Back Home and In the Office

We made it back from Philly, and Unknown Son is still in remission (yeah!). So that's a huge load off our minds. It's been almost two years since he was "clean", but the quarterly checkups continue, and can still make us a bit nervous.

In any event, it's back in the office to finish up a few things before classes start on Monday. In the meanwhile, here are a few links for your reading pleasure:

Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture notes that total margin debt on Wall Street is up 22% since 2005. And he has a chart here.

Professor Andrew Gelman blogs at Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science. He's got a book out titled Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models, and it looks promising. The guy knows his stuff.

Lew Sichelman at Marketwatch.com has a good piece on mortgage scams.

Cynthia Koons had a good piece on the market for junk bonds in last Friday's Wall Street Journal. She reports on how lower rates and other features have made LBO companies prefer bank debt over junk bonds as the financing vehicle of choice.

And last but nit least, Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost has posted the latest installment of his Yak Shaving Razor series.

Enough blogging - I have syllabi to write and research to finish.