Author Archives: Felix

Unreal Rally

Posted on April 1, 2008 by Felix

While I’ve been trying to catch up with my RSS feeds, Jeff Cane noticed that the stock market surged today, for no discernible reason. One big bank writes down $19 billion. Another shores up its capital to put to rest … Continue reading →

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Most People Will Never Understand What Happened to Bear Stearns

Posted on April 1, 2008 by Felix

I’m catching up on a lot of material from the past week and a half or so, most of which is a little stale by now. But Deborah Solomon’s NYT interview with former Treasury secretary Paul O’Neill is still very … Continue reading →

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Gold: Too Volatile to be a Safe Investment

Posted on April 1, 2008 by Felix

Eddy Elfenbein notes today that gold has dropped below $900 an ounce. Gold funds in general are suffering, with the biggest of them all, the $8.2 billion Merrill Lynch World Gold, down 10% in March. But they’re still bullish: The … Continue reading →

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Sovereign Wealth Funds: Yes, They Really Are That Big

Posted on April 1, 2008 by Felix

Bob Davis has got his hands on a leaked paper by the Milken Institute’s Christopher Balding, in which Balding claims that sovereign wealth funds might not have as much money as everybody seems to think that they have. Without seeing … Continue reading →

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Blogonomics: Valleywag’s Pay

Posted on April 1, 2008 by Felix

Jeff Bercovici has already picked up on the mini-tantrum thrown this morning by Valleywag’s Jordan Golson. Valleywag, of course, is part of Gawker Media, which pays its writers on the basis of how many pageviews they get. But that "pageview … Continue reading →

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The H1-B Fiasco, Redux

Posted on April 1, 2008 by Felix

The H-1B fiasco is back! Last year, faced with 123,480 applications in two days for a pool of just 65,000 H-1B visas, the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services was forced to run a lottery to see who would get … Continue reading →

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How to Make Money from Losing Money, UBS Edition

Posted on April 1, 2008 by Felix

UBS is the latest bank to see its share price rise in the wake of an absolutely enormous write-down. The $19 billion write-down announced today almost doubles the write-downs taken since the third quarter of 2007, and, in a move … Continue reading →

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Lehman: Still Ready to Lend Megabucks

Posted on April 1, 2008 by Felix

I’m back from holiday, and it seems there’s a 218-page report I Really Ought To Read. Do I hafta? In the meantime, I note that Lehman’s hitting the markets up for cash. Obviously Lehman, like all investment banks, reckons that … Continue reading →

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Ben Stein Watch: March 30, 2008

Posted on March 30, 2008 by Felix

Ben Stein is back in the NYT again this week: after filing just one column in all of February, he’s managed no fewer than four in March. Doesn’t he have a film to promote or something? Stein this week turns … Continue reading →

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Ben Stein Watch: March 23, 2008

Posted on March 26, 2008 by Felix

Now that I’ve left the desert and I have proper internet access rather than trying to update the blog from my iPhone, I can finally get around to Ben Stein’s NYT column from Sunday. Given that I’m still on holiday, … Continue reading →

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A Quick Note From Marfa

Posted on March 24, 2008 by Felix

I said last week that BSC was going either to $2 or to $0. I regret the error.

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Taking a Break

Posted on March 21, 2008 by Felix

At the end of the most hectic week in Market Movers’ year-long history, I’m off on holiday for the rest of the month. Posting will be sporadic at best for the remainder of March, and likely nonexistent until Wednesday. Unless … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements | 1 Comment

Blogonomics: Gawker’s Payroll, Redux

Posted on March 21, 2008 by Felix

You wanna know how much Gawker writers get paid? Well, let me tell you. Remember that they don’t really get salaries any more, just advances. And it’s been widely reported that bloggers on the flagship Gawker site get $7.50 per … Continue reading →

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The JP Morgan-Bear Stearns Option Agreement

Posted on March 21, 2008 by Felix

Remember Exhibit A, the stock option agreement between JP Morgan and Bear Stearns which no one made public? Well, it’s finally been filed with the SEC. And it says exactly what everybody’s been saying that it says, only in legalese … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Friday Edition

Posted on March 21, 2008 by Felix

James Cayne risks lawsuit as he seeks counter-offer for Bear Stearns: Is this why he didn’t sign the merger agreement? More on debt and net worth Fed funds question: Krugman asks if Fed funds can go much lower. I think … Continue reading →

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Lehman: The Eisinger Effect

Posted on March 20, 2008 by Felix

If you look at the one-day chart of Lehman’s stock price today, you’ll see that it was up a coupla bucks, happily crusing along, until early afternoon. Then, suddenly, in the last two hours of trading, Lehman’s stock skyrocketed in … Continue reading →

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PDCF: A Veritable Firehose of Liquidity

Posted on March 20, 2008 by Felix

We knew the Fed’s new Primary Dealer Credit Facility, where it lends money to investment banks, was being used: Morgan Stanley borrowed $2 billion Tuesday from the Fed using "pretty liquid" assets as collateral, said Chief Financial Officer Colm Kelleher. … Continue reading →

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Howard Marks, The Optimistic Bear

Posted on March 20, 2008 by Felix

Peter Lattman has the latest memo from Howard Marks, and it’s not pretty. If you want the most bearish soundbite, this is it: We’ve had collapses in the past, but never so broad-gauged and systemic. Marks foresees some drastic measures … Continue reading →

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Solvency Doesn’t Matter

Posted on March 20, 2008 by Felix

Northern Rock was not insolvent when it collapsed. Bear Stearns was not insolvent when it collapsed. HBOS, victim of a bear raid yesterday, is not insolvent either. This is meant to reassure us? It doesn’t reassure Andrew Clavell.

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Homes as Investments

Posted on March 20, 2008 by Felix

Ben Bernanke lives with his wife and two children in a house on Capitol Hill. Oh, wait, scratch that: according to Brendan Murray, Ben Bernanke lives with his wife and two children "in an investment that’s turned cold". Maybe it’s … Continue reading →

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Credit: Still Hairy

Posted on March 20, 2008 by Felix

The TED spread is above 200bp, and now repo rates on three-month Treasury bills have gone negative. What does that mean in English? Markets are broken. And once markets break, the healing process tends to be long and painful. The … Continue reading →

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The Political Independence of the Fed

Posted on March 20, 2008 by Felix

As anybody who’s ever read about a Supreme Court nomination knows, the business of appointing top judges has become highly political. But when it comes to the Federal Reserve, it seems that presidential appointees are still chosen the old-fashioned way: … Continue reading →

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Why It’s Safe to Bet Against Joe Lewis

Posted on March 20, 2008 by Felix

Are you tantalized by the prospect of Slate’s new business site? Well, the editor, Jim Ledbetter, is guest-blogging over at Fortune today, so maybe that will give you an idea of what to expect. This morning, talking about the Bear … Continue reading →

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Will Burglaries Rise in a Credit Crunch?

Posted on March 20, 2008 by Felix

The world of stolen goods, like any other market, is in thrall to the dynamics of supply and demand. The supply comes from burglars, who burgle houses and steal goods. The demand comes from a much more disparate and less … Continue reading →

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The Housing Crunch Without Houses

Posted on March 20, 2008 by Felix

In an interactive feature of mine earlier this month, the most bubblicious bubble of them all was Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan. Well, it seems to be bursting already: Bloomberg is running the wonderful headline "Kazakhs Get Craters, Not … Continue reading →

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