Monthly Archives: April 2007

To read all the press about the Citigroup layoff plan of late, it seems there are two main planks: first, fire about 17,000 people. Then take another 10,000 jobs or so, and move them out of New York to cheaper … Continue reading →

David Leonhardt’s Economix column has finally been promoted from the front of the Business section to the main front page! Congratulations to him. And the subject matter is dear to my own heart: rent vs buy calculations. In fact, by … Continue reading →

Add Michael Bloomberg to the billion-dollar-a-year club. DealBook reports that Fortune’s Carol Loomis has had an inside look at the books, and found 2006 profits of $1.5 billion on revenues of $4.7 billion. Given that Bloomberg personally owns more than … Continue reading →

One reason why energy traders can make $2 billion in a year is that energy prices are crazy, crazy things — they often behave more like hotel rooms than like normal assets like stocks or bonds or 2-bedroom apartments. Back … Continue reading →

It’s not often that currency moves have an obvious explanation. But every so often, you can apply the laws of supply and demand to FX. For instance, when Citigroup announced that it was buying Mexico’s Banamex for $12 billion, the … Continue reading →

It was probably inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any less depressing. Barney Frank has now come out and said that investors in mortgage-backed bonds should be liable for the underlying loans. “More money was being lent than should have … Continue reading →

It’s not easy to become a billionaire — making a billion dollars over the course of just one lifetime. On the other hand, if you’re a hedge-fund manager, it seems that making a billion dollars over the course of just … Continue reading →

Merrill Lynch announced last month that it was severely restricting the distribution of its research to journalists. How’s that working out for them? Well, Alphaville today has got its hands on Merrill’s latest ABN Amro report, and is happy to … Continue reading →

John Carney and Thorold Barker agree: Goldman might be a glorified hedge fund, but it sure ain’t valued like one. (If you can’t get past the FT subscription firewall, there’s a decent summary here.) Carney’s solution? Goldman should spin off … Continue reading →

It’s taken five months, and the fat lady (a/k/a Sydney-based Perpetual Investments) hasn’t sung quite yet, but it very much looks as though Mexican cement company Cemex has finally snagged Rinker. Cemex is arguably the best-run company in Latin America, … Continue reading →

Index funds are a smarter bet than mutual funds for retail investors, just because their fees are lower. So why do big institutional investors invest in private-equity companies which charge enormous fees, and which in turn hire investment banks which … Continue reading →

Gordon Hanson is causing quite a stir with his study for the Council on Foreign Relations entitled “The Economic Logic of Illegal Immigration”. (Press release, WSJ op-ed, abstract, paper.) Economically speaking, he concludes, there’s really very little reason to believe … Continue reading →