In the fourth episode of our new series “The Zeroes,” it’s all about volatility.

From the markets to–yes–the boxing ring, traders bet on volatility in a way that “was clearly delusional.” If you’ve ever wanted to see a couple of traders literally beating each other’s brains out, here’s your chance:

To really understand why Wall Street went bonkers in the early 2000s, it helps to understand…men.

A specific type, to be exact. The “alpha male” led to a new saying: “alpha is the currency.” Alpha firms, alpha deals. You get the idea. In the third episode of our series, “The Zeroes,” we delve into the mindset–and what happened to the people covering the industry at Trader Monthly as the magazine began to run out of money.

And here is the seduction episode of our five-part series, “The Zeroes.”

It’s easy to say now that the culture of consumptive mayhem that exploded with the markets was all about greed. But as you’ll see, when 28-year-olds start making $10 million, they act…like 28-year-olds making $10 million a year. And the people watching from the sidelines caught a few crumbs, too.

We wanted to know what made smart people, people who should have known better, buy into the financial madness that turned a staid industry into an orgy.

There are a lot of books and movies out there that beautifully describe the mechanics and motivations of the big players. But what about the traders themselves? Why did those guys believe what they were doing was right?

We turned to the cautionary tale of Randall Lane, former editor in chief of Trader Monthly (now, he’s got a nifty new job), whose book The Zeroes is the basis for our new five-part series.

As producer Ivan Weiss found out, the good times were, well, pretty damn good.

When the East Coast sweltered last summer (remember last summer–it was just as hot as this one), we checked in with David Easterling of NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center. For those of you thinking that a Europe-size hurricane like Irene is an unusual event, we thought we’d bring back this little item for you.

Because according to Easterling, dramatic weather like major heat waves or hurricanes in odd places is going to become more frequent as the world’s weather changes.

“I WANT TO BE FREE.”

That was the message recently sent to us by one of our contacts in Tripoli. The last we’d heard from him, in July, he wrote, “I am coming back from front line in the war between us and FUCKING GADAFI, any way I would like to thank you and all Americans for helping us in our war for freedom ,we will never surrender.”

Well, he’s on his way to freedom, now. While rebel forces storm the compound of  Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi (there is currently a nearly $2 million bounty on the former leader’s head, courtesy of Libyan businessmen–dead or alive), the burgeoning victory rippled through the Internet.

@misrati_free tweeted, “Brother-in-law just made it home after 3 months in jail for refusing to put q’s picture in his hospital operating room.”

From @ShababLibya–”a group of Libyan youth…inspired by our brothers and sisters in Egypt and Tunesia”: “Deputy chief of intelligence quits Qaddafi regime (or what is left of it) and says he now supports the NTC (jumping off the sinking ship).”

And other Libyans are finally revealing their whereabouts, now that they don’t have to fear Qaddafi forces hauling them off to jail for using the Internet or watching television. @SayNoToQaddafi tweeted, “Right. Time to reveal where I am from. I am from Tamanhint 30 km north from Sebha. We have created a local council and raised the indp flag.”"

But the one Libyan who everyone wants to find is of course Qaddafi himself. Al-Jazeera thinks he’s still “somewhere in Tripoli.”

An excellent live blog of events, including an English translation of the latest message from Qaddafi, here.

LONDON, UK–The blame for Tottenham and Hackney is getting passed around like a parcel at a children’s party. So whose fault is it anyway?

Prime Minister David Cameron says it’s “criminality – pure and simple” started by “thugs.” London Mayor Boris Johnson says those who helped instigate the rioting will face “punishments that they will bitterly regret” (they already have–some say, excessively so) and Home Secretary Theresa May refuted claims of deeper underlying problems, declaring it was about “sheer criminality.”

That may be the easy analysis. It’s much harder to reconcile with what one young man told Johnson when the mayor toured an affected London neighborhood. “Think about the amount of time you are cutting and cutting and cutting and then you are putting off youth fees…You are spending hundreds of millions of pounds a week, okay, in Libya, when you can be over here. Sort yourselves over here first!”

(Americans: sound familiar?)

But according to renowned historian David Starkey, it may not be just a reaction to the “austerity” cuts to education and NHS. Starkey controversially (to say the least) offered up the theory that the riots were a cultural by-product: “The whites have become black. A particular sort of violent destructive, nihilistic gangster culture has become the fashion and black and white boys and girls operate in this language together.”

