Why You Shouldn’t Trust Internet Comments | Science/AAAS | News

Why You Shouldn’t Trust Internet Comments | Science/AAAS | News:

In many areas the Wisdom of the crowds rules, but what is the crowd isn't as smart as we think?

 From Reddit:


"The “wisdom of crowds” has become a mantra of the Internet age. Need to choose a new vacuum cleaner? Check out the reviews on Amazon. Is that restaurant any good? See what Yelp has to say. But a new study suggests

Why do I care?

I posted this on Facebook and then decided it was enough finance related to post here as well.


Yes,
it is their money (donated by Phil Knight). Yes, they can spend their
money in anyway they see fit. No, they are not the only ones to go
"overboard". I concede my "overboard" tends to be
significantly less than other people's "just right". And I even bet
that the fancy "football

Stern Advice: Financial Advice That Is Popular -- and Wrong - Yahoo! Finance

Stern Advice: Financial Advice That Is Popular -- and Wrong - Yahoo! Finance:

"The problem is, a lot of that is bad advice. At best it fit a bygone era; at worst it was never right and is dangerous.

Here is a list of my least favorite financial chestnuts."

Vince Young may have possessions seized to pay off $1.7 million loan | Shutdown Corner - Yahoo! Sports

It is always sad and shocking to see people with money burn through it all.  Such is the case of Vince Young.  

Vince Young may have possessions seized to pay off $1.7 million loan | Shutdown Corner - Yahoo! Sports:

"Young's fall has been precipitous....Young signed a contract in July 2006 that, in theory, could have set him up for life. The No. 3 overall pick of the 2006 NFL draft, Young's

Just How Generous Are Detroit's Worker Pensions for Retirees? - Yahoo! Finance

This is somewhat surprising:

Just How Generous Are Detroit's Worker Pensions for Retirees? - Yahoo! Finance:

"...basic takeaway was that [Detroit's] pension system itself was not overly generous," said Jean-Pierre Aubry, assistant director of State and Local Research at Boston College's Center for Retirement Research."

Great lessons from 25IQ (and Daniel Kahneman) | 25iq

 Great stuff! 

Great stuff!  A Dozen Things I’ve Learned About Investing from Daniel Kahneman | 25iq:


 A Dozen Things I’ve Learned About Investing from Daniel Kahneman

1. “Many individual investors lose consistently by trading, an achievement that a dart-throwing chimp could not match.” Leonard the Wonder Monkey will beat a muppet in an investing contest. Not only will muppets

Brain sets prices with emotional value

Brain sets prices with emotional value:

Not super surprised by this one:


"...after a series of experiments in which subjects were asked to modify how they felt about something either positively or negatively, the Duke group is arguing that emotional and economic calculations are more closely related than brain scientists had realized. The study appears July 3 in the Journal of Neuroscience."

Ritholtz: You Can “Eat Cat Food Tacos In Retirement,” Or You Can Do This… | Daily Ticker - Yahoo! Finance

Ritholtz: You Can “Eat Cat Food Tacos In Retirement,” Or You Can Do This… | Daily Ticker - Yahoo! Finance:
"In a recent column in The Washington Post, Ritholtz offered advice to investors who can’t get the memories of 2008 out of their minds and missed out on the massive rally since the March 2009 lows. In the accompanying video, he summarizes the advice for taking emotions out of investing:

Forget self-denial: Key to richer, healthier life is a good imagination - Red Tape

Forget self-denial: Key to richer, healthier life is a good imagination - Red Tape:


The "He" is Joesph Kable from Penn.

"Recently, his research took an inspirational turn. He found that subjects whose brains show added activity when imagining the future also make better decisions about money. Kable suspects that consumers who can really, viscerally imagine how great that new car will smell

Former Enron CEO Skilling's sentence cut to 14 years - Yahoo! Finance

 Former Enron CEO Skilling's sentence cut to 14 years - Yahoo! Finance:

"Former Enron Corp Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling's near decade-long quest to prove he did nothing wrong at the once high-flying energy-trading behemoth ended on Friday when a federal judge shaved 10 years off of his prison sentence."

Why would an organization enourage such a conflict of interest?

I realize organizations need money but sometimes conflicts of interest seem to dominate common sense.  A case in point:


The New Rules for Sunscreen - NYTimes.com:


"Take endorsements and seals of approval with a grain of salt. The Skin Cancer Foundation gives a “seal of recommendation” to sunscreens, but only if their manufacturer has donated $10,000 to become a member of the organization."

S&P cuts Berkshire Hahaway's rating, but barely.

S&P cuts Berkshire Hathaway rating by one notch to 'AA' - Yahoo! Finance:


"The lower credit rating on BRK better reflects our view of BRK's dependence on its core insurance operations for most of its dividend income," said Standard &Poor's credit analyst John Iten."
How to bond rating agencies work? Here are a few good links:

From Wikipedia:  (they have really cool tables showing defaults by

SEC subpoenas ‘political intelligence’ firms in a case of leaked information - The Washington Post

SEC subpoenas ‘political intelligence’ firms in a case of leaked information - The Washington Post:

" The latest case emerged April 1 when Height Securities, a Washington-based stock brokerage firm, alerted its clients that the government would soon make a decision favoring private health insurers who participate in a Medicare program.

The alert went out 18 minutes before the end of the trading