I’m told that alcoholics and addicts have to hit bottom before they are able to renounce their self destructive ways. Ironically, their personal collapse makes them more capable of change than scientists, who, according to Thomas Kuhn in his landmark, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, were so incapable of abandoning core beliefs that it would […]
Read more...Australian Officials Kill Dying Baby Whale Abandoned by Mother Bloomberg 9 polar bears observed on risky open ocean swims PhysOrg Separation Anxiety (Religion in Politics) Versus. If you haven’t come across these parodies before, you’ve been missing out on some good topical humor. Seeking More Viewers, MSNBC Turns Left New York Times Polling Margins: The […]
Read more...A story in the New York Times warns, “Some Fear Commercial Property Loans Will Be Next Stage in Downturn.” This is news? I’m in a lazy mood, so I will merely search old posts. Fitch warned in April 2007 (yes, the year is no typo) of the lousy quality of commercial real estate loans and […]
Read more...A very interesting pair of articles tonight comment on a statement today by ECB governing board member and President of the Dutch Central Bank Nout Wellink to the effect that banks were overly dependent on the ECB’s liquidity facilities and needed to start fending more for themselves. Ed Harrison at Credit Writedowns translated an article […]
Read more...This cheery update came via reader Michael. Note the Goldman report, which says half the world is in or close to being in contraction mode, includes the US in that camp. Further note that the “two quarters of negative growth” is not a hard and fast rule; the NBER, which is in charge of making […]
Read more...Nick Butler, in “The falling oil price is a lull in the storm,” argues that the break in oil prices is likely to persist for a bit due to improvements on the supply side, but that falling into complacency would be a mistake. The bad thing about the volatility in oil prices is that it […]
Read more...Before you get too excited, the current display of regulatory vigor is almost certainly motivated by a desire to protect turf rather than new-found solicitude for investors’ welfare. Bloomberg reports that the Financial Industry Regulator Authority will start on-site inspections of 40 brokerage firms regarding their participation in the auction rate securities meltdown. Wow! Action! […]
Read more...Warning: Josh Rosner is controversial in some circles. He co-authored a simply terrific paper with Joe Mason, “Where Did the Risk Go? How Misapplied Bond Ratings Cause Mortgage Backed Securities and Collateralized Debt Obligation Market Disruptions.” If you haven’t read it, do so now. If you don’t have the time, we summarized it here. However, […]
Read more...Hopes fade for Sydney whale calf BBC Totally Fake Restaurant Wins Wine Spectator Award of Excellence Consumerist Obama’s Geek Economist MIT Technology Review (hat tip reader Bruce)l A profile of Austan Goolsbee How Obama Reconciles Dueling Views on Economy David Leonhart, New York Times Downsizing in Los Angeles: From Mansion to $47 Million Condo New […]
Read more...Get a load of this e-mail I received from a CNN affiliate selling air time on American Airlines flights. And consider further that this was sent to my day-job e-mail address, which is, to put it mildly, not very easy to find (ie, I don’t subscribe to small business or consulting publications that would put […]
Read more...Another day of nervousness and not-exactly-positive developments on the Fannie and Freddie front. What is remarkable about the situation now is that at least some of the trouble elements were entirely predictable, which suggests that a bit of aforethought might have led to a better plan and less bad outcomes (I’m not such as optimist […]
Read more...A post at VoxEU, “Bank capital and write-downs: Zeno’s paradox and the subprime crisis” by Marco Onado does a nice job of recapping at a high but nevertheless useful level of abstraction, how regulators cast a blind eye to the mess banks managed to create for themselves. It also has some useful information on the […]
Read more...While there are no doubt some hedge funds that have managed to navigate the minefield of turbulent markets successfully, the sudden, sometimes violent reversal of trends and breakdown of correlations had made the hedge fund operator’s life particularly difficult. The UK’s Times (and remember London is an even bigger hedge fund center than the New […]
Read more...Wild dolphins tail-walk on water BBC Judge: Man can’t be forced to divulge encryption passphrase CNet Meet Mr. & Ms. Thrifty Who Are Deep In Debt Elaine Meinel Supkis. Shreds a CNN Money article. Gold Bulls `Running for Cover’ Signal Price Drop: Chart of Day Bloomberg and Speculation Over, Gold Going to $600: Fund Manager […]
Read more...Go read this very good (and disconcerting) post on AIG by Sam Jones at FT Alphaville (hat tip reader Richard). Key sentence: Goldman won’t say it, but we will. AIG is going the way of the monolines… but on a much larger scale. Boldface his. Note that the Bloomberg story on the same Goldman research […]
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