September 18, 2008
Speaking of Pakistan's self-imposed no-market-declines rule, all's well in the land that bad news forgot. Consider this quote from a securities dealer in Karachi concerning the current global crisis: "Global financial turmoil has not and cannot affect Pakistan, thanks to...
We have had a remarkable day today in New York and in markets around the world, and it has seemingly turned into an equally remarkable night. According to reports, senior Congressional representatives began meeting at 7pm tonight with Ben Bernanke...
In a predictable twist tonight, SEC Chair Chris Cox has said he is going to follow the U.K.'s FSA and institute a temporary ban on financial short-selling. If true, and if it weren't such a stupid idea, it might...
We're now into the blame game, and it seems obvious that a major chunk of the blame for the current mini-round of the ongoing financial crisis is being accorded to short-sellers. Tonight we are hearing about new disclosure rules...
A few people have asked about my compound annual Dow returns for U.S. presidents, so I whipped together a quick and dirty live table....
House Financial Services chair Barney Frank (D-MA) is pushing harder than anyone else for more financial market regulation, plus talking about a possible government vehicle. So, whether you like the man and his often nonsensical posturing or not, you sort...
The numbers are amusing in this ABC News piece, but the idea is right: The current financial crisis and the massive layoffs in the financial services industry are transforming Manhattan real estate. "Five years ago, if you were an investment...
While it has a somewhat extreme title, this segment from CNBC Europe with a UBS economist is fairly clear-minded and useful. The gist: Governments have the balance sheets to solve this problem, if they choose to do it....
While Yale won't announce its endowment performance results for a few months yet, a Yale paper has initial figures on it, and it looks a little weaker than expected. David Swensen has apparently managed to eek out single-digit returns, but...
Full text, such as it is, of President Bush's first real statement on the current crisis. The American people are concerned about the situation in our financial markets and our economy, and I share their concerns. I’ve canceled my travel...
Oh, now John McCain is suddenly swinging with both fists on capital markets? He just said he thinks SEc Chair Chris Cox should be fired because he allowed naked short-selling and that is driving the current crisis? Un-be-frickin-believable. First, it...
As of moments ago, we just blew through a Dow round-trip for the Bush Administration on the Dow. The Dow closed at 10,578 on January 22nd, 2001, and we are currently at 10,512, for a -0.6% decline overall, or -0.07%...
Good ten-year-old paper I hadn't seen before from Wharton evaluating the options for resolving problems in banks (and banking systems). Despite being a decade old, it has some solid reading as we work through the problems in the U.S. and...
I was recently re-reading Frank Partnoy's excellent 2003 book Infectious Greed (yes, we both borrowed our names from a 2002 Alan Greenspan speech). It remains remarkably prescient with respect to the current crisis, having nailed the origins, the motivations, and...
Funny Jon Stewart segment on the recent financial bailouts. I especially like his "The CNBC octabox!" comment. Cute. Somewhat more seriously, this issue continues to spin out of control and needs to be explained to people. Right now. Because the...
To be somewhat less serious than I have been of late here, here is some lovely eye-candy of the venture capital business in the U.S. Check out the following two cartograms from the current issue of Nature (and click for...
I missed this until now, but a Paul Volcker, et al., editorial in today's Wall Street Journal is required reading. The authors essentially argue for a new Resolution Trust Corporation, a government vehicle that can buy up toxic paper on...
