Author Archives: Yves Smith

Cryptocurrencies Don’t Make Sense

How cryptocurrencies do a poor job of delivering on their supposed purposes.

Why CalPERS’ Private Equity Outsourcing Scheme Is Likely to Hurt Returns

Why CalPERS’ private equity outsourcing scheme is likely to leave the funds’ beneficiaries and California taxpayers worse off.

CalPERS Let New Fox in the Private Equity Henhouse: Silicon Valley Fixer Wilson Sonsini

Why Wilson Sonsini’s not-obvious role at CalPERS is another red flag for CalPERS’ private equity outsourcing scheme.

Gaius Publius: More on the Cape Town, South Africa, Water Crisis

Cape Town is becoming ground zero of water scarcity….a future that will arrive for many more in the coming decades.

Links 2/10/18

Wizards and Prophets Face Off to Save the Planet

How to feed 10 billion people? Wizards, as in technophiles, and prophets, conservationists, have very different answers.

The Chinese Banking System: Much More Than a Domestic Giant

Chinese banks have become major foreign lenders, making China the eighth biggest financial center in the world.

Links 2/9/18

US Stock Markets Enter Correction Territory as Dow Falls More Than 1000 Points

The stock market continues to be moody as investors fret that good economic data means more Fed rate hikes.

CalPERS Manages to Get Pretty Much Everything Wrong in Its Latest Asset Reallocation

CalPERS continues to be lousy at market timing.

UK Asks the Rest of the World to Be Super Duper Nice and Act as Its Old Deals Are Still Valid Post Brexit

Yet another Brexit train wreck.

Protests in Tunisia Over IMF-Promoted Policies….for Good Reason

Why the IMF’s standard prescription is a poor fit for Tunisia.

Links 2/8/18