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 Tuesday, November 12, 2002
Grand Theft Auto and Moral Fiction. Why is it that I find the computer game BlackHawk Down reprehensible but I'm ok with Grand Theft Auto 3 (GTA3)? In BlackHawk Down, you're a righteous American soldier fighting local warlords who are starving their own people. In GTA3, you're a hoodlum who succeeds by randomly killing innocent pedestrians and taking their money. [JOHO the Blog]
An interesting exposition examining why works like Pulp Fiction can work, even though virtually every character has no morality. It is a world so disconnected from reality that it becomes a fairy tale, a science fiction story. Maybe so, but it also requires that the reader have some idea of what the bounds of morality are, so they can then understand what the story is dealing with. Young minds do not have much chance of understanding these bounds. That is why they should all be kept away from such adult fare. 9:46:13 PM 
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How to Account for Options. The Economist provides a nice little summary of the chief points at issue in deciding how companies should account for stock options they grant: Economist.com: ...The IASB does not, though, specify exactly which method of fair-value option pricing should be used. And here academics dispute vigorously. Mr Merton helped to devise the Black-Scholes model for pricing options, named after Myron Scholes (who shared Mr Merton's Nobel prize) and Fisher Black (who would have done, had he lived a little longer).... [Semi-Daily Journal]
More economics and it is too late for me to follow this. Maybe in the morninig. 9:26:06 PM
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The Curious Incident of the ECB in the Daytime. "But the ECB did nothing in the daytime!" "I know. That was the curious incident." The Economist tries to explain just how it is that the U.S. Federal Reserve and the western European Central Bank can undertake such different policies. The Federal Reserve has just lowered short-term nominal interest rates in the U.S. by fifty basis points to 1.25 percent per year. The ECB has kept its interest rate steady at 3.25 percent per year. Are European growth forecasts higher... [Semi-Daily Journal]
Not sure I understand all this. It will take a few days. 9:15:40 PM
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Why Did Harvey Pitt Crash and Burn at the SEC?. A correspondent writes that Harvey Pitt's crash-and-burn at the SEC is not a surprise. As chair of the SEC, he took the White House to be his client, and he took his fellow commissioners to be the opposing attorneys. After all: Harvey Pitt is a big-shot securities lawyer at a prestigious firm. This means he has gotten very rich doing three things: Thinking of reasons why his clients can do what they tell him they want to do. (The White... [Semi-Daily Journal]
NY Times article/column about Pitt and his Shakespearean tragedy/farce. Nice reading. 9:08:01 PM
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A Five-Point Economic Plan. David Wessel of the Wall Street Journal has a five-point plan that he thinks Bush should pursue to try to fix the economy: WSJ.com - Capital: ...Cut taxes more now, less later. The next installments in the Bush income-tax cuts don't come until 2004, too late to shore up consumer spending.... The obvious solution: Cancel or delay some out-year tax cuts to inject a little more stimulus into the economy now.... Assure business that the corporate-corruption cure won't be worse... [Semi-Daily Journal]
Not only is the article worth reading but so are the coments. These will be the two sides of the argument for the next generation. 9:03:14 PM
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Pacific Ocean temperature changes point to natural climate variability [EurekAlert!]
Models.Models.Models. Global warming is a process that we are part of as well as 'natural' processes. The problem is where is the tipping point, where do we enter a whole new equilibrium point. It might take thods of years to reach by 'natural' means but could be hnudreds because of us. Frankly, there are many more important things to use petroleum for than for fuel. We should be coming up with better energy sources for reasons that have nothing to do with global warming. But will we? 8:45:43 PM
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