Investing
A tactical asset allocation horse race. (Empiritrage)
How to use the idea of a “margin of safety” more broadly. (Farnam Street)
Steven Drobny interviews Kyle Bass. (Market Folly)
Don’t forget that individual investors have some very real advantages over institutional investors. (Clear Eyes Investing)
Investor market expectations are negatively correlated with expected returns and realized returns. (Shleifer and Greenwood)
Finance
Dividends: pro vs. con. (Felix Salmon, Matt Yglesias)
Why the “cost of client acquisition” matters so much for the financial planning industry. (Nerd’s Eye View)
Economics
What if negative real returns are the ongoing price for safety? (Pieria)
How history should judge Ben Bernanke. (Wonkblog)
What tool(s) will the Fed use when rates are no longer at the zero bound? (Econbrowser)
Is the world coming around to Andrew Haldane’s thinking on the big banks. (WSJ)
On the relationship between beauty and earnings. (New Yorker)
Business
What cable is doing to fight back against deteriorating subscription counts. (FT)
Why planes are taking over global trade. (Quartz)
Startups
Venture capital is not the solution to every technology-related problem. (GigaOM)
When VCs get paid. (Hunter Walk)
Ten ways to mess up your startup. (Medium)
How to build a “consumer Internet unicorn.” (Medium)
Technology
How the Chromecast is evolving into a full-blown hit for Google ($GOOG). (GigaOM)
62% of web traffic is now non-human. (The Atlantic)
The twelve top products in two years of tech reviews including the Macbook Air. (WSJ)
Retailing
Why we love free shipping. (Time)
Why people are prone to buy more on an iPad. (Fast Company)
How retailers get you to spend more. (Your Wealth Effect)
Science
A look at the “intense world syndrome” theory of autism. (Medium)
The controversy over ancient Roman lead. (Scientific American)
How the role of dogs has changed over time. (Quartz)
Health
Multivitamins have little real world value. (CNN, WSJ, The Week)
On the selling of attention deficit disorder. (NYTimes)
How much of your back pain is real? (Dealbook)
Food
How to eat well on $4.30 a day. (Brett Arends)
A profile of the “cult of Vitamix.” (Businessweek)
Chicken is a mess. (Money & Co.)
Entertainment
How streaming music has changed the idea of music altogether. (Medium)
Now magic is going open-source. (Slate)
Sports
A profile of the greatest pitcher of his era, Tom Seaver, today. (Sports on Earth)
Revisiting the hot-hand theory with the idea attempts are not independent. (SSRN)
Bookmakers are using technology to try and stay ahead of match fixers. (New Scientist)
Books
The ultimate best book list of lists. (The Daily Beast)
Best fiction of 2013 including The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. (WSJ)
Best non-fiction of 2013 including The Bankers’ New Clothes: What’s Wrong With Banking and What To Do About It by Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig. (WSJ)
Tyler Cowen author of Average is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation on how algorithms will change what managers do. (HBR)
An except from Gold: The Race for the World’s Most Seductive Metal by Matthew Hart. (WSJ)
What investors can learn from astronauts. Insights from Chris Hadfield’s An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth. (Enterprising Investor)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
On the recent popularity of investment checklists. (Abnormal Returns)
Two blog heavyweights weight in on the “death of the blog.” (Abnormal Returns)
What you may have missed in our Friday linkfest. (Abnormal Returns)
Mixed media
Where did all the generalists go? (Wired)
Models are everywhere. How much can we trust them? (Aeon Magazine)
The case for optimism. (Fabrice Grinda via @mattermark)
The best Christmas present isn’t a present at all. (Kirk Report)
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