Comments on: The Grace of Ryan Avent http://modeledbehavior.com/2012/02/22/the-grace-of-ryan-avent/ Fri, 24 May 2013 11:37:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: reason http://modeledbehavior.com/2012/02/22/the-grace-of-ryan-avent/#comment-24233 Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:02:55 +0000 https://modeledbehavior.wordpress.com/?p=11418#comment-24233 Ryan Advent is sensible enough that I might eventually consider renewing my Economist subscription, after whoever was Lexington during the first half of the Bush administration drove me away.

]]> By: Phil Koop http://modeledbehavior.com/2012/02/22/the-grace-of-ryan-avent/#comment-24215 Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:32:50 +0000 https://modeledbehavior.wordpress.com/?p=11418#comment-24215 It is curious and presumably significant that two economists should overlook the obvious so comprehensively. Here is a very important practical difference between the Dow and the S&P 500: the latter is a traded asset. OK, an index is not literally a traded asset, but you can buy and sell the S&P 500 portfolio in humungous amounts at very skinny spreads. Try that with the Dow.

R.A. goes on to say “Sure, except that there is value in watching the same thing that everyone else is watching.” Value to whom? And who exactly is “everyone else”? “Everyone” is watching the Dow in the same sense that everyone is watching Justin Bieber. Perhaps that is of interest to an anthropologist. But the market is not a democracy; it’s one dollar, one vote. And in that weighting, nobody is watching the Dow.

]]> By: bdbd http://modeledbehavior.com/2012/02/22/the-grace-of-ryan-avent/#comment-24207 Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:49:55 +0000 https://modeledbehavior.wordpress.com/?p=11418#comment-24207 Maybe we should start saying “Dow” with a Homer Simpson accent?

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