Monthly Archives: March 2009

Another Reason for Banks to be Small

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Felix

Mike at Rortybomb finds some empirical research on what happens to loan rates when banks get bigger and more consolidated. The results make intuitive sense: as competition falls, loan rates go up. The exception is loans which can be securitized, … Continue reading →

Posted in banking | 68 Comments

GM’s Whining Bondholders

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Felix

Andrew Ross Sorkin takes aim at GM’s bondholders today: Not three hours after the president spoke on Monday I received an e-mail message from a group representing G.M. bondholders — people who are likely to have an enormous influence over … Continue reading →

Posted in bailouts, bonds and loans | 47 Comments

Moving to Reuters

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Felix

As you might have heard, I’m moving my blog from Portfolio to Reuters. The new blog will be here, and the Reuters RSS feed will be here. But if you read my by subscribing to the felixsalmon.com “all posts” feed, … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements | 72 Comments

Extra Credit, Monday Edition

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Felix

Why size matters: Steve Waldman is a fan of banks getting smaller. In Market Cap, Google Now Bigger Than GE The Taiwanese war against tax evasion: Clever. The Government Crackdown on Peer-to-Peer Lending: I think it should be regulated by … Continue reading →

Posted in remainders | 15 Comments

Whither This Year’s MBAs?

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Felix

One thing drilled into every MBA student is that sunk costs are irrelevant, while opportunity costs are paramount. Which is a lesson this year’s graduating class will put to good use. Let’s say that in any given year, there’s a … Continue reading →

Posted in education | 13 Comments

Answers to Four Questions About Financial Journalism

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Felix

Will Ortel, a journalism student at the College of Idaho in Caldwell, Idaho, sent me a few questions about financial literacy for a project he’s doing. They’re good questions, so I’m blogging the answers: Financial education for the layman is … Continue reading →

Posted in journalism | 9 Comments

Why Healthy Banks Shouldn’t Repay TARP Funds

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Felix

I got an interesting response from one reader to my post on whether healthy banks should be able to give back TARP funds. Here it is, with permission; the short version is basically "no". The TARP preferred shares were extended … Continue reading →

Posted in bailouts, banking | 7 Comments

OpenTable, Closed Minds

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Felix

I’m a huge fan of OpenTable, and I’ve always imagined that restaurants are, too. They don’t need to spend hours on the phone telling people what’s free and what’s not, special instructions don’t get garbled, and it’s very easy to … Continue reading →

Posted in food | 4 Comments

Why Big Banks Should be Smaller

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Felix

James Kwak wants to make US financial institutions smaller: There are a few main things that made companies like AIG and Citigroup systematically important. One was interconnectedness: they did business with lots of counterparties. One was complexity: when push came … Continue reading →

Posted in banking, regulation | 5 Comments

Great Moments in Political Rhetoric: Hannan vs Brown

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Felix

From the European parliament, of all places: (Via MAI, although I’m late to this, it’s been viewed almost 2 million times on YouTube already.)

Posted in Politics | 6 Comments