July 14, 2008

Tour de Starbucks Closures

This live map I created of the first batch of Starbucks closures represents an interesting cross-section of the subprime-struck, plus a swath of middle America. View Larger Map[via Consumerist]...

Best Newspaper Front Page Today: Mortgages and Mudslides

The Seattle Times gets the award for best newspaper front page today for this timely juxtaposition: mortgages and mudslides. [via Gregor]...

linkfest: planes, trains, and mortgages

Catching up on oodles of good reading today: Solar's hot real estate market (Fortune) Jet fuel premium to fall as air travel industry contracts radically (Bloomberg) Lehman should go private (Bloomberg) Waiting in line: Condos back then, bank run today...

The Slimfast Diet for Airlines

Fascinating data points from an ATA document on how airlines are trying to slim down to save weight and stay in business given jet fuel at record levels: One airline saved over 17 gallons/year per pound of weight per airplane...

Please God, Give Me One More Bubble

A popular bumper sticker after the dot-com collapse of almost a decade ago said something like this: "Please God, just one more bubble." Leaving aside that we had one more -- make that two more -- bubbles, and most...

Tracking Catastrophes

Meant to mention this sooner, but one of my favorite morning spots to check is RMS's new-ish Current Cat Activity. Keep in mind, of course, that "cat" is short for "catastrophe", and so it's not a tracker for deranged felines....

New Africa ETF Worth a Look

There is a new Africa ETF out and trading, courtesy of the people at Van Eck Global. Modeled on the Dow Jones Africa Titans 50 Index, the Africa Index ETF is intended to give investors direct exposure to African economies...

Freudian Fannie Finance Slip at Google

Google Finance made a Freudian algorithmic slip earlier today when slapping some artwork beside a story on Freddie & Fannie's problems. Check the company name in the following screen grab (courtesy of reader Daniel):...

Herb Greenberg Exits CNBC, Stage Left

Sad day for CNBC, and for me as well: My good friend, neighbor, and sometime CNBC sparring partner friend Herb Greenberg is exiting, stage left. He departed Marketwatch earlier this year -- where he was the site's most consistently interesting...

The Case for Wiping out Fannie/Freddie Shareholders

Peter Wallison at AEI has a missive out applauding the government's move in supporting Freddie/Fannie, but scolding them for fuzziness about their equity purchase plans. If/when they decide to purchase shares they need to wipe out Freddie/Fannie shareholders -- or...