There is a simply intriguing piece up at Reuters, which may signal a shift in the media version of the zeitgeist as more details of l’affaire Benmosche leak out. By way of background, a very good article at the Financial Times underscores a pet theory of mine: that the board knew exactly what it was […]
Read more...By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. I have written extensively on the fact that this is not a normal cyclical recession, and we’re not in the type of “jobless recovery” which we’ve had a couple of times in the last 50 years. Unemployment will continue rising in America for some time, which will make a […]
Read more...By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns I would be especially interested to hear the views of NC’s Asian readers on this post because Japan and China are usually considered antagonists with a long and sordid past. Andy Xie thinks the Fed is on an inflationary path. Last month, he wrote an article in Caijing which […]
Read more...Goldman Sachs abandons kittens (we’re not making this up) New Deal 2.0. In case you missed this (as I had) Bush rats fight back PhysOrg Skunk’s Strategy Not Just Black and White PhysOrg. Maybe I can come back as a skunk. They have nice personalities and no one messes with them. Mortgage Program Gathers Steam […]
Read more...By Marshall Auerback, a fund manager and investment strategist who writes for New Deal 2.0. It seems odd that days after we were told by Goldman Sachs’s CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, that bankers are doing “God’s work”, we are still having active debates about how to regulate these selfless apostles of capitalism. The latest foray into […]
Read more...AIG’s CEO Robert Benmosche has displayed extraordinarily arrogance even before he took the job, so his latest stunt, a threat to leave AIG high and dry by quitting a mere three months in, should come as no surprise. Frankly, from the get-go, Benmosche fit the stereotype of a narcissistic top executive, with the extra seasoning […]
Read more...By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. A source on the Hill sent me the following summary of Senator Dodd’s proposed financial reform bill. My source notes: The summary leaves out Sections 1201-1204, which contain serious changes to the Federal Reserve bank structures, transparency elements, and restrictions on 13(3). Comments and observations are always welcome. Dodd […]
Read more...Dear readers, your humble blogger is sick! Sorry for the skimpy links. Murdoch could block Google searches entirely Guardian Barclays’ Remarkable Bargain Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times The Periodic Table of Bloggers Slope of Hope (hat tip Jim Bianco) Pfizer abandons site of infamous Kelo eminent domain taking Washington Examiner (hat tip DoctoRx) Flood […]
Read more...By Richard Alford, a former economist at the New York Fed. Since then, he has worked in the financial industry as a trading floor economist and strategist on both the sell side and the buy side. The G-20 statement contained seven principles to guide policy during the balance of the crisis period. However, the agreed […]
Read more...The press becomes more surreal with every passing day. If we didn’t all have a stake in the outcomes, this would make for great theater. First we have the absurd spectacle of bankers claiming that they are doing God’s work. Great! Then they should be willing to do it for free. I don’t recall the […]
Read more...In America, it isn’t hard to answer the question in the headline “yes.” The oft recited, “Our employees are our greatest asset” is pure Orwellian prattle; most companies treat employees as liabilities, doing everything they can to minimize labor costs, getting rid of workers whenever possible. And this now extends well up into the management […]
Read more...Quest to save world’s rarest duck BBC Japanese fishing trawler sunk by giant jellyfish Telegraph Gold May Be Making a Short-Term Top DoctoRx Right-Wing Unleashes Racism on Rep Cao Matt Yglesias Why Are Banks Holding So Many Excess Reserves? Alea Rick Bookstaber to join SEC Ed Harrison. This is very cool! IMF exploring insurance levy […]
Read more...What amazes me is how a vague and intellectually bankrupt (because it is so nebulous as to be used in ways that often wind up being contradictory) term like “free markets” nevertheless gets accorded respect it does not deserve in popular discourse in the US, particularly in the media. Well it turns out that the […]
Read more...One of my many pet peeves is drug marketing. Even though Big Phama likes to tout how much it spends on R&D as a justification for high drug prices, it spends more on marketing as a percentage of revenues than it does on R&D. Think about it: in what other industry are the margins high […]
Read more...By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. Preface: If you are a Christian or Jew, the importance of the Bible is probably obvious. If you are not, please consider passing this essay on to people of those faiths who you know. If you are an atheist and believe that religion is crazy, please remember that some […]
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