Bailout

Counterparties

Posted on January 18, 2011
Liz Alderman provides the news context for Paul Krugman's big magazine piece on Europe's fiscal situation -- NYT

Adventures in market reporting, part 492

Posted on January 18, 2011
European stocks went up today, and European bonds went down. That happens, sometimes.

Should Seeking Alpha?s authors start getting paid?

Posted on January 18, 2011
Kid Dynamite emails with a question about whether he should sign up for Seeking Alpha's new premium program:

Don?t buy index annuities

Posted on January 18, 2011
Lisa Gibbs has a great article on index annuities in Money magazine (HT: TFF). The short version: don't buy them, and don't let your parents buy them.

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Why Europe?s periphery should restructure their bonds

Posted on January 18, 2011
The drumbeat for debt restructurings on Europe's periphery is becoming too loud to ignore. The Economist has now come out strongly in favor; its leader gives the strongest case for biting the bullet now. And Mohamed El-Erian has now officially signed on:

Counterparties

Posted on January 17, 2011
Goldman's "principles would be no help in decision making: they are a mixture of untruths, platitudes and boasts" -- FT

Goldman?s Facebook plan falls apart

Posted on January 17, 2011
When the news came out that Goldman Sachs was orchestrating a private offering of Facebook shares at a $50 billion valuation, those shares overnight became an even hotter commodity than they had been up to that point.

James Macdonald on US sovereign default

Posted on January 17, 2011
After I blogged Greg Ip's post on the dangers of a US debt default if the debt ceiling isn't raised, it became clear that we were very much lacking an expert take on the matter.

Why is Seeking Alpha paying its contributors?

Posted on January 16, 2011
Seeking Alpha has finally started paying its contributors -- but I'm not convinced that this is a welcome development.

Why Yunus is right about for-profit microfinance

Posted on January 16, 2011
Muhammad Yunus has a heartfelt NYT op-ed railing against for-profit financiers.

Counterparties

Posted on January 14, 2011
Pharo to offer shares denominated in renminbi -- FT

JP Morgan threatens small depositors

Posted on January 14, 2011
Well done to Ron Lieber for calling bullshit on Chase's PR spin:

The observer effect on muni ETFs

Posted on January 14, 2011
How much are municipal bonds worth?

The global risk that is Davos

Posted on January 14, 2011
Jim Ledbetter reads the 50-page Davos global risks report so you don't have to

Schwab?s lies

Posted on January 14, 2011
Floyd Norris has a great column today taking Charles Schwab to task for its egregious behavior surrounding the ill-fated YieldPlus fund.

Counterparties

Posted on January 13, 2011
Charity Navigator's guide to where the Haiti money went includes only 1 of the 5 telethon recipients -- Charity Navigator

Dealing with Britain?s overpaid bankers

Posted on January 13, 2011
Bagehot has a very odd column this week. He diagnoses a key problem with the UK and its oversized financial sector:

The US won?t default, even if the debt ceiling stays

Posted on January 13, 2011
Greg Ip makes a very important point today, which I haven't seen made anywhere else: even if the US debt ceiling isn't lifted, that doesn't mean the government will default.

Algorithmic trading and market-structure tail risks

Posted on January 13, 2011
I'm on Fresh Air today, talking about the Wired article on algorithmic trading which I wrote with Jon Stokes. Norm Cimon, who wrote a very interesting paper on the limits of financial databases, read it, and emailed with an important point:

The business lobby takes on healthcare reform

Posted on January 13, 2011
What business, big or small, doesn't like a government bailout? That's what the Obama healthcare bill is, in oversimplified terms, from the point of view of employers: up until now they've been struggling with soaring healthcare costs, and now the government is stepping in to relieve some of that burden.

Counterparties

Posted on January 12, 2011
Look at how much Belgian CDS have gapped out since Thanksgiving on no new news -- Reuters

Why do we need maturity transformation?

Posted on January 12, 2011
There's a new flurry of commentary today on money-market funds: the Independent Directors Council has responded to the government's report on the subject, as has Blackrock.

The behavioral case for the debt ceiling

Posted on January 12, 2011
John Carney takes a stab at answering my question about why we have a debt ceiling, saying that it "helps raise public awareness about the costs of government":

Algo-powered curation

Posted on January 12, 2011
Paul Kedrosky has a great little essay today on the way that curation is set to be the new search, since the utility of the old search is steadily declining.

Learning from Peter Thiel

Posted on January 12, 2011
Peter Thiel's hedge fund, Clarium Capital, ain't doing so well. Its assets under management are down 90% from their peak, and total returns from the high point are -65%.

Why do we have a debt ceiling?

Posted on January 12, 2011
Can someone please explain to me why we have a debt ceiling at all? Its existence seems to violate every tenet of risk management and good governance.

Should you open an FDIC-insured yuan bank account?

Posted on January 12, 2011
I've been looking at the instructions for opening a yuan bank account here in New York; it seems very easy indeed.

When hedge funds are too boring

Posted on January 11, 2011
Laurence Fletcher reports today on rich individuals with high risk appetites who are getting frustrated with modest hedge fund returns:

Art funds return

Posted on January 11, 2011
If proof were needed that the crisis is over and that we're back to idiotic business-as-usual, then look no further than the fact that Dealbook -- Heidi Moore, no less -- is running a long story about art funds.

Counterparties

Posted on January 10, 2011
Peter Lattman on the market in "so-called gourmet cupcake shops" -- NYT

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