2014년 3월 25일 화요일

[책] The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor (William Easterly, 2014)

출처: William Easterly (2014). The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor. Basic Books.
자료: amazon,


CF 2.



CF 1.

some excerpts or readings

Dic# Various types of auction


※ 발췌 (excerpt):

I’ve stated many times the most seductive word in auction advertising is “absolute,” — that is, if everything’s really selling absolute. However, another word used in auction advertising is nearly as captivating: “estate,” as in an “estate” auction.
  • An “absolute” auction suggests: Everything is selling today (emphasizing the word “selling.”) 
  • Similarly, an “estate” auction suggests: Everything is selling today (emphasizing the word “everything”). Estate auctions rely on the longstanding premise that, “you can’t take it with you,” with considerable physical evidence. 
  • Other types of auctions, including a “public auction,” “moving auction,” or “downsizing auction” suggest that maybe everything isn’t selling, and many auction attendees assume if it isn’t all selling, the “good stuff” may not be available that day …
Unfortunately, just like with absolute auctions — where the public responds energetically — auctioneers are sometimes tempted to advertise an auction as an estate auction to attract a larger audience, when in fact the auction isn’t an estate auction at all.

However, while many consider the word “estate” to mean someone is dead, the legal community uses the word estate generally to mean, “The nature and extent of an owner’s rights with respect to land or other property,” and not necessarily that anyone’s dead.

A few states have addressed this issue in their auction license law. Those states say, for instance, if an auction is advertised as an estate auction, then that same advertisement must specify the probate court case number and county name.

In this way, the word “estate” is tied to a specific estate case in the probate court, and assures then that the auction is one where the prior owner is dead, rather than alive but selling “an extent of their property.”

It’s likely such statutes were written to help prevent misrepresentation, where auctioneers were saying an auction was an “estate auction” when the auction did not involve the property of someone deceased.

Another common misconception is who can legally bid at an estate auction. We wrote about this before here: http://mikebrandlyauctioneer.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/at-an-auction-whos-not-the-seller/

Particularly if an auction is “without reserve” (absolute) the owner cannot bid unless the property is being sold in a forced sale situation. ( ... ... )

자료 2: Some examples of auction ads.
  • ABSOLUTE REAL ESTATE AUCTION ...
  • MOVING AUCTION-ALL REMAINING INVENTORY OF FLOOR COVERING-TILE-CARPET-WOOD-INTERIOR-EXTERIOR DOOR UNITS AND MORE!!!
  • REAL ESTATE AUCTION WITH BEAUTIFUL LAKE VIEW
  • WAREHOUSE AUCTION- ESTATE FROM MEMPHIS AND MORE !!!
  • PUBLIC AUCTION MAGNOLIA REGIONAL HEALTH CENTER--EXCESS EQUIPMENT AND OFFICE FURNITURE--AND MORE
  • ABSOLUTE AUCTION - REAL ESTATE & HOUSEHOLD ITEMS
  • FORECLOSURE AUCTION - 2 HOUSES

자료 3: Need Help Selling for a Move?

※ 발췌(excerpt):

We can really help with a Moving Auction. Moving Auctions are unique in several ways. First, there is typically a deadline to get out and everything needs to be sold, and having a large number of items left is not acceptable. I had a call from someone the other day who wished they had called us first. They;
  1. Held Yard sales over several weekends.
  2. Became desperate and gave a bunch of stuff away, including some quality items.
  3. Moved larger pieces to storage they now have to pay for!
What a hassle. We can coordinate a Moving Auction for you that sells everything and times it so you get the most use out of important items like furniture right up until you are about to move out. Let us take care of getting a fair return on your items and getting the old location emptied, while you concentrate on everything else you have on your plate for a big move.


...

[책] Stop, Thief! The Commons, Enclosures And Resistance (Peter Linebaugh, 2014)

출처: Peter Linebaugh (2014). Stop, Thief! The Commons, Enclosures And Resistance. PM Press.
자료: ...

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CF.



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2014년 3월 23일 일요일

용어: flow(-)trading


자료 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_trading (as of Mar 23, 2014)

In finance, flow trading occurs when a firm trades stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities, their derivatives, or other financial instruments, with funds from a client, rather than its own funds.[1]

Flow trading can be a significant source of profits for investment banks.[2][3]Engaging in flow trading can also boost a firm's own proprietary trading profits via access to information on client activities, as well as the fact that the firm can be the buyer and the seller of a security almost at the same time, thus profiting from the bid-offer spread.[3][4]

In 2011 the Volcker Rule aimed to address the issue of flow trading.[5]


자료 2: ...

2014년 3월 22일 토요일

Dic# Usage of the word “technically”




I use this word in my daily language even without knowing what it actually means.
Technically speaking, there is no big difference between […] and […].

Answers:

(1) I like the Wiktionary definition which is "based on precise facts". Consider the following example:
I earn $9,000 per year and live comfortably, although technically I am below the poverty line.
"Technically" is used to introduce the contrasting observation that although the author considers herself well-off, she is in fact a pauper based on a precise definition of poverty. This use of "technically" to provide contrast seems typical.

I would not agree that "technically" and "literally" are interchangeable. "Literally" refers to the literal as opposed to figurative meaning of a word or phrase.

(2) Many words and phrases originate in technical jargon, where they had meanings specific to the relevant field; later, they are often popularized in regular language, where their meaning changes into something more general, less specific to the field. We may then say that such an expression is used either technically/narrowly/strictly or broadly/generally/popularly.
Kate Moss is really obese: Chanel won't hire her any more. I mean, she isn't technically obese, since her Body Mass Index, the number doctors use to determine obesity, is still quite low; but that doesn't matter on the catwalk.
Since technical jargon is often more precise and detailed than other language, the phrase technically [speaking] is tending to develop a meaning identical to strictly speaking, as in your example. This in turn may sometimes even evolve into something closer to a general intensifier, like really.

