The percentage of economists is in congress isn't going to be much higher than in the population as a whole...there's little incentive for people to vote for economists, or for lawyers (those being the breeding stock for politicians) to study economics vs. (say) poli sci.
Obama keeps fucking up, Part III
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The percentage of economists is in congress isn't going to be much higher than in the population as a whole...there's little incentive for people to vote for economists, or for lawyers (those being the breeding stock for politicians) to study economics vs. (say) poli sci.
Beco
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Personal opinion, but if you need $6500 to buy a house, you shouldn't be buying a house.
Sean
We'll see.
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PPE is the degree of choice for pols over here. Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Although we do have quite a few LL.Bs. Which makes sense for a body charged with drafting laws.
trysail
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aQxfRBAiW7ak
GMO’s Grantham Says Bernanke Risks Fueling New Bubble
By Charles Stein
April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Jeremy Grantham, chief investment strategist at Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co., said a longer period of below-average economic growth carries the risk of fueling a third stock-market bubble because Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke would likely keep interest rates low.
“If we get lucky and have a strong, broad, and sustained economic recovery, interest rates will probably rise before we reach real bubble territory,” Grantham wrote in his quarterly newsletter, posted on GMO’s Web site. “If, however, the economy only limps along, which seems more likely to me, then we run a very real danger of a third dangerous bubble in stocks and in risk-taking in general.”
Grantham said the market’s 80 percent rally in one year is “excessive” and was fueled more by the Fed’s monetary policy than by the rebound in the economy, which is facing “seven lean years...”
..., as the biggest jump in new home sales in almost five decades bolstered optimism the economy is improving.
“Speculators are not stupid. They see that after each crash, a long, artificial period of low rates and easy financial borrowing has been delivered,” Grantham wrote. “They see that Bernanke is an unreconstructed Greenspanite in that he refuses to address bubbles, but will leap to help ease the pain should a bubble break. With asymmetry like that, why not speculate?”
...In his current newsletter Grantham also criticized Bernanke for helping bail out weaker companies, rather than let them be acquired by stronger competitors. Last year, he compared giving Bernanke a second term as Fed chairman to reappointing the captain of the Titanic.
“We are helping to restore the financial health of the banks and bankers, who under these conditions, could not fail to make a fortune even if brain dead,” Grantham wrote in the current newsletter.
GMO’s Grantham Says Bernanke Risks Fueling New Bubble
By Charles Stein
April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Jeremy Grantham, chief investment strategist at Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co., said a longer period of below-average economic growth carries the risk of fueling a third stock-market bubble because Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke would likely keep interest rates low.
“If we get lucky and have a strong, broad, and sustained economic recovery, interest rates will probably rise before we reach real bubble territory,” Grantham wrote in his quarterly newsletter, posted on GMO’s Web site. “If, however, the economy only limps along, which seems more likely to me, then we run a very real danger of a third dangerous bubble in stocks and in risk-taking in general.”
Grantham said the market’s 80 percent rally in one year is “excessive” and was fueled more by the Fed’s monetary policy than by the rebound in the economy, which is facing “seven lean years...”
..., as the biggest jump in new home sales in almost five decades bolstered optimism the economy is improving.
“Speculators are not stupid. They see that after each crash, a long, artificial period of low rates and easy financial borrowing has been delivered,” Grantham wrote. “They see that Bernanke is an unreconstructed Greenspanite in that he refuses to address bubbles, but will leap to help ease the pain should a bubble break. With asymmetry like that, why not speculate?”
*****
...In his current newsletter Grantham also criticized Bernanke for helping bail out weaker companies, rather than let them be acquired by stronger competitors. Last year, he compared giving Bernanke a second term as Fed chairman to reappointing the captain of the Titanic.
“We are helping to restore the financial health of the banks and bankers, who under these conditions, could not fail to make a fortune even if brain dead,” Grantham wrote in the current newsletter.
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There's plenty of incentive. Stronger, more targeted laws for one. If the populus don't demand it, they don't get it. They get Palin and Arnold instead.
Pookie
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You don't get it up front to buy a house.
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No one's using the tax credit to buy the house; they're using it to upgrade the kitchen appliances, put in a more efficient central AC, anything that will drive consumer demand for consumer durables.
