It annoys me that Republicans argue against elimination of special tax benefits for anyone, calling it a tax increase.  Let’s get things straight here: tax increases are things that affect everyone. The tax code needs to be cleaned up, as do subsidies.  It is not the proper place of government to be handing out special [...]

Targa Resources Partners LP (NGLS)

Q1 2011 Earnings Call

May 6, 2011 11:30 am ET

Executives

Joe Brass – Director of Finance

Joe Bob Perkins – President

Matt Meloy – CFO and Treasurer

Mike Heim – EVP and COO

Analysts

James Wang – Raymond James

John Tysseland – Citigroup

Helen Ryoo – Barclays Capital

Michael Blum – Wells Fargo

T.J. Schultz – RBC Capital Markets

Presentation

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Targa Resources first quarter 2011 earnings conference call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Joe Brass [ph], Director of Finance. Please go ahead.

Joe Brass

Thank you, operator. I would like to welcome

Silent Trade - The Leisure of the Theory Class The illusion of bank capital - Vox EU Commodity Rout Supports Bernanke’s Inflation Outlook - RTE How Many Jobs Should We Be Adding Each Month? - NYTimes.com Preventing the Next Flash...

The government's policies have been geared towards redistributing wealth upwards ...

Charlie Stross: >Charlie's Diary: The Economist has a report from the International Conference on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants of a plenary session discussing the Fukushima Daiichi accident.... The main highlights seem to be: >* The accident wasn't the result of a single disaster, but of two, and arguably three: earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent hydrogen explosions. >* The plant survived the earthquake (which exceeded its design requirements) quite well.... However, scrammed reactors continue to need power to run their cooling systems.... The tsunami struck 15 minutes later, and was roughly five times higher than the plant had been designed for.... >* The 2002 severe accident review that increased the tsunami wave height estimates recommended installing hardened hydrogen release vents, to prevent a build-up of hydrogen in event of a similar accident. These are standard on American and other reactors, but had not been retrofitted to the FD BWRs. Were such vents fitted, the explosions would not have occurred. (The explosions compounded the difficulty of bringing the plant under control.) >* Despite all this there appears to have been no public health impact due to radiation (stress and fear are another matter), and no plant workers were exposed to more than 250 millisieverts.... >So: serious accident, yes — but it's no Chernobyl.... [T]wo major natural disasters, each of which exceeded the plant's design spec, occurring within the space of an hour, compounded by failure to implement a safety system that is standard elsewhere. Despite which, they managed to dodge the bullet (for the most part: it's still going to take billions of dollars and several years to clean up the plant).

US Auctions Australian Auctions Austrian Auctions Belgian Auctions Canadian Auctions French Auctions German Auctions Indian Auctions Irish Auctions Italian Auctions Dutch Auctions Spanish Auctions Swiss Auctions UK Auctions Best Match Time: ending soonest Time: newly listed Price: lowest first [...]

Raihan Zamil, 7 May 2011

How much capital should banks hold to cover their risk? This column argues that the preoccupation with capital rules misses a more fundamental concern. No amount of feasible regulatory capital can be an appropriate substitute for robust asset selection and valuation standards of banks.

Full Article: The illusion of bank capital

Delay is natural to a writer. He is like a surfer—he bides his time, waits for the perfect wave on which to ride in. Delay is instinctive with him. He waits for the surge (of emotion? of strength? of courage?) that will carry him along. I have no warm-up exercises, other than to take an occasional drink. I am apt to let something simmer for a while in my mind before trying to put it into words. I walk around, straightening pictures on the wall, rugs on the floor—as though not until everything in the world was lined up and perfectly true could anybody reasonably expect me to set a word down on paper.

— E.B. White, "The Art of the Essay" (Interview), The Paris Review¹

Me, I tend to walk in circles, like a predator circling its prey, or a burglar casing a building. The metaphors and the methods differ, but the purpose is the same: it is not procrastination, but rather preparation. Each of us has his or her own little rituals and techniques to concentrate the mind.

The drinking sounds about right, however.


¹ The Paris Review Interviews, IV. New York: 2009, p. 138.

© 2011 The Epicurean Dealmaker. All rights reserved.

