The New York Times describes how some big-money players are skipping the commodities market and going directly to being hard asset players by buying farmland and grain elevators. This is hardly new (I know of one global macro fund that was making ag related investments two years ago) but the Times piece gives the impression […]
Read more...I am overdue on a write-up of a great panel discussion hosted by the folks at RGE Monitor (Nouriel Roubini’s blog/news service). It was all fundamentally oriented, so with the coming holiday weekend and lack of new news, you will not be any worse off for my delay (although I am annoyed that I haven’t […]
Read more...I must admit that I have never fallen in love with an investment. Yet per the summary of an article in International Journal of Psychoanalysis (hat tip 2ubh, investors are prone to “emotional inflation” similar to what people experience in romantic relationships. But the piece leaves key questions unanswered: do depressives or paranoid schizoids make […]
Read more...The Financial Times reports that mutual funds got off to a very bad start this year, with 24 of the 25 biggest managers seeing a decline in funds. Note first that the article is not discussing individual funds (e.g. Magellean) but fund families (e.g. Fidelity). Note second that the fall isn’t simply the result of […]
Read more...Reader Benjamin sent me this query, and I thought I’d be so bold as to hazard an answer, and anticipate that others will have valuable perspective to contribute: I read NC on a regular basis, and would like to see some macro advice for your younger readers, like myself. If I’m parsing commentary correctly, I […]
Read more...Even great investors have bad days and bad calls. John Authers has a clever piece in the Financial Times on the errors Buffett and Soros have made. According to a soon-to-be-released book by Vahan Jahigian, Buffett is astute about his picks, natch, but not so hot at selling. He argues that the Sage of Omaha […]
Read more...A very long time ago (roughly 1985), a colleague handed me a short Brooking paper by Robert Vishny, Josef Lakonishok, and Andrei Shleifer. By then it was a couple of years old. I’ve not been able to find it online, but my recollection of it is pretty good. It was the first time these well-respected […]
Read more...This is a very well done piece, presented as a letter from the chairman of GM, that gives an overview of the fall from grace of what was once America’s premier corporation. The real source is Porter Stansberry of Stansberry & Associates Investment Research (via colleague Paul S) . The article ran last year, but […]
Read more...While the amount at issue isn’t large by global finance standards, the fact that one of the UK’s biggest property funds had to stop withdrawals is not a good sign about the damage that falls in real estate prices are inflicting on investors’ psychology and balance sheets. The Guardian and the Financial Times reported on […]
Read more...I for one enjoy it when those well versed in Wall Street lingo and logic go to the trouble of using it to demonstrate that the market for what passes for talent in the securities industry is very inefficient. And the Financial Times is more willing to challenge how the Masters of the Universe are […]
Read more...The report in Financial Times that Saudi Arabia plans to launch a sovereign wealth fund is significant for several reasons. First, it marks a shift in the kingdom’s approach to investing, which heretofore had been conducted via the Saudi Arabia Monetary Authority or privately by members of the royal family. The new entity will be […]
Read more...If this story proves to be valid, Bear has a major mess on its hands. Business Week reports that the SEC and the US attorney’s office in Brooklyn are looking into whether Bear permitted insiders to withdraw their capital in February and March from the two Bear hedge funds that failed later in the year. […]
Read more...It’s rare that I find fault with the the Financial Times, and even more uncommon with Gillian Tett and Paul Davies, who are two of their most seasoned and insightful journalists. Nevertheless, they have bitten off more than they can chew in “Out of the shadows: How banking’s secret system broke down.” The piece isn’t […]
Read more...The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg report that Bank of America will be shuttering a $12 billion enhanced cash fund. Note that this was a fund for institutional investors, and not a money market fund. Note that we had reported on a freeze on redemptions at this fund earlier. Investors who are still in the […]
Read more...As possible financial trouble spots go, this is far from the biggest. UK property funds are a £10 billion industry. But after the Northern Rock debacle, the last thing the UK needs is another panic where investors pull withdraw their balance from vehicles that can’t take large scale redemptions. The problem with UK property trusts […]
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