Category: Society
New York Times caught copying financial blogs
Here’s my take on a recent story of apparent plagiarism at the New York Times. Some are probably conjuring up memories of Jayson Blair. However, I see something different, namely a battle regarding the credibility of independent financial blogs like mine as a news source. The fact is most American newspapers and television stations are
Haiti donation efforts
There is an easy way to donate in order to help victims of Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti. The American Red Cross has set it up so that you can make $10 donations by cell phone. From your cell phone, send a text message to 90999 with the word "HAITI". You will get a text back
Terrorism, full-body scans and privacy in the digital age
I am reminded of the 2002 Spielberg movie “Minority Report” when I think of the digital age, terrorism and privacy concerns. The movie is interesting not just for its Big Brother overtones, but also because of its prescience on technology (some of the technology used in the movie, like multi-touch screens, are now in use).
The correlation between healthcare spending and life expectancy
Hat tip FiveThirtyEight. once you remove the U.S., there’s a strong correlation between spending and life expectancy, and this is super-clear from the scatterplot. For more information behind this chart, click the link below. Source Healthcare spending and life expectancy: a comparison of graphs – Andrew Gelman, Columbia University
Government coercion in the financial blogosphere
I must be incredibly sleep-deprived because my last post overlooked a critical case in the financial blogosphere where the same issues of blogging and government coercion are at issue. I completely forgot that the Implode-o-Meter sites are taking an enormous hit right now because of their coverage on the housing bubble. You may recall, back
Blogging and the tyranny of government
Michael Arrington, a prolific blogger in the Tech community, has written a thoughtful piece on bloggers’ right/duty to protect confidential sources in the face of government pressure to do otherwise. I’d like to post a portion of that article here and ask you what you think of his arguments. He says: Last week two bloggers,
Barack Obama wins the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
Via the Telegraph: From the moment that President Barack Obama – who has won the Nobel peace prize – entered the Oval Office, he made clear that resolving the conflict in the Middle East would be a key priority of his foreign policy. His very first phone call was to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader,
Obama to re-authorise three provisions of Patriot Act
After the arrest of suspects based in Colorado and New York in an alleged ‘varsity level’ terrorist plot, the spectre of terrorism in the United States has re-emerged as an issue, one that also has economic overtones because of the fragility of recovery. President Obama is following his predecessor George W. Bush in restricting civil
The high frequency trading post I did not write
I intended to write this post about high frequency trading. The idea was to link to a very enlightening podcast that aired yesterday on “Taking Stock” with Pimm Fox on Bloomberg Radio. Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge was on the program talking to Pimm about what High Frequency Trading is, who the participants are and
What real comprehensive healthcare reform looks like
Yesterday I wrote a healthcare polemic which was mostly designed to discuss the politics of healthcare for the President. The essence of my argument was that Barack Obama has not shown enough willingness to fight for specific policies he espoused on the campaign trail. In a poor economic environment, this weakens him politically, as is
Personal story on devastating loss of health care benefits
This was a front-page story at the Wall Street Journal today. It should bring home the problem with lack of benefits in America. Also see Mark Thoma’s post yesterday on health care called "The Hottest Places in Hell are Reserved for Those Who, in Times of Moral Crisis, Maintain a Neutrality". A link to the
A brief primer on Xinjiang, China and riots there
When news first broke regarding the ethnic tensions and violence in Xinjiang, China, I was not familiar with the situation there. I have gotten up to speed and wanted to post a few videos and links for you on the situation there. Wikipedia (population nearly 20 million): Xinjiang … is an autonomous region (Xinjiang Uyghur