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Author Archives: Felix
Selling Stadium Seats
There’s nothing new about the plan to finance Yankee Stadium by the sale of seats.
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Posted in economics
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The Newly-Normal Treasury Curve: Good News or Bad News?
If the yield curve is starting to look normal, the spread curve is likely to move back to a more normal shape too, sooner or later. I’d be much happier in Treasuries right now than in credit.
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Posted in bonds and loans
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Why Bearish Forecasts are Meaningless
What I’d dearly love to see from some of these people is something they’ll
never provide: call it falsifiability, in a nod to Karl Popper.
Ask yourself if there’s any conceivable state of affairs which would prove these
people wrong. If the answer’s no, then frankly their warnings are pretty meaningless.
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Posted in bonds and loans
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Is there a word for this?
It happens at Amazon, it happens at my local grocery store (sorry about the colour — it’s a cellphone pic), and it happens every day all over the world. But is there a name for it?
Posted in Econoblog, Not economics
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The Whole Foods Complaint: Weak
There is nothing compelling in the FTC complaint. The idea that Whole Foods and Wild Oats have a monopoly on pleasant shopping experiences and therefore should be banned from merging is laughable on its face.
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Posted in M&A, regulation
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Signs of Caution in Private Equity?
The fact that some private-equity companies dropped out of the bidding for HD Supply should not be taken as a sign of weakness.
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Posted in private equity
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Anecdote Inflation
What’s $10 million between friends anecdotes?
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Posted in bonds and loans, private equity
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Arrogance + Insecurity = Success, Steve Jobs Edition
Underneath Jobs’s arrogance is always the ability to admit that he was wrong. And that is one key to his company’s recent success.
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Posted in technology
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The A380: Not the World’s Most Convenient Private Jet
Some bright spark with more money than sense has just dropped $300 million
on an Airbus A380 superjumbo jet – for
his personal use.
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Posted in consumption
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Is Citigroup Too Big?
If a strong leader could communicate a simple and effective vision for the company, the calls for its breakup would soon cease.
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Posted in banking
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Steve Schwarzman Basks in the Limelight
Steve Schwarzman manages to find time in his schedule for being feted by the rich and famous.
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Posted in private equity
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Monday Links Do The Twist
Enough links to keep anybody happy for at least an hour.
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Posted in banking, cities, development, economics, Media, personal finance, remainders, technology
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Yahoo: Terry Out, Jerry In, No Real Change
If it’s fast, new and vibrant you want, I really don’t think that Yang’s your man.
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Posted in defenestrations, technology
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Adventures in Web Design, eBay Edition
eBay is cleaning
up its act:
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Posted in technology
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Underbidding for Dow Jones
Floyd Norris asks a provocative
question today behind a NYT firewall: Could An Underbid Win
Dow Jones?
(Update: The whole entry’s now up
at DealBook, for free.)
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Posted in Media
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Kingdom Holdings: The New Berkshire Hathaway?
Kingdom could be the next Berkshire Hathaway (maybe it already is the
next Berkshire Hathaway), and I suspect that its shares will trade up sharply
in the secondary market.
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Posted in stocks
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Why the GE-Pearson-Dow Jones Deal is Unlikely to Happen
I’m trying to work out how the GE-Pearson deal for Dow Jones, being mooted
in both the WSJ
and the FT
today, could possibly work.
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Posted in Media
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Bear’s Benighted Bearish Bear-Market Bet
How did Bear Stearns lose money betting that a falling market would drop?
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Posted in bonds and loans, hedge funds, housing
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Shortchanging vs Counterfeiting: Which is the Bigger Problem?
The Reefer Madness of the 21st Century.
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Posted in statistics
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Inflation Statistics: Best Ignored, Unless You’re Poor
There is a significant and positive gap emerging between headline inflation (which includes food and energy prices) and core inflation (which strips them out). The gap is essentially a tax on poverty.
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Posted in statistics
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Stocks From A to C
Apple vs Crocs.
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Survivorship Bias Datapoint of the Day
Is there no survivorship bias in stock-market indices?
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Posted in stocks
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Garrard: The Clinton Connection
Bill Clinton is a part owner of the UK jeweler.
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Posted in Politics
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Answers About Bear Stearns’ Mortgage Exposures
Banks such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers have made a lot of money in recent years from the mortgage sector in general and the subprime part of it in particular. For the foreseeable future, they’re going to have to look elsewhere for those profits.
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Posted in bonds and loans, housing
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Vaclav Klaus’s Denialist Ranting
The Czech Republic, of all countries, probably has more upside than downside from at least the next degree or two of global warming.
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Posted in climate change
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