This is the web edition of Nerd on the Street,
Institutional Investor Magazine, November 2009
(Download the slick print version here)

Trying to understand what happened to capitalism in 2008 without serious data collection and analysis is a poster child example of reasoning “unencumbered by the thought process”,  the theme of a brilliant commencement address given at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by two smart graduates of that institution, National Public Radio’s Click and Clack, the Car Talk Guys, a.k.a. Tom and Ray Magliozzi, who only pretend to be morons on their show.

Click & Clack (not actual morons), and the UBTTP Flag, in Latin, with tailfins.

Behind their humorous message was a painful truth. We make all too many important decisions without firing up a full set of cerebral pistons. The U.S. Congress seems particularly prone to action without sufficient thought. Consider the House Financial Services Committee. It has — count them — 72 members, enough to field a softball league that could be coached by committee chairman, Congressman Barney Fr