Labor Day Thoughts

This post is mostly for my students (and myself)  since the unyieldingess of the academic calendar means we are in class on labor day.
I know as a kid growing up with two professional, salaried parents, I had no concept of labor day aside from that three day weekend.  I wonder how many of my students [...]

Da** you, Krugman!!!!! Scooped me again.

A friend from Dads night  can attest to the fact that on Wednesday I told him I think that Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and so-called “normal” investing in high finance, speculative vehicles is probably very similar in terms of how investors act and gather information.
Paul Krugman’s column in today’s NY Times starts off:
The revelation that Bernard [...]

Long Tail Debates

Wish I had more time now to review this:
Long Tail Stops Wagging.
Matt Stoller over at Open Left argues that this means that technoutopian libertarian dreams are dead and there is a necessary role for government.
Maybe.  I have never read enough of the Long Tail arguments to have a Strong opinion, but I do want to [...]

Research ideas for Six Degrees Students

Research Ideas for My Students
Hello folks. This is by no means a comprehensive set of resources. It more reflects sources that seemed to be of interest to two or more of you AND that I thought might not jump out at you as pertinent. It is a mix of search terms, blogs, alternative media, as [...]

No blank check for Wall Street.

No blank check for Wall Street.
This is worse than a bad deal – this isn’t a deal at all. This is a blank check to some of the richest companies in the world.
This is a blog post with a petition linked to  it.  I may not agree with all the language, but this is not [...]

Indirect Social Influence

SOCIOLOGY: Indirect Social Influence — Denrell 321 (5885): 47 — Science
To learn more about these mechanisms, we need to broaden studies of social influence and belief formation to include the phases of learning and information collection that precede decision-making and judgment.
The above quotation from Science summarizes a brief yet interesting overview of how indirect influence [...]

Can’t Grasp Credit Crisis? Join the Club

A good and brief description of how the housing boom, deregulation,  CDOs, and market ideology led us into this mess…
Can’t Grasp Credit Crisis? Join the Club – New York Times
Because these loans go to people stretching to afford a house, they come with higher interest rates — even if they’re disguised by low initial rates [...]