Iceland jokes

My favorite one:
What's the capital of Iceland?
About $20
What about this quote of the day (from a trader):
"This is worse than a divorce. I've lost half my net worth and I still have a wife."
Via MR.
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I need a hero

the video is here.
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Macroeconomics porn

More often than not, I don't share the views of Arnold Kling, but this paragrah is beautiful: I have always thought that the issue of the relationship between financial markets and the "real economy" was really deep. I thought that it was a critical part of macroeconomic theory that was poorly developed. But the economics profession for the past thirty years instead focused on producing stochastic calculus porn to satisfy young men's urge for mathematical masturbation.
Found here.
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What did Heckman say to Cochrane?

A summary of the controversy around the Milton Friedman Institute is in the David Warsh link here (maybe I shodul say something about my friend Hussein, but I don't have time now). A NYT article is here. Here is John Cochrane's summary of the controversy. BUT, the full text of the message from James Heckman to John Cochrane is here (need to go to the end of the article).

ADDENDUM
The last link may not always work. So, here it is: Heckman e-mailed Cochrane a terse response to his concerns: “Screw off, John,” he said.
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Pension funds unprivatization

In this book (joint with E Borensztein and E Levy Yeyati) I had written that pension funds could become victims of their own success. mmmmm
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Nice animation

Here. Thanks to Manu Manu.
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On the origins of morality

Excellent TED video by Jonathan Haidt. You can also take the morality test here.

These are my scores (green it's me, blue is the average for liberals and red for conservatives, I am more loyal and less pure than the average liberal)

Thanks to Kristine F.
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UFOs

Here
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Romani

Qui. Grazie a FR.
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How to close a hedge fund in style

Andrew Lahde managed a hedge fund which made huge returns betting on the subprime collapse. This is his good bye letter (it even includes some reflections on hemp) and note the newly created "wise people category" Thanks to Raja K.
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Osama doesn't like Obama

The two biggest dangers for Barack Obama are the Bradley Effect and OBL.

This is Joseph Nye on OBL: On October 29 2004, four days before the last election, Al Jazeera aired an 18 minute video tape in which Osama bin Laden addressed the American people and threatened further retaliation ...... In the first poll after that tape was released, President George W. Bush opened up a six point lead over Senator John Kerry. The deputy director of the CIA commented that “Bin Laden certainly did a nice favour today for the president”.

From the al-Qaeda leader’s point of view, Mr Bush’s policies were more useful for his efforts to recruit supporters than Mr Kerry’s might have been. Mr bin Laden is involved in a civil war within Islam. He wants the US to pursue policies that create the appearance of a clash of civilisations. Anything that polarises the mainstream of Muslim opinion helps his recruiting. As the deputy director for analysis at the CIA commented at the time: “Certainly, he would want Bush to keep doing what he’s doing for a few more years.” From that point of view, Barack Obama must be unsettling for Mr bin Laden. ...... Mr Obama has the edge as reflected in the global polls and that must be giving Mr bin Laden a headache. In the next few weeks .... Mr bin Laden may again be tempted to enter the fray. Given the scale of the financial crisis, it might take more than a video tape to refocus the attention of the American electorate this year ...
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4-star toilet in the Forbidden City

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An animated film about one of Lebanon's darkest moments

I just saw a report on CNN on Waltz with Bashir (and also the Lemon Tree). Among other things, the CNN report mentioned that the two movies were acclaimed around the world but did not make much moeny in Israel (in fact Waltz with Bashir was not even screened by the main movie theater chains). Too close to home says director Eran Riklis.
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Again????

A friend sent me an email asking if the fringe benefits of the top managment of the BWIs include a large supply of blue pills. If you don't know what I'm refering to, check this out.
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Things you should not do..

...when you go to the beach in the Gulf: Here. Luckily they were not in this country, but they should have gone to Rimini, nobody would have bothered them. Other stories from the Gulf are here.
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Art and banking crises

My Chilean friends told me that the Central Bank of Chile has an amazing art collection which was built when bankrupt banks gave their art to the central bank as collateral (some of these paintings are on the cover of this series of books). What’s going to happen with Lehman’s huge art collection?
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Dafen and mass production of art

My painting was probably made in Dafen where an artist can make up to 30 paintings a day! Here are some very nice pictures. Other stories about Dafen are here and here.
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Tiananmen Square and Chinese scams

This morning I went to Tiananmen Square. It’s HUGE! I knew that it was the largest square in the world, but until you are standing in the middle of it, it’s hard to realize how big it is (you can fit 5 places de la Concorde in it).

Soon after my arrival I also got scammed (well, I kind of knew I was getting scammed but I went along). The scam works like this: a young English speaking clean-faced person approaches you an tells you that he/she is an art student (it could also be an older guy/woman who tells you that he/she is an art teacher) and invites you to see the art exhibit of her school. When you see a painting you like, the student tells you that the one you like was not made by a student but a by a famous artist who donated it to the school and that the proceeds from the sale of the painting will be used to fund a scholarship. So, I got suckered into it. I do like the painting, but I probably paid 10 times its true price (the original price was $400, I eventually paid $140, but I am sure could have paid $20, or even less). Oh well, the girl who sold me the painting worked very hard for it.
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Another communist magazine

When The Economist and the Financial Times wrote unfavorable articles about him, our prime minister accused them to be communist newspapers. Nature just joined the group of communist journals. Grazie Pask.
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Playmates!

Should I use these data data in my econometrics class?
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Wu what?

Off to China, a couple of days in Beijing (my hotel is next to this food market, but I may not eat here, both links are from MR) and then Wuhan. Yes, before going there I had never heard of it either (it only has 9 million inhabitants).
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I had forgotten about

this. It was indeed a great essay.
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Nouriel's (not so) secret life

Here (I used to tell him that he should put little flags inside those plaster vulvas). See, economists can be cool.
(found on MR)
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The Richmond Fed about economists and econ-bloggers

The link is here. Thanks to MR.
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Francis Fukuyama on the crisis

From the end of history to the end of the Reagan era (thanks to Raja K.). Another article about the overshooting of ideas is here.

Funny anecdote: in February 2006 (or 2005, I don't remember) I got stuck with Fukuyama and Mauricio Cardenas in a semideserted street of St. Petersburg (we took the wrong tram at the Hermitage). It was about -25 C and we were not properly dressed. We would have probably frozen if Mauricio had not jumped in the middle of the street stopped a car and asked the driver to take us to our hotel for a fee (he had read in the Lonely Planet that this was a standard procedure). The guys in the car asked us for 15 euro. They had no idea about our (at least mine) willingness to pay.
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