How to Build a Consumer Society in Five million words or less

Take the time to read this behemoth out of the NYT magazine. Its an interesting (albeit anecdotal) perspective on trying to transform China from an industrial to a consumer-driven society. An interesting observation that this is where several economies have gotten stuck before (Japan, Russia).

via Ritholtz

Origins of 'OK'

From the Freakonomics Blog:

The phrase “OK” is everywhere, but where did it get its start? A new booktackles its history, and NPR interviews the author, Allan Metcalf. The phrase originated with a few newspaper editors in 1839. “They had a lot of abbreviations that they were using and made up on the spot and thought they were terrifically funny,” says Metcalf. “And OK was an abbreviation for ‘All Correct.’” The phrase gathered momentum during the 1840 re-election campaign of Martin Van Buren. “He got the nickname Old Kinderhook, and early in 1840, OK clubs sprung up with the slogan, ‘OK is OK.’ So taking that funny little word and making it a mainstay of the political conversation in 1840, suddenly OK was way OK.” All right then.

Weekend Update: Turkey Feast

Unfortunately, the limeys don't celebrate our pillaging of North America like we do back in the states, so that left me in the office for all of last week. On the bright side, I get the bragging rights of having been a producer on Thankgiving (I'm clearly searching for the silver lining, cut me a break). 

On Friday, however, I was invited to a friend's house where he and his wife cooked up a Thanksgiving feast worthy of anything back in the states. Three heaping plates of tryptophan-goodness later and I was happy. One guest mentioned he had never seen one person eat so much in his entire life. Full of good food, bourbon  AND the center of attention? Brad = happy. Definitely missed the family and friends at home, but this was certainly a great substitute.

Friday night (after the feeding frenzy) we went to a friend's housewarming party, met some cool folks and stayed out late. My food coma would not be denied forever and I eventually made it home to collapse. Saturday and Sunday were fairly typical: gym, college football, borough market and church.

LSU-Arkansas was a highly entertaining football game AND Wake beat the venerated Commodore-mats of Vanderbilt. Not exactly bowl-bound, but I'll take the W.  Nothing made me happier than Nevada beating Boise State though. I sent at least 4 people text messages that read only: NEVADA!!!!! Anyone else getting excited for Auburn-Oregon? 

Get me a plane ticket to Jackson Hole RIGHT NOW

Get me a plane ticket to Jackson Hole RIGHT NOW

http://www.tetonat.com/2010/11/open-season-at-jhmr/

Axis of Awesome: 4 chord song

I have no musical ability whatsoever, but this is just cool. Watch the video below. For even more info, click over to the Big Picture

Actual Post about Thanksgiving: Turkey Slaughter!

Two things I love: food and quantitative analysis... together! (Big Picture)

AbradAbroad Radio: String Cheese Incident

I am getting further and further down the rabbit hole on this jam band stuff. Check out 'Sometimes a River'by String Cheese Incident and tell me that you aren't rocking out a little.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Please have some turkey, cranberry and a triple serving of pecan, pumpkin and chocolate pies for me.

Check out NatGeo's annual Photography contest (Hat tip Reformed broker). Here are a few of my favorites for varying reasons (after the jump):

Links

Good cartoons from the New Yorker regarding Thanksgiving travels (The Big Picture)

5 reasons holiday spending will have an upside surprise (Macrofuge H/T Reformed Broker)

Why the Feds want to bring down SAC (Fortune H/T Reformed Broker)

Are ski bums a dying breed? ESPN looks at a new book that asks the question. Yes, I will probably read it (ESPN H/T Backcountry blog)

Weekend Update

Nothing too special last weekend. Normal routine as the weather gets colder and colder.

We did go to a pretty neat cigar lounge somewhere near Baker Street. Nice outdoor patio with a turbo-version of the outdoor heaters. A Montecristo #2 and some bourbon and I was feeling much warmer.

Sorry I don't have anything more exciting to report.

For Your Friday Consideration

Nothing on the docket for this weekend.

