Author Archives: Felix

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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Annals of Port Authority Incompetence, Goldman Sachs Edition

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Felix

Is there one single aspect of the World Trade Center rebuilding project that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey hasn’t managed to utterly bollocks up? The latest news: New York State, 50% shareholder in PANYNJ, looks like … Continue reading →

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The Brazilian Economic Miracle

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Felix

There’s really nothing new in Matt Moffett’s front-pager on Brazil in today’s WSJ, but it’s worth a read anyway, especially if you haven’t been following the Brazil story very closely. My favorite phrase in the piece comes from the president … Continue reading →

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Moving Towards Exchange-Traded Credit Default Swaps

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Felix

Ken Griffin wants to move to a system of exchange-traded credit default swaps: Mr. Griffin wants the government to require the use of exchanges and clearing houses for credit default swaps and derivatives. That way, instead of investment banks playing … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Monday Edition

Posted on May 12, 2008 by Felix

Calling oil wrong: Futures prices bear no relation to future prices. Let’s not write the Fed a blank check: Why not? Isn’t that precisely what a central bank should have? So much for the efficient markets hypothesis: Bad results, rising … Continue reading →

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Why do Universities Have Tax-Exempt Endowments?

Posted on May 12, 2008 by Felix

The debate over the proposed tax on Harvard’s endowment continues, with my favorite contribution coming from one of Brad DeLong’s commenters: Harvard is an investment bank with a mom-and-pop non-profit enterprise attached to it for tax purposes. It’s a good … Continue reading →

Posted in education | 6 Comments

Disclosures: The Long/Short Dual Standard

Posted on May 12, 2008 by Felix

In Jesse Eisinger’s column this month, he makes an interesting observation about David Einhorn in particular, and short-sellers in general: Whenever a short-seller criticizes a company, the firm and the media go out of their way to disclose that the … Continue reading →

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ExpressJet’s Cashflows, Part 2

Posted on May 12, 2008 by Felix

I spoke to ExpressJet’s investor-relations chief Kristy Nicholas today, in the wake of my blog entry last week about the company. She helped clarify a couple of issues: Firstly, the 100% holdback on credit-card income isn’t nearly as damaging to … Continue reading →

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Has Tim Geithner Been Captured by Wall Street?

Posted on May 12, 2008 by Felix

Gary Weiss has a long profile of Tim Geithner in the June issue of Portfolio, and although he does give Geithner’s side of the story, he gives a lot of space to some very harsh criticisms of the New York … Continue reading →

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Barry Diller: Not Dead Yet

Posted on May 12, 2008 by Felix

Duff McDonald has a piece on Barry Diller in the June issue of Portfolio. I asked him what he thought of the mogul, after following him through a long and painful trial with John Malone. It seems there might yet … Continue reading →

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Beware Skidmarks

Posted on May 12, 2008 by Felix

A pair of sentences I’m sure Dan Ariely never thought he’d write (they appear in a blog entry about the uses of branding): I can’t just try to make myself feel better by imagining that I’m wearing Ferrari underwear. I … Continue reading →

Posted in intellectual property | 1 Comment

False Positives at Blogger

Posted on May 12, 2008 by Felix

What’s going on with Blogger? Both Yves Smith and Brad DeLong have run into problems of late, and I have a nasty feeling that it’s an unloved orphan stepchild within Google, and that it’s likely to continue to deteriorate further … Continue reading →

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Why Citi Can’t Be a Global Universal Bank

Posted on May 12, 2008 by Felix

Vikram Pandit still needs to do some work on the Vision Thing, I think. His big idea, as unveiled on Friday? Citigroup is – wait for it – a "global universal bank". At this point, he’s perilously close to a … Continue reading →

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Blogonomics: FT Alphaville

Posted on May 11, 2008 by Felix

FT Alphaville is hiring, and I took the opportunity to ask its fearless leader, Paul Murphy, a few questions about the FT’s flagship blog operation and the way that bloggers are treated at the pink ‘un. Here are his answers: … Continue reading →

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