Month: August 2019

August 28, 2019

Wednesday Reading List – 28 August 2019

Really great post from Cliff Asness at AQR this week on bond valuations.

The 1619 Project. NY Times.
Are Health Administrators To Blame? Alex Tabarrok.
Bonds Are Frickin’ Expensive. Cliff Asness.
A Novel Concept: Silent Book Clubs Offer Introverts A Space To Socialize. NPR.
Major book publishers sue Amazon’s Audible over new speech-to-text feature. The Verge
The Poorest 20% of Americans Are Richer on Average Than Most Nations of Europe. justfacts.com. I have some issues with the analysis but interesting discussion.
The most dangerous idea in central banking, explained. Vox. Agree that this is a bad idea.
Circumstances in Which I Will Not Pet Your Dog. New Yorker. Yep.

August 23, 2019

How To Protect Your Portfolio From The Yield Curve Inversion

You’ve probably read some stuff about the yield curve inverting earlier this month. Or at least heard someone talking about it in the last few weeks. What’s up? Is there going to be a recession? What moves should you make with your portfolio to protect yourself?

August 14, 2019

Wednesday Reading List – 14 August 2019

I really enjoyed the article about Google’s internal culture, but the key article this week is a short blog from PIMCO on the possibility of negative interest rates in the U.S.

How Government Prolonged the Lobotomy. AIER. Super creepy.
What is Amazon? Zack Canter. HT Tyler Cowen.
Study: many of the “oldest” people in the world may not be as old as we think. Vox. I feel like this type of thing is going to pop up more and more as people do Big Data things.
Three Years of Misery Inside Google, the Happiest Company in Tech. Wired.
How One City Saved $5 Million by Routing School Buses with an Algorithm. Route Fifty.
GitHub Stars Won’t Pay Your Rent. Medium.
Interest Rates: Naturally Negative? PIMCO. The world is not prepared for a negative dollar interest rate.

August 6, 2019

How Should Your Teenager Spend Their Summer?

I like using the logic of financial analysis to solve everyday household problems. In the past, I have looked at whether I should bail on my old truck, and whether you should for an MBA. In that spirit, I’d like to take a look at a subject that has no bearing on my own life, but I’m interested in nonetheless. What types of activities should you encourage your high school aged kid to take up during their summer breaks?

August 2, 2019

Friday Reading List – 2 August 2019

Support for minimum wage hikes, food stamps, passive indexing, and free trade. I’m kind of all over the place this week. Plus an engraving of Adam Smith wearing one of those cool wigs like a boss.

Congress has never let the federal minimum wage erode for this long. Economic Policy Institute.
Verdict Is In: Food Stamps Put Poor Kids on Path to Success. Bloomberg.
Trump Says U.S. Will Hit China With More Tariffs. NY Times.
Winner Takes All Applies to Stocks, Too. Barry Ritholtz. Barry interprets this data as providing encouragement to both active investors and passive indexers, but I see it as strongly supporting indexing, and no support for active investing.
The progressive case for free trade. Vox. This is an interesting piece. I agree with all of it, but this is most definitely NOT a “progressive” case for free trade. It’s a concise outline of the basic economic, moral, and libertarian case for free trade. A+ on the article, F- on picking a title for the article.

This guy knows the case for free trade!
Portrait of Smith by John Kay, 1790