Category Archives: Risk and risk management

Investment Case Study: Some Oxford Dons Take Skeptical Look at Yale and Canadian Investment Fads, Um, Models

Believe it or not, a case study on major approaches to investing that is both informative and fun to read.

CalPERS Uses Unqualified “Expert” to Validate Its London-Whale-Style Deficient Risk Management

CalPERS tells its board that the very same lax risk management oversight structure that led to the London Whale fiasco is “best practice” when it clearly isn’t.

The New Abnormal: “Disequilibrium Flirting with Deflationary Depression”

The New Abnormal: a period of profound disequilibrium as the aftershocks of the Crisis collide with and complicate structural changes.

#panamapapers: Questioning the Picture Painted in the WSJ’s Interview With Jürgen Mossack

A sceptical look at Jürgen Mossack’s WSJ interview

A Modest Proposal: Securitizing Loans for Large Health Care Expenses

Health care loans are the equivalent of mortgages for large health care expenses. What could go wrong?

New Zealand’s FMA, the Breder Suasso Conundrum, Mossack Fonseca, and #panamapapers

A quick look at Breder Suasso, a New Zealand FSP with historic links to disreputable Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca

New Zealand Foreign Trusts and the Unaoil Scandal: More Chickens Coming Home to Roost, and They’re Big

First a political fracas in Malta, now a giant international bribery scandal: New Zealand Foreign Trusts cover themselves in more glory

Negative Interest Rates – Are There Any Positives?

The more you look at negative interest rates, the harder it is to find anything to like.

Mossack Fonseca: The New Zealand Connection

A little sniff at the New Zealand operations of notorious Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca

Banks Once Burned, Now Twice Shy About Taking on More Takeover-Deal-Related Junk Debt

Banks have gotten a painful reminder that originating risky assets like junk bonds and loans can leave them holding the bag.

New Zealand Foreign Trusts: Chickens Coming Home to Roost

After many warnings were ignored, New Zealand Foreign Trusts are now damaging NZ’s reputation overseas

Radioactive Waste Still Leaking Five Years After Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

The Fukushima site is still leaking radioactive water and the cleanup and remediation will take decades.

HSBC’s Money Laundering Nightmare (2): Mossack Fonseca, a Year in Words and Pictures, March 2015-March 2016

Mossack Fonseca and its trail of street protests: they are in it up to their thighs, and HSBC’s Stuart Gulliver has “no idea”.

The UK’s Money Laundering Mess (III): LLPs, Secrecy Jurisdictions, PSCs, and a Forthcoming Fiasco

Why the UK’s latest anti money laundering measures don’t look very convincing

The Financial Times’ Revisionist History on Hedge Funds’ Failure to Deliver Manager Outperformance, or Alpha

Repeat after me: hedge funds produce little to no alpha, and contrary to what the Financial Times would have you believe, investors have known that for quite a while.