A philosopher of science (Duke’s Alexander Rosenberg) does an awfully good job of explaining the core problem with the efficient market hypothesis (via Zubin Jelveh):
The efficient markets thesis is that the market makes complete use of all relevant information, and the “proof” is roughly that in a perfectly competitive market among
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Due to an odd loophole in the so-called death tax, the highest tax rate assessed to a deceased person’s estate goes from 45% this year to 0% next year, then up to 55% in 2011. The takeaway is: If you’re super rich and want to pass along that wealth to your kids and not the government, do your best to kick the bucket in 2010.
An October Clearance Sale knocks 20% to 40% off of Garnet Hill sweaters, boots, coats, children’s clothes, and other fall merchandise. More details here.
Felix Salmon, after previously describing the readers of the blog sensation Zero Hedge as loser day traders and getting called out for it by my old friend The Equity Private (now blogging at Zero Hedge as Marla Singer), reconsiders:
Far from reflecting the conspiracy-minded and often-disjointed ramblings of harmful-only-to-themselves
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I have a soft spot in my heart for Saturn. The first new car I could truly call my own was a bare bones Saturn SL. The sticker price was around $11,000, and with Saturn’s original no-hassle-no-haggling policy, I happily paid the sticker price. I delivered pizzas and drove cross-country in that super reliable, unsexy, no-A/C vehicle, and …
Okay, so now I understand high-frequency trading. Well no, no, I don’t. But I really like Samantha Bee’s costume.
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The gift card is viewed as a thoughtful, less crass alternative to cash. When you present a gift card to someone, the message sent is something like, “I didn’t want to buy you something you don’t need, so you decide.” But if it’s truly the thought that counts, old-fashioned greenbacks are the better way to go.
As Hugh McColl built North Carolina National Bank into NCNB into Nationsbank into Bank of America, Ken Lewis was the guy who made all those mergers work. McColl was the swashbuckler, Lewis the beancounter. From a 2005 profile in by Fortune by Shawn Tully:
Lewis’s cool restraint impressed McColl. “He always had good credit judgment,” says
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A couple in England bid just $81 on eBay and won a wedding at a classy country inn, easily saving them more than $2,000.
The Hoxton Hotel in London periodically offers rooms for just £1, and the next sale starts tomorrow, October 1, at 12 p.m. London time (7 a.m. EST). At that time, 500 rooms will be offered for £1 per night for reservations between November 1 and January 31, 2010, and another 500 rooms will be offered for £29 (about $47). More details here.
My colleague Steve Gandel has a nice piece about the strange contortions the FDIC is now going through to avoid tapping its credit line with the U.S. Treasury. He writes:
The agency has a credit line with the Treasury to tap as much as $500 billion in emergency capital through the end of next year. But the FDIC is worried that if the
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Here’s another disturbing stat about health care: 54. That’s the percentage of medical malpractice money that goes to trial lawyers and administrative costs.