Monthly Archives: May 2008

Extra Credit, Thursday Edition

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Felix

Raiders of the Lost Arc Elasticity, Part I, Part II, Part III: Robert Jensen finds the elusive Giffen good, with important results. "When we subsidized the price of rice and wheat, people consumed less of them, not more. And in … Continue reading →

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I Guess This Means AIG Stock Will Rise 10% Tomorrow

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Felix

I’m with Megan Barnett on this one: the time to announce a 10% increase in your dividend is not when you’re simultaneously annoucing a $7.8 billion loss in a single quarter. Yes, $7.8 billion. I know we’re all getting inured … Continue reading →

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Blogonomics: Judging Bloggers

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Felix

I’m enjoying this conversation with Dean Rotbart far too much to stop now, even though I suspect it’s of interest only to a handful of my readers. But I’m a blogger! So on I go; you’re more than welcome to … Continue reading →

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Droppe the CEO!

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Felix

Yes, there really is a company called Charming Shoppes, and it’s in the middle of a full-blown proxy war right now; it’s even managed to delay its annual meeting at the very last second because (ahem) it was having difficulty … Continue reading →

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Is UBS Guaranteeing BlackRock’s Returns?

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Felix

Michael de la Merced got a timely interview with BlackRock’s Laurence Fink this week, and the resulting story is well worth reading. But one question is not cleared up: what does this mean, exactly, on the subject of the $15 … Continue reading →

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Are More Patents Really a Good Thing?

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Felix

Malcom Gladwell’s piece in the latest New Yorker, on Nathan Myhrvold and his company, Intellectual Ventures, is a rollicking good read. But once you’ve read it, it’s worth sobering yourself down a bit with John Gapper. For while Myhrvold and … Continue reading →

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Tariff Barriers in Practice

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Felix

Apologies for the late start today, that normallly shouldn’t be a problem for someone six hours ahead of New York. But you’ve never really understood what tariff barriers are until you’ve stood in a German customs office for five hours … Continue reading →

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ExpressJet: Probably Toast

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Felix

Most of the time I have relatively little sympathy for troubled companies. But sometimes they just seem to run into so many body blows simultaneously that you’ve just got to wince a little. And ExpressJet is one of those cases. … Continue reading →

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Bear Fight

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Felix

Landon Thomas has a wonderful piece, full of color, on the spat between Jimmy Cayne and Ace Greenberg. Boy can these multimillionaires get petty: Told that Mr. Cayne, with whom he worked for four decades, had lost much of his … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Wednesday Edition

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Felix

Spreads and paradoxical liquidity: More from Steve Waldman. Pain and inequality: "The average pain rating is twice as high for those in households with annual incomes below $30,000 as for those in households with incomes above $100,000." Tropicana files for … Continue reading →

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Blogonomics: Econoblog Awards

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Felix

Dean Rotbart is full of bright ideas. Here’s the latest, in a comment on this blog: Let’s establish a non-profit, volunteer board of people to recommend standards for financial bloggers, dealing with issues such as conflicts-of-interest, disclosure, and accountability. Second, … Continue reading →

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Citi Never Sleeps

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Felix

Yes, that is the Citi’s Official everything-old-is-new-again slogan. Here’s a real ad (you’ll have to watch a short ad in order to watch the longer ad for Citi, because, um, this is the internet) followed by a fake ad from … Continue reading →

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When States Pass Laws the Banks Don’t Like

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Felix

In many countries there aren’t any long-term mortgages, either because local law makes it difficult to foreclose on a house, or else because of the very real risk that local laws will change and make it difficult to foreclose on … Continue reading →

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Blogonomics: Impersonating Journalists

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Felix

I hope that Dean Rotbart isn’t reading Techcrunch, he’d have conniptions after reading this story, put up by Erick Schonfeld yesterday: Here’s the latest Yahoo rumor that we’re chasing: The Yahoo board of directors met earlier today and authorized chairman … Continue reading →

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Turning Around Legg Mason

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Felix

In the world of finance, asset management is the boring-and-predictable bit. M&A revenues come and go, traders can make or lose billions, and it’s the asset managers who provide the steady earnings in good times and in bad. Unless they’re … Continue reading →

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Why Inflation is Lower Than You Think

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Felix

In one of the smartest pieces of linkbait I’ve seen in a very long time, David Leonhardt today not only defends the CPI, but even says it’s overstating inflation: When the new inflation numbers come out next week, they will … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Tuesday Bonus Edition

Posted on May 6, 2008 by Felix

TAF: Below Discount Rate Mannered Results: How have Eddie Lampert’s non-Sears investments done over the past year? How the Housing Bust Is Boosting Newspapers: ‘Foreclosure notices are filling in where condo sales and auto deals once held sway. "There are … Continue reading →

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Fannie Mae’s Weird Rally

Posted on May 6, 2008 by Felix

I’ve seen a lot of financial institutions see their stock soar on the day they release atrocious quarterly results, and in fact I had them in mind this morning when I kicked off a blog entry with the words "Fannie … Continue reading →

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Clinton vs the Economists

Posted on May 6, 2008 by Felix

From the Strange Bedfellows department: Mark Thoma and Greg Mankiw on one side, versus Paul Krugman and Tyler Cowen on the other. The issue, in a nutshell: does it matter if politicians ignore economists? Thoma and Mankiw say yes, if … Continue reading →

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The Wheat-Exports March on Washington

Posted on May 6, 2008 by Felix

You want an example of the kind of gem that SAR manages to pick up on? How about this, 500 words into an otherwise seen-it-all-before article about rising food prices in the Toronto Star: The U.S. baking industry’s trade association, … Continue reading →

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Some Assembly Required

Posted on May 6, 2008 by Felix

When Some Assembly Required first appeared on my radar screen a couple of weeks ago, I assumed that I was just late to the game and everybody knew about it. The wonderful daily linkfest would have a title like "SAR … Continue reading →

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The Fake Takeover Bidder Returns

Posted on May 6, 2008 by Felix

Paul Murphy wonders whether Lawrence Niren might be back to his old tricks, announcing monster takeover bids under an assumed name so that he can flip the stock for a quick profit. This time the name in question is "Michael … Continue reading →

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Eddie Lampert Gets a Taste of His Own Medicine

Posted on May 6, 2008 by Felix

Eddie Lampert is one of the most legendary activist investors of all time: just thinking about what he did at Auto Zone makes some investors’ hearts flutter to this day. But nowadays he’s less of an activist investor and more … Continue reading →

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Fannie Mae’s Earnings: Awful

Posted on May 6, 2008 by Felix

Fannie Mae’s stock is certain to tank today, and not necessarily for the obvious reason. Yes, its quarterly loss of $2.5 billion was much larger than expected. Yes, total shareholder equity evaporated at an even larger pace: it was was … Continue reading →

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Why Sotheby’s Borrowers Aren’t Speculators

Posted on May 6, 2008 by Felix

Floyd Norris, meet Nouriel Roubini. Both of you are worried about consumer credit in non-housing parts of the economy: Nouriel is concerned about auto loans, while Floyd is looking at art loans, and specifically the $835 million that Sotheby’s lent … Continue reading →

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