Monday, April 23, 2007
Monday, April 16, 2007
Michael Lewis on the Subprime Mess
This article argues that the reckless borrower is as much to blame as the creditor. Lewis also points out that the real loser is the scrupulous subprime borrower who now cannot get a loan for his mortgage. Who is the winner in all this? In my opinion, it is the real estate agent who gets a guaranteed transaction cut, and the loan broker who pretty much gets paid regardless of how the loan turns out. It is a case of perverse incentives, where it is in the best interest of both of these parties to see the deal close - and no consequences if it goes sour later on. I for one, really hope that redfin succeeds in creating a new model for house purchases.
No signs of progress ...
Research from the Pew institute indicates that the internet and the 24 hour news channels arent really making us more informed.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
IP Laws Found Harmful
Hal Varian (yeah, the guy who wrote your college econ textbook) writes a piece for NYT explaining how having no IP laws has actually been beneficial for the fashion industry. Particularly relevant now as the US hammers China on its "weak" IP protection. Lost in the debate is whether the firms that are clamoring for legislation are actually providing products that are valuable (by that I mean have a good cost to value ratio) to the consumers in China. Most people in Asia are not likely to drop $25 for a DVD when they make a hundred dollars a month - no matter how many laws you pass and how many illegal DVD sniffing dogs you train.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Einstein and Religion
"God does not play dice with the universe."
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish."
These oft repeated quotes have led people to generally believe that Einstein was a religious man. The truth of the matter is a little more nuanced than that. This article on Time sheds a little more light on his spiritual profile. Couple of very interesting quotes:
"I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals himself in the lawful harmony of all that exists, but not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind."
"The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I am a devoutly religious man."
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish."
These oft repeated quotes have led people to generally believe that Einstein was a religious man. The truth of the matter is a little more nuanced than that. This article on Time sheds a little more light on his spiritual profile. Couple of very interesting quotes:
"I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals himself in the lawful harmony of all that exists, but not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind."
"The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I am a devoutly religious man."
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Viacom, Google, and Intellectual Property
Viacom's WP editorial on the YouTube lawsuit. Michael Fricklas puts out the standard argument that copyright holders cannot be burdened with policing sites for violations of their property. What piqued my interest in the piece was a section at the end which says "Google and YouTube wouldn't be here if not for investment in software and technologies spurred by patent and copyright laws." This is a dubious claim at best because Google's success is a successful confluence of ideation(the pagerank algorithm), scaling (the massive decentralized infrastructure), and a disruptive business model (free advertiser funded software). Note that Google did not file a patent for their technology and sit back and sue competitors, but rather built an infrastructure and business model that has such tremendous scale that it becomes virtually impossible for others to replicate it. The way that copyright holders and patent trolls are wielding IP and patent laws recently, it is holding back innovation and growth - not fostering them. And I have already blogged about the NYT article on how IP laws unfairly tax the developing nations. And here's Google's response to the article.
Painting Obama
Profile of David Axelrod, a strategist for Obama on NYTMag. Some useful insights into the presidential politics (esp the bit about Hillary towards the end) and a couple of great quotes (What is a good reporter anyways but a writer who is able to distill a story into a few thematic quotes?).
“One of the reasons Bush has succeeded in two elections, is that in his own rough-hewn way he has conveyed a sense of this is who I am, warts and all.”
“So many consultants are fighting the last war, but David is fighting the next one, and that makes him very, very dangerous”
“What David is basically doing — and this is somewhat new for Democrats — isn’t trying to figure out how to sell policies. It’s a matter of personality. How do we sell leadership?”
“I know that there are people who wouldn’t vote for a black candidate, but I don’t know if they would vote for a Democratic candidate anyway. But I think that in a sense Barack is the personification of his own message for this country, that we get past the things that divide us and focus on the things that unite us. He is his own vision.”
Karl Rove helped George Bush win two terms as president by “understanding that every election is a reaction to the last president” and then in 2004 by “figuring out how to make Bush’s stubbornness into a political virtue.”
“One of the reasons Bush has succeeded in two elections, is that in his own rough-hewn way he has conveyed a sense of this is who I am, warts and all.”
“So many consultants are fighting the last war, but David is fighting the next one, and that makes him very, very dangerous”
“What David is basically doing — and this is somewhat new for Democrats — isn’t trying to figure out how to sell policies. It’s a matter of personality. How do we sell leadership?”
“I know that there are people who wouldn’t vote for a black candidate, but I don’t know if they would vote for a Democratic candidate anyway. But I think that in a sense Barack is the personification of his own message for this country, that we get past the things that divide us and focus on the things that unite us. He is his own vision.”
Karl Rove helped George Bush win two terms as president by “understanding that every election is a reaction to the last president” and then in 2004 by “figuring out how to make Bush’s stubbornness into a political virtue.”
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