Why Stock Markets Crash : Critical Events in Complex Financial Systems. Professor Didier Sornette of UCLA has some very interesting things to say about stock markets. In his book, he explains how his "theory of cooperative herding and imitation [...] has detected the existence of a clear signature of herding in the decay of the US S&P500 index since August 2000 with high statistical significance, in the form of strong log-periodic components." Although his timing has been just a bit early, the theory, the predictions to date and the pictures are all pretty uncanny. This is easily the most interesting book on the stock market I have ever read and provides interesting and believable hypotheses about things I never imagined could have rigorous explanations. For an overview, here is an interview with the author.
posted to MetaFilter by muppetboy at 6:14 PM on May 14, 2004 (19 comments)

Brazil Wants to Build a Wall Social and economic problems out of control? No problem. Brazil plans to literally build a 10 foot wall to separate the haves from the have nots.
posted to MetaFilter by muppetboy at 3:26 PM on April 12, 2004 (27 comments)

Shaolin Soccer Looks incredibly cool, but why isn't it playing in Seattle yet? And when is it coming here? I want my shaolin soccer!!!! ;-)
posted to MetaFilter by muppetboy at 6:13 PM on April 2, 2004 (53 comments)

msnbc report all the major media are reporting a huge strike that may have killed hussein and perhaps his sons.
posted to MetaFilter by muppetboy at 7:39 PM on April 7, 2003 (69 comments)

Could he be right yet again? : Interview with Bob Prechter (and another one) If he is, we're all in for a world of hurt. In this three part interview, Elliott Wave International president Robert Prechter discusses his new book, “Conquer The Crash: How To Survive and Prosper in a Deflationary Depression.” During the 1980s, Bob Prechter won numerous awards for market timing as well as the United States Trading Championship, culminating in Financial News Network (now CNBC) granting him the title, "Guru of the Decade." In 1990-1991, he was elected and served as president of the nation-al Market Technicians Association in its 21st year. He has also published a seminal book on Elliott wave analysis titled, “Elliott Wave Principle – Key To Market Behavior,” three books on the major practitioners of wave analysis, and books on his own views in Prechter's Perspective and At the Crest of the Tidal Wave.
posted to MetaFilter by muppetboy at 11:47 AM on February 13, 2003 (47 comments)

How many more accounting scandals to go? A recent show "Bigger than Enron" on Frontline leads me to wonder, "How MUCH bigger than Enron?" Responses from viewers on that website include a number of accountants for big firms that insist that these practices are everyday business in accounting and that we have a lot more of this coming. Are we actually in the middle of the biggest market crash since 1929? What do you think? Just how bad could it get?
posted to MetaFilter by muppetboy at 6:30 PM on June 25, 2002 (35 comments)

KIMBLE rulez! There's nothing like a good old, humble home page. Now I've heard that overuse of the flash plugin is a no-no, but this site makes me say yes-yes! Be sure to view on a good multimedia system on a really PHAT pipe.
posted to MetaFilter by muppetboy at 10:19 AM on March 2, 2001 (16 comments)