Submitted by Rolfe Winkler, publisher of OptionARMageddon A hedge-funder well-known to OA—who wishes to remain anonymous—chimes in with a rather fascinating idea in our humble opinion, one that (at least in the state of Maryland) could take the foreclosure process for many houses/condos out of the hands of banks.* We thought worthy of sharing because […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. The WSJ reports on the public pension shakedown: President Obama’s auto fix-it man, Steven Rattner, is in the news as one of the Wall Street financiers hit up for big money as part of New York state’s unfolding pension-kickback scandal. The White House says he’s done nothing […]
Read more...Hungary’s Spirits Are Back Up, on a Horse New York Times Early recording of Britain’s Got Talent’s Susan Boyle unearthed Telegraph Cancer brake ‘could halt disease‘ BBC Funds try to spot the great oil rebound Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph Inflation is looming on America’s horizon Martin Feldstein, Financial Times How to really scare China Free Exchange […]
Read more...As this blogger and others have noted, the bank rescue programs have been designed to work around constraints more than to fix the underlying problem, which is a lot of bad debt that needs to be restructured and renegotiated, including the debt of the banks themselves. Instead, the boundary conditions have included “No more Lehmans”, […]
Read more...In America, the 1990 census showed a marked decrease in childbearing. 25% of the women between 30 and 34 were childless, while the comparable figure in 1976 was 16%. By 1985, the birthrate expected per average woman over her lifetime had fallen to 1.8, slightly below Europe’s level and below the “replacement rate”, the level […]
Read more...The Administration is trying to look like it is not rolling over to banks’ demands on the issue of repayment of TARP money. But despite the tough-ish talk, the problem described by John Gapper remains. Whether the bank pay back the TARP or not, they and the wider world clearly know that they will not […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. It’s Orthodox Easter so that means family, food and more food. I wanted to post something really funny that you might not have seen. By now, everyone in the world saw Susan Boyle’s amazing singing performance on Britain’s Got Talent show. If you have not seen it, […]
Read more...Key role of forests ‘may be lost’ BBC Easter Gifts, Multiplying on the Loose New York Times Don’t Bank on It Alan Abelson. Barron’s Bank Regulators Clash Over U.S. Stress-Tests Endgame Bloomberg. This sounds a lot like the disarray (reported after the fact) before Geither’s woefully unsuccessful initial bank rescue plan announcement. The Cost of […]
Read more...James Kwak, discussing a recent Bernanke speech defending financial innovation and a Ryan Avent post parsing it, underscored Avent’s observation that Bernanke had trouble coming up with an example of the sort that the financial services had in mind these days (ie, novel products making use of derivatives and other risk slicing, dicing, and distribution […]
Read more...To read Nassim Nicholas Taleb, you’d think that the entire world of finance was in thrall to evil Gaussian models and their cousins, like Black Scholes. The occasional howls from quants last year of 15 sigma and worse events would seem to confirm that view. Yet I have also seem some references here and there […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Leah McLaren writes in the Globe and Mail that Generation debt is in for a rough ride: A few years ago, I interviewed University of Toronto demographer David Foot, author of the bestseller Boom, Bust & Echo. Over tea at a campus pub, he assured me that […]
Read more...New limits to Antarctic tourism BBC Fixing Lungs Outside the Body MIT Technology Review ML-Implode Wins Stay Of Disclosure In Mortgage Specialists Dispute ML Implode-O-Meter (hat tip reader Barbara). The Columbia Journalism Review said the original ruling was flawed, so good for the ML folks for fighting. Dying Midwestern Cities Are The New Bohemian Enclaves […]
Read more...We’ve had plenty of company in voicing doubts about the Treasury’s so-called stress tests of the 19 biggest banks. To quickly recap the main issues: The bank will run the tests themselves, using the same risk models that caused the mess. With only ten examiners on average per bank, and most of the banks having […]
Read more...The qualiity of Citigroup’s $1.6 billion first quarter earnings was so lousy that even the mainstream media took notice. And the bank’s stock traded down 9%. To give the highlights: $2.5 billion of revenues came from lower market value of its debt thanks to a fall in credit quality. That was a common pattern of […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. In my last post, I discussed how CalPERS is seeking to buy TARP holdings and Citigroup assets. I said that this carries enormous risks, especially if the recovery turns out to be very modest or even worse, it falters. The U.S. government invited CalPERS and other large […]
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