The entire derivativves trading system is a giant Ponzi scheme
I don't think you quite understand what a Ponzi scheme is, but derivatives certainly aren't one.
the value of fees charged by bankers for trading in derivatives based on on changes in the value of a security exceeds the value of the underlying security over a relatively short time. (it is MINUTES for gold!)
Investing in gold is arguable more like a ponzi scheme than derivatives are. Gold has no intrinsic value, and provides you no income - it only has a value if you can find some other sucker that buys it off you. Hopefully for more than you paid. Or not. Oops.
Someone then "looses" a great deal of money. In reality, the "missing" money has already been paid out in commissions to banks for trading - and "bonuses" for traders. (Anyone who understands differential equations can see that vastly more money is paid out to bankers than is actually invested in stocks and bonds, and the banks are sucking the life blood from the world's economic system).
Differential equations are wonderful, and it's great you understand them, but clearly they're not that useful for calculating percentages.
You might also want to investigate concepts such as hedging, realised and unrealised PnL (Profit and Loss), and what happens to your PnL when it turns out that your hedge was made up. It's not difficult compared to differential equations.
But why let facts and understanding get in the way of a good rant, eh?... snip...
"Institutional investors do not care about the long term, and are quite happy to feed the system, so long as they get a percentage, and a "plausible deniability" get out clause when it goes wrong.
Institutional Investors like pension funds don't care about the long term? Okay, we're not talking long term like millenium clock long tern, but actually they do care very much about the long term.
They also care very much about the short term because individual investors care about the short term, and will take their money out and put it elsewhere if an institution has a couple of quarters where it does badly.
Plausible deniability - or more precisely, CYA (Cover Your Ar....) is, of course, extremely important.
Why did people give all their money to someone who "Madoff" with it?
Because he consistently, over decades, paid out an outstanding, reliable return on their money, and it was actually quite hard for an unsophisticated investor to understand why that wasn't kosher.
Better questions are: Why did professional investor invest with him? (answer: A lot of smart ones did not!) Why didn't the regulators act on the numerous tip offs?
Why did the bank not stop him? Because prior to catastophic disaster, he seemed to be "on a roll", and was winning more than he was losing.
No, because to the risk management system it looked like he was flat risk. He wasn't "making" anywhere near the amount of money that he later lost.... and it looked like he was well hedged. The flaw was that the system didn't spot that the hedges were fake.
Banks do not employ people who understand differential equations in a management role
I'm quite sure that retail banks rarely do that, but you underestimate investment banks. Where do you think all those really bright physicists end up - there are only so many jobs at CERN et. al.
and most bank directors have only a marginal grip on reality.
There are a lot of psychopaths, and the concentration increases the higher you go. That's probably true of a lot of organisations, but is a particularly pronounced effect in investment banks. That, and their incentives are misaligned.
> 2- People are too lazy to drive down to the polls and wait in line to vote. There will also be people who are too lazy to vote electronically, or too busy because they're voting for something "important" like x-factor...
If you don't care enough to vote, that's your choice.
> When people are out of "civilised" ways to put across their message, they resort to violence It's 2011. There are a gazillion ways to put across your message, completely for free. You're using one of them right now.
Well, if you're well enough to loot, surely you're well enough to work?;)
The problem with incapacity benefit is largely that it's been used for years by governments to massage unemployment figures down. It is simply inconceivable that there are 3 million people in the UK who are completely unable to work.
As to housing benefit, it is being capped at an extremely high level; IIRC you'd have to earn something 1.5 * median income to have the same amount left over after taxes (and don't forget that if you get housing benefit, you're likely to be "entitled" to other benefits on top).
London is extremely expensive; lots of people can't afford to live there. It's hardly fair to take money away from working people who already have to commute from outside London to support people who want to live there, but expect others to pay.
There are plenty of ladders, but you still need to make the effort to climb them.
Let's clear up some misconceptions: "School" hasn't become more expensive. Schools are free.
University is now being funded more via student loans, rather than general taxation - given that the interest rate is extremely low, and you don't have to start paying it off until you earn enough, it's still a good deal, assuming you study something worthwhile, rather than art history or media studies.
And most of the "swingeing cuts" everyone's moaning about aren't actually cuts, they're just reductions in increases in spending. After a decade plus of ever increasing state spending on the NHS and social programs.
