I have to admit, I have a weakness for the intersection of the daft and science: Male readers will no doubt assume that this means the original owner of the gas mask bra must strip in the case of emergency, and that that the real point of this exercise. But the bra was designed by […]
Read more...It must be nice to be like the Fed and be able to chose when you are public or private to suit your convenience. Many readers like to rail that the Fed is a private institution, but it has a weird public/private structure that has the nasty effect of putting it beyond the reach of […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns This is a post I wrote earlier to day at Credit Writedowns. I just noticed that Albert Edwards and David Rosenberg are saying similar things. See the FT Alphaville post on their comments here. As for me, for the last few months, I have been casting around looking […]
Read more...(I was going to take a week off, but Yves suggested I post this.) By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. We have to change our risk models, and not just defer to the big banks’ inaccurate models which got us into this mess. Says who? Nassim Taleb: I have been fighting risk models both as […]
Read more...Children’s writer Philip Pullman ranked second on US banned books list Guardian New Profit Center For Australian McDonald’s: Fraud [Cannot Has Cheezburger] Consumerist CHART OF THE DAY: What, You Think The Savings Rate Can’t Go Higher? Clusterstock Krugman and the pied pipers of debt Rolfe Winkler The Zero Hedgies Felix Salmon World Bank to buy […]
Read more...I’m not certain I would give Greenspan great market as a stock market seer, but he may have gotten better over time. He saw the stock market as frothy in 1996 (the time of his famed “irrational exuberance” remark, and was a skeptic through most of the equity bubble, then threw in the towel and […]
Read more...Monoline insurers were last year’s story, but I have a prurient interest in some of the smoldering hulks of the credit crisis. Readers may recall that in January-Feb of last year, seemingly imminent demise of monolines looked to be ready to set off financial armageddon, since monoline (and AIG) credit enhancement was critical to a […]
Read more...By Swedish Lex, an expert and advisor on EU regulatory and political affairs: If you belong to those who believe that the debate on how to fix finance is mightily underwhelming when compared to the latter’s monumental failure, then I suggest reading Martin Wolf’s latest column in the Financial Times. Wolf essentially trashes the financial […]
Read more...It isn’t uncommon for a theme or a trend to dominate how investors and analysts view a particular sector. For instance, when barriers to interstate banking were lowered, then dropped, bank consolidation was all anyone seemed able to think about, even though there were other important developments in the industry. During that era, at McKinsey, […]
Read more...New Botnet May Have Infected Half of Fortune 1000 PC Magazine (hat tip reader John Doe) Alternative Energy Projects Stumble on a Need for Water New York Times. Looking at energy and water in isolation from each other is sure to lead to sub-optimal solutions. Although water rights have long been contested in the Southwest, […]
Read more...Dear patient readers, The manuscript has gone in after copy edits and some major revisions (some across the book reordering to tighten the argument and clear up redundancies, and a ton of work on one chapter which has some primary research). There is still pre-galley proofreading (they do it and I review it) and I […]
Read more...(Yves should be back – and so the site should return to normal – tomorrow. If all goes according to plan, you’ll be hearing a lot less from me for a week or so. Yves’ book – Econned – will be quite valuable, and so well worth the wait. ) By George Washington of Washington’s […]
Read more...By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. (Rest assured that once Yves is done writing her book, and back posting, or other guest posters write more, I will post less often! ) This essay rounds up arguments for gold as a reasonable investment. China Commentators such as Ambrose Evans-Pritchard and Byron King argue that China’s hunger […]
Read more...By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. As I have recently pointed out, there are strong arguments for ongoing deflation. But even deflationists think that – after a period of deflation – we might eventually get inflation. For example, in October, I guessed 1 1/2 to 2 years of deflation, followed by inflation. Moreover, noted deflationist […]
Read more...Links return September 30!
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