Category Archives: Investment management

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.

Private Equity Clearly Inferior to Public Equity: Delivers Similar Returns With Lower Liquidity

More evidence that private equity underperforms on a risk-adjusted basis.

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.

Wall Street’s Useful Idiot: Financial Times Shills for CLOs….as Fed Hasn’t Bailed Them Out

A major story on the CLOs chooses not to address the key questions.

Public Pension Plans in a World of Hurt; Even Loyalists Warning of Grim Prospects

Not surprisingly, public pension fund economics look pretty sick.

Universa Debunks CalPERS’ Defense of $1 Billion Tail Hedge Miss; Insider Accounts Expose Additional Misrepresentations

CalPERS efforts to ‘splain away its $1 billion tail hedge fiasco backfire as one of the tail risk managers, Universa, shreds CalPERS’ claims.

Fed Drastically Slashed Helicopter Money for Wall Street. QE Down 86% From Peak Week in March

Keeping tabs on Fed munificence.

More Public Pension Fund Pain: LACERS Reports Hit to Liquidity from Private Equity Capital Calls; Are Fund Managers Exploiting the Dumb Money Yet Again?

Private equity firms are sucking cash out of their limited partners at the worst possible time, exposing public pension funds in particular to liquidity crunches and fire sales.

CalPERS Out of Control: Stunningly High Number of Personal Trading Violations, Yet Board Ignored the Misconduct

CalPERS yet again manages to exceed expectations in a bad way.

Mitch McConnell to State Pension Funds: Drop Dead

Prominent Republicans are threatening to gore the public pension fund ox.

Hissy Fit by CalPERS Board: Falsely Blames Margaret Brown for Staff Leaks of CIO Meng’s $1 Billion Giveup, Public Opposition to Staff Coup

Sports fans, it seems hard to believe, but the CalPERS board has sunk to a new low with an extended display of incompetence and pique.

Press Ferrets Out More Falsehoods by CalPERS CIO Ben Meng, Evidence of Poor Leadership, in Giving Up >$1 Billion Hedge Payday

CalPERS’ embattled CIO Ben Meng digs his $1 billion hole deeper with not-credible defenses. Tell the board not to cede more authority to him.

CalPERS Staff Seeks to Strip Board of Remaining Authority Even as Press Exposes Multi-Billion Cost of Lack of Supervision; Elected Board Members Thumb Nose at Public by Seeking to Be Paid for Doing Almost Nothing

CalPERS staff is up to more dirty tricks. Push back by e-mail in public comments. Bad press already has them on the back foot.

Taleb Questions CalPERS Ben Meng’s Competence and Honesty in Defending Missed $1 Billion Hedge Gain; Taleb Estimates CalPERS Net Loss on Meng’s “Alternative Mitigation” Over Two Years at $19 Billion

Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls out one of CalPERS CIO Ben Meng’s Big Lies, and unearths an even bigger one.

A Payments Holiday is More Realistic Than You Think

It may be simpler to enact a payments holiday than to try to get money to the hands of individuals who desperately need it.