Interesting look at 8 common investment mistakes that uses Big Brown (the horse, not the delivery company). (Overly optimistic, ignoring data, etc)Good for behavioral finance! ... Read the full post ... Read more

Mind - How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect - NYTimes.com: "Researchers have long known that people cling to their personal biases more tightly when feeling threatened. After thinking about their own inevitable death, they become more patriotic, more religious and less tolerant of outsiders, studies ... Read more

Caltech Scientists Develop Novel Use of Neurotechnology to Solve Classic Social Problem - Caltech: "...providing public goods optimally and fairly is difficult, Rangel notes, because the group leadership doesn't have the necessary information. And when people are asked how much they value a particul ... Read more

Merrill Lynch’s Compensation Plan Is Lesson for Pay Czar - NYTimes.com: "Merrill program, which was supposed to align its top employees’ pay with the company’s long-term performance, did not keep workers from taking risks that nearly sank the brokerage giant. And some of its senior executives ... Read more

Handicapping the 2009 Economics Nobel - Real Time Economics - WSJ: "Adherents of the efficient-markets hypothesis might say that University of Chicago Booth School of Business economist Eugene Fama has an excellent chance of winning the Nobel Prize in economics. Then again, recent events have thrown ... Read more

FASCINATING!YouTube - Monkey cooperation and fairness: "A pair of capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) show very compelling signs of cooperation and a sense of fairness, by working together to solve a problem using tools, and then sharing the reward." ... Read the full post ... Read more

A good article on market efficiency. Remember markets are good, not perfect. FT.com / Columnists / John Kay - Markets after the age of efficiency: "Market efficiency is a hypothesis about the way markets react to information and does not necessarily imply that markets promote economic efficiency in ... Read more

2nd UPDATE: Prison Terms Upheld For Adelphia Founder, Son - WSJ.com: "-A federal appeals court on Monday upheld the prison sentences of Adelphia Communications Corp. founder John Rigas and his son Timothy after they were convicted in 2004 in a massive accounting scandal at the telecommunications com ... Read more

Lo thinks FDIC could fail - Pensions & Investments: "The FDIC might fail, requiring a federal bailout, dragged down by the failure of regional banks with substantial commercial mortgage debt, Andrew W. Lo warned.Mr. Lo, founder and chief investment strategist of AlphaSimplex Group and a finance ... Read more

Nearly 200 stocks could be delisted from NYSE, Nasdaq - USATODAY.com: "There's something other than just shame facing stocks struggling to stay above $1: getting booted from their stock market. After months of suspending requirements that stocks stay above $1, both the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exch ... Read more