[Marxism] The ruling class in the United States ofAmerica istheentire capitalist class!

[Les Schaffer]

S. Artesian wrote:
> Entire "discipline" using algorithms to predict market movement, to detect 
> anomalies in markets and establish arbitrage positions, to establish 
> positions long and short, and hedge same.  The practitioners of this, many 
> of whom have backgrounds in mathematics, including not a few Ph.Ds are 
> called "quants."
>
> Actually at the beginning of this crisis way back when Bear Stearns closed 2 
> hedge funds, WSJ and FT were filled with articles about how the "quants" got 
> it wrong.


yea, i know, seen some good physics and math students head that way. 
i've been following the field from a distance for a few years, including 
one guy who thinks techniques from quantum field theory (QFT) is a good 
basis for predicting stock market volatility. the Border's comment: just 
found it interesting a. there was a larger selection of technical books 
in the econ and hedge section than in the physics and chemistry section 
and b. econ has their heroes just like physics and math have theirs. for 
the most part, i find the Einstein books a bore.

re/ quants: someone asked me a few years ago if i wanted to apply the 
QFT stuff to derivatives, because there were companies looking for new 
algorithms to price options. i had a few meetings to see what all the 
fuss was about, but dropped it out of sheer boredom and bewilderment 
that it was anything other than dice rolling (pacem Albert). maybe if i 
had stuck with it, marxmail would have its own super duper server, and i 
could be lying on the beach, earning 20% (line from Alan Rickman, in Die 
Hard). or better yet, i could have bought my own locomotive engine ...

speaking of capitalist class, i think this article will cause Lenin to 
resurrect next April:

    Despite Crisis, Wealthy Russians Are Buying Up Coastal Montenegro

    By DAN BILEFSKY
    Published: October 31, 2008

    BUDVA, Montenegro — The global financial crisis has buffeted the
    balance sheets of Russia’s legion of billionaires. But suitcases of
    cash and Russian-owned luxury yachts keep arriving in this idyllic
    town on the Adriatic, helping Montenegro earn the nickname
    Moscow-on-the-Sea.

    Thanks largely to Russia, Montenegro receives more foreign
    investment per capita than any other country on the Continent.
    Russians are building a $310 million hotel and condominium complex
    on a rocky peninsula at Budva.

    Among the biggest investors is the Russian developer Vyentseslav
    Leibman, a young millionaire who is pressing ahead with investments
    of $310 million, including plans for a 27-floor modernist hotel,
    luxury seaside villas, docks for the pleasure boats of the Russian
    superrich and a water park for their children.

    The investment might seem daring given the way the economic downturn
    has hit several of his fellow wealthy Russians. But Mr. Leibman, a
    Muscovite who is managing partner at Mirax Group, the company owned
    by the Russian billionaire developer Sergei Polonsky, insists he can
    barely keep up with demand.

    He said more than half of the sprawling condominiums in Mirax’s new
    complex — which sell for more than $10,400 per square foot and come
    with outdoor marble Jacuzzis — had been sold to executives of giant
    Russian companies like Gazprom, Lukoil and VTB. They paid, he said,
    upfront and in cash.

    Despite the financial crisis, “the money keeps coming,” said Mr.
    Leibman, who recently helped bring Madonna to perform in Budva to
    promote his development. “And hopefully the global financial crisis
    will help sober up the cost of land here, which is now more
    expensive than in Monaco.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/world/europe/01balkans.html


Les