Monthly Archives: July 2007

Bookstaber Blogs: Why Hedge Fund Managers Make Less Than You Think

Rick Bookstaber is blogging!
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Emerging Markets: Yields and Spreads

Alphaville’s Gwen Robinson has gotten
her hands on
some research from CLSA’s Christopher Wood,
who foresees emerging-market debt yields even lower than the yields on US Treasury
bonds.
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Posted in bonds and loans, emerging markets, foreign exchange | Comments Off on Emerging Markets: Yields and Spreads

Bill Gross Joins the Billionaires-for-Tax-Hikes Club

Add billionaire Bill Gross, of Pimco, to the list of rich
men who want to raise taxes on the rich.
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Rail Privatization: Is Germany Doing it Right?

The planned IPO of Deutsche Bahn could go very well.
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More Details Emerge on GMU Economics Upheaval

Midas Oracle has more
details
on the news
that most of GMU’s Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science (ICES), led
by Nobel laureate Vernon Smith, is moving to California.
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Why It’s OK to Trust Ratings Agencies

Over the past decades, it’s very hard to find areas where the ratings agencies have been spectacularly wrong.
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GMU’s Other Star Professor Leaves

To lose one star economics professor to a minor-league competitor could be considered a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.
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The Barclays Catch-22

Dennis Berman talked to Barclays president Bob Diamond
today, and got this astonishing admission:
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Vernon Smith Leaves GMU; Bloggers Silent

One might almost think that a don’t-blog-this edict had gone out, either explicitly or implicitly.
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Posted in economics | Comments Off on Vernon Smith Leaves GMU; Bloggers Silent

Harry Kat: Changing His Tune?

Earlier this month, John Cassidy profiled
Harry Kat, hedge fund replictor. It certainly seemed that Kat’s
business was to replicate the returns that hedge funds generate, if not on a
month-to-month basis then certainly over the medium term.
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Vonage: Bad for Shareholders, Good for Consumers

Vonage’s business model might not be great for its shareholders, but it’s certainly good news for consumers.
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Posted in technology | 5 Comments

Transocean’s Unnecessary $15 Billion in Debt

The era of leveraged deals is far from over, it would seem.
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Unanswered Questions at Bear Stearns

Does anybody really understand what happened at the two Bear Stearns hedge funds which have now imploded?
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When Governments Buy Companies

Most foreign takeovers do not pose any kind of national-security problem at all.
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Using the iPhone Abroad

I’ve been doing a bit of homework, and I think I now know most of what there
is to know about using the iPhone abroad. In a word: Beware.
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Give Your Money Away

The rich use economics – or, more to the point, economists – to delude themselves that they shouldn’t give their money away.
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Posted in economics, remainders | Comments Off on Give Your Money Away

Blackstone and Orbitz Tumble

Whose bright idea was it to take Orbitz public under the ticker symbol OWW?
That’s certainly the sound that Blackstone chief Steve Schwarzman
is making today
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New ABX Mortgage Index Still Looks Ugly

The much-followed ABX index of subprime mortgage bonds rolled over yesterday.
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Posted in bonds and loans, housing | Comments Off on New ABX Mortgage Index Still Looks Ugly

Low Rates: Dead or Alive?

It’s the duel of the newsweekly pundits! Is God dead, or is God alive? (And
by God, of course, I mean the era of low interest rates.)
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Congestion Pricing is Important

Yesterday, the New York congestion
pricing deal
was big news.
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Repugnant Markets

Blogger Tim Harford got blogger
Virginia
Postrel
, blogger Robin
Hanson
, and a few non-bloggers such as the Bishop of Swindon to all talk
to him for a fascinating BBC radio documentary
on repugnant markets
. Go read the transcript:
it’s great stuff.
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New York Congestion Pricing: It’s Alive!

Aaron Naparstek of Streetsblog has details
of the congestion-pricing deal
which was struck in Albany today, and I have
to say it’s a good one.
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Dell: Immune From Delisting

The Nasdaq board has decided that Dell shares can
continue to trade on their exchange indefinitely
, despite the fact that
it hasn’t filed its past four quarterly reports, or its annual report.
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Green Dimes: The VC-Backed For-Profit Philanthropy

Green Dimes
has just raised
more than $20 million of venture capital
from Tudor Investment Corporation
and others.
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Posted in climate change | Comments Off on Green Dimes: The VC-Backed For-Profit Philanthropy

The Economics of Tour De France Breakaways

Andrew Leonard finds
a great piece of microeconomic analysis in
the sports pages
, of all places, from the NYT’s Edward Wyatt:
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