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Author Archives: Felix
Tom Wolfe and the New Vulgarians
Sometimes, the war between the old millionaires and the new billionaires is one of those fights you really want both sides to lose. But then you realize that if it didn’t exist, Tom Wolfe couldn’t write about it. And that really would be a shame.
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Posted in hedge funds
3 Comments
ABN’s Groenink Watches an Era’s End Approach
It’s not that old-school aristocratic financial institutions can’t survive in today’s cutthroat world. But ABN Amro’s Rijkman Groenink knows that his bank will get sold to whoever can offer his shareholders the most money. Which might be a little vulgar, but is also perfectly old-fashioned in its own way.
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Posted in banking
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Sallie Forth to a BB Rating
In 1997, Sallie Mae was a government agency with a triple-A rating. Five years later, it was down to single-A. Five years after that, it’s likely to be down to BBB at the highest. That’s progress, that is.
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Posted in private equity
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Alice Rawsthorn loves Nick Knight
The NYT is running an article about Nick Knight today, written by Alice Rawsthorn. It’s a big sloppy wet kiss of a profile, complete with gushing quotes from Nadja Swarovski, who’s not only a major Knight client but who is … Continue reading
Posted in Not economics
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John Cassidy on the Economics of Climate Change
John Cassidy tells us that he isn’t "secretly working for a corporate-funded
think tank that churns out skeptical studies on global warming". Maybe
he should be, if he keeps on writing stuff like this.
Posted in climate change
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DoubleClick Finally Regains its Pre-Crash Valuation
DoubleClick was worth pretty much exactly $3.1 billion in December 1999 – which is the same price that Google is paying today.
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Posted in stocks
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On that illustration
There’s been a bit of interest in the cartoon of me on the Portfolio website, but no one’s worked out where it comes from. In fact, the source is my Christmas mitzvah from December 2005, when I drove a Zipcar … Continue reading
Posted in Not economics
4 Comments
Mel Karmazin, Failure?
"I like the idea of the report card—the stock price," Mel
tells Portfolio’s Nancy Hass. Does that mean he’s officially giving himself an F?
Posted in Portfolio
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The $200 Million Apartment
More
evidence that house prices are moving towards a power-law
distribution.
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Posted in housing
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Market Movers
It’s live! Up until now, I’ve been crossposting to felixsalmon.com, but now that portfolio.com has finally been unveiled to the world, you’ll have to go there to read most of my finance blogs. You can always get there by going … Continue reading
Posted in Econoblog
3 Comments
When Free Isn’t Good
Nothing makes me happier than services which are cheaper and better than the alternative; free-and-better, is, in theory, the best combination of all. But it still makes sense sometimes to want to pay a bit of money.
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Posted in economics
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When Free Isn’t Good
Anil Dash has a wonderful piece of contrarian thinking up on his blog — it’s actually a week old, but it’s really timeless. A little while ago, my friend Michael Sippey, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing the other … Continue reading
FS vs GS in the ES
The only thing better than writing blog entries about how Goldman Sachs should be taken private? Having a journalist from the London Evening Standard phone up a Goldman flack and ask for a response.
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Posted in private equity
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Vincent Price for Citigroup CEO?
The advantages of hiring a CEO who can literally twirl his mustaches.
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Posted in banking, facial hair
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FS vs GS in the ES
The only thing better than writing blog entries about how Goldman Sachs should be taken private? Having a journalist from the London Evening Standard phone up a Goldman flack and ask for a response. Genius.
Posted in Econoblog
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Vincent Price for Citigroup CEO?
The New York Post has a wonderfully gossipy piece by Paul Tharp today on who might take over at Citigroup if and when Chuck Prince gets the boot. Tharp concentrates on the fight between Vikram Pandit and Robert Druskin, which … Continue reading
Posted in Econoblog
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Wolfowitz Must Go
If Paul Wolfowitz hangs on to his job, an unpopular lame duck, that would be the worst possible outcome in terms of energizing the Bank’s staff to do its vital work of fighting poverty.
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Posted in pay, world bank
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Wolfowitz Must Go
L’affair Wolfowitz has been trickling out for some time now, but today I think it finally reached the point at which Paul Wolfowitz can quite clearly no longer lead the World Bank effectively. When you read the report of the … Continue reading
Posted in Econoblog
3 Comments
There’s No Housing Bubble
Chart of the day comes from Deloitte’s Carl Steidtmann. You wanna see what a bubble looks like? He’ll show you what a bubble looks like.
Posted in charts
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Pastorini vs Gold Fields: The Plot Thickens
Gold Fields is on the record as saying that it has received no bid, but at the same time Gold Fields executives are leaking the details of the bid to Bloomberg…
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Posted in leaks
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Mr McDade’s Inexplicable Insouciance
Dan Loeb strikes again.
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Posted in shareholder activism
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There’s No Housing Bubble
Chart of the day comes from Deloitte’s Carl Steidtmann. You wanna see what a bubble looks like? He’ll show you what a bubble looks like. There’s much more where that came from, and of course the comparison isn’t really fair: … Continue reading
Posted in Econoblog
7 Comments
Pastorini vs Gold Fields: The Plot Thickens
In the FT vs Bloomberg stakes, it’s looking increasingly as though the score is 1-0 to the Brits: Bloomberg put out a follow-up article yesterday headlined “Gold Fields Takeover Interest Can’t Be Verified”, and today’s New York Times quotes Bloomberg … Continue reading
Posted in Econoblog
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Mr McDade’s Inexplicable Insouciance
Ya gotta love Dan Loeb. Just check out his letter to the board of directors of PDL Biopharma, a biotech company he owns stock in, which is well worth reading in full. Most of it is a full-on broadside directed … Continue reading
Posted in Econoblog
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Goldman Traders Make the Top-Paid List
The Goldman traders who make more money than CEO Lloyd Blankfein.
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Posted in hedge funds, pay
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