I don't care if you don't care... really I don't... okay maybe a little. Four years is crazy though. It means I've been doing this for a longer period of time than I spent being a hungover undergrad at Penn State. What's four years? Four years ago I wasn't married, didn't have a kid, didn't live in California... wow.
And your video of the week.... James Mercer, front man of The Shins (one of my favorite bands from the early 00's) with an acoustic version of a new song off their album dropping later this month... Simple Song
A quiet few weeks (unfortunately, get used to it) as I started a new gig in San Francisco (it only took two years to get here!) and I have a two month old that takes up a bunch of my non-work hours (zero complaining, just mentioning that fact).
What I did do this past week was consolidate some articles, posts, and charts that I found interesting and/or may want to revisit. Not sure if they would be of interest to you all, but I thought I would share (found below following my links since the last recap).
Credit Suisse: Investment Returns Yearbook 2012: In depth review of global markets, containing returns, relationships across asset classes, and articles examining returns in various regimes (i.e. the ability of a variety of asset classes to hedge inflation)
And your video of the week... a song I can't get out of my head. Gotye with 'Somebody That I Used to Know' (found it from this viral video cover of the song)
More important (to me)... what happened to me in 2011?
1) I retired from blogging 2) I un-retired from blogging 3) I moved across the country 4) I found out my wife was pregnant (with our first child) the first night in our new place post-move 5) I quit my job (it involved commuting away from where I moved to each week... a kid [see point #4] made that a non-viable option for us) 6) I called everyone I knew who may have known someone in the city I moved to, met 100's (literally) of people for coffee, lunch, dinner, and drinks, then interviewed... then interviewed... then interviewed. Did I mention, I interviewed? 7) Had an amazing kid (though he is still in "blob" phase [i.e. he can't do much except eat, sleep, and sh@t, but he does them very well]) 8) In the past month I have received three job offers! (I understand how lucky I am as, amazingly, two of them sound ideal. It will be a tough decision)
So a new job, a new city, and a new kid. I can only hope that 2012 is as great, but MUCH slower.
EconomPic in Review
There are now 2520 subscribers to EconomPic (wow!)
Not a surprise that 4 of 5 were asset class (rather than economic data point) related. Asset class posts tend to get linked to by financial blogs / forwarded more, which drives traffic whereas most of my readers that are interested in economic data view the blog via an RSS feed.
Videos of 2011
Reader GYSC says I have good taste in music, so that is all the encouragement I needed to list all the live performance music videos posted at EconomPic during 2011 (quite an eclectic mix I must say, which I hadn't realized started in January and ended in December with The Black Keys)
The Black Keys - Gold on the Ceiling
Fugazi - Waiting Room
AWOLNATION - Sail
Sublime - Badfish
Broken Bells - The Ghost Inside
The Decemberists - The Wanting Comes in Waves
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - Home
Jay-Z + Toto = Girlfriend in Africa
ThePETEBOX (cover of The Pixies) - Where is My Mind?
Iron and Wine (cover of the Postal Service) - Such Great Heights
And your song of the week... one of the more popular songs to cover in punk rock history, Fugazi's Waiting Room. For Fugazi fans, they just posted more than 1000 of their live concerts online here.
Not the best quality video, but the energy in that room (way back in 1988) appears to have been rather epic.
Similar to the sentiment hopefully shared by all of you, I am appalled by the horrific events that have taken place over the course of the last 15 years by one sick individual and a lot of potential individuals that didn't report it (and allowed it to continue) at Penn State. What most readers don't know is that I happen to be an alum of the university, thus in addition to the disgust I had a huge sense of disappointment in the (lack of) leadership from the organization. That disappointment led to initial feelings of shame as I called Penn State home for four years of my life.
Fortunately for me, a fellow alum (and good friend) Jerry Needel, didn't allow that shame to linger as he (along with his wife and a few friends) put the control back into our own hands. The thought was if the leadership of the university was going to hide when needed most and the (minority of) students were going to provide the media an easy way to showcase the worst reactions, then we all needed to show what the Penn State community was really about.
A grassroots network of proud Penn State alumni, students, parents, and fans, who are embarrassed and shocked by the recent events at Penn State
Here to stand up for the victims of abuse and help Penn Staters get their pride back
Tired of feeling helpless in this situation and are compelled to do our part by mobilizing the Penn State fan base - alumni, students and college sports fans - to ensure something like this never happens again - anywhere
Partnered with RAINN.org, one of the largest anti-sexual violence organizations in the country, to launch a Penn State-specific donation campaign
Looking to raise over $500,000 - one dollar for each of the 557,000 Penn State alumni
And how's that going? Parabolic. As of this writing, "we" have raised over $130,000 (about $10,000 an hour) showing that we will not be defined by the acts of a few individuals. Regardless of whether you have a connection with Penn State, I encourage everyone to think about donating to a great cause. If interested, go to Proud PSU for RAINN.
Make your own comparisons to the Occupy Wall Street movement and the potential of that energy if it is focused on making actual change.
A relatively quiet week at EconomPic, but posting a weekly recap because I simply wanted to share a song that I can't get out of my head (love this tune):
I will (likely) be taking a mini hiatus next week traveling. I will try to be a bit more involved on Twitter, which I had simply been using as another RSS feed. If interested, you can follow me at: http://twitter.com/#!/EconomPic
Lots of economic data was released this week and it was pretty much consistently bad (or at least disappointing).
On the investment front, that is partially offset by a crowd turning VERY bearish (normally a sign to buy). Not bearish enough for me though... similar to what I've done in the past when unsure, I am reigning it in BIG time. Almost all of my risk taking is through relative value trades (i.e. everything is at least partially hedged) and options (happy to pay sub 20% vol on calls to get my long equity beta exposures).
Here were those economic events as reported here at EconomPic.
And the video of the week... let's slow it down with Iron and Wine's 'Such Great Heights' (cover of a great / very different sounding Postal Service tune).
