Author Archives: Felix

Blogging as a Source of Profits

Posted on September 24, 2007 by Felix

Scott Kirsner asks in the Boston Globe yesterday whether venture capitalists should blog. The general feeling is that the ones who do blog can’t imagine not blogging: it’s a great way of finding ideas, and ideas of course are the … Continue reading →

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There’s No Speculative Bubble in the Art World

Posted on September 22, 2007 by Felix

Lauren Schuker has a big piece entitled "Art’s Anxiety Attack" in the weekend WSJ. Let’s see if we can detect a theme here: The soaring prices for art in recent years partly reflect booming financial markets, with hedge-fund managers delving … Continue reading →

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The Forbes 400 Fat Tail

Posted on September 22, 2007 by Felix

Now that’s what I call a fat tail: have a look at the latest Forbes 400 list, which features 29 individuals worth more than $10 billion. There are three whose net worth has a 10 handle; two on 11; one … Continue reading →

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How Deteriorating Crediworthiness Can Make You Millions (If You’re a Bank)

Posted on September 21, 2007 by Felix

It’s not quite as laughable as it might seem at first glance that the latest tranche of investment-bank earnings reports showed hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from the fact that those banks’ bonds had fallen in value. Morgan … Continue reading →

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Transcending English

Posted on September 21, 2007 by Felix

The Metaphor of the Day award goes to Alex Harrowell: The European issue in Britain has traditionally swung across the political spectrum, like a cow on a rolling deck, blundering into political parties and sending them flying like skittles. Harrowell, … Continue reading →

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Ethanol Datapoint of the Day

Posted on September 21, 2007 by Felix

Remember the ethanol bubble? Looks like it’s burst: The price of ethanol soared earlier this year to record levels of more than $4 a gallon as the Bush Administration vowed to boost production of alternative fuels… Ethanol prices have slumped … Continue reading →

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Prada’s Underperformance

Posted on September 21, 2007 by Felix

Is Prada really going public this time? Bloomberg seems to think so. But is it taking advantage of a booming luxury-goods market, or is it having to accept a large discount to the kind of valuation it could have achieved … Continue reading →

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Nasdaq is not a Strategic Asset

Posted on September 21, 2007 by Felix

Matt Cooper today describes a 19.9% stake in the Nasdaq stock exchange as a "strategic US asset" – going even further than Chuck Schumer, the only lawmaker who seems to have any concerns about the deal at all, who said … Continue reading →

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Why Goldman Underperformed Bear

Posted on September 21, 2007 by Felix

Doncha just love commentary on share-price movements? Sometimes it’s just so easy: Is there such a thing as a “buy Goldman Sachs, sell Bear Stearns” trade? If so, it’s happening this morning. Shares of Goldman Sachs were up 2.2% in … Continue reading →

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How to Mitigate the Pain of Foreclosure

Posted on September 21, 2007 by Felix

Equity Private has a bright idea for how to help mitigate the worst effects of the housing mess: include mortgage debt in bankruptcy proceedings. She doesn’t go into a lot of detail – that’s promised for later today – but … Continue reading →

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UK Sold to Foreigners

Posted on September 21, 2007 by Felix

How’s this for a front-page headline? "Foreign Owners May Be Secret of U.K.’s Success" is the first thing you see when you look at the dead-tree WSJ this morning; the headline on the jump is "Foreign Owners Spur U.K. Revival". … Continue reading →

Posted in M&A | Comments Off on UK Sold to Foreigners

$0 vs $500

Posted on September 21, 2007 by Felix

By now, there’s a very good chance that most of my readers are quite bored with my explanations of why it’s a Really Good Idea for WSJ.com to go free. But when I read Marek Fuchs yesterday, I couldn’t just … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | Comments Off on $0 vs $500

Bernanke Gets Pwned

Posted on September 20, 2007 by Felix

The rules of being Fed chairman are simple. When you cut rates you make everybody happy, and when you raise rates you make people unhappy. Your job, of course, isn’t to make people happy, it’s to steer the economy. But … Continue reading →

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The Victims of Options Backdating

Posted on September 20, 2007 by Felix

Sam Gustin, it turns out, contra my earlier assertion, does know who the victims of options backdating are after all. They’re Mr and Mrs Investor Confidence, and apparently they’re both "nebulous" and also "a pillar of the market system". Which … Continue reading →

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Hedge Funds: When to Bail Out

Posted on September 20, 2007 by Felix

Now this is what is known as a sell signal: We are actively working to adjust our process to minimize the negative impact of future market dislocations and position the fund for positive returns going forward. Now there’s an idea! … Continue reading →

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Loonie Tunes

Posted on September 20, 2007 by Felix

There’s a lot of buzz in the blogosphere today about the fact that the Canadian dollar this morning finally reached parity with the US dollar. It’s a big deal for those of us who used to think of Canada as … Continue reading →

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The Emerging Markets Bubble

Posted on September 20, 2007 by Felix

If the Fed’s cutting rates, then it must be blowing another bubble, right? But it’s not going to be tech stocks or housing again, so what’s left? Green technology, obviously, is bubblicious right now, but it’s also tiny: investment of … Continue reading →

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The Scandal of Options Backdating

Posted on September 20, 2007 by Felix

One of the reasons Sam Gustin is underwhelmed by the Fake Steve Jobs book is that its author doesn’t take options backdating seriously enough. It’s "nothing short of an epidemic", he says, and "there is something slightly unfunny about basing … Continue reading →

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Bear Earnings Bad, Market Response Good

Posted on September 20, 2007 by Felix

Bear Stearns’ earnings today were atrocious. Never mind the fact that sales and trading revenue slumped by an eye-popping 88%; Bear also, uniquely, saw its investment-banking revenues fall as well. Interestingly, the bank’s stock is unchanged in early trading, and … Continue reading →

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Goldman’s Stunning Earnings

Posted on September 20, 2007 by Felix

Hank Paulson surely has a hint of a smile on his face this morning. Even as he earnestly tries to protect Main Street from suffering too much as a result of the Wall Street crunch, in the back of his … Continue reading →

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Long Term Leases

Posted on September 19, 2007 by Felix

One idiosyncracy of my native England is that many property owners don’t technically own their homes at all; instead, they have very long-term leases, which are typically initially 99 years long, and which can be bought and sold and speculated … Continue reading →

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Civics lesson

Posted on September 19, 2007 by Felix

Megan McArdle is smarter than I am – or she knows more, at least. Apparently she got 60 out of 60 questions right on this quiz; I got 50 out of 60 and was pleased with that. I blame the … Continue reading →

Posted in Not economics | 11 Comments

Rational Exuberance Over Free Content

Posted on September 19, 2007 by Felix

I’m convinced that WSJ.com, FT.com, along with every other newspaper website, will be entirely free sooner rather than later. Jeff Bercovici, on the other hand, isn’t: Are all the triumphalists ready to rule out the possibility that, somewhere down the … Continue reading →

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Why WSJ.com Should Go Free

Posted on September 19, 2007 by Felix

Sarah Ellison of the WSJ has more detail today on whether or not WSJ.com is likely to go free. Although Murdoch himself seems to see what a good idea it is, he is apparently getting pushback from Dow Jones CEO … Continue reading →

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John Cassidy vs Brad DeLong

Posted on September 19, 2007 by Felix

Brad DeLong is clearly much more important than I am. When I say rude things about John Cassidy, nothing much happens. But when Brad says rude things about John Cassidy, he gets a stinging riposte from Cassidy in his comments … Continue reading →

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