A study of more than a century's worth of investment returns shows that emerging markets deliver their best results not when hopes are highest, but after they break investors' hearts.
Zweig, Jason. "Lessons From a Frontier Market: U.S.," The Wall Street Journal., Thursday, January 28, 2016, C1, Accessed on January 28, 2016, http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2016/01/27/market-crashes-stock-scandals-lessons-from-the-u-s-frontier/
The greatest service to the Republic was to defeat a foreign enemy.
Goldsworthy, Adrian. Augustus: First Emperor of Rome. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014, 173.
In German, "debt" and "guilt" are the same word, Schuld, and many Germans equate the two.
Nissen, Madeleine. "German Savers Find New Taste for Risk," The Wall Street Journal., Tuesday, January 26, 2016, C1, Accessed on January 26, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/germanys-cautious-savers-find-new-taste-for-risk-1453734098
Once they reached Rome, the murders became more open and formal as the Sullan practice of proscriptions was revived. Two boards listing names were posted in the Forum - allegedly one reserved solely for senators - and those on them lost all legal protection and so could be killed by the triumvirs' men or anyone else eager to claim the reward of a share of their property. This was paid on presentation of the severed head of the victim, which was then fastened to the Rostra. The rest of the corpse was to be left where it fell or tossed into the River Tiber with the City's rubbish.
Goldsworthy, Adrian. Augustus: First Emperor of Rome. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014, 129.
In the end, armies trumped ideals.
Goldsworthy, Adrian. Augustus: First Emperor of Rome. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014, 125.
North Korea’s official media said scientists in the country had invented an alcoholic drink that does not cause hangovers. It is said to be made of a type of ginseng and glutinous rice. Implausible claims are a North Korean staple.
"The world this week: Politics," The Economist, Jan 22-30, 2016, Accessed on January 21, 2016, http://www.economist.com/news/world-week/21688942-politics-week
"A wise candidate did his best to please as many people as possible. He and his friends were expected to entertain and praise both individuals and groups - the equestrian order, the publicani, the less well-off classes, and members of the various guilds in the City and voting divisions in the Assemblies. It was vital to be seen as generous and willing to help, particularly in return for support. As Quintus Cicero put it: 'people want not only promises . . . but promises made in a lavish and complimentary way.' They were also bound to ask for favours. 'Whatever you cannot perform, decline gracefully or, better yet, don't decline. A good man will do the former, a good candidate the latter.' Better to promise wherever possible, since 'if you refuse you are sure to rouse antagonism at once, and in more people . . . . Especially as they are much angrier with those who refuse them than with a man who . . . has reason for not fulfilling his promise, although he would do so if he possibly could.' Elections pledges were just as important in the first century BC as they are today, and voters similarly inclined to let optimism triumph over experience."
Goldsworthy, Adrian. Augustus: First Emperor of Rome. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014, 41.
In Kolkata, Arijit Saha says that narrow lanes and potholes around his house mean he can't keep his red Jaguar XFR at home. Instead, he parks it in an empty lot off an unpaved road, where the $75,000 car shares space with a bicycle rickshaw and a group of homeless people.
Sugden, Joanna. "India's Superrich Have Supercars, but Nowhere to Drive," The Wall Street Journal., Tuesday January 19, 2016, A1, Accessed on January 19, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/indias-superrich-have-supercars-but-nowhere-to-drive-them-1453156090
"“The one thing for which I thank God is that I didn't kill that man,” said Pierre.
“Why so?” said Prince Andrey. “To kill a vicious dog is a very good thing to do, really.”
“No, to kill a man is bad, wrong …”
“Why is it wrong?” repeated Prince Andrey; “what's right and wrong is a question it has not been given to men to decide. Men are for ever in error, and always will be in error, and in nothing more than in what they regard as right and wrong.” “
What does harm to another man is wrong,” said Pierre, feeling with pleasure that for the first time since his arrival Prince Andrey was roused and was beginning to speak and eager to give expression to what had made him what he now was.
“And who has told you what is harm to another man?” he asked.
“Harm? harm?” said Pierre; “we all know what harms ourselves.”
“Yes, we know that, but it's not the same harm we know about for ourselves that we do to another man,” said Prince Andrey, growing more and more eager, and evidently anxious to express to Pierre his new view of things. He spoke in French. “I only know two very real ills in life, remorse and sickness. There is no good except the absence of those ills. To live for myself so as to avoid these two evils: that's the sum of my wisdom now.”"
Tolstoy, Leo. War and Peace. Translated by Constance Garnett. Amazon Digital Services, Inc., August 24, 2015.
