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Monthly Archives: December 2008
Newspaper Economics
Jim Surowiecki’s column on newspapers is a good one, especially when he talks about the drop-off in advertising revenues and newspapers’ failure in the online space. I have to take issue with this, however: People don’t use the Times less … Continue reading
Posted in Media
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Further Adventures in GM Debt
GMAC’s brinkmanship would seem to have worked: Late Friday, the company received a reprieve from lenders, who agreed to amended terms of a $38 billion restructuring of debt obligations that were threatening to overwhelm the company. But the 10% (ish) … Continue reading
Posted in bailouts, bonds and loans
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Detroit Bailout: No News is Bad News
Shorter WSJ: Will the government use TARP funds to bail out the automakers? Maybe. Will it ask Congress to release the second tranche of TARP funds? Don’t know. If it did, would there be ugly scenes in Congress? Don’t know. … Continue reading
Posted in bailouts
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Madoff: The Tax Implications
Let’s say you’re a successful businessman who has managed to earn $10 million this year, but who also had $10 million invested with Bernie Madoff. Obviously, you’re not happy about seeing your savings wiped out — but if I’m reading … Continue reading
Posted in fiscal and monetary policy, fraud
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The Noble Lie
Ever since the Madoff affair became public I’ve been thinking about Harley Granville-Barker’s play The Voysey Inheritance, which has many parallels with Madoff. (A family investment-management firm uses its clients’ money as its own, and uses incoming funds to make … Continue reading
Ben Stein Watch: December 14, 2008
Are you worried about the state of the economy? Fear not! Ben Stein has a solution: "the federal government," he says, "has to guarantee loans made by lenders". This looks like English. It has English syntax. But I don’t think … Continue reading
Posted in ben stein watch
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Bernie Madoff Datapoint of the Day, Employment Edition
From the WSJ: People familiar with the firm say Madoff employed 200, with 20 or so in the asset management group that was housed in a separate floor from the trading group. I think we need to hear a lot … Continue reading
Posted in fraud
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Ecuador’s Small Investors
Since I wrote about Ecuador on Friday, there’s been a trickle of emails coming in from individual investors who hold the country’s bonds. These two came in quick succession: I’m not into locking up on default for months/years while the … Continue reading
Posted in bonds and loans, emerging markets
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Alex Kuczynski’s Moral Blindness
How is it possible that Lisa Wilson, in a three-sentence, 58-word letter to the editor, can raise more serious and more interesting moral issues surrounding the institution of surrogacy than Alex Kuczynski did in her entire 7,700-word cover story on … Continue reading
Posted in Not economics
5 Comments
Video of the Day: Bleed the World
Pure genius. Especially the Bono bit.
Posted in humor
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Extra Credit, Friday Edition
The Stock Market Still Hopes For a Bailout: I think Jim’s right and I was wrong on this one: the stock market is pricing in a TARP bailout for Detroit. Obama’s pick to solve the energy crisis Magicians And Mathematicians: … Continue reading
Posted in remainders
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Ecuador’s Idiotic Default
In the annals of idiotic political decisions, today’s default by Ecuador has to rank pretty high. The country failed to pay a $30.6 million interest payment on its 2012 global bonds, despite the fact that it has $5.65 billion in … Continue reading
Posted in emerging markets
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How TARP Funds will be Released
I’ve been looking for this all morning; many thanks to the NYT for finally clearing it up for me. How will Congress approve the $350 billion second tranche of TARP money, now that its legislative session is closed for the … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
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Information Transformation
Justin Fox has a great post on Bengt Holmström’s distinction between low-information and high-information assets: There are low-information assets–cash, bank deposits, money-market securities–where, most of the time, nobody really needs to know anything about their underlying value. Then there are … Continue reading
Posted in bonds and loans, economics
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Free Marketeers for Wage and Price Controls
Jim Surowiecki effectively slaps down those — like Henry Blodget — who would blame the UAW for the collapse of the Detroit bailout plan: There are a couple of things to notice about this story. First, it has almost nothing … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
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Madoff: Effectively Unaudited
Floyd Norris asks, of Bernie Madoff: I assume his funds’ books claimed to be audited. Who were the auditors? How were they fooled? It turns out that investor Jim Vos already looked into that: Madoff’s auditor, Friehling & Horowitz, operated … Continue reading
Posted in fraud
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Madoff: The 0-and-0 Hedge Fund Manager
Reading Michael Ocrant’s 2001 profile of Bernie Madoff (via Greg Newton), one can see why fund-of-funds loved him so much: they got to keep all the associated fees! Madoff himself charged nothing: The acknowledged Madoff feeder funds — New York-based … Continue reading
Posted in fraud, hedge funds
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Stick a Spork in Him, He’s Done
Bernie Madoff: one of the biggest crooks of all time, but a boring name. If only he was called something straight out of a comic book. Something like Otto Spork. He’s a real person: a man who invested substantially his … Continue reading
Posted in fraud, hedge funds
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Will the White House Bail Out Detroit?
The ball’s in the White House’s court; there’s no chance of Congress passing a Detroit bailout bill before it reconvenes next year. The White House has TARP funds, but only $15 billion remains from the first $350 billion tranche; that’s … Continue reading
Posted in bailouts
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It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Madoff World
The WSJ fills in more details regarding the Madoff case, and it’s actually more gobsmackingly unbelievable than it was last night. For one thing, Madoff didn’t invest simply on behalf of a couple of dozen multibillionaires; he had many common-or-garden … Continue reading
Posted in fraud
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Extra Credit, Thursday Edition
Paul Krugman’s Nobel Prize Lecture: Maybe you can get the video to work, I can’t. Shareholder Value: US companies, since Q4 2004, have returned more money to shareholders than they’ve actually made. $73 an Hour: Adding It Up: "Labor costs, … Continue reading
Posted in remainders
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Diamond Datapoint of the Day
Bloomberg headline, Dec 9: "Diamond May Fetch 9 Million Pounds at Christie’s, Defying Slump". Bloomberg headline, Dec 10: "Diamond Sells for Record $24.3 Million, Defying Slump". Consider the slump defied! But the best line comes from the buyer, Laurence Graff, … Continue reading
Posted in consumption
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This is Not Good
The WSJ reports that talks to save the automakers have broken down in the Senate, and that there will be no bailout. Once again, Congressional Republicans have killed an intiative backed by both the White House and the Democrats — … Continue reading
Posted in bankruptcy, Politics
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Loan Mod Datapoint of the Day
From the NYT’s Sheila Bair article: A $300 billion foreclosure prevention program passed by Congress this summer to help up to 400,000 homeowners wound up larded with requirements, like requiring background checks and restricting eligibility for mortgage relief to people … Continue reading
Posted in housing
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The World’s Biggest Ever Heist
I still can’t quite get my head around the enormity of the numbers in the Madoff case. For one thing, Madoff’s investment advisory business served between 11 and 25 clients and had a total of about $17.1 billion in assets … Continue reading