Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed

• Entertainingly digressive Geoff Dyer review of new Martin Amis biography – http://t.co/3kuFVTID #
• "Does it mean anything he is wearing a hat?" "I think his ears are cold." #TodayinPenetratingNYCMarathonCommentary #
• We're so screwed MT @Bill_Gross: When Justin Bieber says "Night Girls" 29,612 of them reply! That's 0.2% reply rate on 14,143,871 followers #
• Edward Chancellor: Germany’s eurozone trilemma – http://t.co/s5ae5RAd #
• NYC Marathon runners abducted by aliens along Verrazano Bridge – http://t.co/rK7hjnZW /via kathrynschulz #
• Evans-Pritchard: Europe's rescue fiasco leaves Italy defenceless – http://t.co/ZoAPDGWt #
• Disqualifying behavior RT @emilychangtv: My bizarre encounter with Andrew Mason and other Groupon execs in Times Square http://t.co/6N1zmV1s #
• Made ginger five-spice salmon tonight with spinach & garlic salad. I amaze me with my cooking skillz. #
• Attempted commodity theft of bronze statue of Ronald Reagan thwarted. Insert joke here _________. http://t.co/y2QxEG02 #
• Weeks after hard-drive makers' stocks crushed, NYT perks up and notices a problem – http://t.co/9LJ5w3Fp #
• Long load time, but totally^2 worth it: Mining powder at Retallack BC – http://t.co/dBZaarTN /via @ski_pdx #
• As much as I would life to continue to lay waste to nonsensical tweets tonight, I have offspring to bathe. You lovely kids are on your own. #

Powered by Twitter Tools

I’ll preface this comment by saying that I’ve been (unprofitably) short Best Buy for a few months now, so …. I’m interested to see the retailer’s moves today. I have a general thesis that downbound companies go through multiple phases, analogous to the stages of grief when dying. Late on this list is “Doing dubious acquisitions”, and it strikes me that Best Buy has reached that point with its purchase today.

I am, however, perfectly happy to be convinced I have this all wrong. What is the strongest case for continued Best Buy dominance going forward? Is there a role for a big box retailer in consumer electronics in a world of Amazon, Pricegrabber, NewEgg, et al? I’m genuinely curious.

I’ll start things off: I haven’t purchased anything in an bricks-and-mortar electronics retailer in at least three years, and maybe longer. I have popped my head in, mostly to a) use the restrooms, oe b) treat the store as a showroom for things I was planning to buy online.

From a Paris Review interview with writer William Gibson:

The strongest impacts of an emergent technology are always unanticipated. You can’t know what people are going to do until they get their hands on it and start using it on a daily basis, using it to make a buck and u­sing it for criminal purposes and all the different things that people do. The people who invented pagers, for instance, never imagined that they would change the shape of urban drug dealing all over the world. But pagers so completely changed drug dealing that they ultimately resulted in pay phones being removed from cities as part of a strategy to prevent them from becoming illicit drug markets. We’re increasingly aware that our society is driven by these unpredictable uses we find for the products of our imagination.

via Paris Review – The Art of Fiction No. 211, William Gibson.

I know this feeling well:

Ring Rage
That feeling you get when your iPhone rings from someone actually “calling” you.

via Urban Dictionary: Ring Rage.

