The Big Picture

WealthTrack: Robert Shiller Interview
10 MidWeek PM Reads
Twitter: Even More Polarized Than You Imagined
10 Mid-Week AM Reads
Grantham on ‘What People Learn from Financial Crises’
Rent Seekers vs Innovators
The Higgs Boson Re-explained!

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 04:00 PM PST

Robert Shiller, recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, a Yale professor and the co-creator of the Case-Shiller Home Price Indices discusses the importance of psychology in the markets and what it’s telling him now.
WEALTHTRACK #1035 originally Broadcast February 21, 2014

Source: WealthTrack

10 MidWeek PM Reads

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 01:30 PM PST

My afternoon train reading:

• Why would anyone trade forex? (FT)
• Citi Alumni Are Force in Nation’s Capital (WSJ)
• What Do People Have Against Retirement Income? (Harvard Business Review)
• 5 odd signs the economy is heating up (Yahoo Finance)
• America Didn't Decline. It Went Global. (Politico)
• The True Story of the Monuments Men (Smithsonian Magazine)
• America’s Weird, Enduring Love Affair With Cars and Houses (The Atlantic) see also Why is H. Ross Perot Jr. selling his land? (WSJ)
• Red-Light Cameras Click Less as Cities Get Orwell Off Road (Bloomberg) see also NY State Expects All Utilities to Prep for Climate Change (Climate Central)
• The Nokia X (stratēchery)
• Health nudge: Your heart may be older than you are (WSJ)

What are you reading?

Inside the Showdown Atop PIMCO

Source: WSJ

Twitter: Even More Polarized Than You Imagined

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 08:30 AM PST

Source: Quartz

10 Mid-Week AM Reads

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 07:00 AM PST

My midweek morning reading:

• The Unlikely Tale of How ARM Came to Rule the World (Businessweek)
• Gold Is Up 12%: Has A New Bull Market Begun? (Barron's)
• What Alan Greenspan Has Learned Since 2008 (Harvard Business Review)
• The best part of the housing price recovery may be over (WonkBlog) see also America's Hottest Housing Market Has Suddenly Cooled Down (Real Time Economics)

continues here

Grantham on ‘What People Learn from Financial Crises’

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 05:30 AM PST

I love this:

When he was asked what people would learn from the whole financial crisis, Jeremy [Grantham] said, "In the short term a lot, in the medium term a little, in the long term, nothing at all. That would be historical precedent."

-James Montier to Kate Welling, via FT Alphaville

Rent Seekers vs Innovators

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 04:30 AM PST

I love when I find thought provoking articles.

I was thinking about the concept of innovators (Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and the Google Boys come to mind) versus those who would manipulate governments for their own benefits in the absence of innovation.

Which led me to this article from the Streetwise Professor about Elon Musk: