Monthly Archives: July 2008

So Bennigans just went out of business. Evidently the jumbo onion rings were being bought with suburban home equity loans. WordPress is being odd about embedded video, so you’ll have to click through to see a clip from that awesome … Continue reading →

Two quick things I remembered I wanted to post about: 1) I never linked to this great overview on CKE (the restaurant chain that owns Hardee’s and Carl Jr’s) by portfolio.com: In an age when other chains have been forced … Continue reading →

David Brooks misses two things about inequality and education in his column today that I’ve been looking for an excuse to talk about, and I’ll address them below the fold.

I try to be skeptical of behavioral finance. I know stock markets are made of people and people have cognitive biases, especially when it comes to making market decisions; however people plays roles and the roles of the traders and … Continue reading →

I’ve heard a lot of people talk about “moral hazard” with health care, by which they usually mean (inconsistent with the actual term) if it is cheaper, people will consume more of it. The notion is that people who consume … Continue reading →

This great sociology blog I’ve just started reading, Org Theory, has a post on The Future of Game Theory. Good article, 3 things to be optimistic about, 3 problems it still has. I’d like to add two points as I … Continue reading →

Put this one under the “not even trying anymore” files. Over in Japan: George Bush surprised world leaders with a joke about his poor record on the environment as he left the G8 summit in Japan. The American leader, who … Continue reading →

I once met a girl who had a friend who was studying Sesame Street in foreign cultures, how the songs/puppets/everything changes or stays the same. I wonder if this happens elsewhere, this weird anxiety over loving/hating puppets, letters and cookies. … Continue reading →

Think it is a great time, with gas so expensive, to run a gas station? Think again. The credit card industry is nailing the gas stations, hard: Dozens of gas stations in Massachusetts have stopped selling gas or shut down, … Continue reading →

Late to this but: There’s a lot of people who are doing primers or histories of the recent problems with the economy (NINJA lending, subprime, CDOs, etc.), but I think the This American Life episode Giant Pool of Money really … Continue reading →