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Thursday, October 23, 2008

Links 10/23/08

Freak weather strikes Australia BBC

Researchers say voters swayed by candidates who share their looks Stanford News Service

$150,000 Wardrobe for Palin May Alter Tailor-Made Image New York Times

Interview of Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Benoit Madelbrot PBS. Both of them are scared.

Small businesses cry out for help as failures mount Times Online

Amazon forecast highlights holiday fears Financial Times

Credit Crunch Rocks Bain, as Funds Fall Up to 50% Wall Street Journal

Crisis mounts in East Europe after shock 3pc rate rise by Hungary Telegraph

COUP D’ETAT!!!! Sarkozy to renew his European presidency for another year Eurointelligence

The Bank Capital Mirage Paul Kedrosky

Bailed-out Banker Compensation: A PR Disaster in the Making? Roger Ehrenberg

Very true Brad Setser

Antidote du jour. This first is a departure from our usual programming and features the Leningrad Cowboys and the Red Army Choir (hat tip reader Marshall):





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Read more on Banking at Wikinvest

Topics: Links

Email This Post Email This Post Posted by Yves Smith at 4:22 am

10 Comments » Links to this post

10 Comments:

  • a says:
    October 23, 2008 at 4:44 am

    My favorite news from yesterday:

    “Frank Calls for ‘Moratorium’ on Wall Street Bonuses”.

    Will it see the day before the huge 2008 pay-out?

  • Anonymous says:
    October 23, 2008 at 5:37 am

    a said
    “Frank Calls for ‘Moratorium’ on Wall Street Bonuses”.

    Yeah that was good one. The article had shown what the bonus pools for 2008 vs 2007 were (40B vs 33B) Too bad the author did not connect the dots to show us how much government money( direct or indirect) kept those ibanks out of bankruptcy. Gotta love it though — a something about a leopard can’t change its spots — even when drowning

  • Idaho_Spud says:
    October 23, 2008 at 6:48 am

    Cutest. Video. Ever.

  • Anonymous says:
    October 23, 2008 at 6:59 am

    The audio of Taleb and Mandelbrot is worth a listen.

    These gents know a lot more about chaos, black swans, math and economics than the average economist, and they are very, very afraid of a total financial meltdown. Taleb went so far as saying that he is not sleeping well any longer.

    I would not bet against them.

  • vlade says:
    October 23, 2008 at 7:13 am

    On a lighter note:
    http://newsbiscuit.com/article/poland-overwhelmed-by-influx-of-british-investment-bankers-379

  • you are a pirate! says:
    October 23, 2008 at 7:27 am

    http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3AzpByR3MvI

  • Anonymous says:
    October 23, 2008 at 8:47 am

    Love the photo.

  • doc holiday says:
    October 23, 2008 at 10:57 am

    If I didn’t need to work on making a tasty coffee drink, I’d be here with a connection to The Large Hadron Collider…

  • tompain says:
    October 23, 2008 at 3:31 pm

    Nicholas and Benoit, do you have any advice for us other than “Be afraid, be very afraid?” Shall we just waste our lives away getting no sleep and worrying about all the black swans out there? I mean, if the credit crisis doesn’t do us in, nuclear war might. Or a global pandemic. Or a meteor. Volcano. Terrorist. Car accident.

    What is the point of spending your short life being miserable with fear over that which you cannot control? Maybe in two years you will be on a bread line, maybe not. Maybe you will be dead, maybe not. Meanwhile, go have an ice cream cone, watch a sunset, hug your spouse and kids, and be kind to others.

  • Anonymous says:
    October 23, 2008 at 4:12 pm

    From
    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a._s5F17cvP4&refer=home
    we learn:

    "Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch set aside a combined $33.3 billion to pay salaries, bonuses and benefits in the first nine months of this year, down 20 percent from $41.8 billion in the same period in 2007. Banks typically pay about two-thirds of the total in year-end bonuses.

    Since 2003, the five biggest Wall Street firms have paid about $145 billion in bonuses. "

    That means, about $75 billion (or 1/2 of all bonuses paid between 2003 and 2008) has been paid out over the past 18-20 months. Seems to me that they are looting the company, paying out most of the bonuses when the company is failing and the government is throwing money at them. Jerks.

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