An essay (and then some) about people wanting to treat economics as if it behaves just like the physical universe: “WARNING: Physics Envy May Be Hazardous To Your Wealth!“, Andrew W. Lo and Mark T. Mueller, arXiv:1003.2688v3, 2010. The authors explain: “The quantitative aspirations of economists and financial analysts have for many years been based […]
Tag: economics
Ink vs. blood
This chart, from the reflectionofme web site, shows the relative prices of several liquids. Ink for an HP computer printer is notably more expensive than the other listed liquids. But it was still, when the chart was prepared, less than twice the price of blood (the latter, of course, is subject to fluctuation). (Thanks to […]
Bank gives its customers “funny money”
A sign of recovery in the banking industry: Citibank invites its customers to a gambling event at which “The games will be played with ‘funny money’ provided by the bank.” The cover letter accompanying their invitation [a portion of the invitation is reproduced at right] reads: As a token of our appreciation to you, our […]
Layoffs and male births: Handwaving?
At first glance, this abstract appears to involve lots of handwaving and guesswork. Is that the case? Or does the abstract misrepresent the actual study? (Thanks to investigator Scott Langill for bringing this to our attention.) “Selection in utero: A biological response to mass layoffs,” Ralph Catalano, Claire E. Margerison Zilko, Katherine B. Saxton, Tim […]