Category Archives: Econoblog

It’s not often that currency moves have an obvious explanation. But every so often, you can apply the laws of supply and demand to FX. For instance, when Citigroup announced that it was buying Mexico’s Banamex for $12 billion, the … Continue reading →

It was probably inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any less depressing. Barney Frank has now come out and said that investors in mortgage-backed bonds should be liable for the underlying loans. “More money was being lent than should have … Continue reading →

It’s not easy to become a billionaire — making a billion dollars over the course of just one lifetime. On the other hand, if you’re a hedge-fund manager, it seems that making a billion dollars over the course of just … Continue reading →

Merrill Lynch announced last month that it was severely restricting the distribution of its research to journalists. How’s that working out for them? Well, Alphaville today has got its hands on Merrill’s latest ABN Amro report, and is happy to … Continue reading →

John Carney and Thorold Barker agree: Goldman might be a glorified hedge fund, but it sure ain’t valued like one. (If you can’t get past the FT subscription firewall, there’s a decent summary here.) Carney’s solution? Goldman should spin off … Continue reading →

It’s taken five months, and the fat lady (a/k/a Sydney-based Perpetual Investments) hasn’t sung quite yet, but it very much looks as though Mexican cement company Cemex has finally snagged Rinker. Cemex is arguably the best-run company in Latin America, … Continue reading →

Index funds are a smarter bet than mutual funds for retail investors, just because their fees are lower. So why do big institutional investors invest in private-equity companies which charge enormous fees, and which in turn hire investment banks which … Continue reading →

Gordon Hanson is causing quite a stir with his study for the Council on Foreign Relations entitled “The Economic Logic of Illegal Immigration”. (Press release, WSJ op-ed, abstract, paper.) Economically speaking, he concludes, there’s really very little reason to believe … Continue reading →

Brad Setser notes that Brazil just issued a new 10-year bond at 122bp over Treasuries. “I remember when…” he writes — I’ll finish the sentence for him — “Brazil was at 2,400bp over Treasuries”. The official JP Morgan Brazil index … Continue reading →

Via Alea, a Reuters story about a new Citigroup product where you can apparently buy default protection at zero initial cost, paying only if and when the defaults start happening. There’s just enough information in the article for it to … Continue reading →

Gretchen Morgenson had another dreadful column this weekend: the housing “nightmare grows darker,” according to the headline, but Morgenson adduces not a single piece of evidence to that effect. If Morgenson wanted to find real reasons for worry, as opposed … Continue reading →

Employees at Tribune are now the main owners of Tribune, thanks to Sam Zell’s innovative ways with ESOPs. Their problem is that although they own the company, they don’t control it: Zell does. And so they have to simply cross … Continue reading →

Joe Nocera is not a fan of socially responsible investing, or SRI: My problem is that socially responsible investing oversimplifies the world, and in so doing distorts reality. It allows investors to believe that their money is only being invested … Continue reading →

Dan Gross is writing about bank branches in Slate. It seems that in current boom times, the number of branches is expanding even as the number of banks is contracting: According to the Federal Reserve, even as the number of … Continue reading →

Floyd Norris and Dean Baker and Wcw are all on the case of the good old-fashioned debt arbitrage. As Wcw puts it, either “bonds are overvalued, equities undervalued, or both”. Or, of course, you have to remember the bearish position: … Continue reading →

New York magazine loves its special issues, and this week it’s alighted on hedge funds. The conceit is “Behind the Hedge,” which is illustrated with a picture of… a guy behind a hedge. Really. Is there anything new or interesting … Continue reading →

Is Citi going to buy Vikram Pandit’s hedge fund, Old Lane? According to today’s WSJ, yes. The WSJ runs down the list of reasons why such an acquisition would make a lot of sense: Pandit would immediately beef up Citi’s … Continue reading →

Remember that NYT chart from earlier today? Well, one of my favorite chart-makers, Wcw, or West-Coast Whiner, has helpfully converted it into a line chart, which does kinda put it in perspective. Here’s Wcw’s chart, with the NYT chart underneath: … Continue reading →

Blogs such as MicroCapital and Poverty News Blog are reprinting a Newsweek article by Mac Margolis which is summed up in the standfirst: “Critics put trendy poverty lenders to the test,” it says, “and find they’re neither a real business … Continue reading →

The NYT has an interesting chart accompanying its payrolls story today. While the text is as upbeat as you’d expect given the excellent figures, and despite the fact that the WSJ is running a story headlined “Economists Wonder if March … Continue reading →

The US knows how it likes its trade negotiations. It’s a simple rubric: the US puts its proposal on the table, and its interlocutors accept. In the Doha round of the WTO talks, as we know, this hasn’t worked very … Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

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 →