Posted: 23 Aug 2011 01:17 AM PDT

Echoing the above clip from P.J. O’Rourke’s Eat the Rich, a new and downbeat paper on demographics and the U.S. stock market:

Despite theoretical ambiguities, U.S. equity values have been closely related to demographic trends in the past half century. There has been a tight correlation between population dependency ratios, such as the M/O ratio, and the P/E ratio of the U.S. stock market. In the context of the impending retirement of baby boomers over the next two decades, this correlation portends poorly for equity values. Moreover, the demographic changes related to the retirement of the baby boom generation are well known. This suggests that market participants may anticipate that equities will perform poorly in the future, an expectation that can potentially depress current stock prices. In that sense, these demographic shifts may present headwinds today for the stock market's recovery from the financial crisis.

via FRBSF Economic Letter: Boomer Retirement: Headwinds for U.S. Equity Markets? (2011-26, 8/22/2011).

Wisdom & Teeth

Posted: 23 Aug 2011 01:06 AM PDT

…. impacted wisdom teeth and malocclusions are very recent problems. They arise because we now process our food so much that we chew with little force. These interactions affect how our faces grow, which causes previously unknown dental problems. Hunter-gatherers — who live in ways similar to our ancestors — don't have impacted wisdom teeth or cavities.

via Born, and Evolved, to Run – NYTimes.com.

Twitter Digest: 2011-08-21

Posted: 22 Aug 2011 04:00 AM PDT

Am also increasingly sure sudden abdominal fat in middle-aged males is really just a dislocated ass. Should be treatable, like a trick knee. ->
Increasingly convinced asslessness in males is the cause of aging, rather than other way around. Terrible affliction. ->
Am on SkyWest flight that's code-shared as United by Continental. Bet that's what they told Flight 19 over Bermuda Triangle in 1945 too. ->
Alone on a sun-blasted airport shuttle with Barry White blasting over top of a/c. As auguries go, it's a downer doozie. ->
UBS' George Magnus On Marxist Existential Crises And The "Convulsions Of A Political Economy" – http://t.co/0XtRuDx /via @nouriel ->
Partly at @wrongologist's urging, am reverting to childhood and reading "The Golden Compass". ->