The Big Picture

Does Enforcement of Employee Noncompete Agreements Impede the Development of Industry Clusters?
Where Band Members Stand
Succinct Summations of Weeks Events 11.21.14
Why is the United States in a Constant State of Emergency?
Your Brain Can’t Handle Green on the Screen
10 Friday AM Reads
2015 Design of the Year: Mercedes-Benz S Coupe

Does Enforcement of Employee Noncompete Agreements Impede the Development of Industry Clusters?

Posted: 22 Nov 2014 02:00 AM PST

Posted: 21 Nov 2014 04:00 PM PST

From Flip Flop Flyin’:

The colours and letters should be obvious, but just in case: S = singer, G = guitar, B = bass, D = drums, K = keyboards of various sorts, inc. computers or mixing equipments, T = turntables. If the singer regularly plays an instrument, they get a pink ring around the instrument. Multi-instrumentalists are shown with their main instrument. If you spot a mistake, feel free to email me. If you feel like writing me an email telling me that person X played the mandolin on three albums as well as the drums, please delete that email. On the whole, if there were different line-ups of bands, the classic line-up of a band is shown. (Obviously, there might be times when what I consider a classic line-up is different to what other people might consider a classic line-up.) Stage positions are approximated. There may well be footnotes. If you don’t see your favourite band here, be patient, they are likely on my “to do” list. Thanks to Dana who suggested the name of this project.

Source: Flip Flop Flyin’ h/t Paste

Succinct Summations of Weeks Events 11.21.14

Posted: 21 Nov 2014 12:30 PM PST

Succinct Summations week ending November 21st:

Positives:

1. The Philly fed came in at 40.8, vs expectations of 20.7. This was the best reading since 1993!
2. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones both made new all-time highs, the third consecutive week both did so.
3. Headline CPI was flat m/o/m and is up 1.7% y/o/y. Core CPI rose 0.2% m/o/m and is up 1.8% y/o/y.
4. The BOJ called off next year's tax hike after seeing lousy GDP numbers, stocks liked it.
5. Existing home sales came in at 5.26mm, better than expected and up from 5.18mm in September.
6. The purchase component of mortgage applications rose 11.7% w/o/w, the biggest rise since July.
7. China cut rates and Draghi spoke with an accommodative tone; it's the same global story, stocks went higher.
8. The highest percentage of S&P 500 companies are beating EPS since 2010.
9. Energy prices fell 1.6% y/o/y/.
10. The NAHB home builder sentiment index rose to 58 versus 55 expected and up from 54 last month.

Negatives:

1. Japan officially enters a recession with GDP coming in at -1.6% vs expectations of 2.1%.
2. China's HSBC manufacturing index fell to 50, a six-month low.
3. The Markit U.S. manufacturing PMI fell to a ten-month low at 54.7.
4. NY manufacturing index came in at 10.2, below the 12 expected.
5. U.S. industrial production fell 0.1% vs an expected rise of 0.2%.
6. Initial jobless claims came in at 291k, 7k more than expected.

Why is the United States in a Constant State of Emergency?

Posted: 21 Nov 2014 10:00 AM PST

click for full article

Source: WonkBlog

Your Brain Can’t Handle Green on the Screen

Posted: 21 Nov 2014 07:22 AM PST

We have said a good deal in this space about the futility of trying to time short-term market moves (see e.g., this, this and this). No one has demonstrated the ability to do this consistently over time. While it is possible to avoid the very largest of collapses over long periods of time using a simply trend-following approach (see Meb Faber's “A Quantitative Approach to Tactical Asset Allocation“), the shorter the time horizon, the more difficult this becomes.

Thus, forecasting near-term market moves is an exercise in futility.

I bring this up because after a pullback of less than 10 percent in September and October, markets have powered ahead. Despite all of the crash warnings, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has managed an 11 percent gain this year. Yes, I know, a 1987-like crash, is imminent; I have been hearing that for five years. Like the boy who cried wolf, should a crash finally occur — and that is always a possibility — you won't get credit for it.

In trading, early equals wrong.

Continues here

10 Friday AM Reads

Posted: 21 Nov 2014 05:00 AM PST

Is it Friday already? Big green on the screen as yesterday’s intraday reversal from the gap down was the strongest since the October lows — then China cuts rates. And train reads:

• What Is Russell Investments? Lured by the indexing business, the London Stock Exchange got a consultancy and asset manager in the bargain. (Chief Investment Officer)
• Bonds: Anatomy of a market meltdown (FT)
• Dog Ate the Alpha, Other Excuses for Why Your Fund Stinks (Bloomberg)
• If Pimco Were A Country, It Would Be The Most Unequal Place On The Planet (Huffington Post) see also George Soros Just Gave Bill Gross $500 Million To Play With (Business Insider)
• Stupid Things Finance People Say (Fool)

This weekend, we have Bob Shiller on Masters in Business. Be sure to check that out.

Continues here

2015 Design of the Year: Mercedes-Benz S Coupe

Posted: 21 Nov 2014 03:00 AM PST

Many years ago, I had a 1983 MB 380 SEC. It was the coupé version of the W126 S-Class — it was a giant rear drive 2 door version of the S class, chock full of technological advance of the day, including a seat belt presenter (really). At highway speed, it would lower itself. It wasn’t fast off the line, but it was an autobahn cruiser. I drove it to Virginia and back several times and it would lope — at 90mph, it was practically idling, running at 2200 rpm. (I never pressed it to see what the top end was). I was rear ended in it by a Volvo, whose front end was destroyed; The big Benz never got so much as a scratch on it. It was solid as a bank vault.

The new most up to date version of the S coupe is out, and the it is Twin-Turbo 4.7L V8, 449 HP / 516 LB-FT, 7-Speed Auto, All-Wheel Drive S550 4MATIC Coupe was just named Automobile Magazine‘s Design of the Year. My current lease (Infiniti M) is up in March 2016, and this would make a lovely replacement (if I could get Mrs. Big Picture to say yes to it!):