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September 30, 2005

Housing Map

Housing Maps
the criagslist - googlemap mash up.

See also housing maps by census.

Live near the trees.

via
link paul k @inf greed

September 29, 2005

Blame Dick, but not for Indentity

ex-Hip, ex Active Perl guy Dick Hartd now chases marrying privacy
and convenience in a single sign on.

And he appreciates fine cars, travel, and wine.
An excellent presentation at O'Reilly's Open Source 2005.

September 28, 2005

Bond Talk

Bond Talk and commentary.
Delayed publication by four weeks for non-subscribers.

September 27, 2005

Beldar Law Review

Beldar's legal review.

On Dahlia Lithwick.

On Eliot Spitzer:
Whose job, as he views it, is to use the power of the State of New
York to enforce not "the law per se," but ... well, whatever he
damn well pleases whatever he thinks will get him elected to his next
target
office whatever his keen insight perceives as being
within that broader, unwritten social compact. (Or maybe its
penumbras and eminations.)

September 26, 2005

Tech Dirt

techdirt is the thinking man's Slashdot. Better editing, thoughtful
exposition, all in the lead paragraph.

Previously: Alterslash is literally a better Slashdot.

September 25, 2005

The Greenspan Put

Tightening aimed (indirectly, of course!) at asset bubbles will be
reversed, big time, if and when those bubbles pop.

This is the Greenspan Put !

-- Paul McCulley.

As explained at Pimco:

Put more technically, the value of the Greenspan Put will rise
exponentially if the curve inverts, while the cost of "buying"
that Put will actually become negative: in an inverted curve,
a duration-equal barbell of cash and long bonds yields more than
a bulleted portfolio. Such is the weirdness of an inverted curve:
the less volatile, convex barbell structure actually yields more
than the more volatile, less convex bullet. Rather than paying
for insurance, you get paid for taking it!

September 24, 2005

Chief Justice Roberts

Roberts purports to rock: offers lawyer jokes
and doubts Michael Jackson.

September 23, 2005

Housing, constant quality index

macroblog looks at Shiller's claims of a housing bubble is about
about to burst.

Is the increase in housing indexes due to bigger, better houses,
or an genuine increase in the overall housing market ?

Housing price vs housing quality, now with quality control.

September 22, 2005

bubblemeter

bubblemeter / David Jackson: yet another housing bubble blog.

September 20, 2005

local froth and bubbles in housing

Housing bubble trackers proliferate: here's six more.

NY housing bubble, NY
Property Grunt is NY-centric and offers a more commentary.
Jersey Shore, NJ
Boston, MA
Piggington, San Diego, CA
San Diego, CA
Seattle, WA
SoCal (CA)
Marin, CA

See also national and internatonal housing bubbles.

September 19, 2005

Rumsfeld speaks

Well, you know, you have to remember that in every war, a battle plan
doesn't survive first contact with the enemy. This is in history. Why?
Because the enemy has a brain and they're constantly adapting, so we're
constantly adapting. Every time there's an adaptation, someone says,
"Oh, there's a mistake." It isn't a mistake. It's just reality. ...

-- Donald Rumsfeld

September 18, 2005

Brad Sester

Brad Sester's blog-portal of international and macro-economy.

September 17, 2005

political theory

politicaltheory offers a potpourri of headlines, from MSM, and think magazines.
Minimalist design.

September 16, 2005

American Banker

Free headlines, subscriber-only content: *.

September 15, 2005

HeyMath

The HeyMath platform includes an online repository of questions,
indexed by concept and grade, so teachers can save time in devising
homework and tests. Because HeyMath material is accompanied by
animated lessons that students can do on their own online, it
provides for a lot of self-learning. Indeed, HeyMath, which has been
adopted by 35 of Singapore's 165 schools, also provides an online
tutor, based in India, to answer questions from students stuck on
homework.

[via NYT]

September 14, 2005

Altamont Press' RailRoad News

Altamont Press' RailRoad News and foamers' discussion.
History and trainspotting, mainline freight and commuter trains.

September 13, 2005

Cunning Realist

Cunning Realist newsy commentary. Examples: risk transfer and social security reform *,
New Orleans flood Reality ** (vs AS's version, Hit and Run's version).

September 12, 2005

Seeking Alpha

Seeking Alpha neatly ontologized money science into

* Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs)
* Market Commentary
* China Investing
* Media Investing
* Digital Media Investing
* Stock Market Blogs
* Economics Blogs
* Venture Capital Blogs
* Personal Finance Blogs

and brings me Herb Morgan, Chief Investment Officer of Efficient Market
Advisors, on The Problem With Vanguard ETFs.

