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If you’ve been following the news, you’ve likely noticed that there’s a pending lawsuit against Harvard University regarding discrimination against Asian-American students in the admissions process. I’m going to do a post on the substance of the case soon, but for now I want to talk a bit about the case logistics. (If you’re going … Continue reading "Economic Consulting, Or “Why If You Think You Can Make $750 An Hour Cleaning Data You Will Be Very Disappointed”…"

My midweek morning train reads: • From rust belt to robot belt: Turning AI into jobs in the US heartland (MIT Technology Review) see also How Tech Companies Conquered America’s Cities (New York Times) • Angelo Mozilo Is Unrepentant. But There’s No Second Act for the Head of Defunct Lender. (Wall Street Journal) • Why Are Millions Paying Online Tax Preparation… Read More The post 10 Wednesday AM Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

@TBPInvictus here: What inning are we in in this economic cycle? Sixth? Eighth? Are we going to go into extra innings? This parlor game consumes an inordinate amount of time among those of us who try to divine business cycles (a hobby for me, not a profession). Herewith a few indicators. First up, the tried… Read More The post We’re Late Cycle. How Late is the Question. appeared first on The Big Picture.

Today (I guess technically yesterday) in “I just can’t”… Trump says Canadians are smuggling scuffed shoes out of the U.S. to avoid tariffs and America can no longer be 'the stupid country' on trade https://t.co/WMu6cMtOyc — Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) June 19, 2018 So, uh, we gotta talk, because that’s not even remotely close to … Continue reading "How Not to Sound Like an Idiot About the Trade Deficit, Part 1"

Wanderers is a vision of humanity’s expansion into the Solar System, based on scientific ideas and concepts of what our future in space might look like, if it ever happens. The locations depicted in the film are digital recreations of actual places in the Solar System, built from real photos and map data where available.… Read More The post Wanderers by Carl Sagan appeared first on The Big Picture.

My Two-for-Tuesday morning train reads: • Cryptocurrencies: looking beyond the hype (BIS) see also The bigger cryptocurrencies get, the worse they perform (Reuters) • The Stock-Market Price Can Be Wrong. Very Wrong. (MoneyBeat) • One in ten dollars of US housing were anonymous (FT Alphaville) see also Larry Silverstein Flees the ‘Old Fogeys’ of Midtown (New York Times) • ‘Sociopathic’ CEO’s new comeback plan (news.com.au)… Read More The post 10 Tuesday AM Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

Policy making and Politics has changed. So says former Senate majority leader George Mitchell. Known among his Senate colleagues as an honest leader and skillful legislative strategist, Mitchell was instrumental in negotiating a peace agreement in Northern Ireland. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. From Brexit to money in elections to nuclear negotiations on the… Read More The post A Giant of the Senate appeared first on The Big Picture.

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Fascinating discussion from Bank for International Settlements (BIS) about crypto currencies: “Cryptocurrencies promise to replace trusted institutions with distributed ledger technology. Yet, looking beyond the hype, it is hard to identify a specific economic problem which they currently solve. Transactions are slow and costly, prone to congestion, and cannot scale with demand. The decentralised consensus behind… Read More The post BIS: Crypto Not Ready for Prime Time appeared first on The Big Picture.

    “How do you guys have time to manage money, between tweeting and writing and tv and radio?”    This question comes along surprisingly often. (I would argue it is precisely backwards). It fundamentally misunderstands the composition of an RIA portfolio and what a financial planning firms should be focused on. It imagines a daily grind where… Read More The post Our Exorbitant Privilege appeared first on The Big Picture.

The internet is finally going to be bigger than TV worldwide Source: Quartz via Atlas   The adaptation of broadband — think Netflix — is what has been pacing this adoption: “Next year, for the first time, we’ll spend more time using the internet than watching TV. People will spend an average of 170.6 minutes a… Read More The post 2019 is When the Internet Becomes Bigger than TV appeared first on The Big Picture.

