essays & effluvia: Current Affairs

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Zisler: What Causes Bubbles and Crashes, and What Can We Do to Prevent Them?

From Zisler Associates, included in a recent report on the state's finances issued by the California State Controller's Office:

Download Speculative bubbles

Posted at 08:16 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink

Monday, July 28, 2008

Nozzle Rage

Posted at 06:45 AM in Current Affairs, Humor | Permalink

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Mr. Swashbuckling Capitalist

via Washington Post

Posted at 06:30 AM in Current Affairs, Finance | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Is this the real price?

SING TO THE TUNE OF 'BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY' BY QUEEN

Is this the real price?
Is this just fantasy?
Financial landslide
No escape from reality

Open your eyes
And look at your buys and see.
I'm now a poor boy (poor boy)
High-yielding casualty
Because I bought it high, watched it blow
Rating high, value low
Any way the Fed goes
Doesn't really matter to me, to me

Mama - just killed my fund
Quoted CDO's instead
Pulled the trigger, now it's dead
Mama - I had just begun
These CDO's have blown it all away
Mama - oooh-hoo-ooo
I still wanna buy
I sometimes wish I'd never left Goldman at all.

(guitar solo)

~~~

I see a little silhouette of a Fed
Bernanke! Bernanke! Can you save the whole market?
Monolines and munis - very very frightening me!
Super senior, super senior
Super senior CDO - magnifico

I'm long of subprime, nobody loves me
He's long of subprime CDO fantasy
Spare the margin call you monstrous PB!
Easy come easy go, will you let me go?
Peloton! No - we will not let you go - let him go
Peloton! We will not let you go
let him go
Peloton! We will not let you go - let me go
Will not let you go
let me go (never) Never let you go - let me go Never let me go – ooo
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, -
Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go S&P had the devil put aside
for me
For me, for me, for me

~~~

So you think you can fund me and spit in my eye?
And then margin call me and leave me to die Oh PB - can't do this to me
Just gotta get out - just gotta get right outta here

Ooh yeah, ooh yeah
No price really matters
No liquidity
Nothing really matters - no price really matters to me
Any way the Fed goes.....

Penned by a Bear Stearns (BSC) guy.

Posted at 11:09 AM in Current Affairs, Finance, Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Comedy Central on The Economy

The Daily Show on Bear Stearns:

Stephan Colbert on the Economy:

Aasif Mandvi reports on the Bear Stearns bailout while experiencing gravitational altitude correction:

I talked to guy about 300 feet ago . . .

Posted at 05:53 AM in Current Affairs, Finance, Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, February 25, 2008

What's Up With Tom Ford?

Surprisingly explicit print ads from fashion designer Tom Ford:

click for full story on each

Sources:

Tom Fords A Valley
Copyranter
http://copyranter.blogspot.com/2007/09/tom-fords-valley.html

What A Dildo: Designer Tom Ford's Phallic Fragrance
Jezebel
http://jezebel.com/gossip/rag-trade/what-a-dildo-designer-tom-fords-phallic-fragrance-291216.php

Through advertising, Tom Ford continues to inform heterosexual men that he doesn't want them buying his products.
Copyranter
http://copyranter.blogspot.com/2008/02/through-advertising-tom-ford-continues.html

Posted at 06:05 AM in Current Affairs, Media, Television | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Kosovo Timeline

click for larger graphic

Graphic courtesy of NYT

>

See also
Kosovo - Key events
http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/serbia/kosovo/key_events_en.htm

Kosovo's Final Status: A Key to Stability and Prosperity in the Balkans http://www.state.gov/p/eur/ci/rb/c13099.htm

>
Source:
Kosovo Declares Its Independence From Serbia
DAN BILEFSKY
NYT, February 18, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/world/europe/18kosovo.html

Posted at 07:47 AM in Current Affairs, Politics, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, January 18, 2008

Fish Farmer

Strangely beautiful photo

A Chinese fish farmer with some of his catfish, bred on the outskirts of Hangzhou. The fish farmers are said to have turned to illegal veterinary drugs to keep fish alive in contaminated ponds.

Source:
China Says Its Seafood Is Now Safer and Better
DAVID BARBOZA
NYT, January 18, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/business/worldbusiness/18fish.html

Posted at 06:40 AM in Current Affairs, Photo Caption Contest! | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack