Leaving summer behind in Alaska. In most parts of the United States, Labor Day Weekend is the symbolic end of summer. While the kids have gone back to school, little has changed from the previous weekend. The days remain warm, vegetables are still ripening in the garden, and fall colors are still weeks away. In …
When Good Incentives Lead to Bad Decisions (via http://mortgagespectator.com) Among the culprits contributing to the recent financial crisis were bank loan officers who approved mortgage loans that were doomed to fail. Many of these frontline workers were motivated by bonuses and other incentives to approve quantity over quality. Critics decried their voracity. But new …
Feeding the Beast (8/26) (via Market Shadows) Here’s this week’s MarketShadows August 26 2012: Feeding the Beast Excerpt: The rally on Friday was triggered by a letter released by Ben Bernanke to US Rep. Darrell Issa, which was also leaked to the WSJ: “Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in a letter responding to questions posed by …
Is the Fed the Only Thing Driving U.S. Financial Markets? Read More »
Market Shadows Newsletter: It’s my party, and I’ll leave if I want to (via Market Shadows) Read the latest MarketShadows August 12 2012 Excerpt: Trading volume this week dried up. Retail investors are realizing that the markets are manipulated and retail traders are learning that it’s difficult to compete against the High Frequency Trading Machines. Zero …
Why Trading Volume in the Stock Market Has Dried Up Read More »
Financial Markets, Politics, and the New Reality (via Market Shadows) Financial Markets, Politics, and the New Reality Courtesy of John Mauldin at Thoughts from the Frontline If you’ve been following my newsletter, you’re familiar by now with my friend George Friedman and the geopolitical analysis company he founded, Stratfor. And if you’ve read any of …
Financial Markets, Politics, and the New Reality Read More »
Put a light on Europe’s shadow economy (via The Christian Science Monitor) Anyone looking for a way to help Europe reverse its shrinking economy – and thus save the global economy – might first note some odd behavior in the Greek city of Larissa. In a report last June, three American researchers found Larissa not …
Decision-makers perform worse as financial incentives increase Research by behavioral economist Dan Ariely (see video below) found that high financial incentives actually make individuals perform worse than when given low to moderate financial incentives. These results were most dramatic when the tasks involve cognitive elements as opposed to mechanical elements. The reason is that loss …
Do High Salaries & Bonuses Make CEOs Poor Decision-Makers? Read More »
19 Warnings About A Coming Global Financial Catastrophe (via http://dailydopenews.com) Reported By Michael Snyder The American Dream Global leaders have tried just about everything that they can think of, but the coming global financial catastrophe continues to march steadily toward us. We have seen “stimulus packages”, quantitative easing, bond buying, interest rate cuts, emergency… …
19 Warnings About A Coming Global Financial Catastrophe [Guest Article] Read More »
‘Teaching’ Ethics is Not as Easy as it Seems By Holly A. Bell The perpetual drone of news stories describing corporate scandals has lead to criticisms that business schools aren’t doing enough to teach ethics. This criticism is not surprising when you look at the self-interested microeconomic decision-making models we teach based on the rational …
