Good morning, mark two!
Following edition number 700 from my daily Best of the Web, I conducted a small poll amongst some of my more regular readers, asking them some general questions about reading habits, likes and dislikes. One of the questions I posed was what I could do to improve my service. The results looked like this:
Based on this outcome my initial reaction was to start a podcast: if no-one thinks it will add service (2 out of 32 respondents), I can only surprise on the upside, right? On second consideration I decided to focus on the positive feedback, with a better database, a Clubday and once a week a Best of the Week scoring high.
The Clubday is already alive (and in fact, kicking!), a database I am looking into but takes more time (and effort), but a Best of the Week is easy to make.
Therefore, I proudly present the first ‘Best in Economics this week’. The charts and articles you really should have seen this week! Let’s see whether we can make this work as well….
Welcome to the year of the snake!
Two articles which I think were really interesting reads this week. One on Big Data and one on the rise of greed
- http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/02/big-data-means-big-errors-people/
- http://www.bostonreview.net/BR38.1/richard_white_gilded_age_wealth_inequality.php
Real house prices in the US. It is hard to imagine that even the Fed did not think it was a bubble…
The shrinking sovereign AAA asset pool. The question is, which country is the next to fall…
- https://www.fidelityworldwideinvestment.com/middle-east/news-insight/21-century-themes/episode6.page
Ah, yes… The land of the rising… what was it again that Japan was famous of?
Are stocks expensive or cheap? Here is another way of looking at it: the price to cash-flow but on a cyclical adjusted basis (like Shiller PE)
And this is from the same source: the remarkable strong link between stock buybacks and changes in debt. There is no free lunch….
Good effort, even though the numbers are probably not 100% accurate: financial assets as a percentage of GDP
Interesting chart showing that the decline in volumes in stock market is not seen in options…
Talk about divergence in the eurozone….
A complete overview of all previous editions of Best of the Web can be found here http://tinyurl.com/yb9e5dg. All links provided are collected from public websites, unless otherwise specified. I have not checked the data or information for accuracy used, and therefore do not guarantee that all data provided will be 100% correct. The links provided do not necessarily reflect my personal opinion and should be seen as general interest: oftentimes I do not agree with arguments presented, but nevertheless think it is worthwhile to read them. It is up to the reader to make up their own mind. Suggestions or discussions are more than welcome. Do not quote unless specifically cleared beforehand!
Best of the Web 