FFS.
Laws are about more than economics, though. If economists made better politicians, then we would have more of them in politics, right?
Beco
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To be clear, I'm not arguing J.D. versus MBA; they should, however, both be able to understand each other at a working level, i.e., a JD should understand the fundamentals of supply-side economics; an MBA should understand due process. Our government, unfortunately, is more about style and substance.
And in the case of Mitch McConnell, the inability to comprehend written English.
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Luk
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I hope you have a limp dick all w-e.
Henceforth referred to as 'a Becon in your pants'.
trysail
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In many respects, Grantham's strategic thinking resembles that of genuine, honest-to-god "value" investors. He's not bad at calculating central value and sticking to his guns.
True, competent, honest, long-term "value" investors can appear to be "wrong" for extended periods while Mr. Market demonstrates his usual manic behavior. It is periods like that when Grantham— and people like him— appear to be dead-wrong to the untutored, the naive and the inexperienced. Many of us suffered horribly during the late '90s when all the world thought we were hopeless relics. It took a long time for us to be proved right.
The foregoing is not intended to suggest that Grantham is infallible.
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It's no coincidence. GMO is a value shop. Always has been.
Here's one trait that's correlated with leadership:
http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/ideasatwork/feature/735403/Powerful+Lies
"The researchers found that subjects assigned leadership roles were buffered from the negative effects of lying. Across all measures, the high-power liars — the leaders —resembled truthtellers, showing no evidence of cortisol reactivity (which signals stress), cognitive impairment or feeling bad. In contrast, low-power liars — the subordinates — showed the usual signs of stress and slower reaction times. “Having power essentially buffered the powerful liars from feeling the bad effects of lying, from responding in any negative way or giving nonverbal cues that low-power liars tended to reveal,” Carney explains."
http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/ideasatwork/feature/735403/Powerful+Lies
"The researchers found that subjects assigned leadership roles were buffered from the negative effects of lying. Across all measures, the high-power liars — the leaders —resembled truthtellers, showing no evidence of cortisol reactivity (which signals stress), cognitive impairment or feeling bad. In contrast, low-power liars — the subordinates — showed the usual signs of stress and slower reaction times. “Having power essentially buffered the powerful liars from feeling the bad effects of lying, from responding in any negative way or giving nonverbal cues that low-power liars tended to reveal,” Carney explains."
Beco
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cebalrai
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Yet any investor will tell you that a bursting bubble is a fantastic buying opportunity. I don't see the problem.
Personally I've got too much cash (read: money market funds and low risk investments) in my portfolio right now as I've been doing quite a bit of profit-taking. If the market plummetted tomorrow I'd be doing some mass buying.
Personally I've got too much cash (read: money market funds and low risk investments) in my portfolio right now as I've been doing quite a bit of profit-taking. If the market plummetted tomorrow I'd be doing some mass buying.
mark_j
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cebalrai
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Capitalizing on the mis-fortune of others eh? How un-liberal of you.
If you had even a shred of awareness about how investing works, you'd know that money is made on up-and-down movement, not so much only upward.
Just a massively ignorant post on your part really.
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trysail
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There's "value" and then there's "value." Institutional "relative value" is very, very different from "value" based on rigorous, thorough, diligent research and valuation. It's amazing what can sometimes be found in hidden corners through the sheer brute force of reading thousands of documents.
While I do hold GMO in good regard, there is no denying that they are absolutely guilty of the marketing-driven practice of segmenting the market— offering several "products" which are clearly designed to fit specific pigeon holes thus pandering to the consultant market. I shudder in disgust anytime I hear or see the word "product" used in connection with investing. As you can see for yourself, if GMO thinks something is saleable they'll sell it:
http://www.gmo.com/America/Strategies/
I have never seen a mathematically-described, universally applicable definition of risk. Nothwithstanding all the obfuscation and Greek symbology of the academics and the Nobels, risk is NOT variation around a mean.
"I'd rather lose half my shareholders, than half my shareholders' money."
~Jean-Marie Eveillard
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Luk
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like a fly to shit.....
You should really rethink who is the fly and who is the shit, Beco.
mark_j
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