Market Humor

Wow, nothing brings out the jokes like a good swoon in the financial markets.

First, an English investment banker gives a high-level overview of the subprime mess, circa August 2007:


Or, a lovingly illustrated primer on subprime lending and securitization.

By December, conditions in the markets were calling for
Dr. Seuss.

And finally for a little historical perspective, an investors’ Q&A from 2002–2003:

Flight of the Conchords

If You’re Into It




Foux Da Fa Fa




They Call Me the Hip-Hopopotamus




Business Time




Inner City Pressure

DIY Jules Verne

The tale of a most amazing exploration behind Niagara Falls. Look around the rest of the site too; there’s some great photography.

And continuing with the theme, a thoughtful, picture-filled interview with Michael Cook, of Vanishing Point.

On the economy and financial matters

A couple of especially worthwhile pieces on The Agonist lately:

Stirling Newberry has a fantastically insightful and big-picture analysis of this decade’s economic/political landscape in the U.S.
And Numerian posted a detailed analysis of credit markets, what’s going on with them, and what led up to the current troubles.

Both of these articles are long and really ought to be read twice, but it's time well spent.

Also, I came across a great article from the October, 1998 issue of Fortune which gives an overview of how and why Long-Term Capital blew up, and along the way provides a nice description of how many hedge funds work, and also gives some perspective on the current turmoil in the markets. Warren Buffett talks about this same series of events in a speech he gave to some MBA students around that time. The LTCM discussion starts about 13 minutes in, but listen to the whole thing; it’s absolutely fantastic.

365 Days Project – 2007

The 365 Days Project is back this year with daily installments of some of the most hilarious, odd, and sometimes unclassifiable music and audio of the past half-century.
“There’s gold in them pages.”

Russia

A couple excellent things I've seen recently:

On The Media did an hour-long show on the state of the media in Russia. Great breadth and a very authentic feel; they did their homework on this one, as usual. On The Media is a consistently fine show.

Then a very insightful article on US/Russia foreign relations since the end of the Soviet Union. It's long and somewhat academic, but well worth your time.

Bush-o-thon

First off, one of the early State of the Union addresses, just to reminisce. Man, those were the days.



Then, even though this guy doesn't look especially like Bush, this rap video is a good laugh.


Another catchy tune:


And finally, a summer blockbuster you won't want to miss: