I have, on occasion, been accused by friends and detractors alike of being overly verbose, and all too often unnaturally awkward or contorted in my turns of phrase. Paradoxical as it is for an economist to be so apparently uneconomical with words (perhaps because they are "free"?), I must admit to being partial towards self-improvement. So, today, here-and-now, I begin a new journey into the land of parsimonious expression. No further introduction is required.
On Prof Jonathan Allum's 2007 Nikkei Call: 'You ARE a 'God!'
On Scott Maclellan's PlameGate Revelations: 'Was there EVER any doubt?'
On Nomura's FIG Stake: Ha! Ha! Ha! RCP & Pebble Beach encore.
On CIC's Blackstone Stake: "Hmmm, wonder who got the best of that one..??!!"
On GS's Global Alpha Fund: ;-(
On Japan's new PM: "Japan has a new PM??! What happened to the guy with the Class-A family baggage?
On Gold: 'May you never walk alone....'On the Equity Risk Premium: Few USA traders or PMs have known stocks when "it" was elevated.
On US Gasoline Prices: Coming soon: the return of hitch-hiking.
On Hillary Clinton: Makes one wonder whether the Repub's might actually have a chance.
On Why John Mack is 'The Man': "WE can pay bonuses AND raise equity...!!"
On Mitt Romney: You believe in WHAT??!?!
On John McCain: "can you spell Konstantin C-h-e-r-n-e-n-k-o?"
On China Stocks: "..................THUD!"
On The Rock & Hard Place of USA Fincl Woe: 'tis a shame that American's voted with their feet rather with their ballots.
On SIVs, CDOs, & Dodgy Structured Finance: Alchemical potions
On Marshall-Wace-Type "Systems": 'Front-running' by any other name.
On FRB Chmn Bernanke: Methadone for the leveraged specs
On Macro-Man: Should be running money for Bruce Kovner
On American Energy Policy: There is none.
On American Education Policy: "Like, um, like, totally gnarly dude!"
On American Health-care Policy: There is none.
On American Fiscal Policy: Worse than none.
On The American Public Interest: What is THTA??
Dear Cassandra,
ReplyDeleteIt has not escaped our attention that you've been attempting to economize your style of late. And if you don't mind our saying, the whole thing smacks of brute self-repression. So, before you get carried away with this plan and definitively decide to eschew the murky and humid, give some thought to the notion that the appearance of 'running on' may simply be a result of an inappropriate use of punctuation.
Yours, etc.
Sybyl
All that gloom of Lenny Cohen music needs composting to fertilize cheerier ideas. Get out that verbal shovel and heap on the words, pls.
ReplyDelete...or they may simply be run-ons resulting from the woolly thinking of a confused and over-eager mind. Miles Davis was known to have said that it was much more difficult to play fewer rather than more notes. Despite the complexity of the much of the subject matter of this blog, I agree with him as it applies to BOTH music and written expression.
ReplyDeleteIN all honesty, my run-ons result from what I term the "heave-ho" writing method which is to heave as much of a pregnant idea as possible into type as quickly as I can (lest something be forgotten), then pare back the discombobulated into something presentable. This frequently resembles a baby's first moments - tense, loud, messy, - which in a perfect world would be efficiently cleaned and swaddled before display. Practically, I rarely find [sufficient] time for the latter, but don't have the discipline to abort what are often only foetal thoughts.
Problems are always difficult and solutions are always simple when you boil them down to the next step. I point to the track "Old Folks" by Davis in which every note is pulled out of the last note, as it must to solve the song.
ReplyDeleteBut why spare words when describing difficult problems? Shovel away, have some fun. We readers do.
But don't forget that Miles' 'theory' of improvisation was predicated on his fairly limited technical skills. In other words, there was a certain air of resentment behind his attacks on the virtuosos of the jazz world.
ReplyDeleteCass's issue (to the degree that there might be one), as you seem to know, is purely one of editing, and not style or content. Presumably, that is something inherent to the blog world that would be dealt with by a third party under commercial conditions.
Meanwhile shipping the whole baby off to the diaper service - well, it does work, but...
CB
i like verbosity. blogs do not have nearly enough verbosity.
ReplyDeletei like the way your blog is written. please don't stop using whatever words you want to.