Tuesday Reads
By Barry Ritholtz - February 9th, 2010, 4:06PM
A few interesting items that caught my eye today:
• BIS Says Banks Need More Capital to Withstand Shocks (Bloomberg)
• You’re Hired. At Least for Now. (Kiplingers) More Employers Will Rely on Temps and Contract Workers.
• S.E.C. Enforcers Focus on Avoiding Madoff Repeat (NYT)
• Is Proprietary Trading Too Wild for Wall Street? (Time)
• Freakonomics Radio Quite a Few Surprises Here . . .
• Basketball Warning: Giant Time Suck
What are you reading?
February 9th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
RE Freakonomics Radio: Don Hasselbeck donated is one of 20 former NFL players to donate his brain to the study of head trauma. That’s worth mentioning… Outstanding support for medical science.
February 9th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Not quite sold on it but it does fit in with Jim Rogers’ view.
http://www.marketskeptics.com/2009/12/2010-food-crisis-for-dummies.html
February 9th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Barry-
Curious about your thoughts on this… http://www.cnbc.com/id/35309122
Stiglitz blames the speculators, but the speculators aren’t to blame, the governments are.
February 9th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
Matt Taibbi’s spin on CIT’s hiring of John Thain -
http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2010/02/08/another-wall-streer-retread-rehired/
“Man, exactly what do you have to do to become unhirable in this country? Eat Christian babies on CNN?
John Thain is the dope who was buying himself an $87,000 area rug as his company was going bust. He became a symbol for brainless greed on Wall Street just in time to complete a tortured sale of Merrill to Bank of America in which billions in losses were somehow kept hidden from BofA shareholders.”
February 9th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
China auto sales more than double in January
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/02/09/business-consumer-products-and-services-as-china-auto-sales_7341659.html
February 9th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Credit Ratings:
http://exclusiveeconomy.com/2010/02/sp-credit-ratings-for-countries-and-states/
How about some mergers? Bank Of America/Greece and CitiPortugal? Put all the junk in once place like they considered with putting prisoners on islands by themselves.
February 9th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
Short-selling bans in the crisis: A misguided policy
http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/4567
Did the bans on short selling achieve their stated purpose of restoring order to the stock market and limiting unwarranted drops in prices? This column presents new evidence from 30 countries arguing that the effect on stock prices was at best neutral, the impact on market liquidity was clearly detrimental – especially for small-cap and high-risk stocks, and that the ban slowed down price discovery.
February 9th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
A Mediocre Criminal, but an Unmatched Jailhouse Lawyer
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/us/09bar.html?emc=eta1
Mr. Hopwood spent much of that time in the prison law library, and it turned out he was better at understanding the law than breaking it. He transformed himself into something rare at the top levels of the American bar, and unheard of behind bars: an accomplished Supreme Court practitioner.
February 9th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
U.S. Solar Market to Double in the Next Year
Government incentives and lower solar prices are starting to pay off.
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/24498/?a=f
February 9th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Euro Zone Credit Stuff:
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1948-Hahahah…-Greecefire-Prompts-Intervention-Rumors.html
February 9th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
Now we might see some cooperation in Washington!
63% Say Better for Country If Most of Congress Not Reelected
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/february_2010/63_say_better_for_country_if_most_of_congress_not_reelected
February 9th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
A good read from Stratfor
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20100208_germanys_choice?utm_source=GWeekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=100208&utm_content=readmore&elq=c3b510e48b1448409d306c5b210f7612
February 9th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
“…Stiglitz blames the speculators.”
This applies to future Madoff types as well. If the rate is too good, for too long, you deserve what happens to you.
February 9th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
He knows about financial deregulation.
________________
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/09/hes-come-a-long-way-summe_n_455292.html
Showing just how far his previous economic ideology has fallen from grace, White House senior economics adviser Larry Summers went on to CNBC Tuesday morning and sounded off against a “bloated financial system” while offering a ringing endorsement for the president’s effort to regulate Wall Street.
February 9th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
do layoffs really help….any one ?
http://www.newsweek.com/id/233131/page/1
are we really going to repeat this debacle again by not regulating the TBTF banks? again?
http://baselinescenario.com/2010/02/08/elizabeth-warren-calls-out-wall-street/
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2010/02/fine-print-deceptive-pricing-and-buried-tricks.html
February 9th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Core Chicago Team Sinking Obama Presidency
Steve Clemons
Publisher of “The Washington Note”
Posted: February 7, 2010 12:05 PM
Financial Times Washington Bureau Chief Edward Luce has written a granularly informed insider account about those who hold the keys to the inner most sanctum of Obama Land — Rahm Emanuel, Robert Gibbs, Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod.
It’s a vital article — a brave one — that includes “dozens of interviews with his closest allies and friends in Washington.”
