Friday, February 23, 2007

Links of the day

Hannibal and the Romans......

A UCLA Anthropologist's Study of Urban Land Use by Middle Class People in Los Angeles
...this demands a detailed analysis but don't have the time now...absolutely outstanding information

Mish has an information-loaded post on the proportion of jobs linked to the housing industry in Florida: the prospects look grim for that state if a full-scale housing bust takes place there.

Incentive of oil producers and owners is now to hoard..Excellent explanation of why by Dr. Arnold Kling...hoarding is a positive feedback to increasing prices.

San Diego County pension fund...two good quotes are.... "financial instruments could be particularly problematic given a potential conflict between the incentives facing an individual pension fund manager and the best interests of the future retirees whose assets he or she is managing. If the manager can turn in well-above-market returns five years in a row, the manager is likely to be spectacularly rewarded over that period. Whether the beneficiaries are actually paid many years later down the road will be somebody else's problem...." and "When I heard about the disastrously irresponsible investments made by the Amaranth hedge fund, my first reaction was, who would be so stupid to have put up the margin requirements for such a scheme? The answer turned out to be found in my own backyard-- the San Diego County Employees Retirement Association apparently donated over a hundred million dollars to this worthy cause."

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