Big Cajun Man shares a story his father told him in Advice: Best Financial Advice Ever Given. I'm a big fan of teaching through stories, and Cajun's got a good one.There's lots more, so be sure to browse around.
Dan Melson (as usual) has some good info. On Searchlight Crusade, he asks (and answers) the question "“What is this property really worth?"”
On The Real Returns, Moneywise examines balanced/hybrid funds. They're an interesting option, and worth looking at.
This Week's Carnival Of The Capitalists
This week's COTC is up at Business Opportunities Weblog. There were quite a few posts this week, but three particularly caught my eye:
How Financial Markets React to Shocks (from SmartEconomist.com)
For some reason, I've been getting a number of questions lately on the effect of 9-11 on markets. And then, just the other day, I see this analysis on SmartEconomist.com. It looks at a study titled "Updating Expectations: An Analysis of Post-9/11 Returns", done by
Jarl Kallberg and Crocker H. Liu (both at New York University) and Paolo Pasquariello (at the University of Michigan).
The study examines how the stock prices of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS) with holdings in New York reacted to 9-11. It's an interesting question, because it's not immediately clear before the fact whether these REITS would benefit from the removal of rental units from the market (thereby driving up rental rates), or would be hurt by a possible NYC economic slowdown. Here's what they found:
A very cool piece, both because of the way it shows how markets react to an unexpected shock, and because it highlights the ways different parties process information. It would be a great piece to discuss in a class module on market efficiency. Luckily, I teach that section next week.
Jarl Kallberg and Crocker H. Liu (both at New York University) and Paolo Pasquariello (at the University of Michigan).
The study examines how the stock prices of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS) with holdings in New York reacted to 9-11. It's an interesting question, because it's not immediately clear before the fact whether these REITS would benefit from the removal of rental units from the market (thereby driving up rental rates), or would be hurt by a possible NYC economic slowdown. Here's what they found:
- REIT stock prices initially went up significantly. Prices of REITS with exposure to the NYC market outperformed a broader REIT index by about 4% ion the first day that the market reopened after 9-11.
- However, when the increased operating performance didn't materialize, insiders of these REITS were the first to notice, and they "voted with their feet" (i.e. they started selling off their shares.
- Next, analysts started revising their forecasts of these firms downwards.
- Only later did the stock price of the REITS catch up with the lowered expectations of the more informed insiders and analysts.
A very cool piece, both because of the way it shows how markets react to an unexpected shock, and because it highlights the ways different parties process information. It would be a great piece to discuss in a class module on market efficiency. Luckily, I teach that section next week.
Yak Shaving Razor #47 (From the Evangelical Outpost)
Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost has his latest installment of his Yak Shaving Razor series (#47) up. I don't know where he gets these things, but they're often useful.
Beauty and the Fattened Wallet (via the New York Times)
Do good-looking have as many advantages in the job market as we've always heard? New evidence seems to show that it's not as clear as we thought.
Markus M. Mobius of Harvardand Tanya S. Rosenblat of Wesleyan University conducted an experiment on the "beauty premium". Their study, "Why Beauty Matters," was published in the March 2006 American Economic Review. A prepublication version can be found here. The bottom line is that beautiful people are perceived as more competent, and also have more self-confidence. But, on the downside, they are expected to contribute more and are held to higher expectations.
Hal Varian has some thoughts on the study in his New York Times column "Beauty And The Fattened Wallet":
I try my best to lower people's expectations of my performance as much as possible, and I've usually been successful at getting people to "misunderestimate" me. Now I know part of the reason why.
Darn - I though it was just because I was shrewd...
Markus M. Mobius of Harvardand Tanya S. Rosenblat of Wesleyan University conducted an experiment on the "beauty premium". Their study, "Why Beauty Matters," was published in the March 2006 American Economic Review. A prepublication version can be found here. The bottom line is that beautiful people are perceived as more competent, and also have more self-confidence. But, on the downside, they are expected to contribute more and are held to higher expectations.
