anotherpanacea

Month: October 2008

  • Madagascar Saphire Mines

    When Antoinette and I got engaged, I purchased a cultured (i.e. synthetic) diamond, concerned about the role that the diamond trade plays in provoking conflict. Here’s what it looks like. At the time, I seriously considered using a saphire, since I believed the trade in saphires was child-labor free and less tainted by violence, but…

  • Philosophy as Arbitrage

    Arbitrage is the practice of exploiting price differentials for a profit. Arbitrage is based on the Law of One Price: “in an efficient market, all identical goods must have only one price.” From the arbitrageur’s perspective, price differentials are violations of the law, and they profit from correcting the differences. The most basic form of financial arbitrage…

  • The Future of Food, and Capitalism

    Long time no post, right? Too much work, too little time. Anyway, here’e what I’m thinking about today: George Soros on Bill Moyers Journal: You see, for the last 25 years the world economy, the motor of the world economy that has been driving it was consumption by the American consumer who has been spending…