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Since all price movements arise from orders placed and executed, prices can respond to news only if there exist individuals in the economy who are alert to the arrival of new information and are willing to adjust positions on this basis. But this raises the question of how such “information traders” are able to find willing counterparties. After all, who in their right mind wants to trade with an individual having superior information?
Rajiv Sethi: Information, Beliefs, and Trading
But it’s striking that the Fed’s preferred price measure is declining at a time when the main conversation among policy makers is when and how to tighten monetary policy, rather than to make it more accommodative.
Where Is the Panic Over Deflation? – Bloomberg
Third, give the central bank skin in the game by requiring it to issue or purchase material amounts of financial instruments on which it will lose money if interest rates depart from the forward guidance-consistent levels – financial hostage instruments. If possible, link the pay of the monetary policy makers at least in part to the performance of these instruments.
The new iPhone breaks ground by seamlessly sharing Wi-Fi and 4G for Siri. Further tweaks could boost bandwidth 20-fold in some cases.
“Multipath” Networking Could Turbocharge Bandwidth | MIT Technology Review
Eurozone inflation is running at its lowest rate in more than three years.
BBC News – Eurozone inflation falls to lowest rate in three years
It might never leave Japan, where it will launch next year, but the Sharp Mebius Pad is one of the most interesting Windows 8 tablets we’ve seen in quite some time.
Sharp shows off water-proof Windows 8 tablet with high-res IGZO screen – News – Trusted Reviews
A government shutdown, and the prospect of a default on the national debt, is pretty much the definition of economic uncertainty. Contracts are put in limbo. Future interest rates are unknown. A new healthcare system lies in the balance. And meanwhile, a whole host of issues that businesses need resolved in order to plan several years in advance — environmental regulation, immigration policy, the tax code — go almost entirely unaddressed.
These are the conditions brought upon us by a small core of Republicans who can’t let go of their opposition to a law their colleagues passed three years ago. And yet, not long ago, many of those same Republicans were declaring that uncertainty is the economy’s biggest threat. Let’s go to the tape:
Remember when Republicans were worried about ‘economic uncertainty’?
That doesn’t mean the Republican Party is under any obligation to stand back and let Democrats do as they please. But imagine if the Republican Party had won the 2012 election and Senate Democrats threatened to breach the debt ceiling and cause a financial crisis unless Republicans added a public option to Obamacare. Does anyone think a President Mitt Romney would find that position reasonable? Does anyone think that position would be reasonable?
Don’t forget what the shutdown is really about
Everything you need to know about life under Obamacare
Everything you need to know about life under Obamacare
They said one program would end freedom in America, and worried that another was akin to socialism. No, we’re not talking about aspects of the Affordable Care Act. If you think politicians are up in arms about the upcoming launch of Obamacare, you must not be old enough to remember the name-calling and dire predictions that predicated the introduction of two other major legislative milestones: Medicare and Social Security.
“There is a history around these government programs of controversy, of fear, of partisan division and ideological debates,” said Jonathan Oberlander, a professor of health policy and management at the University of North Carolina. Of course, both Social Security and Medicare were enacted despite such opposition—and in both cases, experts say they quickly became quite popular and have stayed that way.
You think the Obamacare fight is ugly?
Although 10-year Irish sovereign bond yields have gone from about 7.2 percent to about 5 percent since June, according to Eurostat, Ireland’s debt-to-Gross National Product (GNP) ratio is still at 150 percent, a ”very uncomfortable level for a country that is struggling to have positive GDP growth,” Leech said.
Irish Economy Risks Downward Spiral: Expert
For most of the world, a government shutdown is very bad news – the result of revolution, invasion or disaster. Even in the middle of its ongoing civil war, the Syrian government has continued to pay its bills and workers’ wages.
BBC News – US shutdown has other nations confused and concerned
WhatsApp’s group messaging function appears to be increasingly used as a replacement for Facebook’s groups function, especially among extended families, in schools and anywhere someone needs a convenient way of mass-texting a small group of known associates.
WhatsApp Suddenly Looks Like A Huge Threat To Facebook – Business Insider
For 10 days, Hubble collected faint light from the extremely small patch of black space. This resulting image became one of the most memorable observations in Hubble history.
The Most Important Image From The Hubble Telescope – Business Insider
Hearing from London contact of a major US fund rebalancing in gold.
Critics of the Mail highlighted the paper’s stance on Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists in the 1930s. Lord Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, posted a picture of a Daily Mail article by Viscount Rothermere published eight decades ago headlined: Hurrah for the Blackshirts, and said: “Here’s a Daily Mail leader praising fascists written by the great-grandfather of the paper’s current owner.”
The arrival of Obamacare may make it easier for some employees to quit their full-time jobs to launch tech start-ups, work as a freelance consultant or pursue some other solo career path.
Obamacare could help fuel a tech start-up boom – Computerworld
Depending whom you ask, Chad Russell and Charles Butkus’ invention is either a step forward for the Internet — or a death knell for free content. Their AdTrap device intercepts online advertisements before they reach any devices that access your Internet connection, allowing you to surf the Web — even stream videos — without those annoying ads.
The device that could change the Internet – CNN.com
From next generation programme guides to personalised ad replacement, via fluff like The Million Second Quiz, the company is reinventing the very foundation of television.
How Gracenote is taking control of your TV | News | TechRadar
But there is something else going on, and markets and investors are missing it. There is a change in foreign policy that has very broad implications. I will do my best to make the case. Our portfolios are being positioned for it.
David Kotok: Muni Bonds Remain Cheap – Business Insider
Last week Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gave his US counterpart John Kerry what he said was evidence to back up this claim. It includes an investigation by a Catholic nun living in Syria. The BBC’s Richard Galpin spoke to Mother Agnes.
BBC News – Mother Agnes: Syria’s detective nun who denies gas attack
A list of unusual activities was compiled by CheapFlights.co.uk, the travel comparison website, for its infographic “50 things to do when you’re stuck at an airport”.
Fifty things to do at the airport – Telegraph
I imagine the same questions are racing through your brilliant mind as were racing through mine on that fateful day. What is this? Why have I been given it? What have I done to deserve this? And, which one is the starter, which one is the desert?
Virgin: the world’s best passenger complaint letter? – Telegraph
In his letter to Boehner, Reid drew an analogy to Republicans’ current objects to the Affordable Care Act to his opposition to the Iraq War. “I hated the Iraq War. I think I hated it as much as you hate the Affordable Care Act,” Reid wrote.
“There were many gut-wrenching nights when I struggled over what I needed to do to end the carnage. In those days, when President Bush was Commander in Chief, I could have taken the steps that you are taking now to block Government funding in order to gain leverage to end the war. I faced a lot of pressure from my own base to take that action. But I did not do that. I felt that it would have been devastating to America.”
Government Shutdown: Reid Makes Boehner An Offer – Business Insider