Amazing street trials video (watch it in HD) (H/T Outside Blog)


Hard Shells are evolving to keep up with the breathability-obsessed outdoorsman (namely, me) (Gear Junkie)

Clothing made from 'bamboo' is apparently neither 'green' or really bamboo. I had no idea. (Adventure Journal)

Meet Quadroid: Android-Qualcomm combo smartphones may be the new equivalent of Windows-Intel for PCs (Reformed Broker)

Fell like doing The 7 Summits? Here's is the gear you would need to do Vinson (Outside Blog)

You'll notice I haven't posted anything related to sports in awhile. Here is my sportsyear in a nutshell: Rangers had their best year ever BUT Horns suck (4-6!!!), Deacon football is abysmal (2-8), Deacon basketball is off to a roaring 1-2 record before even getting into the real schedule, Stars are playing decent hockey (but might as well take the year off since I won't see a single game and they are broke) and the Mavs are playing decent (7-3).

Attack of the links

Holy Father blesses skiers (Outside Blog)

Green Lantern Trailer looks cool (H/T Reformed Broker)

Some cool outdoor time lapses, a little weird, but still pretty (Adventure Journal)

Another great video from the Provo brothers (H/T Backcountry blog)



Federal Reserve Monetary Policy 101, in the form of a comic book (H/T Big Picture)

Sit at a desk all day? Me too. Check out some stretches from K-Star, the CrossFit mobility guru (MobWod) 

Public Transportation in London

Note why my iPhone says the Central line (my train) is delayed:

Links

EAT REAL FOOD - 10 things Snack Food Companies Won't Say (SmartMoney- H/T Crossfit Football)

Killer Whales surf too (Adventure Journal)

Inside a Glacier (Adventure Journal)

Driver Kills Cyclist, Sues Family (Outside)

Addicted to Parenting (Freakonomics)

Holiday Schedule

For those who care and/or want to rob my flat while I'm gone (nothing in it: TV is Stewart's, you can have the PS3, laptop will probably be with me):

I won't be back for Thanksgiving, but am taking advantage of the British tradition of not working and will be in town for Christmas-New Year's. I fly in on the 24th and out on the 4th with a few days in the middle spent in Steamboat with Blake and Julia Schwarz. Hopefully La Nina will bring me some champagne powder.

Now that I've posted it, it is clearly your responsibility to remember.

Weekend Update: Jumping Out of a Perfectly Good Airplane

Long story short: I successfully jumped out of a perfectly good airplane at 13,500 feet without anyone attached to me. More importantly, I successfully landed without injury or issue a few minutes later. I'll do full debrief that you can read after the jump


Not me in the picture, just wanted something to break-up the text. This is what a level 1 jump should look like:

Friday Quick Links

Interesting (if scatter-brained) stuff to click on:

Any Hope for Improving the Fed? - Disappointments with Fed's performance as a macro stabilizer (Macro and Other Market Musings) 

Swiss National Mountain Biking Trail Allows you to just show up and ride - Sounds really cool and the pictures are gorgeous. They do your itinerary, accommodations, even your bike (€20/day for double-boing and disc brakes)! I might need to find two weeks in the summer to do this next year. (Adventure Journal)

Sarah Palin is full of it (again) - She vacillates conveniently between angry woman that understands the economy and simple hockey mom/former governor. At least someone calls her out on it. (The Big Picture) Even if the general public won't notice. Would it be too much to ask for a politician that is intelligent AND doesn't actively try to screw us? Seems like we get one or the other, often neither, never both. 

Having my best week of business yet (predictably high volatility in gold price and GBP/USD helps). I have worn the same pants/boots to work every day and will not change them or wash them until I have a mediocre day. If there is anything baseball taught me: YOU NEVER MESS WITH A WINNING STREAK. At least its not thong underwear

Powerful Story about Paleo

I make no secret about my enthusiasm for the paleo diet, but I try to minimize the amount of salesmanship as I know that can be annoying (diet might as well be included with politics and religion). I would recommend that everyone check out Robb Wolf's new book and try it for 30 days. As Robb says, at worst you gave up the food you like for 30 days, at best, you change your life. As a trader, I see that as a pretty good risk/reward.

Today on his blog, Robb has a really interesting anecdote from Fat Girl. I'm not usually a huge fan of anecdotal evidence. I like statistics and studies, but some people prefer personal stories. If you want science, read Robb's book or website or check out Dr. Loren Cordain's original book (or his work for endurance athletes) or Mark Sisson's book or blog.

If you want an inspirational story about someone who couldn't figure out what was wrong with her, tried EVERYTHING she could (including other diets and prescription medicines), consulted with dozens of doctors and then finally tried palo, then CLICK HERE.

