John McLeod

Risk from High Frequency and Algorithmic Trading Not as Big as Many Think

I read your paragraph #4 and thought ... "front-running with a chainsaw"

The Future of Flashed Options

doubleguns, last week's showdown between Melissa Hathaway and Larry Summers strongly supports your assertion about the PPT.

Tyler, it's "Isaac Asimov," and I still cherish the D+ I got in the '60s for handing in a 10 page character sketch of the Mule to my High School English teacher.

Misunderstanding the Great Recession

It is clear now that the present crisis was caused by hedonic shock resulting from a disruptive cornucopia. That is, East Asia sented sending Europe and North America massive amounts of cheap cars and manufactured goods, clothes, etc. I think it was pre-Xmas 2006 when LA & Long Beach were backed up 6-weeks deep in Bratz dolls and radio controlled cars. This destroyed the competing domestic suppliers, but caused consumers to (temporarily) feel about twice as wealthy and confident. Thus banks-gone-wild, the re-fi boom and so on.

As Professor Scott Nelson of William & Mary recently pointed out in the Chronicle of Higher Education, of all places, exactly the same thing happened in the run-up to the Crisis of 1873. Then it was American grains and manufactured goods flooding Western Europe. First the economies of their traditional bread basket (Russia & Ukraine) collapsed, while at the same time financial innovation and hedonic shock caused exuberant consumerism and a monumental building boom (that's where all those touristy piles in Vienna, Berlin, Paris and so on came from). It took about 6 years to clear.