The Myth of Multi-tasking

Doing several things at the same time? Reading this post while texting a friend?
Seems that's not such an good idea.
http://www.eckerd.edu/faculty/fridaytips/

P.S.  Anyone in Manhattan knows with certainty that multi-tasking is a myth. Just watch as a million people try to talk/text on their cell phones and walk down the street at the same time.

Think about it

Students who took my Senior Seminar class at Eckerd may remember my cajoling them to listen to the "News Hour" TV program on PBS. The program includes a segment where two commentators from differing political perspectives discuss/debate current issues. David Brooks, the NY Times columnist, is a regular News Hour discussant. He also wrote this piece for the Times today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/opinion/brooks-the-lost-decade.html?_r=1&hp

Although you may not agree with everything Mr. Brooks writes (I don't, personally) I find his open minded, critical thinking wonderfully refreshing. (And, he uses one of my favorite sayings about hammers and nails!) Rather than an ideological, dogmatic, mechanistic approach to addressing today's current economic/political problems Mr. Brooks is willing to think creatively, realistically and be non-scripted.

So, what do you think of what I think of what Mr. Brooks' thinks?

Warren Buffet has some advice for Mark Zuckerberg

A great piece of satire that skewers technology as the answer to life's important questions.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/09/23/business/100000001069282/ipo-blues.html
from DealBook.com

Do Regulations Really Kill Jobs Overall?

Sloganeering is so much easier than supporting a position with actual data. Republican/Tea Party demagoguery would have us believe regulation is the great Satan.  Real analysis would have us think differently.

from Pro Publica
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/whats-the-evidence-that-regulations-kill-jobs

Adam Smith meets Charles Darwin

My Senior Seminar students will remember that we began and ended that course with Adam Smith. Throughout the course we connected various business topics with related non-business issues. The NY Times piece linked below has great insights about reading Darwin as an economist, in conjunction with Smith.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/business/darwin-the-market-whiz.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=darwin%20the%20market%20whiz&st=cse

The unapologetic malevolence of Dick Cheney

An interesting article by a current Harvard Law professor who who was in the Bush administration's Justice Department and has history with Dick Cheney. You can't make this up.

From the NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/how-dick-cheney-reined-in-presidential-power.html?ref=dickcheney 

Shakespeare gone viral

A fun item.
Thanks to a 20 year old youngster from London, Shakespeare has gone viral. Here's a nice story from NPR.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/09/15/140520535/things-we-say-today-and-owe-to-shakespeare?ft=1&f=1001  

Moral is: Never listen to Fox News

The news that a UBS trader lost $2 billion, and hid the problem, is egregious enough. What is shocking, but ultimately understandable, is that he was relying on Fox News for information. My students will remember that anything Fox/New Corporation is strictly banned as a news source.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e6148290-df99-11e0-845a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1Y2nVg63S  
(Third paragraph)

Ms. Lagarde, final answer please.

A possible new flashpoint in the financial markets is the condition of European banks, especially French banks. (Moody's downgraded two French banks today.) An interesting back story is the role of Christine Lagarde who was bullish about French banks as the French Minister of Economic Affairs but seems to have had a reversal as the IMF's new Managing Direstor. From DealBook.com

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/i-m-f-chiefs-change-of-tune-on-bank-capital/?scp=3&sq=christine%20lagarde&st=cse

The state we're in

Greg Mankiw, professor of economics at Harvard, wrote a very clear and balanced piece on the state of the U.S. economy for the Sept. 11 NY Times. Well worth reading.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/business/business-investment-as-a-key-to-recovery.html?_r=1

Now this senate race should be very interesting

This is the same Elizabeth Warren we spoke about in International Finance. The race should be facinating.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/09/13/us/politics/AP-US-Massachusetts-Senate-2012-Warren.html?_r=1&hp

Banking leadership!

JP Morgan Chase's CEO Jamie Dimon recently spoke out against the new Basel III requirements saying they are prejudicial against big U.S. banks.
Another assault on regulatory efforts to try to avoid another banking crisis like 2008.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/905aeb88-dc50-11e0-8654-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1Xjnr0f5I

Being dumb is one thing, but this is quite different

At the Republican debate last week Rick Perry's untroubled embrace of capital punishment was only exceeded by an audience that applauded 234 Texas executions. Scary.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/they-messed-with-texas/?ref=opinion

Financial crisis? What financial crisis?

Republicans are fighting hammer and tong against the financial reforms contained in Dodd-Frank. And the CFTC doesn't seem to be leading the effort with much effectiveness with regard to derivatives. Remarkable.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/regulator-further-delays-derivatives-rules/?src=dlbksb

Quite a show

If you watched the Republican debate last night you saw something increasingly common in our political (mostly Republican) discourse, a nearly fact-free event.  It doesn't seem to matter that documentation exists about what candidates have said. They seem willing to simply make things up.

Thank you factcheck.org
http://factcheck.org/2011/08/factchecking-iowa-debate/

Here's a more timid analysis from the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/us/politics/08check.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Two economists walk into a Sunday news show .....

The CBS Sunday morning news program brought us quite a show. Among the four panelists were two economists; one was Paul Krugman, the Nobel Laureate from Princeton and the other was Douglas Holz-Eakin, formerly John McCain's economic advisor. Even if you only watch the first five minutes it's remarkable to hear how much intellectual dishonesty can come from the mouth of an economist with ostensible credentials.

http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/roundtable-part-ii-plan-jobs-14445346

Is Rick Perry Dumb?

Is this question really necessary?
From Politico.com
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62214.html

Here's looking at you Mr. Keynes

The market has been enormously volatile this summer. The article below by Prof. Schiller of Yale addresses the issue with reference to Keynes' famous critique of the market as a beauty contest.Worth reading.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/business/economy/on-wall-st-a-keynesian-beauty-contest.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20beauty%20contest&st=cse 

You were told to be quiet!

After a company files its IPO documents with the SEC it is obliged to make no further additional information on the company available until the shares are launched. Groupon apparently didn't get the memo.
This is an interesting aspect of the initial public offering process.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/in-a-quiet-period-groupon-feels-the-noise/?src=dlbksb