Is this the same Sweden that, apart from maintaining an enviable position as a champion of human rights for as long as I remember (which is a worryingly long time now), and has recently ranked joint 4th least corrupt country in the world (http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010/results - 16 places above the UK , 18 above the US), or a different country of the same name of which I was hitherto unaware?
Actually, the oil companies almost certainly have huge amounts of non-SQL data; I'm not sure whether seismology data comes in HDF, but it certainly doesn't come in SQL;) Ditto banks have enormous amounts of non-SQL market data in specialised tick databases. That doesn't stop them from also having other important systems using SQL.
Vice versa, I'm pretty sure that while Google doesn't store its petabytes of web indexing info in a relational database (why on earth would you?), I'm equally sure that its billing, accounting and HR systems use relational databases; why on earth wouldn't they? Same thing applies to Amazon.
Horses for course may be an old saying, but it's still true.
Slashdot Mirror
Bouncers in the UK don't have tasers
The entire derivativves trading system is a giant Ponzi scheme
I don't think you quite understand what a Ponzi scheme is, but derivatives certainly aren't one.
the value of fees charged by bankers for trading in derivatives based on on changes in the value of a security exceeds the value of the underlying security over a relatively short time. (it is MINUTES for gold!)
Investing in gold is arguable more like a ponzi scheme than derivatives are. Gold has no intrinsic value, and provides you no income - it only has a value if you can find some other sucker that buys it off you. Hopefully for more than you paid. Or not. Oops.
Someone then "looses" a great deal of money. In reality, the "missing" money has already been paid out in commissions to banks for trading - and "bonuses" for traders. (Anyone who understands differential equations can see that vastly more money is paid out to bankers than is actually invested in stocks and bonds, and the banks are sucking the life blood from the world's economic system).
Differential equations are wonderful, and it's great you understand them, but clearly they're not that useful for calculating percentages.
You might also want to investigate concepts such as hedging, realised and unrealised PnL (Profit and Loss), and what happens to your PnL when it turns out that your hedge was made up. It's not difficult compared to differential equations.
But why let facts and understanding get in the way of a good rant, eh? ... snip...
"Institutional investors do not care about the long term, and are quite happy to feed the system, so long as they get a percentage, and a "plausible deniability" get out clause when it goes wrong.
Institutional Investors like pension funds don't care about the long term? Okay, we're not talking long term like millenium clock long tern, but actually they do care very much about the long term.
They also care very much about the short term because individual investors care about the short term, and will take their money out and put it elsewhere if an institution has a couple of quarters where it does badly.
Plausible deniability - or more precisely, CYA (Cover Your Ar....) is, of course, extremely important.
Why did people give all their money to someone who "Madoff" with it?
Because he consistently, over decades, paid out an outstanding, reliable return on their money, and it was actually quite hard for an unsophisticated investor to understand why that wasn't kosher.
Better questions are: Why did professional investor invest with him? (answer: A lot of smart ones did not!) Why didn't the regulators act on the numerous tip offs?
Why did the bank not stop him? Because prior to catastophic disaster, he seemed to be "on a roll", and was winning more than he was losing.
No, because to the risk management system it looked like he was flat risk. He wasn't "making" anywhere near the amount of money that he later lost.... and it looked like he was well hedged. The flaw was that the system didn't spot that the hedges were fake.
Banks do not employ people who understand differential equations in a management role
I'm quite sure that retail banks rarely do that, but you underestimate investment banks. Where do you think all those really bright physicists end up - there are only so many jobs at CERN et. al.
and most bank directors have only a marginal grip on reality.
There are a lot of psychopaths, and the concentration increases the higher you go. That's probably true of a lot of organisations, but is a particularly pronounced effect in investment banks. That, and their incentives are misaligned.
Only a very small fraction of Christians - even evangelical Christians - insist on taking every word of the Bible literally.
Sadly, that fraction is very vocal, and concentrated in the US
> 2- People are too lazy to drive down to the polls and wait in line to vote.
There will also be people who are too lazy to vote electronically, or too busy because they're voting for something "important" like x-factor...
If you don't care enough to vote, that's your choice.
I think the problem is more with 1
> fiercely competitive around here
Move?
