Monthly Archives: July 2007

Hedge Fund Analysts’ Salaries Soar

Mark Malyszko of Institutional Investor says that pay at hedge funds is through
the roof
.
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Posted in hedge funds, pay | Comments Off on Hedge Fund Analysts’ Salaries Soar

Economists vs Political Scientists on the Web

Ezra Klein wants
to know
why economists are overrepresented in the blogosphere, while political
scientists are nowhere to be found.
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Posted in economics, technology | Comments Off on Economists vs Political Scientists on the Web

Emerging Markets Reach Parity With Developed Markets

Emerging-market
equities are now trading at the same multiple as developed markets
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Posted in emerging markets, stocks | Comments Off on Emerging Markets Reach Parity With Developed Markets

What (Fake) Steve Jobs Thinks of the Music Industry

Could Fake Steve Jobs has the most astute
analysis
of the simmering tensions
between Apple and the music industry that I’ve seen anywhere.
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Posted in technology | 1 Comment

Why There Are So Many Frame Stores

Bryan Caplan has vacated the guest-blogger perch over at the Economist’s Free
Exchange blog, but he did leave his readers with an interesting puzzle
in microeconomics
, lifted from his
own blog
.
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Posted in economics | Comments Off on Why There Are So Many Frame Stores

Blackstone vs KKR: Schwarzman Wins

Now that both Blackstone and KKR have lifted their kimonos for the investing
public, it’s pretty obvious that Blackstone has won the face-off.
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Posted in private equity, stocks | Comments Off on Blackstone vs KKR: Schwarzman Wins

Carlos Slim, The World’s Richest Man

Carlos Slim is now the
richest person in the world
. Congratulations, Mr Slim. In honor of the news,
let’s generalize wildly from this one datapoint.
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Posted in wealth | Comments Off on Carlos Slim, The World’s Richest Man

Where Hits Come From

Chris
Dillow
and James
Surowiecki
both weigh in this week on the subject of where hits come from.
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Posted in economics | Comments Off on Where Hits Come From

IPO Datapoints of the Day

Michelle Leder notes that eight different
companies
filed
to go public
in just one day yesterday, including giants Och-Ziff Capital
and Netsuite.
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Posted in stocks | Comments Off on IPO Datapoints of the Day

Ralph Cioffi’s Failed Liquidity Arbitrage

Veryan Allen has a neat riposte to anybody who claims that
the meltdown at Bear Stearns’ credit funds shows how dangerous hedge funds can
be: the Bear Stearns funds weren’t
hedge funds
!
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Posted in bonds and loans, hedge funds | Comments Off on Ralph Cioffi’s Failed Liquidity Arbitrage

Why Boards Shouldn’t Be Stuffed With CEOs

Adam Piore has an interesting look
at corporate boards
today. Two factoids jumped out at me:
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Posted in governance | Comments Off on Why Boards Shouldn’t Be Stuffed With CEOs

Why Bear Stearns Won’t Be Sold

The Bear Stearns rumors are back. "Bear
Stearns Could Become Takeover Target
," we’re breathlessly told, although
if you read all the way to the final four words of the article, you do find
out at the end that, for now at least, "Bear isn’t for sale."
Glad that’s cleared up.
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Posted in banking | Comments Off on Why Bear Stearns Won’t Be Sold

The Wal-Mart MoneyCard: A Rip-Off

Ron
Galloway
reckons that Wal-Mart’s new
debit card
"is simply a deposit account by another name" and that
Wal-Mart has thereby managed to become a bank via the back door, as it were.
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Posted in personal finance | Comments Off on The Wal-Mart MoneyCard: A Rip-Off

When Mortgage Derivatives Get Included in CDOs

Antony Currie of Breaking Views, who’s been following the
mortgage mess very closely, emails me with some color about the degree to which
derivatives – credit default swaps, or CDSs – are a part of the
CDOs that everybody seems to be so worried about these days.
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Posted in bonds and loans, derivatives, housing | Comments Off on When Mortgage Derivatives Get Included in CDOs

Speculating on the IMF Succession

The favorite at the moment would seem to be Mervyn King, of the Bank of England – a strong central banker and someone I can’t see generating any real opposition.
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Posted in IMF, technocrats | Comments Off on Speculating on the IMF Succession

More on CDOs and Derivatives

There are a lot of CDOs which have a lot of exposure to the CDS market. There are also a lot of CDOs which have a lot of exposure to the subprime market. I just don’t think they’re the same CDOs.
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Posted in bonds and loans, derivatives | Comments Off on More on CDOs and Derivatives

How the Bell Canada Deal Got Done

It seems that the
biggest buyout in history
came as a result of an auction run idiosyncratically
by the target company, in conditions of no little secrecy and mystery.
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Posted in M&A | Comments Off on How the Bell Canada Deal Got Done

The Moral Case Against Murdoch

Commenter dissent has a heartfelt
and powerful rebuttal
to my sanguine view of Rupert Murdoch
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Posted in Media, publishing | Comments Off on The Moral Case Against Murdoch

CDOs: Factchecking Krugman

Paul Krugman has a reasonably good overview
of the mess in the CDO market
today (free version here).
But he goes much too far when he tries to impress upon us how big the problem
is.
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Posted in bonds and loans | Comments Off on CDOs: Factchecking Krugman

Subprime Mess: It’s Not Derivatives’ Fault

Let’s not start blaming illiquid derivatives for Bear Stearns’ problems. Right now, illiquid derivatives are the least of anybody’s problems.
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Posted in bonds and loans, derivatives, housing | Comments Off on Subprime Mess: It’s Not Derivatives’ Fault