September 11, 2005

Roubini Global Economics

Roubini Global Economics Monitor:

Hedge funds: Measuring hedge funds' risk

September 10, 2005

Volatility vs Liquidity

Traditionally, economists have thought that big up-and-down
fluctuations in returns indicated risky investments, so many hedge
fund investors have hoped to see a pattern of smooth and even returns.

Andrew Lo quickly saw that lots of hedge funds were posting returns
that were just too smooth to be realistic. Digging deeper, he found
that funds with hard-to-appraise, illiquid investments - like real
estate or esoteric interest rate swaps - showed returns that were
particularly even. In those cases, he concluded, managers had no way
to measure their fluctuations, and simply assumed that their value was
going up steadily. The problem, unfortunately, is that those are
exactly the kinds of investments that can be subject to big losses in
a crisis. In 1998, investors retreated en masse from such investments.

Mr. Lo came to a disturbing conclusion: that smooth returns,
far from proving that hedge funds are safe, may be a warning
sign for the industry.

[NYT]

September 9, 2005

The Stalwart / Joseph Weisenthal

The Stalwart's interesting business coverage, such as:
What's Really Wrong With Dell ?, on the celebrity industry:
The Case For Paparazzi.
Also a real estate analysis.

Update 2009 May: Occasional co-author Vincent Fernando launches Research Reloaded.

Update 2008 October: now at Clusterstock.

Update 2008 August: Fluffy bits at Josephweisenthal.com.

Update: Less frequent after spring of 2006, but came back in April 2007.
Also, 2007 August, was guesting at TechDirt.

Snapshootr.

September 8, 2005

Hospital Length of Stay: Mean or Median Regression

Length of stay (LOS) is an important measure of hospital activity and
health care utilization, but its empirical distribution is often
positively skewed.

Median regression appears to be a suitable alternative to analyze
the clustered and positively skewed LOS, without transforming and
trimming the data arbitrarily.

Objective. This study reviews the mean and median regression
approaches for analyzing LOS, which have implications for service
planning, resource allocation, and bed utilization.

Methods. The two approaches are applied to analyze hospital discharge
data on cesarean delivery. Both models adjust for patient and
health-related characteristics, and for the dependency of LOS outcomes
nested within hospitals. The estimation methods are also compared in a
simulation study.

Results. For the empirical application, the mean regression results
are somewhat sensitive to the magnitude of trimming chosen. The
identified factors from median regression, namely number of diagnoses,
number of procedures, and payment classification, are robust to
high-LOS outliers. The simulation experiment shows that median
regression can outperform mean regression even when the response
variable is moderately positively skewed.

Conclusion. Median regression appears to be a suitable alternative to
analyze the clustered and positively skewed LOS, without transforming
and trimming the data arbitrarily.

Analyzing Hospital Length of Stay: Mean or Median Regression ?
Medical Care. 41(5):681-686, May 2003.
Lee, Andy H.; Fung, Wing K.; Fu, Bo
[**]

September 7, 2005

Daniel Gross

Daniel Gross, economic commentator, is consumer-centric
and a left-leaning fact checker

September 6, 2005

Mimi in New York

Mimi in New York is a bitter trustafarian flirt.

September 5, 2005

Find Articles

findarticles is the poor man's Lexis/Nexis.
Can't find it there ? Try MozBot instead.

September 4, 2005

Lyn Nofziger

Lyn Nofziger posts crusty musings.

September 3, 2005

Track home builders stock

Track home builders' stock.

Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL)
KB Home (KBH)
Pulte Homes Inc. (PHM)
DR Horton Inc. (DHI)
KB Home (KBH)
Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. (HOV)

September 2, 2005

Margin Call

New read Margin Call.

September 1, 2005

LIBOR rate history

LIBOR (London Inter-Bank Offered Rate) is based on rates that
contributor banks in London offer each other for inter-bank
deposits.

From a bank's perspective, deposits are simply funds that are
loaned to them. So in effect, a LIBOR is a rate at which a
fellow London bank can borrow money from other banks. Rate
calculations incorporate variables such as time, maturity
and currency rates. There are hundreds of LIBOR rates reported
each month in numerous currencies.

Examples: the 1 Year LIBOR as published monthly by Fannie
Mae: rate history.