Ultra Petroleum (UPL)

Q1 2011 Earnings Call

May 06, 2011 11:00 am ET

Executives

Michael Watford - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President

Marshal Smith - Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President

Brad Johnson -

Douglas Selvius -

William Picquet - Senior Vice President of Operations

Kelly Whitley - Director of Investor Relations

Analysts

Brian Singer - Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Leo Mariani - RBC Capital Markets, LLC

Ronald Mills - Johnson Rice & Company, L.L.C.

David Heikkinen - Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Securities, Inc.

Raymond Deacon - Pritchard Capital Partners, LLC

David Tameron - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC

Subash Chandra - Jefferies & Company, Inc.

Michael Scialla - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.

Brian Velie - Capital One Southcoast, Inc.

Michael Bodino - Global Hunter Securities, LLC

Andrew Coleman - Madison Williams and Company LLC

Noel Parks - Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc.

Presentation

Operator

Good day,

Cogo Group, Inc. (COGO)

Q1 2011 Earnings Conference Call

May 5, 2011 16:30 AM ET

Executives

Wanyee Ho – Investor Relations Director

Jeffrey Kang – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Will Davis – Senior Vice President, Business Development and Chief Marketing Officer

Fuya Zheng – Chief Financial Officer

Analysts

Charles John – Canaccord Genuity

Amir Rozwadowski – Barclays Capital

Quinn Bolton – Needham & Company

James Faucette – Pacific Crest Securities

Presentation

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Cogo Group Incorporated First Quarter of 2011 Earnings Results Conference Call. During today’s presentation, all parties will be placed in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, the conference will be opened for questions. (Operator Instructions) This conference is being recorded today, Thursday, May 5, 2011.

And I would now like to turn the conference over to Wanyee Ho, Investor Relations Director. Please go ahead.

Wanyee

Seaspan Corporation (SSW)

Q1 2011 Earnings Call

May 5, 2011 10:00 a.m. ET

Executives

Gerry Wang – CEO

Sai Chu - CFO

Analysts

Ken Hoexter – Bank of America/Merrill Lynch

Gregory Lewis - Credit Suisse

Justin Yagerman [Josh], with Deutsche Bank

Noah Parket – Cantor Fitzgerald

Ir Stir [ph] – Lazard Capital Markets

Presentation

Operator

Welcome to the Seaspan Corporation conference call to discuss the financial results for quarter and year-ended March 31, 2011. Hosting the call today is Gerry Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Co-Chairman and Co-founder of Seaspan Corporation, and Sai Chu, Chief Financial Officer of Seaspan Corporation. Mr. Wang and Mr. Chu will be making some introductory comments, and then we will open the call up to Q&A. I will now turn the call over to Sai Chu.

Sai Chu

Thank you operator, and good morning everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before we begin, please

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNQ)

Q1 2011 Earnings Call

May 06, 2011 11:00 am ET

Executives

Douglas Proll - Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Finance

Réal Doucet - Senior Vice President of Horizon Projects

Allan Markin - Chairman and Member of Safety, Health & Environmental Committee

Peter Janson - Senior Vice President of Horizon Operations

Steve Laut - Principal Executive Officer, President and Director

John Langille - Vice Chairman

Analysts

Joe Citarrella - Goldman Sachs

George Toriola - UBS Investment Bank

Michael P. Dunn - FirstEnergy Capital Corp.

John Herrlin - Societe Generale Cross Asset Research

Menno Hulshof - TD Newcrest Capital Inc.

Presentation

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Canadian Natural Resources 2011 First Quarter Conference Call. I would like to turn the meeting over to Mr. John Langille, Vice Chairman of Canadian Natural Resources. Please go ahead, Mr. Langille.

John Langille

Thank

ING Group N.V. (ING)

Q1 2011 Earnings Call

May 5, 2011 10:00 a.m. ET

Executives

Jan Hommen – Chairman and CEO

Patrick Flynn – CFO

Koos Timmermans – Chief Risk Officer

Analysts

Duncan Russell – JP Morgan

Farooq Hanif – Morgan Stanley

William Hawkins – KBW

Johnny Vo – Goldman Sachs

Spencer Horgan – Deutsche Bank Securities

William Elderkin – Societe Generale

Thomas Nagtegaal - RBS

Michael van Wegen – Bank of Amercia/Merrill Lynch

Andrew Coombs - Citi

Jan Willem Weidema – ABN AMRO

Benoit Petrarque – Kepler Capital Markets

Andrew Coombs – Citigroup

Johnny Vo – Goldman Sachs & Co

Dirk Peeters – KBC Securities

Farquhar Murray – Autonomous Research

Hans Pluijgers – CA Cheuvreux

Lemer Salah – SNS Securities

Marcus Maldavi [ph] – Morgan Stanley

Tony Silverman – Standard & Poor’s Equity Research

Francois Boissin – Exane BNP Paribas

Presentation

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for holding.

