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Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other

nytimes.com

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Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other

#131

Post by baby »

xyzzyz wrote: post #130
supernova87a wrote: post #128

I 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 transp…

The fact that lobbyism is legal is telling.

Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other

#133

Post by exolymph »

srckinase123 wrote: post #112

Is it worthwhile to read Matt Levine's newsletter, even if someone doesn't even have a rudimentary grasp on finance/economics? I've tried reading excerpts but they just went over my head. Would it be more useful to get a basic understanding of finance before reading his newsletter? There is so much terminology that is foreign to me.

Yes, if you read it consistently you'll pick up a lot, even without preexisting knowledge. Google what you don't understand and the next issue will make more sense :)

Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other

#134

Post by titanomachy »

smogcutter wrote: post #95
pandalicious wrote: post #84

Earlier 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…

I tried it and it only gives me a separate counter (i.e. 3 free articles on "bloomberg.com." in addition to the ones on "bloomberg.com".) This makes me suspect local storage or cookies.

Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other

#135

Post by dash2 »

xyzzyz wrote: post #130
supernova87a wrote: post #128

I 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 transp…

Actually, among developed countries the US has a relatively high corruption level, I believe. (Insert many caveats about how difficult corruption is to measure.)

Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other

#136

Post by civilized »

eine_zwei wrote: post #79
avalys wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I enjoy his column particularly because he talks about all of this scheming and maneuvering in a straightforward and neutral way. I can decide for myself if something is immoral or offensive or whatever, I don’t need my news sources to decide that for me.

The reality is that media helps define what is normative and what is not. Describing bad behaviour and abuse of the law, without calling it out as bad, helps normalize it. Matt Levine's columns often goes one step beyond the "neutral way". They often describe them as cool ingenious schemes done by smart people.

You realize there's a difference between "the media does (attempt to) define norms" and "the media should define norms", right?

Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other

#137

Post by heartbreak »

tuna-piano wrote: post #26

Thoughts: -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…

His level of intellect is pretty common at Wachtell. Those people are sharp. Levine worked there as an associate out of law school.

Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other

#138

Post by arcticbull »

dash2 wrote: post #135
xyzzyz wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 transp…

Actually, among developed countries the US has a relatively high corruption level, I believe. (Insert many caveats about how difficult corruption is to measure.)

America ranks 23rd on the Perception of Corruption Index. Australia, Canada and the UK are 12th, and New Zealand 1st. [1]

[1] https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi

Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other

#139

Post by jdminhbg »

r00fus wrote: post #110
sails wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hope they don't see this.

You can even set Safari to automatically go into reader mode for all websites (I do this, then whitelist the sites/webapps). 9 times out of 10 this is much more readable and is darkmode by default.

You can also set reader mode automatically for just certain websites instead (i.e. whitelist vs blacklist); I do this for Bloomberg, Medium, WaPo, and others.

Re: Matt Levine makes sense of Wall Street like none other

#140

Post by iancoleman »

dash2 wrote: post #135
xyzzyz wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 transp…

Actually, among developed countries the US has a relatively high corruption level, I believe. (Insert many caveats about how difficult corruption is to measure.)

One group that measures corruption (I'm sure there are many) is freedomhouse.org

They rate USA 3/4 for corruption (Section C2 [0])

Comparing other similar nations for corruption

Australia 4/4 Canada 4/4 New Zealand 4/4 United Kingdom 4/4

[0] https://freedomhouse.org/country/united-states/freedom-world...

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