Gideon Rachman has a pretty gloomy piece in the Financial Times on the lousy state of affairs in the Baltics. Short story, like a lot of places, they went on a monster debt bender and now have an awful hangover. Rachman suggests that Baltic woes could blow back and hurt Europe’s recovery. The trigger would […]
Read more...Dear readers, There are some points in the book I need to nail down re CDOs (particularly mezz CDOs, circa 2006 and 2007) and the various relative value plays major banks and hedge funds were engaging in around that time. I may also have some questions re CLOs, to the extent that hedge funds were […]
Read more...A bit of advice: do not try to do an ambitious book on a compressed schedule. If I didn’t have quite a few people helping on important aspects, it would be impossible, but even so, this take a ton of persistent effort. To wit: all the chapters are in to the editor, I believe I […]
Read more...Comets ‘not cause of extinctions‘ BBC The truth about grit Boston Globe (hat tip reader DoctoRx) DefCon: ‘Credit Hackers’ Win the Credit Card Game … Legally Wired (hat tip reader John M) On the the great Singularitian Political Food Fight: Transhumanist/Singularitian Political Food Fight h+ Magazine and ReadWriteWeb Mentions SIAI Accelerating Future (hat tip reader […]
Read more...We’ve grumbled at points during the process of throwing various lifelines out to the financial sector, that media has tended to focus unduly on the TARP (no doubt encouraged by the powers that be who are eagerly pushing “the banks are fine” line) at the expense of the vast net of additional subsidies. The ones […]
Read more...Satyajit Das, of Traders, Guns & Money fame, is keeping tabs on what he calls GFC plot lines, or what one might also call The Search For The Guilty. The latest caught in the dragnet is…economists! But Das thinks some of the books still miss key issues. From Das: Just when I had finally worked […]
Read more...Submitted by Arthur Doyle, a managing director at Lehman Brothers until the summer of 2008. When an apple has ripened and falls, why does it fall? Because of its attraction to the earth, because its stalk withers, because it is dried by the sun, because it grows heavier, because the wind shakes it, or because […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was on ABC’s This Week sounding cautiously optimistic. Mr. Greenspan’s logic is very simple: as long as the financial markets are calm, then the real economy will eventually improve. Mr. Greenspan is concerned about a double-dip, especially if housing prices erode […]
Read more...Census of Marine Life maps an ocean of species Los Angeles Times (hat tip reader DoctoRx) Chimps born to appreciate music BBC Chinese Town Quarantined as Man Dies From Plague Bloomberg NASA offers $1.5 million for 200MPG aircraft Network World Facebook and MySpace can lead children to commit suicide, warns Archbishop Nichols Telegraph. Hasn’t the […]
Read more...Reader Jason Pl pointed out this post from Jon Taplin, which starts with the less than cheery chart on US durable goods production courtesy Floyd Norris. As you can see, the only growth biz is military: Military contracting procedures means that work will stay with domestic players. So one could take the cynical view that […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. You might be reading my blog wondering where is public outrage over pensions? For example, how can PSP Investments lose billions and still pay their top officers bonuses, allowing them to get extremely well compensated in a terrible year? And it’s not just PSP. The same is […]
Read more...Baby croc scares plane passengers BBC. The passengers were wimps. Flying Saucer Drone Hovers Over Hapless Human Wired Speculation hots up as Alaska goes cold on Sarah Palin Times Online Will Krakatoa rock the world again? Last time, it killed thousands and changed the weather for five years, now it could be even deadlier… Mail […]
Read more...In a Financial Times comment. Michael Pettis gives a well-reasoned and glum forecast for Chinese growth, namely, that it is unlikely to exceed 5% to 7% over the next few years. The reason he sets forth is that China was able to show growth rates in excess of domestic consumption growth thanks to US exports. […]
Read more...One of the most remarkable aspects of the success of Wall Street in subordinating the real economy to its wishes and needs is the con job implicit in the application of the word “innovation” to what might more accurately be described as tax evasion, regulatory arbitrage, and chicanery. Martin Mayer once described innovation as “using […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. Down 1.5% was the consensus expectation. But Q1 was revised down to minus 6.4% from 5.5%. The GDP Deflator for Q2 came in at 0.2%, which shows that disinflation risks tipping into deflation still. The dollar is weaker and the short end of the treasury curve is up […]
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