Investing

Can the private sector generate truly ‘safe assets‘?  (Free exchange)

How volatility reacts during crises.  (VIX and More)

Hedge funds are trading exclusivity for assets under management.  (Du Jour)

A discussion with outgoing Vanguard CIO Gus Sauter.  (IndexUniverse)

Activist investing

Activist investors keep getting younger, a profile of Ryan Morris.  (Businessweek)

Bill Ackman’s Herbalife ($HLF) presentation in full.  (Facts About Herbalife contra Kid Dynamite)

Economics

On the rising number of $1 million university employees.   (Bloomberg)

We’ve nationalized the home mortgage market. What next?  (ProPublica)

An American’s insider perspective on UK monetary policy.  (NYTimes)

Profiles

A profile of the “Jim Cramer of China.”  (Businessweek)

This is not a profile of Nassim Taleb.  (The Chronicle via Arts & Letters Daily)

Lunch with economist, author and blogger Tyler Cowen.  (FT)

A profile of Abby Johnson, the head of Fidelity Investments.  (Businessweek)

A profile of the always game Martin Short.  (Vanity Fair)

Psychology

Seven helpful tips for getting more done in the New Year.  (The Reformed Broker)

Why you don’t stick to your New Year’s resolutions.  (Newsweek)

The balanced life is just one click away.  (Tweetage Wasteland)

Numerous small gifts can be just as corrupting as a big gift.  (Jason Zweig)

How experience and education affect our perceptions of risk.  (The Psy-Fi Blog)

Science

Are microgrids the key to energy security?  (Scientific American)

Why robots will dominate middle management.  (Dilbert Blog)

In praise of imperfect maps.  (WSJ)

Why your kid is a picky eater.  (Slate)

Entertainment

Why no one really knows what will become popular.  (Above the Market)

Jerry Seinfeld is not retired.  (NYTimes)

Dinosaur Jr. is still back.  (Co.Create)

We are living in the golden age of action movies.  (Marginal Revolution)

Books

A conversation with Maneet Ahuja author of The Alpha Masters: Unlocking the Genius of World’s Top Hedge Funds.  (Knowledge@Wharton)

How did Anheuser-Busch stay on top of the beer industry for so long? A review of William Knoedelseder’s Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheueser-Busch and America’s Kings of Beer.  (The Daily Beast)

Justin Yifu Lin’s book The Quest for Prosperity is “a masterpiece.”  (Bloomberg)

The best books of the year including Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise.  (The Mistake Bank via @timharford)

An excerpt from Jared Diamond’s new book The World Until Yesterday.  (Newsweek)

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