Most are unnamed because the consequences of retribution from this powerful foursome can be severe in an access-dependent town. John Podesta, president of the powerful, administration-tilting Center for American Progress, had the temerity and self-confidence to put his thoughts publicly on the record. But most others could not.
-snip-
To hit some of the later highlights, Luce speaks with political giants ‘inside’ the Obama tent who suggest that Rahm Emanuel lost track of the importance of communicating to the public about health care, despite some success in legislative deal-making. While Luce doesn’t explicate this topic, I would also suggest that Rahm pulled the plug on shuttering GITMO, which had a good plan on paper, but was unwilling to move the political wheels to get that done — not understanding that this was a key pillar of progressive political support for Obama.
The article goes on to document how people like Health Secretary and former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius were kept off television — along with others like Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Add to this others that Luce does not name — including important voices like Paul Volcker and Austan Goolsbee on Obama’s economic team, who saw their public voices choked off by a media-dominating Lawrence Summers with support from Robert Gibbs and Rahm Emanuel.
More of an interesting read, with links to the “FT” and other articles…plus PIX here at…..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-clemons/core-chicago-team-sinking_b_452664.html
February 9th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Check out this video.
http://www.thinkbigworksmall.com/mypage/player/tbws/23088/1111064
The FDIC sold IndyMac bank to One West owned by a GS crony and George Soros.
Got a sweetheart deal to end all sweetheart deals on loan losses.
Here goes another letter to Boxer, Feinstein and Grace Napolitano.
That will fix things, huh?
February 9th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
RE: Basketball
The internet has finally achieved what I always thought it could.
This + legalizing mary jane might get the country through its mess with minimal civil unrest.
Ok, this + legalizing mary jane + an xbox 360 with free xbox live + cheap rentals in abandoned homes + food stamps + extended bennies + … oh, never mind.
February 9th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
BTW,
Try to find a better quote from a politician…
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-09/n-y-s-paterson-says-ballot-box-to-decide-his-fate-as-governor.html
February 10th, 2010 at 7:52 am
“…the damage that government intervention is causing to our nation’s young adults.
Crushing student debt, the short-term programs funded with long term tax dollars and the mirage of drug law enforcement are all culpable according to Brian Foglia’s smackdown of big government, The War on the Young.
From Mises.org:
We live in an age rife with oppression. No group of Americans is better aware of this than our nation’s youth. Young people today will most likely become the first generation in US history not to surpass their parents’ living standards. Consider the increasing proportion of young adults who are choosing to either remain living with their parents, or move back in with them. Rather than seek new opportunities on their own, they are choosing the security of home and hearth at the expense of their future.
Why is this so? There are many hidden causes, all of which corrode the economic prospects of the up-and-coming generation, and enrich a privileged few. This is not an isolated phenomenon. All across the globe, governments have discarded fiscal responsibility in favor of short-term spending on war, welfare, and bailouts.
It’s easy to see that this behavior will be costly, but not all groups are equally burdened. Government accounting wizardry and fiat money can hide the decline for a while, but the price must ultimately be borne by those who will inherit the inevitable crisis. The excesses of the older generations will come at the expense of the wealth and opportunity of the younger generations.
If you read nothing else today, be sure to read this. The Boomers and their interventionist policies look more hideous in the context of this article than they do in bathing suits…”
http://thereformedbroker.com/2010/02/03/mises-org-the-kids-arent-alright/
February 10th, 2010 at 7:56 am
The Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.
Here are the 2009 winners:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who’s both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
11. Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.
12. Decafalon (n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
13. Glibido: All talk and no action.
14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n..): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.
16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
17. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you’re eating.
The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.
And the winners are:
1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.
6. Negligent, adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle, n.. A humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. Pokemon, n.. A Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.
February 10th, 2010 at 8:01 am
Thanks nebyarg !!!
February 10th, 2010 at 8:07 am
An indicator of the end of a recession is when men go out and buy socks and underwear. (I am not making this up)
Anyways, maybe we are on our way out!
New report: Consumers spent modestly in January
“Rao said shoppers generally pulled back on discretionary items like electronics, but did buy clothes, which was borne out in January figures released last week by apparel chains. SpendingPulse estimates that women’s clothing sales rose 2.7 percent and men’s 2.5 percent in January 2010 from January 2009.”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/New-report-Consumers-spent-apf-2981730659.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=7&asset=&ccode=
February 10th, 2010 at 8:11 am
Nice list.
I’ve been saying “smothicate” lately a lot. To sufficate by excessive smothering.
He smothicated his pancakes with maple syrup.
February 10th, 2010 at 11:55 am
Excellent, in depth video report on Toyota, from Al Jazeera English:
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/insidestory/2010/02/2010288052548169.html
Excellent, in depth video report on the future of the Middle East work force – do they want an economy of low-wage workers or do they want to create an economy of well paid professions. Pay attention to Mary Tawar.
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/insidestory/2010/02/20102213152551171.html