Hal Varian has some thoughts on the study in his New York Times column "Beauty And The Fattened Wallet":
So perhaps beauty is a two-edged sword. If you are beautiful, people expect you to be better than ordinary-looking people, even in mundane tasks like solving mazes. But when good-looking people do not perform as expected, others feel let down. The rest of us can take solace in the fact that it is easier for us to meet expectations.So, being physically attractive is helpful in getting you in the door, but has downsides once you're in.
I try my best to lower people's expectations of my performance as much as possible, and I've usually been successful at getting people to "misunderestimate" me. Now I know part of the reason why.
Darn - I though it was just because I was shrewd...
This Week's Carnival Of The Capitalists
This week's COTC is up at Jotzel. It's a bit different this time - because of the way the site is set up, you can vote for your favorite piece. Here are some of this week's posts that caught my eye:
In two related posts, Dan Melson at Searchlight Crusade and Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture discuss the housing bubble.As always, look around if you have the time. My interests are different than yours (as is my background). There's always lots of good things at a Carnival, and a piece that didn't do anything for me might be just what you need. Who knows -- you might find a new blog to read.
Jeff Cornwall at Entrepreneurial Mind reminds us that VCs aren't long-term investors
Pacesetter Motgage tells us how to stop credit bureaus from selling your information
Uncle Bill looks into the past and talks about Warrren Buffet's Investing Strategy 25 years ago
Pacesetter Motgage goes into how to stop credit bureaus from selling your information
Buying a house while selling another? You may want to read Nickel's piece on the ins and outs of bridge loans.
Spring Cleaning Before Listing The House
Since I'll be starting in a new position at a new school in the fall, we're starting the process of selling our house (and buying another). Some of the "pre-listing" things we have to do involve putting a bit of paint here and there, putting down new linoleum in the bathroom to cover the stains, etc...
But the rest involves getting rid of as much clutter as we can so the house looks neater and is easier to tidy up if we hear that we have a showing on short notice. Getting rid of the clutter also makes the house (and the closets) look a lot larger.
Unfortunately, we have two children (ages 5 & 7), and the Unknown Wife doesn't like to throw stuff away in the normal course of things. So, this weekend we're going through each kid's room for spring cleaning & pre-move packing. If they play with a toy often, it stays out. If it's important to them but they use it infrequently, it gets boxed up, labeled, and put in the basement. The rest of the stuff gets either thrown out or donated to the local thrift store.
We're doing a similar dance with clothing, except that winter things get packed away. My goal is that we can eliminate (either temporarily to the basement or permanently) between half and 2/3 of their stuff.
So far, we've gone through the Unknown Son's room, and it only took about an hour. It's amazing how much more roomy it looks with all the unneeded stuff out of the way. The Unknown Daughter, however, is a bit of a pack rat (and she's figured out that she can hide stuff under the bed). So it'll probably take a couple of hours to go through her room, and the Unknown Wife and I will end up arguing about things a lot more (I'll be on the side of tossing things out, and the Unknown Wife on the side of keeping them because they're "special").
Ain't moving grand? They say two moves is as good as a fire as far as getting rid of things.
But the rest involves getting rid of as much clutter as we can so the house looks neater and is easier to tidy up if we hear that we have a showing on short notice. Getting rid of the clutter also makes the house (and the closets) look a lot larger.
Unfortunately, we have two children (ages 5 & 7), and the Unknown Wife doesn't like to throw stuff away in the normal course of things. So, this weekend we're going through each kid's room for spring cleaning & pre-move packing. If they play with a toy often, it stays out. If it's important to them but they use it infrequently, it gets boxed up, labeled, and put in the basement. The rest of the stuff gets either thrown out or donated to the local thrift store.
We're doing a similar dance with clothing, except that winter things get packed away. My goal is that we can eliminate (either temporarily to the basement or permanently) between half and 2/3 of their stuff.
So far, we've gone through the Unknown Son's room, and it only took about an hour. It's amazing how much more roomy it looks with all the unneeded stuff out of the way. The Unknown Daughter, however, is a bit of a pack rat (and she's figured out that she can hide stuff under the bed). So it'll probably take a couple of hours to go through her room, and the Unknown Wife and I will end up arguing about things a lot more (I'll be on the side of tossing things out, and the Unknown Wife on the side of keeping them because they're "special").
Ain't moving grand? They say two moves is as good as a fire as far as getting rid of things.
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