I just looked up moral hazard in the dictionary...

and it said "See Freddie Mac":

http://www.propublica.org/article/freddy-mac-mortgage-eisinger-arnold

I'm sure a lot of the folks doing these Freddie Mac deals are the same geniuses that traded CDOs 5 years ago. And I'm not using genius ironically here, they are actually very smart people who know how to take advantage of the system. The problem is (and has been for the past decade) that legal and moral aren't necessarily the same. Traders at Freddie Mac stand to gain billions if homeowners who are stuck in high interest rate mortgages are unable to refinance their mortgages. If a hedge fund made this trade I'd have no problem with it - its a perfectly legal transaction and helps the market price mortgage securities. My problem is that Freddie Mac determines whether these borrowers qualify to refinance or not. That completely messes up the incentives, this trade lets Freddie Mac profit by excessively tightening its refinancing standards. If that weren't bad enough Freddie Mac is now owned by taxpayers. Think about this for a second, our own government is giving Freddie Mac about $2 billion per month so that they can force thousands of homeowners to pay above market rates and collect bonuses. I'm less offended by the people doing this than the legal system that allows this to happen.

Antitrust laws that kill

Only an economist could make this argument:

http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2012/01/antitrust_kills.html

Of course Bryan's ignoring the fact that the money didn't just disappear, I'm sure a good portion of it found other ways to save lives - perhaps even more effectively than Gates' $5000 per life.

Which presidential candidate is right for you?

This quiz asks a series of questions about your political views and matches them with the remaining presidential candidates. Maybe this type of thing should be mandatory before voting?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/candidate-match-game?

I was a bit surprised by my results:

1. Newt Gingrich
2. Mitt Romney
3. Ron Paul

Thankfully I only agree with Newt on 56% of the issues - the whole constitutional ban on gay marriage isn't exactly something I can get behind.

Senator Mark Kirk suffers a stroke

Scary stuff, he's only 52 and according to this article in excellent health.

http://libertyville.suntimes.com/news/10185178-418/sen-mark-kirk-has-surgery-after-a-stroke.html

I wish him a speedy recovery.

I've written to Senator Kirk more than any other person in government. Over the past few months I've even written to praise his votes on certain issues - specifically against SOPA/PIPA, against the payroll tax cut, against the defense authorization act.

Starbucks will start selling beer and wine

The article names Chicago as one of the cities where Starbucks will start selling beer, wine and cheese platters at select locations to lure evening customers. I'm so there.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-23/starbucks-to-add-alcohol-at-more-cafes-to-lure-evening-customers.html

My 11 favorite songs of 2011

1. Rolling in the Deep ~ Adele
2. Till The World Ends ~ Britney Spears
3. Pumped Up Kicks ~ Foster the People
4. These Days ~ Foo Fighters
5. Midnight City ~ M83
6. Don't Carry It All ~ Decemberists
7. Niggas in Paris ~ Jay-Z & Kanye
8. Need You Now ~ Cut Copy
9. Get Some ~ Lykke Li
10. Its Real ~ Real Estate
11. Turn Me On ~ David Guetta

Beauty / Most runway models qualify as anorexic

Note: Most links here are NSFW.

Friend of mine posted this link of Facebook (thanks Chris):

http://www.pajiba.com/trade_news/sidebyside-comparison-of-averagesized-woman-with-a-supermodel-will-blow-out-your-mindhole.php

And it got me thinking, in the Middle Ages / Renaissance model thin women were not considered the most beautiful. See Rembrandt's most famous nude painting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathsheba_at_Her_Bath

But that was probably because the majority of people during that era were malnourished peasants who were dangerously thin. Now we have a society with the opposite problem where food is plentiful and the majority of people are probably over-nourished and the super-thin runway models are considered most beautiful. Does that mean beauty just defined as what most people are not? Like the trend in Japan now for women to have crooked teeth.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/fashion/in-japan-a-trend-to-make-straight-teeth-crooked-noticed.html

Throughout history certain features are almost universally considered beautiful - i.e. certain face shapes / symmetries. But some aspects of beauty do seem to change over time. So I wonder how much of our conception of beauty is driven by society and how much by human nature?