Sarah Palin vs. William Shatner
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Read more...Category Archives: Curiousities
Matt Taibbi: Obama’s Big Sellout
By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns Matt Taibbi is one of the few commentators in the mainstream media who is not worried about ‘access’ and has, therefore, been free to write much more critically about the economic crisis and reform efforts on Wall Street. His first piece was a polemic against Goldman Sachs, which triggered […]
Read more...“Administration Considering Additional Subsidies and Tax Breaks”
By Augustus Melmotte, who lives and works in Hedgistan. The administration is examining strategies for encouraging the ownership of fluffy kittens. “I think we can all agree,” the president said, “that in troubled times stroking a fluffy kitten can really help a struggling family to stay on course.” The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has calculated […]
Read more...I Love the Smell of Napalm in the Morning
For the record, I actually do NOT like it when markets fall apart, even when I anticipate it and am correctly positioned for it (2007 and 2008). It’s very upsetting to watch. Every savvy investor I know has been expecting a mild to meaningful correction. So independent of its seriousness, the Dubai World frisson could […]
Read more...“It’s Beginning to Look a Lot More Riskless”
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Read more...Obama: Debt could cause a double dip recession
By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns Barack Obama has now come clean about his thinking on why his administration has decided to focus first on reducing the deficit and next on jobs. He fears a double-dip recession will occur if foreigners lose confidence in the U.S. dollar, causing interest rates to spike. This is nonsense […]
Read more...Cognitive Bias Alert: Social Validation Can, and Has, Killed
John Hempton illustrates the operation of an underdiscussed cognitive bias, social validation, which social psychologist Robert Cialdini described as one of the six primary influence techniques in his classic Influence: The Art of Persuasion. And it can be deadly, as Hempton warns: Saturday afternoon and I had volunteer lifesaving duty. My (broken) collarbone is knitted […]
Read more...Swoopo and the Thrill of the Kill
I don’t know if any readers know Jay Leonhart, but his “Sometimes I Think” from Salamander Pie is my theme song. I cannot relate to a lot of behavior considered normal. So I hate to personalize this discussion, but the subject of this post involves one of those areas of human activity I find to […]
Read more...Geithner: Forget what I just said, now I mean the opposite
By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns Is it just me or did Secretary Geithner just talk out of other side of his mouth? Today he wrote an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal with two Asian leaders to mark a big meeting of APEC (Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation) in Singapore. The WSJ article started out […]
Read more...If the Fed is looking to inflate away problems, what should Asia do?
By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns I would be especially interested to hear the views of NC’s Asian readers on this post because Japan and China are usually considered antagonists with a long and sordid past. Andy Xie thinks the Fed is on an inflationary path. Last month, he wrote an article in Caijing which […]
Read more...Guest Post: Wall Street Journal Admits Economists Were Wrong, But Fails to Discuss their INCENTIVE for Being Wrong
By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. The Wall Street Journal admits this week that economists blew it: The pain of the financial crisis has economists striving to understand precisely why it happened and how to prevent a repeat… The crisis exposed the inadequacy of economists’ traditional tool kit, forcing them to revisit questions many had […]
Read more...Saudis drop WTI oil contract
By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns This comes via the FT: Saudi Arabia on Wednesday decided to drop the widely used West Texas Intermediate oil contract as the benchmark for pricing its oil, dealing a serious blow to the New York Mercantile Exchange. The decision by the world’s biggest oil exporter could encourage other producers […]
Read more...“Bohemian Bankruptcy”
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Read more...John Meriwether is back, risk must be too
Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns John Meriwether, the 62-year old former Salomon bond trader and LTCM wizard is back for, what is this, his fourth go round. For those of you who don’t remember the 1980s, John Meriwether was the biggest of the ‘big swinging dicks’ on Wall Street, leading Salomon Brothers to […]
Read more...Guest Post: How Did America Fall So Fast?
By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. In 2000, America was described as the sole remaining superpower – or even the world’s “hyperpower”. Now we’re in real trouble (at the very least, you have to admit that we’re losing power and wealth in comparison with China). How did it happen so fast? As everyone knows, the […]
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