American farmland
prices are going bonkers: high crop prices and high crop insurance payments
helped. From North Dakota to Oklahoma, we are seeing 15%+ increases in value in
2012 from 2011. Note that shiller doesn’t think farmland is a bubble because
most people don’t even know about it. [Note: Interesting, isn’t Graham pounding
the table about this? Also how long will the hard pricing last?]…Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/map-us-farmland-values-2013-2
Seth Klarman is out
of HPQ: Bought into HPQ since 3Q11 and held nearly 26 mm shares in 2Q12,
Klarman is done with it in 4Q12. All told, Baupost’s loss is likely over $150
mm. [Note: Rare loss for Klarman, I guess it just proves that tech turnarounds
are pretty damn hard to play]…Source: http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/02/13/klarman-hewlett-packard-hp/
How America is
spending 20 bn this Valentines: >9bn in dining out, 1.7bn in flowers,
and 2.9bn in candies. Funny thing is, only 56% of the money goes to our
romantic partners, 4% goes to pets, 20% goes to families, and 7% goes to
friends (perhaps romantic partners-to-be). [Note: There needs to be another pie
chart on which gender is paying for all of this.] …Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/heres-how-america-is-spending-20-billion-this-valentines-day/273116/
Microsoft, Big Data
picks Oscar winners: basically, if you're running a betting pool, the smart
money is on Argo, Daniel Day-Lewis and Anne Hathaway going home with Oscar on
their arm. Source: http://readwrite.com/2013/02/14/microsoft-big-data-pick-oscar-winners
Equal population US
states: a proposal/art project to divide the United States into 50 equal
population states, thereby creating a more balanced Senate. The geographic
clusters are based on county proximity,
urban area, and commuting patterns. [Note: pretty cool names]…Source: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/02/equal-population-us-states.html
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