Nickelback's ranking atop the rock-intelligence charts was boosted by their 2008 hit "Something in Your Mouth." The song registered with a 4.2 grade reading level, better than the second to third-grade rock average.
Germano, Sara and Hong, Nicole. "Who Likes Nickelback? Nobody, Except for Millions," The Wall Street Journal., Saturday/Sunday, January 16-17, 2016, A1, Accessed on January 16, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/who-likes-nickelback-nobody-except-for-millions-1452894762
Meanwhile, Venezuela's president, Nicolás Maduro, reshuffled his cabinet. Luis Salas, a left-wing sociologist who does not think that printing money causes inflation, will be in charge of economic policy.
"The world this week: Politics," The Economist, Jan. 16th-22nd, Accessed on January 15, 2016, http://www.economist.com/news/world-week/21688452-politics-week
The National Football League on Tuesday announced that the St. Louis Rams would move to the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood in a deal that called for no public funding toward the planned $1.9 billion stadium.
Similar attitudes have affected deals for numerous projects in the state. In Northern California, the Golden State Warriors are planning a $1 billion basketball arena without public funding, while the 49ers’ new stadium in Santa Clara had relatively little public aid.
And in Oakland, city officials on Wednesday reiterated that no public funding would be devoted to building a stadium to keep the Oakland Raiders from walking away.
[...]
[A] wealth of academic studies [shows] that stadiums and arenas are poor investments when it comes to economic development. Without pro teams, would-be fans spend money on other local entertainment, economists have found, while sports facilities rarely spur real-estate development that wouldn’t have happened anyway.
Brown, Eliot and Carlton, Jim and Futterman, Matthew. "Cities Rethink Sports-Team Deals," The Wall Street Journal., Thursday, January 14, 2016, B1, Accessed on January 14, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/cities-rethink-sports-stadium-deals-1452734069
A 1990 Château Pétrus. A 2005 Château Mouton Rothschild. A 2010 Château Mouton Rothschild. A 2009 Château Lafite Rothschild. And multiple bottles of Opus One.
These are just a few of the wines allegedly stolen by Scott Deluca, the man who officials in a New Jersey’s prosecutor’s office have dubbed the “Bordeaux Bandit.”
Law-enforcement officials in the New York region said they have spent several months pursuing a man accused of stealing high-end wines during heists that have attracted the attention of area oenophiles.
Teague, Lettie. "The Painstaking Pursuit of Region's 'Bordeaux Bandit'," The Wall Street Journal., Wednesday January 13, 2016, A15, Accessed on January 13, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/uncorking-the-city-police-pursue-the-bordeaux-bandit-1452641127
The whole article is worth reading. Great crime story.
For one thing, Americans are far bigger couch potatoes than Europeans, watching 5 hours and 45 minutes of TV a day on average, compared with less than four hours in most of Europe's largest countries, according to Bernstein Research.
Hagey, Keach and Futterman, Matthew. "Discovery Bets Big on Sports," The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, January 12, 2016, A1 Accessed on Tuesday January 12, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/discovery-communications-wants-to-be-the-espn-of-europe-1452567094
The sum of his discourse was to this effect: “That about forty years ago, certain persons went up to Laputa, either upon business or diversion, and, after five months continuance, came back with a very little smattering in mathematics, but full of volatile spirits acquired in that airy region: that these persons, upon their return, began to dislike the management of every thing below, and fell into schemes of putting all arts, sciences, languages, and mechanics, upon a new foot. To this end, they procured a royal patent for erecting an academy of projectors in Lagado; and the humour prevailed so strongly among the people, that there is not a town of any consequence in the kingdom without such an academy. In these colleges the professors contrive new rules and methods of agriculture and building, and new instruments, and tools for all trades and manufactures; whereby, as they undertake, one man shall do the work of ten; a palace may be built in a week, of materials so durable as to last for ever without repairing. All the fruits of the earth shall come to maturity at whatever season we think fit to choose, and increase a hundred fold more than they do at present; with innumerable other happy proposals. The only inconvenience is, that none of these projects are yet brought to perfection; and in the mean time, the whole country lies miserably waste, the houses in ruins, and the people without food or clothes. By all which, instead of being discouraged, they are fifty times more violently bent upon prosecuting their schemes, driven equally on by hope and despair: that as for himself, being not of an enterprising spirit, he was content to go on in the old forms, to live in the houses his ancestors had built, and act as they did, in every part of life, without innovation: that some few other persons of quality and gentry had done the same, but were looked on with an eye of contempt and ill-will, as enemies to art, ignorant, and ill common-wealth’s men, preferring their own ease and sloth before the general improvement of their country.”
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, 176-77.
Above all, he was amazed to hear me talk of a mercenary standing army, in the midst of peace, and among a free people. He said, if we were governed by our own consent, in the persons of our representatives, he could not imagine of whom we were afraid, or against whom we were to fight; and would hear my opinion, whether a private man’s house might not be better defended by himself, his children, and family, than by half-a-dozen rascals, picked up at a venture in the streets for small wages, who might get a hundred times more by cutting their throats?
[...]
He was perfectly astonished with the historical account gave him of our affairs during the last century; protesting it was only a heap of conspiracies, rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions, banishments, the very worst effects that avarice, faction, hypocrisy, perfidiousness, cruelty, rage, madness, hatred, envy, lust, malice, and ambition, could produce.
His majesty, in another audience, was at the pains to recapitulate the sum of all I had spoken; compared the questions he made with the answers I had given; then taking me into his hands, and stroking me gently, delivered himself in these words, which I shall never forget, nor the manner he spoke them in: My little friend Grildrig, you have made a most admirable panegyric upon your country; you have clearly proved, that ignorance, idleness, and vice, are the proper ingredients for qualifying a legislator; that laws are best explained, interpreted, and applied, by those whose interest and abilities lie in perverting, confounding, and eluding them. I observe among you some lines of an institution, which, in its original, might have been tolerable, but these half erased, and the rest wholly blurred and blotted by corruptions. It does not appear, from all you have said, how any one perfection is required toward the procurement of any one station among you; much less, that men are ennobled on account of their virtue; that priests are advanced for their piety or learning; soldiers, for their conduct or valour; judges, for their integrity; senators, for the love of their country; or counsellors for their wisdom. As for yourself, continued the king, who have spent the greatest part of your life in travelling, I am well disposed to hope you may hitherto have escaped many vices of your country. But by what I have gathered from your own relation, and the answers I have with much pains wrung and extorted from you, I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels. Oxford: Oxford World's Classics, 1994, 124-26.
Their notions relating to the Duties of Parents and Children differ extremely from ours. For, since the Conjunction of Male and Female is founded upon the great Law of Nature, in order to propagate and continue the Species; the Lilliputians will needs have it, that Men and Women are joined together like other Animals, by the Motives of Concupiscence; and that their Tenderness towards their Young, proceedeth from the like natural Principle: For which Reason they will never allow, that a Child is under any Obligation to his Father for begetting him, or to his Mother for brining him into the World; which, considering the Miseries of human Life, was neither a Benefit in itself, nor intended so by his Parents, whose Thoughts in their Love-encounters were otherwise employed.
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels. Oxford: Oxford World's Classics, 1994, 47-8.
MOBUTU SESE SEKO, the late dictator of Zaire, used to reshuffle his cabinet every six months or so to show ministers who was boss. (To reinforce the point, he sometimes also slept with their wives.)
"The EU's rotating presidency: Stop the music," The Economist, Jan. 9th-15th, Accessed on January 8, 2016, http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21685454-every-six-months-council-european-union-gets-new-president-recipe
The stream of time, which is continually washing the dissoluble fabrics of other poets, passes without injury by the adamant of Shakespeare.
Johnson, Samuel. King Lear. By William Shakespeare. New York: Signet Classic, 1998, 182.
[M]en/ Are as the time is.
Shakespeare, William. King Lear. New York: Signet Classic, 1998, 132.
When we are born, we cry that we are come/ To this great stage of fools.
Shakespeare, William. King Lear. New York: Signet Classic, 1998, 117.
Humanity must perforce prey on itself,/ Like monsters of the deep.
Shakespeare, William. King Lear. New York: Signet Classic, 1998, 101.
When we our betters see bearing our woes,/ We scarcely think our miseries our foes./ Who alone suffers suffers most i' th' mind,/ Leaving free things and happy shows behind;/ But then the mind much sufferance doth o'erskip/ When grief hath mates, and bearing friendship./ How light and portable my pain seems now.
Shakespeare, William. King Lear. New York: Signet Classic, 1998, 88.
This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeits of our own behavior, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars; as if we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on. An admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition on the charge of a star. My father compounded with my mother under the Dragon's Tail, and my nativity was under Ursa Major, so that it follows I am rough and lecherous. Fut! I should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on by bastardizing.
Shakespeare, William. King Lear. New York: Signet Classics, 1998, 20.
