Author Archives: Felix

A Brief History of Bill Gross’s Picture Byline

Posted on June 2, 2008 by Felix

Things were sunny in Newport Beach until September 2006. Up to that date, Bill Gross’s monthly Investment Outlooks carried a colorful photo, complete with trademark moustache: The following month, however, the photo had turned B&W, and the moustache was gone … Continue reading →

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Whither WaMu’s Killinger?

Posted on June 2, 2008 by Felix

There were just 24 days between Ken Thompson losing his chairmanship of Wachovia and his being fired by the board. At that rate, Kerry Killinger of WaMu, who lost his chairmanship today, is likely to be fired on June 26. … Continue reading →

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Andrei Shleifer, Billionaire?

Posted on June 2, 2008 by Felix

David Warsh has a great piece on Andrei Shleifer this week. Shleifer is known as a first-rate economist, and is also notorious for some shenanigans in Russia in the 1990s; Warsh makes a strong case that it’s time “to close … Continue reading →

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Annals of Crap Succession Planning, Wachovia Edition

Posted on June 2, 2008 by Felix

What a mess. Wachovia’s board, led by its chairman of less than a month, Lanty Smith, has fired the CEO, Kennedy Thompson, with no idea of who’s going to replace him. There’s now an interim CEO (Smith) as well as … Continue reading →

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Why is Harvard Economics so Popular?

Posted on June 2, 2008 by Felix

Brad DeLong doesn’t think much of the Harvard economics department as a place for undergraduates: My years as a junior faculty member and as head tutor of economics make me think that there is an enormous disproportion between resource inputs … Continue reading →

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Ideas for Fixing Libor

Posted on June 2, 2008 by Felix

Many thanks to Stanford’s Darrell Duffie for leaving a comment on my last post about Libor. Duffie is one of the academics who signed off on the WSJ’s attempt to prove the measure flawed, so he’s probably disappointed that the … Continue reading →

Posted in banking | 1 Comment

Where’s the IP in Finance?

Posted on June 2, 2008 by Felix

Gillian Tett had an excellent article in the FT this weekend on innovation in the derivatives markets: I highly recommend you read it. She gets some great quotes: “It’s a strange business,” admits one senior banker. “First you make money … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Monday Morning Edition

Posted on June 2, 2008 by Felix

Taxpayers May Face Hurricane Tab: Think of it as the Florida version of ethanol: indefensible, but necessary because it’s such an important state electorally. BK Judge Rules Stated Income HELOC Debt Dischargeable: The bank didn’t rely on the borrower’s (mis)representations, … Continue reading →

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Cheap Food and Expensive Wine

Posted on June 1, 2008 by Felix

Frank Bruni is right, I think: The same plate of pasta goes down a lot easier at $12 — it even tastes better at $12 — than it does at $16. Why does food behave in the opposite manner to … Continue reading →

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Why Won’t the UK Join the Euro?

Posted on June 1, 2008 by Felix

When the euro was born, there were some reasonably good economic reasons why the UK shouldn’t be part of it from day one. Gordon Brown came up with his famous five tests, with the predictable (and desired) result that the … Continue reading →

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When a Retirement Plan isn’t a Savings Plan

Posted on June 1, 2008 by Felix

What’s the difference between saving for retirement, on the one hand, and plain old saving, on the other? Teresa Ghilarducci, an economist at the New School, has a provocative book out, entitled "When I’m Sixty-Four: The Plot against Pensions and … Continue reading →

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Nassim Taleb Datapoints of the Day

Posted on June 1, 2008 by Felix

From Bryan Appleyard’s profile of Taleb in the Sunday Times: Taleb’s fee for a speaking engagement: "about $60,000" Taleb’s advance on his next book: $4 million Taleb’s profits on Black Monday: "$35m to $40m" And then there’s Taleb’s new health … Continue reading →

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US Sugar: No Victim of Nafta

Posted on May 31, 2008 by Felix

Mary Williams Walsh, in the NYT, has a good investigation of US Sugar, and the way that its managers seem to be enriching themselves at the expense of their employee-shareholders. It is unfortunate, however, that one sentence, buried in her … Continue reading →

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Import-Export Datapoint of the Day

Posted on May 31, 2008 by Felix

Justin Fox: Starting early this year, though, things changed. Loaded outbound containers outnumbered empties in February, March, and April, the first such three-month run, Wong says, since the spring of 2000. The totals so far in 2008 are 1,033,655 loaded … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Friday Edition

Posted on May 30, 2008 by Felix

Drinking and Driving: The relative cost of beer and gasoline. Drink more, drive less! A Road Map for Natural Capitalism: Amory Lovins on how to make money by being planet-friendly. Brazil wins second key investment rating: From Fitch. Is the … Continue reading →

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Seared

Posted on May 30, 2008 by Felix

Evan Newmark has a good analysis of Sears Holdings today. I really can’t see any reason to hold this stock: all the old reasons don’t seem to pertain any more. Eddie Lampert has given up on the idea of running … Continue reading →

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CDOs Return

Posted on May 30, 2008 by Felix

Accrued Interest has a very good post in defense of CDOs, explaining that they make a lot more sense than SIVs or hedge funds playing in the credit space: In most cases, SIVs collapsed not because they took on too … Continue reading →

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Silverjet, RIP

Posted on May 30, 2008 by Felix

Another airline bites the dust: this time it’s Silverjet, the all-business-class airline: it lasted just a few months longer than MaxJet. The official statement from Silverjet is pathetic, in the literal sense of the word: We extend our sincerest apologies … Continue reading →

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How Bear Failed

Posted on May 30, 2008 by Felix

Did you have time to read more than 10,000 words by Kate Kelly on the fall of Bear Stearns? It’s an interesting series, full of color. My favorite bit is Jamie Dimon vs Vikram Pandit: Late Sunday night, as lawyers … Continue reading →

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Defending Libor

Posted on May 29, 2008 by Felix

Carrick Mollenkamp and Mark Whitehouse got some pretty heavyweight backing for their Libor investigation today: before running it on the front page of the WSJ, they got sign-offs from Darrell Duffie of Stanford, Mikhail Chernov of London Business School, and … Continue reading →

Posted in banking | 8 Comments

Marking to Last Year’s Market, Charity Ball Edition

Posted on May 29, 2008 by Felix

In the very first issue of Portfolio, last year, Tom Wolfe reported on the annual charity ball held by the Robin Hood foundation. After listing the excesses of the auction (ten "power meals" for $650,000; a "five-day “Surf and Sun” … Continue reading →

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The Economics of Rick Mishkin

Posted on May 29, 2008 by Felix

This, from Brad DeLong, seems relevant, somehow, in the wake of Rick Mishkin’s resignation from the board of governors of the Federal Reserve: In other disciplines to leave your university because another offers to pay you more entails personal humiliation … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Wednesday Bonus Edition

Posted on May 28, 2008 by Felix

Journal Women: A new WSJ site, for women. It seems quite fluffy: is Murdoch’s hand at work? The Cayne Mutiny: By Charlie Gasparino. "I have never seen him stoned — not once." A New Foreclosure TV Show!  

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Extra Credit, Wednesday Edition

Posted on May 28, 2008 by Felix

America’s hottest investor: Another fund manager gets the Fortune hagiography treatment. Even if he deserves it, this is not necessarily a good thing. Auditor: Supervisors Covered Up Risky Loans: "About 75 percent of the time, loans that should have been … Continue reading →

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Should Citi Cut its Dividend?

Posted on May 28, 2008 by Felix

Holman Jenkins has a most peculiar column today which seemingly tries to defend Citigroup’s decision to continue paying dividends, even as it’s raising billions of dollars of capital elsewhere. Except he never quite comes out and says that Citi is … Continue reading →

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