The Big Picture

No More Mr. Nice Plumber
Foreign Holdings of United States Debt
You Suck at Powerpoint
Homer Simpson Votes 2012
Oliver Sacks on Hallucinations, Drugs
Barron’s Covers Story: Facebook Is Worth $15
More Me TV: Forbes Interview
10 Weekend Reads
Astronomy Photographers of the Year

Posted: 22 Sep 2012 03:00 PM PDT

Hilarious (but NSFW)

Posted: 22 Sep 2012 01:00 PM PDT

click for ginormous graphic

Source:
As the U.S. Borrows, Who Lends?
Floyd Norris
NYT, September 21, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/22/business/economy/as-the-us-borrows-who-lends.html

You Suck at Powerpoint

Posted: 22 Sep 2012 01:00 PM PDT

You Suck at Powerpoint Sucks from Butterslides

Homer Simpson Votes 2012

Posted: 22 Sep 2012 10:22 AM PDT

Oliver Sacks on Hallucinations, Drugs

Posted: 22 Sep 2012 09:00 AM PDT

Via The New Yorker, Oliver Sacks new book is called Hallucinations:

Out Loud: Drugs and Oliver Sacks

Barron’s Covers Story: Facebook Is Worth $15

Posted: 22 Sep 2012 08:30 AM PDT

My disdain for Facebook’s valuation is (clearly) no longer an outlier perspective. When the cover of Barron’s declares FB to be worth “about $15,” it means that this has become fairly uncontroversial viewpoint.

The table below is very much along the lines of what I discussed previously (here and here).

Table comparing Facebook to Apple and Google

Previously:
5 Questions for Facebook Investors (January 12th, 2011)

Questions for Facebook IPO Investors (February 1st, 2012)

What Is Facebook Really Worth? (February 12th, 2012)

Less than meets the eye at Facebook (February 18th, 2012)

How Facebook Fucked Up Its Own IPO (May 22nd, 2012)

Source:
Still Too Pricey
Facebook has a business model in need of a radical change and a still-rich $61 billion market value. What’s not to “like”? Plenty.
ANDREW BARY
Barron’s SEPTEMBER 22, 2012
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424053111904706204578002652028814658.html

More Me TV: Forbes Interview

Posted: 22 Sep 2012 06:00 AM PDT

Fusion IQ chief on his firm’s equity holdings, the presidential race and the overall health of the US economy.

60/40 “Not Terribly Bearish”

Forbes, Aug 27, 2012

10 Weekend Reads

Posted: 22 Sep 2012 05:15 AM PDT

Some longer form reads for your Saturday morning:

• The Next Panic: Europe's crisis will be followed by a more devastating one, likely beginning in Japan. (The Atlantic)
• Paul Volcker fears Fed-bashing will erode confidence (The Globe And Mail)
• QEs compared (FT.com) see also Fed's QE3 Turns Safe Investments Into Losers (Fiscal Times)
• Cuban: Facebook Handled their IPO Exactly Right (Blog Maverick) (I disagree)
• Y Combinator: Who Wants to Be a Billionaire? (Vanity Fair)
• The Medicine of Gratitude (Daily Good)
• GOP retreat on taxes likely if Obama wins (Washington Post)
• Inside Paul Allen’s Quest To Reverse Engineer The Brain (Forbes)
• The Power of Negative Thinking (Farnam Street Blog)
• Atheist, Gnostic, Theist, Agnostic (Free Thinker)