Monthly Archives: October 2007

Northern Rock: Takeunder Candidate

Posted on October 8, 2007 by Felix

Lex says that Christopher Flowers doesn’t seem to have sustained much reputational damage in the UK from the fact that he’s desperately trying to unbuy Sallie Mae. Certainly there don’t seem to be too many obstacles in his way should … Continue reading →

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Newspapers Should Allow Their Content to be Embedded

Posted on October 8, 2007 by Felix

Mark Thoma has a provocative and very interesting idea: newspapers and other publishers should allow their content to be embedded on other websites just as easily as YouTube videos can be embedded today. That content would, naturally, include ad units, … Continue reading →

Posted in blogonomics, Media, technology | 2 Comments

Richard Prince vs Louis Vuitton

Posted on October 8, 2007 by Felix

Little did I know, when examining Richard Prince’s success in the art world, that he would become the latest artist to be swallowed up by the Louis Vuitton machine. He’s in illustrious company – Vuitton has worked in recent years … Continue reading →

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The Rubin-Bernanke Phone Call

Posted on October 7, 2007 by Felix

Teh internets aren’t happy about the fact that Bob Rubin, Lew Ranieri, and others got to speak one-on-one with Ben Bernanke in the wake of the August FOMC meeting. (See John Carney (twice), Kevin Duffy, and Greg Newton, for starters.) … Continue reading →

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Home Buyers are Smarter Than You Think

Posted on October 5, 2007 by Felix

One of the great things about capitalism, at least as it’s practiced in the US, is that everybody seems to have a reasonably strong implicit faith in efficient markets. You can wander into pretty much any store or coffee shop … Continue reading →

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US Congress Embraces Necessity of Reducing Carbon Emissions

Posted on October 5, 2007 by Felix

This is good news, I think. The House Energy and Commerce Committee just issued a white paper on carbon controls, which starts off by saying unambiguously that "The United States should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by between 60 and … Continue reading →

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Rich Immigrants

Posted on October 5, 2007 by Felix

Paul Krugman and Chris Dillow both post interesting blog entries today, and the intersection of the two is even more interesting, I think. Krugman notes that London seems to be becoming a "rentier city", where the global rich from Russia … Continue reading →

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Winner of the Day: Santander

Posted on October 5, 2007 by Felix

The RBS-led consortium has now officially won ABN Amro, and the WSJ has an excellent play-by-play of how the deal went down, including a graph of how the consortium members’ stocks have been doing this year. While RBS is down … Continue reading →

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Ngozi Returns to the World Bank

Posted on October 5, 2007 by Felix

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is, unfortunately, not American enough to be president of the world bank herself. But the president of the world bank is smart enough to appoint her managing director – a very senior position (see the new, old org … Continue reading →

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PR Lie of the Day

Posted on October 5, 2007 by Felix

A Sprint spokeswoman declined to comment. She said Mr. Forsee was traveling and couldn’t be reached. One might say that if the CEO of communications giant Sprint Nextel can’t be reached when he travels, that’s reason right there to oust … Continue reading →

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Markets: The Payrolls Test

Posted on October 5, 2007 by Felix

The reaction to today’s strong payrolls report will say a lot about just how bullish the market really is. Both the stock and bond markets have been a little Alice-in-Wonderland of late, rising on bad news in the expectation, we’re … Continue reading →

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Sony BMG Thinks You’re a Thief

Posted on October 5, 2007 by Felix

If you want to buy music, buying a CD is a good way of doing it. There’s no risk that some computer error will destroy your purchase, and it’s easy to transfer the songs onto your computer and iPod. Many … Continue reading →

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The Henry Kravis Monologues

Posted on October 4, 2007 by Felix

Michael Flaherty reveals today that "at some point in the last few weeks, bankers say that Citigroup Chief Chuck Prince paid a visit to the office of Henry Kravis… What exactly transpired between King Henry and Prince is anybody’s guess." … Continue reading →

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Worrying About Mortgage Servicers’ Fate

Posted on October 4, 2007 by Felix

Mortgage servicing is hot. Goldman Sachs is looking at buying the C-Bass servicing unit, and there are many other deals going through as well, such as Wilbur Ross paying $435 million for the servicing business of American Home, and Carrington … Continue reading →

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Beware Copyright Statistics

Posted on October 4, 2007 by Felix

Dean Baker is unimpressed by studies showing vast losses to the US economy from piracy of intellectual property. He picks on a Washington Post article by Frank Ahrens, which quotes a study concluding that "intellectual property piracy — theft of … Continue reading →

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Money Market Datapoint of the Day

Posted on October 4, 2007 by Felix

All that money has to go somewhere, right? I asked in September what was going to happen to all the money which used to be in asset-backed commercial paper and other short-dated asset-backed securities. It seems that a significant chunk … Continue reading →

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How Banks Calculate Their Write-Downs

Posted on October 4, 2007 by Felix

The WSJ has a fabulous "Heard on the Street" column today, worrying about all these losses being announced by big universal banks: Citi, UBS, Deutsche. Are they worried that the losses are so big they will damage the banks’ franchise? … Continue reading →

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A Brief History of HSX

Posted on October 4, 2007 by Felix

Ten years ago, I was working in an office on Wall Street with a small group of writers called the Teenage Mutant New Media Turtles. Officially, we were writing economic commentary for high net worth individuals to subscribe to on … Continue reading →

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Economic Paper of the Day: Buiter on the Baltics

Posted on October 3, 2007 by Felix

Academics love to niggle over small differences. Willem Buiter is an academic, and today’s he’s writing on the difference between three very similar things, with respect to the currencies in the Baltic states and other small European countries: A currency … Continue reading →

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How to Improve Commerce Bank’s Income

Posted on October 3, 2007 by Felix

DealBook asks today whether Toronto-Dominion Bank is overpaying for Commerce Bank. They’re both customer-serviced, says RBC analyst Gerard Cassidy, but they have very different profit margins: The difference, Mr. Cassidy told The Times, is that Toronto-Dominion, which operates in a … Continue reading →

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Blogonomics: The Valuation of TechCrunch

Posted on October 3, 2007 by Felix

Sam Gustin slaps down Henry Blodget today after Blodget suggested that TechCrunch might be worth $100 million. That’s ridiculous, says Gustin: "I know CNET, and TechCrunch is no CNET." The whole conversation was sparked by Doug McIntyre at 24/7 Wall … Continue reading →

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Radiohead Roundup

Posted on October 3, 2007 by Felix

Thom Yorke reckons that the music industry has a "decaying business model," and so he and his band, Radiohead, have decided to opt out of it. Go to their website, and you can download their new album for whatever you … Continue reading →

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The Better You Look, The More You See

Posted on October 3, 2007 by Felix

It seems that Bret Easton Ellis was on to something when he invented Patrick Bateman: For men, every extra 10 minutes daily grooming increases their weekly wages by 6 percent. Interestingly, the effect is much smaller for women: there really … Continue reading →

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Solving the Dim White Kids Mystery

Posted on October 3, 2007 by Felix

Andrew Samwick is very smart, in an academic way. What he values is some combination of analytical intelligence, imagination, open-mindedness, and insight. If you’re looking for that combination, the academy is a good place to start, and graduate programs are … Continue reading →

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The Advisability of Real Estate Lending

Posted on October 3, 2007 by Felix

Where was Mike Milken when I needed him? I’m a veritable milquetoast compared to him: my view is simply that buying a home isn’t always a good idea, especially not when it costs less than half as much to rent … Continue reading →

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