Search Results for: results

White wine contest results

Posted on July 1, 2009 by Felix

Looking at the people who judged the taste and not just the price of the wine, the results were close, but unambiguous: the best wine was C, the Massiac — more people judged it their favorite than any other wine, according to a show of hands I asked for, and it also got the highest average rating. … Wines A and C — the two French wines, which were also the most and the least expensive wines respectively — both got 13 (out of 44) votes as being the most expensive wine, and both got 4 votes as being the cheapest.
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Posted in Not economics | 40 Comments

Deutsche Results Hit Citi Shares

Posted on January 14, 2009 by Felix

When Citigroup realized it was going to lose much more money in the fourth quarter than the market expected, it decided to leak the news to the press. Deutsche Bank is more grown-up about such things, releasing a "preliminary and … Continue reading →

Posted in banking | 1 Comment

Auction Results and Hammer Prices, Redux

Posted on November 15, 2008 by Felix

It turns out I’m not the only person who cares about the weird way in which auction house estimates are compared to hammer prices (ex commission) during an auction, but are compared to the total price paid (including commission) after … Continue reading →

Posted in art, auctions | 1 Comment

Getting Results in Davos

Posted on January 25, 2008 by Felix

I’ve been on a mini-crusade while in Davos: every time I meet someone with a truncated RSS feed or no RSS feed at all, I get all evangelistic on them about the wonders of full RSS. And guess what – … Continue reading →

Posted in Davos 2008 | 1 Comment

Deciphering Auction Results

Posted on November 9, 2007 by Felix

In the wake of my entry yesterday about auction houses’ estimates and reserves, Rik Pike of Christie’s has been very helpful in clearing a few things up for me. For one thing, there’s no doubt that estimates refer to the … Continue reading →

Posted in art | Comments Off on Deciphering Auction Results

Paying Readers: The Results

Posted on November 4, 2007 by Felix

The experiment is over, and I have paid five of my readers for reading this blog; my total outlay came to $5.12. The average (mean) bid was $380,952,457.64. The lowest bid was one Zimbabwean cent; the highest was $8 billion. … Continue reading →

Posted in blogonomics | Comments Off on Paying Readers: The Results

The presidential primary system is fundamentally undemocratic

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Felix

Next time you rub your eyes and wonder how on earth this racist nutjob is going to become the Republican presidential candidate, remind yourself that it’s not democracy which put him in that position. Rather, it’s the lack of it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on The presidential primary system is fundamentally undemocratic

Poll: Do Americans have the right to blaspheme religion?

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Felix

The results of a Fusion survey.

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Millennial datapoints of the day

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Felix

Fusion just published the results of its Massive Millennial Poll.

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When private-school tuition is tax-deductible

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Felix

Scott Asen, a former trustee and head of the development committee at Groton, a posh private school, has a revealing op-ed in the NYT. He explains that at such schools, the tuition fees, high as they are, fall well short … Continue reading →

Posted in economics | Tagged | 14 Comments

More data on 401(k) loans

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Felix

In my post about Bob Litan and his estimates of 401(k) loan defaults, one of the key bits of weirdness was the way in which he decided that the total number of 401(k) loans outstanding had doubled since 2009. The … Continue reading →

Posted in economics | 4 Comments

The secret to success in the arts

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Felix

If you live in a world of fat tails rather than thin tails, and if you have, say, 1 million operators, then the lucky few get very lucky indeed, even if they don’t have any skill. … But given the sheer number of people they’re competing against, and given the fact that the number of breakout stars in each field is shrinking rather than growing, the fact is that just about everybody with massive success will have got there by sheer luck. Continue reading →

Posted in economics | Tagged | 27 Comments

Kermit kontest

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Felix

The fifth annual* Von Salmon Wine Contest returned to the East Village last night, and this one was the nerdiest yet. Rather than use grape varieties (Pinot Noir, Merlot, Rioja) or region (Beaujolais) as the theme of the contest, we … Continue reading →