I'm serious. My knees feel better, my energy is more stable, my endurance is better, I no longer get sugar crashes or afternoon sleepiness and my shakes are gone. As much as I love Crossfit, the paleo diet has made a bigger difference overall in my life. I'll be happy to discuss anything further with anyone interested.

Wanderlust: Palau

 From the adventure journal (click for full story):

There is a new marine mammal sanctuary recently declared in the waters surrounding Palau (if you already knew where that was, then props to you). Looks amazing, sounds like fun.

If anyone can figure out how to make it possible for me to do a weekend trip on the other side of the world, I'm in.

Tony Blair on Muslim Integration

Interesting Opinion piece in the WSJ today by Tony Blair about Muslim integration in the UK. My favorite quote (emphasis mine):

However, some don't integrate. But when we talk about this in general terms, without precision, for fear of "stigmatizing" Muslims, we alienate public opinion and isolate the majority of Muslims who are integrating and want to be as much part of our society as any other group. Then, because we won't identify the problem as it is, a subterranean debate takes the place of an open one, and that debate lumps all Muslims together. So in the interest of "defending" the Muslim community, we actually segregate it by refusing to have an honest debate about what is happening. 


I think the former PM has articulated well a point that causes alot of issues in the US as well: We are so concerned about avoiding culturally sensitive topics that we end up skipping thoughtful discussion altogether and indirectly contributing to xenophobia. I think this is particularly true regarding the Mexican immigrants in the southwest. The lack of authentic consideration results in diametrically opposed groups with guns drawn across lines in the sand, completely unwilling to negotiate. 


Of course, another factor is the sound-byte era where we boil any sort of discussion to either pro- or anti- hot-button issue or a candidate as a referendum on their opponent. The result, in my opinion, are these radical, thoughtless swings in political ideology: Bush sucks, so we elect anti-Bush (=Obama for those of you playing at home). Obama isn't doing enough to save the economy (I have issues with that statement, but that's for another discussion), so we elect a wave of anti-Obama Tea Party candidates, some of whom have terrifyingly little intelligent thought. At some point we have to stop jerking the steering wheel from one side to the other anytime we stray from our chosen lane of travel.


One interesting side effect of being across the pond is that I tend to be even further removed from the political discourse than I was previously. My sound-byte on the subject: We (the U.S.) look stupid.

Gold Breaks $1400/toz

This is getting kind of ridiculous. (WSJ)

Weekend Update

Matt Veal flew in from Atlanta to visit for the weekend. It was good to see everyone's favorite overachieving investment banker again for the first time in over a year. Friday night included plenty of tequila and some pseudo-Mexican food, but no 'special London chants' from the visitor.

Saturday started with a visit to Borough Market and introducing Veal to a little bit of CrossFit. Then we setup on the couches with great beer and alot of meat and watched some great college football and played some video games. Highly reminiscent of our time spent senior year at Wake. LSU-Bama was a fantastic game, even to the point of taking the edge of my otherwise shutout weekend: Wake lost to BC, Texas lost to Kansas State (???), Stars lost, Mavs lost and Cowboys got embarrassed. Moral of the story: don't let me root for you in any way, shape or form.

We also watched the first two parts of The Pacific. Awesome.

Veal left early Sunday morning for his journey home, so I did my normal Sunday routine.

Quick Friday Thoughts

This week's sign of the apocalypse: J. Crew, Gucci and the like are designing manlier clothes... and some people are considering it manly. WTF?

Rather be lucky than good: business made a huge snap-back today on two fronts:
1. Diwali (I have lots of Indian counterparties)
2. Gold all-time high.

Veal is here. I am under specific instructions from his wife to get him hammered and steal his international-investment-banker blackberry. Tequila? Tequila.

NorCal Margaritas = paleo and better drinking through science (thanks Robb Wolf):
Two shots of gold tequila
Rocks - cold = good
Juice and pulp from one whole lime --> neutralizes the insulin spiking effect of the tequila
splash of club soda --> carbonation makes the booze go through quicker

What I'm listening to now: Gov't Mule. Check out "Soulshine" and "Slackjaw Jezebel"

Good enough for government work

I had a nice long walk to the office this morning (an hour or so) courtesy of the London Underground workers union = no trains running on the tube this morning. Stew and I are wondering if this is a monthly occurrence that long-term Londoners are getting used to as it seems to happen with some regularity. It's almost worth getting one of those razor scooters.

The interesting part is that they don't seem to picket or rally, they just give about 12-24 hours notice and then don't show up for work. Europe is funny.

