Diary

Links from around the web

• Learn Austrian Economics - written by Tom Woods
• Benford's Law - using statistics to detect accounting fraud
• UK Retail Redux - valuestockinquisition looks at high-street retailing, and dislikes the sector on account of structural weakness, significant lease committments, questionable strategy and poor outlook for UK consumer spending.
• Crushed By Christmas - Motley Fook article on 5 companies that might go belly-up over crimbo: BSLA (Blacks Leisure), CC (Clinton Cards), HMV (HMV), JJB (JJB Sports), LMR (Luminar). These companies are plagued by declining profits, and high indebtedness. Two days after the article was published, LMR called in the administrators. So The Motley Fool called that one right. Amazing.
• Tea Leaves - Ken Fisher writes in Forbes, saying that another recession now would be historically unprecedented. The thrust of his argument is that the spread between the short and long term rates is positive rather than negative, and that job growth statistics is a lagging and not a leading indicator.