Author Archives: Felix

Why Big Banks Find Private Banking Difficult

Posted on September 3, 2008 by Felix

Would you like private banking services? If so, I’d recommend that you not sign up with the private-banking arm of a big retail bank — which is what John Hempton did. I am a customer of National Australia Bank private … Continue reading →

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Copying Harvard

Posted on September 3, 2008 by Felix

Swiss funds-of-funds firm Gottex has a new gimmick: a fund which "will emulate the investment principles of U.S. ‘super endowments’" like those of Harvard and Yale. Actually, it might not be so new: maybe other funds-of-funds have been doing this … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Tuesday Edition

Posted on September 2, 2008 by Felix

Demand and Price Are Falling for Lobster: Not many foods you can say that about. Need proof of racial profiling in credit card offers? Ask Rich Aguirre. "The credit card offers come to his Arizona home in both English and … Continue reading →

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Goolsbee 1-0 Salmon

Posted on September 2, 2008 by Felix

Back in March 2006, Austan Goolsbee was a little-known Chicago economics professor, and I was an all-but-unknown blogger. In a fit of dudgeon, I took it upon myself to attack an article that Goolsbee wrote in Slate on the subject … Continue reading →

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Opening Brazilian Windows

Posted on September 2, 2008 by Felix

Brazil has always felt the need to push back against the imposition of international intellectual property rights from the global powers in the US and Europe: it famously simply disregarded TRIPs and decided to manufacture its own antiretroviral drugs when … Continue reading →

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When Picking Stocks, Ignore the News

Posted on September 2, 2008 by Felix

Many thanks to Andrew at Humble Money for pointing me to a very astute blog entry from Teresa Lo back in November last year. When stocks fall sharply, a lot of people start thinking about picking up bargains: "it’s human … Continue reading →

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Luxury Datapoint of the Day

Posted on September 2, 2008 by Felix

Back in 2005, the luxury segment was booming, but Prada didn’t really know what to do with its loss-making Jil Sander franchise. So it took advantage of the overheated market and sold it, for €50 million, to private-equity shop Change … Continue reading →

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The Dynamics of Oil Prices

Posted on September 2, 2008 by Felix

Sometimes, price action in financial markets really is a consequence of news in the real world. Cause: Hurricane Katrina takes out a huge amount of refinery capacity. Effect: Oil prices rise. Simple. But journalists aren’t having such an easy time … Continue reading →

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Food Inflation Datapoint of the Day

Posted on September 2, 2008 by Felix

Reuters reports from Cambodia: Demand has pushed a kilogram of rat meat up to around 5,000 riel ($1.28) from 1,200 riel last year. They don’t say how many rats are needed to provide a kilo of meat, however. The stated … Continue reading →

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The Opportunity Cost of Not Working

Posted on September 2, 2008 by Felix

The great conductor Carlos Kleiber was not a man to worry about the opportunity cost of not working: He refuses to be at the beck and call of the record industry or the opera and concert managements who bombard him … Continue reading →

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Small Foundations Get Adventurous

Posted on September 2, 2008 by Felix

Craig Karmin profiles Edward Hunia, who runs the $3.8 billion Kresge Foundation. It’s done well of late, thanks partly to bearish bets and an investment with John Paulson: a 16.3% total return over the past five fiscal years, and a … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Monday Edition

Posted on September 1, 2008 by Felix

The Kettle? The Pot Says He’s Black: Nocera dismantles Icahn. Mexico: The Winds of Revolt: "History suggests that another bloody revolution may be somewhere on the horizon," says the irrepressible Walter Molano. Hirst’s Dealer Denies `Mountain’ of Unsold Works Before … Continue reading →

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The Upside of Cluelessness

Posted on September 1, 2008 by Felix

Chris Kissell has a great headline over his story that only 26% of homeowners don’t know what kind of mortgage they have, down from 34% a year ago: "Americans less clueless". But there’s also a silver lining to this cluelessness … Continue reading →

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Credit Cards: Not Dead Yet

Posted on September 1, 2008 by Felix

Dan Gross has a piece in Slate entitled "The Death of the Credit Card Economy". It tells a plausible and compelling story: as credit-card companies slash credit lines, so are consumers cutting back on their spending. Gross quotes Dan Ariely … Continue reading →

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Diluting the WSJ

Posted on September 1, 2008 by Felix

In a presidential campaign, candidates triangulate towards the center. The Democrat knows he has his party’s hard-core supporters in the bag; the Republican likewise. So both tend to take those hard-core supporters for granted and chase after other voters. According … Continue reading →

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On Being Rich

Posted on September 1, 2008 by Felix

My blog entry about people on $250,000 a year being rich elicited a fair amount of response, both in the blogosphere and via email. One theme running through the responses was that it doesn’t matter how much money you make; … Continue reading →

Posted in wealth | 1 Comment

Ben Stein Watch: August 31, 2008

Posted on August 31, 2008 by Felix

Of the two candidates for president of the United States, one has an intelligent, coherent, and sophisticated economic policy. The other is quite open about the fact that he has almost no grasp of economics and that he is utterly … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Friday Edition

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Felix

Why Do We Use Core Inflation? A clear essay from Mark Thoma. Citigroup Settles Charges of Widespread Theft of Customer Funds: Mostly from the "poor or recently deceased". Are Louis Vuitton’s Artist Collaborations Nearing Their End? Probably not, but they … Continue reading →

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Joe Nocera, Blogger

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Felix

This is why newspapers should want all their columnists to blog. Joe Nocera: Although Lehman has been the number one rated equity research shop (again, according to Institutional Investor), that just shows how flawed such ratings are. Everybody on Wall … Continue reading →

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How to Stop Stocks from Falling

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Felix

Last month the Pakistani Small Investors Association made a "demand that all stock prices be frozen at current levels". Ask, it seems, and you shall receive: The Board of Directors of the Karachi Stock Exchange has decreed that although stock … Continue reading →

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Chart of the Day: Palin on InTrade

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Felix

Here’s today’s intraday chart of Sarah Palin’s contract at InTrade: this is meant to show the crowd’s wisdom on the question of whether she will be John McCain’s vice-presidential nominee. (The times are Irish, so they’re 5 hours ahead of … Continue reading →

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$250,000 per Year Counts as Rich

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Felix

Slate’s Moneybox column is mostly home to Dan Gross, but occasionally other people write for it too. Back in May, it was fine for Sam Grobart and Tara Siegel Bernard to write that "for a family of four living in … Continue reading →

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0% is Not a Useful Stock Fund Benchmark

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Felix

Barry Ritholtz says it’s "amazing" that out of 2,100 diversified retail U.S. stock mutual funds open to new investors, just 17 have positive returns for both the past 12 months and year-to-date. The factoid comes, depressingly enough, from a very … Continue reading →

Posted in investing, personal finance | 1 Comment

Peter Niculescu, Teflon Executive

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Felix

How did Peter Niculescu manage to get promoted to the important new position of Chief Business Officer at Fannie Mae? This is how Fannie Mae describes his history at the company after he joined in 1999: In his previous position … Continue reading →

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Another Anonymous Wall Street Blogger is Fired

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Felix

Another day, another Wall Street analyst gets fired for his anonymous blog, despite taking precautions after the same thing happened to former Citigroup trader Michael McCarthy. The blogger known as "1-2" was never all that anonymous: for starters, he happily … Continue reading →

Posted in employment | 1 Comment