Month: September 2014

The Daily View: Stocks, Individual Exceptionalism, Cultural Marxism, Birth Control

I would write more about the market, but not much going on. The S&P 500 is up 7% for 2014, but most of those gains are concentrated in a three-week period in May, with lots of churning before and after. It’s a weird, fickle market where sectors and stocks can be chopped to pieces in… Continue reading The Daily View: Stocks, Individual Exceptionalism, Cultural Marxism, Birth Control

The Great Ebola Outbreak of 2012 That No One’s Heard Of

Here is a perfect example of how correlation doesn’t equal causation: Cocoa prices surge on output fears over Ebola outbreak LONDON – Cocoa soared to 3.5-year highs this week on fears the Ebola outbreak could reach Ghana and Ivory Cost, the two biggest producers of the commodity used to make chocolate. Ghana and Ivory Coast… Continue reading The Great Ebola Outbreak of 2012 That No One’s Heard Of

Illusory Superiority and IQ

According to Derb’s own homepage, the prolific writer, autodidact, polymath, programmer and mathematician ‘only’ has an IQ of 135, which came as surprise to me. I’m sure if you asked others to guess Derb’s IQ they would shoot off numbers like 150 or 160, as would I. But perhaps his test had a low ceiling,… Continue reading Illusory Superiority and IQ

The New Gilded Age; The Post-2008 Economy, Part 4

The news cycle over the past two weeks can be likened to watching paint dry or glaciers melt. 2013 was the year of congress, the sequester, debt ceiling and shutdowns; 2014 is dominated by sports (Donald Stirling, Ray Rice..stuff like that), police and race conflicts, Russia and the Middle East. The good news is the… Continue reading The New Gilded Age; The Post-2008 Economy, Part 4

We Need More Money in Politics and Less Voting

From Vox.com The class war in American politics is over. The rich won. Money has always been inseparable from politics. This blog argues the admixture of money with politics is a feature, not a bug, and a contributing factor for the enduring resiliency of our republic when many other governments have succumbed to corruption, incompetence,… Continue reading We Need More Money in Politics and Less Voting

Ali Baba Stock Going Higher

Time for another prediction, which is that Ali Baba stock (BABA) is going to $130 within a year or so. In 2012 and 2013, I predicted correctly that Facebook stock would surge and Apple would flatline. Facebook indeed rallied 150% and Apple fell from $600 to as low as $300. I also predicted that the… Continue reading Ali Baba Stock Going Higher

The Futile Pursuit of Equality

A dense article by Steve about the pursuit of truth, philosophy, ‘equality’ of man, conservatism, and god. At the end he writes: Today, the extremism of our culture’s demands for attestations of faith in equality and transparency is a mask for the movement back toward censorship and esotericism. We live in a society in which… Continue reading The Futile Pursuit of Equality

America Is Still Exceptional

Charles Murray, unwavering defender of inconvenient truths in the face of political correctness and beloved by millions of millennials and smart people all over America, has become an institution unto himself. His most recent book, The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead, has become ‘required reading’ and the ‘bible’ for the smartest generation, which is whom… Continue reading America Is Still Exceptional

America Splitting in Two

The American economy is splitting in two. Opportunity is plentiful for the wealthy and well-educated, but it is drying up for the bottom half. What can Washington do? The good news is not much. ‘The poor are being left behind because they deserve it’, says expert. ‘They have poor work ethic, poor impulse control, and… Continue reading America Splitting in Two