tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59739612011-04-21T13:36:19.749-07:00Collaborative IQA space to develop my ideas on such topics as economics, policy and politics. Tough, constructive criticism and lively discussion are most welcome. Abbynoreply@blogger.comBlogger121100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973961.post-1123087750655024002005-08-03T09:47:00.000-07:002005-08-03T09:49:10.663-07:00Audit value?How is this for an assessment of audit value? From a little internet correspondence:The work product of auditors, by and large for Fortune 1000 companies, is complete bullshit. The first thing they taught us about valuation analysis is that public disclosure is complete crap, and that's the general tune of all of Wall Street...and they by and large determine valuation and trading Abbynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973961.post-1122668348040077422005-07-29T13:15:00.000-07:002005-07-29T13:19:08.046-07:00Real world expertise?Maybe Cox will be better than the rest of us at sniffing out fraud and financial malfeasence -- he's got some relevant experience, after all: THE lawyer solemnly told regulators it would be far too costly for a mutual fund to seek appraisals of its assets, and no appraisals were made. When employees of the investment firm suspected something was amiss, they were reassured Abbynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973961.post-1122658589928726602005-07-29T10:18:00.000-07:002005-07-29T10:36:29.933-07:00Palmkin Demolition Part IDear Palmkin,I don't know how to respond to you civilly, so I will blog instead. Viva la Internet! I am opperating on the assumption that this will fly under all radar screens and therefore remain essentially private. If not -- oops!I plan on responding to little chuncks of your letter as the mood strikes, so chunk one:"Overall, we believe that the RFP question about Abbynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973961.post-1122249748174062182005-07-24T17:01:00.000-07:002005-07-24T17:02:28.180-07:00Maybe I'm back...we'll see if I have a moment to actually write anything, but I've been having bloggish urges lately...Abbynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973961.post-1077215138401735912004-02-19T10:25:00.000-08:002004-02-19T10:28:38.530-08:00The Candidate is Dead, Long Live the Candidate
So Dean is out, Kerry is in (my affections, that is--let's see if my talent at picking losers kills Kerry's campaign). I'm starting to like the idea of Kerry sailing into the presidency with his craggy, presidential visage. Dean is his bulldog, keeping those of us madder than hell at Bush happy, while Kerry can appear above the fray for those Abbynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973961.post-1075221785391367662004-01-27T08:43:00.000-08:002004-01-27T08:46:33.936-08:00
Musings on Dean II
Some reasons I STILL want Dean to win, despite the tumult of the past week and the increasingly impressive performances of his rivals:
1. Dean is an open book. What you see is what you get, which is why he is so hard to catagorize--he is a complex person and it is all there to see. It is a breath of fresh air after the (very different) dishonesties of our past two Abbynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973961.post-1075220972922954682004-01-27T08:29:00.000-08:002004-01-27T08:31:42.090-08:00Musings on Dean I
So I have broken my New Year's resolution to write regularly, but I'll try to get better. I just got an interesting piece on why Dean may have faltered so badly in Iowa. I don't know if it is right, but it is certainly an intriguing theory:
Is Social Software Bad for the Dean Camapign?
I'm getting the same cognitive dissonance listening to political
handicappers explain Abbynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973961.post-1072636234933368152003-12-28T10:30:00.000-08:002003-12-28T10:34:53.823-08:00Happy New Year
I've been away for a long time, but one of my new year's resolutions is to write here regularly. I've discovered that I actually have a reader or two, and in the interest of not losing you, I promise to attempt writing something interesting on a regular basis.
My current obsession is the Howard Dean campaign. Along with finding his politics mostly attractive (though I hope Abbynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973961.post-1068231472147967492003-11-07T10:57:00.000-08:002003-11-07T10:59:52.723-08:00"Honesty is wealth, or turpitudinal peccadilloes"
The class I am taking on "Incentives and Organizations" has offered an unanticipated joy. Many of the articles we are reading were written before economists discovered mathematics and, in doing so, forgot the beauties of the English language. One particular gem that inspired today's title is Alchian and Demsetz's "Production, Information Costs,Abbynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973961.post-1067207065633402222003-10-26T14:24:00.000-08:002003-10-26T14:24:26.273-08:00The New SAT
I recently read the article in Time Magazine about the new SAT (Cover story, this week: http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101031027/story.html), and it got me thinking about one of my favorite topics, standardized tests. While I am ambivalent about the described changes, I think on balance it will probably be a loss. Gaston Caperton, the president of the College Board, is ordering Abbynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973961.post-1066865279257171172003-10-22T16:27:00.000-07:002003-10-22T18:06:05.820-07:00Solution for Iraq?
One idea I haven't seen batting around in the peanut gallery of commentators on the Iraq situation is the idea of handing out oil dividends to the Iraqi people. What if the US announced that, as soon as logistically feasible, every Iraqi who registers with the US gets a share of the Iraq oil revenues until such a time as there is a legitimate, sovereign government of Iraq? Abbynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5973961.post-1066785511459805542003-10-21T18:18:00.000-07:002003-10-21T18:18:31.420-07:00Welcome to Collaborative IQ, a blogspace to develop ideas about economics, policy and politics (and anything else that has captured my attention). I believe ideas never fully develop until they are exposed to the light of others' thoughts and criticisms. This blog is my way to expose my ideas to such an inspection by a wider, and hopefully more diverse, audience than I get in my insular world Abbynoreply@blogger.com