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Michael Batnick, Ritholtz Wealth Management director of research, discusses investing mistakes by the likes of Warren Buffett and Stanley Druckenmiller and how hard it is to beat the market.   How the best investors reacted to their worst investments How the best investors reacted to their worst investments from CNBC. Source: CNBC   The post The Best Investors’ Worst Investments appeared first on The Big Picture.

Funding is harder to find in general, and the current approach favors low-risk research and proposals by older scientists and white men.

Why to Keep Your Inflation Anxiety in Check Yes, prices are rising faster, but all signs suggest it won’t amount to much. Bloomberg, June 18, 2018     For those feeling the vague pangs of inflation anxiety — nothing special, just the plain-old-run-of-the-mill cost of living price increases — this one is for you. This… Read More The post Why Inflation Is Not a Problem (Yet) appeared first on The Big Picture.

My back-to-work morning train reads: • Study: Charts change hearts and minds better than words do (Washington Post) • 16 Years Late, $13B Short, but Optimistic: Where Growth Will Take the Music Biz (Redef) • None of Us Understand Probability (RCM Alternatives) • Nuclear Power Won’t Survive Without A Government Handout (FiveThirtyEight) • Best Q&A you’ll read this week Here’s Amy Poehler (Poke)… Read More The post 10 Monday AM Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

For Google’s Security and Privacy Month, we are honored to present the real Frank Abagnale, Renowned Cybersecurity And Fraud Prevention Expert, Bestselling Author & Subject of Catch Me If You Can. His transformation from one of the world’s most notorious con men to an international cybersecurity expert trusted by the FBI has been mythologized in… Read More The post Catch Me If You Can appeared first on The Big Picture.

    The transcript from this week’s MIB: Senator George Mitchell is below. You can stream/download the full conversation, including the podcast extras on iTunes, Bloomberg, Overcast, and Stitcher. Our earlier podcasts can all be found on iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast, and Bloomberg. ~~~ ANNOUNCER: This is Masters in Business with Barry Ritholtz on Bloomberg Radio. RITHOLTZ: This week on the podcast, I have an… Read More The post Transcript: Senator George Mitchell appeared first on The Big Picture.

My easy like Sunday morning reads: • How the Gig Economy Is Reshaping Work: Not So Much (New York Times) • When the Unexpected Leads to the Unexpected (A Wealth of Common Sense) • How Batteries Went From Primitive Power to Global Domination (Bloomberg) • An Inconvenient New Neutrino? (New York Review of Books) • The Donald J. Trump Foundation, Explained https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/nyregion/attorney-general-trump-lawsuit.html see also… Read More The post 10 Sunday Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

Apparently, it is quite the rage to festoon one’s slides with company logos, particularly of the  frightful five. At present this is done for free. It suggests a new business. A platform that matches to advertisers to faculty. Faculty can offer up their slides and advertisers can bid for the right to place their logos […]

The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Danish Blend coffee, grab a seat on the beach, and get ready for our longer form weekend reads: • Laurene Powell Jobs is investing in media, education, sports and more. What does she want? (Washington Post) • You Make $1 Billion. You Flee to Florida. Then the Tax Man Knocks. (Institutional Investor)… Read More The post 10 Weekend Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

This week, we sit down with former Senate majority leader George Mitchell, Known among his colleagues in the Senate as an honest leader and skillful legislative strategist, Mitchell was instrumental in negotiating a peace agreement in Northern Ireland and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Our conversation covered everything from Brexit to money in… Read More The post MIB: Senator George Mitchell appeared first on The Big Picture.

    I’m a modern man, A man for the millennium, Digital and smoke free. A diversified multicultural postmodern deconstructionist, Politically anatomically and ecologically incorrect. I’ve been uplinked and downloaded. I’ve been inputted and outsourced. I know the upside of downsizing. I know the downside of upgrading. I’m a high tech lowlife. A cutting edge… Read More The post George Carlin’s Modern Man appeared first on The Big Picture.