EFTA02012455

To: [email protected][[email protected]]; jeevacation mail.com '[email protected]] From: Sent: Sat 10/8/2011 5:27:12 AM Subject: FW: weekend reading Some good stuff here Sent: Friday, October 07 2011 10:03 PM To: Steven Sinofsky; Subject: weekend reading Importance: Low Video: Michael Lewis: The First World Third World htto://dIvr.it/CO0kb Why Do Sandwiches Taste Better When Someone Else Makes Them? http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2011/10/why-do-sandwiches-taste-better-when-someone-else- makes-them/ Companies that spend lots on lobbying outperform the S&P 500 by 11% http://www.economist.com/node/21531014 Taleb: "Why should I waste time in finance when my influence as an intellectual is so high?" http://www. bloom berg.com/news/2011-10-06/b lack-swa n -money-manager-returni ng-23-antici pati ng- bear-market.html In a new book Das calls this emerging weirdness "financialization": The spread of financial engineering throughout the global economy. At its core, Das says, financialization was based on two things. "One is debt, more debt, and more debt." The other is packaging risk: "not really eliminating it, but shifting it around." All that debt and all that repackaged risk eventually blew up, of course, wrecking the global economy in the process. Financializaiton also had another unfortunate side effect, according to Das: The best and brightest went into finance because... it paid better than every other profession. So we had this whole generation of people — who would have been great scientists, great doctors, great creators of other things — attracted to a business which ultimately only provided, to a substantial degree, toxic waste. And that is the tragedy of EFTA_R1_00514433 EFTA02012455 our time.... It was this diversion of enormous amounts of talent http://www. npr.orablogs/mon ey/2011/09/30/140954343/the-f riday-podcast-how- money-got-weird Why 158 Acres Of Corn Costs $1.5 Million http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/10/06/141114446/whv-158-acres-of-corn-costs-1-5-million Two more job charts: http://macroblog.tvpepad.com/macroblog/2011/10/two-more-iob-market- charts.html?utm source=feedburner&utm medium=feed&utm campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRU Qt+%28macroblog%29 Newspapers and paywalls: http://www.economist.com/node/215314.79 Next rumor causing next financial panic will probably originate here: http://www.zerohedge.com/ WONKY! returns from investments in agricultural development http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/7069 EFTA_R1_00514434 EFTA02012456