Bailout

Sorkin?s AIG math

Posted on October 05, 2010
Andrew Ross Sorkin talks to Treasury's Jim Millstein and makes a valiant attempt to explain the AIG deal, explaining step by step how the company's debt to the government is going to be repaid.

Inside Job

Posted on October 05, 2010
One of my dreams in life has long been to have the opportunity to sit down opposite Larry Summers or Bob Rubin, with video cameras rolling, and ask one of the key players in the financial crisis some tough on-the-record questions about the degree to which he's responsible for it

Explaining the AIG exit

Posted on October 05, 2010
Andrew Ross Sorkin's column today is entirely based on what he learned talking to Jim Millstein, the chief restructuring officer at Treasury, who seems to be very happy to talk now that he's officially announced Treasury's plan to exit its investment in AIG.

Report report report, Potash edition

Posted on October 05, 2010
If you want to hone your financial-media reading skills -- if you want to be an active, critical reader of the financial press -- then here's an exercise for you:

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Counterparties

Posted on October 04, 2010
The AP has no idea how the S&P 500 works -- Yahoo

Making money off students, debit-card edition

Posted on October 04, 2010
This was probably inevitable: the minute that Dodd-Frank cracked down on the fees charged by credit cards aimed at students, some other bright financial innovation would crop up.

Blogonomics: Dealbreaker

Posted on October 04, 2010
Dealbreaker would be a very smart fill-in acquisition for the New York Observer.

Explaining Carlos Slim?s $175 million NYT profit

Posted on October 04, 2010
Jay Rosen asks for an English translation of my calculation regarding the profit that Carlos Slim made on his NYT investment. It does get a bit complicated, but I'll do my best.

How the subprime crisis hit blacks hardest

Posted on October 04, 2010
America's minorities, it seems, can't catch a break when it comes to housing.

Wall Street?s trolls

Posted on October 03, 2010
There are anonymous commenters on blogs like mine, and then there are the elite and sophisticated investors invited to join a conference call with Ireland's finance minister. Which group would you think is better behaved?

Taking leave

Posted on October 03, 2010
I'm a month late to the debate about paid and unpaid leave, but I think there are a couple of points worth making which seem to have been missed. In general, I'm with Ezra on this one: paid leave is a good thing, and we should have more of it.

How Carlos Slim made $150 million from the NYT

Posted on October 03, 2010
The New York Times is going to pay back the $250 million loan from Carlos Slim three years ahead of schedule.

How important are gleaming airports?

Posted on October 01, 2010
Greg Lindsay knows a lot about airports: in fact he's just written a whole book about them, called Aerotropolis. So I thought I'd ask him whether my uninformed ramblings about airports and infrastructure made any sense.

ETFs aren?t derivatives

Posted on October 01, 2010
Herb Greenberg misreads the SEC flash-crash report, in an attempt to justify his silly claim that ETFs are derivatives.

A second look at the AIG deal

Posted on October 01, 2010
Well done to Kid Dynamite for doing the math on the way that we taxpayers are swapping our AIG debt for equity in the company.

Why is Facebook splitting its stock?

Posted on October 01, 2010
Paul Kedrosky is right: this is very weird.

Grading Basel III

Posted on October 01, 2010
If you haven't seen it yet, it's worth taking a look at Alan Blinder's WSJ op-ed on Basel III.

Otiose shareholder of the day, B&N edition

Posted on September 30, 2010
Steven Davidoff goes into lots of detail today on the close-run fight between Ron Burkle and Leonard Riggio for control of three board seats at Barnes & Noble.

Counterparties

Posted on September 30, 2010
20-page paper on When Microfinance Goes Public -- CGAP; see also the blog

Internet libel suit of the day

Posted on September 30, 2010
What is Charles Smith thinking?

Obama?s tax cut for the rich

Posted on September 30, 2010
Thank you, Jonathan Chait, for making an important point about the NYT's silly story today on the subject of taxes and "the definition of rich".

AIG?s positive valuation

Posted on September 30, 2010
Back in January, the bien-pensant received opinion was that AIG's stock was worthless, and that the market was delusional in valuing the company at $26 billion.

Elizabeth Warren?s principles

Posted on September 30, 2010
Elizabeth Warren isn't shy about taking sides in the debate between rules-based and principles-based regulation:

Counterparties

Posted on September 29, 2010
DE Shaw Lays Off 150 People. Does this mean Larry Summers won't get his job back? Or does it mean he costs as much as 150 other employees? -- TBI

Dodgy credit card of the day

Posted on September 29, 2010
While John Hempton was uncovering a dodgy Chinese stock on the New York Stock Exchange, Tim Chen of Nerdwallet was looking into a much smaller operation, Anacott Financial.

Mutual fund datapoint of the day

Posted on September 29, 2010
The Bloomberg headline is pretty clear, at least by Bloomberg standards: "Fidelity Loses Top Mutual-Fund Spot to Bogle's Indexing".

The Larry Summers view of airports

Posted on September 29, 2010
It doesn't matter whether you fly private or whether you fly commercial: you still have to fly from an airport.

Mandating annuities in retirement

Posted on September 29, 2010
Dan Ariely had an interesting column in the latest issue of HBR, talking about how Chile forces its citizens to save money and annuitize their pensions:

Counterparties

Posted on September 28, 2010
Adventures in ersatz accuracy: Dow 38,820! Really? Not 38,817? -- Bloomberg

Beware municipal bonds

Posted on September 28, 2010
Meredith Whitney has a 600-page report warning of municipal bond defaults.

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