Category Archives: Risk and risk 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.

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.

The Invisible Business Risk of the Covid-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered unprecedented changes in employment levels and the values of stocks, bonds, commodities, and currencies.

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.

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.

Damning New Story on CalPERS Sacrificing $1 Billion Hedge Profits Confirms Doubts About Chief Investment Officer Ben Meng’s Competence

More evidence that CalPERS Chief Investment Officer Ben Meng is over his head.

CalPERS Dumps Risk Hedge Right Before Coronacrash, Sacrificing $1 Billion and Confirming Doubts About Chief Investment Officer Ben Meng’s Expertise

CalPERS supposed star hire Ben Meng just cost the giant fund $1 billion, over the objections of expert adviser Wilshire Associates.

Martin Wolf and Wishful Thinking on Ending Coronavirus Lockdowns

It would be nice to go back to something like the old normal. But the coronavirus is still very much in charge.

New York Fed, FDIC Tout “Opacity in a Banking Crisis” to Keep Corporations, Hedge Funds, PE Firms & Counterparties in the Dark about Weak Banks

An article by Fed and FDIC researchers argues for hiding banks’ dirty laundry. Too bad the authorities didn’t make banks shape up instead.

Global Level 4 Travel Advisory: Stealth Subsidy for Insurers?

The State Department’s global level 4 health advisory,recommending US citizens not travel internationally, has travel insurance implications.

COVID-19 Math Explained, With Data

Looking at COVID-19 R0s.