CalPERS Plans to Blow Its Brains Out: Seeks to Increase Risk by Boosting Private Equity, Private Debt, and Leveraging the Entire Fund
CalPERS latches on to new, really bad investment ideas.
Read more...Author Archives: Yves Smith
Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Masks Masquerade
Nassim Nicholas Taleb explains why people should be wearing masks. And yes, he provides a model.
Read more...Private Equity Clearly Inferior to Public Equity: Delivers Similar Returns With Lower Liquidity
More evidence that private equity underperforms on a risk-adjusted basis.
Read more...Links 6/13/2020
The Cost of Staying Open: Voluntary Social Distancing and Lockdowns in the US
Yves here. As various analyses have shown, in many places, governments implemented lockdowns after citizens had started restricting their activities to avoid contracting Covid-19. It’s useful to see economists address the question of what the cost of doing nothing or very little would have been. By Adam Brzezinski, DPhil (PhD) candidate in Economics, University of […]
Read more...Initial Jobless Claims Decline Further, But Continuing Claims Fail To Make Meaningful Progress
Wellie, the latest jobless claims data wan’t horrific, merely very bad
Read more...Fliers Beware: Poor Mask Discipline Endemic Even Among Airline, Airport Staff
Airlines and airports are cutting their workers way too much slack in mask wearing. They are a hazard to each other and to passengers.
Read more...The European Union Still Hasn’t Considered an Economic Proposal That Can Save It
The European Union has not reached a “Hamiltonian moment.” Its plans are too little, too late, hamstrung by institutional barriers to economic recovery.
Read more...Private Equity Gets New Pockets to Pick: Your 401(k), in Funds Repeatedly Cited by the SEC for Abuses
While the US was busy with coronavirus and George Floyd protests, private equity stormed the retail investor barricade.
Read more...Revealed: Nearly 400,000 British Companies Evade Anti-Money Laundering Checks
David Cameron promised to stop scammers and kleptocrats hiding behind British shell companies. But almost one in ten UK firms still do not declare ‘persons of significant control’
Read more...Links 6/6/2020
A Window into the Hearts and Minds of Billionaire Donors
Billionaires explain why they give money away.
Read more...China’s Covid-19 Recovery Is Intensifying Class Exploitation
China’s response to the pandemic is to furth disempower its domestic and peripheral populations.
Read more...Melting Ice Opens Doors for Wider Spread of Contaminants, Diseases
New pathways and new and more distant places are leading to additional scientific findings on impacts of melting Arctic ice.
Read more...Judges Try To Balance Legal Rights And Courtroom Health
Judges are making battlefield health calls in reopening courtrooms, and some policies don’t look very sound.
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