Monthly Archives: July 2008

Market Rumors: Inevitable

Posted on July 8, 2008 by Felix

Andrew Ross Sorkin today tackles the issue of market rumors. He’s with Jamie Dimon, and doesn’t like them: As Schulte Roth said in its note to clients, which include SAC Capital Management and Jana Partners, two big hedge funds, “spreading … Continue reading →

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Bad Ideas at the WSJ, Customization Edition

Posted on July 8, 2008 by Felix

Jon Fine had a long chat with WSJ editor Robert Thomson, and got some interesting statements out of him: Also coming: extensive customizing tools for readers to find, through search, much more Dow Jones content. (In Thomson’s groan-worthy formulation, "In … Continue reading →

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American Obesity

Posted on July 8, 2008 by Felix

It’s been a long time since I could really be thought of as skinny. I’ve recently put a fair amount of effort into losing about 15 pounds (the end of beer-drinking season, a/k/a Euro 2008, helped a lot), and I’ve … Continue reading →

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The Economic Policy of John McCain

Posted on July 8, 2008 by Felix

There’s a lot of talk in the blogosphere about John McCain’s pledge to balance the federal budget by the end of his first term in office. The NYT has two articles, by Michael Cooper and Robert Pear, about whether such … Continue reading →

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Why GM Should Embrace Bankruptcy

Posted on July 8, 2008 by Felix

Tom Krisher has a good overview of the travails at General Motors, where the stock is trading at a 50-year low, battered by speculation that the company might end up declaring bankruptcy. Bankruptcy actually seems like a very good idea … Continue reading →

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Transparency: Sometimes Even Investment Banks Like It

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Felix

Gari has a question about the new disclosure rules surrounding credit default swaps. Basically, up until now they’ve been treated, for disclosure purposes, like derivatives, under FAS 133; as of November 15, they’ll be treated like guarantees, which come with … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Monday Edition

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Felix

A Tour Through the Cemetery of 2007’s Busted LBOs Credit Crisis Timeline: Going back to February 2007. Parental education and parental time with children: "More educated parents also spend more time with their kids – a result ripe with implications … Continue reading →

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The Worst Beneficiaries of a Billion-Dollar Will

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Felix

Christopher Caldwell is appalled by the fact that Leona Helmsley left her entire $5bn+ estate to dogs: A vast amount of the productive energy of future generations has been pre-allocated to dogs on the say-so of one of the most … Continue reading →

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Carl Icahn’s Communication Problem: Solved!

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Felix

May 20: So far, Mr. Icahn hasn’t been in touch with Microsoft — though he tried to call the company’s chief executive, Steven Ballmer, through the main switchboard at Microsoft’s headquarters and was turned away, according to a person briefed … Continue reading →

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Manhattan Housing Datapoint of the Day

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Felix

My latest column at Spectator Business is up online: New York, one would think, is being hit by a double whammy: monster job losses on Wall Street, combined with the deepest nationwide housing recession since the Great Depression. Given that … Continue reading →

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How Risk is Like Religion

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Felix

Religion is, generally, inherited: the chances are overwhelming that a person of any given religion will have parents of that religion. On the other hand, if your parents are complete religious nutcases, there’s a higher-than-normal chance that you’ll reject their … Continue reading →

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The WSJ’s Last-Man-Standing Play

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Felix

Nat Ives talks to WSJ publisher Les Hinton, who explains the paper’s move into general news. Is it driven by Rupert Murdoch’s desire to compete head-on with the the NYT? Quite possibly, yes. But Hinton’s on-the-record justification also makes sense: … Continue reading →

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InBev Goes Hostile

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Felix

InBev has gone hostile, to no one’s great surprise, seeking to replace Anheuser-Busch’s current board with a new slate of nominees including Adolphus A. Busch IV, who is not to be confused with the current CEO, August A. Busch IV. … Continue reading →

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How Models Caused the Credit Crisis

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Felix

Ryan Chittum asks if we want to know what caused the global credit crisis, and suggests that if we do, we should "start here", with a 22-page report about subprime lender IndyMac from the Center for Responsible Lending and former … Continue reading →

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Chart of the Day: They are the Eggmen

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Felix

This is a chart of the S&P 500, priced in terms of eggs. Notes DeForest McDuff: With the price of eggs going up 75% since 2001, one share of the S&P 500 used to buy as much as 1200 eggs … Continue reading →

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Blogonomics: Gawker’s Latest Pay Cut

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Felix

Choire Sicha has the latest update on Gawker’s payroll, and it’s pretty ugly. Gawker writers get paid per pageview, remember, and that pay, as of the beginning of Q3, has fallen by 23%, from $6.50 to $5.00 per thousand pageviews. … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Thursday Edition

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Felix

The V-Word and Dick Grasso: "Vindication is not what just happened". Contented Streets: Why Copenhagen Is the World’s Happiest Capital Google must divulge YouTube log: 12 terabytes of information must be handed over to Viacom. I hope that Google can … Continue reading →

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Good Old News

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Felix

Clive Crook on Walt Mossberg: I never miss his column, even though I cannot remember a single occasion when it told me something I didn’t already know. (There must have been some; they just don’t spring to mind.) Do not … Continue reading →

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When Oil Strength Isn’t Dollar Weakness

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Felix

Barry Ritholtz asks: Here’s a question — at what point does ECB Central Bank Chief Trichet realize that every time the ECB hikes rates, it pummels the dollar and sends oil higher? The answer, it would seem, is "not today": … Continue reading →

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WSJ.com Will Go Free, Eventually

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Felix

Congratulations to wsj.com for posting impressive growth in both pageviews and unique visitors over the past year. Don’t pay too much attention to the numbers quoted: they’re "based on the company’s internal traffic numbers," and therefore not much use in … Continue reading →

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The Rule That Reduced Banks to a Quivering Blob of Matter

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Felix

Andrew Ross Sorkin’s article about Steve Schwarzman and FAS 157 is the gift that keeps on giving. First Barry Ritholtz took a swipe, then Jack Ciesielski attacked it forensically from a professional accountant’s point of view, and now Gari has … Continue reading →

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A Friendly Poaching

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Felix

We’ve seen the stories dozens of times: a second- or third-tier European bank gets the bright idea that it really needs to beef up its investment-banking business. But it can’t afford to buy an investment bank outright, so instead it … Continue reading →

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Making Money in the Airline Industry

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Felix

Eos? Dead. Maxjet? Dead. Silverjet? Dead. Clearly, anybody starting a business-class-only airline would be better taking classes in business. But astonishingly, it seems that the founders of the last airline standing in this market, L’Avion, are actually going to make … Continue reading →

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Extra Credit, Wednesday Edition

Posted on July 2, 2008 by Felix

S&P 500: Closed today at 1,261.52. The all-time high is 1,576.09, which puts official bear market territory at 1,260.87. Less than a point away! Personal economics in three easy pictures: "Our dollars earn very little interest sitting in an account … Continue reading →

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Cognitive Disconnect of the Day

Posted on July 2, 2008 by Felix

Susan Pulliam reports on hedge fund manager Thane Ritchie, son of options trader Joe Ritchie: Mr. Ritchie, who is tall, with blond hair, lives with his wife and three children in a modest, four-bedroom house. He says he doesn’t own … Continue reading →

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