UCLA gave transplant to Japanese gang boss PhysOrg Debunking Skill-biased Technical Change Econospeak Why Is This Legal? Elizabeth Warren, Credit Slips Greg Mankiw: The Problem With the Corporate Tax Mark Thoma Hedge Fund Fees and Liquidity – Setting it Straight Roger Ehrenberg Risk wasn’t dispersed Brad Setser. This paragraph caught my eye: The authorities in […]
Read more...Policymakers in Europe have been worried about the appreciation of the euro, which makes local goods less competitive in international markets. Another cost of the currency’s strength is that foreign direct investment has plummeted, as producers shift funds to nations that now have a cost advantage. From the Telegraph: Long-term private investors are pulling their […]
Read more...In his final speech as President, Dwight Eisenhower warned against a heretofore unrecognized danger to America, namely the growing influence of what the Commander in Chief called the “military/industrial complex”. This excerpt reminds us that despite our nostalgic view of the 1950s, the struggle against Communist was seen as an epic battle: Throughout America’s adventure […]
Read more...Look before you leap: New study examines self-control PhysOrg Outrage as French judge annuls Muslim marriage over bride’s virginity lie Times Online Gartner Identifies Top Ten Disruptive Technologies for 2008 to 2012 ehomeupgrade Job Climate for the Class of 2008 Is a Bit Warmer Than Expected New York Times Derivative thinking Gillian Tett, Financial Times. […]
Read more...Funny how it takes a survey to confirm what any reader of the press ought to know right now: consumers, hit by rising fuel and food prices, expect a higher level of inflation for the next 12 months (5.2%, according to a Reuters/University of Michigan survey): One of the things that has led the Fed […]
Read more...Bloomberg reports that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has opened an investigation into whether market manipulation may be influencing oil prices, is taking a hard look at physical delivery and storage. A particular focus is the role of Cushing in the trading of West Texas Intermediate Crude, one of the two most important contracts […]
Read more...It’s a bit premature to say that the price correction in oil and commodities generally is a harbinger of a reversion of much of the runup of this year; they were so overbought that some profit-taking was inevitable. But now that the bulls have finally met some strong headwinds, cautionary views are suddenly getting more […]
Read more...A good comment by Philip Stephens in the Financial Times, “Uncomfortable truths for a new world of them and us,” is a polite and understated wake-up call to the fading former imperialist of the West. He notes that the countries currently dominant in major international organizations assume that life will continue more or less as […]
Read more...Satyajit Das has a very useful post, “The Credit Default Swap (“CDS”) Market – Will It Unravel?,” in which he describes some of the ways that CDS may fail to perform as expected in real world situations, ie, when companies start getting in trouble. While this work isn’t quite at the Tanta Uber-Nerd level of […]
Read more...Note: this post has been shortened from its original version due to an error pointed out by alert readers. Apologies! The Term Auction Facility is considered within the Fed and by the Street to be a success, even though academic studies have found that the TAF did not achieve its intended goal of reducing risk […]
Read more...White House issues climate report 4 years late PhysOrg McCain’s health terrible Diane Francis. How come it takes a Canadian to point out the obvious? The Costanza Energy Policy: 25 Ways to Drive Oil to $150 Barry Ritholtz Another perspective on liquidity Willem Buiter Gold Newsletters Remain Too Bullish Mark Hulbert, Marketwatch Charges of Insider […]
Read more...The dollar rose today, and gold has fallen below $900 as f this writing due to revisions in the first quarter GDP release that increased growth from “anemic” to “slightly less anemic”. Note that there was considerable skepticism about the initial 0.6% GDP growth figure (the revised level is 0.9%) because the total was entirely […]
Read more...Two UK columnists looked at the credit markets, and neither liked what he saw. And they wrote it up more colorfully than most of their American counterparts would have. The first, Nils Pratley of the Guardian, tells us that that the idea that the credit crisis is on the wane is more than a tad […]
Read more...The housing contraction in England, not surprisingly, is following a similar trajectory to that in the US, and as here, tighter credit is the main culprit. However, since England’s overall consumer debt levels were even higher than those in the US, it’s an open question as to how deep the downside will be. One factor […]
Read more...As the mortgage mess grinds on, just as with body counts in war, we are getting to the point, as matters get worse, that the numbers don’t have the impact they used to or ought to. The forecast that housing prices may fall 30%, which would put over 40% of the US mortgages underwater, is […]
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