Felix Salmon

The Big Money has a profile of Felix Salmon up. Here is why I reckon that Salmon has some rank, every few weeks he shows up as a guest on Marketplace. And he consistently pronounces Kai Ryssdal's first name as if it is really the female name "Kay."
Check out the introductory post. I had thought Felix was a more traditional financial journalist, but looks like he took a rather unorthodox route. Not that there's anything wrong with that!
"How We Decide" author Jonah Lehrer, fresh from a book tour of the UK, offers what he calls a "spluttering answer" (it's really quite lucid) to a question he says he's getting a lot these days: What decision-making errors were involved in our current financial meltdown?? The short version of his answer -- well worth reading in its entirety -- is that we (and big investment outfits particularlyl) succumbed to an abhorrence of uncertainty. We hate not knowing, and this often leads us to neglect relevant information that might undermine the certainty of our conclusions. I think some of the…
Back in October a study found that high testosterone levels were associated with higher levels of financial risk-taking. Now comes the blowback, as Andrew Sullivan notes: Tina Beatie attacks testosterone: ...it is interesting to note that Pope Benedict has recently suggested that there is a close connection between original sin and the greed that has created the current economic crisis. It is also notable that the credit crunch has been created by a profession that is almost exclusively male. In the line-up of failed bankers, not a single woman's name has appeared. Male greed has proven…
In explaining How Not to Fix the New York Times, Felix Salmon identifies many assets that help make the Times so invaluable -- and which may be hard to replicate in a more fragmented media world. The challenge for a New Media that seeks to replace newspapers rather than supplement them will be to either replace those assets, which include not only sources and clout but long-digging reporters and ever-vigilant editors -- or somehow find substitutes that get the same jobs done. Hat tip: Daily Dish