MTS Systems (MTSC)

Q2 2011 Earnings Call

May 06, 2011 10:00 am ET

Executives

Laura Hamilton - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Susan Knight - Chief Financial Officer and Vice President

Analysts

Michael Hamilton - RBC Wealth Management, Inc.

John Franzreb - Sidoti & Company, LLC

Liam Burke - Janney Montgomery Scott LLC

Presentation

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the MTS Second Quarter 2011 Earnings Release Conference Call. Just a reminder, today’s conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Sue Knight.

Please go ahead, ma'am.

Susan Knight

Thank you, Vicky. Good morning, and welcome to MTS Systems’ Fiscal 2011 Second Quarter Investor Teleconference. Joining me on the call today is Laura Hamilton, Chair and Chief Executive Officer.

I want to remind you that statements made today which are not a historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements as

Banco Santander, S.A. (STD)

Q1 2011 Earnings Conference Call

April 28, 2011 09:00 AM ET

Executives

Alfredo Sáenz Abad – Second Vice Chairman and CEO

José Antonio Álvarez Álvarez – EVP-Financial Management and IR

Presentation

Alfredo Sáenz Abad

[Interpreted] Good morning, we are going to begin our results presentation. I’ll be reviewing the general main features of the quarter and the Group’s results and then Jose Antonio Alvarez will look in more detail at the results of the business area. And finally, I will conclude with our view of the coming quarters.

I’ll focus on the five main aspects of the quarter which I will cover in detail in the following slides. First, the Santander Group’s capacity to keep on generating strong return results in a market which remains very difficult. We’ve once again surpassed EUR2.1 billion in quarterly profit and this was very much bolstered by our commercial retail

EMCORE (EMKR)

Q2 2011 Earnings Call

May 05, 2011 4:30 pm ET

Executives

Mark Weinswig - Chief Financial Officer and Principal Accounting Officer

Victor Allgeier - IR, TTC Group

Hong Hou - Chief Executive Officer, President and Director

Analysts

Stephen Copper

Alex Henderson - Miller Tabak + Co., LLC

Edward Zabitsky - ACI Research

Presentation

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the EMCORE Corporation Second Quarter Fiscal 2011 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] This conference is being recorded today, Thursday, May 5, 2011. I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Mr. Victor Allgeier with TTC Group. Please go ahead, sir.

Victor Allgeier

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Before we begin, we would like to remind you that the information provided herein may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section

VisionChina Media, Inc. (VISN)

Q1 2011 Earnings Call

May 05, 2011 8:00 pm ET

Executives

Colin Wang - Director, IR

Limin Li - Chairman & CEO

Stanley Wang - VP, Finance

Analysts

Philip Wan - Morgan Stanley

Eddie Leung - Merrill Lynch

Nan Li - SIG

James Lee - CLSA

Chenyi Lu - Cowen & Company

Dick Wei - JPMorgan

Presentation

Operator

Good evening and thank you for standing by for VisionChina Media’s First Quarter 2011 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After management’s prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. Today’s conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time.

I would now turn the call over to your host for today’s conference, Mr. Colin Wang, Investors Relations Director for VisionChina Media. Please proceed, sir.

Colin Wang

Hello everyone and welcome to VisionChina Media’s first

Sources with information about the government’s actions have informed SPIEGEL ONLINE that Athens is considering withdrawing from the euro zone. The common currency area’s finance ministers and representatives of the European Commission are holding a secret crisis meeting in Luxembourg on Friday night. Story here, and I do believe this rumor.  For the pointer I thank [...]

Joe Nocera: You Call That Tough?, by Joe Nocera, Commentary, NY Times: The only thing missing from Preet Bharara’s press conference was the blaring of trumpets. It was Tuesday, and the U.S. attorney in Manhattan was proudly unveiling a lawsuit...

An investigation into mortgage-linked securities gained momentum after Goldman Sachs admitted a “mistake” and paid $550 million.

Delta has been planning to cut its schedule by 4 percent starting in September.

