Tech skills wanted

We are interested in moving from Wordpress to Blogspot. Unfortunately, we don't know of a good way to port TLRB over. To be more accurate, I don't technically know how to do it; nor do I have the time to figure it out. So, if you have a few hours and some technical skills and would like to give us a hand, please email us and let us know. We'd be very grateful for the help. Thanks!

New Long Run Blog Feature - Favorites

It is "Cyber Monday" and you are probably shopping online at work. If you aren't shopping, your co-workers probably are. Since the office is generally unproductive, why not indulge in some personal reading time? May I suggest checking out our newest feature, a page called "Favorites & Most Popular"? Here you'll find lists of each author's favorite posts along with a list of the most popular posts as measured by views. You can find it near the top right corner of the TLRB page. Enjoy!

The Conspiracy Skeptic Podcast

Want to know the truth behind Roswell and UFOs? You know how I write, but are you curious how I sound? Then listen to Karl's fantastic The Conspiracy Skeptic Unplugged podcast with this episode's guest- me. You can find it on iTunes, the links to the right, or here.

One thing that became obvious to me, is that Karl really knows a lot about conspiracies. Several times right before the recording, I emailed him with a change in the conspiracy I wanted to talk about. Karl's response was always "great, that'll be fun" where I had expected him to need time or preparation to change topics. Nope. Karl knew almost everything he needed off the top of his head. That, my friends, indicates a genuine conspiracy groupie! If you want to wade through conspiracies to find the truth in a fair, logical and fun fashion, you are in good hands with Karl.

If you haven't yet tuned in, I highly recommend it. In fact, I had asked Karl to participate here at TLRB after listening to his double show about the Fed. He gets it!

Intern Wanted

Interested in investing?

Want to learn from a master investor?

Curious what an equity "analyst" does?

Ambitious enough to uncover the secrets of great stock investments?

Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday!!!

FOR ONE DAY ONLY (not really)

THE LONG RUN BLOG

WILL BE FEATURING A DEBATE

AND

YOU'RE INVITED.

Sometime Wednesday night, we will be posting opposing opinions on the MINIMUM WAGE issue.  In one corner, we have the spirited and astute Julio from Silicon Valley. In the other corner we have the clever and sharp Karl from Canada. Julio will presenting in favor of the minimum wage and Karl will be against it. I used a state-of-the-art random number generator ($0.25 coin) to assign each a position. Understand that they will do their best to defend their position whether or not they believe it - like O.J. Simpson's lawyers. We'll post both positions, pause for comments and let the rebuttals begin (if necessary). I will moderate. Let the insults debate begin!

Coming Soon

As you know, we have been trying to expand our presence.  In that vein, I am happy to announce that a new blogger, Julio Guardado, will be joining us. Julio is a former tech CEO and semi-retired investment banker. Based in Silicon Valley, Julio will no doubt bring another perspective to our offering. He will be introducing himself shortly.

As always, please continue to challenge us with questions and comments, particularly if you think we missed something or are simply wrong.

And suggestions!  Please email us with suggestions and/or questions.  We can write about what tickles our fancy anytime, but addressing topics of interest to readers is even better.

A Favor

As people gather for holiday and end of year events, talk of the economy, bailouts and the stock market will likely replace political talk. Want to bet how many times you hear "It's the government/regulator's fault" or "It's too much regulation" or "bailout/don't bailout GM" or "they should let all the banks fail" accompanied by all sorts of wrong reasoning?  This is not only a perfect time to dispel myths, but also a great opportunity to spread TLRB's word. If you like what you read here, please recommend us to your friends and family. Our goal is to demystify economics and finance and turn a skeptical eye to all things monetary. A corollary to that goal is to continue growth in readership and impact as many people as possible.

So please spread the word. Even invite them to submit a question.

(If anyone is interested in a free bumper sticker, shoot us an email. I've been working on them.)

Enjoy the holiday. Thanks for reading.

-Brett

Additional URL

For those of you who don't use an RSS reader, we have a new URL that redirects to the blog. www.TLRblog.com will now take you to the blog.  So spread the word and pass out our more convenient address. Thanks!

The Long Run Update

As you know, Jon will be leaving us to pursue other ventures (a new job!).  I personally thank Jon for starting The Long Run Blog by kick starting something I have wanted to do for a long time.  Originally, Jon wondered if anyone would be interested and I immediately contacted him to affirm the idea and offer to participate.  As it turned out, we shared very similar visions for what we wanted to accomplish and saw eye-to-eye on many of the economic topics of the day.  TLRB was off and running (after a few startup issues).  Jon's reputation springboarded our start.

Going, But Not Forgetting

Just a couple of weeks in, and already I'm... leaving?  True, unfortunately.  As I said in my farewell post at 'The Rogues Gallery', there are times when circumstances demand that we make choices, and this is one of those times for me.

The short version is that the responsibiliities of my new job are in conflict with my desire to get out and randomly cast my pearls of wisdom before... wait, that's a bad analogy.  The truth is, I love blogging, and I'm grateful to everyone who visited The Long Run Blog in the short time I've been here.  We've had some lively discussion, and I've had tremendous fund and learned an awful lot in a very short space of time.

New Theme

Hey, what do you think of this new theme?  The old one allowed us to use the lovely artwork created by my 15-year old son, Quinn, but this one is a little clearer and shows the author's name even in the long version of the post.  I'm just trying it out - we might switch back.  Growing pains, you know.

RSS Feed

I've been asked about feeds... I have added the 'meta' widget, which has two feed links called 'entries RSS' and 'comments RSS.'  Click there to subscribe. IE7 users should also have an RSS button on their toolbar, and I think Opera and Firefox users have something similar.

Enjoy!!

When the facts change

John Maynard Keynes also famously once said "when the facts change, I change my mind.  What do you do, sir?"  The retort was in response to a questioner who pointed out that Keynes had been wrong about an economic prediction made some time earlier.  There is a difference between predicting the future of complex systems with random variables when human emotions are involved, and understanding why the system works the way it does.  Keynes, like all good skeptics, realized dogmatically defending an earlier position which turned out to false would be, well, intellectually dishonest.  His quote emphasizes what all good skeptics understand: the truth is bigger than your ego.

It is my goal to help de-mystify finance and economics.   One can easily be overwhelmed with jargon, acronyms or unfamiliar concepts which render trying to learn these subjects from context difficult. At least in America, financial decisions are becoming more complicated and more important to one’s well-being at the same time. Traditional pensions are are disappearing while self-directed 401Ks are on the rise. Businesses, salespeople and politicians twist, bend and contort economic statistics to sell you products or ideas. How can we tell fact from fiction?

Why the Long Run?

Why do it?  Why add yet more noise to the cybertubechatterspace that already won't leave us alone with its 'male enhancement,' its 'acai berry blast' and its constant commentary on everything and everyone, then commentary on the commentary, and commentary on the commentary on the commentary?

Because the world needs a skeptical blog about finance and economics, that's why.  Because the dismal science is truly dismal, because human beings just seem to have no innate ability to understand even the most basic principles of probability and statistics, because I get dozens of Nigerian 411 scam e-mails every week, and because I just love to see my name up on the internet, that's why.