Ben Stein on Bear Raids and "Trader Realism"

A friend happened to send this article to me, and it seemed to go well with what we've been discussing so I'm passing it along. It's a basic discussion of how traders, like judges, decide the outcome they want and justify it by selecting/ignoring certain data.

-- JaredBaumgart - 03 Feb 2008

What Mr Stein chooses to think of as "trader realism" is also known in financial market jargon as a bear raid. Though he claims to have deduced the existence of bear raids from the phenomena of legal realism, it might be more helpful for the understanding of bear raids to consider them in relation to cognitive dissonance and the theory of congames. Wait for our discussion of Art Leff to flesh that out further. Mr Stein sort of understands bear raids--as he says, he has a good basic understanding of economics. His treatment of legal realism is pour rire.

-- EbenMoglen - 03 Feb 2008