Monthly Archives: August 2008

Ben Stein Watch: August 31, 2008

Posted on August 31, 2008 by Felix

Of the two candidates for president of the United States, one has an intelligent, coherent, and sophisticated economic policy. The other is quite open about the fact that he has almost no grasp of economics and that he is utterly … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Friday Edition

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Felix

Why Do We Use Core Inflation? A clear essay from Mark Thoma. Citigroup Settles Charges of Widespread Theft of Customer Funds: Mostly from the "poor or recently deceased". Are Louis Vuitton’s Artist Collaborations Nearing Their End? Probably not, but they … Continue reading →

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Joe Nocera, Blogger

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Felix

This is why newspapers should want all their columnists to blog. Joe Nocera: Although Lehman has been the number one rated equity research shop (again, according to Institutional Investor), that just shows how flawed such ratings are. Everybody on Wall … Continue reading →

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How to Stop Stocks from Falling

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Felix

Last month the Pakistani Small Investors Association made a "demand that all stock prices be frozen at current levels". Ask, it seems, and you shall receive: The Board of Directors of the Karachi Stock Exchange has decreed that although stock … Continue reading →

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Chart of the Day: Palin on InTrade

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Felix

Here’s today’s intraday chart of Sarah Palin’s contract at InTrade: this is meant to show the crowd’s wisdom on the question of whether she will be John McCain’s vice-presidential nominee. (The times are Irish, so they’re 5 hours ahead of … Continue reading →

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$250,000 per Year Counts as Rich

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Felix

Slate’s Moneybox column is mostly home to Dan Gross, but occasionally other people write for it too. Back in May, it was fine for Sam Grobart and Tara Siegel Bernard to write that "for a family of four living in … Continue reading →

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0% is Not a Useful Stock Fund Benchmark

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Felix

Barry Ritholtz says it’s "amazing" that out of 2,100 diversified retail U.S. stock mutual funds open to new investors, just 17 have positive returns for both the past 12 months and year-to-date. The factoid comes, depressingly enough, from a very … Continue reading →

Posted in investing, personal finance | 1 Comment

Peter Niculescu, Teflon Executive

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Felix

How did Peter Niculescu manage to get promoted to the important new position of Chief Business Officer at Fannie Mae? This is how Fannie Mae describes his history at the company after he joined in 1999: In his previous position … Continue reading →

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Another Anonymous Wall Street Blogger is Fired

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Felix

Another day, another Wall Street analyst gets fired for his anonymous blog, despite taking precautions after the same thing happened to former Citigroup trader Michael McCarthy. The blogger known as "1-2" was never all that anonymous: for starters, he happily … Continue reading →

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GDP and the Decline of National Statistics

Posted on August 28, 2008 by Felix

Zubin has a good roundup of reactions to the latest GDP numbers, which basically amount to a lot of economists caught wrong-footed and desperately trying to explain why a 3.3% growth rate isn’t anything like as healthy as one might … Continue reading →

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