This broader use of technically is resisted by some, who feel that it introduces another synonym of strictly that we hardly need, while rendering its original sense, as used in the relevant field, unusable. They advise that technically be reserved for expressions used in a sense specific to a certain field or profession, as opposed to cases where strictly would do. ( ... ... )

(3) If you describe something as technical, you're suggesting there are many detailed aspects and implying that perhaps it isn't reasonable to go into so much depth. So following this logic, technically is stating that something, as a result of many detailed aspects, would shed light in a different manner, usually contrary to what has been said previously as if to demonstrate a point.

In other words, you could replace technically with "If we went into more detail, you'd find that the following is true..."


(1) Well it has many meanings. At some situations it might be synonym for for example "precisely speaking" but in those situations to[?the] person usually tells the extra details immediately saying that.

But usually using technically speaking means that there's some duality of doubt...usually some ugly surprise that people try to avoid telling...and say "technically" in some kind of way of being semi-honest. They give you to chance to ask what he/she means by that "technically" part but if you don't ask he/she can always shrug off their responsibility for not telling by saying that you get the chance to ask because they said "technically". It's like those special clauses printed in small font in agreement papers.

"Technically single" could have tens of different meanings for example:
1) the person is still married but has just filed for divorce
2) the persons partner is working late today! Perfect time to cheat! But then the poor bastard decides to come home early....
3) the persons partner works in other continent...so there's almost minuscule chances of him/her caught his/her spouse cheating
4) the person has psychopathic overjealous ex- who hunts down his/her every new date. In that case "technically" is warning.
Generally "technically" speaking is sign of conflicting/contradicting facts. Person could be member of some religious community as matter of habit but in reality he wouldn't believe into tenets of that faith. So technically he would be for example Christian even if he wouldn't believe to God because state papers say so.

People using "technically" speaking many times gives kinda untrustworthy picture of themselves. For example if some person would say that he's technically American the first thing coming to my mind would be that he would be illegal immigrant and that IRS goons would burst in soon. FREEZE! THIS IS IRS!

(2) Concerning the first response, examples 1-3 are incorrect, at least according to American English usage. 

"Technically" implies that based on laws, generally accepted agreements or standards, etc. that someone is in a certain condition.
For the "technically single" examples, only #4 is correct. This person is "technically" single; however, since a crazy ex is stalking here and possibly stopping her from dating other people, it is like she is still in a relationship. An opposite phrase for "technically" is "for all intents and purposes"
In example 3 given above, this person is technically married. According to the laws of his or her nation, he or she is legally bound to the spouse. However, since the spouse is overseas, this person is "for all intents and purposes" single.
Like I stated above, I can only speak for American English though.

(3) When a person says “technically” before their answer, it shows that they are answering the question factually, but they are not answering the real meaning of the question. 

For your example… “single” and “married” are opposites. You are either one or the other. If a person asks “Are you single?” the factual question is “are you single or married?” but the real meaning of the question is “are you available for me to date you?” So the answer “technically, I am single” means that I am not married, but there are things that would make me unavailable to date you. I may already have a boyfriend but we’re not married yet or I may be a lesbian and not interested in dating a man, or my husband might have died and I’m single again but not interested in starting over, etc. 

-- “Did they offer you the job?” 
-- “Technically, no. But they said I should look for a letter from them on Monday.” (This suggests they will offer the job on Monday, but they haven’t offered it yet.) 

-- “This house is expensive. Do you have money in the bank for it?” 
-- “Technically, no. But I could sell some stocks.” (The money is not in the bank, but I do have money somewhere else, like in investments.) 

-- “What a cute photo. Is that your daughter?” 
-- “Technically, yes, but I gave her up for adoption right after the photo was taken” (She is biologically my daughter, but I am not the mother who raised her.)

2014년 3월 15일 토요일

[책] The Bubble and Beyond: The Road from Industrial Capitalism to Finance Capitalism and Debt Peonage (Michael Hudson, 2012)



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CF. Michael Hudson's overview of the book.


...


인간이란 흐르는 강물과 같다


우리 사이에 가장 널리 퍼져 있는 미신의 하나는 인간이 각기 다른 성격을 갖고 있기 때문에 이 세상에는 선인이라든가 악인, 현인, 어리석은 사람, 근면한 사람, 게으른 사람 등등이 있다는 것이다. 그러나 우리는 인간을 그렇게 단정적으로 봐서는 안 된다. ... 인간이란 흐르는 강물과 같다. 물은 어느 강에서든 흐른다는 데는 변함이 없으나 강 하나만 생각해 보더라도 어느 지점은 좁고 물살이 빠른 반면, 넓고 물살이 느린 곳도 있다. 또 여기서는 맑고 저기서는 탁하기도 하고, 차기도 하고 따스하기도 하다. 인간도 이와 마찬가지다.
톨스토이, 《부활 1》, 박형규 역, 민음사, 341-342쪽.

2014년 3월 5일 수요일

[자료] J.S. Mill의 자서전에서


" J.S.밀의 자서전을 그가 받은 천재교육과 젊은 시절부터 이룩한 학문적 성취로 기억하는 독자들이 많은 듯하다그러나 내 생각에 그보다 더 중요하게 읽어야 할 부분실제로 나에게 가장 깊은 인상을 남긴 부분은 남들보다 뛰어났던 자신의 앎에 관한 밀의 고백과 그 아버지의 가르침이다. 그동안의 삶에 대해 뼈저리게 반성하게 한다. ... "

자료: 링크