Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojkt. . . My preferred solution, which is plenty dreamy enough, is reapportion reform. If independent agents redrew the election districts in the states with the mandate to minimize the number of safe seats for either party, and to maximize the number that would be competitive, most of the extremism that characterizes our politics today would disappear. Both Democratic and Republican candidates would have to compete for the big middle. All views would still get aired, and the hardcore elements of both parties would still have influence. But no longer would they be able to shut down the political process as the GOP did during the debt ceiling issue.
Is this idea too dreamy? Not really. Fair play is a core American value, and instinctively we repel against the most extreme of the gerrymandered districts, regardless of which party we favor. Moreover, increasing competition is a neat market solution is an inherently comprehensible path to take in a country that likes market solutions to problems. This is a path that would open up with only a little pushing. Already California has moved in this direction, and as California usually goes, so goes the nation. It’s too late to do anything about reapportionment this time, but reform should be advanced now, while the concept is fresh in the public’s mind.
This strikes me as just a little bit odd. Financial traders are more reckless that psychopaths??? Really??? [I thought they were about equally reckless; surprised to find out they are more reckless – KW]
A new study from a Swiss University finds that financial traders are more uncooperative than psychopaths, and also that they have a greater tendency for lying and risk-taking.As part of their executive MBA thesis at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, forensic psychiatrist Thomas Noll, a chief administrator at the Pöschwies prison near Zurich, and co-author Pascal Scherrer studied the behavior of 28 financial traders in a decision-making game, comparing their performances with those of people who were diagnosed as psychopaths.
They expected to find that, like the psychopaths, the traders would be uncooperative with others, but that they’d perform better at the game because, as Mr. Noll said, traders “are supposed to be good at making money. In social interactions, they’re supposed to be good at performing.”
But the two authors were shocked to discover that the traders were actually more uncooperative and egocentric than psychopaths when playing a prisoner’s dilemma game — a type of gaming scenario where participants can choose to cooperate or betray each other.Moreover, even though the traders lied and took risks more than their psychopathic counterparts, their performance at the game was about the same as the control group. This means the traders not only didn’t play well with others, they also didn’t do any better at the game than regular Joes.
Maybe this was discussed over the weekend, but the media ran amuck with stories about Obama criticizing his base following his speech in front of the Congressional Black Caucus. I thought this was in interesting take from an interestingly named blog that turned the usual “liberal media” perspective on its head. — Ashot
The floor is yours, kids!
Filed under: Bits and Pieces |
All Things in Moderation 
"Feministing". . . like you said, ashot, an iterestingly named blog! I missed the original story in the uproar of moving, but thanks for posting this link. Parts of his speech ("we won't stop") reminded me of one from the 2008 campaign and I'm trying to remember which one. It'll come to me. . .P.S. Glad to see you're a How I Met Your Mother fan, too! 🙂
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(Not having anything to do with what we've been talking about during the day today, but OMG I wish I could figure out what my dogs got into today that has them farting the most godawful farts I think I've ever smelled! It's got to be something in the new back yard, but I may have to go find a gas mask if they don't quit!!)
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I would like to read the trader study. Intriguing to say the least, but it has the odor of being a little "too good to be true." Too trendy, predictably unpredictable. I'm never quite sure what these game theory tests really tell us to begin with.
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It seems that Rep.Waters was not to pleased with Obama's CBC speach.
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Well, not being a huge Maxine Waters fan myself, she can be just as pissy as she wants to be AFAIC.She strikes me as a woman with an overly inflated opinion of herself.
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However, she is a media darling so her statements have an outsized presence.Perhaps she's an urepentant racist per the below post?
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Hubby Waters apparently helped Maxine generate some ethical problems, but, on a personal level from watching her for a long time, he deserves everyone's sympathy. I can't imagine how miserable his life must be, shackled to her.
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I was listening to this while I was running errands an hour or two ago, Troll, and thinking about your post. Perhaps Ms Waters doesn't consider the President "black enough." She certainly comes across as more than willing to judge people; I haven't liked her since the first time I saw her on Countdown, and can't figure out why she's such a media darling!
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Michi, I'll try and listen to it later. I think that there is a feeling among the CBC anyway that Obama is not doing enough for the AA community.
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Yeah, that's part of what that story was about (and if there's a double standard that he's being held to that previous Democratic presidents weren't).
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Regarding Maxine, I bet none of you have been watching and listening to her since she was an LA City Councilwoman. She always drove me crazy, but I assume she represents her inner city constituents well as she keeps getting re-elected. She's actually a little tamer now than in the old days. I think the AA community is really feeling the recession in a big way as their unemployment numbers are worse than any other group but I don't see them abandoning him in droves based on the polls I've seen. His polling is much worse among women and young people than in the AA community.
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BTW, jnc emailed me this afternoon and I just sent his invitation so I imagine he'll be showing up tonight or tomorrow.
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Should we clean up the place a little? Vacuum, dust? I'll load the dishwasher if QB changes out of his stained wife-beater t-shirt.
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I'll bake a pie or zucchini bread (yikes, I still have zucchini.
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Windows? I'll sweep, too.
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I'm going back to health care for a minute. Did anyone read that report from the Kaiser Foundation this morning about rising premiums and cost sharing by employees? Another thing that's been changing over the last few years is the number of people opting for the higher deductible plans and paying more out of pocket to keep their premiums lower. That's what we keep doing every year as we can't keep up with the increases. I thought people being invested in this way by paying a larger part of their health care dollars themselves (cost sharing) was supposed to bring the costs down. Looks like another theory down the drain, the costs are never going down, we're just going to keep paying more.
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Mich:This strikes me as just a little bit odd. Financial traders are more reckless that psychopaths??? Why odd? Are psychopaths known for being particularly extreme risk takers in a prisoners dilemma game?BTW, do you know what happens when traders cooperate with each other in order to maximize their profits? They get prosecuted for collusion and price fixing.
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on reapportionment; I think its a bit naive to assume that hyperpartisanship can be solved by better-shaped districts. Most states have pretty diverse electorates, yet senators have been moving towards the extremes as well.
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I bet EMTs are also as reckless as psychopaths. Or more so.
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Kevin:Just ran across this on Netflix. Made me think of you.
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We passed a nonpartisan apportionment amendment with 60+% voter approval last year here in FL. A nonpartisan commission would draw contiguous and compact state and federal districts. Our legislature is now spending miillions of taxpayer dollars suing itself, trying to defeat this amendment in court. Neither political party will let reasonable apportionment happen, regardless of the will of the people.
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Scott–It just seems, well, odd (I really can't think of a better word). I mean psychopaths are a rather extreme group of people when it comes to behavior and empathy (or lack thereof) for other human beings. I guess I'm surprised that, as a group, traders were even more extreme.And why would you think that about EMTs, Kevin? The EMTs that I know aren't really any more reckless than most people I know. In fact, on the contrary, while their job is fast-paced and sometimes adrenaline-packed, they have to actually be very calm and clear thinking to perform well–quite the opposite of reckless to my mind.bsimon: in my original post (on 9/16) I pointed out that, at least in UT, as the districts at the lower levels have been hyperpartisanly (sp??) drawn voter turnout has gone down–why bother to vote when you know what the outcome will be? I suspect that that's why Senators (and now some Governors) are moving to the extremes as well.Hi, Mike! Why the atropine injectors?
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Mich:I mean psychopaths are a rather extreme group of people when it comes to behavior and empathy (or lack thereof) for other human beings.First of all, the article said nothing about, and as far as I know prisoner dilemma type games have nothing to do with, empathy. I'm not sure where you got that from. Second, I'm no expert (where's shrink when you need him) but I highly doubt that psycopaths are characterized by extremes in all types of behavior, and so the relevant question is whether they are particularly extreme with regard to risk taking behaviors, especially in the context of game strategy. Are they? I have no idea, and so, again, it is not clear to me that a comparison using game-strategy risk taking as a metric is all that meanignful as a comparison between traders and psychopaths. Certainly, however, it ought not be surprising in the least that traders are less risk averse than the average person. Taking risk is what they do for a living. Lastly, risky does not equate to "reckless". The willingness to take risks when playing a game does not imply a tendency towards recklessness in general behavior.
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BTW, as an aside, I'm also not sure how meaningful the study is even relative to traders. The study included, I think it said, 28 traders. Were they all traders in the same market? Were they all traders from the same firm? These are the types of things you'd need to account for before drawing general conclusions about "financial traders" as a generic group. Did the study do this? It isn't clear from the article.
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Mike: "Our legislature is now spending miillions of taxpayer dollars suing itself, trying to defeat this amendment in court. Neither political party will let reasonable apportionment happen, regardless of the will of the people."I hope they lose. I hope their loss sets a precedent for future fair redistricting. Politicians installing themselves for life in any political position is, in my opinion, not the best representative democracy has to offer.
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Our redistricting efforts here in CA are moving along rather nicely. We face a court challenge but no one really expects that to amount to much. There is a lot of consternation in individual districts with incumbents facing incumbents and a some apprehension about a large group of new and inexperienced legislators heading to Sacramento, but the fact that it's been out in the open has really helped I think. Maybe I've missed it but I haven't noticed that much resistance.
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"They get prosecuted for collusion and price fixing."Yes, this.I questioned the usefulness of a test like this with psychopaths, too, because the relationship between their deceptiveness and risk taking seems too complex to be reduced to a game like this. If they are intentionally deceptive, which they supposedly are, it has to have some basis in a sort of risk aversion or consciousness. "I'll load the dishwasher if QB changes out of his stained wife-beater t-shirt."Only when I hit the sack.
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ScottC: Just admit it. Financial people are all crazy. Crazy!
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Also, to be useful, comparisons between psychopaths and traders is insufficient. We should also compare other groups, like firemen, nurses, lawyers, politicians. If you find that many "normal" people are more reckless than psychopaths, it becomes clear the prisoner's dilemma tells you nothing special, other than that psychopaths are normal in many respects. Bankers and psychopaths, generally, both have two arms and two legs: it doesn't mean they are similar in their desire to kidnap people and torture them in their basements.
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lms:In FL, we have the further complication that a small number (3?) of our jurisdictions are subject to Section V of the VRA, so any reapportionment plan would require preclearance from the DoJ. Actually, I live in one of those counties (Hillsborough) that is subject to Section V. The whole thing is pretty messy.Kevin:I totally agree. While the lawsuit against fair redistricting is being led by the GOP, there are FL Ds like Corrine Brown that have come out strongly against the amendment as well.
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MikeWe had several posters over at the Plumline from Florida and I always enjoyed reading their FL stories. No offense, but it always made me feel a little better about CA politics, haaaaahaaaaa.But then, we're in the top 10 in unemployment so I'm immediately brought back to earth.
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