to address: if we assume that mercury […]

From his column in today’s FT: Even this is too simple, once one allows for banking: Ireland’s net debt was a mere 12% of GDP in 2007 In other words, in FT World, privatizing the profit and socializing the risk is A Great Idea that deserves the full support of the government.

Sadly noting that Lawrance G. Lux has declared that his blog is at an end. It does not take great skill reading between the lines to know that the blog is not the only thing nearing its end. This post seems to come from a happier time, not just a month ago.

Hoocoodanode that replacing someone described as “too Professorial” with someone whose concept of True Patriot Love was to spend the time of the Life of Legendary Jesus out of the country (being a Torture Apologist from the comfort of Cambridge, Mass while Maher Arar traveled different roads) and then act upon his return as if […]

Spent the morning at this event: presentations and discussion by Joe Stiglitz, Yves Smith, Mike Konczal, Joe Gagnon, Matt Yglesias, Tom Palley, and many others. Mike K. tole me he expects that video will be available this evening, at least of the speakers’s presentations. I plan to post at more length later; meanwhile, you can […]

A lot of trading in the Fixed Income (and especially FX) market is done for “liquidity” purposes. There is often an underlying goal involved (e.g., push prices higher with small lots, sell large ones at the elevated prices) and frequently such strategies are discussed as “algorithmic trading.” (Example: the algorithm estimates that you will need […]

Done your taxes yet?

“The practice of medicine was accepted to be a chancy way to make a living, and nobody expected a doctor to get rich, least of all the doctors themselves.”  – Lewis Thomas, The Youngest Science, p. 4 (Penguin, 1995 edition, quote via Google Books) Lost in the discussion of Paul Ryan’s “plan” is the group […]