"Market makers in even the most thinly traded ETFs understand that the midpoint of their daily 4 p.m. quote will be preserved in prospectuses and on ETF Web sites for years to come. These market makers have a stake in attracting traders to the ETFs they trade. Consequently, they monitor their real-time bid/offer NAV calculations closely as 4 p.m. approaches. Even if they have to widen or otherwise change their spread for a few seconds, they will work to get the midpoint of their bid and offer as close to the expected 4 p.m. NAV as possible. (6) Their 4 p.m. quote is the most widely scrutinized and least useful bid/offer of the day.

Publication of this premium and discount information based on 4 p.m. ETF share quotes and NAV calculations has led to overuse of MOC orders, especially for ETFs that are thinly traded. Most investors do not realize that MOC transactions in ETFs are not reflected in most ETF reported premiums or discounts in any way. Nonetheless, MOC orders often are used by individuals and defined contribution retirement plan investors who are accustomed to buying and selling no-load mutual fund shares at NAV. Publication of this premium and discount information accounts for the fact that MOC trades account for a disproportional share of ETF trading volume."

"Yes, there are still bright developments. The Beacon Theater will have an ice cream parlor and a wine bar opening soon, and some performances are scheduled for later in the summer. The Beacon Falls Roundhouse project is lurching along, and the hotel/restaurant building looks nearly ready to have windows put in.

But there is a curious stillness, that I feel even in New York City. A feeling of being in a limbo, waiting for time to catch up.

Economists are obviously spending too much time reading each others’ reports, and not enough time on Main Street, listening to the guys under the tree in front of the DMV, or talking to the owners at Max’s Bar and Deli."

"…In my reflective mood, I’m wonder- ing, was its advice correct at the time, is it still relevant, and do Istill believe that metrics are a must for any suc- cessful software development effort? My answers are no, no, and no."

"This isn't as simple as cutting out waste. The real project here is getting the medical system to define waste the same way consumers define waste: treatments that don't help people, and in fact hurt the bottom line. As it is, those treatments currently help the bottom line, and so are no more wasteful for the institution than a Best Buy salesman persuading you to buy an expensive HDMI cable you don't need."

"If we dealt with the pincer movement of lower state aid and higher enrollments by imposing admissions standards -- say, by refusing to do remediation anymore -- the economics (and prestige) of the operation would take off. Blocking developmental students would, all by itself, result in a wealthier student body. We would have much higher retention, graduation, and transfer rates. We would have much less call for special services for students with severe learning disabilities. Our financial aid spending would drop dramatically, as would our spending on tutoring. We'd run proportionally more sophomore-level classes, to the understandable delight of the faculty. As our graduation and transfer rates went up, our standing as a college of first choice would go with it. And we could both impress our politicians and insulate ourselves from them, just like the University of Michigan has. "

"Underneath the usual total unemployment numbers are the reasons an individual is unemployed: You are on temporary layoff; you quit your job; you have reentered the labor market and have yet to find a job; or you are entering the job market for the first time and have yet to find a job. Or, finally, you have been permanently separated from your previous employer, who has no expectation of hiring you back.

The last category is the dominant reason for unemployment at this time. That might not seem surprising, but it actually is. Never, in the six recessions preceding the latest one, did permanent separations account for more than 45 percent of the unemployed. The current percentage stands at 56 percent as of September and appears to be still climbing:..."

"We document widespread changes to the historical I/B/E/S analyst stock recommendations database. Across seven I/B/E/S downloads, obtained between 2000 and 2007, we find that between 6,580 (1.6%) and 97,582 (21.7%) of matched observations are different from one download to the next. The changes include alterations of recommendations, additions and deletions of records, and removal of analyst names. These changes are nonrandom, clustering by analyst reputation, broker size and status, and recommendation boldness, and affect trading signal classifications and back-tests of three stylized facts: profitability of trading signals, profitability of consensus recommendation changes, and persistence in individual analyst stock-picking ability."