Saturday links: beta domination

• abnormalreturns
• October 22nd, 2011

The weekend is a great time to catch up on some of the reading you skipped during the week.  We hope you enjoy this set of long-form links.

Investing

Hedge fund returns are still dominated by beta.  (Bridgewater Associates via AlphaClone)

Corporations (and governments) exploit our lack of self-control.  (The Psy-Fi Blog)

Why do investors keep giving Bill Nguyen money?  (Fast Company)

Technology

The great tech war of 2012.  (Fast Company via @longformorg)

Apple’s ($AAPL) future foretold fifteen years ago.  (SplatF)

Rick Bookstaber, “We can start counting the days until computers routinely win a Turing Test.”  (Rick Bookstaber)

Companies

David Einhorn’s case against Green Mountain Coffee ($GMCR).  (Dealbreaker)

Congratulations America you are now ultimately responsible for Merrill Lynch’s derivatives positions.  (naked capitalism)

Energy

Peak oil production around the US.  (Econbrowser)

A three part series that explains the current super-backwardation in the crude oil futures market.  (FT Alphaville, part 2, part 3)

Society

Rick Bookstaber, “It is impossible to discuss the economics without considering the social contract. That is why it is called political economy.”  (Rick Bookstaber)

What do first year lawyers do to earn their $160,000 a year?  (Dealbook)

The revolution in preventative care.  (The Atlantic)

Why is Halloween so popular these days?  (Bloomberg)

Places

The long, sordid story of how Harrisburg, Pennsylvania came to bankruptcy.  (Bond Girl)

Turkey has been a standout economic performer, but cracks are showing.  (FT)

Books
The hazards of overconfidence, an excerpt from Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow.*  (NYTimes)

The wild ride of the 1%, an excerpt from Robert Frank’s The High-Beta Rich: How the Manic Wealthy Will Take Us to the Next Boom, Bubble, and Bust.*  (WSJ)

A review of Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.*  (Wilson Quarterly)

Jeff Jarvis author of Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live on the value of “embracing publicness.”*  (Bits)

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