Author Archives: Felix

Dsquared on Political Event Swaps

Commenter dsquared has made a couple of good points in response
to my post about political
event swaps
.
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It’s Time for Political Event Swaps

A way of hedging political-event risk.
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The Fate of Extraordinary Aliens Under the Immigration Bill

Even if the EB-1 green card is abolished, the O and P visas will still exist.
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Posted in immigration | 1 Comment

Why Robert Zoellick Is Not a Good Idea for the World Bank

Zoellick really has no qualifications at all for this job, beyond an understanding of international finance.
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Lies and Housing Statistics

Yet another reason to ignore individual datapoints from economic series.
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How Best to Maximize Blog Traffic

Barry Ritholtz and YouPorn.
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How Best to Minimize Carbon Emissions

No one approach will be sufficient. We need a cap-and-trade system and a carbon tax for the areas not covered by cap-and-trade.
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Okonjo-Iweala as Interim World Bank President?

Joe Stiglitz and Nancy Birdsall think an interim president would be a very good idea.
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Reasons why the Private Equity Boom Might Not Be at an End

Private-equity principals say that deals might slow down from here. They would.
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Hope for Principles-Based Regulation in New York State

New York governor Eliot Spitzer and his insurance superintendent
Eric Dinallo are aggressively
moving
to shake up the regulatory regime in New York State. This is probably
a good thing.
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It’s a Bad Idea to Ape Hedge Fund Investments

If Dinakar Singh is long, that doesn’t mean you should be.
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The RBS Consortium’s Huge Financing Line

The huge cash component of the RBS consortium’s bid for ABN Amro means that they have a lot of work to do in both the debt and equity markets.
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What is Ben Stein Smoking? (Part 2)

Ben Stein might be the last man in America to think that building more Escalades is actually a good idea.
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Bogus Counterfeiting Statistics Spawn Protection Racket

The anti-counterfeiting industry is using fear to sell its products, rather than economic logic.
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Can Increased Demand Lead to Decreased Demand?

The ethics of eating skate.
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More Reasons for Bush to Nominate Okonjo-Iweala

I’d just note that Okonjo-Iweala is not only deeply committed to American values,
but also has an American address. The only thing she doesn’t have is an American
passport.
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Credit-Bubble Datapoints of the Day

Let’s assume that everything in the fixed-income market is
mispriced. Now what?
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On Central Bankers’ Circumspection

Greenspan was never very good at explaining what he was doing when he did have power.
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Three Questions for Charles Komanoff on Carbon Taxes

Trying to understand what carbon-tax proponents are talking about.
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Ecuador: The Finance Minister, the Investment Banker, the Scandal, and Me

As far back as December I posted
a blog entry
at rgemonitor.com saying that "a devious Ecuadorean finance minister"
could make quite a lot of money by manipulating the CDS market.
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Private Equity Stumbles in Banking Arena

Bank regulators want to know a lot of information about the owners of the banks they regulate, especially if those owners are foreign.
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The Problems of Outsourcing

In today’s outsourced world, companies are more than ever at the mercy of their suppliers.
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Why Alan Greenspan Shouldn’t Shut Up

The more that Greenspan speaks, the more obvious his utter lack of market-moving influence will become. So speak, Maestro! Then we can all get on with ignoring you.
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Will the Next World Bank President Be Another Bush Crony?

This
isn’t the first time that Bill Frist has been mentioned as
a possible World Bank president, but it might be the first time he’s been called
a favorite for the nomination. I think that Blake
Hounshell
is right and that the WSJ article is "likely a trial balloon
floated by the White House". What’s more, it’s a trial balloon which deserves
and early and emphatic popping. Frist would be an atrocious
choice
, and frankly I can’t see him getting much traction with a World Bank
board which is not exactly sympathetic to Bush cronies these days.
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Posted in world bank | 1 Comment

On the Edge of Efficient Markets

The Epicurean Dealmaker
is on a roll.
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