Author Archives: Felix

The Irony of Matt Ridley

Posted on October 23, 2007 by Felix

So it turns out that the Matt Ridley who writes popular bestsellers on genomics is the same Matt Ridley who was chairman of Northern Rock until last Friday. He also was a columnist for the Londont Telegraph, where he used … Continue reading →

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Apple Datapoint of the Day

Posted on October 23, 2007 by Felix

Apple’s market capitalization, @ $186.55/share: $162.23 billion. IBM’s market capitalization, @ $114.00/share: $157.32 billion. Yes, it actually happened: Apple is now worth more than IBM. Still hasn’t caught up to Google, though.

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When Lawyers Deadpan

Posted on October 23, 2007 by Felix

I’m a fan of lawyers with a sense of humor. In the New Yorker this week, civil-rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith says that such a thing can even be a necessity: “If you take everything that the government does in … Continue reading →

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Rogue Brokers: Finra Asleep at the Wheel

Posted on October 23, 2007 by Felix

Megan Barnett has the interesting tale of Karen McKinley, a rogue Merrill Lynch broker in Florida. McKinley had a habit of working to maximize her own commissions rather than investing her clients’ funds in suitable investments; indeed, even after one … Continue reading →

Posted in law, regulation | 1 Comment

Tales from Foreclosure World

Posted on October 23, 2007 by Felix

The WSJ this morning fronts a story headlined "More Debtors Use Bankruptcy To Keep Homes"; the subhed is "Chapter 13 Filings Gain In Popularity Because They Halt Foreclosures". Empirically speaking, the thrust of the column seems a little bit dubious … Continue reading →

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The Case of the Missing Surowiecki Column

Posted on October 23, 2007 by Felix

Memo to Jeff Bercovici: What’s with Jim Surowiecki’s column in this week’s New Yorker? It’s right there on the website – complete with no fewer than nineteen hyperlinks. (Someone give this guy a blog!) But it’s in the "online only" … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Tuesday Edition

Posted on October 23, 2007 by Felix

News No. 1 in the world with $67.8 bil: News Corp is now worth more than Time Warner. Some points about the Superfund: Alexander Campbell asks pertinent questions. Dumpster Divers Go Mainstream In Thrifty Germany: My favorite WSJ Page One … Continue reading →

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Apple: Great, in the US

Posted on October 22, 2007 by Felix

If the Mac brand is going to keep on growing at its present pace, it’s going to have to go global.
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It’s Not Easy Being Green

Posted on October 22, 2007 by Felix

Being a leader in green technology is now tantamount to subsidizing your competitors. Call it last-mover advantage.
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Why Newspapers’ Websites Should be Free

Posted on October 22, 2007 by Felix

Nick Carr makes a valiant attempt at defending TimesSelect, riffing off Tim Harford’s column on Saturday. The basic idea is that when online advertising is in its infancy, it makes sense to charge a subscription rate for website access. Eventually, … Continue reading →

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The Ingenuity of the Markets

Posted on October 22, 2007 by Felix

John Bird and John Fortune on structured credit. I’m in heaven. "It’s moved onto Wall Street and it’s extraordinary what happens then: somehow, this package of dodgy debts stops being a package of dodgy debts, and starts being what we … Continue reading →

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Factories as an Alternative to Aid

Posted on October 22, 2007 by Felix

The NYT on Saturday gave valuable op-ed space to hedge fund manager Justin Muzinich to roll out his big idea: cut direct US foreign aid, and use the money instead to give tax breaks to hedge funds and others who … Continue reading →

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Watching SIVs’ Assets Decline

Posted on October 22, 2007 by Felix

Sam Jones has a fascinating chart showing the evolution of SIVs’ net asset values over the past three months. The best SIVs are doing fine, no problem there at all. The worst are doing atrociously: "Axon Financial, managed by TPC-Axon … Continue reading →

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Bloomberg Cuts Flowers

Posted on October 22, 2007 by Felix

A ballsy headline from Bloomberg today: Flowers Sallie Mae Failure Proves He’s No Schwarzman The piece is a long and reasonably measured article about Christopher Flowers and his failing bid for Sallie Mae, complete with laudatory quote from Jon Corzine. … Continue reading →

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The Citic Flip-Flop

Posted on October 22, 2007 by Felix

On Friday, things seemed clear enough, with Citic issuing a clear denial that it would take an ownership stake in Bear Stearns. China Citic Bank, meanwhile, also denied that it was in talks to buy a stake in Bear Stearns. … Continue reading →

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Wall Street vs Blogs, Analyst Edition

Posted on October 22, 2007 by Felix

Bernstein Research media analyst Michael Nathanson is worried about "a new paradigm in how financial markets get information and how that information impacts our markets". He’s been putting out all this research about NewsCorp and MySpace, you see – but … Continue reading →

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Ben Stein Watch: October 21, 2007

Posted on October 22, 2007 by Felix

I’ve never been a big believer in the predictive power of the reversion to mean theory, but at the same time it stands to reason that after a reasonably sensible outing last week, Ben Stein would hand in an utter … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Sunday Edition

Posted on October 21, 2007 by Felix

I’ve decided to try a daily links blog, where I can and will go off-topic a little bit, as well as throwing in a lot of those interesting things I run across every day but never get around to writing … Continue reading →

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A Subprime Idea from the FDIC

Posted on October 20, 2007 by Felix

There’s an inventive and potentially good idea from the FDIC’s Sheila Bair in today’s NYT, which should be added to the Baker-Samwick proposal as another weapon in the arsenal being lined up to fight the worst effects of the housing … Continue reading →

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How the Rich get Richer, Epicurean Edition

Posted on October 19, 2007 by Felix

Why does Goldman Sachs always top the M&A league tables, when other banks’ ideas are just as good? Why is Jessica (Mrs Jerry) Seinfeld’s new book suffering from too much demand, when an almost identical book by Missy Chase Lapine … Continue reading →

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iVillage for iBankers

Posted on October 19, 2007 by Felix

Do you have an overwhelming desire to join an online community designed to help women advance their careers? Clearly someone thinks that there’s demand for this kind of thing, because two such websites have just launched: theglasshammer.com and damselsinsuccess.com. Being … Continue reading →

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Goldman Simpson?

Posted on October 19, 2007 by Felix

In the world of M&A, you need a financial adviser (an investment bank) and you need a legal adviser (a law firm). Legal advisers make lots of money. Financial advisors make much, much more – despite the fact that senior … Continue reading →

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What is the Point of a Price Target?

Posted on October 19, 2007 by Felix

What is a price target, and what is it for?
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Counterfeiting Statistics Update

Posted on October 19, 2007 by Felix

Carl Bialik today joins the good fight against counterfeiting statistics. Welcome to the club, Carl! It can get a little bit lonely here, but at least we have truth on our side. Carl nicely fillets the latest OECD report on … Continue reading →

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Can Ratings Agencies be Fixed?

Posted on October 19, 2007 by Felix

Stanford’s Darrell Duffie is giving a series of lectures at Princeton on capital immobility, which will be turned into a book to be published by Princeton University Press. The Press invited me to dinner with Duffie last night – delicious, … Continue reading →

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