Meanwhile, however, a website offering a Google map of London has been launched, highlighting the businesses worst hit by the violence and encouraging new customers to offer trade to those recovering. The two most-looted stores? JD Sports – a clothing line that hails the image of the underground–and the Carphone Warehouse’s mobiles.

–Oli Foster

Ames, IA–The voters at the straw poll are not food sluts.

They wouldn’t stand in line to gorge on free food just for the food–would they?

“Morals are very important to me,” said a woman with elaborately curled hair. I believed her, even if she was standing in line for the Bachmann Barbeque while wearing a Ron Paul t-shirt because she struck the exact same note as my third grade teacher, who had terrified me.

And if the lines of free food (provided by the desperately smiling candidates) could be considered an indicator, then we all knew by roughly noon that the winner would indeed be Michele Bachmann. Her line was about two hours long. You could get on Space Mountain faster than that. And the competition, food-wise, was tough. Santorum had pork patties. Pawlenty had pulled pork. Cain had–what else–pizza.

The results went like this: Bachmann, Paul, Pawlenty. This matched with how well organized the campaigns were, too. By far, these three had it together. They even had games. Paul’s was a fun slide thing called “The Falling Dollar.”

So who voted for Bachmann? Old people. Young people with six kids. That was my completely unscientific sampling, but I did ask for about three hours as Iowans entered and exited the polls. “She’s a fighter,” was the most common refrain. My own assessment is that her campaign team is formidable: professional and smart. Her husband kind of bodychecked me out of the way–I am a pesky reporter, and those aren’t so popular after the recent New Yorker and Newsweek profiles, but I’m going to assume he didn’t mean to, it was just that kind of day.

What does this say about the people who voted for the congresswoman? The Iowa straw poll voters, by and large, are primarily concerned with morality. This came up again and again, and when I asked if “morality” included “fiscal responsibility,” I was frequently corrected. “Biblical,” one woman clarified.

In an equally unscientific survey in greater Ames, outside the straw poll, I found the majority to be consumed by the issue of the economy, jobs and (brace yourselves) global warming. This was not the typical “heartland” stuff you expect to hear.

In fact, at the state fair–a very big deal, because it is the 100th year of the giant cow made of butter–quite a few people approached me after spotting my press pass. I was watching a young man slurp down a stick of fried butter doused with vanilla icing when a blonde woman (name withheld) made a beeline for me.

“We’re not all concerned about moral values,” she said, assuming this is what I heard all day. “Make sure you write that.” She, too, was worried about the economy (“Make sure you write that”). Meanwhile, the kid eating the stick of fired butter threw up behind her.

–Michele Mitchell

Note: We did ask the questions submitted on the Film@11 Facebook page for our upcoming “Common Sense” series. Watch for previews!

Congress is going to have a miserable weekend, what with the debt ceiling negotiations now called for on Sunday. What’s the issue: well, nothing new, really. The GOP is playing financial roulette to hang on to tax breaks, and the Democrats professed shock at President Obama’s call for cuts in Social Security.

Both parties are pansies. They know–they know–that this fiscal gamesmanship they have played for decades in pursuit of winning elections has come to an end. Many of them may be callow, but they are not as stupid as you might think by watching the posturing that has occurred on television lately. Both entitlements and tax breaks are unsustainable. They now have to drop their usual crowd-pleasing lines (Mitt Romney, we’re looking at you–please stop) and actually tell their constituents the reality.

Meanwhile, Warren Buffett had this idea today on CNBC:

You could have corporations like Berkshire Hathaway voluntarily prepay some of the corporate tax they’re going to owe in a few months anyway. If you really knew [that a deal was coming] and you just had a one-day gap, or a two-day gap, I mean, we’re going to be paying a lot of taxes on Sept.15, and Jan. 15. … I don’t think there would be a problem in getting a number of corporations to prepay a couple of their quarterly payments if they felt they were doing something patriotic and they really felt that the crisis would be over in a few days. That would be something that would be sensible to do.

The Motley Fool notes that “technically, this probably could work…if a few big corporations like Berkshire, Wal-Mart , and AT&T prepaid just one quarterly payment, you could probably keep the Treasury current for a day or two.”

That’s not particularly comforting, but at least some people are thinking outside of the proverbial box. Meanwhile, for a flashback to how well both parties handle any sort of fiscal reality, let’s remember the GOP response to Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare ideas: