Author Archives: Felix

How Important is it to Jail Insider Traders?

Posted on April 28, 2008 by Felix

An interesting discussion about regulators with teeth cropped up during John Gapper’s panel on financial centers. Gapper noted that the SEC was much better at jailing white-collar criminals than any of London’s financial regulators, to which Guy Saxton, the CEO … Continue reading →

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Cities: The Least Bad Part of US Real Estate

Posted on April 28, 2008 by Felix

As a general rule, if you get the opportunity to hear Sam Zell speak, you should take it. He was on the real estate panel today, and he didn’t disappoint. The moderator was Lew Feldman, a real-estate lawyer, who started … Continue reading →

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The State of Credit

Posted on April 28, 2008 by Felix

The Milken Global Conference kicked off this morning with a panel moderated by Mike Milken on the only possible subject: credit. It was a high-level panel, with some high-level discourse: one of the most sophisticated conversations I’ve ever tried to … Continue reading →

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Airline Datapoint of the Day

Posted on April 28, 2008 by Felix

David Robertson, on Eos shutting down: Rising oil prices are causing havoc in the airline industry and Eos is the seventh carrier in two weeks to seek bankruptcy protection or go bust. I guess that ballyhooed service from London to … Continue reading →

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The Problems of Congestion Pricing in LA

Posted on April 28, 2008 by Felix

Tim Rutten objects to congestion pricing on LA freeways, and I, like Mark Thoma, am sympathetic. Since I was such a strong advocate of congestion pricing in New York City, however, it’s worth teasing out the main reason why something … Continue reading →

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Blogonomics: Going Pro

Posted on April 28, 2008 by Felix

Megan McArdle reckons that econoblogging has become professionalized: All of the high-traffic economics bloggers I read are either professors, in some similarly rewarding profession, or already tied up by a media organization… I’m not sure what this means for the … Continue reading →

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Did Hedge Funds Help Stabilize the Mortgage Market?

Posted on April 28, 2008 by Felix

Brad DeLong approvingly quotes a correspondent: The fact that there was an ABX index and thus an easy way for people to bet that the mortage-backed securities market would crash probably cut short the bubble–the true hedge funds were stabilizing … Continue reading →

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Sales Pitch of the Day, Realtors Edition

Posted on April 28, 2008 by Felix

Watching the television on the plane over to LA, I saw this ad for the National Association of Realtors telling people that buying a house "is a good move" using the grounds that the average homeowner has 60% of his … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Bonus Edition

Posted on April 28, 2008 by Felix

Economics is funny: Cowen vs Rodrik. Related: Summers. Recession? It Doesn’t Add Up: "When the government prints its estimate of first-quarter GDP next Wednesday, it’s highly unlikely the number will be negative… with the government’s tax rebate checks getting into … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Sunday Edition

Posted on April 27, 2008 by Felix

MyFICO, Myself: Why you shouldn’t worry about your credit score. Damn Latte-Drinking Obama Supporters Merrill Lynch, slackers: Why can’t Merrill wire funds from a 401(k)?

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Did the CBOT Strongarm Bob Rubin?

Posted on April 27, 2008 by Felix

Are you in the mood for 4,000 carefully-balanced words on the subject of Bob Rubin and the degree to which he may or may not be responsible for Citigroup’s recent woes? Well, here you go. The article’s good, but it’s … Continue reading →

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Ben Stein Watch: April 27, 2008

Posted on April 27, 2008 by Felix

Ben Stein’s column this week is the first since the NYT kicked off its formal review of his film thusly: One of the sleaziest documentaries to arrive in a very long time, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” is a conspiracy-theory rant … Continue reading →

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The Negative Correlation Between Wine Price and Quality

Posted on April 26, 2008 by Felix

Back in November I held a Pinot contest which concluded that there was really no correlation between price and quality – or if there was, it was negative. Of course, there was nothing really scientific about a drunken night in … Continue reading →

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When Trichet Met Bernanke

Posted on April 26, 2008 by Felix
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Extra Credit, Friday Edition

Posted on April 25, 2008 by Felix

The NYT Discovers High-Priced Textbooks, but Misses Cause Baker responds to the NYT editorial board; so does Krugman. The science of buying a home: "We picked a neighborhood that we liked a lot, we found the house that we liked … Continue reading →

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The Snipes Sentence: Three Years and 65 Words

Posted on April 25, 2008 by Felix

Chuck Norris can divide by zero. Chuck Norris can split the atom with his bare hands. But even Chuck Norris can’t keep Wesley Snipes out of jail. This is an acutal letter written to the judge who recently sentenced Snipes … Continue reading →

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Learning from Amex

Posted on April 25, 2008 by Felix

It’s very long (8,500 words!) but if you have some time I’d recommend reading the transcript of yesterday’s American Express earnings call. American Express is a very interesting company to watch at times like this: it’s a borrower, and a … Continue reading →

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Heloc Securitization Datapoint of the Day

Posted on April 25, 2008 by Felix

The biggest losses in the mortgage world have generally been taken on second liens – what in the real world are generally known as home equity lines. If you have a mortgage and a home equity line, and you default … Continue reading →

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Reporting on Stock Moves

Posted on April 25, 2008 by Felix

Many thanks to Colin Barr, who joined in the conversation after I called him out for his reporting on Merrill yesterday. My problem was with Barr saying that "shares of Merrill Lynch rose 8% after CEO John Thain said he … Continue reading →

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The Nascent Secondary Market in Auction-Rate Securities

Posted on April 25, 2008 by Felix

The Restricted Securities Trading Network in auction-rate securities has been up and running now since March, with 7-10 transactions taking place per day. That’s not an enormous number of trades, but it’s enough to see pretty clearly what the clearing … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Thursday Edition

Posted on April 24, 2008 by Felix

Bondholders Lucky to Get 10 Cents in Looming Defaults R.I.P. Bond Rally, 2005-2008 How Murdoch Cheated ‘WSJ’ Independence Pact Is Wall Street ‘Full of Bull’? Yes, if you’re an individual investor taking sell-side research at face value. More on the … Continue reading →

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Causality Watch, Merrill Lynch Edition

Posted on April 24, 2008 by Felix

Colin Barr: Shares of Merrill Lynch rose 8% after CEO John Thain said he won’t entertain talk of a breakup of the brokerage firm, which has been hit hard since last summer by heavy losses on mortgage-related securities. Why do … Continue reading →

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Selling Funds to Institutions and Individuals

Posted on April 24, 2008 by Felix

I had a lovely lunch with Roger Ehrenberg this afternoon, and we talked among other things about the big buy-side firms such as Warburg Pincus, Fortress, and the like – companies who seem to be able to raise huge amounts … Continue reading →

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Why Index Investing Isn’t Passive Investing

Posted on April 24, 2008 by Felix

In the debate over active vs passive investing, the base-case assumption is that a passive investment involves tracking a stock-market index, normally the S&P 500. But of course stock-market indices are actively managed, with listing requirements and changing components and … Continue reading →

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Why the NYT Shouldn’t Attack the WSJ

Posted on April 24, 2008 by Felix

Barry Ritholtz thinks that as the WSJ becomes newsier and more like the NYT, the NYT should beef up its business coverage and try "to go after the Journal’s audience" of executives who expense their subscriptions. I don’t think this … Continue reading →

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