• Study Finds Every Style Of Parenting Produces Disturbed, Miserable Adults http://t.co/pjkQoNpu #
• Geoff West: Why Cities Keep Growing, Corporations and People Always Die, and Life Gets Faster http://t.co/tpGJ6zEq #
• Mammoth Dreams, the Story of Dave McCoy – trailer on Vimeo http://t.co/UnYNyKX3 #
• Mike Mayo: Why Wall Street Can't Handle the Truth http://t.co/XtEy4nVN #
• Werner Herzog Goes Into 'Abyss' http://t.co/ISkNwSwI #
• MeFi on Friedkin's "To Live and Die in LA" coincided with me having just rewatched it. Classic. http://t.co/cDVv1bdY #
• Whew, it's a good thing that CO2 doesn't matter: Global CO2 emissions in 2010 jumped by biggest amount ever http://t.co/lVs85deV #
• Love the continuing series of @MammothMountain opening day promos http://t.co/vXEZ8cML #
• A Debt by W.S. Merwin | The New York Review of Books http://t.co/ttURPbzr #
• Complex complexity – http://t.co/XmrSiT4V #
• From food to paper and water, Britain has gradually been guzzling less over the past decade. Why? http://t.co/lSKGdHGh #
• Photo set contrasting where global population is dense and sparse – http://t.co/GXWtXI59 #
• I am very skeptical of people who are skeptical about our ability to predict bubbles, but … http://t.co/QcnxxlSn #
• This market sentiment "bubbleometer" is a black box, but cute – http://t.co/4E7ZsgNv #
• Am at that part of the year where every day I find it tougher to answer question …. Why haven't I checked out to ski thru May? #
• Cool live data on Bloomberg, the company – http://t.co/ezuS3vt2 /via @tomkeene #
• Video: 1,000 extras clash in Manhattan scene for The Dark Knight Rises. http://t.co/W7uegeOx /via @Revkin #
• $4 Trillion Debt U.S. Deal Possible – http://t.co/tXyTIxCE #
• Congratulations to @dalepd for the Maker recognition at the White House. Highly deserved, my friend. http://t.co/MCFa9SR6 #

Powered by Twitter Tools

A black box, but cute market sentiment “bubbleometer”:

• Goldman already profitability facilitating other side of GRPN: Lending at high negative rate to short-sellers. Such pirates. #
• Apparently people misunderstood my earlier Goldman/Groupon shorting tweet. I'm amused by it, not angered. #
• College students interested in data and equity markets? The Tableau BI Competition http://t.co/2fUCR4dc #
• In San Diego terms, went for freezing cold & rainy trail run this morning. Summit looked roughly like this http://t.co/uJkcRfeO Loved it. #
• "Professor or Hobo?" quiz. I flunked. – http://t.co/60SY0q3E /via @kathrynschulz #
• Reviewing the new and very large Murakami novel, by @kathrynschulz http://t.co/DHMyMwum #
• I'm likely last to see this, but …. Halloween or Williamsburg – http://t.co/liOaO46Z /via @cltrom #
• Did Groupon go public yet? I hadn't heard anything. #
• Apparently Groupon hasn't even filed an S-1 yet. Wonder what company I was thinking of that was set to IPO. #
• 'nuff snowy said – http://t.co/GLI16PUF #
• Has anyone seen this new Chicago company, Group-On? I signed up, but unsubscribed after getting emailed pedicure offer. #
• Great tip! RT @macjay: @pkedrosky If you want better pedicure offers, try this new search engine called Goo-gal. #
• RT @jonlabes: Have your voice used in "The Dark Knight Rises" http://t.co/QoxUpXrd #
• Assuming present trends hold, by August 12, 2013, around 10am, the most popular IPhone app will be one to share photosharing apps. #
• About time. RT @paidContent: Yahoo Shareholder Third Point Demands Yang Leave Board, Wants Two Seats http://t.co/mINMlVCM #
• Papandreou made it thru Greece non-confidence vote tonight. Isn't party majority two, not three though? #
• Thanks. RT @JasonDMoncrieff: @pkedrosky two independents voted yes #
• Mammoth Dreams, the Story of Dave McCoy – trailer http://t.co/UnYNyKX3 #
• A friend of a friend sends this from Whistler, where grooming is underway this evening – http://t.co/27NphFad #

Powered by Twitter Tools

Mammoth Dreams, the Story of Dave McCoy – trailer on Vimeo on Vimeo

Explosive Breach of Condit Dam on Vimeo on Vimeo

There is a new ‘net market cap pecking order:

via RC