Monthly Archives: May 2008

Extra Credit, Thursday Edition

Posted on May 15, 2008 by Felix

Why H-P’s Stock Is Stuck: "Itßøßøs a well-run, slow growing giant of a company" The New Peak Oil: Peak Demand Chicago Overturns Foie Gras Ban Is "the X-word" Dead? First it was XFRML. Then it was XBRL. Now it’s ID, … Continue reading →

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How Often Would You Like to be Paid?

Posted on May 15, 2008 by Felix

If you’re poor, you’re generally acutely aware of exactly how much money you have at any given time, and that amount is generally very low. Andrew Goodman-Bacon and Leslie McGranahan have a paper out now on the Earned Income Tax … Continue reading →

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NYC Bike Datapoint of the Day

Posted on May 15, 2008 by Felix

Joshua Benson, the bicycle program coordinator for the New York City Department of Transportation, mentions a startling statistic without even seeming to realise how startling it is: As the number of cyclists in New York City has grown (75 percent … Continue reading →

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Pandit Spams his Customers

Posted on May 15, 2008 by Felix

Logging on to my Citibank account this morning, I found this, which recapitulates an email I received a few days ago: The link takes you here, to a letter which simply begs for parsing. But before we get to the … Continue reading →

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Zimbabwe Datapoint of the Day

Posted on May 15, 2008 by Felix

Ian Brakspear: During the meal, one of my mates was drinking beer – 750ml bottles of Castle Lager (fondly called bombers) he ordered a 5th one, was advised that the price, which when he ordered his 1st, 2nd 3rd and … Continue reading →

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Leverage Datapoint of the Day

Posted on May 15, 2008 by Felix

I’ve somehow managed to avoid so much as mentioning the Clear Channel saga on this blog until now; for some reason I just couldn’t get excited about it. But Heidi Moore gets a good quote in her summing up today … Continue reading →

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How Unleaded Gasoline Slashed the Violent Crime Rate

Posted on May 15, 2008 by Felix

The paper, from the NBER, is 70 pages long, but the conclusion, from Jessica Wolpaw Reyes, is simple, and stunning: The main result of the paper is that changes in childhood lead exposure are responsible for a 56% drop in … Continue reading →

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Art: The Last Unburst Bubble

Posted on May 15, 2008 by Felix

Christie’s sale on Tuesday night was a stunning success, ratifying the ridiculous levels to which contemporary art has soared in recent years. The Sotheby’s sale on Wednesday night, by contrast, took the market to a whole new level. Not only … Continue reading →

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The Beginning of the End of the Credit Crisis?

Posted on May 14, 2008 by Felix

David Gaffen is watching the VIX decline to levels well off its March highs, and back towards its lowest point of the year to date. Meanwhile, Alea is watching financial-instution credit default swap spreads decline to levels well off their … Continue reading →

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Why Agricultural Subsidies Don’t Mean Lower Food Prices

Posted on May 14, 2008 by Felix

Do agricultural subsidies lower food prices? When I looked at this question last month, I dismissed it as a second-order effect: they might, they might not, either way it’s not going to be a big deal when compared to the … Continue reading →

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Why Bank Debt Looks Attractive

Posted on May 14, 2008 by Felix

Pimco’s investment professionals spent three days this month with the likes of Alan Greenspan, Nassim Taleb, and Mike Spence in something the bond manager calls its "Secular Forum". It fell to Mohamed El-Erian to sum it all up, and to … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Wednesday Edition

Posted on May 14, 2008 by Felix

The Discord in Similarity: John Thain is doing a better job than Vikram Pandit. Of Hedges, Hot Dish, and Hogwash: The Ben Stein Watch to end all Ben Stein Watches. Australian Bank Acquires Rival for $17.5 Billion: Apparently there’s a … Continue reading →

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Martin Sullivan Deathwatch

Posted on May 14, 2008 by Felix

In terms of Jack Flack’s five levels of CEO media hell, AIG’s Martin Sullivan has now graduated from "on the ropes" to "dead man walking". The WSJ’s headline says it all: "AIG’s Chief Faces Worries Of Investors and Directors" – … Continue reading →

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Overkill on the Profanity Desk

Posted on May 14, 2008 by Felix

Dear NYT, What the fuck are you doing? The Gray Lady devotes 1,200 words and four reporters today to covering in mind-numbing detail the fact that a television anchor inadvertently said the word "fuck" live on air. (Of course, being … Continue reading →

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IAC: Malone Concedes Defeat

Posted on May 14, 2008 by Felix

Barry Diller, Condé Nast Portfolio cover star, has decisively prevailed in his fight with John Malone, the largest shareholder of the company Diller runs. Malone’s Liberty Media won’t appeal the court decision which went in Diller’s favor in March, has … Continue reading →

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Contemporary Art: As Strong as Ever

Posted on May 14, 2008 by Felix

Bursting art bubble? What bursting art bubble? The Christie’s sale last night looked for all the world as though it was taking place at the height of the party: not only did it bring in a very impressive $348 million, … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Tuesday Edition

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Felix

Libor Set for Overhaul as Credibility Is Doubted Investors Cool to HPQ-EDS Deal: "HPQ has lost more market cap over the past 24 hours than the total purchase price of EDS." AT&T price cut could juice iPhone sales: Or, for … Continue reading →

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Robert Rauschenberg is Dead

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Felix

Go read Michael Kimmelman’s obituary, it’s one of the best things he’s written. Kicking around Europe and North Africa with the artist Cy Twombly for a few months after that, he began to collect and assemble objects — bits of … Continue reading →

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Bernanke on Bagehot

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Felix

I doubt a week has gone by since last summer during which I haven’t seen some pundit or other trot out Walter Bagehot’s dictum that in the event of a credit crunch, the central bank should lend freely at a … Continue reading →

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Bernanke: “Powerful and Inventive”

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Felix

Is there some kind of law saying that any long magazine profile of Ben Bernanke must mention Milton Friedman in the opening sentence and the Great Depression in the opening paragraph? First Roger Lowenstein did it, and now Steve Matthews … Continue reading →

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Prediction Markets: A Probability is not a Certainty

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Felix

Mark Gongloff has a rather silly attack on prediction markets today. Let’s start at the beginning: John McCain’s presidential campaign is doomed — at least, if you still believe what political futures markets indicate. At the Irish electronic exchange Intrade, … Continue reading →

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Let Them Eat Bear

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Felix

Now that’s what I call a power lunch: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke lunched on March 11 with a Who’s Who of Wall Street leaders, including JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon, three days before the central bank rescued … Continue reading →

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How to Burst the Rice Bubble

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Felix

Tom Slayton and Peter Timmer have an excellent brief out on which does much more than just explain why rice is so expensive right now: it also comes up with an elegant way of bringing the price down quite dramatically … Continue reading →

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How to Curb CEO Pay

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Felix

John Cassidy has got me thinking on executive pay. Cassidy is angry at the sums paid to CEOs, and he’s urging us all to "go ahead and get mad" in an attempt to curb the worst excesses. It’s not the … Continue reading →

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Was the Hamptons Property Bubble Speculative?

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Felix

Richard Florida thinks the Hamptons property market is about to crash: It’s clear as a bell that the tremendous run-up in housing prices in places like the Hamptons, Miami, Naples, Florida, or other similar high-end vacation spots had little to … Continue reading →

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