Posted in Not economics | 4 Comments

Email from experts

Posted on December 29, 2009 by Felix

I got an email from one Ed Grebeck this morning, complaining about a post of mine on the subject of CDOs. It started like this: Felix, I teach “Credit Default Swaps 101” at NYU, a strategist in the global debt … Continue reading →

Posted in Econoblog | 32 Comments

Another Reason for Banks to be Small

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Felix

Mike at Rortybomb finds some empirical research on what happens to loan rates when banks get bigger and more consolidated. The results make intuitive sense: as competition falls, loan rates go up. The exception is loans which can be securitized, … Continue reading →

Posted in banking | 68 Comments

Whither This Year’s MBAs?

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Felix

One thing drilled into every MBA student is that sunk costs are irrelevant, while opportunity costs are paramount. Which is a lesson this year’s graduating class will put to good use. Let’s say that in any given year, there’s a … Continue reading →

Posted in education | 13 Comments

The Kanjorski Meme, Mark II

Posted on February 16, 2009 by Felix

Tyler Cowen is now talking about the Kanjorski Meme Mark I (I thought I’d dealt with that one already) — but that’s not the end of the story, as Sam Jones demonstrates today. Sam has what you might call the … Continue reading →

Posted in bonds and loans, Politics | 2 Comments

Where’s Markopolos’s Blog?

Posted on February 4, 2009 by Felix

Ray Pellecchia is right: if Harry Markopolos had taken all of his evidence about Bernie Madoff and put it on a blog, instead of submitting it to the SEC, there’s a good chance that would have been the end of … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 1 Comment

Banker Pay: Salmon vs Barnett

Posted on February 4, 2009 by Felix

I just had this IM exchange with Megan Barnett: Felix Salmon: Hi Megan, I see you’re attacking the cap on bankers’ pay, while I think it’s a good idea. Megan Barnett: Yes, it’s true. We finally disagree on something. Felix … Continue reading →

Posted in pay | 1 Comment

Merlot Contest

Posted on January 31, 2009 by Felix

After the wine contest and the Pinot contest, last night was the Merlot contest. And boy did passions run lower. I thought that there would be many more really bad wines, just because people don’t really know the grape, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments

Sorkin Exonerates Fuld

Posted on January 27, 2009 by Felix

Andrew Ross Sorkin today has the most astonishing parenthetical I’ve seen in a long while: (By the way, doesn’t it seem increasingly hard to vilify Richard S. Fuld Jr., the former chief executive of Lehman Brothers, given what’s happened since … Continue reading →

Posted in banking, Media | 1 Comment

Geithner’s Written Responses to the Senate Finance Committee

Posted on January 22, 2009 by Felix

Does Kentucky senator Jim Bunning read Market Movers? If not, we’re certainly thinking along very similar lines. If you scroll down to page 45 of the 102 pages (!) of written responses from Tim Geithner to the Senate Finance committee, … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment

Felix Salmon Smackdown Watch

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Felix

Jim Surowiecki provides proof that I’ve been writing too much and too hastily about bank nationalization of late: At one point, Felix describes nationalization as "elegantly" putting an end to the current morass, while at another he describes it as … Continue reading →

Posted in bailouts, banking | 2 Comments

Extra Credit, Early Monday Edition

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Felix

OECD says EU Should Consider Single Financial Supervisor Citigroup Plans to Sell Japanese Brokerage: An abrupt volte-face, especially considering how recently they bought it. Russia and Ukraine Reach Deal on Gas Interest Rate Drop Has Dire Results for Legal Aid: … Continue reading →

Posted in remainders | 1 Comment

JP Morgan: A Better Acquirer than Bank of America

Posted on January 15, 2009 by Felix

Once Citigroup has been broken up, America will have two big financial supermarkets: Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase. There are many differences between them, but a very big one is their track record when it comes to recent … Continue reading →

Posted in banking, M&A | 1 Comment