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 […]

John Scalzi makes a clear case that Amazon’s determination to subsidize the Kindle is coming at the expense of Authors’s and their Publishers: This asinine jockeying over electronic book prices has very little to do with what’s actually good or useful for anyone other than the manufacturer of a piece of hardware… who also happens […]

UPDATE: Krugman comes to the same conclusions, more concisely. (That’s why he gets paid the big bucks.) And Brad DeLong has modified his original position to the point where it’s got a good chance of working going forward. I started a “What is an Asset” post yesterday, which got sidetracked by Brad DeLong’s urging that […]

Tom’s post yesterday about British housing (following Felix), where the volume was down significantly with the average slightly up, seemed rather intuitive if you buy the argument that the majority of house prices haven’t been cut enough, and won’t sell until they cut more.* But, courtesy of our fellow Gloom-and-Doom maven, Barry Ritholtz at The […]

I want to talk about something of which I know nothing: Wireless Internet Access. We spent the weekend in pgl-land (NYC), at a friend’s apartment. Since he’s a rather prominent computer graphics designer, I assumed, incorrectly, that he would have some form of Internet access at home.* So I did what I always do: opened […]