capitalism - Most popular for 2007
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So, intuition is dead, is it?
According to Professor Ian Ayres in his new book "Super Crunchers", it is.
Fortunately, he is wrong.
Prof Ayres is a zealot of neural network, algorithmic and other black box technologies and he
chooses in this book to extrapolate the limited value of these tools, because that is what they
are, to develop a spurious vision of a future where all of our existences are dominated by
computers crunching our data.
It has never been like this before and it will never be the same again - there is no better
definition of the basic matrix of all financial markets. Constant evolution drives the markets
forward as these multidisciplinary playgrounds are complex beyond the static realities of a pure
science. That is why it is so interesting.
In parallel with the not-so-random walk of the markets, march the career opportunities related to
analysts.
There is something inherently unpleasant about having to spend some time in the company of a
freemason. The conversation may start promisingly and then, when he discloses his occupation, the
first alarm bells start up. The compulsory sharing of names followed by the revealing handshake
marks the completion of any productive element to the interaction and one is left with the mason
displaying a sneering dismissiveness and with oneself mocking their trumped up self esteem which is
solely based on their non-meritocratically generated position in society.
A retort to the argument that: "Corrupt African leaders provide a big obstacle to African
development".
Sure there are some dreadful leaders in Africa but so there are in Asia and South/Central America
(often serving as client regimes of the US and/or business interests). Countries which have an
economic value to the First World, in a broad sense, are impacted upon in two ways.
Approximation in decision making may be fine if such approximation is random. In top level English
football, it most certainly is not random.
Why is it that all the power structures in football desire errors?
When video technology exists and is successfully used in all other major team sports (rugby union,
rugby league, cricket), why is football ostrich-syndromed about validating their sport?
One of the least meritocratic aspects of financial markets is the bias provided to certain
individuals who have access to private inside information. Insider trading is apparently illegal in
International Financial Markets (IFMs) but, one would have to add, that is news to me or to anybody
else who depends on such markets for their living. In sports and football markets, insider trading
is undoubtedly the driving dynamic in the marketplace and the only valid tool in an analyst's
armoury is the knowledge that the people with privileged and/or corrupt information have to
disclose their hand at some point – whether to us as an organization or to the market in general.
In 2000 the First World countries conspired to create a spectacular society special - The
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which were a host of targets in the struggle against Third
World deprivation, disease and illiteracy. Of course, numerous previous promises had been made over
a generation only to be scuppered by either a refusal to cough up the cash once the money was
required or the setting of inappropriate conditions related to the internal politics of the donor
nations - think USA's refusal to go anywhere near development needs that might impinge upon the
reactionary sexual politics of the American right wing, for example.
As he is English and the previous regime at Newcastle were widely despised, there have been no
tirades of abuse being hurled at Mike Ashley during his takeover of the Geordies. There have been
no blog posts or mainstream media articles questioning how the man established his wealth and there
has been a complete absence of the xenophobic and, occasionally, anti-semitic histrionics that have
welcomed some of members of the new group of hyper club owners.
The media focuses our attentions on the battles in the season ahead. Will Tottenham break into the
top four ahead of their north London rivals? Will Manchester City or, for that matter, Liverpool
make up any ground on Manchester United? Chelsea or United for the Premiership? What about Celtic
versus Rangers or Barcelona and Real Madrid or Milan, Inter and Juve?
Leisure punters should be aware that leading London-based bookmaker Premierbet is no longer in
business and, although visitors to their website are being told that the site is "unavailable for
essential maintenance work", the truth is that the company is not available for the essential
payment of its debt obligations to clients.
Football Is Fixed have warned readers about this company previously (see: http://footballisfixed.
Tomorrow we are 365 days old!
365 days, 365 blog postings. How cool is that?
To celebrate the meaningless irrelevance of this anniversary, we are putting out two posts. This
one intends to look at the prime benefits of blogging (on both a societal and an altruistic
business level) and tomorrow's offering will be looking ahead and giving away some freebies and
some most definitely not-so-freebies.
All management structures have their strengths and weaknesses. Any rating of an organisation must
be founded on both the infrastructural robustness of the body and the interactions of the key
individuals with their unique professional profiles. As it is in the wider world of business, so it
is with football.
His Excellency, the Doctor was a highwayman, a crook, a human rights abuser and a murderer in the
ancient kingdom of Siam. The money that he robbed from the poor of his country was secreted away on
private islands of illicit liquidity. When some other highwaymen chased his Excellency from his
castle, he decided to buy a sports team in the universal centre that is Manchester.
In the bad old days, ownership of English football clubs was a fiefdom whereby local bigwigs could
demonstrate their importance to the community by piloting the local football team in their sporting
endeavours. This breed of owner varied from the thoroughly incompetent to the sociopathic, from the
true hobbyist to the man on the make. The more financially focused of these individuals are now
sitting on the oodles of cash that their ownership bestowed.
We posted last Sunday that Arsenal were one of only two prominent Premiership teams that hadn't yet
sold out to corrupt owners (see:
http://footballisfixed.blogspot.com/2007/08/arsnes-arsenal-about-to-go-arse-over.html).
Yesterday, that situation changed in the most disturbing way imaginable. Former Arsenal
vice-chairman (the word "vice" being particularly meaningful here) David Dein sold his 14.
Insiders rig markets to their proprietary advantage.
Economists rig statistics and modelling to suit their blinkered and highly selective views of
reality.
The "dismal" in the Dismal Science has alternative dictionary definitions that are nearer the truth
of the alleged science it describes. The Free Dictionary offers "characterized by ineptitude,
dullness, or a lack of merit" and "obsolete dreadful; disastrous", for example.
The festive tyrannies of fun precede the oncoming recession and celebrations will accordingly have
a more manic and histrionic feel to them this year as there is a general perception that things can
only get worser.
Via two posts, we will attempt to really depress you about the state of the planet and the global
economic system prior to demonstrating that the gambling sector is one of the few to benefit from
periods of recessionary pressures and, consequently, is a prime area of focus for creative trading
strategies during such windows in the business cycle.