The Federal Reserve said that borrowing in the category that included credit cards rose in March for only the second time since August 2008.

Older workers are less likely to be unemployed, but once they lose their jobs, their chances of finding re-employment are nearly microscopic.

A look at the latest Weekend Business podcast, and a listen.

can be found here: >UC Berkeley Webcasts | Video and Podcasts: International and Area Studies 107, 001, International and Area Studies 207, 002. There are problems uploading to Youtube...

It looks like my pre-exam office hours will be on Wednesday May 11: 9-5: Evans 601...

Courtesy of Karl Smith, the contraction in public employment (Census aside) of 2009-2011:

...and then did nor get any pottage. Alternative vote goes down to defeat in Britain. Not only did he sell his birthright, he sold his honor, his party's policy preferences, his self-respect, and any claims he may have had to be.addressed as a sophont as well. Now he needs to resign, apologize, give all he has to the poor, and take up a life of anonymous service to others.

People of the Coral Triangle from James Morgan Photography on Vimeo. From The Coral Triangle website: The Coral Triangle is the underwater equivalent of the Amazon. It harbours more species than any other marine environment on the planet, including 76% of all coral types and more than 3000 species of fish. It encompasses an area [...]

I just learned that one of my favorite bands, R.E.M., is coming up on the 25th anniversary of their breakout album, Lifes Rich Pageant. It is getting the full Expanded & Remastered treatment, according to Paste. The band‘s groundbreaking fourth album, Lifes Rich Pageant re-release date is July 12, the album’s 25th anniversary. A special [...]

Become a fan of the Political Gabfest on Facebook. We post to the Facebook page throughout the week, so keep the conversation going by joining us there.

[more ...]

(SLB).

U.S. equity markets, which started the day on a high note thanks to a solid jobs report, finished the day markedly below their highs as concerns over the situation in Europe once again were at the forefront. The Dow and S&P 500 finished ahead by 0.4% while the Nasdaq managed to post a gain of 0.5% in comparison. Commodity markets were more mixed as gold managed to rebound from its fall earlier in the week, gaining $13/oz., while oil continued to show weakness, falling by just over 2% in Friday trading. In currencies, the euro was especially weak against the dollar as rumors of Greece exiting the euro and reintroducing its own currency surfaced, potentially suggesting that some of the peripheral members may not be in as good of shape as initially thought. Thanks to this, investors continued to flow into U.S. Treasurys as the 10 and two year notes

XOMA Ltd. (XOMA)

Q1 2011 Earnings Call

May 05, 2011 04:30 pm ET

Executives

Carol DeGuzman - Senior Director, IR

Steven Engle - Chairman & CEO

Fred Kurland - VP & CFO

Alan Solinger - VP of Clinical Immunology

Analysts

Christopher James - McNicoll, Lewis, & Vlak

Richard Lau - Wedbush Securities

Matt Kaplan - Ladenburg Thalmann & Co.

Ritu Baral - Canaccord Genuity

Adnan Butt - RBC Capital Markets

Presentation

Operator

Good day ladies and gentlemen. And welcome to XOMA’s First Quarter 2011 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will be given at that time. (Operator instructions) And as a reminder, this conference call may be recorded.

At this time I’d like to hand the conference over to Ms. Carol DeGuzman

Cimarex Energy (XEC)

Q1 2011 Earnings Call

May 06, 2011 1:00 pm ET

Executives

Paul Korus - Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President

Mark Burford -

F. Merelli - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President

James Shonsey - Chief Accounting Officer, Vice President and Controller

Joseph Albi - Executive Vice President of Operations

Analysts

Eric Hagen - Lazard Capital Markets LLC

Gil Yang - BofA Merrill Lynch

Brian Lively - Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Securities, Inc.

John Freeman - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.

Presentation

Operator

Good afternoon. My name is Molly, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Cimarex First Quarter 2011 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to Mark Burford. You may begin your conference.

Mark Burford

Thank you very much, Molly. And thank you, everyone, for

Sunstone Hotel Investors (SHO)

Q1 2011 Earnings Call

May 06, 2011 12:00 pm ET

Executives

Robert Alter - Executive Chairman

Kenneth Cruse - President

Bryan Giglia - Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance & Acquisitions

John Arabia - Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy

Marc Hoffman - Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President

Analysts

Shaun Kelley - BofA Merrill Lynch

Dennis Forst - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc.

