Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

There has been a good deal of talk about the "re-opening of the US economy." I have to say: I despise that expression and anything like it. The term "the economy" is a high-level and for many purposes a quite confusing expression. What is the economy, that it could be closed and re-opened, turned off and then back on by some act of political will, so flicking of a finger? "The economy" is a high-level and confusing expression. Consider this answer: the economy is what an economist studies. As opposed to what? the society, which is what a sociologist studies? the body politic, which is what a political scientist studies? Surely they are all studying the same sort of facts, but with somewhat different emphases and methods. Anyway, we have seen of late a lot of orders from a lot of different authorities dictating a lot of particular actions, prohibiting some others. We have seen no flick of a particular switch. We have seen no closing of a given...

A recent paper by six scholars affiliated with Johns Hopkins University investigates how one can make alpha by tracing the foot traffic into brick and mortar stores and engaging in a pairs trading strategy on that basis. Let's back up. What the heck is pairs trading? It is a strategy available any time two investable assets (A and B) are related to one another in a predictable way. Consider Exxon and Chevron. When broad industry factors are the driving force, one would expect that an increase in the value of Exxon would be an increase in the value of Chevron. Their stocks would move in parallel lines.  Sometimes, one or the other will move for an idiosyncratic reason -- say, a scandal about the CEO of one of these companies may make headlines, pressing that stock down. That may not impact the other one, or may even drive it up, as people unhappy with the CEO news but still eager to invest in crude oil sell one and buy the other. A pairs trade is typically a trade on a ...

The September issue of Harper's included a collective review of two books and one recent documentary film about sneakers, under the headline, "Joint Ventures: How sneakers became high fashion." The reviewer, Charles Bock, is described as the author of a forthcoming novel called Alice & Oliver. The three works are as follows: Where'd You Get Those? New York City's Sneaker Culture 1960 - 1987. Tenth Anniversary Edition, by Bobbito Garcia; Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture , by Elizabeth Semmelback. Sneakerheadz  70 min. Directed by David T. Friendly and Mick Partridge. I'll just offer one brief quote from the review here: Nobody could know, of course, what was coming. In the Eighties, Reebok was the reigning sneaker king, thanks to a focus on women's aerobics. In 1984, Nike's stock was dropping -- the Oregon-based company had recently closed one of its New England facilities. Ten million dollars hadbeem cit from the company...