The Big Picture

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• Daniel Kahneman: The riddle of experience vs. memory
• Informational Contagion in the Laboratory
• The Chemical Structure of DNA
• Explaining the Explainers
• 10 Things About Living Longer in Retirement
• 10 Wednesday AM Reads

Daniel Kahneman: The riddle of experience vs. memory Posted: 26 Mar 2015 03:00 AM PDT Using examples from vacations to colonoscopies, Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman reveals how our “experiencing selves” and our “remembering selves” perceive happiness differently. This new insight has profound implications for economics, public policy — and our own self-awareness

Informational Contagion in the Laboratory Posted: 26 Mar 2015 02:00 AM PDT

The Chemical Structure of DNA Posted: 25 Mar 2015 04:30 PM PDT Source: Compound Interest

Explaining the Explainers Posted: 25 Mar 2015 09:00 AM PDT One of the more fascinating aspects of watching finance is the never-ending stream of explanations for the market’s action. Strategists, news media and economists all engage in a series of tortured rationales for what just happened. These tend to be after-the-fact reasons that are too smug, too pat and too late to be useful, let alone satisfying. Forget predicting the future, these folks don't seem to even understand what happened yesterday. All too often, they seem to be saying nothing more than "I don't like that!" but lack either the awareness or courage to acknowledge the subtext of what they are saying or writing about. To protect the not-so-innocent, I won't point to specific examples. It would be helpful if there were annotations to the commentary –sort of like VH1's pop up videos (I'm showing my age). The insight into the authors' psyche actually is much more valuable than the commentary itself. Consider, for example, the countless analyses during the past six years about why the market is overvalued, or why it’s a tech bubble or why we’re about to experience  (choose one) a 1929/1987/2000/2008-like crash. It would have been a huge time saver if a popup explained: "I missed the bottom and have been unable to find a good way to get into equities!" It would be helpful if every time there is a complex merger or acquisition, analysts would simply admit that the accounting and tax benefits are somewhat beyond their expertise. "Maybe the deal is a money saver, maybe it isn’t, but in the 27 minutes since it was announced, I simply don't know." Of course, then they wouldn’t have a self-promoting reason to discuss it on television.   Continues here

10 Things About Living Longer in Retirement Posted: 25 Mar 2015 07:30 AM PDT Source: BlackRock

10 Wednesday AM Reads Posted: 25 Mar 2015 04:30 AM PDT Midweek, and the news-flow continues apace. It is our privilege to bring you the finest custom morning train reads in the land: • What Happens When Vanguard Owns Everything? The company is bigger than an 800-pound gorilla–and still growing. (Morningstar) • Old Age Doesn't Kill Bull Markets (Dr. Ed Yardeni) • The Billion Prices Project Thinks Inflation May Have Turned a Sharp Corner  (Real Time Economics) see also The Inflation Cycle May Have Turned (Real Time Economics) • LOL: Should you invest with a high school hedge fund manager? (Quora) • Five Charts Show Europe’s Economy Is All Right (Bloomberg View) Continues here

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