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Author Archives: Felix
Extra Credit, Monday Edition
First Birthday for the Recession? "In all likelihood, this recession either has reached its first birthday or will soon do so." Is A Recession The Best Time To Tackle Climate Change? Stallion Fees Sink as Financial Crisis Hits Thoroughbred Market: … Continue reading
Posted in remainders
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Will the US Make Money on its Bailout?
Jim Surowiecki is quite sure that Treasury’s bailout plan, or at least the $250 billion part of being spent on recapitalization, is an investment rather than an expenditure: I realize that, given the way the U.S. budget is accounted for, … Continue reading
Posted in bailouts
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Questions for Value Investors
Here’s a contest for you — since y’all did so badly on the last one — can anybody find me a value investor who isn’t saying that there’s loads of cheap stocks out there and that they’re pretty bullish over … Continue reading
Extra Credit, Monday Afternoon Edition
Money in the street: Very high yields on TIPS; it’s unclear why. Bank-Lending Boost Could Spur Thaw: The first signs of life in the interbank market. Jim Cramer Retreats Along With the Dow: A weirdly sympathetic article by David Carr. … Continue reading
Posted in remainders
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Department of Dubious Statistics, Oil Imports Edition
The $700 billion the US pays each year to nasty oil-exporting countries — the $700 billion that both Barack Obama and John McCain have cited in their paeans to energy independence — doesn’t exist: According to government agencies that track … Continue reading
Posted in commodities, statistics
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The Problem With Cap-and-Trade Offsets
Richard Sandor, the chairman of the Chicago Climate Exchange, is an old-school Chicago trader who doesn’t often self-censor. But in this case, he most definitely should have: The debate over whether or not a polluter would have cut its greenhouse-gas … Continue reading
Posted in climate change
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Melting
Your daily TED update: 320bp, and falling. I love Sam’s metaphor: not frozen so much as melting. Credit markets, like water, freeze quickly and melt slowly. But if things continue to improve at this clip, Bill Gross’s prediction of Libor … Continue reading
Posted in bonds and loans
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Extra Credit, Sunday Edition
Those stupid bankers and their stupid stupidity: Dsquared on why blaming people is a little bit silly. Now do something about the interbank market – directly: Willem Buiter on how central banks can bring down Libor. Libor to Decline on … Continue reading
Posted in remainders
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The Coming Consumer Credit Crunch
I was going to respond to Virginia Postrel’s silly article claiming that current levels of consumer debt are nothing to worry about. But I don’t need to, because Henry Blodget, without mentioning Postrel directly, has done it for me. All … Continue reading
Posted in bonds and loans
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Why the CDS Market Didn’t Fail
Jane Baird has the latest on what Alea calls "the non-event of the year": the Lehman Brothers CDS settlement on Tuesday. The upshot is that there’s very little to worry about: the worst-case scenario is limited to the failure of … Continue reading
Posted in banking, derivatives
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Car Crash vs Train Wreck
Jose Mugrabi: "I feel safer with Warhol than with U.S. Treasury bonds."
Posted in art
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USA: The Biggest Obstacle to Global Banking Regulation
David Galbraith goes down the litany of problems with US banks which is familiar to any European in the US or, most likely, to anybody who even knows a European in the US. Most of it surrounds the ridiculous difficulty … Continue reading
Posted in banking, regulation
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Jargon Watch, Media Edition
In her Fishbowl NY exit interview, Rachel Sklar says that she’s “excited to do stuff in other verticals”. Earlier today, a friend of mine in the media unselfconciously used the words “surface” and “obsolete” as verbs in rapid succession. Both … Continue reading
Posted in Not economics
1 Comment
Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s Lower Half Problem, Redux
The WSJ has the story; don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Posted in IMF
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Extra Credit, Friday Edition
Treasury Has No Authority to Coerce the Banks Worldwide Financial Crisis Largely Bypasses Canada: Thanks to a worthwhile initiative or two. Requiem for the CPDO Four Magic Words: "We Are Providing Capital" Jokes about the financial crisis: "What’s the capital … Continue reading
Posted in remainders
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How to Survive the Crisis: Sleep, Get High
Andrew Lahde isn’t running money any more, and boy is he glad to be out of the game. His final letter to investors is a true classic, and even ends with a paean to marijuana: I will no longer manage … Continue reading
Learning From Japan
Has there been a more demoralizing and disappointing major stock market, over the course of the past 20 years, than Japan’s? It reached its nominal all-time high of 38,957 in December 1989; it closed today at 8,693, just 800 points … Continue reading
Posted in investing
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When Bloggers Debate
On November 2, the Economist is returning to the magnificent Gotham Hall for its debate series, part of its Off the Page weekend of events. The first debate features bloggers Clive Crook and Will Wilkinson attacking the idea of corporate … Continue reading
Posted in blogonomics
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Art Is Not An Investment
Annie Deakin is acting editor of the website mydeco. The header of the homepage says this: Home furniture and interior design: beds, sofas, curtains, paint, wallpaper, tables and chairs Not on the list? Art. You can get that at mydeco … Continue reading
Posted in art
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The Admirable Suze Orman
I was recently flattered to be on a list of media winners from the credit crisis. But arguably the biggest winner of all wasn’t on the list: Suze Orman, who’s the subject of a mildly skeptical article in today’s WSJ. … Continue reading
Posted in personal finance
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Credit: No Easy Answers
Robert Aliber has a peculiar op-ed in the FT, presenting a TARP plan "that should revive the market in mortgage-related securities, greatly enhance bank capital and earn several tens of billions of dollars for the US Treasury". It’s peculiar because … Continue reading
Posted in banking, bonds and loans
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Surowiecki, Blogger
O frabjous day! Jim Surowiecki now has a blog! It’s called The Balance Sheet, and he put up no fewer than six entries yesterday alone. The RSS feed is here: go add it to your feed reader now.
Posted in Media
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Extra Credit, Thursday Edition
LIBOR Stress could = $730B in damage already Chart of the Day: The Magic Hour: These crazy end-of-day swings are actually a new phenomenon. A Simple Hedge Fund Outflow Model: Last in, first out? Gold darn it: "When Crimnex opened … Continue reading
Posted in remainders
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Adelson’s Losing Streak
Back in March, when his company, Las Vegas Sands, was trading at over $80 a share, I reckoned that Sheldon Adelson’s bubble was ripe for bursting. Today, it’s bumping along at about $11. Is Adelson still the richest Jew in … Continue reading
Posted in wealth
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