I'm sure Mark Faber likes this chart:


You could also plot the SPX in EUR since 2000 and then refer to the Arcsine Distribution. Even more scarry!

With the click of a button this site estimates your gender using your browser history. Given my browser history and no further information, the likelihood of me being MALE is 93%:

via The Presurfer

The lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer are here. What's on your reading list? Here's mine:

Remember, if all else fails, playing dead is always a good option!

• The Art of Asset Allocation: Principles and Investment Strategies for Any Market
  This is the second edition of the textbook by Morgan Stanley's David M. Darst. Don't know if there will be anything new.
• Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart: Thirty True Things You Need to Know Now
  A classic by Gordon Livingston. Should be filed under "reference" rather than "self help".
• Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
  My first copy of Marcella Hazan's best work is sitting in the kitchen in Vienna...
• A Brief History of Economic Genius
  Read most of Paul Strathern's book last summer on the train to Salzburg. Need to finish it.
• A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World (Princeton Economic History of the Western World)
  Decided to take a chance on this one by Gregory Clark, chair of the economics deparment and Professor of Economics at UC-Davis.
• Scaredy Squirrel
  These books by Melanie Watt are the only ones my 7-year old boy has ever asked me to buy. They are hilarious.

"China Power New Energy Development Company Limited, through its subsidiaries, operates bakery retail shops and trades electronic products. The company also invests in properties, provides consultancy services for hotel management, and develops technology in the environmental protection industy."

Scott Booth (Eastern Advisors): "So what could they possibly do, solar powered brioche toasters for 5-star hotels?"

It's no secret that Fox Business News is not exactly light on the lookers. But can you tell the difference between the Foxes and porn stars? Today Radar magazine's website is putting you to the test.

via Dealbreaker

How To Tell If You Might Be A Quant (pdf)
by Andrew W. Lo

Chicago, IL: After 15 years of sharing the credit for groundbreaking research with Ken French, Eugene Fama is on a mission to expose his former colleague, and himself. The result is an alarming behind-the-scenes look at how academic careers are made and broken.

"I hired Ken French in 1990 when he was a driving instructor in Winnetka. Chicago was pressuring me to partner with another researcher; I couldn't stand the idea so I hired a stooge. The man has never contributed a single idea to my research, and yet his name is constantly mentioned in the same breath as mine."

Many of French's students are not suprised. Click here to read the whole thing.

Euromoney: Peter Epstein has worked out what the hedge fund manager has missing in his/her life. "It's not a bigger jet or a rarer Picasso," he says, but a T-Shirt printed with the slogan "Fuck me, I’m a hedge fund manager."

The T-shirt is part of Epstein's debut design collection, entitled American Exceptionalism. "From obnoxious hedge fund managers to strippers 'working their way through college' the collection casts a gimlet eye on the rarely applauded--but relentlessly American--people and values that keep our nation humming," says Epstein. "Hedge fund managers are a piece of Americana. And the design is playing on that 'master of universe' attitude and sense of entitlement that the hedge fund manager has," jokes Epstein. He says the initial stock sold out in just two days. [Source]

• [EN] A First Lesson in Econometrics (pdf)
• [DE] Eine erste Einführung in die Ökonometrie (pdf)

More Fun: James Hamilton links to a couple of creative exam answers. Speaking of creative exam answers: Did you know that the famous "Is hell exothermic or endothermic" exam question is an urban legend? See here. What's true: The British Department of Education has realised that there is a slight difference between private schools and comprehensives and therefore has revised the secondary maths exam papers accordingly (pdf).