Great, I'll try that. I'll start by thinking of your money as mine.
> When people are out of "civilised" ways to put across their message, they resort to violence
It's 2011. There are a gazillion ways to put across your message, completely for free. You're using one of them right now.
> It's only the selfish and greedy who need fear this crowd, no matter what colour they are.
So owning a shop, or living in one of the flats that got torched, or perhaps owning a car that got burnt, makes you selfish and greedy?
Well, if you're well enough to loot, surely you're well enough to work? ;)
The problem with incapacity benefit is largely that it's been used for years by governments to massage unemployment figures down. It is simply inconceivable that there are 3 million people in the UK who are completely unable to work.
As to housing benefit, it is being capped at an extremely high level; IIRC you'd have to earn something 1.5 * median income to have the same amount left over after taxes (and don't forget that if you get housing benefit, you're likely to be "entitled" to other benefits on top).
London is extremely expensive; lots of people can't afford to live there. It's hardly fair to take money away from working people who already have to commute from outside London to support people who want to live there, but expect others to pay.
You clearly use a high class gym!
They were refusing to disperse after being lawfully ordered to do so by a police officer.
I'm fairly sure that qualifies as an offence.
> the Guardian (world-reknowned for voluntarily reporting from a neutral point of view)
You must read a different Guardian, or live in a different world.
There are plenty of ladders, but you still need to make the effort to climb them.
Let's clear up some misconceptions:
"School" hasn't become more expensive. Schools are free.
University is now being funded more via student loans, rather than general taxation - given that the interest rate is extremely low, and you don't have to start paying it off until you earn enough, it's still a good deal, assuming you study something worthwhile, rather than art history or media studies.
And most of the "swingeing cuts" everyone's moaning about aren't actually cuts, they're just reductions in increases in spending. After a decade plus of ever increasing state spending on the NHS and social programs.
Indeed, but anyone who can afford to buy £100 trainers and a blackberry isn't actually poor.
That leaves them just feckless.
Is this the same Sweden that, apart from maintaining an enviable position as a champion of human rights for as long as I remember (which is a worryingly long time now), and has recently ranked joint 4th least corrupt country in the world (http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010/results - 16 places above the UK , 18 above the US), or a different country of the same name of which I was hitherto unaware?
> You're trying to take away our freedom to drive really fast
Yeah. 65! And only when the roads are straight, and wide enough for four cars ;)
There are garbage collectors for C++ if you really want them.
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/
Actually, the oil companies almost certainly have huge amounts of non-SQL data; I'm not sure whether seismology data comes in HDF, but it certainly doesn't come in SQL ;) Ditto banks have enormous amounts of non-SQL market data in specialised tick databases. That doesn't stop them from also having other important systems using SQL.
Vice versa, I'm pretty sure that while Google doesn't store its petabytes of web indexing info in a relational database (why on earth would you?), I'm equally sure that its billing, accounting and HR systems use relational databases; why on earth wouldn't they? Same thing applies to Amazon.
Horses for course may be an old saying, but it's still true.
Schäuble is suffering from PTSD since that failed attack on him many years back. His medical records are kept secret.
Dude, everyone's medical records are kept secret - it's that privacy thing we sometimes talk about on /., ....
Quite frankly, these people are dangerous and criminally insane.
Sadly not unusual in politicians. I sometimes wonder whether one or both are actually prerequisites for entering politics.
When did Britain get moved to a different continent? Or did we get upgraded?
if semicolons instead of commas in a CSV file are the biggest problem you've run across with CSVs, you haven't lived.
Now get off my lawn.
So you ran MS-DOS 3 when you were -3?
Get off my lawn, kid! I used DOS because I had to, not because of some weird retro-cyberpunk masochism!
When I was ten, google was still several decades off. We barely had eight bits for the whole school, you insensitive clod!
I did run across ASCII porn only a few years later...wow, that blew my mind ;)
The UK has made it legal to turn themselves into a bona fide banana republic. All it takes is one zealous prime minister.
Thank God the current one is a bona fide idiot.
A hybrid with a plug-in range of 80-100 KM and a quick (4h) charge would cover most people's commute.
The batteries for a 500km range would also weigh tonnes, reducing the range .. ;(