Landscapes Rule
Data suggest people from all cultures tend to like landscapes. These painting have open spaces, with big trees with branches towards the gr...
Mortgages are Bank Assets!
The TARP is $700B targeted to shore up banks. Everyone understands that we need banks to be healthy in a modern economy. As John Kerry wro...
BSDs Take Note
Many tell all books by ex-Wall Streeters note the macho culture among traders (mainly, market makers and brokers). Get a bunch of 20-someth...
Selection Bias at Conferences
At Davos, several high profile finance executives are missing: John Thain (ex Merril CEO), Richard Fuld (Lehman ex-CEO), Martin Sullivan (ex...
Backtesting Errors
The most annoying part of backtesting is creating a database, which is problematic because most data is meant to show a one-off take of curr...
Deephaven to Close
Deephaven Capital Management was a hedge fund that reached about $4B assets at one time. They announced today they are closing shop, sellin...
PermaBear Wisdom
When an extreme event comes around like 2008, those who called it are elevated in stature. I think its appropriate they are elevated, but n...
Geron up 50% on Hope
The WSJ noted : Geron Corp., a Menlo Park, Calif., biotechnology company, is expected to announce Friday that it received a green light from...
Fedor Awesome
So, Fedor Emelianenko KO'd Andrei Arlovski with a stunning right hand counter to a flying knee in his Saturday Mixed Martial Arts fight....
Big Government's Big Effects
Many big government programs are really destructive, but usually, such results are not on any explicit balance sheet or income statement. T...
Keynes and Ellsberg's Paradox
Ellsberg's Paradox is a famous conundrum in decision theory. At the Wikipedia website, they noted a reference to Keynes in the Ellsber...
GE May Lose AAA Rating
GE is one of America's most successful companies, and has a large finance division that relies crucially on its AAA rating to get busine...
Bank Directors Often Empty Suits
When I was at a bank, no matter what level executive you were addressing about some issue, the meeting would often end: "well, get this...
Plausible Theories
Many times I hear about theories that seem really good, but further examination shows they don't work. There are lots of feedback loops...
The Case for Financial Stocks
Financial companies are toxic waste currently, because they are at the center of the recent meltdown. They are not merely symptoms of the e...
They Didn't Use the Seat Cushions!
For decades, the preflight instruction would mention using the seat cushions as a flotation device in case of a water landing. I have yet t...
Experts are Curmudgeons
The word 'corny' comes from the way mawkish stage scenes would pay off in the Midwest where the corn is, even though jaded New Yorke...
GM shorts pay 50% Annual Rate
Say you short General Motors (GM). You are selling it. You get the price in dollars in exchange for the stock you sold, currently about $4...
Economists are Modelers
I'm reading a lot of criticism of economists by the usual suspects and it reminds me of when people criticize politicians for 'arrog...
Rubin's Defense Suggests He was Overpaid
Bob Rubin appears to be a very thoughtful, reasonable guy. As a board member at Citi, I'm sure he's one of the better ones. But hi...
Austrian Business Cycle Theory
When I was in charge of capital allocations at KeyCorp, I spoke with many of the business line managers, and was impressed by the fact that ...
New Metaphor from Tough Minnesotans
My kids are tough. Outside play is canceled at school only when the temperature is below zero (about -18C), and they don't whine about ...
Too Many Experts
In theory, diversity is about accepting people different than you; in practice diversity means those who ignore diversity have more moral cl...
Risk and Return Confabulations
Jonathan's Haidt's book, The Happiness Hypothesis , spends a lot of time on the idea that the conscious mind is like the rider on an...
Taking Things for Granted
Many think we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extend...
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