Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

In Other News, Larry King is Selling Divorce Insurance

Many months ago, I quoted the brilliant Janet Tavakoli‘s book Credit Derivatives and Synthetic Structures: The trader then went on to tell me that Commercial Bank of Korea would sell credit default protection on bonds issued by the Commercial Bank of Korea.“That’s very interesting,” I countered, “but the credit default option is worthless.”“But people are […]

In Honor of the Super Bowl

Favorite papers from the 2008 AEA in New Orleans (all PDF, ungated): Emily Haisley on lottery tickets and perception. I heard about this paper before reading it. Such a simple idea, such a direct experiment. Michele Tertilt: Women’s Liberation: What’s in it for Men (with M. Doepke). The next step is to figure out why […]

Universal Health Care Is Good for Business

A Healthy Blog notes that Massachusetts has reversed the national trend: Since the enactment of Chapter 58, Massachusetts has increased the percentage of employers offering coverage to their employees. With the employer offer rate up 4% over two year, to 76%, we are climbing well above the national average of 60%. This increase occurred in […]

Quote of the Day: What Reputation for Competence?

The Guardian on the PIIGS: By the time Black Wednesday was over in September 1992, Soros had reputedly pocketed £1bn and the reputation of the government of John Major for economic competence was in tatters. Meanwhile, datacharmer at Bluematter gets to the core of the matter: I’m wondering what the shorters’ game is. As I […]

New domain name and comment catchup

Angry Bear has just switched from its blogspot address to its own domain name of http://angrybearblog.strategydemo.com (Angry bear blog) JS-Kit has also just been changed to the new domain name but will take a little bit of time to make the transfer on its servers. I figured few will be visiting soon to read comments […]

The Super Bowl Stock Market Predictor

Lifted from NPR Weekend Edition: The Super Bowl Stock Market Predictor holds that if a team from the old NFL wins, the market will rise in that year; if a team from the old AFL wins, the market will fall. In 1990 two researchers found that the predictor was accurate 91 percent of the time. […]