Voting is Irrational

I have long made this argument, glad to see it in the mainstream media (NYT: Why Vote?). Of course, this violates my incentive to keep those around me voting, but the marginal benefit I get in sharing this information outweighs this cost. Here's an excerpt:

Still, people do continue to vote, in the millions. Why? Here are three possibilities:

1. Perhaps we are just not very bright and therefore wrongly believe that our votes will affect the outcome.

2. Perhaps we vote in the same spirit in which we buy lottery tickets. After all, your chances of winning a lottery and of affecting an election are pretty similar. From a financial perspective, playing the lottery is a bad investment. But it's fun and relatively cheap: for the price of a ticket, you buy the right to fantasize how you'd spend the winnings - much as you get to fantasize that your vote will have some impact on policy.

3. Perhaps we have been socialized into the voting-as-civic-duty idea, believing that it's a good thing for society if people vote, even if it's not particularly good for the individual. And thus we feel guilty for not voting.

But wait a minute, you say. If everyone thought about voting the way economists do, we might have no elections at all. No voter goes to the polls actually believing that her single vote will affect the outcome, does she? And isn't it cruel to even suggest that her vote is not worth casting?

This is indeed a slippery slope - the seemingly meaningless behavior of an individual, which, in aggregate, becomes quite meaningful. 

Waves are cool

Neat little 5 minute film about a parapalegic surf-kayaker and the lengths he goes to just to catch some waves.

BIRTHRIGHT from Sean Mullens on Vimeo.

Weekend Update: Live Band Karaoke and Attempted Skydiving

Friday night, Stew and I met up with a few other guys for SoulBrew Live Band Karaoke. Its a live soul band that plays once a month at a bar near Liverpool street. It was a lot of fun and we managed to only cause minor problems.

After about 3 hours of sleep, I woke up to catch an early train to Netheravon Parachute Center (near Stonehenge, I'll go next time). Its a military base (open to civilians on the weekends) in southwestern England. Train took about an hour and a half to get there. When you want to go skydiving, you have three options:
1. Static line - much like you see in WWII footage. You jump out of the plane at about 3500 feet and your chute is automatically deployed. Get to guide yourself into the drop zone under canopy.
2. Tandem - you are strapped into a harness with a qualified instructor and are basically along for the ride. Jump out between thirteen and fifteen thousand feet, freefall to six thousand and then the instructor pulls the chute and controls the ride home.
3. Accelerated FreeFall Level 1 - You get to jump from around 15,000 feet unattached to anyone or anything and freefall to 6000. There are two instructors that jump right next to you to help guide and protect against disaster. This requires about 6 hours of pre-flight instruction as you are ultimately responsible for doing everything on your own. There are 8 different levels en route to full skydiving certification.

I, of course, opted for the third choice. Spent all day going around the parachute center and practicing different scenarios, took multiple verbal and one written exam and got all suited up. We were placed on a weather delay for a few hours and were told we likely wouldn't be able to jump. Then, at the very end of the daylight hours (literally 5 pm here), the wind let up and the clouds parted. We were going to jump! There were three other AFF level one students looking to get their first jump.

Somehow, I ended up being the first student selected to jump. The others might not make it in time because fo daylight restrictions for novice jumpers. I rushed onto a plane with my two instructors and about 6 static line jumpers. We were going to climb to 3500, drop the static line guys and then continue to 15,000 and I would be able to jump. I was surprisingly calm given how may times over the course of the day it had been put off then back on an off again.

We got to 3000 feet and received word from jump control on the ground that it had gotten too dark and we were not going to be able to jump. I was visibly annoyed. I tried to be polite, but my disappointment was obvious. I could either setup my sleeping bag in a bunkhouse and try again in the morning or go home to London. The forecast for Sunday looked crappy and I wanted to do my Sunday routine, so I hitched a ride to the train station and caught a train home.

At least I had seen some sunshine and spent most of the day outdoors. That part of the English countryside was a nice change of pace from The Big Smoke. Lots of trees changing color and rolling hills. I bet it would look even better while falling at 120mph...

I watched the new Russell Crowe version of Robin Hood on the way home. Long but entertaining. Not an inside favorite for any Oscars though.

Sunday was relatively uneventful. Church, gym, errands, video games, reading and cooking. Matt Veal comes in town next weekend from Atlanta. Should be fun. I'll try to get my first jump in the weekend after that. Luckily, I won't have to repeat all the instruction portion.