David Katz - Jefferies & Company, Inc.

Bryan Maher - Citadel Securities, LLC

Chris Woronka - Deutsche Bank AG

Michael Salinsky - RBC Capital Markets, LLC

Enrique Torres - Green Street Advisors

Eli Hackel - Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Unknown Analyst -

Ryan Meliker - Morgan Stanley

Presentation

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Sunstone Hotel Investors First Quarter 2011 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, Friday,

FiberTower (FTWR)

Q1 2011 Earnings Call

May 06, 2011 11:30 am ET

Executives

Kurt Van Wagenen - Chief Executive Officer, President and Director

Carolyn Capaccio - Vice President

Thomas Scott - Chief Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer, Senior Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer

Analysts

Colby Synesael - Merriman Curhan Ford

Randy Laufman - Imperial Capital, LLC

Madhu Kodali - Fertilemind Capital

Eric Rubel - MTR Securities

Christopher Cook

Presentation

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the FiberTower First Quarter 2011 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] This conference is being recorded today, Friday, May 6, 2011. I would now like to turn the conference over to Carolyn Capaccio of Lippert/Heilshorn. Please go ahead.

Carolyn Capaccio

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for FiberTower Corporation's 2011 first quarter conference call. Joining me today on the call are Kurt Van Wagenen, FiberTower's

In addition to my own scans and watch lists, I use two main sources to follow options-related news: Daily Seeking Alpha columns by Frederic Ruffy and Andrew Wilkinson. While I get great use out of these sources and have even made money thanks to them, you have to be careful not to chase the stocks or options they mention. Often, by the time you receive an alert or summary, contracts have already had too much volatility and upside priced into the premium. Nevertheless, occasionally, you can find examples to capitalize on

This article represents part two of this week's two-part series looking at how investors can use Friday's options activity next week. You can view part one by clicking here.

As noted in part one, I use several sources to keep up with options trading. Here in part two I focus on Seeking Alpha contributors Andrew Wilkinson, Frederic Ruffy and optionMONSTER.

CBS (CBS): While you can see some on Seeking Alpha, you need either a free or paid subscription to read most articles published by optionMONSTER at its website. I have had my eyes on CBS for several months as one of the few plays, albeit not a pure play, on terrestrial radio. CBS Radio President Dan Mason has done a remarkable job managing the company's

TheStreet.com (TST)

Q1 2011 Earnings Call

May 05, 2011 4:30 pm ET

Executives

Daryl Otte - Chief Executive Officer and Director

Thomas Etergino - Chief Financial Officer

Unknown Executive -

Analysts

Michael Moskoff - MRM Capital

Jeffrey Osher

Sanjay Puri - Walker Smith Capital

Unknown Analyst -

Presentation

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the TheStreet Quarter 1 2011 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now like to turn the conference over to your host for today, Mr. Paul Cox, Investor Relations of TheStreet

EOG Resources (EOG)

Q1 2011 Earnings Call

May 06, 2011 9:00 am ET

Executives

Mark Papa - Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Loren Leiker - Senior Executive Vice President of Exploration

Timothy Driggers - Chief Financial Officer and Vice President

Maire Baldwin - Vice President of Investor Relations

Analysts

Brian Singer - Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Joseph Magner - Macquarie Research

Leo Mariani - RBC Capital Markets, LLC

Biju Perincheril - Jefferies & Company, Inc.

Raymond Deacon - Pritchard Capital Partners, LLC

David Tameron - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC

Scott Wilmoth - Simmons & Company International

John Herrlin - Societe Generale Cross Asset Research

Eric Hagen - Lazard Capital Markets LLC

Irene Haas - Wunderlich Securities Inc.

Joseph Allman - JP Morgan Chase & Co

David Wheeler - AllianceBernstein

Presentation

Operator

Good day, everyone and welcome to the EOG Resources First Quarter 2011 Earnings Results Conference Call.

Years ago, I told Tyler Cowen, "It's surprising that IQ tests predict life outcomes so well, because there's usually no financial incentive to get a high score."  He replied, "People try out of pride - an under-rated motive."  So when Tyler blogged Duckworth et al, "Role of Test Motivation in Intelligence Testing" I naturally took notice.  Key claims:

1. Material incentives boost IQ scores:

In 46 independent samples (n = 2,008), the mean effect of material incentives on IQ was medium to large: g = 0.64 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.39, 0.89], P < 0.001.

