Bailout

A privately-traded Facebook

Posted on January 03, 2011
Is Goldman Sachs going to start trading Facebook shares before they even go public? Dan Primack thinks it's a possibility, and I'm inclined to agree.

Replacing Summers with a Wall Street millionaire

Posted on January 03, 2011
From today's WaPo report it seems that the shortlist to replace Larry Summers at the NEC has been whittled down to three men -- Gene Sperling, Roger Altman, and Richard Levin.

The Winklevoss delusion

Posted on December 31, 2010
Jay Yarow is absolutely right when it comes to the Winklevoss twins: they're arrogant, delusional hypocrites.

18 questions for Martin Erzinger

Posted on December 30, 2010
M Schuler of Colorado leaves a blistering comment on my post about Martin Erzinger, the Morgan Stanley broker who bought his way out of a felony charge.

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Manhattan?s rent-vs-buy divergence

Posted on December 30, 2010
You might be surprised by this: it's counterintuitive, and acts as useful corrective to people who simply assume, when they buy an apartment, that the alternative is ever-increasing rent payments.

The behavioral economics of Mexican central heating

Posted on December 30, 2010
I love Damien Cave's dispatch from Mexico City (elevation: 7,350 feet), which gets very cold in the winter, inside and out:

Counterparties

Posted on December 30, 2010
Delaney and Grim on the erosion of the social safety net -- HuffPo

The evanescence of Twitter debates

Posted on December 30, 2010
Rob Beschizza has a very good post on the dynamics of the spat between Wired.com and Glenn Greenwald. For an excellent overview of the fight and what it's about, I recommend Blake Hounshell. But Rob picks up on something else:

Housing: Ackman vs Shilling

Posted on December 29, 2010
It's Housing Day over at Business Insider today, which is running duelling slideshows from Bill Ackman and Gary Shilling in the wake of yesterday's dreadful home-price numbers.

Counterparties

Posted on December 29, 2010
Evan Hansen and Kevin Poulsen respond to Glenn Greenwald -- Wired

Sob story of the day, Cat Rock edition

Posted on December 29, 2010
Today's WSJ features the sad, sad story of retired churchman Fred Osborn, who might have to sell his family home.

Vindictive servicer of the day: ING Direct

Posted on December 28, 2010
I'm a longstanding fan of American Homeowner Preservation, which has found a clever way of keeping underwater homeowners in their homes while minimizing the loss to their lenders. Even the red-in-tooth-and-claw capitalists at Goldman Sachs can understand that...

A guide to the market oligopoly system

Posted on December 28, 2010
A couple of months ago, I bought this drawing from New York artist William Powhida. It's called "A Guide to the Market Oligopoly System", and it's lots of fun, as well as being very astute.

Counterparties

Posted on December 27, 2010
Wall Street Bull Crocheted! -- Animal NY

Lessons from Japan?s fiscal disaster

Posted on December 27, 2010
When it comes to overindebted countries which can't stop spending, it's pretty hard to compete with Japan.

The longevity trend bond arrives

Posted on December 27, 2010
Swiss Re reinsures a lot of life insurance. As a result, it could lose billions of dollars if a lot of insured people die young, due to pandemics, terrorism, or the like.

The Gordian nightmare of public pensions

Posted on December 27, 2010
Maybe it's because I'm European, but I simply cannot get my head around a developed nation where people with lifelong service in the police or the fire brigade can find themselves with no pension at all.

Counterparties

Posted on December 22, 2010
Questioning the Benefits of Maturity Transformation -- Macro Resilience

Counterparties

Posted on December 21, 2010
Do you have "ideas on the importance of inclusive growth"? Do you want to go to Davos this year? Then go to YouTube -- YouTube

How HAMP modifications are escalated

Posted on December 21, 2010
After publishing my post this morning about the way disputes are resolved in HAMP, I went back and forth with Treasury a few times. And it turns out that there's much more to it than the Homeownership Preservation Foundation -- although finding out exactly how it all works is basically impossible unless you know someone at Treasury...

Cuomo lashes out at Ernst & Young

Posted on December 21, 2010
Say what you like about Andrew Cuomo, he gives good complaint:

Chart of the day: The working poor

Posted on December 21, 2010
This chart comes from a Working Families Project report, and it underscores how the Great Recession has hit the working classes just as much as it has the unemployed.

Canadian banking: The year in headlines

Posted on December 21, 2010
January 14: Cash-rich Canada banks shy away from acquisitions

Bad investment of the day, life-insurance edition

Posted on December 21, 2010
You've heard of robo-signers. Now meet the robo-doctor:

Counterparties

Posted on December 20, 2010
Ngrams! John Updike,Tom Wolfe,Gore Vidal,Thomas Pynchon; Richard Rorty FTW; crazy,sane; pleasure,pain; http,www,web; Bart,Barthes; prophet,profit; swing,miss; newfangled,avant garde; Bordeaux,Burgundy,red wine; adults,kids; sex,lies,videotape; Jesus,Christ; philosophy,religion; Mom,mom,Dad,dad; god,dog; heaven, hell; happy; oyster,lobster; Israel, Palestine; Lenin,Stalin,Mao; Goethe,Beethoven,Mozart; Beatles,Beethoven; France,Germany,India; Kennedy,Roosevelt; global, universal; USA,USSR; win,lose,draw

A fiscally-unified plan for European defaults

Posted on December 20, 2010
There are basically two ways that the European crisis might end up resolving itself. Either the peripheral countries start defaulting, or else the eurozone becomes a fiscal union as well as monetary union. Both are politically unacceptable, of course...

Beef of the day: Wallison vs Nocera

Posted on December 20, 2010
On Saturday, Joe Nocera aimed a well-deserved broadside at Peter Wallison, one of the Republican commissioners seemingly doing their best to scupper the work of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. He said that Wallison's theory of the genesis of the financial crisis is "not, as they say, reality-based", and noted Wallison's idiosyncratic defense of his position:

How the mortgage industry polices HAMP

Posted on December 20, 2010
American Banker's Kate Berry uncovers a stunning factoid today: the nonprofit Homeownership Preservation Foundation, the official body charged with resolving disputes over HAMP modifications, was founded by ResCap and to this day is run by GMAC and other finance officials from within the mortgage industry.

Are surgeons getting kickbacks from Medtronic?

Posted on December 20, 2010
The WSJ puts a lot of time and effort into its leders -- those long, exhaustively-reported front-page exclusives about topics which might not be breaking news but which are still very important. So why is it that when a story is based on information found online, the WSJ still can't seem to link to it?

Cuomo?s parting shot

Posted on December 20, 2010
Andrew Cuomo has decided, reports the WSJ, to file civil fraud charges against Ernst & Young in the waning days of his tenure as New York's attorney general -- news which has been received with delight by Yves Smith, on the grounds that it might strengthen a criminal case against Dick Fuld.

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