The Wall Street Journal’s daily human interest story featured a holiday season tale of the Fuggerei, a Roman Catholic housing compound for the poor in Germany. The price of admission for those lucky enough to get in is yearly rent of one Rhein guilder, which equals 88 euro cents or $1.23, plus daily prayers for […]
Read more...Best holiday wishes to all, and thanks to readers for your continued interest and insightful comments. In the spirit of the season, I thought I’d post my favorite news item of the year almost past and encourage members of the commentariat (to use one reader’s coinage) to provide theirs. The post below originally ran in […]
Read more...This is by Cassandra, who sometimes does us the favor of guest blogging: Mr. Ogechukwu Kanma (Bank Manager)Union Bank PLC Lagos Branch Lagos, Nigeria Attn/President/CEO Dear Sir, I am Ogechukwu Kanma, Bank Manager of Union Bank PLC, Lagos Branch. I got your contact from the World Trade Center (W.T.C.) Regional office in Lagos, Nigeria although the details of […]
Read more...I came up with this in revising an article. The US circa 1929 and China now: Alpha creditor.
Read more...Reader Dwight sent along this tidbit from OptionMONSTER ($) and I must confess it piqued my interest. As you will see, the trade described in this story makes sense only if you believe the acquisition of Merrill by Bank of America will not close, or will appear to be in serious doubt. That seems like […]
Read more...I must confess that there are certain types of human activity that are a complete mystery to me, and much of the column ink spilled this weekend serves as a vivid reminder. There are two types of articles very much on display: 1. Who will key members of Obama’s cabinet be (with the financial press […]
Read more...This comes from Adam Levitin at Credit Slips: There are lots and lots of differences in the financial institutions situation of the Depression and today. And yet there are some remarkable parallels in the problems and government responses. We shouldn’t overread parallels as predictive matters. But some of them are pretty astounding: Banks in the […]
Read more...I was catching up on other blogs and saw that Ed Harrison has a clip of Boy George “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?” as his theme song of the week just passed. I think this is a bit more evocative of what we have been through (trust me, just play it): : The […]
Read more...I must confess that I have found the events of the last few weeks mighty unsettling, for what they mean not just for the US and the world economy, but the possible implications for geopoltics and our own political processes. We are seeing big shifts along a lot of major fault lines. I found this […]
Read more...This doesn’t qualify as comic relief, but it is a tad freakish how well this clip works: Hat tip Ben Bitroff
Read more...Dunno about you, but I need some levity right now. Enjoy!
Read more...Enjoy!
Read more...Get a load of this e-mail I received from a CNN affiliate selling air time on American Airlines flights. And consider further that this was sent to my day-job e-mail address, which is, to put it mildly, not very easy to find (ie, I don’t subscribe to small business or consulting publications that would put […]
Read more...This exchange from Institutional Risk Analytics is a bit light on the vitriol, but the observation is acute: The IRA: But speaking of certainty, don’t you believe that it is impossible to give our leaders a pass with respect to the mortgage bubble? How can we look at Alan Greenspan, Larry Summers or Bob Rubin […]
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