This NYT op-ed by Richard Dooling is interesting. He thinks that the recent financial crisis may be the computers taking over:

As the financial experts all over the world use machines to unwind Gordian knots of financial arrangements so complex that only machines can make — “derive� — and trade them, we have to wonder: Are we living in a bad sci-fi movie? Is the Matrix made of credit default swaps?

He includes this quote from the Unabomber’s manifesto:

But we are suggesting neither that the human race would voluntarily turn power over to the machines nor that the machines would willfully seize power. What we do suggest is that the human race might easily permit itself to drift into a position of such dependence on the machines that it would have no practical choice but to accept all of the machines’ decisions. … Eventually a stage may be reached at which the decisions necessary to keep the system running will be so complex that human beings will be incapable of making them intelligently. At that stage the machines will be in effective control. People won’t be able to just turn the machines off, because they will be so dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide.

A lot of people I know and respect, including Gandhi, are anti-technology. But my question is if we try to stop technological progress, how can we hope to learn more about who and what we are? What other point of life can there be but to understand more about ourselves and the universe? Is there anyone who can truly say that they would rather humanity not have discovered antibiotics? Think of all of the similar things that we will discover in the future with the help of technology.
Should we stop looking for a cure for cancer?
Should we let human beings die of diseases that we have the ability to cure for the sake of preventing technological progress?
It makes no sense at all to me and just seems absolutely ridiculous to even consider.
And yet Gandhi let his wife die rather than have her be injected with antibiotics - because of technology. I just don’t get it.
If you really are anti-technology, I feel like you must give up almost everything - as everything we do comes from technology. Wasn’t even the use of fire considered high-tech at some point in our history?

I really enjoyed this goodbye letter from Andrew Lahde, manager of Lahde Capital, which just closed down after returning 866% last year.

Recently, on the front page of Section C of the Wall Street Journal, a hedge fund manager who was also closing up shop (a $300 million fund), was quoted as saying, “What I have learned about the hedge fund business is that I hate it.” I could not agree more with that statement. I was in this game for the money. The low hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government. All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America…

…I will no longer manage money for other people or institutions. I have enough of my own wealth to manage. Some people, who think they have arrived at a reasonable estimate of my net worth, might be surprised that I would call it quits with such a small war chest. That is fine; I am content with my rewards. Moreover, I will let others try to amass nine, ten or eleven figure net worths. Meanwhile, their lives suck. Appointments back to back, booked solid for the next three months, they look forward to their two week vacation in January during which they will likely be glued to their Blackberries or other such devices. What is the point? They will all be forgotten in fifty years anyway. Steve Balmer, Steven Cohen, and Larry Ellison will all be forgotten. I do not understand the legacy thing. Nearly everyone will be forgotten. Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life.

Check out some of these symbols in the top 100 stocks weighted by alpha:

DOG (SHRT DOW30 PROS)
DXD (PT ULTRSHRT DOW)
DZZ (DB GOLD DBL SH )
EEV (PROSHARES UTLRA)
EFU (PROSHARES ULTRA)
EFZ (PROSHARES SHORT)
EUM (PROSHARES SHR M)
EWV (PROSHARES US MS)
MYY (SHRT MC400 PROS)
MZZ (PT ULTRSHR MC40)
PSQ (SHORT QQQ PROSH)
QID (PT UTLRSHRT QQQ)
REW (ULTRASHORT TECH)
RMS (RYDEX INVERSE 2)
RSW (RYDEX INVERSE 2)
RWM (SHORT RUSSELL20)
SBB (SHORT SMALLCAP6)
SCC (ULTRASHORT CONS)
SDD (ULTRASHORT SMAL)
SDK (PST ULSHT RSL M)
SDP (ULTRASHORT UTIL)
SDS (PT ULTRSHRT SP5)
SFK (PST ULSHT RSL1K)
SH (SHRT S& P500 PR)
SIJ (ULTRASHORT INDU)
SJF (PST ULSHT RSL1K)
SJL (PST ULSHT RSL M)
SKK (PST ULSHT RSL2K)
SMN (ULTRASHORT BASI)
SSG (ULTRASHORT SEMI)
SZK (ULTRASHORT CONS)

He think prices are so attractive now that his non-Berkshire net worth will soon be 100% in US equities.

Why?

A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors. To be sure, investors are right to be wary of highly leveraged entities or businesses in weak competitive positions. But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation’s many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now.

Milton Friedman was a great man:

I think Milton Friedman was a great man:

The great stock market crash of 2008: