Tag Archives: finance

Comic: Quatloos

shark-tank

Stark Market

This is what my home office looks like. That's my stunt double.

This is my home office. That’s my stunt double.

If you came here expecting to learn about Winterfell please hold still while my dire wolves rip out your throat. For the rest of us, it’s time to explore the heady world of the stock market and high finance. BYOC. (Bring Your Own Cocaine.)

After yesterday’s false cheer I feel so dirty. It’s time to come clean. I’m gonna tell you how the shit works. All of it.

Disclaimer: I’m not big on introspection. I have never taken stock. I’m just a humble social scientist. These are my findings.

Allow me to introduce GUNT. That stands for Grand Unified Negativity Theory. GUNT is my life’s work. It’s a model that attempts to explain the sum total of human behavior.

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Demonically Repossessed

satan-bankThis is a true story…

It all started when I loaned a friend a hammer. A hammer is a tool typically used for driving metal objects known as nails into various materials like wood. Or so I’ve heard.

For the purpose of this story let’s assume I actually owned a hammer.

If we wanted to (and were sufficiently sick in the head) we could think of this loan as a transaction. The hammer represents the principle, my friend is the debtor and I must be, of course, the bank.

It isn’t too hard to assume my friend is a debtbeat deadbeat and never returned the bloody thing. Amazingly, even though I dunned him many, many times, and threatened to assess late fees of 1.5 percent on a monthly basis.

Finally that worthless so-and-so left me no recourse. After consulting my voluminous and most accurate scribbles documentation, I looked up his address and drove across town. I was literally seeing red. My goal? To retrieve the hammer and write the dude off as my friend.

I kicked in his door, tore the place apart, and, having found my precious hammer, I got the hell out of dodge.

The only problem? I made the totally understandable mistake of going to the wrong house. The hammer I repossessed wasn’t even mine. In my defense, it was of similar design. Oops. My bad.
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Economy of Thought

Hi boys and girls. Hang on to your wallets and your valuables because I’m your friend and mine, The Economy!

When I get bigger everyone is happy. When I shrink everyone is sad. But what am I?

On so-called “Cyber Monday” yesterday internet purchases were up 27% from the year before. This is because consumers have higher confidence in me. Feels good! Yes, I need that sort of validation. I get off on you getting off on me.

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G.R.U.N.T.E.

The author’s family coat of arms.

I’ve been brain doodling some thoughts. Hopefully they’ll congeal enough to make a cogent post. I highly doubt it. Ideas flit around inside my head but somehow lose their luster by the time they get translated for the rest of the world.

G.R.U.N.T. represents my latest attempt. It stands for GRand Unification Theory of Economics.

In short, the theory states that things, economically speaking, are fucked up. (Please excuse the technical jargon.) And, when things reach the state of being fucked up too well, then Bad Shit ™ may be the result. Irrationality is the term I like to use for systems that produce unexpected and undesirable results. GRUNTE predicts a period of Bad Shit heading our way.
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Yahoo CEO has a baby, Wall Street has kittens

Wall Street Kitten says, “WTF? LOLZ!”

New Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is pregnant. Cue the Star Wars Empire Strikes Back music.

“I am your mommy.”

“Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

For once the mainstream media gets it right with a finessed balance of coverage. I just culled these headlines, at random, from Google News. In the urn, this is the cream that rose to the top. I did not go digging or cherry pick these headlines.

  • Who Has It Easier, a Pregnant CEO or a Pregnant Maid?
  • Marissa Mayer hinted at what she’ll do at Yahoo — in 2010
  • She’s Feeling Lucky
  • Forbes writer to Mayer: You can’t have it all
  • Pregnant Yahoo CEO ignites maternity debate

And last, but certainly not least:

The Pregnant CEO: Should You Hate Marissa Mayer?

It almost is enough to make one wonder, “Holy fucking shit? What the hell just happened here?”

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