Monthly Archives: April 2007

Do you want biofuels, or do you want to feed the hungry?

The consequence of a boom in biofuels is likely to be more of the world’s poor going hungry.
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Payrolls: Great!

A big jobs report on a day when most of the market has the day off.
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Payrolls: Great!

There’s no one around on the stock market to celebrate, but this morning’s jobs report was fantastic. (Unless you’re Barry Ritholtz, of course, in which case it’s “not a big number”.) Not only did March payrolls rise by a very … Continue reading

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Do you want biofuels, or do you want to feed the hungry?

Tyler Cowen is an economist with a heart. He thinks he knows that protectionism and subsidies are ever and always a Bad Thing, but at the same time he can’t bring himself to say anything too bad about tortilla subsidies … Continue reading

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Is Chrysler actually worth more than $0?

Daimler will probably be left with unfunded Chrysler healthcare liabilities even after any sale.
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Will Goldman Sachs lose money on New Century?

In the wake of New Century’s bankruptcy, Robert Lindsay gets his hands on the official list of the company’s biggest creditors. At the top of the list is Goldman Sachs, followed by Credit Suisse and a who’s-who of other big investment-banking names.
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Is Chrysler actually worth more than $0?

Breaking Views analyst Antony Currie has the down-low on the Kirk Kerkorian bid for Chrysler — and if you don”t have access to his ultra-exclusive website, you can get much the same analysis in the comments section of felixsalmon.com for … Continue reading

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Kerkorian’s weird bid for Chrysler

DaimlerChrysler CEO Deiter Zetsche‘s foremost obligation is to his shareholders, and he is going to have a devil of a time explaining why it’s leaving billions of dollars on the table just because Kirk Kerkorian is a nice guy.
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Lunch with Nassim Nicholas Taleb

What Felix learned at lunch with the author of Fooled by Randomness and the forthcoming The Black Swan.
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Kerkorian’s weird bid for Chrysler

Kirk Kerkorian has gone public with a low-ball, $4.5 billion bid for Chrysler. He knows the company well: he had a 10% stake in 1995, when he tried to buy it for $20 billion, and held onto that stake until … Continue reading

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Lunch with Nassim Nicholas Taleb

So the lunch with Nassim Nicholas Taleb happened, in a rather pretentious little place on 15th Street, which at least was quiet. I arrived brimming with questions, and left with only a few of them answered, but had a great … Continue reading

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Does the SEC understand what a “principles-based approach” to regulation even is?

The SEC says it wants to move to a principles-based approach to regulation – but then says that doing so means “striking a balance” when it comes to investor protection.
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My other car is a Gulfstream V

Ford’s CEO has a contract which allows his “wife, children, and friends” to use the company jet for personal reasons at company expense, “when he requests it”.
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Should the world worry about a US recession?

The IMF seems sanguine about spillover from the US to the rest of the world. But beware financial linkages!
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Does the SEC understand what a “principles-based approach” to regulation even is?

Marcy Gordon of the AP reports today that the SEC is easing up on some Sarbanes-Oxley regulations, specifically those which “require companies to assess the strength of their internal checks and balances to guard against fraud.” She continues: The framework … Continue reading

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My other car is a Gulfstream V

Good to see Tim Hanrahan of the WSJ in Michelle Leder territory, reading Ford’s latest proxy filing: Chairman William Clay Ford and Chief Executive Alan Mulally were required to use company aircraft for all business and personal air travel for … Continue reading

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Will Goldman Sachs lose money on New Century?

In the wake of New Century’s bankruptcy, Robert Lindsay gets his hands on the official list of the company’s biggest creditors. At the top of the list is Goldman Sachs, followed by Credit Suisse and a who’s-who of other big … Continue reading

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Should the world worry about a US recession?

“An old cliché holds that when the U.S. economy sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold,” says David Wessel today, reporting on new IMF research which seems to show quite the opposite. “Sometimes,” he concludes, “a sneeze isn’t … Continue reading

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How is the population of the US like a 7th grade dance?

Dissecting a National Geographic chart.
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Will Shwarzman wind up buying Chrysler?

Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman is about to officially become a multigazillionaire, once his company goes public and everybody knows what his stake is worth. But in the public mind, will he really have overtaken Henry Kravis as the ne plus ultra of private-equity honchos? Maybe not. What he really needs is not more money, or more lavish parties; he needs to do something which will connect him to the entire country. You know, like buy Detroit.
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How is the population of the US like a 7th grade dance?

The Creativity Exchange finds this chart from National Geographic, wonderfully described by Mark Thoma as “like a 7th grade dance with the boys huddled together on one side of the room, the girls on the other”. Equally wonderfully, Thoma’s commenters … Continue reading

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Will Shwarzman wind up buying Chrysler?

Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman is about to officially become a multigazillionaire, once his company goes public and everybody knows what his stake is worth. But in the public mind, will he really have overtaken Henry Kravis as the ne plus ultra … Continue reading

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Have the Kirchners taken over Argentina?

Argentines have always loved strong leaders, from Peron to Menem. Kirchner’s only the latest in a long line, and if he can keep control of the economy – a very big if – then he and his wife could be running Argentina more or less indefinitely.
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Property chart of the day

There are bad charts, and then there are really cool charts. Props to Nigel Holmes, at the New York Observer, for this one: Just nobody show it to Nouriel Roubini.

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Property datapoint of the day: 767 Fifth Ave worth $4 billion

The General Motors Building, at 767 Fifth Avenue, is the most valuable building in the world.
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