2. Material incentives have a bigger effect on the IQs of people with low scores:

Because exact baseline IQ scores were not reported in some samples, we created a binary variable where 1 = below average (i.e., IQ < 100) and 2 = above average (i.e., IQ ≥ 100). The effect of incentives was greater for individuals of below-average baseline IQ: Qbetween(1) = 9.76, P = 0.002. In 23 samples with IQ scores below the mean, the effect size was large: g = 0.94 (95% CI = 0.54, 1.35). In contrast, in 23 samples of above-average IQ, the effect was small: g = 0.26 (95% CI = 0.10, 0.41). A similar analysis in which baseline IQ scores (available for 43 of 46 samples) were treated as a continuous moderator indicated that a 1 SD increase in IQ is associated with about two-thirds of an SD decrease in the effect of incentives: b = −0.04, P < 0.001.

The authors reasonably infer that IQ is more of a composite intelligence/motivation measure than usually believed - especially by inter-disciplinary researchers.  Their words to the wise:

Our conclusions may come as no surprise to psychologists who administer intelligence tests themselves (49). Where the problem lies, in our view, is in the interpretation of IQ scores by economists, sociologists, and research psychologists who have not witnessed variation in test motivation firsthand. These social scientists might erringly assume that a low IQ score invariably indicates low intelligence.

It's hard to evaluate a piece like this without re-doing the underlying research, but the presentation is compelling and plausible.  My main complaint is statements like this:

[W]e hypothesize that test motivation is a third-variable confound that tends to inflate, rather than erode, the predictive power of IQ scores for later-life outcomes.

This is especially odd given Duckworth et al's effort to distinguish unobserved "true intelligence" from IQ.  As far as I can tell, the authors do nothing to show that their results make IQ is less predictive.  They don't even show that IQ is more mutable than earlier studies find; boosting incentives boosts scores while the incentives remain in place, but there's no reason to think the boost lasts after the test-takers receive their pay.  All the researchers require us to reconsider is the reason why IQ is so predictive and hard to durably improve. 

For example, instead of saying, "IQ tests show that people are poor because they're less intelligent - and intelligence is hard to durably raise" we should say, "IQ tests show that people are poor because they're less intelligent and less motivated - and intelligence and motivation are hard to durable raise."  If, like me, you already believed in the Conscientiousness-poverty connection, that's no surprise.

In any case, I urge you to read the original article.  I've been reading IQ research and personality psychology for over a decade, but these results really are news to me.  Your thoughts?
 

The employment situation report for May 6 shows a gain of 700,000 jobs over the three-month period February through April.

One thing I learned from Ed Leamer's Macroeconomic Patterns and Stories is that there is momentum in employment. If history is a decent guide, then this growth in employment is likely to continue for a least the next month or two (I would be for much longer).

I think a lot of pundits have a stake in making pessimistic statements. The left wants to argue for more stimulus. The right wants to argue that President Obama's economic policies have messed things up. But I think that a purely data-driven, history-driven prognosis would be that job gains will continue.

My prediction for the long-term unemployed would not be so sanguine. The types of jobs that they are suited for are too far removed from the types of jobs that are likely to be created. I think that the demographic group that stands to benefit the most from the recovery is workers in their 20s, who have faced a devastating job market the last two years and who now may find light at the end of the tunnel.

Avon Products could easily spend $250 million on legal costs for an internal investigation of whether its employees violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

As the endgame begins, both rival bidders -- Deutsche Borse and Nasdaq and its partner, the IntercontinentalExchange -- are preparing for the NYSE Euronext shareholders meeting in July.

A study finds that personal outlooks about money fall into four broad categories, three of them destructive, including the most common one.

European finance ministers met to discuss new moves to prevent the huge burden of Greek debt from overwhelming the country’s economy.

The Weekly Carnage is a Friday round-up of motor vehicle violence across the five boroughs and beyond. For more on the origins and purpose of this column, please read About the Weekly Carnage. Cyclist Luis Torres was killed in a hit-and-run on Fort Hamilton Parkway. The [...]

Jonathan Maus at BikePortland just brought our attention to a recent comment we wish House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica (R-FL) hadn’t made. As the Orlando Sentinel reported yesterday, Rep. Mica is making noises about “siphoning away” money for bike paths. The Sentinel says Mica “wants to add flexibility to how states spend their share [...]