Bizarro World
December 22nd, 2008 by Jon Taplin
Classic investment theory says that investors should pay a premium for safety and command extra compensation for taking risk. But the above chart of the last eight years shows that we have been living in a financial version of Bizarro World where up is down and smart is stupid. Long term Treasuries (ostensibly the safest investment) have generated by far the best returns, while NASDAQ stocks (the riskiest) have paid out the worst returns.
Jon, can I ask why you’ve recently stopped including *full* articles in your RSS feed?
I love your blog, and I’ve read every post for about a year now. I use an RSS reader (NetNewsWire) to manage my blog subsriptions, reading many hundreds of posts per day. And if I have to click through to your main site to read each individual post, I’ll be very disappointed.
In my experience, including only the first few sentences of a blog post – and truncating the remainder – is normally only done by advertising-supported web sites that force you to click through to the main site so the advertisements will load and the site owner will get paid for the ad view.
Is it possible this recent change to the content of your RSS feed is a mistake?
Jon, can I ask why you’ve recently stopped including *full* articles in your RSS feed?
I love your blog, and I’ve read every post for about a year now. I use an RSS reader (NetNewsWire) to manage my blog subsriptions, reading many hundreds of posts per day. And if I have to click through to your main site to read each individual post, I’ll be very disappointed.
In my experience, including only the first few sentences of a blog post – and truncating the remainder – is normally only done by advertising-supported web sites that force you to click through to the main site so the advertisements will load and the site owner will get paid for the ad view.
Is it possible this recent change to the content of your RSS feed is a mistake?
The theory says only that on average riskier assets provide better returns. It also says sometimes they’ll disappoint. That’s why hey’re ‘risky’.
The theory says only that on average riskier assets provide better returns. It also says sometimes they’ll disappoint. That’s why hey’re ‘risky’.
Mr. Taplin, I’d like to second James McDaniel also.
It’d be great if the full text was back in the RSS feed. I know it seems like a small thing, but for those of us that “live” inside our Feed Readers, It’s kindof a big deal.
I really enjoy your blog. It’s in my top 10 (and believe me… that’s out of hundreds of sites in my Reader.)
Mr. Taplin, I’d like to second James McDaniel also.
It’d be great if the full text was back in the RSS feed. I know it seems like a small thing, but for those of us that “live” inside our Feed Readers, It’s kindof a big deal.
I really enjoy your blog. It’s in my top 10 (and believe me… that’s out of hundreds of sites in my Reader.)
Seconding James McDaniel — I too use a RSS newsreader, and I loathe truncated articles that force me to change my UI context to read them in full.
The practice is only normally used by ad revenue generating blogs that aren’t smart enough to figure out how to place an ad in the RSS feed.
Seeing how you aren’t even featuring ads on your blog, I believe this is probably just a honest WordPress configuration mistake – did you maybe upgrade it recently?
Seconding James McDaniel — I too use a RSS newsreader, and I loathe truncated articles that force me to change my UI context to read them in full.
The practice is only normally used by ad revenue generating blogs that aren’t smart enough to figure out how to place an ad in the RSS feed.
Seeing how you aren’t even featuring ads on your blog, I believe this is probably just a honest WordPress configuration mistake – did you maybe upgrade it recently?
Anybody know where the principals at Bear Stearns, AIG, Madoff etc. kept their PERSONAL stashes? Or where they are investing the “enhanced compensation” and bonuses and continued privatepersonaljet travel they are skimming off the TARP of our new national Forever Tax liabilities?
Just asking.
Anybody know where the principals at Bear Stearns, AIG, Madoff etc. kept their PERSONAL stashes? Or where they are investing the “enhanced compensation” and bonuses and continued privatepersonaljet travel they are skimming off the TARP of our new national Forever Tax liabilities?
Just asking.
Jon,
I use Netvibes to read your blog, and every post comes through complete, with all comments. I think the complainers above have software issues of their own. Not your problem.
Jon,
I use Netvibes to read your blog, and every post comes through complete, with all comments. I think the complainers above have software issues of their own. Not your problem.
With zero changes to my local client configuration (OS, RSS reader, etc) this post on Dec 17th was the first to come across truncated in the RSS feed:
http://jontaplin.com/2008/12/17/california-severance-tax/
Every prior post I received in full, for the past year. Every later post is now truncated in the RSS feed.
Just to confirm, I used two (2) totally different RSS readers, subscribed to the feed (http://jontaplin.com/feed/) and all posts are truncated in both of those as well.
With zero changes to my local client configuration (OS, RSS reader, etc) this post on Dec 17th was the first to come across truncated in the RSS feed:
http://jontaplin.com/2008/12/17/california-severance-tax/
Every prior post I received in full, for the past year. Every later post is now truncated in the RSS feed.
Just to confirm, I used two (2) totally different RSS readers, subscribed to the feed (http://jontaplin.com/feed/) and all posts are truncated in both of those as well.
I use Google Reader. I haven’t changed anything within the last several months, and I also suddenly have partial posts coming through. I’ll vote with James, Chris and Attila – full posts would be great!
Thanks for sharing your writing, it’s a great blog.
I use Google Reader. I haven’t changed anything within the last several months, and I also suddenly have partial posts coming through. I’ll vote with James, Chris and Attila – full posts would be great!
Thanks for sharing your writing, it’s a great blog.
JTM-Good question.
JTM-Good question.
@J. McD – You are right, the RSS feed format changed. I’d love to see the complete articles restored as well, FWIW.
@Patrick – Wrong. Your Netvibes start page is fetching snapshots of websites, not RSS feeds. Different technology, different purpose.
@J. McD – You are right, the RSS feed format changed. I’d love to see the complete articles restored as well, FWIW.
@Patrick – Wrong. Your Netvibes start page is fetching snapshots of websites, not RSS feeds. Different technology, different purpose.
@ Chris,
Nevertheless, I see complete versions of Jon’s posts. I just like to use whatever works. No idealogical purity here.
@ Chris,
Nevertheless, I see complete versions of Jon’s posts. I just like to use whatever works. No idealogical purity here.
@Patrick – Your initial assertion that “I think the complainers above have software issues of their own. Not [Jon Taplin's] problem.” was wrong. Jon purposefully and temporarily implimented truncated RSS feeds as an experiment, please see:
http://jontaplin.com/2008/12/23/rss-feeds/
@Patrick – Your initial assertion that “I think the complainers above have software issues of their own. Not [Jon Taplin's] problem.” was wrong. Jon purposefully and temporarily implimented truncated RSS feeds as an experiment, please see:
http://jontaplin.com/2008/12/23/rss-feeds/
@Patrick – Your initial assertion that “I think the complainers above have software issues of their own. Not [Jon Taplin's] problem.” was wrong. Jon purposefully and temporarily implimented truncated RSS feeds as an experiment, please see:
http://jontaplin.com/2008/12/23/rss-feeds/
@Patrick
The RSS format changed unexpectedly.
So several of us said “Hey Jon, the RSS format changed, causing problems for those of us using RSS”. You then said “I can view the content when I’m not using RSS so there’s no problem here.”
This was akin to a newspaper ceasing to print its daily edition, and subscribers asking why the paper isn’t showing up at their door in the morning, and your response being “I can still watch the news on TV, so there must be something wrong with all your houses.”
chuckle
@JMcD – Thanks
@Patrick
The RSS format changed unexpectedly.
So several of us said “Hey Jon, the RSS format changed, causing problems for those of us using RSS”. You then said “I can view the content when I’m not using RSS so there’s no problem here.”
This was akin to a newspaper ceasing to print its daily edition, and subscribers asking why the paper isn’t showing up at their door in the morning, and your response being “I can still watch the news on TV, so there must be something wrong with all your houses.”
chuckle
@JMcD – Thanks
@Patrick
The RSS format changed unexpectedly.
So several of us said “Hey Jon, the RSS format changed, causing problems for those of us using RSS”. You then said “I can view the content when I’m not using RSS so there’s no problem here.”
This was akin to a newspaper ceasing to print its daily edition, and subscribers asking why the paper isn’t showing up at their door in the morning, and your response being “I can still watch the news on TV, so there must be something wrong with all your houses.”
chuckle
@JMcD – Thanks
@Patrick
The RSS format changed unexpectedly.
So several of us said “Hey Jon, the RSS format changed, causing problems for those of us using RSS”. You then said “I can view the content when I’m not using RSS so there’s no problem here.”
This was akin to a newspaper ceasing to print its daily edition, and subscribers asking why the paper isn’t showing up at their door in the morning, and your response being “I can still watch the news on TV, so there must be something wrong with all your houses.”
chuckle
@JMcD – Thanks