naked capitalism

Anonymous says:

Happy birthday! – an invaluable source of information – giving a far more realistic and accurate picture that that of your noble politicians!! – Keep up the good work

Peter says:

Happy B-day! Looking forward to many more.

Boris says:

Congrats! This is a great blog. Keep up the good work.

Many Thanks.

Anonymous says:

piling on here…

thank you so much yves for all that you do – there are many lurkers out here (myself included) that value your writing a great deal.

best to you and yours in the upcoming year.

edwardnh says:

Yves, we love your your blog. Happy birthday.

Viv says:

Happy Birthday :D

Keep up the great work Yves.

James says:

Many thanks. What a pleasure to read intelligent postings and (usually) intelligent comments.

One complaint: this “Anonymous” guy or gal posts too often and frequently seems to argue with himself/herself.

(Seriously, why not require all these smart people to make up their own nom de comment?)

Mike says:

Happy Birthday!

Alberto says:

Congratulations on your second anniversary Yves.

Your blog has become a daily “must read” for me, and I’m sure, many others.

Your insightful, intelligent and honest analyses provides a breath of fresh air in a world sorely lacking them from its traditional sources.

May you be richly rewarded indeed, and may you continue blessing us with your invaluable contributions.

tyaresun says:

Happy birthday, wishing you many more. Thank you for this must read blog.

OT: Might want to link to the Stephen Roach rant on Bloomberg.

http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?N=av&T=Stephen%20Roach%20Says%20Economic%20Recovery%20Would%20Be%20%60Anemic'&clipSRC=mms://media2.bloomberg.com/cache/vU.NoWBz8CE0.asf

Evelyn Sinclair says:

You have my admiration and heartfelt thanks for you work.

I’ve watched the Greenspan bubble contort the economy for years, deeply suspicious of the stock market ever since it failed to deflate after the dotcom bubble (wasn’t allowed to bottom). I read some things about derivatives a few months ago, but still had only a glimmer of understanding of the mechanism and magnitude of the economic malaise. I spent time developing personal hypotheses of what might be going on, leading to a chaos-theory-based analogy based on climate-instability, to why the deflation/inflation outcome is so unpredictable ….

It didn’t occur to me until around September to REALLY go searching for answers. I have since done compulsive web-searches trying to understand what is happening to the world’s economies. I do “rabbit hole” sessions where I follow searches exhaustively. I think I found your site in a search for something related to derivatives, trying to get a deeper understanding of all the various flavors, and found your article about the Lehman Brothers auction that was then about to happen. You pointed out why it was very significant. You reinforced my dawning hypothesis that the “liquidity crisis” and “mysterious” selloff of stocks and everything else was not a “credit crunch” but a Great Deleveraging.

Your post gave me news, insight, and backup! I sent it to a friend, who considers my concerns a bit overblown. He wasn’t going to give it much credence because, he said, he did a search, and found that your article was the only REAL mention he could find, that the other search results were merely pointing to your article. So how could your article be important, if it was all alone?

I followed your links, and found Jessie’s Cafe Americaine. I read a lot of Bloomburg stories. I saw that your analysis helped me make sense of financial news, and that you caught a lot of things I missed, and came up with downright obscure information that gave depth to the more current news.

Your find of the 1993 Brookings paper, and the way you tied it to the Times article, made me foist it on friends. I told them they didn’t have to read it, but that it was too fundamental and outrageous not to try to share it with them. Lately, I have been thinking of the current situation as a “harvest.”

I read several other blogs. (I have winnowed it down to that relative few.) Yours is the one I could least do without, if I had to pick just one.

This is WHY I thank you so much; saying “Thank you so much” doesn’t really do.

If I could offer one suggestion — How about possibly putting together a set of “fundamental” articles, for those who come late to the game, but really really want to catch up? Maybe a set of your own posts that give insights that people need to build on before they can understand the “news;” AND a pile of outside links to primers, videos, whatever seems best suited to offering relatively quick enlightenment. You could consider asking your contributors to pick some of their favorite “educational” pieces.

Good cheer to you and to us all –

Evelyn

James B says:

Happy birthday!

Does this mean nc is about to enter the Terrible Twos? Watch out, Wall St.!

Tortoise says:

DEAR BLOG, HAPPY B-DAY!

Now, to the analysis of “Tax Break May Have Helped Cause Housing Bubble”

There is no question that tax policy favors homeownership and is thus partially responsible for this bubble. However, this particular piece of legislature is OK for the following reason: capital gains in real estate are, in the long term, mostly due to inflation and thus illusory. Thus, a general capital gains tax on real estate is unjustified and unfair. (Different matter if appreciation is due to some major improvement for which the government has invested, like a transportation system.)

Having said that, I believe that the tax burden should be increased on housing and decreased on income. For example, proposition 13 in California should be rescinded because it is unfair and also very bad for the economy. It contributed to both expensive housing (hence cost of living) and higher income taxes. How can businesses and young people make it in this environment? Prop 13 is largely responsible for this horrible economic mess California is in. My advice to fellow Californians: Let us do the economy and ourselves a favor for abolishing prop 13 and state income tax.

Citizen Bagholder says:

We are so deeply grateful to you, Yves, for all the hard work and time you put into this blog. You stand out as one of the few voices that is knowledgeable, clear, and honest in this crisis.

Congratulations and thank you!

Kevin Smith says:

God bless you for your fine work.

Your mother and family must be very proud of you!

Anonymous says:

Many thanks Yves — definitely the best.

su amigo
Juan

Merry-will-go-round says:

AstraZeneca row as corruption claims engulf Nobel prize! Maybe I wasn’t being to cynical in wondering whether the fix wasn’t in for Economics this year?

Glen says:

Awesomeness! Happy birthday Naked Capitalism and thanks for being that sparkle in the rain.

James: One complaint: this “Anonymous” guy or gal posts too often and frequently seems to argue with himself/herself.

Of course – it’s an economics site! When an economist isn’t arguing with themselves they’re arguing with everyone else.

When's the next bus to Oswego? says:

Happy birthday to an awesome blog! Naked Capitalism is a daily visit for me, and was a partial inspiration of sorts for me to start my own blog on the economic and financial crisis,
http://moneyandblogging.wordpress.com
Which is heavily indebted to this one.
My wife and daughter love the Antidotes du Jour, btw.

Anonymous says:

Happy Birthday NC! So, so glad to have stumbled across you quite a while back.

Your integrity, honour and intellect shine though.

You give hope for the rest of us.

Raver

Anonymous says:

A happy birthday!