I think there is a direct correlation between patio11 reading this guy, and the liberal use of 'material' in his writing :-)
Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other
121–130 of 199 posts
Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
that's amazing, do you know why it works?
The dot after the TLD represents the root domain. From right to left, URLs read from least to most specific. Root -> TLD -> domain -> subdomain (eg www). The root domain is almost always left out, because it’s always the same and its presence is implied. But if you include it explicitly, it is a distinct URL. So idk how bloomberg.com works under the hood so I can’t specifically explain this case, but rules that match…
This is 50% of the reason, the other half is that all the tracking/ad requests hit an API endpoint on bloomberg.com (no dot at the end), which is now a separate origin as far as the same-origin policy is concerned. But the code is not expecting this to be the case, and doesn't set any CORS headers on the response, and the browser denies access to the response data.
This breaks the ads but also breaks any interactive charts, etc. that need data from the API.
Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is probably his most famous: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/the-grea...
Is this really that compelling? I find it with lots of rhetorical flourish, but lacking the analysis of how the rich really do enrich themselves. > They did this by setting up what was, in reality, a two-tiered investment system — one for the insiders who knew the real numbers, and another for the lay investor who was invited to chase soaring prices the banks themselves knew were irrational What does this mean? Why w…
yeah wow the idea that matt taibi is well informed on these topics... he's not even a good writer either... other than that, he's a great Matt Levine comp haha.
Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other
#124The irony is that technology journalists always seem very defensive when it comes to not having industry experience, yet Levine is a perfect example of a journalist who is good at what he does because he was in the finance industry.
Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
New to me and I've been programming web for quite a while. I've only ever seen that final "." in DNS records, it never occured to me that it would affect logic within the site.
It shouldn't. It is the fault of hacky protocols like HTTPS that conflate routing with identity. If we had DNSSEC and IPSEC from the beginning, it wouldn't have been necessary to do it on application level.
The browser's same-origin-policy would still exist the same way without HTTPS.
Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other
#126Agree with all the praise. However, reading him long enough, I started to get annoyed with the blase approach to the Wall Street(tm) transgressions. I do not think it is a case of pandering to your audience. The following quote (about his time in Dealbreaker) captures it perfectly: >Part of the problem was that he couldn’t really access a contempt for Wall Street titans. He was of the place, and he found its workings…
It's a very finance culture approach, though, where the bounds of what's in and out are tested constantly by what (knowledgeable, ideally) participants, compliance departments, and regulators are willing to tolerate. Many banks were highly criticized after the financial crisis for selling "knowingly toxic" CDO/CLOs but on the other side of the trade were highly sophisticated buyers who wanted those securities.
They hacked the ratings system. There were pension funds who saw AAA rated garbage with apparently high returns and thought "woohoo!"
Theres a really book called traders, guns and money that goes into the details on this.
When the government started going after the ratings companies they downgraded US bonds (as if the US would ever default...)
Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other
#127My favorite columnist even when he wrote about me. He always takes the time to return my emails. His voice and wit always bring a bit of happiness to my day. I can't wait for him to return to writing and I hope he's enjoying his new kid. I actually met his wife when I was going through the SDNY. I was hoping to meet him, but the attorney did not recommend I talk to the "media".
Been reading Matt's work since the Dealbreaker days and agree 100%. It's rare to see someone pull off being genuinely funny when (knowledgeably!) writing about financial and legal mechanics.
Matt once wrote about something I was working on. His analysis was way more on-point and technically accurate than that of any other article I read about it. I wanted to email him at the time but like you wasn't exactly in a position to talk to a journalist.
Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other
#128I especially liked his column about the college admissions scandal, and it wasn't that it was unfair, it was that it was theft. Theft from the colleges. Because you know, they already sell their admissions:
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-13/you-ha...
Here is one thing that U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said in announcing the charges:
“There can be no separate college admissions system for the wealthy, and I'll add that there will not be a separate criminal justice system either.”
Level playing field! Here is another thing he said less than a minute later:
“We’re not talking about donating a building so that a school’s more likely to take your son or your daughter. We’re talking about deception and fraud.”
There can be no separate college admissions system for the wealthy, except for the extremely well-known one where you donate a building in exchange for getting your kid in! “Lol just donate a building like a real rich person,” the U.S. Attorney almost said.
Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other
#129Thoughts: -I love reading Matt's stuff. The praise of his writing is totally deserving. -In my daily life there's rarely a topic I come across that I'm unable to understand. In an otherwise boring day full of mundane work tasks, his column gives me intellectual challenges that I really appreciate. -Matt's ability to understand and synthesize topics reflects incredibly highly on his intellect. I don't know anyone on W…
> -Matt's ability to understand and synthesize topics reflects incredibly highly on his intellect. I don't know anyone on Wall Street... is his level of intellect common among investment bankers and such there?
Intelligence is 100% absolutely not a prerequisite but anyone who rises above a certain level in finance has to be talented at something. At a bank that's likely to be either sales or politics.
Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other
#130I especially liked his column about the college admissions scandal, and it wasn't that it was unfair, it was that it was theft . Theft from the colleges. Because you know, they already sell their admissions: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-13/you-ha... Here is one thing that U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said in announcing the charges: “There can be no separate college admissions system for the weal…
This is a good example of what corruption in America looks like.
America enjoys a reputation of being a rather non-corrupt country. To large degree, this is true: bribing scandals are rare, and most Americans would be completely aghast at the idea of passing an envelope under the table to the official who is responsible for issuing building permits.
Instead, the corruption in the US operates through completely transparent and legal means. Instead of cash-filled envelopes, you see campaign contributions, board seats, consulting jobs for children, and, yes, donations to designated causes. All of this is just How Things Are Done, and people are so used to them that they no longer even consider it corruption.